hb jod!

Posted on March 24, 2014 by tandem in love

happy birthday to dear sweet jodi!

we celebrated jodi’s birthday at a restaurant called hutch. it happened to be st. patrick’s day weekend, so it was in fact a madhouse of an evening {the streets and sidewalks were littered with drunken wannabe irish species}.

i scurried home from work, rushing to feed olive, and then get ready myself, with very little time to spare. we were already running behind and with it being a holiday weekend, there was a lot of traffic. we finally got to our destination {being very late!} and joined the already engaged group of peeps.

i was very excited to spend some time with this lovely group, it’s very rare that we get to see all of them at once. i love jodi and her friends, they are a great bunch of people.

we jubilantly conversed, imbibed a slew of alcohol, and mingled with one another. after a bit {and a few drinks}, we finally ordered our entrees. we had a lot of fun; sharing stories, laughing over silly things, and doting over our children! jodi, myself, sarah, and kim all have children that are one year or younger! so, it’s a lot of fun to compare notes and show each other tons of pictures!

i sat next to matt, jodi’s husband…i love the guy, a really great dude. i love how comical he is and what a sweetie he is to his family. jodi and matt are probably the most calm, docile, happy go lucky couple i know! i feel very blessed to have them in our lives!

[oh…the whoas of picture taking. jodi closes her eyes and i last minute avoid that darn flash]

[hutch…american classics]

[jodi, sarah, and kim]

[oh so good // burger and fries]

[jon, nikki, and jodi]

[hc, moi, and matt]

[snickers pie]

after consuming a lot of fries {thanks for sharing jod!} and my delicious burger, we ordered dessert {totally unnecessary but in order for the birthday celebration}. the snickers pie was to die for. decadent, rich, and sweet as can be! yum. yum.

we wrapped up with our tab and said our goodbyes to trek out in the snowy night {yes, a lot of snow, again}. it was a good time with everyone…a much needed evening out for hc and me {our first time leaving olive with the nanny for a date night! yay!}. we relished in being baby free for the evening but of course, we rushed home and couldn’t wait to see our sweet baby girl!

xoxo

irina’s baby shower

Posted on March 17, 2014 by tandem in love

my friend irina is having a baby girl!

irina and i met through work years ago. she has a son, alex, and for years, i always bugged her about having another child. she constantly retorted with ‘only when you have a baby!’. well, we ran into each other last summer at dana’s birthday party and i was pregnant with olive. i then finally got to harass her about having her second child!

little did we know she got pregnant right after that with a baby girl! so, now we are going to have little baby girls together and some fun play dates in the near future!

i was quite excited to receive her french themed baby shower invite in the mail. i couldn’t wait to see the beautiful momma in her full glorious pregnant state.

dana picked me up and off we went to revel in the festivities of girly goodness. she had her baby shower held at eiffel bistro in barrington. the decor was precious…lots of tulle, pink, paris, and sweetness all around the private party room.

[milk chocolate eiffel tower favors // gifts galore!]

[melon baby creation by irina’s mom…how sweet!]

[pretty pom and paper decor // cake pops]

[selfie]

[the delicious french menu // the pretty centerpiece]

[the weird baby pin i found really cute]

[part of the baby games, wearing pearls…if you said the word baby or crossed your legs, you had to give up your pin or pearls]

[dana at her second baby shower ever…her first was mine!]

we ate delicious food, drank a lot of sparkly pink lemonade, and noshed on decadent morsels of desserts. it was a fabulous time; we had a lot of fun with all the games, getting to know her other friends, and spending some quality time with the lovely irina.

[macarons and creme brûlée]

[with the girl of the hour…irina!]

we are so excited for your new addtion to the family! we can’t wait to meet the beautiful baby girl!

