glitter, sparkle, and shine

Posted on January 1, 2014 by tandem in love

happy new year! wow, 2014!

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!

[festive attire // dress – last season’s akira]

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!

cheers!

xoxo

vs shower

Posted on November 1, 2013 by tandem in love

my lovely girls at vs so kindly threw me a shower! it was so sweet and thoughtful of them. it was hosted by my pretty girls, yesenia and tiffani. they did such an amazing job! i was very grateful!

hubby charming and i got there early, so we were instructed to wait upstairs until everything was ready! we finally finagled our way down to a pretty decorated room! pink streamers, fabulous centerpieces, and delicious smelling food! they had worked so hard! several of the girls pitched in and made some decadent desserts!

[the lovely diaper cake made by yesenia]

[streamer decor]

[centerpieces]

we started with the mingling and socializing, then we were given the go ahead from yesenia to dig into the tasty food {from her dad’s restaurant mario’s pizza and pasta}. everything was so yummy! after noshing on all things tasty, we attacked the dessert table! em, from the wrap, made brownies…marlena made the cream cheese stuffed strawberries…it went on and on!

as we were wrapping up the dinner, yesenia started the fun games! oh, it was hilarious to see everyone participate! the first game was for everyone to guess how big my bump was. wow, there were some folks out there {they shall remain unnamed!} that thought my belly was really big!! they tore off their measurement from a roll of paper streamers and once everyone pulled off their fair share, i was asked to stand up and have everyone wrap their streamers around me. whoever guessed the closest, of course, wins! mutters nailed it! she guessed the width of my belly exactly!

[baby bump guessing]

the next game, i had to pick three contestants – the victims were dulce, tracy, and jaime! they had to drink all the pop from the baby bottles. ugh! i wouldn’t want to do that! it was so funny to see. jaime was so upset she had to do this! ha! and the winner was…dulce!!!! the quietest ones always surprise you!

[a race to the end! go dulce!]

[dulce takes the prize]

[it’s a girl confetti]

the last game was, for the picked teams, to guess what the ‘poopey’ diaper was! gross! they had to lick the diaper to guess what kind of chocolate bar it was! yucky looking! anthony and cailynn won!

[‘poopey’ diapers]

next up were presents! all the girls were so kind! i received so many wonderful gifts from everyone! even gals who couldn’t make the shower left their gifts for baby h!

[present time!]

[rich was proud of the rubber ducky he picked out on the registry!]

[i love this photo of me holding marlena’s diaper cake…she was cracking me up about it, she didn’t know how to put one together! it was literally falling apart in my hands!]

[old school ladies! from left to right – hostess with the mostess, yesenia + tiffani, wendy, and jaime]

it was such a fun event! thank you, thank you to my ladies who were so generous, kind, and thoughtful! baby h is so absolutely grateful for all that you have given her! a huge thank you to yesenia and tiffani for hosting such a wonderful shower for us!!! we are so thankful, words cannot describe how awesome it was for you both to do this for us!

xoxo

maternity sesh

Posted on October 16, 2013 by tandem in love

i was beyond excited for our maternity photo session!! oh the anticipation! i was hoping the weather was going to be fantastic. i mean, it’s october…it could be chilly, it could be rainy and honestly, the weather app was looking like the first two were going to be true! well, lo and behold, it was a gorgeous, warm day!

we headed to lincoln park’s lily pond for these fabulous photos. it was so perfect, so beautiful out to a beautiful setting. our photographer, tricia, was so relaxing and great to work with! she made us feel so comfortable and, of course, knew how to capture the belly bump perfectly! our minds had collaborated to create these romantic photos. her creativity and my vision combined, equated to some absolutely lovely shots of the bump.

after the session at lincoln park, we headed back to our abode for some more intimate photos. the belly bump in the raw! i wish i could post more of the photos but that would be too risqué {they are a little more private and personal}! i wanted it to be more of a clean, dreamy, romantic, classy boudoir style session. it turned out perfect!! please enjoy the photos…as much as we have enjoyed this whole process!

[bump love]

[me + my love]

[my absolute FAVORITE…such a pretty backdrop]

[another bump FAVORITE from the boudoir session!]

[i fell in love with this chair! borrowed from tricia’s studio. thank you to hc for transporting it!]

a huge thank you to tricia for capturing such a special moment in our lives! we are so pleased with how the photos turned out; you captured the bump so beautifully! we can’t wait for our baby girl to arrive and to capture those cute first moments as well!!

