SLACKER.

Hi, I'm Katie and I'm a slacker.

I have so much to recap/share/discuss and all I am currently capable of telling you about is how much of a slacker I am. Ugh. I promise to get back in the swing of things and dish all things land down under, packing, moving, Bennett, and a little extra hooplah sprinkled in. But today, this is all I have.

Bare with me, K?!  Love you lots.

Chicaaahgo … Chicawgo

Round here it's Chicawgo. Up there it's Chicaaahgo. Either way: it's a place you wanna go … CHICAGO.

I think in another life I was meant to live there. A life without Shane. A life without Bennett. But probably a life with Maggie. I could be a city girl. I could thrive in a big city, probably even one as big as New York … but Chicago is probably where I'd fit best. I'd live in one of those fancy lofts and carry my groceries seven blocks in heels, with my new coat and super thick scarf … to walk into my luxury loft apartment and have a glass of wine while cooking dinner before heading out to my fancy city dinner to meet friends. You know, that sort of thing … I'd kill it.

But guess what, I don't. And it DON'T matter. Because I HAVE those boys named Shane and Bennett in my life and therefore those city things can remain in my other life. In this life, I HAVE the perfect little family and they do great things like take me to Chicago for my birthday … and that my friends: THAT is everything.

Amen.

And because we don't live there … we get to do extra fun things like: visit the bean (lame selfie in front of the bean and we managed to cut the entire thing out. Fail.)

And listen to fancy Chicago Symphony Orchestra's play in Millennium Park.

And then have fantastic lunches at Eataly. Side note: holy moly, if you're planning a trip to Chicago and love Italy as much as me. Go. I'm not even going to elaborate. Just GO!

 And then they let me take us to the Mag Mile and do a little shopppppppinngggg.

 And then eat until our hearts are content with Firecakes Donuts. Again, GO. Just GO … Dearborn Street, you're welcome.

 And visit with hubby's side of the family and trek the beautiful ALS Walk for Life in memory of Shane's Uncle Bob.

And let Bennett flirt it up with the ladies .. geeZe that boy!

 And then take me to a fancy farewell dinner at Harry Caray's.

 And then top it off with a Beatrix breaky-fast. Holy yum.

 Angel Food Muffins. Oh. Em. Gee.

 Last Stop, Navy Pier!

And a final farewell with a Chicago dog.

Like I said, AMEN. Thanks boys for a fabulous birthday weekend in the windy city. Love ya!

Over the Easter Limit

Okay, okay, I realize I'm over the Easter limit and this is my second post about Easter and our baby. I also know I will be posting a fabulous picture on Easter Sunday to wish all of you a Happy Easter, so I am certainly going to be over the posting about Easter limit.  But, I'm back in blogging mode and feel compelled to share. Sue me.

So, while I was at the grocery store last week I spotted the Easter aisle. Of course my baskets for Bennett and the nieces and nephews have been complete for weeks, but I felt a yearning to walk down the aisle just ONE more time to make sure I wasn't missing anything fabulous. It was at that very moment I completely forgot I have a 9 month old who has absolutely ZERO clue what the heck is going on; and instead thought I had a 4 year old who was all excited about Easter. Clearly it was me who was excited, but that's neither here nor there.

That brings us to the check out lane: two different packages of egg dye (just in case one worked better than the other), two cartons of eggs, a Happy Easter banner, a new egg carrier to store died eggs, a fancy plate to display them, and two bottles of while distilled vinegar later and here we are.

For future reference, or if there happen to be any parents out there who may be reading this in the future and considering taking on the task … let me give you a word of advice: DON'T. Simply DO NOT. I was all "this will make for some adorable Easter photos" and "Bennett will be so happy to look back at these pictures one day and remember how much fun his parents were when he was a kid" and "it will be fun for me and Shane too". Ha, right. Wishful thinking Katie, wishful thinking. More like DISASTER. Flipping DISASTER.

The staged pictures make you think we were having a good time and everything was great:

Grandma, don't be alarmed … Hubs is hiding behind him, safety first folks.  

 Of course he needed to try and eat the eggs, it wouldn't be any task without it.

It was right about this moment right here when we said "maybe we should take his clothes off in case things start to get messy …?" So, now we have a not only a baby dyeing Easter eggs, but a naked baby. This has to end up fabulous, right?

Here's right about where the fun, free loving Easter egg dye went south … starting with Bennett realizing hard boiled eggs are indeed NOT indestructible.

