this one takes us back to 2011. this is such a fun, sweet picture of r+ b!
we were celebrating hc’s birthday over at his parent’s house {in crystal lake} and r+ b insisted on celebrating with us as well {with them being in clarendon hills}! hey, a few miles doesn’t stop a family from missing a joyous occasion together!
so, kim pulled out some party hats, bought cake, and we tech connected via facetime and sang happy birthday to hc! it was a success!
the boys were super happy {yay!} and so was hc…he was delighted to be celebrating his birthday cross towns! how special!!! and everyone got cake…score!
this was literally a sweet memory! happy friday y’all! cheers to a fabulous weekend!
soooo…i’m finally getting my easter post up! woo. woo.
easter definitely was a whirlwind. being smack dab in the middle of our move, it was a much needed, forced break for us. to make it even more amazing was the fact that it was 70 degrees outside!!! so beautiful! the sunshine was wonderful and always puts me in an even better mood!
we traipsed our way downtown to zed451 to meet up with the fam for a delicious easter brunch {ah, missing the city life already}. it was the immediate famille and terry’s sister, lynne, her son patrick, and their mom barbara who joined us for this fabulous holiday!
[easter basket chaos // first easter bunny rattle from aunt missy]
[ta da! the final products for the kiddos!]
[my little lamb]
[ready to go!]
i really enjoyed the brunch at the restaurant, it was tasty, and very diverse in their selection of foods. their kale salad was amaze {i could have taken the whole plate to our table and eaten only that}. the cinnamon roll was sweet, fresh, and gooey. the offerings of meats were endless {brazilian steak house style}. there were lots and lots of decadent choices of accrouments to nosh on.
i love food. it makes me happy…i dislike being hungry and i will always try something new and different. i am so perplexed by people who are so steadfast in their limited, narrow choices of food. for me, life revolves around eating {savor the flavors of the earth!}, drinking, and family! there should be no limitations on ingredients, just personal exploration to really take it all in and enjoy all of your senses.
[chambray world]
[my little easter bunny]
[awesome cinnamon roll // olive with the boys, she’s staring adoringly at her uncle terry]
[sister love // bloody mary loving]
[thuy and dan]
[kim and olive // mini boden dress and tights]
[the beautiful sunshine]
[drinking beer with daddy]
after a wonderful brunch with the famille, we headed back to our house before we drove that long car ride over to my parent’s {hehe…it’s like a one minute & thirty second drive 😉 so, before we did that, we pit stopped at the home depot {we were surprised that they were open on easter}, our new favorite store, and purchased some house goods. during that field trip, our little sweet olive fell asleep…what doll.
[since we were in the middle of a move, we did a pit stop at the home depot before heading to the p’s. olive decided to nap 🙂 ]
we did an outfit change, when we arrived home, {comfy clothes, here we come} and sped our way to my parent’s house. there we had a wonderful dinner together and the kiddies received their easter baskets.
[reagan and olive]
[gift basket exchange]
[olive’s basket from kim, thuy, r + b]
[her adorbs doll // her cutie outfits]
[how cute?!]
[the aftermath]
the entire day was just wonderful. we had such a great time celebrating easter with our families! blessed be this day of love.
we are beyond excited to be homeowners! it happened on tuesday, april 15, and it was quite the whirlwind week for us. i have been so delayed with blogging due to the fact that we didn’t have wi-fi set up in our house yet {or the fact that we moved and that was crazy in itself!}, so blogging bigger blogs was a no go but we are all set up now! yay!
[a very proud pic of us at our new house! thanks jane for taking the photo!]
[our house status updated on redfin…woo hoo!]
april 15 was not only tax day but also hc’s birthday. we closed on the house that morning, we went to the banks to change our info, hauled a bunch of stuff into the house, had hc’s parents come over to check out the new abode, we drove back to chicago that evening, and continued to pack up our place to get ready for the movers on friday!
[already doing the suburban thing…eating lunch at a mall, we had to grab a quick bite to eat after we closed on the house and before we started our long day!]
i worked on wednesday and hc worked on thursday, taking a day away from us to pack and get organized for the move. we continued to box up our place and take care of little olive in between everything we were doing {huge thank you to jane for totally helping us out!! not only did she help take care of o, she helped us pack too!}. from the moment we closed on the house, hc had been slowly moving our stuff to it every single day. what a start to a crazy week.
