it had snowed the night before on friday. i had plans for an outing on saturday morning {yuck to brushing off my car. although i didn’t do it :), thank goodness for hubby charming} and i dislike driving through the snow. it has pretty much been snowing all winter! it’s been a crazy, snowy, cold, cold winter!
i got up on this windy, cold day and got ready to head out. i left the babes with the hubs to join my sister for brunch. she was getting her hair cut by misako at m&m salon. misako has been my stylist for 13 years! i found her when she was cutting hair at a salon on oak st. {no longer there, now just a distant memory} and have stuck with her ever since. it’s definitely hard to find a stylist that knows how to really cut your hair, style it, and really listen to you. love her and the salon she is at!
after thuy’s haircut, we traipsed our way to farmhouse to eat. oh my goodness! it was so windy! it cut straight through my clothes {not fun}. good thing the restaurant was only a couple of blocks away. once we arrived, we were seated upstair {nice and cozy} and proceeded with our noshing of some tasty morsels. we couldn’t resist the eggs benedict with a side of sausage. we washed it all down with some fresh orange juice. delicious.
[yummy eggs benedict]
[sistas]
after brunch, we perused around paper-source, right next door. they have such fun items, i always want everything! it’s a crafty girl’s dream! they had all their whimsical valentine’s day trinkets out. so adorbs. i can spend hours and hours in that store with my imagination running wild with crafty ideas!
i was really loving these kate spade gold dot coasters, placemats, and napkins! how fun would these be for a festive party?! yup.
it was a nice blip in our cold afternoon. after meeting, eating, and greeting, we parted ways! happy day!
he had this stuffed animal from school, his name is rocket, and he’s supposed to take pictures of rocket with people, places, or things. he requested to snap a photo of rocket and olive for the class book. how sweet!
i love that little olive has these two awesome cousins. we love r n b and i can’t wait for olive to have more playtime with them!
reagan loves little olive…he loves holding her whenever he sees her. even when she is crying but it’s funny when she is. r continues to smile and awkwardly hold her until someone will relieve him from that duty. what a trooper!
i am so curious to see how olive will interact with her big cousins when she’s older. i can’t wait to see them grow up together! those thoughts make me smile!
[olive, reagan, and rocket]
i love these pics! how cute are they?! it’s so much cuteness, you just might explode from it!
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!
here’s to an amazing year past. 2013 was full of joy, laughter, love, family, friends, and many blessings! the most joyous event of the year? our baby girl olive! finding out i was pregnant since february and being on this journey almost this entire past year has been eye opening, life changing, and miraculous.
i love seeing the glass half full all the time, so any bumps in the road this past year has truly been for the better…learning from your mistakes, forgiving others or yourself, do something better for anyone, and try, try again.
thank you for my family, thank you to my family. my greatest support system. through trials and turbulence, family will always be there no matter what. i am blessed to have this through the doan’s and the heintz’s. two wonderful families, truly special people…hc and i are so fortunate to be surrounded by such strong foundations.
thank you to my friends who always stand by me. they are the most amazing people and i am lucky to be surrounded by such good people. as life goes on, it’s good to have some solid peeps in there.
///
we spent our new year’s eve with friends and family. we trekked our way out in this crazy weather to have dinner at rpm. i loved the ambience and the food was delicious! so freakin’ yummy.
[don’t mind me a glass of presecco]
[our artsy, dramatic attempt]
we settled in at the bar, waiting for the rest of our party to arrive. it’s great when you live 10 minutes away and no one is really on the road! we ordered drinks and conversed our time away. since everyone was running a bit behind {holy snow!}, we decided to order apps. we had the smoked salmon crostini, prime beef meatballs, gnocchi alla romana, and the crispy ravioli. small bites that were way too small ’cause every morsel was so yummy, i wanted more!
[the ladies bedazzled for the evening…obviously i don’t know which direction to look at]
anyhoo, our party finally got there {phew! safe and sound!}, and we were seated! yay! and away we went with our over consumption of food for the evening!
we ordered a whole bunch of plates to share. i loved tasting all the different flavors. we then moved onto desserts…i had the tartufo, so decadent!
[our pasta course // my yummy tartufo]
it was a snowy, wintery night for a new years’s eve celebration.
After dinner, we headed back home to ring in the new year with olive and hc’s family.
[midnight kiss]
on new year’s day, we celebrated with a fun breakfast. Complete with sparkles, mimosas, and lots o coffee! it was a perfect beginning to a fabulous new year!
[our new year’s table spread!]