{not even one week after irina’s shower, she gave birth to emma nicole!! congrats to her and her family!}

xoxo

shopping trip

Posted on March 4, 2014 by tandem in love

i was talking with jod the other day when we agreed to go in together on a gift for our friend, dawn.

dawn is pregnant with her fourth child! cray! i can see why, kids are so cute and family is so wonderful, that having little babies is awesome! it’s a lot work but having your own kids is just so adorbs and special!

it was quite cold. damn this polar vortex. the high today was only 7 degrees, ugh. not ideal for my baby girl. i did bundle her up all cute though! olive was ready to face the cold with me! our first stop was pbk. i met jodi and jett there to pick out a gift for dawn. we circled around and around until we finally decided on some really adorable items for the little babes! i can’t wait to give it to her!

after shopping, we skipped on over to panera bread for a quick lunch. i ordered a healthy choice of oatmeal, brown sugar, strawberries, and pecans…yum!! it was sooo good! we nibbled on our food and chatted away the rest of the morning together. we were catching up on the latest gossip, the latest baby talk, and about life in general…so many good changes and fun happenings soon. as always, it’s so good to hang out with jodi and jett. love them both! jett was definitely in the entertaining mood! he threw everything jodi had handed to him on the ground and amused everyone in the restaurant with his shrieks! that’s a cute little baby for ya! the little bugger thought he was so cute, in which he was!

[little babe olive in her bear hooded coat from our cousins kait and sara!]

[my selfie with jett…doesn’t he look amused?!]

[look at that chubby face! jett was grabbing for the phone!]

[jodi and jett]

i had an appointment with our nanny that afternoon, so after a few hours together i had to head out to meet her at our place. we said our goodbyes and parted ways on this cold but very sunny day! hey, at least the sun was shining! a sun shiny day always puts me in a good mood! 🙂

xoxo

hb aj + jake!

Posted on March 2, 2014 by tandem in love

we trekked our way to jay and lori’s house a few weeks ago for a birthday party! it was aj and jake’s birthday! aj turned 7 and jake turned 3; they are getting so big…my how time flies! it doesn’t seem that long ago when i first met aj…he was barely two years old!

we drove and drove and drove to their house {close to a two hour commute!}. we finally got there and the party was in full swing, everyone was already there. the fun part about this party? it was a baby land. lori’s sisters, kari and christi both have little babies! kari’s baby is two days older than olive and christi’s baby is about a month older than both. here’s a crazy fact: gunner and olive are about the same age but he is almost seven pounds heavier than o!!! he was a brick house compared to little olive. wow, i know boys are bigger but wow!

[olive getting ready to party!]

[grandma and olive, the few minutes she let someone else hold her!]

we mingled with everyone and ogled all the babies but poor olive, she was not having it with other peeps holding her! maybe it was overwhelming for her but she was not happy being in other’s people’s arms. she let grandma and grandpa hold her when we got there, but after that? nope. she only wanted to be in momma’s arms. oh olive. you will learn, i cannot come to the rescue like that {um, like when momma goes back to work!}, although i wish i could.

[pizza and salad]

[aj and jake ready for their birthday cake!]

after a dinner of salad and pizza, we had cake and ice cream {it’s a birthday party, duh!}. now this was too funny, when it was time to sing happy birthday to the boys, poor jake had a freak out. little fellow was not in good spirits! as we were singing, he cried and then hid under his chair! so, that is why you only see aj blowing out the birthday candles!

[lol, jake freaked out so aj blew out all the candles!]

[opening up a lot of ninja turtle toys!]

[momma with a tired olive]

it was wonderful to see and hang out with everyone. it’s always great to chill out with family, to see beautiful babies, and celebrate special occasions together!

hb to aj and jake!

xoxo

dana’s new place

Posted on February 23, 2014 by tandem in love

such great things are happening this year!

included in one of those things is dana buying her own place! i am so excited for her, what a grown up thing to do 🙂 she moved in a few weeks ago and we were in limbo on when we were going to visit her. either it was too cold and snowy for me to tote olive around or she had workers coming to her place on her day off and that wouldn’t be a good time as well. so, finally we agreed on a date {not without complications!} and we were able to see her on a thursday night.

hc came home and we relaxed for a bit before we gathered ourselves to head out the door close to 5:30pm. not ideal, due to the high traffic timeframe, but c’est la vie! we pit stopped at starbucks, although it was 5 degrees outside, i wanted an iced coffee. an iced grande vanilla latte to be exact! yum!

we scored rockstar parking in front and trekked our way to the front of the building. there were some residents coming home and they just let us in {at least we didn’t look dangerous…a man, a women, and a baby aren’t threatening!}! the building was gorgeous inside! i loved the entry way. so pretty!

[the foyer]

[dana and moi relishing in her beautiful condo!]

