Celebrate Good Times Come On!

Brian came home from his work trip last week with the flu and so unfortunately, he was sick on his birthday.  According to Ethan, that's the worse!  So I was instructed by the boys (during school drop off) that we need to make it extra special for Brian.

Late yummy morning snacks!

And yummy cupcakes with singing!

 

Happy Birthday Brian! We love you and celebrate a better year of work, life and health!!

Party x 2

Saturday afternoon, we headed to the church picnic:

 Oh did Ethan had so much fun

 And the prizes!

Then later that night, we got a sitter and headed out to Bobby McKey's, a dueling piano bar to celebrate Ryan's birthday.  The National Harbor, MD is pretty AMAZING!  It's like a city of its own out in the middle of nowhere.  Then there's the Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center.  We're definitely doing a stay-cation there one of these nights.  Anyway, we had so much fun that we didn't get home until 12:30 am.  Seriously haven't stayed out that late in who knows how long...with church the next day and all, but it was oh, so worth it!

Another Fabulous Year

Our Anniversary this year was pretty similar to last year. We stayed the night in Naperville and ate at Maggiano's. Then headed to downtown Chicago the next morning. Instead of being on a boat, this time we rented bikes and saw the city that way. It was Brian's idea and I LOVED it! Sure beats walking everywhere. The funniest part was having doubts whether or not I remember how to ride a bike. I think it must have been some 20 years ago that I last rode one. Not kidding. But you know what they say, "Once you learn how, you don't forget it" and it's true! We had so much fun but wow, my legs, knees and butt hurt like they've never hurt before!!!

Young lovers of 7 years
Safety first =0)
Biked to our favorite Mexican restaurant, Zapatista
Couldn't resist this photo opt outside the Shedd Aquarium
Hanging out by Millenium Park the rest of the day
p.s. Ethan had fun with Grandpa and Nana as always. As soon as they got here, he practically kicked us out the door.

Double Celebrations

For Thanksgiving, my parents decided to come into town last minute. So we ended up changing our plans of going to Marshalltown and stayed here instead. Everyone pitched in to help and everything was scrumptious! It worked out great that we had just enough food for one round of left overs since I'm not a big fan of eating this stuff over and over again for days. Turkey sandwich, turkey soup, turkey whatever else...you get kinda sick of it after a while. Unfortunately by the time we actually finished eating, Ethan woke up from his nap. So none of us really got a chance to take that long, lazy nap we had talked about. Go figure.


That night, Brian and I spontaneously booked a hotel and stayed the night in Schaumburg, IL (with my parents' suggestion and insistent). Who can turn down a night away, especially when we don't get the opportunity very often? So of course we went! It was so much fun and we laughed a lot...at the littlest thing and the chance that we can do things on the spur of the moment. The next day, we went to Woodfield Mall and joined in the rest of the shoppers. Talking about craziness amount of people!

Celebrating my birthday at a Japanese restaurant on Saturday

Romantic Get-Away

Our first ever - without a baby! Brian's parents were kind enough to come and watch Ethan for a night so we could have a little get-away and celebrate our 6th anniversary in Chicago. However, my all-week excitement only led up to me coming down with a mini-flu on Friday and we weren't sure if this trip was going to happen or not. But after some nitequil that night and dayquil the next morning, I felt well enough to go. We stopped in Aurora and did a little shopping before heading to Schaumburg for dinner. I'm usually not a big food/dessert person, but can I just say their chocolate fondue was to die for! It's SO good I'm still thinking about it!!!

Four course meal at The Melting Pot.
On Sunday, we headed to downtown Chicago and ate lunch at my favorite Mexican restaurant, Zapatista. We then stayed, I mean parked in the famous Trump International Hotel & Tower parking ramp...haha I wish! (The $1000/night stay was a little out of our budget) and boarded a boat tour nearby. It was an awesome way to see the city from the Chicago River & Lake Michigan and a perfect day to be out on the water! Anyway, what a refreshing get-away and my most favorite part of it all: throwing all schedules out the window!


Wendella's boat tour with the Chicago skyline as the backdrop.
Some of you are wondering, well what about Ethan? No, I didn't cry - we weren't gone THAT long. Plus, we knew he was in good hands. I did, however, miss him a lot...more than I thought I would! There were babies and kids everywhere we went and it kept reminding me of him. And somehow our conversations kept coming back to our lil' guy. How funny. By Sunday afternoon, I was pretty anxious to get home to see him. As it turned out, he did great and had a lot of fun with Grandpa and Nana. He ate, played and slept like a champ!

Ethan's One

One word for the cupcake: Demolished!
Ethan turns the BIG one today and we can hardly believe it! Can I take a moment to pat ourselves on the back and put on a t-shirt that says, "We survived!" I know today is really about Ethan, but at the same time, I couldn't help but feel proud at the fact that we also made it this far as parents. God had truly brought us a long way!

