New Jersey Trip visiting John, Sue and Tommy

My mom and I extended our New York trip by a day so we could spend some time with John, Sue and Tommy. Tommy was born 9/10/09 and the last time we saw him was right before Thanksgiving. He has grown up so much! Sue picked up up my mom and I at the train station and we went to lunch at Squan Tavern. They have the best food there and we always have to go when we are in town. Tommy was putting on a show for us. He is the cutest little boy! We went back to their house and hung out with Tommy. He is sitting up all by himself and loves to play with his toys. Tommy had bath time and had fun playing with his new toys that Grandma got him. We had so much fun visiting, but wished it was longer. John, Sue and Tommy are coming to visit this summer so we can't wait for that! Love you all so much!

New York Trip - Third Annual Girls' Weekend

My Mom, cousin Mia, Aunt Denise and I had our third annual girls' weekend trip. The first year it was in Chicago, second year it was in Albuquerque (my aunt lives there), and this year we chose New York. My cousin Mia lives in New York so she was a great host. We stayed at Hotel Giraffe in the Flat Iron District from Thursday - Sunday. The hotel was very cute and they had the best amenities. Every morning we had free European style breakfast (muffins, scones, bagels, fruit, yogurt, juice, lattes, etc). The coffee machine was open all day long so we had as many lattes as we wanted. And finally, the best part was the wine and cheese every night from 5 to 8pm. We took advantage of that every night. The first night Alex met us at the hotel for wine and cheese and then we went to dinner at Punch. We all shared our dishes and they were delicious. Friday night we saw Fela, which was produced by Jay Z and Will & Jada Smith. It was very intense, but a great show. After the musical we went out for appetizers since it was already almost midnight. Saturday night we went to South Pacific the musical and really enjoyed it. Afterwards we went to Prime Steakhouse by our hotel, but the were done serving dinner so we had to settle for french fries. Ha! They were good. We spent the days sightseeing. We went to ground zero, shopping, walked by Empire State Bldg (already been up there), Times Square, Midtown, Rockefellar Center, GE bldg, Central Park, Guggenheim (just walked inside), and ate lots of delicious food. Mia's fiance's future uncle is a designer and he started his own clothing line so we got to see his office and showroom, which was really cool. Overall we had an amazing time. We laughed a ton like always. It was so nice hanging out and catching up. Love all of you! Thanks for an amazing trip. Can't wait until next year.

Vegas Trip

Craig and I went to Vegas to visit his parents. We stayed at The Hotel at Mandalay Bay for 2 nights and then 2 nights by Craig's parents. This picture is of us at Haze at Aria Hotel.

Craig gambling...me watching

In the lobby at The Hotel

We went to dinner at a great Italian place with Craig's parents, brother, cousin, aunt and her friend. They had live music and great food. It was nice to see his family.

Craig's parents

Allison's Birthday Dinner

Allison, Scott, Craig and I went out to dinner to celebrate Allison's birthday. We went to Joe's Stone Crab - one of the best restaurants in Chicago. We don't get to go out with Scott and Allison as much as we would like, but we always know how to party when we are together. After dinner we went to Epic for drinks. It was a very fun night and can't wait to get together again. Happy Birthday Allison!

Ethan's Orchestra Concert

We went to Ethan's orchestra concert at his school. It was actually a fundraiser for the music program and they had a silent auction, but I sadly did not win any of the three things I bid on. Ethan did great and we celebrated with ice cream afterwards.

Before and After - unpacking the kitchen

My parents came in town to help me unpack. My parents helped out so much. Craig and I went to the dentist and came home to lots of boxes unpacked. It was so nice having them help out.

Hanging up the mirror

Craig and my Dad hanging up our mirror from Pottery Barn in our dining room. We still have not decorated our house, but we are hiring Kathy G from Charleston and I'm so excited to have her help us.

This is our old table from the old house, but we added the insert because the room is bigger than before. We got the zibra rug from Arhaus.

They did a great job hanging it up...

We still need to add some stuff to the sides of it, but we'll wait for Kathy to do that.

We did it!

Happy Birthday Allison!

Above: 4th of July 2007

Below: Allison's birthday in 2007

Below: my wedding 9/24/04

Below: my engagement party in 2004

Below: Sept 2003

Happy Birthday to my VVVVBFF since 5th grade - Allison. Thanks for being such a wonderful friend all these years. I have no idea what I would do without you. Love ya so much!

Spring Break in the Bahamas

We went to the Bahamas for Spring Break with the kids. We stayed at a nice hotel on Cable Island in Nassau. The kids met a bunch of kids the second day and had a blast hanging out with them the rest of the week. Craig and I barely saw the kids. We did a lot of relaxing by the ocean, ate a lot of good food, read books (I read 4 books: finished the 2nd half of The Hunting Games by Suzanne Collins, Roses are Red, The 8th Confession, both by James Patterson, and half of House Rules by Jodi Picoult). Craig read a book too...Roses are Red. (He has not finished a book in years because he reads half and doesn't like it, but if he would just finish it, he would love them.) We also did some gambling, well Craig did. He won a bunch of money and then ended up losing most of it, but still ended up ahead. Craig and Ethan went scuba diving twice so Ethan could finish getting certified. They had a great time, but I on the other hand was worried sick. Craig almost drowned during his certification 10 years ago, but decided to give it another try because Ethan wanted to do it. Craig started choking under water during the skills test because he and Ethan had to switch masks. Luckily, the instructor calmed him down and everyone came back unharmed. Overall, we had a great time. The weather was perfect and we had our phones off (international roaming).

Above: Julia was getting serenaded by the waitor, we took a limo to dinner b/c it was the same cost as a cab and Ethan & Craig making crazy faces...lovely.