the mrs. got a surprise!

so this post will be mostly for me. i want to document my mom and grandmas surprise visit to chicago. its long so don't feel bad about skipping to the pictures...lets be honest i'm guilty of that sometimes!

if i'm being honest, i was bummed about celebrating my birthday without my family. this was the first birthday alone. friday night i was playing the baby. i cried the day before my birthday...haha. my actually birthday was pretty amazing. spence did a great job making me feel special even if my family wasn't near. more on that later.

my mom told me my present was on its way. it was supposed to get to me on saturday. i was so excited to come home and find a package with my name on it. but of course it didn't come on saturday. i wasn't super worried because we struggle getting packages. i called my mom and told her it didn't come. she said she would find a tracking number so i could figure out where it was.

sunday morning i got a text from mom. "didn't have time to find the tracking number, i'll look again later. i'm back to back most of the day so i'll talk to you later". no big deal, she's the relief society president for heaven sakes. of course she is  busy on sundays.

that night we went to dinner at friends, had a blast and then headed home. i practiced the harp, wrote a few thank you notes, and started getting ready for bed. suddenly spence started cleaning the place. this isn't a huge surprise but when he started really cleaning the kitchen stove, second room and family room i was impressed. my thought "wow, spence is in a cleaning mood. i'm going to stay up and see if i can keep him going". haha, yep that is what i thought. i was so excited to have a clean house for the coming week.

i was slightly bugged that my mom still hadn't called. it was 10:30pm at that point. i pulled out my phone and started a text to tell her i was headed to bed and that i loved her. right then i she called. she sounded worried. she told me my birthday package said it was delivered today.

me: mom it didn't come today
mom: but it says it did
me: we don't get packages on sundays.
mom: will you please just go check
me: mom, i've been outside tonight. there is nothing there (i then looked out to our mail area...nothing).
mom: syd it said it was delivered. will you please just go outside and check
then she hung up on me. how rude

i was bugged, it was raining. i didn't want to go outside. and seriously who actually thinks delivery companies work on sundays? spence convinced me we should just check. i put on shoes and my coat and we headed outside.

once we got outside i saw their umbrellas. my cute mom and grandma stood outside my door, in the rain, singing me happy birthday. i started crying. i couldn't believe they were there, in chicago, to visit me.

we rushed inside and just hugged and smiled. they really pulled on over on me. it had been planned for weeks. spence was in on it. my cute sister in law was in on it as well. (side note, she thought she gave it away earlier when i talked to her on sunday. haha i had no idea. megs, you played it well)

spence had realized that i would want a clean place for my mom and grandma. how cute is he! we worked together to get two beds set up (yep we have two air mattresses...your turn to come visit) and got ready for bed.

we were all worried that i would have to work most of monday and tuesday. because of my dc trip this week i was supposed to be super busy. i got some work done on sunday night and then woke up early on monday. i talked to my boss and he was so great, he let me take some time with mom and grandma.

so we had ourselves a couple of perfect girls days! we did what we do best....SHOP!!!! of course grandma wanted to check out the millennium mile so we started there. we were able to steal spence for lunch at our favorite brunch place "yolk" downtown. after lunch/brunch we started with our tradition...nordstrom.

when i was growing up some of my earliest memories are of my grandma taking me to nordstrom for lunch and shoe shopping. it did my heart good walking into nordstrom with my mom and grandma and starting in the shoe section. grams found a couple of cute pairs and mom and i had a blast looking at all the crazy shoes. seriously who wears some of these?

we explored some more stores and then headed home to rest. that night all three of us cuddled up on our couch and watched downton abbey. i couldn't help but smile, i loved all three of us, cuddled up watching "chick flicks". i think spence appreciated that he didn't have to watch it with me :-)

tuesday i had a bit more work but it was okay. we picked up a car and headed to target to run some errands. my mom always takes care of me when she comes to visit. i felt so spoiled by my mom and grandma. after target we had some time and decided to find a "cutesy" area to walk around. we drove for just a few mins and found some fun shops by surprise on clark. we loved walking in and out of these cute boutiques. mom kept saying "we'll have to come back here when..." i love that she is already talking about coming back!

