A Birthday, A Bridal Shower, A Baby Shower and A Wedding

Holy Macaroni! Talk about a busy bee weekend! If I were ever to be hospitalized for exhaustion it would probably be about now. 

 
Friday I got to spend the whole day with my little lady - which after a whole weekend away and then long days at work was much needed! We started our day at the mall with some shopping!

If you follow me on Instagram you saw me declare my love for The Mommy Hook - an absolute must have in my opinion.


After our morning of retail therapy we were off to see Dr. Hersey for Kenley's 9 month check up!

My sweet girl is just perfect in every way. It makes me feel so good to hear the doctor compliment me {and Jason} on the job we are doing. Poor little thing did have to get  a shot, which is never fun, but I do love how cuddly she is afterwards.

Friday night, we had a relaxing night at home, I made Emily's DELICIOUS Creamy Burrito Casserole and we watched Django Unchained, which we both loved!

Saturday morning Kenley and I were up early to make the birthday boy his favorite food - waffles! My mother-in-law gave me the Fawver Family Waffle Recipe {she makes the BEST waffles!} and I must admit they turned out pretty darn good, still not quite as good as Judye's though!

Jason's birthday gift was a day of golf with his boys. So after breakfast, Kenley and I dropped him at the course.

While Jason was golfing, Kenley and I went to celebrate my friend Angie at her bridal shower!

After the shower we went home, grabbed daddy and brought Kenley to my dad's house for the night. Then Jason and I were off to Brasa for his birthday dinner! We had never been but had heard rave reviews. We both really liked it!

After dinner,  it was time to watch my friends Pat & Nikki exchange their vows and become husband and wife! And of course celebrate a little lot too!

It was so fun and so special to be reunited with all my best boys from high school. I miss them so much and really wish they would all come home at the same time for a huge party more often - or better yet they should all just move home!


You'd think after the Saturday we had, we would just lay low and enjoy a relaxing Sunday, but you should know by now that it's just not the Busy Bee way. Sunday morning we met up with Jason's mom and step-dad who were in town for the day for brunch.

After brunch I left my man and my baby so that they could spend some more time with J'd parents and I went to celebrate my dear friends Kari, Ryan and their baby boy Colin who is due in October!

We wrapped up our weekend with a big family and friends birthday dinner for Jason at Champps.

cake compliments of Jason's mom, Lisa. 

And then finally .... we were done and could sleep.

As always, I am linking up with the adorable Sami and you should too!

A Weekend in Chicago & A Letter to Beebo

Happy Hump Day everyone! 

I'm just a tad bit behind on the whole weekend recap thing as I was a bit of a trainwreck on Sunday night / Monday morning...so I am just now getting my act together.

To say we had a good weekend would be a total understatement.
It was FABULOUS.
INCREDIBLE.
SO MUCH FRICKIN' FUN!

As soon as Jason was done with work on Friday we dropped our sweet Kenley off at my mom's house and were on I-94 heading east.

road trip baby!

We drove to Elgin, IL which is a little less than an hour outside of Chicago. Knowing that we wouldn't be arriving until almost midnight we decided to stay in a hotel out of the city which was more than half the cost. Let's just say we got our money's worth - as in, our hotel was brutal. Jason and I were pleasantly surprised to 1. wake up and still be alive 2. still have all of our belongings 3. see that our car hadn't been broken in to. We were up early and out the door to finish the last hour of our road trip in to Chicago!

We dropped our bags at the hotel and instantly hit the streets. We grabbed a coffee and decided to enjoy a nice long walk along Lakeshore Drive, cut through Lincoln Park and eventually make our way up to Wrigley Field.

After a few miles we decided that a cold beverage and some deep dish pizza was absolutely necessary, so we made a nice pit stop at Giordano's.

So amazingly delicious.

After lunch we had a little over an hour until we needed to get back to the hotel to get ready, so we decided to rent bikes to make our way through the city faster!

We rode up to Wrigley field which was really fun to see.

Once at Wrigley we were going to check our bikes (which you need to do every 30 minutes to not get charged extra) and got stuck behind some incredibly obnoxious and not very bright young ladies who took a good 20 minutes to figure out the bikes. So once we got back on our bikes it was time to book it back to the hotel. We decided to ride down Lakeshore, return our bikes and then cab the rest of the way.

Of course the bike rack we planned on was full. So we continue to make our way towards the hotel and when I see that it's 2:30pm (the wedding was at 3:00pm) I get off my bike, give it to Jason and run the last half a mile as fast as I could to the hotel. Poor Jason was riding aimlessly around Chicago with TWO bikes looking for a rack. SOMEHOW we managed to get in our room, get our luggage, both shower and get to the church with 10 minutes to spare. Needless to say it was extremely stressful and looking back completely hilarious.

The next hour was spent watching my lifelong friend exchange her vows and become MRS. KRISTEN O'BRIEN. It was a beautiful ceremony in a beautiful church and Kristen looked absolutely breathtaking.

I can't get over that gorgeous dress!

We had some time to kill before the reception, so we went back to the hotel to finish getting ready and enjoy a couple of cocktails. It just so happened that two of my best friends were also in town (one from LA and one from DC) for the weekend for my friend Alex's bachelor party. So, one of my friends, Pat, stopped by the hotel and joined us for a drink.

And then we were off to the reception. Joe and Kristen had their reception at the Chicago Cultural Center right across the street from Millennium Park. It was such a beautiful location and such a fun wedding!

We ate and drank, toasted the new couple, caught up with old friends from my childhood neighborhood, and the leader of the 12 piece band even let me play with his equipment.

We had so much fun celebrating Kris & Joe but our night didn't end there. It turns out the Bachelor Party was taking place at the bar RIGHT NEXT DOOR to our hotel. So naturally we had to crash it. OH -EM - GEE did I have fun! It was incredible to spend time with two of my best friends who I rarely get to see AND there was a wind machine at the bar which pretty much entertained me the whole night.

It goes without saying that I was in rough shape on Sunday morning. Thankfully we were able to sleep in a bit before heading to the Farewell Brunch which was held on the rooftop of the Rock Bottom Brewery. It was a beautiful morning and thank heavens there were bloody marys!

We said our goodbyes and then were on the road home to Minnesota.
It was such an incredible weekend and I'm bummed that it's over.
I am also officially in love with Chicago and want to move there. Like right now.

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On a completely different note...make sure to stop by Carolyn's blog today because I took over to write a letter to her sweet little baby boy due to make his appearance really any time now but for sure sometime in the next 4 weeks! 

Go check it out! 

www.lifeloveandpuppyprints.blogspot.com