[‘last’ time being downtown before we moved]
then friday finally came! the day our movers were coming to transplant the rest of our stuff to our new house! as we were packing, the movers finally showed up {after being a bit delayed} and took one look at our place and decided they could not move us!!! oh em gee. are you kidding me?!
our place was 90% packed up and already moved. no joke. all we had left in the apartment were about 12 boxed up boxes, and stripped furniture {such as our couch, beds, dining room table, a book shelf, dressers, a crib, and my closet. that was it. the company was all my sons moving {don’t use them! awful, awful, awful service…or lack thereof} and they only sent two men {shady looking characters} on a friday afternoon {good friday, mind you! and they had already mixed up our set moving times twice!} to move us. they literally walked out on us! they said there wasn’t enough man power {um, hc was very clear on what was being moved and how many rooms} and they couldn’t get a third guy, so they left us stranded. it was horrible. we couldn’t believe that they left us high and dry. the two shady dudes had someone on the phone from their company and hc got on to speak with him. the man was so boorish! hc argued with their dispatcher and he so rudely called hc a liar about the whole situation and all that was going on! unbelievable!
anyhoo, after some terrible encounters and experiences {and a big complaint to the illinois movers association}, we were connected to bernard movers and they were amazing!! we ended up moving everything on saturday morning. we couldn’t have been happier with the moving company…they were professional, quick, gentle with our stuff, and literally moved our place from the city into our house exactly how it was originally set up {how it should be!}! we were so happy!
[the last night at our place in chicago before we moved out on saturday]
[our house getting a little more homey]
hc is itchin’ to update the interior and eventually the exterior! we are excited to modernize the inside of the house to our taste and style. there is a lot of work ahead of us to get this place to our aesthetics. we can’t wait until the little touch ups are done {painting, trim, new doors, a carpeted basement for the kids, an updated kitchen, etc.} that will really give the house a facelift and freshen it up.
[hc’s most favorite current activity…mowing the lawn and drinking a beer in his brand spanking new john deere lawnmower! thank you to dick and jane for gifting us with this wonderful housewarming present!]
needless to say, we are so excited to have our own house, our own place, our own property, with no neighbors above or below us! i could go on and on about the benefits of having a house but my true love is still the city. i love chicago, i love the craziness of it, the diversity, the convenience of the restaurants and shops…but i am truly happy to have a place to call home sweet home with my beautiful family. ♥
today takes us back to easter 2009 {ahhh, to be almost five years younger would be fantastic, but not less the wiser!}. hc and i had just started dating {five months prior} and kim was pregnant with little bennett. hc and i had just come back from vegas, hence the über tan i got going on {i love me a good tan but totally dislike the aging results…*sigh*}. we all had a lovely morning brunch at bin 36, a place we celebrated past easters at a few years in a row. the tradition still continues for us but at different food locales of choice.
look at us! i feel like we look the same {wishful thinking?} but different. not older but just altered styling {am i trying to say we look dated?}. ya know what i mean?!
i love hanging out with the fam. there’s nothing more comforting, relaxing, fun, and amusing than family itself.
doesn’t little r look so cute in his dapper outfit {what a handsome dude}? cheers to fun family get togethers!
i love this photo of us! can you believe it was olivia’s first cubs/baseball game?!
this was taken four years ago {almost exactly four years ago!}. unfortunately, it was quite a cold day for a game {bummer because it’s so much more fun when it’s warm!}.
albeit, we had a grand ol time! we drank beer, ate hot dogs, and cheered on the cubbies!!! annndddd, they did win! woo!
afterwards, we hit up the bars around wrigleyville {of course!}. we hung out for a bit, reveling in the all american acts of excessive indulgences and finally went on our merrily beer filled belly ways!
i chose this flashback because it was also olivia’a birthday yesterday! happy beurffday o, love you lots! another year older, another year wiser, and cheers to many more years of friendship!
it’s a beautiful, sunny, perfect easter day!!! i hope you are enjoying this holiday, whether it be a lovely service at church, a fun easter egg hunt with the kiddos, a charming morning with the family and your little ones, who get so excited that the easter bunny has paid them a visit!
although olive is too young and wasn’t quite sure what the easter bunny is or what to do with her basket of goodies {daddy sure does know what to do with her basket…nom, nom, nom!}. i’m sure she was super excited for it all! just look at that expression on my little lamb down below!
