Oh, THERE You Are, Winter..... :/

Here's the only thought I had pretty consistently as today started, wore on... and ended: 

WHY, you ask?

And just in case you forgot whose daughter I am:

I think that should about do it. Folks, it's finally starting to feel like a bitter Winter out there - please be safe - & DRIVE SAFELY - wherever you go, stay warm and don't forget about your furry kids, either! ♥

Brrrr!

xo | cmd

OK, I Lied [About Being DONE]

It's true. I think I may have overstated myself yesterday when I said that we'd finished all things Christmas. This has now become a nearly 3-week affair for us, but I'm not complaining! ;)

First came the work day: The girls and I came in full force at the office today, and seemed to all have the same idea: NEW YEAR, NEW EVERYTHING. Our first order of business was cleaning and rearranging each of our spaces, something that kind of speaks for itself in ushering in the aura of new. It's refreshing to switch things up, de-clutter and in a way just re-calibrate the zen for the space we occupy for 45+ hours each week.

So there's that... and to round it off, we ordered a supply trip to Office Depot & lunch at Fresh Thyme.

fun times at fresh thyme! |  cincinnati, oh

^^ You know you're an adult when office & market itineraries can actually excite you. Hah :p.

Anyway, today was a progressive lineup of awesomeness; once work was finished, I picked up Sydni and we headed home to get started on dinner. More specifically, Sydni's mission statement for dinner:

"Mommy, I wanna surprise Mister Rob with dinner
because he is always doing stuff for us." 

Say what, little heartstring?! Of course we will.
I gave Sydni reign of the recipe book, and she decided on chili. Have I mentioned how much I love this girl?

Chili it was!

chili! ♥

Sydni's chili recipe hit the nail on the head, and with bellies full, we dialed in for the highlight of the night: MORE Christmas presents!

That's right, Santa made a stop over Christmas to Rob's mom's house, specifically for Sydni. Now that she and the presents were both here, we wanted to share that with his mom.

it continues..... 

Here are the spoils of that adventure:

skype! 

fuzzy coats!! 

the coats not being hugged ;) 

dresses

and of course, shoes! 

All presents aside, I am so grateful for Rob's family. His mom & stepdad are continuously thoughtful and have a blast thinking of things and places that Sydni would enjoy. His dad & stepmom are the same, and his step-niece Ella now has a new friend with Sydni. There are a lot of families that clash against the choices of their son or daughter, but I'm fortunate not to have that problem. My parents love Rob, and vice versa, and that alone is enough for me :)

And NOW.. I think Christmas is complete. I'll keep ya posted if I'm wrong... again. ;)

xo | cmd

HOME for 2015

Usually our return trip from Illinois is a lot closer to the day of arrival, but not this time.
[Thank you, holiday vacations!]

They're also never quite this.... packed.

loaded up to the max! 

Hahahaha. So that's a combination of dog stuff, our stuff, and our new [Christmas] stuff. Poor Lexi didn't know what hit her until she was slammed to the ground with a full trunk and about 600 lbs of living cargo for the trip home. You're a trooper, Lexi ;)

Unfortunately for our tentative itinerary, the snow started to set in pretty early in Illinois; if there's one thing Lexi won't cooperate for, it's snow, so that rendered us with the decision to risk it or get a head start. Head start it was, which deleted the time we had alotted to stop by and see Rob's dad again this morning, but also landed us back in Cincinnati at a very reasonable hour.

These trips don't really phase us anymore, which I think is both a great thing and a small curse ;), but either way, we're home safe and sound and have even managed a full grocery run to boot. It's just now turning into evening, and I'm happy to spend it planted here and unwinding before the inevitable onset of Monday-after-holiday stuff tomorrow at work.

That being said, I couldn't have imagined a better holiday season overall: friends, family, fur-kids, lots and lots of presents, and something about an engagement to top it off. :p. This has been the best one yet. The pups think so, too!

Here's to wrapping up the holiday and making 2015 the BEST yet!

xo | cmd

Christmas & Supercross

Christmas 2014 has crossed over into 2015, continuing on with each of the family stops we're making on this trip back to Illinois. It's not going to be completely done until Syd's back and has torn into all of the gifts she'll have waiting after this trip, but we had our time today with Rob's dad and stepmom. We took the gift that Santa brought us for Ella, and had fun watching her tear into that... I wish Sydni had been here to share in the fun of it all, but we'll be coming back and those two can have their time together ;)

ella! 

We also had the chance to celebrate Kate's birthday, which was the first time up to now that I've been able to share in that with them as a family [many more years of this to come!]. I'm so grateful for her as part of his family, and from here [soon!] on out, part of my extended family as well. Happy birthday, Kate!! ♥

happy birthday, mama kate! 

