renegade craft fair

Posted on September 21, 2016 by tandem in love

for our 5th anniversary, i wanted to go to new york city. that was our plan. then we got pregnant and had a baby so nyc was out of the question, for now.

we planned a very simple evening out. hc’s parents so kindly offered to watch the kids for our anniversary night. we got ready and headed out the door…so excited for our alone time! i really wanted to hit up the renegade craft fair in wicker park. it was in our old hood and i love how it has sooooo many amazing vendors. plus, i told krissy, from earth cadets, that i would pay her a visit! {check out her shop, it’s local and full of awesomeness}

it was an absolute perfect day, just like our wedding day {our special day had temps in the mid seventies and it was a clear, sunny day}. we found a sweet parking spot, walked our way into the fair, nabbed a drink or three, and started to walk the fair. it was fabulous. we had such a great time drinking and perusing all the handmade goodies.

i know i say it all the time but i loooooooooove chicago. i love the city. i love the culture. i popped into krissy’s shop, found cute matching shirts for the girls and said hello to her! it was great seeing her and chitchatting for a bit before we finished up the fair.

we headed out to the restaurant {coast…where we had our third date} and scored another fab parking spot! we were seated right away {hc had made reservations}, ordered apps, and clinked our wine glasses in celebration of our marriage! as usual the food was amaze. i love coast because it’s exactly how sushi should be done! yummmmm.

we took our time, relaxed, and reveled in our time together with no kids! the funny but awful part of our evening out was that we were spent. oh my goodness. olive and ellie were sick and olive had a horrible night of sleeping, as in she hardly slept and either did we {ironic that it wasn’t our newborn who kept us up but our two year old!}! so when we finished our dinner…we were soooo ready to come home. hahaha! we were going to fall asleep!

nevertheless, it was quite an amazing day. hc made it so special and i am very thankful for his romantic notions. we completely enjoyed the craft fair, our dinner out, and had the most wonderful anniversary date night!

[yesssssss, chicago cubs wine! hc bought this for our byob anniversary dinner]

[our super, duper casual night out]

[our old hood]

[soooooo many awesome vendors]

[two beers for hc and vodka lemonade for moi!]

xoxo

anniversary morning

Posted on September 19, 2016 by tandem in love

we had a very low key start to our anniversary day. it was calm, relaxing, and sweet. my hc is the best. he got up early to grab groceries for breakfast, let us sleep in, made me endless amounts of yummy coffee, and surprised me with beautiful flowers. i love him.

i can’t believe it’s been five years! what a milestone. i can’t believe it’s been five years since we had the best day everrrrrr! it feels like it just happened last week. wow, five years later, we now have two kids, a house, and so much more love around us. i feel so fortunate to be blessed with so much goodness, i feel like i need to pinch myself.

we’ve had our ups and downs like any relationship. we have had some awful fights. we have had high moments and tough ones. we have dealt with sick parents, the birth of our children, and so many obstacles and celebrations that have happened within the five years since we have said our i do’s. i couldn’t imagine another person to live this life with. to ride this wonderful journey of marriage with anyone other than hc. he is my rock. i might be stubborn, hot headed, and sometimes an ass but he is always there for me and i am truly thankful.

he teaches me to be patient, kind, loving, and appreciate the simple moments in life. i am very grateful for that because i sure need that in my life! he definitely balances me out. happy five years my love and cheers to many, many more wonderful happy years to come!

