My "New" Kitchen

I've got to start this post by saying that my husband is the best.

He spent every waking hour of the weekend slaving away in the kitchen to transform it into the white cabinet kitchen that I have been wanting for years.

Here is what it looked like before:

(this picture is stolen from Zillow... ha! I forgot to take a before shot!)

Then we removed all of the doors and drawers..

Took everything out of the cabinets and plastic wrapped our whole kitchen to try to minimize the dust and debris getting into our very open concept house

(it looked like an episode of Dexter in there this weekend!)

Primer....

Then Ben got to use his new "toy"-- The Paint Sprayer!

Then, everything was put back together and VOILA!

Isn't it beautiful?!?

In case you are wondering where Kate was during this whole mess-

She was a very serious supervisor...

Wrigley pretty much spent the weekend hiding under the kitchen table

It was so much time and so much work, but man was it worth it.  The kitchen looks so light and airy and it changes the whole look of the house.  I absolutely love it.

So grateful for my awesome Bennie and how handy/hardworking he is!

Another before...

and AFTER!

SO HAPPY!

Chicago!

Last weekend we had the most amazing trip to Chicago.  It was our first time away from Kate, and I'm not going to lie, we had a blast.  Don't get me wrong, we were ready to see that sweet girl on monday night, but it was nice to have a weekend to ourselves to sleep in, wander around, watch our favorite teams, and just be care free.

My awesome sister got us "executive status" at our hotel which didn't hurt either!  Ben and I were pretty excited about that...

It was the perfect Chicago weekend.  75 degrees, sunny, blue skies, no humidity.  It was the kind of weekend that made us daydream about moving up there and what life would be like "in the city".  (Don't worry mom, I don't think I'd last 5 minutes in the winter there!)

Nevertheless, it's fun to dream and a weekend like this makes you really think about it!

We started off the weekend wandering around the city and being tourists... Meg and Dick were stuck on the slowest train in the history of the world, so we had some time to walk around and be tourists for a few hours before heading over to Wrigleyville for the Cubs game

We had a blast cheering on the Cubs, almost getting hit in the head with fly balls, drinking beers, eating hot dogs, and enjoying the awesome atmosphere of baseball in Wrigley.  

 We somehow couldn't manage to get a decent picture in the stadium...  This is the best we got :/

Sunday we got up early and headed straight to the most amazing tailgate that you have ever been to.  This tailgate is right on the water, in the shade, a 5 minute walk from the stadium, and has the best food/drinks you could imagine.  Talk about getting spoiled...

My sweet cousin Sarah and her friend joined us for the game as well.  So fun seeing her!

We headed to Soldier field to watch the Bears take on the Bills.  Again, so much fun cheering on our team and (my favorite) singing BEAR DOWN CHICAGO BEARS.. It went into overtime and unfortunately didn't go our way... Sad.

We made up for bad luck at the game with a scrumptious dinner at Roys.  We always get treated like royalty going there with Meg and Dick and it is awesome.  Definitely one of the best meals I have had in a LONG time.  (failed to snap any pictures of it! dern..)

Monday we had some more time to walk around, do some shopping, and enjoy one last beautiful Chicago day before flying back home to reality.

It was a perfect weekend away and we are so grateful to the fabulous Ressners for spending the weekend with us.  Can't wait to go back next year!

Look What I Can Do!

Baby girl is standing up by herself..

Doesn't usually last too long because she gets so excited and proud of herself that she tries to jump!

Adorable.

11 Months!

I think I may have been stalling on this post..  11 months?!?!?! 

How is my baby about to be a 1 year old?  This little gal is growing up FAST, but man she is fun these days.  Taking her picture gets harder and harder because she is BUSY, but she is always having fun and cracking herself up. 

Kate is now standing up on her own, walking while holding onto something, eating EVERYTHING (apparently she loves tuna sandwiches and fish sticks at daycare...) loves drinking out of her sippy cup, loves banging on everything with a spoon, hairbrush or anything else she can get her hands on, throws everything, absolutely loves riding in her car/firetruck, and loves to wave and point at everything.  She has 4 teeth now, the top 2 are her kanine teeth so she kind of looks like the cutest vampire in the world right now.  

We are absolutely obsessed with our little gal.  It has seriously been the fastest 11 months of our lives and I feel like it just gets better and better.  Love you my sweet Kate.