Daniel's Baby Blessing.
I feel so blessed to have been able to be in Bakersfield for Daniel's Baby Blessing. My Dad, Brother and Mom were also there-- so we were just missing Tarin & Family! It was not only special to be there for the blessing, but also be as a family in our old Stake Center for church -- something we haven't done in 15+ Years.

Brandon did a beautiful job blessing Daniel, and sweet Daniel was an angel through the whole thing!! Of course we took lots of photos and then enjoyed lunch together that afternoon. I love family time!!

Thanks to everyone for coming to support!!

Sweet Grandparents -- but note Daniel was done with his photo session!

More photos of this sweet new baby to come!

California in February.

I had a work trip scheduled for San Francisco in February, so I took advantage of a long flight and tagged on a few days in Bakersfield to spend some time with my family and meet my new nephew!

It was so great to enjoy warm weather, amazing family and great friends for a few days, and also a lot of great food (El Pueblo, Tonys Pizza, Luigi's, BJ's, etc). Here are a few photos:

Lunch with Kelsie and Robin Ray (Friends for 25+ years) and Cathy Correa, our old Dance Teacher and sage, and of course Mom, Ash and Daniel!

Loving my sweet nephew, Daniel.

New Momma.

This is a blurry photo but I love seeing my Grandma with her sisters!!

Some of my besties!! Megs & Bella, Karah and Brooke. Missing Nicole!!

Our favorite--- yes, I went twice that weekend. Once with the girls (above) and then again with our family.

Dad had a hard time ordering, so he got 1/2 the menu. 

Our favorite- Shrimp Cancuun. Amazing!!

Don't worry -- more posts on CA to come!! Daniels Baby blessing & Valentines Day :)

Chicago Bucket List

When we moved to Chicago, we made a list of things we want to do while we live here. The list is quite long, but I'm proud to say we have worked through most of it! There are so many amazing opportunities for FUN things to do in this city that I'm sure we'll be adding to our list very soon.

One thing we've talked about doing is Ice Skating in Millennium Park. Who wouldn't want to ice skate outdoors under the stars and magical city lights of Chicago and the Magnificent Mile? We met up with some friends and had a great time on the ice!

My handsome hubbie. He looks good on the ice.

We topped off the night with dessert at Lou Malnati's (they have their own version of a pazookie!). It was so fun!

Playing in the Snow!

Snow is so fun when you can get out and ENJOY it. We drove up to Wisconsin with some friends last month after that big storm to take full advantage. You see, Wisconsin at least has hills we could play on. We found a "Ski Resort" that also has tubing -- it was a blast!!

loved this thing. paying for tubing = all fun and no work!

View from inside the 'tunnel'

At first we couldn't find the tubing hill -- and so we were walking around the ski mountain. And yes, it's widely debatable if this can be considered a real mountain. Although, they it does have black diamonds...

We love Wisconsin! I can't wait for our next trip back. I've been wishing for a good storm so we can have an excuse to go tubing again -- or better yet, cross country skiing! So glad we had an open Saturday in January to enjoy all this snow and gorgeous weather!!

It's still Winter, folks.

in front of our building.

So while I've been touting what a great (warm) winter we've been having, I can't say it's always snow-free. And sometimes that's a good thing! I actually love watching the snow fall, it's so relaxing and beautiful. And let's be honest, I work from my home office, so I can watch it all day, and only go out in it when I want to! :) 

View from my office window.

In fact, we've been snow-free for almost a month, and right now I'm watching it snow now. I was hoping for the full 4-6 inches they told us we would get, but it looks like we've only had 1-2 on the ground so far. Oh well.

As I think back to the last time it snowed, we really did get 4-6 inches and it was so beautiful. I love the city covered in a blanket of snow!

I loved playing in the snow!

Don't worry -- this snow storm happened on a Friday, which means we had a lot of fun playing in it on Saturday!!

A new 'regular' and something new.
Our list of our favorite 'regular' restaurants in Chicago is VERY short. We are constantly trying new places and hardly ever go to the same place twice!! That being said, we have found a few favorites that we will go back to. One of which is 90 Miles Cuban Cafe. I loooove cuban food, and while this doesn't compare to my LA favorites, it comes pretty darn close. I love the atmosphere and especially the indoor heated patio (amazing in the winter!)

I'm pretty sure my cute husband was making his Words with Friends Move --

We were driving through Bucktown when I looked to my right and saw a whole store covered in this: 

Ryan did not buy me the Gourmet Velvet Heart that night.

It was too festive and fun NOT to go in. Once we walked inside this quaint, historic Chicago Ice Cream shop, I had to beg Ryan to make room in his belly for some ice cream!! It's been a Chicago Establishment for almost 100 years and was actually on my Chicago restaurant bucket list! We sat in a very cozy booth and read up on Wikipedia about it while we waited for our ice cream. It was such a fun detour on our way home. Love love love. 

Snugly in our booth!

Oh, and did I mention that it was January, I wasn't wearing my down coat & I did not even need gloves to hold my loves hand? Amazing!

I HAD to document it- no gloves in January!

2012
It's amazing we are 7 weeks into 2012 and I am just now writing my first post about the new year. We are VERY excited for things to come this year and have been enjoying an awesome Mid-West Winter so far!! It's been unseasonably warm this winter and we are really appreciating it!

We love watching the sun set every day. This one was spectacular.

Park in our neighborhood.

Sun coming through the L tracks.

Trump tower in the distance.

Chicago Public Library Atrium.

We've had more days snow-free than we probably should have, and also our average temps have been in the 30's vs. the teens!! I actually find myself wishing it would snow more so we could try and get out and enjoy a few winter sports....

We love Chicago and love calling it home!!

New Years
I'm going to try and catch up on my blog updates this week --- so to finish off our trip in Virginia, I wanted to share our New Years Eve.

As part of our Christmas Gift, my dad got my mom, sister and I a spa day-- inclusive of a 90 minute massage and 75 minute facial. AMAZING! It was so fun to spend time together and get to relax. The boys played football and so they had some quality time together as well.

Not our best photo but the only one we have!

The kiddos just couldn't get enough of their uncles!!

We made Philly Cheesesteaks for dinner and as an after-dinner activity we made gingerbread houses with the kids! (a delayed Christmas activity that was just as much fun on NYE).

Matthew's NYE Kiss!

After the kids went to bed, we had quite an uneventful evening. We stayed up and watched our favorite shows together and since most of us were also sick that week, one by one we went to bed early. Ryan and I, however, stayed up and watched the ball drop and shared a kiss and a NYE cheers!!