[hc surprised me with flowers…as usual]

[awesome lighting…a serene, quiet morning]

[i love this babe]

[olive chillin’ watching cartoons]

[coffee…yummmm]

[hc always cooking up something good]

[loving her croissant]

[croissant breakfast sandwiches]

xoxo

pink aunties

Posted on September 16, 2016 by tandem in love

yay! we finally met up with karen and kt!

it was a lovely day…on the warmer side but no matter, we couldn’t wait to see my girls! of course, i was on time and i am usually late with juggling these two girls! karen and kt were a half hour late…thank goodness my dollies are well behaved! a half hour is an eternity when you have kids.

when they arrived, lots of hugs and squealing ensued. we ordered our food and sat down. it’s always a challenge for me to keep my thoughts straight when the kids are around. you feel so discombobulated. i had to keep ellie calm and keep olive entertained or basically, make sure both girls are well behaved and not screaming inside the restaurant. hahaha!

karen and kt are soooooo stinkin’ good with kids and they kept olive going. she was so enamored with karen but karen is soooo good with olive. she loves kids and it totally shows. she was olive’s bestie and olive just adored her.

we yapped and yapped and yapped non stop. i was so beyond excited that kt is engaged. i am so proud that i had set them up! who knew?! i was beyond persistent in setting bobby and kt together. something just told me it was right and now look! one year later they are engaged to be married and i couldn’t be happier for them!

we talked about life, relationships, weddings, kids, babies, work, you name it. we were there for a few hours but time seemed like it flew by! while we were visiting, bobby and his partner katie stopped by to say hi! it was great to see them! i was so glad i was able to see bobby and see the happy couple together.

it was such a great afternoon! i had a wonderful time, i am happy we were able to meet up, and i was glad that they were able to see olive and ellie. i love these two sweet ladies…definite staples in my life.

happy day lovelies!

[waiting patiently for her pink aunties to show up]

[she’s so funny]

[she looooooved looking at the desserts]

[my pretty girls]

[she’s such a doll]

[yaaaayyyyyyyyy kt’s engaged!]

[two of the cutest ladies]

[having a blast with karen]

[me and my girl]

[bobby paid us a surprise visit!]

[pink auntie karen]

xoxo

happy two months ellie

Posted on September 15, 2016 by tandem in love

happy two months!

[photos taken on 9.15]

height: 22.75″

weight: 10lbs 14oz

oh girl! you’re two months already?! where is the time going? you are growing up so fast! i can’t believe how different you are, already. be still my heart.

you’re sleep digressed a bit after one month but picked back up to a regular routine in the last two weeks. thank the Lord because we are so spoiled and i don’t think i could handle all those sleepless nights like other parents {olive was terrible the first four weeks and got into her routine after that!}. gah! you are solid throughout the night. you will pull in a good 6-8 hours straight! woo hoo! we try to keep you awake from 6 pm and on. we try really, really hard to get you to sleep by 10-11pm and you will be sound for the rest of the night. sometimes you will wake around 4, feed, and sleep until 7-8 o’clock. let’s pray that you continue to be so consistent every night until you’re an adult!

one thing i forgot to mention last month was the fact that you don’t like to be swaddled. probably from the second week here and on. you slept just fine & have ever since you were home, not being wrapped up all tight! i think we swaddled olive every night up to 4 months, hoping she’d stay fast asleep but you’re a rock star sleeper with not being wrapped up like a cocoon .

you pretty much eat every 2-3 hours still. i think i said this before but nursing the second time around is so different. you know so much more, you are more comfortable, you understand your body better, and i am so much more relaxed. i wish i could say that you stopped upchucking your milk but alas, that is still your thing. oh em gee. after you eat, it’s like…wait, wait, wait for it…puuuuuuuuke. there are days i hope i can catch it with the burp cloth and there are days where you are so stinkin’ sneaky and it throw it at me when i am not looking. i have never done so much laundry in my life. i change my clothes constantly, i change you constantly, and i always think i never have enough burp cloths. they are always drenched in milk and other fabulous body fluids. yuck.

you are starting to ‘talk’ back. it’s the cuuuuuutest thing! you recognize people, you perk up when you hear familiar voices, you smile at your mama alllllllll the time! i am so in love. i can’t even take it when you coo back and respond to me! it’s the best feeling in the world, it makes me so happy to see you growing! your smiles and facial expressions are so fun to watch and i can just stare at you for hours…well, actually i do. hahaha!