{all photos by patricia anderson}

xoxo

saturday afternoon

Posted on October 9, 2013 by tandem in love

we had a lazy saturday afternoon with grace.

just the four of us. we hit southport nail bar for some pedis for our tootsies. as we were heading there, we saw that they were setting up a festival on southport! after we got our nails done up, we cruised through the street. it was the first ever taco fest in the area! the boutiques down southport were having discount specials for their stores {yippee!}, there were food stands, and fun kiddie stuff to do. grace wanted to ride the ponies and the camel. um, we said you ride horses every week…no to the ponies but yes to the camel!

we got grace to take a picture with her dad in front of her favorite team {we wish! she is a stinky loving whitey sox fan…boo!}. after enjoying a beautiful afternoon, we headed home to do some more relaxing. yes, it was a great, calming day for us.

[camel riding]

[grace’s favorite team 😉 ]

[pedis]

xoxo

happy anniversary

Posted on September 30, 2013 by tandem in love

it was our two year anniversary! my how time flies and how things change {aka having a baby!}.

we started our day with a delicious brunch at bite cafe. very yummy. i just wanted some good old fashioned breakfast goodies. we had a very relaxing morning…chill & calm.

[anniversary breakfast]

we headed back to our place {it’s just around the corner from bite} and rested for the afternoon. we logged onto the computer, we watched some t.v., we chillaxed our time away. before we knew it, it was time to get ready and i couldn’t get off the computer! ya know, pinning can be addictive! hc kept nudging me to get ready but i had a plan…i knew i could whip myself together in 15 minutes {noooo problem!}. so there ya go, i jumped off the computer, freshened up the face, threw on the dress, and voila! i was ready! hc was doubtful of me, he really thought i wasn’t going to put in any effort for our anniversary night out! ha!

we headed to boka, a michelin star restaurant, for a lovely evening of noshing and imbibing. it was calm and serene inside. we were greeted with a “happy anniversary” welcome by the hostess. we were seated at the corner table {a favorite of mine in any resutarant}. who doesn’t love the best seat in the house?!

[at boka!]

[menu]

we ordered drinks {my mocktail was concocted by the bartender through my request of having something fruity!} and perused the menu to determine what were we going to eat at this fabulous place! once our orders were placed, we dived deep into our conversations and really enjoyed ourselves on our special night.

[cheers!]

[ready to order]

[complimentary sweets]

it was a perfect day and a perfect end to our two year anniversary celebration. we can’t wait to celebrate next year with our little one in our lives!

xoxo

cha quyen’s 40th

Posted on September 23, 2013 by tandem in love

well that time had come, it was father quyen’s 40th year as an ordained priest! we celebrated at the altar villa banquet hall out in addison. it was quite a fete! i could be exaggerating but i think it was close to 600 folks at the event.

[mingling]

[coaster favors]

[me + hc]

[honoring cha quyen]

[with tricia!]

[vietnamese entertainment]

[with chu thong!]

[with the man of the hour]

[dad, mom, old friend, + dan]

i, as usual, cruised there straight from work. i waited in the parking lot for my hubby charming to meet up with me, he was driving in from the city. once we were together, we walked in and ran straight into my mom and dad. yay! we were immediately pinned with a rose flower {identifying us as family of cha quyen’s} and shuffled to our table. although, we were amongst only a few who had tables reserved for us, i still have to fight off a bunch of vietnamese peeps from stealing the table! they don’t care it says reserved, they will steal it from under this pregger lady! so there i sat, waiting for the rest of my family to arrive.

[old friends]

in the mean time, i was so excited to see my grandma [in from l.a.} and my parent’s old friends, di thu and chu thong {in from texas!}! it was a total reunion that night! we saw so many people we haven’t seen in awhile, it was so good to catch up! it was a great evening except for the singing {oy…it was so loud, it was uncomfortable!}, it’s not a vietnamese event without some loud music and loud singing. my brother dan said all vietnamese music/songs sound like a james bond theme song {funny statement of the night!}.

[love!]

[family]

[grandma! as huy calls her, ‘lil shorty]

anyhoo, after much socializing, eating, and picture taking, it was time to go home! we said our goodbyes and jetted out! it truly was a good night!

xoxo

happiness is

Posted on September 5, 2013 by tandem in love

happiness is when hubby charming is home.

when hubby charming comes home and i am happy as a clam.

happiness is a home cooked meal by hc.

happiness is snuggling with hc and a good movie is on t.v.

happiness is spending a lazy day with hc before this bebe comes.

happiness is when hc cooks me a a delcious breakfast in the morning.

happiness is going shopping with hc and getting his opinion on things.

happiness is waking up next to hc in the mornings.

happiness is attending mass together.

happiness is when hc and i can go on walks and hold hands.

i am most happy when i get to spend time with my hubby charming.

i love you to bits.

[a delicious home cooked meal by hc]

xoxo

babymoon

Posted on July 31, 2013 by tandem in love

we recently went to vegas for our babymoon! normally we do not go to vegas in the middle of summer but that is what matt wanted! we prefer may or september, i mean it is still hot but not as hot as it is in july!