[starting off the new year right…family and a super yummy breakfast by hc]
[olive’s one month birthday cake]
papa insisted on having cake for olive’s one month. ask and you shall receive. i love a good ol’ home baked cake!
on christmas day, we ventured out into woodstock to visit olivia!
she was in town with her boyfriend aaron {they currently live in florida} and i was so excited to be able to see her! we had planned on going over to her parent’s house {can you believe that i’ve known olivia for 6+ years and i have never met her parents or her brother henry?!} and hang out on christmas day.
we slept over at hc parent’s house due to our logistics that day. we got up and aunt wendy so kindly cooked us a christmas pancake breakfast! she makes some really delicious cakes! also, dick opened his gift from jane…she commissioned a canvas wrapped collage of olive pictures!
[cute canvas wrapped collage of olive]
we gathered ourselves and finally headed our way to woodstock. a half hour later, we were at our destination. it was so good to see miss olivia!!! we were greeted by her family and the socializing began. we were offered drinks {orange juice for me and beer for hc!} and we cozied right in. they were in awe over little miss olive. between mrs. gantner and olivia, olive was passed back and forth…so nice for mommy to be hands free!
we ended up staying at their house for over three hours! it was so nice to sit, relax, and catch up. it was so wonderful to get to know her parents, they are such lovely people! it meant a lot to us to be there!
here’s a fun fact: when olivia and i were visiting her sister claire in d.c. {i was 4 weeks pregnant at the time and didn’t know it!}, we were walking through the grocery store across the street from her sister’s place {picking up taco ingredients for dinner, like lime for the guac!}, discussing baby names. that’s when i decided i loved the name olive or the french pronunciation & spelling of olivia {with an accent over the a}. crazy right? that’s the true story behind baby olive’s name!
[olivia with olive]
[goofing around with my sweet olivia and cuddly, soft bruce!]
i didn’t want to leave but we needed to get back to the heintz’s for the second part of christmas day. they were hosting it at their house and everyone was already there by the time we got back.
[kait super happy to be holding olive]
[daniel finally holding his cousin olive // he protested quite a few times!]
appetizers were being served and the party was in full swing! we greeted and chitchatted with all the cousins, aunts, and uncles. baby olive was immediately snatched away and passed amongst the family members! i was then bombarded with gifts for baby olive. so sweet of everyone for thinking of her. it’s so fun to open up presents full of cuteness.
the kids ate first {mickey d cheeseburgers and fries} and then ran away to play the evening away. then the adults got to eat! i was hungry! the lasagna was very delicious. we conversed, mingled, and hung out the rest of the evening. after much imbibing and noshing, we were ready to head home.
[merry christmas!]
it was an amazing week and christmas celebration with all our friends and family. we are so lucky to have such special, wonderful people in our lives. God bless everyone!
we had a whirlwind week! we had visitors friday, saturday, and sunday {love to all my friends who have come over to our abode see baby olive}. then later on sunday, we mustered up the energy to go to marina and corey’s house for a festive get together {hello…football!}. we wanted to meet up with everyone for the holidays and not only that, carol was in town and pammy was going to be there too! so we had to see everyone!
[carol, pampers, and rina]
the next night, we had the wee christmas party at the werner’s. it’s an annual party they throw every year {for decades now, actually} and it was my fifth wee christmas with them! there is a lot of good food, lots of friendly faces, and santa claus comes to the party!
baby olive was passed along to everyone at the party…she was a hit! how can you not love a little baby?! plus, a warm thank you to pat and pete who gave baby olive a wonderful, generous gift from pottery barn kids! so thoughtful and kind of them! she’s so lucky!
i love going there every year. that’s what i love about the holidays, you get to see people you don’t always get to see and that is always wonderful!
[christmas at the werners // they have many trees! // i love this family shot!]
[olive and santa…santa claus was loving olive’s little feet]
christmas eve has always been the big celebration amongst the doan’s. over the years, it has evolved from a very late night to now, an earlier evening since we have kids!
we headed over to my parent’s house early {or as early as we could}. we ran some errands prior and then we were stuck in awful traffic on our way there. we arrived an hour or two later than we planned {oops!} but hey, we got there safe and sound!
i scurried inside with baby olive and my parents freaked out. they hadn’t seen baby olive in awhile and were so excited to have the little babes in their arms. she was sound asleep in her carseat so we left her in there for awhile but my mom pretty much had the baby in her arms the entire night!
my mom insisted on feeding us so {how can you say no?!} we waited around a bit until the food was ready. what was on the menu? chicken soup with rice and egg rolls. so good. it’s so good that grace ate it!!!
right after eating, i needed to make a pit stop at target to do some last minute exchanges. hey, if i can get out without the bebe and quickly do some stuff, i’m on it! thuy and i went together and it turned into a much longer trip than expected. oh well! i got some stuff done {although the target was a wreck and it was hard to locate items} and was satisfied.
[baking sugar cookies!]
we went home and started cooking and baking right away! kim, huy, and thuy did the cooking and i went upstairs to do the baking. i wanted to make sugar cookies for the kids to decorate later!