Yep, that's right you can break them open buddy. But, OH SHANE STOP HIM! … you cannot eat that shell mister.

Okay, Bennett - reroute and distract. Let's color some of the eggs buddy. First pick your favorite color and drop it in here like this….

Then, let's have great manners and be real neat and tidy and wipe off our fingertips on a paper towel. 

 Now, smile at the camera for Daddy and get a really cute picture. Oh this is funnn!!

Okay, you want to try one more? Alright! Let's make a pink one for …. OHHHHH SH*****T. No no no no don't grab it. You'll knock all of them over .. ohhhhhhh boyyyyyy

Bahahhahaaha. Shane, you're going to need more paper towels.

Uhm, and maybe grab those Clorox wipes while you're at it … it kind of looks like it's staining the white cabinets.

Fail. Epic fail. We got three eggs and one with splattered speckles. I now have 21 hardboiled eggs chilling in my fridge just waiting for some color love. I guess we'll just have to eat them instead.

Well, there's always next year. Maybe it'll be better next year right?

Bennett's Baptized!

November 10, 2013 ... our little guy was wrapped in the an all white Christening sweater and we started him on his faith journey and vowed to bring him up in a Christian home. Such a great day!

One little personal problem, I was so wrapped up in all of the excitement I was a COMPLETE blogger failure when it came to picture taking and took ZERO pictures outside of the actual Baptism itself. UGH, and I had SO much I wanted to share. Ugh again. I was so sad when all of the excitement had finally died down, the last visitor left my home, I sat down on the couch to relish in how great the day had gone and it dawned on me ... I didn't take a SINGLE picture. Grrrrrrrrrrr.

I also failed to get a photo of him in his little Baptismal outfit ... GET IT TOGETHER KATIE ... but I got him in all white, right before we put him in it :)

And his little feetsies were adorned in these OH MY WORD adorable baby moxies I found on Etsy. Such a great little idea for gifts or any special occasion.

Luckily though, I did get some great photo ops from the actual Baptism (thanks baby bro), which really is the most important part. But, ALL of our family (extended included) was in town and there were so many great details I wanted to document and family photo ops that were missed, so I could show BUB one day ... since let's be real, the child had no idea it was even happening ... but nope, nothing to show for it. Not even a single selfie on my phone. Nada.  Alas, I must move on.

Bennett did great! No tears, just antsy feet and a tongue that never stopped moving (nothing new here).

 It was such a neat experience, and Father Steve also baptized Shane when he was a wee babe, so that made it extra special!

Nearly my ENTIRE family showed up and I was filled with warm fuzzies to think of how much support we have. What a testament to Bennett and how special he is. My cup runneth over.

So, now would be the portion where I dish the details of the after party with pictures to match, but we've already hashed that out ... After the baptism we invited the entire family to our house for a brunch (shout out to my momma and my momma in law for helping me prep the food the day before!) and just a fun get together to see everyone and celebrate the little guy.

Our menu included (yep, that would have been about 3 months full of recipe Monday's if I would have managed to take photos ... cool Katie):

• Honey Baked Ham
• Poppyseed Ham and Cheese Sliders
• Apple Snickers Salad
• Biscuits and Gravy
• Cinnamon Rolls
• Breakfast Egg Casseroles
• Fruit Salad
• Hashbrown Casserole
• Cheesy Grits

And the infamous Snickerdoodle cake by Ashlicious Cakes, that were in cupcake form and looked a little something like this with blue icing and Bennett's name & the baptism date included. It was a hit. She does SUCH a great job. Recommendations for days y'all!

We had such a great time, and it's always such a great feeling to have your entire family in the house. It's good to catch up with everyone and see all of the little ones. We've got babies on babies at family functions now and it makes everything infinitely more fun! Bonus! Even the Dykstra's made the trip down, and the twins are getting so big you guys .. not to mention Maebyn is over the top cute. Bahh! (real tears about the missed photo ops.)

And last, but certainly NOT least, I leave you with the greatest Godparents that ever did live: Chris and Laura. Bennett's such a lucky little guy to have these two in his life.

 And check out his sweet new threads. Ha. Hysterical. I love it.

I may or may not have ended both my Sunday and Monday with leftover cupcakes. I'll let you decide. Diet Shmiet. 

Proud of you BUB. And thank you so much to all of our family who made time to be a part of Bennett's special day. We love you so so much!