through the years

i know it's been a few weeks since our anniversary, but when we took a photo that night, i was wondering (hoping) if we had taken a picture every year on our anniversary.  sadly, we have not.  i found a few from our anniversary, but the others i had to improvise.  it's definitely interesting to see how we've changed over the years!

1 - 2008

2 - 2009

3 - 2010

4 -2011

5 - 2012

5 years!

high fives all around for 5 years of marriage!

on september 1, dave & i celebrated our 5 year anniversary.  we decided not to go all out on anniversary gifts this year.  we were bummed out because my bff and her husband were going to mexico that week and invited us along- but we had no passports and most importantly no one to watch ian- so the trip was out of the question.  since we have not been on a real live vacation SINCE OUR HONEYMOON (so seriously stop talking about your 5th vacay of the summer everyone else), we decided that maybe we can save up for one...  but who are we kidding?  our priority is to get out of debt- and that means those student loans need to be paid off... so one day.  i also haven't seen aforementioned bff in, oh, 3.5 years.  we're not bitter...  ;)

so, of course, we say we aren't getting each other gifts and we do anyway...  i got dave a cd he wanted & he got me a new pepper grinder since the traditional 5 year anniversary gift is wood.  i told him his "wooden" gift would arrive on sept. 11 when the avett brothers' new album "the carpenter" come out... get it?

anyway, our friend offered to watch ian (which is perfect because they love each other dearly) so we could hit the town to celebrate our day.  we went to a local restaurant that we had never been to before that came highly recommended- and, man, was it good.  it was recommended because of it's crazy beer selection, but we fell in love with it because of the food/mission- everything is local- the meat, the bread, the veggies- heck, even the pickles.  all the food comes from farms located in various parts of illinois.  it's sustainable living at its best.  the food was amazing.  you could really tell everything was fresh.  yum.  if you live in this area- check it out!  dinner was amazing from start to finish & we were even feeling a little sentimental & split a piece of carrot cake for dessert (we had carrot cake as part of our wedding cake).  we then spent the rest of our evening at buy buy baby- so any cool points went out the window...

dress:  modcloth "good enough to premiere"

heels:  seychelles via amazon (can usually find a good deal there)!

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worst blogger ever. yes, that would be me.

i have been "trying" so hard to be a good blogger, but it's definitely hard.  ian is so active and so busy right now, sometimes it's hard to find my balance.  i'm going to keep trying and keep plugging on and maybe i'll get back into a regular schedule.  we'll see.

dave & i finished another triathlon.  i have been losing weight.  i have the craziest kid ever.  this is all coming up- i promise. 

catching up: then i got older

lots of big things going on during my blogcation... up next.  i turned 30... plus 1.  ugh.  i guess i shouldn't be freaking out about this, but for some reason, this seems worse than 30 did.  who knows why... maybe it's that 30 is a nice, even, round number, but 31 kind of sticks out like a sore thumb.  plus, i kinda do feel old, even if i'm not.  my birthday was on saturday this year, which is a real treat because dave is home and i get to spend the whole day with him!  for starters, i slept in.  yay!  dave got ian up and kept him busy for a little while, so i got some extra rest.  when i got up, he was baking me a cake- which he did last year too.  i'm pretty impressed with his baking skillz.  ian was watching tangled, so i watched with him, of course.  we had lunch and then decided to open gifts then- probably because dave couldn't wait.  i figured out why ian was so interested in tangled that morning- i got tangled on dvd & dave had picked out a tangled bday card.  ian was pretty excited about both.  i also got a gift card to get my hair done- yay.  i'm pretty sure i had not had a haircut since... december.  yikes.

for dinner we went to a place called the ram that i really like- mostly b\c it's family friendly.  dave & i have a list of restaurants we really want to go to- but we don't want to take ian to any of them.  date night material.  the ram passes the family test.  after dinner, we headed to krispy kreme- the lone one in our area, because people around here think dunkin is the donut king.  they are crazy. 

 smart husband

 creepy mommy

 mmm, cake!

dress:  cinema foyer dress- modcloth - via swap

shoes:  seychelles

catching up: first we had family photos

as i said before my blog sabbatical... we had family photos made.  asking a 2 year old to do anything is kind of a joke, but, ian seemed to do ok.  he had a hard time sitting still (shocker) and had to be bribed with fruit snacks (another shocker!)...  i'm happy with the results though.  julie (dave's cousin's wife) always does a wonderful job.  if you're in the ft. wayne area- be sure to look up king photography.  here are a few of my favorites...

love!

on ian:

polo: the children's place

pants:  target

sandals:  keen

on mommy:  

earrings: forever 21

dress:  it's a sher-bet dress- modcloth

sandals:  outer-bank on it sandal in white (saltwater sandals)- modcloth

these are officially ian's 2 year photos... even though it was 4 months after his birthday.  i think once a year is pretty good for photos.  how often do you do family/children photos?

i am ending my self-imposed blogcation.  be back later.

long weekend

sorry if i upset any of you with my previous post- we are not expecting.  again.  sorry. 

i have been very lazy with the blog lately.  mostly because i do not budget my time wisely, plus i have a crazy house & a crazy son- plus i feel like i have a lot less time to do these things now that he is bigger- he requires a lot of my attention.  plus.. potty training. 

for memorial day weekend, we headed to ft. wayne, in to see dave's family (gma, aunt, uncle, cousins) & to have some family/ian photos made.  having photos made of a 2 year old is kind of a joke.  he wasn't having it.  dave's cousin's wife, julie, is a talented photographer though, and i'm sure she was able to make some magic happen somewhere.  other than the photos we just took it easy.  we did spend one day out at dave's aunt & uncle's lake house- heaven!  ian loved going in the water and playing in the sand.  lakes kind of make me nervous, but i went in a couple times and we had a lot of fun just enjoying a gorgeous relaxing day & spending time with the family.  plus.  we want a lake house now.  ahem parents & in-laws....  i definitely wish we could have stayed longer b\c i hate that you spend almost a whole day driving... which is a bummer.  plus, i secretly (or not so secretly) love ft. wayne.  definitely love it more than here.  i don't know what it is about that place-  but i just want to live there! 

it's another busy weekend for us.  dave's sister & her husband are in town from philly & saturday we are celebrating the family may/june birthdays + mother's/father's days.  6 birthdays + the moms & dads.  luckily, we already had a bday party for the nephew & the other nephew is only a month old- so it's actually only 4 birthdays.  best part- one of them is mine! 

i am throwing in the towel on ever losing weight & being thin ever again.  i might as well just have the rest of my children and then let the biggest loser take care of me eventually.  actually, i'm going to have some blood work done soon.  we'll let that be the deciding factor. 

i've been looking for this necklace ever since i found out i was the last person on the planet to know of its existence.  i've found some that i like on ebay.  they may not be of the best quality, but i can't argue at those prices.  thank you china & hong kong!

i'm off to bed for now.  another crazy toddler day.  fits & potty training galore tomorrow.