[the pretty plaid table spread by kim}
[place cards!]
[it’s not christmas without poinsettias!]
once dinner was had {um, best dinner ever! thanks kim, thuy, and huy for the delicious meal}, the kids were summoned to decorate cookies while everyone else cleaned up. once all that was done, the gifting began!
[thuy’s homemade cupcakes…how cute!!!]
it was so cute to see reagan, bennett, and grace open up their gifts. they get so excited and they all absolutely made out with some stellar stuff! once the kids were done, the adults randomly opened theirs. we, for the past several years, have done secret santa for each other. as we have gotten older, it just made sense. we can buy our own stuff but it’s fun to do this just to partake in the holiday spirit! we get to guess who was our secret santa and i nailed mine! i knew it was my brother dan!
[cutest cousins! ready to open presents!]
[christmas jammy photo!]
[the boys]
[grace loving her horse snow globe!]
after gifts, the kids played and played and played. they had such a fun time! they ate cookies and drank hot chocolate and ripped their toys apart.
[my most favorite gifts // christmas mouse book personalized just for olive! thank you kim and thuy…such an awesome gift for her // rifle iPhone case from dan // my birthday gift from kim and thuy – a jonathan adler bowl!]
it was a very lovely weekend and christmas eve {and it was a white one…i love it when it snows on christmas eve!}! such a great time shared with our friends and family. we are truly blessed and thankful for all that we have.
i hope everyone is enjoying their evening with friends and family. i hope everyone is warm and surrounded by the twinkling of holiday lights, the smell of baking cookies, and pretty, glittery decor. may your evening be of a belly full of yummy home cooking and spirits.
huy came home! yes, he came home for about a week. it was great seeing him and tashina! we were able to spend their first day in town at my p’s house. my mom gets so excited to cook for everyone! we all hung out for a bit around the house and then sat down for a delicious dinner with the famille! i love, love my mom’s cooking!
how hilarious is this?! r donned a rick ross shirt huy brought over from l.a. his friends design these tees through their company called pizzaslime. i love the tats and bling on little r.
capturing r through a red glass bead…so artsy, huh? this is what happens when you are just sitting around entertaining yourself. i, unfortunately, erased the awesome footage of r singing and dancing for us {whoops..} but he is such a ham!
playing around with the big belly bump. trying to get creative with this big bump of mine…why not make silly faces on it?
[goofing around]
[tashina and huy]
we were able to spend sunday night celebrating dan’s birthday as well! we all met up at baisi thai in oakbrook. hc and i ran into a store to quickly buy something before dinner, thinking we might be a few minutes late. of course, we were the first ones there! do we ever learn that when it’s a doan outing, we should never be on time?
on tashina and huy’s last night in town, we gathered together at my parent’s house for a final dinner {butter and garlic shrimp with a ramen vegetable stir fry} and a lazy night in just to chill and hang before they take off back to l.a.
overall, it was great seeing them. such a good time. too far in-between on visits! well, next time…christmas! cheers to family time!
wow! i obviously took a small hiatus on blogging {i have a few posts to publish that are a bit behind but never the less worth a current post!} to spend time with my family. it’s been such a roller coaster of a ride!
as crazy as it sounds, i published my last blog post while i was in labor! i know that sounds crazy but it was already written {it was legit and i did want to share, since i really did make it to my 40 week mark!} and all i could do was sit at home, through my contractions, with nothing to do!
i’m going to write olive’s birthing story soon {can’t wait to share}, i definitely found giving birth a totally amazing experience. i have this new found lens of women, women being pregnant, and women being able to give birth to a life that changes everything.
this baby girl came into our world and it just makes life such a happier place. she’s so sweet and we love her so much!!!
i am sooo excited to share her baby photos! thank you, thank you to tricia from patricia anderson photography! she was absolutely amazing. her photos are so sweet and beautifully shot. of course, having the cutest little subject does help!
[a sneak peek at tricia’s studio]
[love this, it makes me cry]
[tired mom hanging out while the babes is getting her first photos done // i love the backdrop]
little olive was not being cooperative, even though we kept her awake before the photo shoot, fed her right before, and did all we could to tire her out…yet, little baby girl had her own agenda {just like her mom}. she was not having it. she was fussy and not falling asleep! she wouldn’t feed and momma was sweating up a storm we wouldn’t get her photos done. oy, it was so stressful! i had been looking forward to this photo shoot and it was not starting off well.
olive finally gave in to a feeding {her belly was full!} and snore away she did! thank the Lord! i was so nervous she would never settle down so tricia could capture the sweet photos she does.
here are a few of the lovely, sweet, beautiful photos {she is 6 days new}…enjoy!
welcome little olive harper, she has changed our world and makes her momma cry happy tears! her cute munchkin face is so precious. we love her so much and can’t wait to have her meet everyone!