it means so much to her to have us around. if we leave her in her swing or dock a tot and walk away, it makes her very upset. she loves it when we are sitting right next to her, she loves it even more when she is by her sister. she loves looking and listening to olive. it makes you happy. ditto for olive…she is so in love, overprotective, and oh so sweet towards you. you love to be held, you love to be touched, and you love having your sweet little family right by your side. it’s so apparent in your reactions…i hope that is how you will always feel.

you have kept your hair, your double chin is out of this world, your cheeks have grown exponentially but it’s all not as big as your belly. your belly is so beyond ginormous! it’s sooooo stinkin’ cute! i love your little thigh rolls, your pointy little nose, and your sweet. sweet eyes. i try my best to soak in all your features, reactions, & sweetness because i don’t want to forget, take for granted, and miss out on all your baby goodness.

those moments are so so precious and that is truly what life is about right now. my family, the moments together, my girls, my husband, and life in the moment because you can’t take back that time and should savor every moment God has given to us. life is too beautiful to waste it.

happy two months my baby girl. it’s been the most fabulous two months since your debut and we are so blessed to have you here.

xoxo

oh kids

Posted on September 13, 2016 by tandem in love

last time kim and i met up, it was at the zoo, and it was a bit of a debacle. well, we decided this time around to head on up to kim’s abode to chill.

i made a few wrong turns driving up there {helloooo, so silly}, and it took freakin’ 20 more minutes to get to her house than it should have but alas, we made it. olive fell asleep five minutes before we got there but i was surprised she pleasantly woke up and willingly came inside the house. of course ellie was out! she was on a sleeping marathon.

once inside, i see the little people play set and knew olive would only play with that the entire time! and i was right. she did. brady was being energetic and it overwhelmed olive. awwww, poor girl. she kept staring at brady like he was entertainment and she was super intrigued. brooklyn was napping but when she woke up, she was just super cute {as usual} and minded her own business. these two kids are so stinkin’ cute and they seriously are twinsies! they soooo look like one another…so handsome and beautiful!

well, the kids played and kim and i became engrossed in our conversations…we eventually had lunch and continued on with our play date in fun fashion. i love hanging out there, it’s fun, relaxing, and always a great time. it’s always a hit or miss with these toddlers. near the end of our visit, olive became possessive over the little people toys and didn’t want brooklyn to play with them. oh my goodness…it’s so hard to get toddlers to understand that they need to share…it’s so hard to get toddlers to understand a lot! olive kept crying and i tried telling her that they were not her toys and that brooklyn was letting her play with them. tears and meltdowns ensued. ugh.

it was finally time to leave {without a few meltdowns, ellie waking up right when i was about to walk out the door, the dog barking like crazy, and kim’s brother in laws popping in right then} and after a few glitches, we finally got out the door and headed on our way home.

we had a really great time…the hiccups and craziness make it all the more fun being moms of two kiddos each. i still can’t believe our personal journeys have been so parallel and i am so fortunate kim has become such a great friend to me. love this girl! well, until next time…i always look forward to our play dates!

[yes, quite the odd pic…brady and olive were playing ‘doctor’. hahaha!]

[she’s such a doll]

[yummy caesar salad for lunch]

[she was content playing by herself…eep!]

[i was seriously stupid taking this selfie. i couldn’t look at the camera…hahaha!]

xoxo

happy 5th anniversary!

Posted on September 10, 2016 by tandem in love

wow! i can’t believe it’s been five years since we’ve had our BEST day EVER! i say it every year and will always sing the same tune ~ our wedding day was seriously the best day. it’s the day where it all started. we professed our love, our unity, and commitment in front of God and kicked off our journey as husband and wife with a fabulous party!

i loved our wedding weekend. period. from the fun rehearsal dinner, to the most beautiful day ever, to a lovely morning brunch with everyone, and a farewell dinner at my parents before we ran off on our honeymoon.

i remember being so nervous that it was going to rain {darn weather forecast said rain all day for a freakin’ week before the wedding}. i prayed that it wouldn’t because we had planned so much for the outdoor space! i woke up bright and early on saturday and the weather app said bright, sunny, and a high of 73 degrees…holy cow! that started my wedding day out just right!

what ensued after that was nothing but goodness. our day was perfect. we were surrounded by so much love, happiness, friends, family, and fabulous electricity. i am so thankful we were able to celebrate our love the way we did. the wedding was so ‘us’ and the elation that you feel on this day is indescribable.

i am thankful for my husband…he is the love of my life and the most wonderful, patient, forgiving, and loving man. he is a wonderful father and the best partner and friend anyone could ask for. happy anniversary my love! cheers to 50 more years!

