Our Anniversary!

On Saturday, August 28th Joe and I celebrated 6 blissful years of marriage!  In celebration of our anniversary we went to The Happy Gnome for dinner, which has been a favorite of ours since the first time we went there - It is a little bit out of our poor folk price range, but it is a great place to go a couple of times a year! 

For Dinner Joe had a rib eye steak - here is the description off the menu:

Grilled Ribeye “Eye Steak”cajun fingerling potato hash, chorizo, brussels sprout slaw, house made steak sauce, fresh grated horseradish

And a picture

and I had a chicken sandwich, but not just any old chicken sandwich, it was this kind of chicken sandwich:

Roasted Chicken Sandwichsmoked gouda, artichokes, oven dried tomatoes, spinach, pesto aioli on house made focaccia

it was huge and delicious!!  

I also had this amazing beer:..the Flying Dog one listed below, it was awesome!

For dessert we had:

Blueberry Beignetsfrozen citrus custard, blueberry lime coulis

AMAZING!!

And we both had a scoop of Izzy's Salted Caramel - because you just can't say no to it!! 

It was an amazing dinner for an amazing anniversary!  

Collages!

I got bored and started going through all of our Kara pictures and made some collages.. hope you enjoy!  If you click on any of the collages it will open larger in a new window.

Kara with Mommy and Daddy

Kara with Grandma Julie and Grandpa Kevin

Kara with Grandma Becky and Grandpa Jerry

Kara with Grandpa Wayne

Kara with Great-Great Grandma Ceil

Kara with Great-Grandpa Jim and Great-Grandma Pauline

Kara with Great-Grandma Nancy

Kara with the Adams' Family

Great-Grandma Mickey, Great-Grandpa Wayne, Aunties Molly and Mary Jo and some cousins

Kara with Auntie Chelle, Uncle Dre and Jayden and Jayla

Kara with Auntie Em and Uncle Scott

Boredom

I finally decided to face one of my biggest fears and I had my wisdom teeth pulled. My dentist has been recommending that I have it done immediately for 3 years now, so I finally did it.  I had them pulled on Tuesday, and have pretty much been living in my bed since then - Thank God for this old school laptop with internet access!  My schedule has pretty much been sleep - take pain meds - sleep - eat some boring foods - more pain meds - sleep and repeat. I have spent some time browsing the interwebs from bed though - and guess what..Etsy is sending me a happy tooth pillow, how cool is that?  The happy tooth pillow is thanks to my new found love of twitter, I am telling ya, there is some cool stuff/people on twitter. 

Other things:

Free music download from Urban Outfitters

This is Mr. Sad Tooth that Etsy posted on twitter

There is a woot-off going on, which always helps pass the time

If I had any extra tix for the Mumford and Sons show I would sell them to this guy

 Also - go to etsy.com, click buy and then click on pounce.  I like to look at recently sold things.  You will find so many amazing things that you would have never even thought to search for on etsy!

My Menu:
KFC mashed potatoes and gravy
ice cream
jell-o
soup
pancakes
scrambled eggs
toast with lots and lots of butter
and all that I really want is a big old bacon cheeseburger or slice of pizza!  It seems like everything I see on tv is about food, and I so badly just want some real food!


Kara has been super cute- she comes in the bedroom and asks if I am ok, and if my mouth is sore.  She has been pretty mellow around me, but she has also tried jumping on me quite a few times, and I am a little nervous about having my face to close to her...you never know when she might try to headbutt me, or jump on me, or any other erratic behavior that you might expect from a 2 year old.

Alright, I think that is all for now.  Time for another nap.

Kara turns 2!!

On August 1st my sweet baby girl turned 2!  I guess I can't really call her my baby anymore, she is such a big girl now!  It seems impossible that Kara is 2 already, she definitely acts like a 2 year old, but it still just seems impossible that she is really 2!  She is such a little joy - even when she is miserable :)

As a surprise to her for her 2nd birthday we turned her crib into a big girl bed and got her all new bedding - she absolutely loves her big girl bed!  She mostly just loves to jump on it, but she has been going to sleep in it fairly well so far.  It hasn't been quite a week since we switched her to a big girl bed, so it is still pretty new to her.  I am amazed that we haven't had to fight with her too much to get her to stay in bed.

The morning of Kara's birthday Mommy and Daddy gave her some presents.  She was so excited about opening her birthday presents, and having a birthday  - you could tell that she felt special!  She was singing happy birthday all day long and anytime you ask her how old she is she says "six" then gets a silly smile on her face and says "two"

She was so excited about her Abby Cadabby helmet - and I was so excited that I was actually able to find one for her!!  She is going to be my little safety freak!  Sometimes when she is playing we catch her saying "be safe" or "be careful".. she is just too cute!

After Kara had her new helmet on, the first thing she said was "I go ride my bike".. so of course we all went out in our PJ's so Kara could ride her bike.

After our morning birthday celebration we headed to Auntie Emily's house for a little photo shoot.  Of course my sweet little 2 year old acted like a complete monster and didn't want her picture taken, but what can you do?  I have faith that Emily got some great pictures anyway.. those should be posted here shortly! 