[olive pouting in dana’s new abode]

now this is hilarious! dana is having a good amount of work done on her place. the floors being re-stained, painting of rooms, new kitchen counter tops, window blinds, etc. so, we walked into her bedroom to find this. no, peeps, it’s not a work of art that you see or some might consider it a work of art! she doesn’t have her curtains or have had blinds delivered yet, so she taped up holiday wrapping paper over her window with blue painter’s tape! we could not stop laughing at this crazy looking display! oh dana!

this was too cute. rosie was scared? nervous? curious? over baby olive. she didn’t know what to do with herself. i don’t think rosie had ever seen a baby before! she was freaking out, barking, and pacing like a mad animal! olive was laying on the couch and dana was playing with her. rosie was acting so funny! as dana leaned over to play with olive, rosie kept leaning over her shoulder to see what was going on but she definitely didn’t want to get too close, in fear the baby might attack {lol}. how cute is rosie in this picture?!

[dana’s reading nook]

we got the tour {fabulous}, we relaxed {ahhh!}, and chatted. we absolutely love her place! we are so excited for her and can’t wait to see her complete the decorating {how fun!}

xoxo

foiled again

Posted on February 18, 2014 by tandem in love

i was very excited to have plans with matt and ande. i absolutely love getting together with them. we are such a fun bunch, if i do say so myself!

we had planned to meet up on division street at prasino but this weather has been atrocious. it snowed the night before and during the day of our plans. after mucho texting with each other, matt suggested that they come over to our place instead. of course, i am not against that at all. it was a nice idea to be able to relax at our place without worrying if we were holding anyone up, since we gab non-stop.

i was all psyched to break out the stroller and traipse my way to the restaurant, since it was only a few blocks away. that meant i could get some exercise and get out but i was foiled by the weather again!

hc was actually working from home that day and took a lunch break when they came by. he met them at a local deli, rosie’s west town, and grabbed some bites to eat, while i stayed in with the babes. they came back and we sat down for some tasty food. ande was excited to see olive {she hadn’t yet met her!} and see her nursery!

i love the sandwiches at rosie’s!! it is so delicious. they have great soups, sandwiches, and desserts. it makes me happy to have such good, local businesses like that around us.

[matt and ande…some very good peeps. love them!]

[matching sweaters!]

[tiramisu and brownie desserts]

[the girls!]

[hc and i relaxing after our visitors. little o was napping :)]

after several hours of hanging out together and catching up on the latest news, it was sadly time for them to part. it was a really, really great visit in so many ways. mostly because of the wonderful news we heard from ande! we had good eats, they got to say hi to the baby, and we had such wonderful things to talk about!

thanks for coming our way for our lunch date! love you guys!

xoxo

brunch + shopping

Posted on February 7, 2014 by tandem in love

olive and i had an afternoon delight filled with yummy eats and a little shopping.

we met up with jodi and jett at southport grocery. i love going there!

we were a bit worried about the space inside, because it’s quite a small shop/eatery; but everything worked out though! we were able to squeeze ourselves in and enjoy our time there. i love spending time with jodi and jett. he is sooo stinkin’ adorable. like i’ve said before…i love his noggin’! his big head and big chubby cheeks are so cute!

jod and i caught up and enjoyed our time together. we got up to date with the latest news and oohed and ahh’d over our babies.

olive was quite, quite cute on our ride over to wrigleyville. she was wide awake on our way out and the whole car ride there. she was never like that before! she was so intrigued by her environment, just bug eyed and looking around. it was so cute. i couldn’t get enough of her adorable face all curious looking and gazing at everything. she was awake all the way to the restaurant, once we got inside and seated, that is when she started to drift. about 10 minutes into us being seated, she zonked out. too cute.

[jett looking cute and getting creative on the table paper. already an artist!]

[selfie fun]

[sleepy olive. what a little peanut.]

[excited to eat!]

[baked oatmeal and bacon! it was sooooo good. what a {somewhat} healthy, sweet treat to start the day with!]

after brunch, we strolled over to anthropologie to shop around. i had to get a few gifts and just absolutely love that store! they have the cutest, most whimsical house ware items. my most favorite, favorite candle is called volcano…i’ve been buying it for years. i loved it when they offered it the mercury container, so pretty and very festive for the holidays too!

i also fell in love with this matte lipstick! such a pretty color…it’s called geranium from albeit. a bright, poppy, coral pink. it’s goes on smoothly and lasts a really long time! it totally brightens up the face!

