The newest addition to our family...

A new home!!!  Yes, we finally did it...purchased a home in Kansas City!  It was a bit of a challenge this last week, but it's finally official!  Here's the cute gift from our realtor, Steph @ Boveri Realty. 

Our new home is a condo in the One Park Place building!  It's an old office building that was converted into condos a few years back.  Our unit is brand new - never lived in!  It's actually only 3.3 miles from our current place.  We decided that we wanted to stay in the city.  So we're literally moving from the North end of downtown to the South end, which I think is officially the start of "Midtown".  It's a bit different from our current place, because there isn't many places to walk to.  That will take a bit of getting used to, but we just couldn't pass it up. Here's a few pics of the building...

I think what I'm looking forward to most - besides having a place of our own - is the awesome amenities:  saltwater indoor pool, outdoor pool, gym, yoga room, sauna, temperature-controlled wine locker, 24-hour doorman, garage, billiard's room and storage locker.  I'm sure I'm forgetting a few...probably those that I'll never use like the golf-simulator.  LOL!

The building is located on a hill next to a park, which makes for great views!  We closed today and are planning about 3 weeks of renovations.  It's a bit too "off white" at the moment...off-white carpet, walls & cabinets.  So we're planning on painting everything, replacing the carpet with ebony hardwood and adding a custom closet & blinds.  This means that I'll be sharing lots of Before & After pics in the future, but here's a few pics to get you started.

The foyer & hallway

Half Bath

Guest Suite (bedroom, closet and bathroom)

Living Room (with views of the park)

Kitchen

View into Master Suite

Master Suite (bedroom, bathroom & crazy big closet!)

We're so excited to get started with everything!  Can't wait for you all to come & visit!!

Cheers! 

Halloween is better in the Caribbean!

This year Chad and I decided to spend Halloween in the Caribbean - St. Thomas, that is!  i must say that I think Halloween is much better in the tropics!  You know all those costumes that you see in the costume store that you want to wear...but then you think about how crazy cold it is in the Midwest on Halloween?!  It always makes me wonder why they even bother selling those costumes!  Well, there is a place to wear those costumes, and it's called the Caribbean!!!  Yahoo!

Chad and I decided to head down to St. Thomas for a mid-Autumn vacay to celebrate our first anniversary...and visit with my cousin, Kristina, Mario (her fiance) and her Miss Tinsley (the newest addition to their family).  We arrived on Halloween afternoon and promptly headed out for a little Halloween fun!  Here's Miss T in her chicken costume - sans her squeaker shoes, which really made the outfit!

Kristina and Mario live in a gorgeous house on the top of one of the mountains on the island.   They have a fabulous pool deck that overlooks one side of the island where the cruise ships come in...

...and then the deck wrap around the other side of the house, which lends itself to views of St. John & Tortola!  Fabulous!!

 
Unfortunately, it was a big cloudy and rainy the first few days we were there...but who cares when you're not in the Midwest!  Here's a few pics of their pool - complete with a "critter" and all.

That weekend we had the privilege of attending the BVI Food & Wine Festival!!!  I was quite excited about this as it's right up my alley!  Even better was that Jen Carroll from Top Chef was one of the chefs.  We loaded up a group of us and took the boat over to Scrub Island where the festival was being held.  It was a bit of a bumpy ride, but again...who cares when you're not in the Midwest and have champagne in hand!

Pulling up to the resort...

A few pics of our room & the view!  Quite fabulous!!!!

 
A few of the events were cancelled due to the rain, so we did get to enjoy our room a bit before we headed down to the Wine Dinner - 5 chefs & 5 courses.  What an experience!
Here's a few before shots...

Kris + Mario

The Girls

The dinner was a ton of fun, and I even managed to score a pic with Top Chef alumni, Jen Carroll, who made the fantastic entree of the evening!

Kimberly happens to work for Real Life magazine, so we managed to get access to the kitchen for a few pics.  Too bad that I was the "picture taker".  :(

On the way back to St. Thomas the next day, we stopped at a little hole in the wall, Sydney's, for a lobster lunch on the island of Jost!  The lunch was phenomenal, and I even found a few pieces of "home" while we were there!

The next several days was filled with with some super fun times...nursery coffee, sightseeing, more eating, basking in the sun at the beach and nursery wine time!!!

 

We truly had a wonderful visit and cannot wait to return.  Thanks to Kristina & Mario for letting us crash at their pad...and to Miss Tinsley for giving me that big smile every morning when I walked into her nursery!  Love!!!