Face Lift, Part 1

Face Lift, Part 1: New shutters.

Before

After

(Sorry about the glare.  Afternoon was not the best time to take the picture.)

...to be continued!
Stay tuned for Part 2.

Viva Las Vegas

The view from our hotel room in the Bellagio.

The Bellagio Fountains.

A beautiful rainbow over the strip.

Inside the Bellagio.

Decorations in the entry way.

Glass flowers on the ceiling.

The pastry shop made wonderful crepes.  We chose to try a crepe filled with vanilla cream and topped with chocolate brownie bites and powdered sugar.  Yum!

We were in Vegas for the Sousa Band Concert, 

and of course, it was great!

Waiting for the cabs after the concert.

Patty and Frank, Maggie and Jim Cross, Mary Jo and Howie.

Frank, Jim and Howie all play trumpet in

the Naperville Municipal Band.

Hoover Dam

It was 111 degrees that day!

My right arm was in Nevada and my left arm was in Arizona.

The sandwiches at the Carnegie Deli

in the Mirage Hotel were huge!

We split a sandwich and it was still too much to eat.

I personally enjoyed the cheesecake we split more than the sandwich.  Though, it also turned out to be too much to eat.

(We enjoyed this on another night.  We couldn't tackle both on the same night.)

The Bellagio at night.

Watching the fountains from our room.  There was a T.V. channel that played the music along with the fountain show.  We must have watched the fountains at least a dozen times.

Watching the fountains in front of the Bellagio.

Summer Time

This summer has been a whirlwind!  We've been traveling every other weekend since Jill has been done with school.  We're home this weekend, and then off to Vegas the next weekend for our last trip of the summer.  We've had a wonderful time on our little adventures and have enjoyed time at home in between our trips.  The house is coming together and it's feeling more like home every day, though it's still hard to believe sometimes that it's really our house!  Since we've been so terrible updating our blog, this is going to be one massive post.  Don't worry, it's mostly pictures.

Nick and Liz were home from Afghanistan for Memorial Day weekend, but our niece Claire stole the spotlight!  It was so great to see everyone and spend time together.

Thea Demi, Claire and Yia Yia

Claire and cousin Christina

Chillin' at the park downtown Naperville.



 June 13th

We are so honored to be Claire's Godparents, along with Amy's friend Katy.  We had such a great time hanging out with Amy's family while we were in Michigan for Claire's baptism.

This girl loves a good banana!


June 18th

We went to a really great, really tiny restaurant in Nashville for Chris's birthday with Christina and our friend Korre.  It's like a healthy version of the Igloo (for those of you who know the Igloo) with grass-fed beef cheeseburgers and sweet potato fries.  Yum!  The owner, who is also the cook, heard us say it was Chris's birthday and led the entire place in singing "Happy Birthday!" and then gave Chris a homemade chocolate brownie for dessert (which we were too full to eat, so we saved it for the next day).  Next we headed over to the ball park to watch a Nashville Sounds minor league baseball game, and then we went out for dessert.  It was a fun night and Chris had great birthday!

June 26th

Our next trip was to LaSalle for Christine's baby shower.  (Chris actually decided to sit this one out and hung out with his parents in Naperville instead.)  The airplane on the cake is a picture of Brian's C-130.  Brian (Jill's cousin) is currently deployed to Afghanistan for his fourth, and hopefully last, tour to the Middle East.

June 30th

Obviously, Jane was here!  We're really going to miss Jonnett, Scott and Jane, but we're so happy for them and this next adventure in their lives.  We hope they enjoy their new home in Pittsburgh and are so glad they had a chance to stop by on their way out of TN.

Jane is ready to hit the open road!

Jane was quite the explorer while she was here.  Once playing with the tupperware got old, she went on a search to find more things to play with.  She crawled upstairs and found Jill's Winnie-the-Pooh Bear and then came back downstairs to play some guitar. 

We've had a lot of requests for more pictures of our house, so we have a few to share.  We're still working on our decorations upstairs, so those pictures will have to wait until later.

The guest room. 

Our living room.

The dining room.

Story time: 

So, a week and a half ago we were watching a movie and I could have sworn I saw something run along the wall from the front door to the T.V.  I decided it was just a shadow from the T.V. and let it go.  About half an hour later I definitely saw something run back towards the front door and into the entryway closet.  It was pretty small, so I guessed it was a little mouse or a lizard (we have a blue one that lives in our garden, so that wasn't out of the question).  Chris didn't see anything and thought I was a little nuts, but he checked the closet for me anyway.  And he found...nothing.  

Fast forward a week to this past Sunday.  We had just gotten home from Chicago and were sitting in the living room when some little creature scurried across the hearth and disappeared near the air vent.  Chris saw it this time, but he thought it was flying, a moth perhaps.  I'm sticking with "scurried."

Fast forward again to today.  I went into the pantry closet to get some almonds and when I picked up the bag, a few almonds fell out.  I didn't think much of it until I noticed the hole in the bottom of the bag.  Jonnett and I surveyed the hole and decided it had been chewed through.  I got Scott to go look in the closet since Chris was at work (Thanks, Scott!) and he found my oatmeal bag all chewed up as well.  I think it's safe to say the mystery is solved...we have a mouse in our house!  Now what?!?