[husband and wife!]

[i love christian]

[wedding program]

[the best girls in my life]

[first dance]

and of course…our short, impactful, beautiful, fun wedding clip!!

{photos and 8mm film by kate headley}

xoxo

lunch time date

Posted on September 9, 2016 by tandem in love

it had been forever since i last saw jodi. there were a few times we tried to get together but those dates fell through but not this time!

we started our morning in the backyard on the play set. olive wasn’t so keen with jett yet but then again, she’s kind of like that overall. she likes to observe first and then interact. it only took ten minutes or so for her to finally play with jett! they both started on the swings but jett and olive wanted to play kick, so that is when they starting to talk and play! woo hoo! after that, they were non-stop and it was so stinkin’ cute.

after a half hour or so, we headed inside. jodi and i talked, caught up, and the kids played and baby ellie slept and slept and slept! she was tired! i prepared lunch for the kids and then had lunch delivered for me and jodi. unfortunately, our fridge recently broke and i couldn’t store any food in the house for our get together, i had potbelly deliver their tasty sandwiches, chips, and cookies! yum!

the kids tore up all the toys and had such a blast playing in olive’s room. they were jumping on the bed like monkeys and being so darn cute with one another. it was so sweet to watch. jett is a sweetie and olive was having fun with him! i wanted to take a million pictures of their cuteness together!

after a few hours, it was encroaching on nap time for everyone, so we gave hugs and kisses and said our goodbyes. jett gave olive a sweet little kiss and her look was priceless. you’ll have to scroll down to see the capture. it’s hilarious. jett is so happy and proud of himself and olive is like, whatevs. haha!

anyhoo, it was awesome to see all of them! we were just missing matt! love that hubby of jodi too! we had such a great time hanging out {i just needed to chillax and let the kids be messy…ugh, my ocd is terrible}. i hope that it’s not too long before we see them all again! love this family!

[jodi and asher]

[isn’t jett so darling?!]

[she was super super shy at first…]

[enjoying the play set]

[isn’t he so cute?]

[so olive finally warmed up to jett!]

[that frown…so cute!]

[lunch time]

[jett just kissed olive…not impressed..hahaha]

xoxo

city folks

Posted on September 6, 2016 by tandem in love

we were so excited to have aaron and olivia come out to visit! i always love my time with these two beautiful people. it’s always fun and entertaining.

they came over early afternoon for a late lunch. hc and i just came home from shopping and we bought a few good eats from our local grocery store and decided to make it a casual lunch.

as soon as they arrived, of course hc had to show off the new car to aaron and olivia went straight inside to say hello. i was running around, doing my typical br stuff, when she walked in. she greeted olive first and then i came running around the corner to let her know i was just putting stuff away and i would be right out.

we hung out in the kitchen and immediately started chatting up a storm. that’s a big connection between me and olivia…we talk like it’s going out of style. we can gab like there is not tomorrow. i love that about us, our friendship. of course we didn’t even notice how long the boys were gone or when they even came in, we were too engrossed in our conversations.

we offered them some tasty libations from our stash & olivia brought over champagne as a baby gift. that cracks me up. it’s sooooo olivia to give me champagne as a baby gift. i love her. i love how quirky she is in the most awesome way. her gift giving is always so unique and thoughtful. of course we had to pop it open and imbibe it! it was absolutely dry and delicious!

we served lunch, we sat around, we talked, laughed, and enjoyed our silly subjects that were grotesquely funny and very non pc…mainly coming from mr. aaron himself. his creative mind cracks me up!

anyhoo, their main purpose was to see baby ellie…well, that little nugget slept up until they left! the little baby woke up right when they were about to leave and we were able to squeeze in a quick crying pic before they walked out the door!

well, nevertheless, it was an amazing visit as usual. i love hanging out with these two! it was a lovely afternoon indeed!