After our photo shoot we went to Grandma Becky and Grandpa Jerry's house and had a little birthday dinner for Kara!  She once again loved being the center of attention, tried eating the frosting off all the cupcakes, wouldn't let Jayla touch ANY toys, and loved opening all of her presents.

Kara loved this little puppy that Auntie Emily gave her - it came in a little carrying bag and has 'medical supplies' it also has 4 sensors that make different puppy noises when you touch them.  Kara is doing a very good job of taking care of her new puppy that she named Boom.  She sleeps with it every night and the puppy noises have woken me up a few times and scared the crap out of me.. I am not used to hearing a dog panting over the baby monitor! 

Kara also got this awesome new trike from Grandma and Grandpa - she is IN LOVE with this thing!!  She calls it her bicycle, and I am pretty sure she was crying for it in her sleep a couple of nights ago.  As soon as we get home from daycare she NEEDS to ride it, and of course she wears her new Abby helmet!  Today she learned how to push the pedals on it all by herself!! 

This coming Saturday we are having a birthday party with all of our family and friends - we are all pretty excited about it!  It is going to be an Abby Cadabby themed party!

Other notable 2 year old awesomeness!  I made Kara a potty chair chart a couple of months ago - I was a mean mommy and put 60 squares on it... every time she goes potty in the potty chair we give her a sticker on the calendar and we told her that when it was full she would get to go to the toy store and pick out a special present... and guess what!?  Today we put the last sticker on!!  Woohoo!!  I still don't think she is ready to be done with diapers, but we are getting closer!

Thanks for reading - and I hope to keep up with my blog a little more often :)

July!!!!!

Oh man, it is July 22nd and I am making my first post for the whole month.  I really need to get better at updating my blog!  I know there are so many things I have wanted to blog about, but I have no idea what they were anymore...

Let's start with talking about me.  On my birthday(April 8th) I declared that this was going to be the greatest year ever.  So far, I was totally right.. you will see why throughout my post.  Let's start with concerts in the month of July.

July 3rd - The Hold Steady @ The Caboose outdoor plaza - I won tix on the radio.

July 15th - Josh Ritter @ Orchestra Hall playing w/ the MN Orchestra - I got on the guest list through twitter - it was rather bizarre how it all happened, but it was legit!  It was a great show - how often do you get to see someone like Josh Ritter(assuming you know Josh Ritter) play with a full orchestra - it was definitely a unique experience that I loved!  video below...

July 26th - Gaslight Anthem w/Tim Barry @ First Ave - won tix from the radio.  Pretty excited about this concert!

July 31st - Lowertown Music Fest - Mason Jennings - Cloud Cult - Peter Wolf Crier - Tapes and Tapes, and the list goes on and on.  Mostly local music, but it is all local music that I love - oh and hey - guess what... I won tix to it!!!!!!! 

Seriously, 4 free concerts this month, seriously?  Yes, seriously!

Last night I completed my second 5K!!  This is something that I NEVER saw myself doing, like ever.  It was so stinking hot last night that it just sucked, but my 2 friends and I managed to run the whole first mile straight!  I have never, ever ran a whole mile in my life until earlier this month.. I have now done it 3 times.  After the first mile of the 5k we took a little walk break and it is so hard to get back into your running groove once you stop, especially when it is ridiculously hot outside.  We came in about 45 seconds longer than it took me to run my first 5k, but I am not unhappy with my time at all.  I was actually pretty impressed that I came so close to my first time considering how miserably hot it was outside.  Seriously, I am just so proud of myself, and everyone who ran with me.. running is not an easy thing to do, and I am just amazed that I have no completed 2 5Ks!

Here are Emily and I before the race - and no, we did not coordinate our outfits - we are just that cool that we both happened to wear gray tank tops and black capris. 

Carly, Emily and I after the race

Oh, did I mention there was free beer after the run!?

Alright, enough about me... Kara is turning two very, very soon!  Anytime we ask her how old she is going to be she says "six" so, I guess she is two going on six.  Every once in awhile we will get her to actually say she is going to be two and she will hold up two fingers, it's pretty cute!  She has been asking for an Abby Cadabby bike helmet for a couple of months, and I have been searching for one.  I finally found one on walmart.com the other day and ordered it right away.  It came in the mail today and I can't wait to give it to her on her birthday.. here is a picture of it:

Kara also decided to have an Abby Cadabby themed birthday party - it should be lots of fun!  

My grandma gave me a bag of 3T -4T clothes that she had at her house a couple of weeks ago.  Kara started digging through them and came across this Twins t-shirt, picked it up and said "my baseball shirt".  I have no idea how she knew it was a baseball shirt, but she has become completely obsessed with it, and she looks absolutely adorable wearing it! 

Kara has become such a little girl.  I cannot believe how well she talks and makes complete sentences.  She is constantly making Joe and I laugh with the things she says. 

Random thought.. I was just looking through pictures and realized I had totally forgotten about our 4th of July BBQ(which I don't have any decent pictures from) our trip to Underwater Adventures.. Kara had a blast!!  We went with Julia, Leonard and Evan and it was a lot of fun!

And, we went to the zoo... 

and, Kara got her first car from Grandma and Grandpa!

Wow!  I cannot believe that I have forgotten about everything that has happened in July.  I am going to be better about blogging more often.. I swear.. I better go to bed now, I can't see straight... thanks for reading :)