Our 2 Year Anniversary

On Tuesday, July 28th, Travis and I celebrated our 2 year anniversary. In some ways, it seems like 2 years...wow! But, when I think of all the things that have happened for us in the past 2 years, like getting pregnant, graduating, applying for and getting accepted to Podiatry School, having a baby, and moving to Ohio, I can't believe that we've sqeezed all of this into just 2 short, wonderful years!

Anyway...


For our special day, we took Buca di Beppo's advice and headed there for some tasty Italian cuisine (Thanks Brandon and Rachel for babysitting!!). We both love Italian food, and thus really enjoyed dining at this homey Italian restaurant.

Outside, it was beautiful flowers and statues...


And inside, it had a fun and cozy, Italian family gathering feel. We were seated in the "Wine Room" (one of several themed rooms there), where the ceiling was lined with hundreds of bottles of wine.


They started us off with some bread and olive oil, while we chatted and tried to decide what (of the many delicious-sounding entrees) to get.


(Excuse the outburst, but) Look at this handsome man! No wonder I married him! I just wanted to hold his hand across the table during dinner and stare into his eyes the whole time. Even after two years, I still get that butterflies-in-my-stomach feeling around him.

After some serious decision-making, we ordered two entrees: the stuffed pasta platter ("quattro al forno") and the stuffed chicken prociutto (or Italian ham). And mmm, were they tasty! We were big fans of the chicken (served on a bed of savory pesto sauce), and the cheese ravioli and manicotti! And they serve entrees family (big) style here, so we got to bring some of it home to enjoy later as well! Yum!

Here's the "quattro al forno" (just oozing with cheese!):

And here was my plate (with the stuffed chicken on the right there):

And us--the love birds:

After dinner, we walked along a bridle trail on the nearby Mill Creek Reservation. It was beautiful, and SO nice to just meander along and talk.

Just behind the stables at the trail entrance was this hidden lake, where we saw swans and cranes swimming, and a long-tailed deer running through the bush. It was so cool!

Running along the trail was a river that you could see by treading just a little off the beaten path:

I love taking nature shots, and this walk was a perfect opportunity for it!

(Look closely and you'll see that the vine is wrapped around a broken tree branch! Cool, huh?)

It was so nice to just soak up the greenery and the earthy smells (and EACH OTHER, of course)--we loved it!

I love you Travis. I feel like the luckiest woman in the world to be married to you and to get to be with you forever. Thanks for being such a wonderful husband, father, and friend. I look forward to sharing all of our future anniversaries with you.

Swagbucks

For all of you who have never heard of Swagbucks, have I got a treat for you! Swagbucks is a search engine that pays! Yup, you heard me--just for searching on swagbucks.com (like you would on google) for things like directions, restaurants, recipes, etc., you win "swagbucks" that you can later cash in for gift cards, airline miles, and more! Sounds pretty sweet, right?--and it is! How can you get in on this goodness, you say? Just click on the "Search and Win" button on the left sidebar of my blog and fill out the information. You'll get 3 swagbucks just for signing up, and I'll get swagbucks for referring you! Sound good? Good! So get winning!

Our pretty girl

I know I promised to post about our goings-on next, but first--another post on Grace, filled with adorable pictures taken by Rachel of her this past week! Enjoy!

Look at those "blueberry" eyes! And I just want to squeeze those chubby cheeks! Love her!


She loves to have her mouth open. =)

Smiling for dad as he makes her "fly":

An almost smile...

And us smiling at her (we can't help it!):

Mmm...my sweet girl.

Rachel put her in their bumbo while they were babysitting her the other day, and she loved it!

"I am lovin' this!" (And who wouldn't love having a little cozy chair made just your size?! I know I would!)

I love how she's resting her hand on it here:

I just LOVE this picture!! I think it's SO cute how she's checking out her toes! =)

Smiling for Aunt Rachel:

This one makes me laugh--she looks like an old grandma who should be holding a cane in her left hand! Funny girl!

What a cutie! Seeing her in the bumbo just makes my heart melt! We love you Grace!

Grace Video

I thought I'd share a cute video I took of Grace this morning, talking and doing some of her new tricks. (My apologies for it being sideways--hopefully you can still appreciate it!)

Our 2 month old girl!

Since many of you have requested new pictures of Grace, this post will be dedicated to just that--pictures of our sweet girl since the last time her pretty face "graced" this blog!

The following then is a photographic journal of Grace's favorite things to do (as a 1 1/2 and 2 month old):

#1--Be cute.

We've had the pleasure of seeing increasingly more cute smiles and funny expressions from our sweet Grace that just melt our hearts. Also adorable (and recent) is when she gets so excited that she just sqeals with delight--love it!

#2--Eat her own, and our, fingers.

Not a fan of binkies, Grace prefers to suck on her own, or one of our, fingers instead.

This is one of my favorite Gracisms: To hold her ear while she sucks on her hand--so cute!

#3--Sleep.

Here she is sleeping in Daddy's arms. It never ceases to amaze me how she can manage to flex her fingers while she sleeps, or how she can sleep with her neck like that!

This is how we find her in the morning--wiggled all the way down to the end of her crib, and with her blankets kicked off. Silly girl!

#4--Raise her legs and hands in the air.

Starting a couple weeks ago (while we were moving), she began lifting just her left leg in the air. She'd put it in the air for a few seconds, then lay it back down, and repeat. A few days later, she would lift just her right leg in the air. Then just her left arm. Then just her right. And now, she enjoys lifting both arms and both legs, sometimes all at the same time!

Especially the last few days, she has LOVED lifting both of her arms together. Happy girl!

The funniest thing about it is that when she lifts her arms (one or both), she'll just sit and stare at them, like they're the neatest things on earth and she just can't wait to use them. =)

One of the coolest things about her new trick is that she sometimes looks like an action hero when she's doing it--hi-yah!

"Take that!" she says.


And "that!"

#5--Stand.

Grace LOVES to stand on her strong little legs. It is definitely one of her favorite new things!

Here she is, just yesterday, standing on our living room floor:

And #6: Hanging out with her family, of course!

Here she is with her Grandpa (at Dixie's Diner, just a week before we left Rexburg). (As you can tell, Grandpa's a big fan of Grace, as even the waitresses there now know! And Grace is a big fan of her Grandpa too!)

With Aunt Rachel (who's been so good to babysit Grace for us from time to time):

And with Daddy!

Snuggling...

Reading the Book of Mormon...

..and chatting and smiling!

Hope you've enjoyed this special on Grace. Tune in again soon for a post of our recent goings-on in Ohio!