Apparently the traditional 8 year anniversary gift involves bronze. In this case, I just went with bronzer. Does anyone actually follow these things?
Steve and I had the good fortune to have my mom in town during our anniversary so we took advantage and had a great day out on the town. Steve started out the day with breakfast in bed (Rowan was so excited to participate in this). Raspberry pancakes and the chance to sleep in is so much better than a hunk of bronze. After getting a few things done at work, I was greeted with flowers. I teased Steven that the last time he gave me flowers was when we got engaged. To be fair, I've told Steven multiple times that I feel like flowers are kind of a waste of money and that I'd rather get something that lasts. But every 8 years or so it's nice to get them. :)
We ended up going to see The Tourist, whch got pretty bad reviews, but we really liked it. It was way better than some of the other movies we've seen in the theater lately. Then we went to Barnes and Noble for some book persuing and ended up eating dinner at Radio Maria. Seriously the best meal ever! We had some really nice specialty sodas- black cherry cream and grapefruit. Steve got a hanger steak on some kind of pasta with fennel and I had a grilled salmon with shitake mushroom and bacon fries, mashed potatoes with some kind of incredible sauce, and kale that was prepared to a crispy consistency, yet it was so flavorful. The restaurant was practically empty since it was a snowy weeknight and it was a really relaxing atmosphere. If I were wealthy I'd eat there every day. SOOOO good!!
And now I'm hungry...sigh.
Did I mention I really like being married to this guy? Best decision ever.
I'm still working holiday traditions. There has been so many times when I hear someone describing what they do every year and I think "that's really cool- I should do that." Needless to say, that's about as far as I get. It gets complicated when we have so much to celebrate in such a small period of time, so I guess I can't be too hard on myself. My hope is to keep it simple, but still have each day retain it's individual importance. New Year's has been kept on the back burner as far as thinking of things to do, because a)we don't drink alcohol and b)we have small kids at home. There's a lot of restaurants that have awesome events where you eat lots of different dishes, enjoy the atmosphere, dance, etc, but that won't really work until we're empty nesters. So here are some things that we have started doing.
1. Appetizers for dinner. I love this. It's easy and you get a lot of variety and it's perfect for munching on while you stay up late. I would like to do fondue next year and see how complicated that would be, but this year we really enjoyed what we had. Veggie tray, meat and cheese tray, grapes, french bread pizza, chips and dip, cream puffs, leftover ice cream birthday cake (note to self- do hummus too next year). The Nyes brought some fantastic bacon wrapped wienies and cookie dough truffles. Did I mention I gained a good 5 pounds over the holidays? I have no idea why...
2. Poppers and Silly String in Abundance: The kids had a blast with all the poppers, noisemakers, silly string that my mom provided for the night. It wasn't that bad to clean up and the kids loved it. If you can figure out how they work that is...
3. Let the kids stay up as late as they want. Rowan still talks about this. "Remember when I got to stay up until midnight?!?" He keeps wanting to do it again. He made it to midnight, but just barely.
4. Good Company: We were lucky enough to have my mom still in town on New Years and luckier still that our friends the Nyes were able to join us due to a canceled flight. I don't know how lucky they felt though :). Next year I'd like to break out the games- we forgot to this year because we were too busy chatting, but I think that'd be a great tradition too.
And that's it. Simple, but perfectly suited for the evening. I'm excited for next year!
Nadia, more commonly known as Na Na in our home, is 2 now. If you ask her, she'll insistently tell you that she's 3, which is a perfect example of how this little girl is always trying to be older than she is. She is postively determined to keep up with Rowan, except when it comes to giving up her binky, sleeping in her big girl bed, and going to nursery.
For the past 6 months we've been struggling to get Nadia to stay in nursery without us and we couldn't figure out why our normally thrill-seeking girl was so afraid of a room full of kids and toys. It turns out she's just afraid of her male nursery leaders. So we switched her to the other class and she's done great. Maybe I should encourage her apprehension of men until she's 20. :) We've also starting doing some playdates with two little friends in the ward and she is getting much better at her separation anxiety, but she still doesn't care for men (Steve excluded- she's a total daddy's girl).
We had her sleeping in her big girl bed for a few days a while ago, but Rowan got really sick and his coughing fits kept her up at night. We've since moved the crib into Rowan's room and are gradually transitioning her to move into the bunk beds sometime soon. We also tried getting rid of her binky, by starting to cut them. Apparently Nadia had a secret stash somewhere, because she kept finding new and complete binkies to replace her "broken" ones. Again, we've reverted back to a more gradual approach and are only giving them to her at night. It seems like slow and steady changes win the race with this girl.