After the Christmas and birthday celebrations were had, we parted ways until tomorrow morning; our next and final stop for the night was Gilliganz for the Supercross race. Dillon, Matt & Courtney were already there, so we joined in for some dinner & the 450's. Jay and Cindy even made an appearance to say hello!

snapchatting it to ali!

And that's a wrap, folks! Tomorrow, we'll head back to Ohio and wake up on Monday to the grind of work and all the other stuff that marks our lives. And really, I'm kind of looking forward to it!

For now, good night from Illinois!

xo | cmd

Friends & Family on Friday

Breakfast out of town is usually a far cry from whatever dietary regimen I'm trying to follow, but I can't say I was upset about some turkey bacon and eggs to get the day started. To top it, we stopped by my old stomping grounds to say hi to a few familiar faces, and the new ones I'd not yet met.

Man, I miss these guys!

oh, how i miss these two! [& the rest of that team!]

We didn't plan it, but it turned out we'd see Marc twice today; we ran into him several hours later at Bindy's. We were set for the afternoon to celebrate Christmas with Rob's mom and stepdad, which provided the final item on Rob's Christmas wish list. We've now got a new acoustic for the house, and I have to say, it's beautiful.

he's in love! 

A couple hours later, we wrapped everything up at Rob's mom's and headed back to Dillon's to decide how to allocate the remaining hours of the night.

Bindy's it was. The crowd started pouring in as it does every time I've seen the place, and with it came Marc, who we just saw earlier this morning, and even Taryn, who was at a birthday party just before stopping through to see us. There were plenty of other familiar faces, which made for a fun [long, but fun] night!

hi jesse, hi taryn! :) 

taryn :) 

random snapchat? 

I'm not even sure who that SnapChat ended up going to, but if I had to guess, it was probably Ali & Damanji. Either way, it's been a night with these folks and I'm happy to have spent it the way we did. I'm also happy to be home for the night.... ;)

That being said, G'Nite!

xo | cmd

2015 : Day 1.

We had something of a delayed start today, as we slept in until about 10am before packing up and leaving the hotel. We made a beeline back to Dillon's house, where we all gladly embraced the opportunity to do absolutely nothing for a couple of hours.

When the time rolled around for bodies to start moving from hibernation, Dillon & Rob took off with Dillon's nephew for some bowling, and I headed the opposite direction to rendezvous with Ali and Damanji.

these two! :D 

We did dinner & a super quick stop by the mall [fun fact: it closes at 6pm on New Years Day] before parting ways for this time around. I hopped back in the car and traced my steps back past Dillon's to the bowling alley, where the boys were still working hard on the lanes.

random. ♥

By the time we left the lanes a few hours later, we were ready for a night in on the couch, checking out new & re-run episodes of Gas Monkey Garage. Pajamas is a perfectly-good look for us tonight, contrasting the black tie get-ups we sported about 24 hours ago. I'm completely fine with this arrangement :).

I hope each of you had a terrific start to the New Year, as well!

xo | cmd

ADIOS, 2014!

It's been a long time since I've participated in any real partying for New Year's Eve [as defined in the traditional sense, that is]. I've thoroughly enjoyed and not-at-all regretted the past several years of laid back, under-the-radar celebrations, complete with a small circle of friends and/or family, and calling it a night.

But not this year. I am 30 after all. Why not?!
Rob and I as usual were on the same page with wanting to celebrate New Years in a big way: We are after all engaged, and depending on our settling a date, we might be sharing the same last name come this time 2015. That's still up for debate, but for the moment at hand, it was a matter of ushering in 2015 with great friends in Illinois.

I was off work today, which afforded me just enough time to run some last minute errands, clean the house and get everything packed up for a 5-day trip to IL. Rob worked until noon, and joined me to wrap up, stuff the car to the brim and load up the pups [yes, they came, too!] for the all-too-familiar 5-hour jaunt to Dillon's house.

We arrived with just enough time to unload the car, order a pizza [because classy, that's why....] & doll up to join Matt & Courtney down in STL for the night's festivities to really begin.

So we arrived at the hotel directly across the street from Harry's, where Courtney & Matt were waiting. We finished getting ready and made our final decent into the chaos that was NYE celebration on the other side of the street.

harry's | st. louis, mo 

And that being said,

HERE WE GO!

ready to get this started! 

The plan to do the night to the extreme:

yes, we had a table. [thanks, matt!] 

And there were photos galore...

rob. cori. matt

this guy ♥

matt & courtney [aw♥!]

The clock struck midnight and we officially welcomed in the start of a brand new year! I have zero complaints about the entire experience & am excited to see how 2015 dares top 2014! 

love, love, love you! ♥♥

See you on the other side! 

farewell, '14, & hello, '15! 

I hope you and yours have ushered in the new year safely and joyously! I know that for us, 2015 is going to have to step it up in big, big ways to top 2014, and I'm pretty excited to see where the next year takes us.

Love love & more love to you & yours - HAPPY 2015!!

xo | cmd