[my cheerleader pose]

[love these two]

[nuts in a cup…]

[baby ellie was not a happy camper…she was HUNGRY, but we had to squeeze in a pic before they left!]

xoxo

simple afternoon

Posted on September 1, 2016 by tandem in love

it was a casual afternoon spent at the in laws. we had grace for the weekend and i asked hc if he wanted to visit his folks since we had to drop grace off on sunday. so, we headed on up to dick and jane’s place for an afternoon of fun.

his sister missy, nephew daniel, and aunt wendy were over as well. aunt wendy grilled burgers and hot dogs and we all just chillax’d and hung out. nothing special, nothing over the top, just good ol’ relaxing. we sat around, talked, did nothing, hung out, doted on the baby, and chilled. a perfect, simple sunday afternoon.

olive had a blast hanging out with daniel and his girl rachel. rachel is so sweet to olive and olive felt very comfortable with them. she hung out with them quite a bit downstairs while everyone was watching t.v. it’s always cute to see other people be so sweet to your kid…you always are {obvs} but it is very heartwarming to see people do the same. maybe i am saying this because most people don’t take to kids or other people’s kids and it’s refreshing to see the opposite. especially when it’s genuine, you can definitely tell when someone really likes kids because as a parent, you always think your kid is da bomb and it’s sweet when someone else thinks the same.

of course we had to take a zillion pictures of olive and ellie. how can you not?! i bring my camera everywhere and have become a total mamarazzi! i can’t help it. i have always wanted a fancy camera to capture moments like these. i think it’s been the greatest gift to date…or at least the most used!

i love casual days like these and i feel like we never have enough of them! cheers to many more sunday fundays!

[auntie missy]

[such a cute pic of her!]

[papa with ellie]

xoxo

play date with liam and parker

Posted on August 29, 2016 by tandem in love

our friend jaime is a teacher and she reached out to me and pam on when we could get together before she started school again. we finally settled on a date but it was not without obstacles. one, we wanted to go the arboretum but there was rain in the forecast. two, pam and i had the worst nights before our scheduled get together.

pam was up all night with chase as i was with ellie. plus, i wasn’t feeling well at all. i had the shivers and my breast were feeling unbelievably painful. i was worried it was possible mastitis but it ended up fading away the next day…phew! we struggled through and ended up at my house for our date {we threw out options like kid town and lunch somewhere but pam and i felt best if our get together was low key and easy}.

i ordered lunch, the kids played, and pam, j, and i chit chatted about life. i was pleasantly surprised by olive. she really took to the boys…wild and all. hmmmmm, she really took to liam. she really loved his wild side. they ran around, screamed, jumped their way throughout the house. it was really cute to see. i love watching her grow, mature, and become more socially open to others! it’s the best thing to see as a parent…seeing your kids developing certain skills is really heartwarming.

pam and jaime were amusing. they were so worried about the boys destroying the house but i was not. they are such good parents and they didn’t let them go crazy in our house and it was too cute to see them interact with one another when it came to food, toys, and personal space. after a few hours…i think jaime and pam had enough…they packed up their belongings and we said our goodbyes. they kept apologizing for their kids tearing up the place but it was too easy and quick to clean up, i was not worried. i was just super happy to have had them over and they were able to see ellie and i was able to see chase!

although our playdate was short, it was a very good time! i had a blast with my girls and olive had a grand ol’ time with boys! it was great seeing everyone and hopefully we can make it to the arboretum on our next meeting and enjoy the great outdoors!

[baby chase]

[really olive?]

[liam and parker]

[olive really enjoyed lunch time with the boys]

[jaime and ellie]