Weekend in Chicago

This past weekend was one of my college friend's, Lawley (or Erin to others :), wedding. I am lucky that in the past year I have had visits from Duvy, Amy, Panichi, and Bayer and saw Katie and my cousin Emily in AZ, but I had not seen Andrea, Mary, or Lawley since I visited Chicago in January 2009. I was so excited to see everyone!

Friday Panichi picked me up from the airport and Adam's friend Derek picked him up so that they could hang out. Panichi had just picked up Duvy so us 3 got to spend the whole afternoon together. We went to this cute little cafe for lunch, got manicures, and walked to a little neighborhood with cute shops.

That night, my girlfriends (with Duvy's organizing :) had a really nice baby shower for me. It was so fun. We ate dinner at Graham Elliots, who Adam and I are fans of from Top Chef Masters. When we walked into the restaurant he was standing at the host stand, which is a rare thing for a "famous" chef to do. The food was really interesting and good. After dinner we went to Panichi's family's boat and had dessert and I opened some gifts. I got SOOO many cute things and it was so fun to just hang out with everyone!

Saturday morning Katie, Panichi, Duvy, Adam, and I took a nice walk to Michigan Ave. and did some shopping and ate some food before it was time to head to the hotel to get ready for the wedding.

The ceremony was super pretty. Lawley's dress was SOOOOOO gorgeous and she looked beautiful! The reception was at the ballroom in the hotel we stayed at, so inbetween we all sat out on this patio pretty and socialized. The whole reception was a blast! I had so much fun talking with my friends at dinner, dancing to the music (the band was the best wedding band I have heard yet), and celebrating.

Sunday morning we all got up and ate brunch together, then it was back to San Diego for me. It was such a FUN FUN FUN weekend and made me so sad to have to leave some of my favorite people. I can't wait to see everyone again, hopefully soon!

(Still waiting on pictures from other people, so mine aren't the best :)

Samantha's 2nd Birthday!

Adam's brother Jay's family was visiting this past week, and lucky for us, Sam's birthday fell during their trip. We never get to go to niece and nephew birthday parties, so I was glad we finally made it to one. For having the party in California, they had quite the turnout. Steph's brother, his wife, and their two kids plus Steph's cousin all live in CA and came down for the party.

Addi and Sam are both so cute...Addi has this super social, friendly, funny personality and Sam has a bashful, quiet, sweet personality. It was fun to hang out with them for a few days (and of course Jay and Steph too :).

Last night I saw an episode of 19 Kids and Counting on TLC. It was a Mother's Day special where they brought their little girl, Josie, home from the hospital after 4 months of being in the NICU. This little girl was born at 25 weeks and was less than 1.5 pounds. They showed the emergency C-Section and lots of footage of her over the last few months struggling to just breathe, open her eyes, stay warm, eat, basically just struggling to live. It was so emotional for me to watch. I read that Josie had to go back to the hospital after that episode was taped due to bowel problems. It was so weird for me to watch because I just kept looking at Josie and thinking how the little girl inside of me probably looks pretty similar to the way she does (I'm 27 weeks along now), which is just so tiny and fragile. It was ironic, because right before we watched that show, we were on a walk and I was telling Adam how our baby has been kicking SO hard lately and seems so strong. Watching that show really put things into perspective on how weak and little she still is.

Last Mother's Day Not Technically Being a Mom

This morning I went to the coffee shop with Diggy while I was walking him and the girl that works there asked me if it was weird knowing yesterday was my last Mother's Day not technically being a mom. I told her that even though I wasn't expecting it, people made it seem like my first real Mother's Day!

Friday night and Saturday for the first half of the day, Adam and I spent buying stuff for the baby. Thanks to everyone who got me giftcards at my shower, we now have the majority of the stuff we absolutely need for the baby. There still are lots of little things I will need to get just because I want them or I think they are fun, but I think we could have the baby and be set. After we shopped, we stopped by the pool to enjoy the weather for a bit, then went home and Leigh and Lisa came over to grill out for dinner. To my surprise, they came with a bouquet of flowers to wish me a happy Mother's Day! It was so nice of them.
On Sunday, after we had taken Diggy out and gone to the coffee shop, I went to work out while Adam said he had some work to do. When I got back, he had a little Mother's Day display set out for me from him and Diggy and the baby. If you can't tell what it is, there is a pregnancy wedge pillow that is supposed to make sleeping more comfortable, a giftcard to get a pregnancy massage and facial, really pretty flowers, and a card. It was such a nice surprise and totally unexpected! We finished our day by heading up to see Jay's family and sitting around the pool at their place then rushing home to shower in time to meet Conner McLucky for dinner. Of course we met him at Anthony's, his favorite.

It was a good weekend and made me excited for next year when I have a little girl and Diggy to celebrate being the mom of!

Long Weekend in Morton

This past weekend was a trip I've been excited to make for years now! Two of my best friends, Darah and Evan (who I should add had dated for over 13 years, that's since junior high!), got married. Kristie, Sylvie, and Cal picked us up from the airport, we ran home to get ready, Kristen brought over Mara so I could QUICK meet her in person (she is SOOOO cute, more about that later), and then we were off to the rehearsal and dinner.

The rehearsal dinner was at Jonah's, one of my favorite restaurants and where I worked as a hostess in high school. It was so nice because with Joanna living in Florida and me living in San Diego, we are rarely home at the same time, and when we are, it's usually major holidays or wedding weekends, so there is no free time for just hanging out. Adam and I got to sit with Joanna and Eric and talk the whole entire time. It was a really fun night.

The next day was the wedding. I honestly can say that of all the weddings I've been to lately, Darah's dress was definitely on the top as one of my favorites! It was even more pretty in person than in pictures. The ceremony was short and sweet, then we were off to the reception. Everything about the day was perfect and so pretty. It was really fun to see lots of old faces and catch up with people. I'm so happy for Darah and Evan!

Sunday Julie and Court had a baby shower for me at their house. It was really fun. I didn't take any pictures, but the cake and decor was purple, green, and brown and really cute! Lots of people sent me gifts in the mail and at the shower I got lots of gift cards (thanks to everyone for respecting the fact that I had to fly across the country and giving travel friendly gifts :). It was a fun afternoon and good to see family and friends!

Monday and Tuesday I had two full days to just hang out. I got to spend time in the mornings drinking coffee with Kristie and hanging out with the kids while they were still in their PJ's. I got to see Scarlett get her bath every morning, she loves it and it's so cute how happy and smiley she is early in the morning! I got to see Mara and Kristen almost every day I was there. Mara is the best behaved baby I have met. She doesn't cry, is so cute, sleeps from 10pm-5am already, lets you pass her around, sleeps in her crib, etc. Kristen is so lucky. I got to have family dinners (one with my WHOLE family while they were still in town for the shower, one with just my mom and dad and Kristie's family, and one girls night out to La Fiesta with Julie, Court, Leighton, my mom, and Kristie). I got to take Kristie's kids and Leighton to the zoo. I got to go walking every day with Kristie. It was finally a time that I was home without a schedule, and it was just soooooo nice!

Cal making Scarlett smile...Sylvie and Cal LOVE Scarlett and she loves them too!

Mara hanging out after our walk...she's got the cutest thin layer of strawberry blonde hair :)

Sylvie and Cal playing with Scarlett...she's getting so much older...always smiling and soooo cute!

Early Wednesday morning my dad took me to the airport, now it's back to the grind. I would be sad, but we have lots of fun stuff in the upcoming weekends!