Anyway, we threw his birthday party this past weekend so family could come and help celebrate. It was a lot of fun and everything came together as planned, but boy were we exhausted by the end of the night!



Gourmet cupcakes with sprinkles and stars



Yum!


Riding in style on his new Tonka truck

Sharing toys with his cousins

Papa Bear

A tribute to my hubby:

Happy 1st Father's Day Brian, my awesome husband and Ethan's wonderful daddy! You are such a "natural" with Ethan from day one...holding & comforting him and changing his diapers. While I, on the other hand, was too afraid to do anything in fear that I would break him. How funny to look back now =0) Anyway, thank you for working so hard to provide for our family and helping out with Ethan (even when you're tired). You have such an AMAZING servant heart! It has been fun sharing this journey of parenthood together. Without you to help balance life (with an infant), I would probably never leave the house!

To Us - Cheers!

Friday was our 5th year anniversary and it was full of surprises! Every year I would get all hyped up about it and have all these unspoken expectations. But this year, I'm fighting another cold and just couldn't get into it even though I knew Brian was up to something.

Anyway, Brian took off early from work and came home with 5 red roses symbolizing the 5 years we've been married. Aww, I love sentimental stuff like that =0) He also arranged for his parents to come watch Ethan for the night so we could go out and celebrate. I was instructed to get all decked out and be ready by 6 pm sharp. I jokingly said something about feeling like we're going to prom and next thing I saw was...a limo parked outside our house! I couldn't believe it, what a TOTAL SURPRISE!!! Definitely wasn't expecting that! We rode along the Mississippi River on the way to dinner and I couldn't help but be giddy the whole ride. We ended up wining and dining at Red Crow Grille, which Brian knew I've been wanting to go for a long time now. My hubby surely outdid himself this year 'cause it was the most wonderful anniversary night!!!

A special shout out to John and Krissy: Happy 5 years to you guys too!!!

Proud to be a Mamma

Not only was it Mother's Day, but it was also Ethan's 6 month b-day
This is my first year as a mamma on Mother's Day which was extra special but also weird at the same time. Weird in a sense of realizing again that I'm actually a mom. Apparently it hasn't sunken in 100% yet. Maybe it will in another 6 months or so =0)

Anyway, my morning started out with getting to sleep in, followed by a surprise breakfast-in-bed. (That was really nice since we never do breakfast-in-bed). Then after church, we had a little picnic by the river which didn't last very long since it was super windy. And since I hate being cold, I ate as fast as I could and said, "Well that was nice but let's go!" Before heading home, we strolled through an art fair nearby and I ended up making a Mother's Day purchase!

"Duckies" - my new contemporary art piece
Side note: I don't remember exactly where I've heard this before and probably won't get it completely right...but it was something along the line of how your child isn't really yours and that he/she is ultimately God's. However, he (Ethan) is given to me to be care for while we're here on Earth and what a privilege that truly is. That reminder from the Lord that day gave me some new perspectives about being a mom.

Will You Be Mine?

With the anticipation of Valentine's Day coming up, I got to thinking and wondering what we've done the previous years. Well in '03 when we were dating long distance, I made the solo 11-hour trek from Colorado to Iowa so I could spend it with Brian. Talking about "swimming across the ocean to be with the one you love" (not quite sure what song that lyrics came from) and I guess it's more like driving across boring Nebraska...but you get the point.

Then in '07 when we were in India with limited resources, we did what we could to make it special. Brian surprised me by showing up at our apartment door dressed in a Kurta, traditional Indian outfit with matching slippers, 13 red roses and a dessert. What a Hubby!

This pic makes me smile everytime!
Anyhow, it's going to be hard to top that one this year but of course we're going to celebrate anyway. I'm excited to get to spend another V-Day with the love of my life! Sometimes we just go, go, go and forget to sit back and reminisce about the past craziness of only seeing each other once a month. Now that was hard! So we're not going take tomorrow for granted and will remember how blessed we are to have each other.
"We love because God first loved us" - 1 John 4:19

P.E.

After 3 long awaited months it's official, Brian's a Professional Engineer!!! You should have seen him checking the mail frantically all week...it was pretty funny! Monday came and nothing, Tuesday came and nothing...finally Saturday was the big day. Brian was pretty much staking out the mailbox while "shoveling" as the mailman approached. He ran into the house shaking as he opened the letter. Ethan, Kaika and I waited as he let out a loud WOO HOO! He passed the test!!! He will now be signing his name Brian J. Billman, P.E. =0)

Anyway, it was a long road to get here with hours and hours of studying and I mean lots - I've never seen someone study this hard before. It wasn't as if he wanted to, but he was pretty committed. He even missed out on our small group Apple Day outing back in October. On top of that, he was working on several projects at work and also trying to spend quality time with his pregnant wife. I know he was under a lot of stress at that time and now he can say it was totally worth it. Of course we went out and celebrated over dinner with a mini-toast given by me. (Last minute babysitting courtesy of Julie Lyle)