{albeit matte crayon}

jod was shopping with me but i felt so bad dragging her ’round and ’round in circles trying to figure out what to buy! we finally hugged and parted ways and i kept circling the store! i finally decided on a few items…a couple of gifts for others and a couple things for myself 😉

it was quite an enjoyable afternoon, being able to relax with friends and my little one!

xoxo

superbowl? i loved the commercials!

Posted on February 4, 2014 by tandem in love

hc and i were invited to kevin and lisa’s super bowl party.

i had attended their party before many, many years ago. so, i was very excited to be able to go again this year. we met up at the p’s and we all dropped the kiddies off. hc drove us all {as in my sis kim & my bro in law terry} to the party, which was a quick ride to addison. as soon as we got there, the over indulging began!

[double, double toil and trouble…matching shirts and cauldron bubble. apparently someone forgot to give hc the memo that we all were wearing plaid shirts!]

[greeted by renata, the cute and cuddly cat]

as soon as we walked in, we were offered drinks. why, yes of course! my sister and i decided to imbibe some delicious red wine {the boys reached for the beer}. kevin so graciously picked out a lovely bottle for us to drink!

[delicious wine with a great story behind the label, ardently told by kevin]

[enjoying the aroma and taste]

lisa and kevin had so much food! hey, it was the super bowl and over consumption is so american, non?

snacks, upon snacks did everyone graze on. there was guac and chips, dips, finger foods, sandwiches, bugles {yes, i said bugles}, bread, brownies, cookies, mints, candies, and so on! my appetizer of choice were two giant chocolate chip cookies. i couldn’t resist! it was home baked and looked so yummy and delicious. i downed one cookie and had to have another!

[i haven’t seen these since i was a kid! 😉 lol]

the game started and we continued to nibble {so much for watching what i eat to lose this pregnant weight!}. we were all waiting for the biggie food of the night…chili! kevin starts making his famous chili three days before the super bowl! he makes 3 huge stock pots of different kinds of chili. so stinkin’ good! he made a spicy chili, regular chili, and a vegetarian chili. there were also three types of cornbread that were brought by some guests. regular cornbread, hot chili cornbread, and bacon cornbread…wha, wha!

of course they had all the trimmings as well, tomatoes, diced onions, sour cream, shredded cheese, oh my! i tried the spicy {holy spicy!} chili and the vegetarian, both excellent eats! btw, i love cornbread…i couldn’t stop eating the cornbread! i ate it by themselves then crumpled a big muffin of cornbread all over my bowl o chili – excellent!

of the times i did pay attention to the tube, i absolutely loved the radio shack commercial!!!! it was hilarious! really? ‘the 80’s called and they want their store back’?! so freakin’ funny. there were quite a few commercials that were fabulous but this one really made me laugh out loud.

[go ahead, click on it!]

[i had to include this…love their cake topper // from etsy! something similar here. // they just got married – congrats to the beautiful couple!]

[super bowl shuffle]

[i absolutely love that terry is ‘trying’ to cross his eyes!]

unfortunately, the game was very boring. yes, boring. one, i’m not that into football and two, the seahawks just mowed, mowed over the broncos…so it wasn’t even exciting to watch. just painful.

on the bright side, hc and i took home tubs of chili for some tasty leftovers!!! woo hoo!

***

NFL Super Bowl XLVIII

2.2.14 5:30 PM

MetLife Stadium, East Rutherford, New Jersey

Seattle

Seahawks

(16-3)

Denver

Broncos

(15-4)

43 – 8

Final

	1	2	3	4	Total
Seahawks	8	14	14	7	43
Broncos	0	0	8	0	8

ouch! what a game!

xoxo

hb thuy

Posted on January 22, 2014 by tandem in love

It was that time of year again! celebrating thuy’s birthday. always on a cold, january day. it typically snows, has snow on the ground or is really cold out {just like mine, being in december!}. this year, it was a little blizzard of snow.

the snow kept on falling throughout the day. a very pretty sight but not so pretty driving conditions. hc and i spent the morning looking at house(s) for sale {that’s a whole other story}, after that, we pit stopped at starbucks for some tasty treats.