we went home for some rest, lunch and work and then headed out again! this time we took a cab downtown to see macy's all decorated. oh wow can i just say how excited i am to live in this city for the holidays? macys was AMAZING! fun windows, christmas trees everywhere, lights, ribbons and bulbs! let alone just the building, vintage pillars, huge fountains etc. seriously the most beautiful department store i've ever seen. we had a blast picking out festive jewelry, trying yummy chocolates and trying on hats. like i said i was spoiled rotten by these two!

after our macys adventure we ran to northface to pick up the mr. a warm coat (it's getting cold here in chicago!) and then to our new favorite italian place downtown. after a yummy dinner we grabbed some sprinkles cupcakes to go and headed home.

we ended the night watching disney's brave and eating cupcakes. is there a better way to end a girls trip? i think not!

i tried to get the cute christmas decorations outside of macys....looks like i need to work on my picture taking skills

mom enjoying macys chocolate store

this little guy was a carrot cake truffle. yes grandma bought him and yes we all shared. he was yummy!

mom and grandma while exploring some cute shops

my face looks huge....ahh!

grandma's first bite. she loved our little snowman

hat shopping. we had such a blast trying on hat after hat. they were all too big for grandma...sad day

haha, mom was holding up grandmas hat so it didn't fall over her eyes. aren't they just the cutest!

moms new shoes. check those babies out!

even though it was short those two days with my mom and grandma were two of the best of my life. i have never had my mom and grandma to myself before. what a treat. we talked, laughed and just had a blast the whole time.

mom and grandma, thank you so much for the most incredible birthday present. your time in chicago was so special to me. just what this mrs. needed. i love you both so so much! you both are the most beautiful examples to me. thank you so much! words cannot describe what your trip means to me.

the packing begins

so last night marked the first day of "clean and organize the b. family life"
i decided to start with sydney's history. which is basically everything important to me stored at my parents house from age 4-23. yes, i decided to start with that (it's still a mystery to me why i choose that task).

i found a few gems hidden in that hold closet of mine. i made spencer endure a couple hours of "hey babe check out this picture" or "oh my  gosh i can't believe i wore that" "ahh we look so little". yes picture after picture. i was in heaven.

at one point of the night spence had had enough and i was left to myself and my memories. to be honest it was a little more emotional than i thought putting things away. every piece of memory had a story. i had kept things for a reason. my first pointe shoes, my graduation ropes, my 6th grade officer t-shirt, love letters from boys in high school and so on.

i finally got to a point where my entire life history (well at least till my little 23 years of age) was boxed away in two large rubbermaids. so lets be honest i didn't really cut things down. i tried :-)

as i was about to put the boxes in storage spence came across my jr. high and high school officer sweaters. of course he had to put them on.

sometimes i wish spence had been the boy i feel in love with in jr. high. always looked up to and secretly crushed on until high school. then in high school we would have dated, gone to dances together and fallen in love. after two years of beautiful letters he would return and we could get married and have all our memories together.

but then i remember how fun it has been to share stories with each other. on long drives he'll tell me a story about a time in high school. i realize i never heard that story but now i've just learned something new about my husband of (almost) two years. and then i get happy because i am now a part of that memory. and i share stories with him. i love sharing my stories with him. if spence had been there from the beginning i wouldn't have any good stories to tell!

so here is the point.
going through memories is hard but yet still fun.
and i was able to share all those memories and the things that make me sydney b. with my husband.
and i love him even more for still loving me after some of these jr. high pictures

the mrs. gets an early christmas surprise

saw the new josh groban cd at borders today.

i didn't know he was coming out with a new cd.

now playing the new josh groban cd on my computer.

i didn't know writing my 20 page paper could be this great.

thank you josh groban, you will forever be one of my loves.

happy early christmas present to me!

so the 411...

the cd is different from his usual stuff. but i love it. hidden away=amazing.

now back to writing...