[waiting for our flight out of ord]

we headed to the airport, early, to fly out so we could have a full day of vegas when we arrived. we were met by my brother and his girlfriend, tashina, at the vegas airport. we traipsed our way to aloha, an eatery that was super yummy! a restaurant that definitely served way, way too much food! i ordered the kalua pig and cabbage, it was so good but i could barely consume the amount that was served! i pretty much ate a lot of rice and cabbage with a sprinkling of pork! that was all the ever shrinking tummy of mine could manage {these days, the tummy is feeling a bit more pressure}.

[my delicious meal at aloha!]

[my $6 lemonade at the eiffel tower restaurant]

afterwards, huy + tashina dropped us off at our hotel, vdara {love}. huy + tashina stayed at a cute hotel boutique called rumor, just down the road from our hotel! we checked in, settled in, and made our way to the pool {first things first!}. huy + tashina met us at the pool and then eventually matt + johann! they flew in later that afternoon and met us around 4:30ish. we all hung out for a bit at the pool and then headed back to our rooms to get ready for dinner.

our first night of excess was at the paris hotel. we ate at the eiffel tower. we had such a funny experience there. the ambiance, the dress code, & the service was interesting to say the least. the best thing about our meal was our jealousy over tashina + huy’s seafood tower of deliciousness!

[me and tashina before dinner!]

[huy + tashina’s awesome seafood tower]

[our ‘professional’ picture at the restaurant]

once we were done with dinner, we headed over to the cosmopolitan’s chandelier bar for a night cap. we pit stopped at the sugar factory, a 24hour candy store, on our way to the bar. apparently huy + tashina pit stopped at a few gambling spots on their way!

[some of the amaze chandeliers inside the bar]

[matt + johann]

[chillin’]

the next day, we rented out a cabana at the pool to spend our day relaxing and soaking up the sun. it’s always such a good time when we rent a cabana, the service is amaze, food at your fingertips, drinks constantly flowing, and the private pool! a lovely pool just for the cabana folks! who wouldn’t love it?!

[my 22 week baby bump!]

[relaxing at our private pool // nice look huy!]

[love the guy in the background!]

after a whole day of sunning and relaxing, we got ready and headed out to dinner with matt’s sister, liz, her husband, josh, and their daughter, stella. josh picked us up & we met liz & stella out by where they live, henderson-ville. we ate at a tapas restaurant out by them and after dinner, we headed back to their house for another night cap. well, the boys had scotch {glenlevit 18 years old} and cigars {out on the patio}, while i hung out on the couch with matt & his sister! it was a really, really nice evening. we totally enjoyed our time with them. they are such a fun bunch and so welcoming!

[scotch, cigars, + great friends]

[hanging out at liz + josh’s]

the next day, we duplicated our all day outing at the pool but we went out for lunch instead {we typically order lunch at the cabana}. we met liz at the todd english pub for a quick bite before we headed back to our cabana. it was wonderful to meet up with liz one last time before our vacation ended!

our evening meal was at the bacchanal buffet at caesars hotel. the interior was very cool and the food was delicious {although buffets aren’t the best deal for a preggo lady}! i especially loved the asian buffet & dessert buffet {so yummy}! we then met matt + johann’s friend, allen {in for a conference}, at the chandelier bar back at cosmo for our final night cap of the trip.

[bacchanal buffet]

[the beginning of the end]

the next day, we went to breakfast at the peppermill {the best and cheesiest joint in town!}. last year we started our trip at the peppermill and this year, we ended our trip at the restaurant! they have fake neon lights, a lounge area with a fire pit in the middle of it, and there’s photographer that walks around to take your picture as a souvenir! ha! love it. after breakfast, we walked the whole strip! we started at the encore and made our way all the way back to our hotel, in time to leave for the airport. we did all sorts of shopping along the way. it was a perfect way to end our vacation. we were able to experience all the cheesiness of the strip on our last day there. that’s a part of vegas you gotta soak in!

[the way to start your day, breakfast and a drink!]

[the fire pit in the lounge]

[the fake trees & ‘neon’ light interior]

[our cheesy souvenir // we love it!]

[my delicious virgin bloody mary // it was so good!!!!]