[hoppy easter everyone!!!! from baby lamb olive]
anyhoo, we’re off to celebrate with the famille! woo hoo! can’t wait for easter brunch!
more to come of this beautiful day in a future blog my lovies!
“Christ has died. Christ has risen. Christ will come again”
on a friday several years ago, 9.9.11 to be exact, hc and i started our celebratory wedding weekend with our friends and family!
it was a start of, still hands down, the best weekend of our lives!
i absolutely love this photo of us at our rehearsal dinner. we were having the best time and we were looking forward to the next day…getting hitched in style {best day ever!}!
i am still thankful and grateful to dick and jane for hosting this memorable, wonderful event! they are the best in laws anyone could ever ask for!
with that fun walk down memory lane, happy friday and good friday everyone!!!
i love family. i am so excited to have olive grow up with her wonderful cousins r + b. on a beautiful sunday afternoon, we were able to get together and hang out. reagan just loves little olive. he loves holding her! whether she’s calm or crying, he just smiles contently to have olive in his arms!
on this particular day, i dressed olive in her pink ralph lauren dress that auntie kim and thuy had given her {at one of the baby showers in honor of olive}. r + b came on over to grandma and grandpa’s house dressed in ralph lauren themselves! how adorbs…coordinating cousin outfits!
[bennett, reagan, and olive all in ralph lauren]
[reagan loves olive!]
we couldn’t resist a little photo sesh with these cuties! cousin bonds…you can’t beat that true love!
i was so excited to be celebrating pam & baby d at her wonderful baby shower!
it was held at d.o.c. wine bar in lombard! i headed out to the burbs to drop off olive at my parent’s house. my sister thuy so kindly volunteered to watch her. after dropping her off, i was off to the shower! silly me, i must still have baby brain ’cause i totally thought the shower started at noon! nope, it was 11:30! whoops! i walked in and lunch was already being served! i thought…wow, they were quick to serve the food. little did i know that i was totally late!
anyhoo, i was delighted to see all the girls! i said hello to pam and greeted all the ladies! i grabbed some grub and sat down to mingle with some peeps i haven’t seen in awhile. once i noshed on some tasty morsels, i walked around to take in all the decor. it was so cute! carol couldn’t make the shower but she helped out by making a majority of the decor!
[the cute decor // carol, you did a marvelous job!]
[the glowing mom to be! // photo by becky g]
[the wonderful decor by carol // left photo by becky g]
i loved the color scheme and the diy glitter mason jars were so fun. everything tied in together so well!
[jenny, me, pampers, jaime, and marina // photo by becky g]
[guests get to guess if baby d is a boy or a girl! i guessed a boy!]
[gifts – left photo by becky g // guessing game]
[rina and me…we love selfies]
[photo by becky g]
[pam and her bestie becky]
[delicious eats – left photo by becky g // yummy animal cracker favors]
after lunch, pam started to open up all the beautiful gifts. baby stuff is always so cute. every ooh’d and ahh’d over all the cuteness! while she was opening up all her wonderful gifts, they served the delicious cake. i have only have one complaint…my slice was notbig enough! i could have eaten the whole top layer. 😉
[marina and pampers // photo by becky g]
[the sweet cake // photo by becky g]
[muma and me]
[the super cute growth chart from pbk // photo by becky g]
during the opening of gifts, ryan, the hubby, made his appearance. the braun always has to come near the end to muscle all the gifts to the car!
after pampers was done opening all her presents, i mingled some more with the other guests. caught up with some folks i haven’t seen in a bit and finally decided it was time to go. as usual, i always want to get home to the babes! i’m always missing her!
[ryan, pam, her mom and dad // photo by becky g]
thank you pam for letting me celebrate such a joyous occasion with you! we love you and ryan and can’t wait to meet baby d!