Nadia is also done with naps and probably has been for a while if I'm completely honest. Sleep is not something she has ever done well. Since she was 18 months, if I let her take a nap she was usually up until 9-10pm. Steve and I weren't okay with having no alone time in the evening, so she's going down at 6:30-7pm with no nap. It's given me a lot more free time during the day too, although it can get exhausting to not have much of a break.
Some other little facts about Nadia are:
-She LOVES Diego ("Eggo") and Legos ("Eggos") which can make life confusing unless you catch the plural distinction -She knows the majority of the alphabet, her colors, and is working on counting to twenty
-Loves boots, hats, cheese, backpacks, books, eating snow, talking on the computer to her grandparents, and baths. She also loves the letter W. Whenever I'm on the computer, she'll come up and say "I need W" and repeatly push it until I tell her that's enough.
-Is constantly singing to herself, especially in the car -Hates having anything in her hair and keeping blankets on herself -Would rather drink than eat (this is definitely from Steve) and feels free to raid the fridge quite often for her beverage of choice -Is best friends with Rowan. I really couldn't ask for a better relationship between the two of them.
This year we've decided we aren't going to have birthday presents or parties on their actual birthday. It's just too close to the holidays and it is definitely overwhelming. Instead we're going to pick a day during the year that is convenient and just celebrate then. This has taken so much pressure off!! We do have a cake on their birthday and also try to do a dinner that we know they like, but that's it. Nadia was in heaven with her "cheese and crackers with veggies and dip" meal.
The ice cream turtle cake got the thumbs up as well.
The problem with having so many things to celebrate in such a short period is that you don't feel like blogging about it when it's all said and done. So I'm going to try and do one post a day starting with the most recent celebration. My birthday.
I'm starting to feel a bit flustered by how I've suddenly become older. 29 isn't old, but I'm amazed at how much my life has transitioned over the past decade. Marriage, kids, grad school, church callings, and just life in general have all culminated to make me feel like I'm no spring chicken anymore. I'm so ready for the next step (owning a house, having my husband out of school, and having my kids in school, 401Ks, etc), but I'm also acutely aware that these steps are things I've always considered to be something an older person does. I'm feeling a bit unprepared for that kind of maturity.
Enough musing. My husband discovered a store where he can pretty much get anything and I will love it. Just in time for us to (hopefully) move. Ten Thousand Villages has the best jewerly, home decor, and knick knacks, not to mention the fact that you are supporting a wonderful cause while purchasing things there. They are online too, if you want to check them out. Anyways, Steve saw that they were having a sale and came home with the most beautiful collection of earrings. I haven't really owned many earrings that I love, but I love all of them!
The weekend before my birthday, I was able to celebrate by going with some girlfriends to see Wicked in Chicago. We ate fondue at Geja's Cafe, saw the play, stayed overnight at a nice hotel, went shopping at Ikea the next day, and ate at a local restaurant when we got back. It was perfection. The play was incredible and it was so great to have some girl time without kids in the background. I'm so grateful to know these women and be able to have this opportunity before any of us move away. Left to Right: Julie Nye, Brenda Price, Tina Stone, Lori Franz, Me, Kristyn Anderson, Linda Hobson, Erika Jones
Cadillac Palace was GORGEOUS! I should of taken more pictures of the surroundings, but all I got was this quick snap of the ceiling and the stage. I didn't know much about the music or the storyline prior to going and I'm glad I didn't go in with any expectations. Everything from the costumes to the set changes to the story was so entralling. Loved it!
Geja's Cafe was also an amazing experience. It's a very dimly lit restaurant so not many pictures turned out, but the atmosphere was very different. It almost felt like a place the mafia would go, but in a good way. We had fruit and bread with cheese fondue for an appetizer and then everyone had their individual meats with veggies that we cooked in oil and dipped in a wide array of sauces. Then we had chocolate fondue with more fruit, pound cake, marshmellows that you could garnish with graham cracker crumbs. I always see fondue pots at garage sales and this summer I will be sure to pick one up.
I loved that we were all able to travel in the same vehicle on the way up and enjoy each other's company. It was just nice to relax, talk and laugh about silly things like what people buy on Amazon. :) I'm definitely committed to getting an 8 passenger minivan when the time comes. So fun!!