[the eclipsing of my feet]

[macarons from jean philippe // they were a bit crushed during the transport]

there you go, our babymoon! it was a fun, relaxing time with my hubby charming, the baby bump, and friends!

xoxo

gender reveal party

Posted on July 22, 2013 by tandem in love

what an amazing day!

we had our gender reveal party on sunday, and it was such a fun time! behold, there will be a lot of pictures! i had such fun concocting all the details {thanks kim for being our photographer for the day!}! a huge thanks to my sister kim for diy-ing all the vases and arranging all the beautiful flowers!!! a big thanks to my parents for letting me host it at their house!

the morning started out with a trip to corner bakery, we had the food catered by them, so we swung by to pick the goodies. we arrived at my parent’s house and the decorating began! grace was such great help {hc charming was a mission created by me and my p’s to get additional supplies}, she wiped down the chairs, helped me decorate, and set everything up with me!

at noon, the lovely guests started to arrive! one by one, we greeted in glee and the party began! we sipped our drinks and socialized for our start of the party. we finally prepped the food, and enjoyed our meal outside. thank goodness it wasn’t soooo hot. it was hot but not as hot as it has been for the past few weeks. i was so thankful for the temperature being at the tail end of the heat wave!

after the food, the kids got to hit a baby carriage piñata! who doesn’t like a piñata at a party?!

after noshing on our meals, kim and i prepared the desserts. it looked quite adorable! after, we set up the table and i announced to everyone if they wanted to know the gender of the baby?! of course they said yes! i told them that they could find the answer in the cupcakes {from magnolia bakery}! they were so excited! everyone got up to grab their cupcakes! once each person had their little treasure, everyone broke open their cupcakes at the same time!

there it was! pink frosting signifying a baby girl!!!!!! it was so much fun!

[handmade jars filled with candy by me + hc]

[the start of the table setting]

[sprinkled with confetti dots]

[cousins]

[voting!]

[gender pins]

[beautiful arrangements by kim!]

[flowers, confetti, and candy jars]

[decor]

[party tassels]

[famille – grace and i color co-ordinated our outfits to represent both genders!]

[themed party utensils]

[pink and blue plates]

[drinks]

[dana darling with her pink bow pin for her girl vote]

[lan, avery, and thuy]

[the boys + thuy]

[mes seours]

[jane + aunt wendy wearing themed party shoes]

[b + terry]

[jane + grace]

[drinking straws]

[noshing on our pink and blue plates]

[super yummy lemonade]

[b]

[famille]

[magnolia bakery cupcakes]

[yum!]

[sisters]

[tower of goodies // he she bars and pink and blue rock candy!]

[favors]

[piñata time]

[swinging at the baby carriage]

[busted!]

[classic pose]

[swaying towards the boy vote!]

[cupcake time!]

[it’s pink!!! it’s a girl!]

[pink filling]

[beautiful dana]

[pink! it’s a girl!]

[a wonderful gift from aunt wendy!]

[avery helping me open gifts // from her parents]

[lol…all the kids helping me open gifts! so cute!]

[adorbs chevron blanket from lori, jay, aj, + jake]

[what a wonderful party! thank you to everyone for celebrating with us!!!]

we truly had such a great time! what a wonderful way to spend time with our families and such a fun way to let everyone know what gender baby heintz is!!!

yay!

xoxo

cool exhibits

Posted on June 17, 2013 by tandem in love

it was a long, good weekend indeed. lovely weather, lots o fun activities, and plenty of relaxing! woo!

we spent our fabulous sunday, first, by going to mass at st. clement, then had a sunny al fresco breakfast at frances [first time ever for me, eating sausage corn dogs for breakfast!], and fun trip to the science and industry museum. we love going there because it’s so interactive {what grace likes} and educational {what we like}!

it was fun exploring all the cool exhibits. it had a u-505 submarine exhibit, an awesome blip in history during world war II. it had realistic reenactments to show us how it all went down and how they overcame the enemy sub!

rich absolutely loved the art of the bicycle exhibit! grace and i left him there to explore the other parts of the museum. oy! he took forever! he spent at least five minutes on each bike (we had to ditch him 😉 ! the coolest part of that exhibit was the bicycle that was made out of cardboard and it sells for only $20!!!! we want one!

we wrapped up at you! the experience, a great dive into the human body, mind, and spirit. grace couldn’t wait to show me a 3d display of how big the baby looked at my current state!

[gracie + me going through a circus exhibit]

[cool little models on display]

[he’s so interested, non?!]

[can you spot grace?]

[stick your head far enough in the hole and you get to see a surprise]

[u-505 exhibit]

[make a shadow, hold still, and the butterflies will land on you!]

[grace at science storms]

[daddy daughter at the art of bicycles]

[more bicycles]

[a tandem made for us!]

[grace testing her power at you! the experience]

we explored so many more exhibits than that during our trip there! afterwards, we hit the museum shop, grace had to get freeze dried ice cream! it was, practically, her sole purpose of this trip! we were finally on our way home after a fun but exhausting day to relax some more! woo hoo!

xoxo

tandem in love

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

Tag Archives: hubby charming

glitter, sparkle, and shine

vs shower

maternity sesh

saturday afternoon

happy anniversary

cha quyen’s 40th

happiness is

babymoon

gender reveal party

cool exhibits