Mother's Day/Father's Day

And his prize- A happy wife and thus a happy life. Congrats Danny. I'll get you back on your birthday.

4 year Anniversary

To celebrate the recent anniversary, I dragged Danny to the uber-trendy Girl and the Goat. It took me 3 months to get a 5:15 Wednesday evening reservation. So we went ahead and took advantage of the situation:





Baby fingerprints make for quite a filter.



pretzel roll

fried naked cowboy  (oysters)
egg salad . capers

sauteed green beans 

fish sauce vinaigrette . cashews

My favorite- and I usually don't even like green beans

I found the recipe on the chef's website-here- I may have to go buy some fish sauce...

roasted cauliflower
pickled peppers . pine nuts . mint

grilled baby octopus
guanciale. favas . ramps. radish . pistachio-lemon vinaigrette

goat ribs

goat cheesecake
hazelnut crunch . candied beets . cajeta

Every dish was so so great- I might have to sneak back in another 3 months...

After, we went home and watched our wedding DVD with Belle. So amazing how much our lives change each year.

This year, Danny recently took a Senior position at a new agency, so we could actually afford that meal we just ate...

Last year we celebrated our anniversary in CA since we were there most of June while Danny was at his first out of state commercial shoot. We took the opportunity to bless our new baby with family.

 2011

The  year before that, we ate Ben and Jerry's on the ground of our cardboard apartment before Danny had his first day at a major advertising agency.

 

2010

The year before that we left our brand new puppy, Twinkie with family as we took a little trip to San Francisco before Danny started his 1st advertising internship in LA.

2009

And the year before that, we got married. 

2008

I was 20, only 2 of my brothers were taller than me, and I had no idea how we were going to pay for our "expensive" $700 a month rent once we got back to Provo.

 

I know sometimes this blogs starts sounding a little fluffy- but its been a great way for me to count my blessings. When Danny's working late, Belle is smearing chocolate pudding in the carpet, Twinkie's trying to eat my dinner, and its felt like ages since I've been "out with the girls," I can look at this blog and see how lovely my life really is. If I'm feeling stuck in a rut, I can revisit and realize how quickly life does change.

And with that proclamation of love to my blog- I suppose I should make one to my husband-

Happy Anniversary, Dear. I'm lucky to spend my life with you. You make me believe anything is possible.

Lately

We've been going to some of Chicago's summer festivals...

Playing in the Crown Fountains a lot...

 

and the beach...

This picture cracks me up

and the children's museum...

and the baby gym...

And the movies on BYOB (Bring Your Own Baby) days...



And Cubs games
 

Courtesy of Ogilvy

Danny's liking his new job

He takes trips out to SC Johnson's headquarters in Wisconsin every once in a while and hits up the Cheese Castle without me.

 Belle is getting even more adorable

  She's very into dress-ups

Says "Thank You" a lot

 And spends most of her free time doing this:

Randy and Mom Come to Visit

 Instead of flying down to say goodbye, Randy and Mom brought the farewell to us!



Belle really enjoyed showing uncle Randy around her city.

















She showed them how she likes to get ice-cream stupid





And her Zoo





And her beach





 
 
 
 



And some sites





Always my favorite part: All the eating



And their favorite part:



 Segway tour!

Belle's favorite part: Shopping spree with Grandma!

Randy's other favorite part and my least favorite part: At Navy Pier, convincing a 13 year old birthday party he was famous and that Danny was on Twilight.





When asked what he was in the movie, Danny said "Wolf." Nice one Danny. I'm pretty sure all the Twilight wolve-people are Native Americans.



But I guess 13-year-olds lose all logical capabilities when they hear the word "Twilight" because they just kept screaming as Danny spent 20-minutes signing their personal belongings: "WOLF."



Thanks to that outrageous outburst, people were taking pictures of Randy and Danny-(and with Randy and Danny)- the rest of the afternoon.



Other than that incident- We really enjoyed having them



And when your face looks like this at the end



You know it was a good time.