[decaf americano and a chocolate croissant // perfect]

after house hunting and reenergizing at starbucks, we spent the afternoon at my parent’s house. as the day wore on, the snow kept falling and we decided to leave a bit early from the p’s to give us time to travel and do a bunch of errands at home before thuy’s soiree that evening.

oy…traffic was bad! we finally arrived home and we scurried around getting stuff done. i had to wrap thuy’s gift, do baby stuff, figure out what to wear {such a daunting event every time since i’ve had this beautiful baby, the game of what fits…what doesn’t fit – sad}, get ready, etc. ugh, time was flying by! hc was preoccupied with ‘house’ stuff, so this was causing us to run behind! yuck. i hate being late {although, it’s always the case personally! i’m not extremely late all the time but i never truly feel stressed about being on time…if i am, i am…if i’m not…c’est la vie, non? but that doesn’t mean i still don’t like it!} 😛

so, there we were, running late to our dinner commitments! we tried to nab a cab but that wasn’t going to happen! we jumped into our car and finally sped off to the restaurant, henri. hc dropped me off while he parked the car. i traipsed on in and joined the celebration going on inside for miss thuy!

[birthday lady]

they had ordered oysters as an app. so yummy good. you can down a half dozen if you didn’t force limit yourself or just be plain piggish in everyone else’s eyes!

[oyster apps]

[hello world!]

during desserts, thuy opened up her gifts!

[love your sweater sis!]

[packaging]

[birthday goodies]

[thuy and lan, such chic ladies]

[opening her gift from lan]

[first round of birthday wishes at henri]

after dinner and before desserts, the boys decided to go to the gage for drinks. that was their dessert! so, they left us and headed over to the gage as we were ordering some decadent desserts and cafe at henri.

[henri]

after henri, we headed to the gage to meet up with our husbands. having dinner doesn’t ever stop these gals from ordering more food! kim, thuy, and lan then ordered poutine and bone marrow as an extension to this evening’s noshing. i could only taste…it was all so delicious but my belly couldn’t consume any more morsels of these tasty treats…that is, until the dessert came! the server brought over another birthday treat for thuy! a glass filled with sweet, light, chocolate mousse. it was so good!!!

[hb squared. second round of birthday wishes // at the gage]

it was a fun, snowy evening celebrating thuy! i hope it was a good one! happy birthday to my lovely sister!

xoxo

kt’s visit

Posted on January 21, 2014 by tandem in love

olive is so popular [with those chubby cheeks, how could she not be?!}! kt came to visit! kt came to visit! yay!

we were excited for kt to come over to meet little olive. it was a busy holiday for the both of us, so we planned on her to visit us in january. she came over in the early afternoon to our place. we just chilled and caught up on all the happenings. we gab, we gossiped, we giggled. kt is such a sweet person! a really good friend and a great person all around.

i love hanging out with her, it’s always a good time. whether we are out to lunch, at a bar {ooohhhh, those were the days}, or watching a movie together, we just mesh. i’ve known kt for about seven years; we clicked from the get go and have been friends ever since!

[getting olive started early with the selfies!]

kt brought over a lovely gift for little o. how sweet! so thoughtful and kind…i absolutely loved the bag and tissue paper {i’m such a detail oriented kind of gal!} aaannnddd how adorbs is the onsie? i love paareehhh!

[i love pretty packaging]

[the cute little gift from kt]

today was a total lazy day. we hung out until hc came home from work. we talked and talked the afternoon away {so much to catch up on!}. hc and i then invited her to stay for dinner! hc whipped up a very delicious meal: bread encrusted fish, buttery mashed potatoes, and savory seasoned brussel sprouts. it was so delish! he’s such an amazing cook!

kt was procrastinating on doing some work at home {ha!}, so she stuck around for a little bit longer after dinner. hey, we don’t mind! we love having people over!

awhile later, she finally acceded to going home. we totally enjoyed hosting her the whole afternoon! thanks kt for coming over and spending the afternoon and evening with your new bestie, olive!

love, from your leg, i miss you forehead! 😉

xoxo

tandem in love

{life is truly beautiful and it should be celebrated + shared.}

Tag Archives: friends

hb jod!

irina’s baby shower

shopping trip

hb aj + jake!

dana’s new place

foiled again

brunch + shopping

superbowl? i loved the commercials!

hb thuy

kt’s visit