Weekend Wrap-Up...on Friday!

I realize I am doing a weekend update on Friday (I started this post on Wednesday!!!) and I am sorry. This week has just been a little bit crazy, which is okay with me. I am pretty happy that today is Friday though...I always look forward to the WEEKEND!

So, Happy Friday Y'all!

We had a great weekend last weekend. Friday night we had our youngest niece, Hadley sleep over. Her big sister Emma was having a sleepover with friends at their house so we kept Hadley so she would feel special and important too. We had SO much fun with that little girl! The first comical thing happened Friday evening when Stephen and I took 20 minutes to figure out her car seat. We could not figure out how to buckle her in, the straps were missing. She kept telling us that she didn't use them anymore but we weren't sure we could believe her....turns out she was telling the truth. Hadley has officially upgraded to a booster seat. When we figure that out we loaded up and head out for grocery shopping and dinner. She was a sport through it all!

We ate at the Japanese Steakhouse again...what can I say, when I find something I like, I usually want to eat it often until I can't stand the thought of it anymore. Hadley LOVED the onion soup...which I don't like. She drank and drank, I thought she might put a straw in it!

Here are some pictures from dinner:

Oh, and I can't forget to tell you about this steal:

We bought this rug at Aldi's. Yep, the grocery store! It was a great price for the size and I was thrilled about that. I really like the colors too and how it looks on the wood floor in this room. The room is basically empty right now, but not for long...you'll find out why soon!

Hadley was pretty set on sleeping in our "flower room" which is the guest bedroom, but we decided it would be easier on all of us if she were in our room. We blew up the twin air mattress and made a cozy spot for her right next to my side of the bed. She told me it was "perfect". Haha!

Seriously, how cute is she!?!

She slept very well until around 2am when I heard her crying. She said she wanted to get in bed with us and so the three of us squeezed into our queen size bed. Apparently Hadley is not a still sleeper! After a couple hours of her wiggling and kicking I moved to the air mattress and was much happier :) Stephen said that even after I moved out of the bed she was still kicking and rolling into him though!

Stephen got up early to take my car for servicing and Hadley and I slept until 9:30! When we woke up the house smelled like cinnamon rolls because Stephen had breakfast ready. Yum! After breakfast we painted our nails and cuddled to watch a movie:

Note: Louie usually jumps off the furniture as soon as you sit down, so the fact that he is sitting there with us is pretty much a miracle. He is getting better with socialization and I am so proud of him!

After Hadley headed home, Stephen and I headed furniture shopping. I did not expect us to buy anything, but to hopefully get some ideas and find out what we liked. We really needed new furniture in the living room because the furniture that we have was mine before marriage and it has some snags and tears that bother me.

Well, we shopped at 3 places and made a purchase at the final place. I am so excited about our new furniture and cannot wait for the call saying that it is in and ready for delivery! That should be sometime next week...okay, okay...here is our new furniture:

I took these pictures directly off the Sofa Mart website, but we also got a double storage ottoman that they do not have pictured. It is the length of the loveseat and has a HUGE storage compartment that will be great for many different things...crafting things, movies, photo albums, kids toys (one day)...you just never know!

The plan is to put the old living room furniture into the empty library/reading room/nook, as long as it fits though the door way! I can't wait for it to all come together!

We also hit Hobby Lobby and stocked up on some Christmas ornaments because they weer 40% off! Of course purchasing Christmas stuff totally put me in the Christmas mood and so I am listening to Christmas music now on my drive to and from work. I just love this time of year!

Speaking of Christmas, when are you putting your tree up? I am trying very hard to wait until the Saturday after Thanksgiving (I will be shopping on Friday), but there are no guarantees!

Well, it is time to get to work for the last day this week! Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Chicago Pt. 3

If you missed Pt. 1 or Pt. 2, you can catch them here & here!

On Sunday, we slept in a little bit before getting ready to (sadly) check out of the Palmer House. Have I mentioned how great this hotel is? Seriously, it is da-bomb! After we packed all our things and expanded the one suitcase be brought with us on this trip (necessary to get home), we checked out and looked for someplace to get some grub. AKA, breakfast. Corner Bakery Cafe to the rescue!

Apparently I did too much shopping and could not even fit it all in our suitcase...woops. In my defense, gift wrap could not fit in the suitcase regardless AND it was a great deal!

The home of our yummy breakfast and cute sidewalk table :)

We ate our breakfast outside at one of their cafe tables. I thought that it was really neat because we were sitting almost exactly below the L tracks so there were several trains that passed over us. The city is a really neat place!

Their cookies and muffins looked oh so yummy, but we stuck with egg sandwiches. Mine had bacon, eggs and sliced avocados on it. I can tell you this: it will be on our personal menu at home because it was so good! I actually bought avocados at lunch today to this very purpose :)

I love his V-neck shirt. It took a little convincing to get him to like it, but now he loves it. Yay!

Goodbye, Chicago!

On the way home to Indiana, we drove a little bit out of our way to hit IKEA. Have you shopped there? Well, I had browsed their website several times and received their catalog at home but this was my first time in a store. Oh my! They have so.much.stuff that it is crazy-but so fun! I actually saw lots and lots of things that I liked and would like to add to our home, but we only spent a little bit of money on some much needed items like kid cups (for when our nieces come over-now we won't have to give them glasses!), a wok for Stephen to make his yummy stir-fry in, and some serving utensils. If we ever go back I want to buy a day bed and maybe this couch:

But I would like your opinions...am I crazy for wanting/getting a white couch? I mean, the possibilities of what we could be getting ourselves into is pretty endless, especially if kids arrive in the future-yikes! What do you think? Keep in mind that the cover is removable and washable AND we could purchase additional covers for backups...Also, do any of you have IKEA couches? Do you like them? They looked great in the store showroom, but will they hold up well at home when used daily? I do like that each piece has a 10 year warranty...I think if we bought these and used them for 10 years we would definitely get our monies worth!

So, let me know what you think!

I really wanted to eat while we were at IKEA (I had not idea they have a cafe!) but we were not hungry...I did have a low blood sugar though, so we did get a Coke and some Swedish chocolate. Yummy! I think we (or at least I) will be going back to IKEA to make some larger purchases someday. Let me know if you have a truck we can borrow...hint, hint Mom & Dad!

We made it to our home sweet home Sunday evening during a nice rain storm and just relaxed before unpacking. It was just a great weekend with so many memories!