5 Year Wedding Anniversary

This past weekend the hubby and I celebrated our 5 year wedding anniversary! Wow, time has flown by..... I can still remember that day like it was yesterday.

What did we do to celebrate?

Well, we both slept in pretty late, which was awesome! Then the hubby woke up and made me breakfast in bed. :) Yup, I'm pretty spoiled. We spent a couple hours in bed watching a television series we just started, called Happy Endings (super funny). And after that we started getting hungry, but it was only 3:30pm. So we just decided to do what old couples do....made dinner reservations for 4:30pm at a very nice restaurant!

We went to Sonoma Wine Bar in Virginia Beach. It's located in Town Center, aka Downtown VA Beach, and it was such a nice day so we decided to walk around down there. When we arrived the very nice staff sat us and helped us select our anniversary meal. I had a smooth, light white wine to complement my pasta and Ryan had an oaky, dry red wine to complement his pork chop. Appetizers and dessert were a must!

And those lovely people at the restaurant even paid for our desserts, "on the house", since we were celebrating a momentous occasion. :) It was cool too, because we saw a bride and groom taking pictures right outside the restaurant by the fountain. They have the same anniversary as us!

And I have to say, both Ryan and I did a bang up job picking out gifts for one another. He bought me a gorgous sapphire and diamond band to complement my bridal set and I bought him tickets for the Dallas Cowboys & Baltimore Ravens football game October 14th and a gift card to buy a new jersey so he could represent our Cowboys in style!

It was a fantastic day and truly special spending it with the love of my life {gushy, I know}. I am so blessed to have him as my best friend. I'm looking forward to 50 more years with this man!

I love you babe!

A Man with A Baby

Is a man with a baby the cutest darn thing? I always love seeing my husband, Ryan, with my cute little puppy. They are my two boys and they both hold my heart. That being said, seeing my hubby holding my precious little nephew Camden certainly pulls on the heart strings!

Are they not the cutest darn thing? I wonder how much of me giving them that title is because I know and love the both of them, or whether it really is the 'man & a baby' thing where women are drawn to men holding a baby. I think it has something to do with seeing their, men, facial expressions and demeanors as a way to see how they will embrace children and potentially our kid(s). And I'm sure you can tell that Ryan certainly seems to be "okay" with Camden. I really love the bottom right photo because it shows Ryan's mischevious smile which is totally kid-like itself. ;)

Oh, and just so my other nephew doesn't feel left out, I also want to show my big boy nephew Aiden. He started Pre-K a few weeks ago. I can't believe how big he's getting!!!

I'm so blessed with the best & most beautiful family.

My Grown Up Birthday Wish

Have you ever heard of that song by Kelly Calrkson 'My Grown Up Christmas List'? I love how it talks about how your desires change from when you were younger to when you grow up to be an adult. Now this isn't going to be an entire post about things I want for my birthday (which is next week) like world peace and something unattainable, no there are certainly things I want that can be purchased...it's just interesting the change from not that long ago.

Case in point, I would love to have a maid come in and clean my house again. Yes, again. I had it done previously, since it was on my 30 before 30 list, but I would totally love to have it done again. I hate cleaning certain areas in the house, like bathrooms (eek) so this would be great to have again.....now, do you think the young me would have cared about that? NOPE! ;)

Another thing I would love for my birthday? These beautiful Jessica Simpson flats that I keep eye-balling at Dillard's. They are absolutely adorable and extremely professional...a shoe would certainly be something I would ask for, but (and even though they are super cute) I wouldn't typically ask for professional looking one.

Wine....wine is always a good gift for me. Even when I was younger (talking collage not teenage/high school-just wanted to clarify) I enjoyed wine. But what has changed is the type of wine. I used to only enjoy Arbor Mist type wine. Not "real" wine. Or maybe a fruity white wine.  Now, I enjoy a good red wine that is oaky and has a smooth finish like Shiraz or Merlot. See I'm "maturing"! ;)

Another thing I would totally LOVE for my birthday? Someone to come in and revamp our entryway. Seriously, I saw this one revamp from Love of Family & Home and I have been thinking about it NON-STOP since. I love doing home improvement projects in the home, and this project would not only be functional but also super cute for the aesthetics of our home. Ah...if only! Again, doing projects to the home would have never made the list when I was younger. LOL

Mason Jars. No joke, I would love some mason jars for my birthday. I've been seeing so many DIY/craft projects to do with them, and I've already expressed my love for mason jars in a previous post, so I would really enjoy getting my craft on with some mason jars. Not extremely expensive and I can totally pick them up myself at Walmart or something. But why do that when I have a b-day coming up? ;) Do you think the teenage version of myself would be jazzed to open up a wrapped present filled with little glass jars? Not so much. Me, now, on the other hand I would totally want to use them for so much stuff like organizing, painting & displaying them in the office or as a vase. Possibilities are endless...

Gift cards. Seriously. My mother use to beat into my head that gift cards are the "in-personal" gift for someone. They don't say "I care." Which is true, but does that take away from the value at all? NO! I would love gift cards for places to eat (I don't eat out often, so this would be a treat) or to go get a massage or have my nails done. I think a younger version of myself would have been okay with gift cards, but probably for clothes (which I wouldn't say no to now). Even then, my version of clothes that I want now is WAY different then when I was younger....ahhh, maturing. ;)

Aside from the material items (there are more than the list above, but they are fun little things like jewelery or scarves and hair accessories for my new short hair cut), I would totally be happy as a clam spending time with my family and friends. There-that's an honest to gosh grown-up birthday wish!! I spend so much of my time stressing out about adult things (finances, work, work, finances) that it would be nice to have some time to not stress about the adult things and really go out and enjoy myself. I would love to do an activity like put-put (there's the inner child in me) or go to antique shops; walk around places I don't typically go and explore. Whatever it is, I would just love to spend time with those closest to me. Getting older isn't tough, in my opinion (although I have some bones that would disagree with me). The number is just a number. But what is tough is feeling like you don't have enough time to do the things you really enjoy. Like spending time with family and friends....

This is my grown up birthday wish.

Anniversary Date

Ryan and I just celebrated our 4th wedding anniversary! I can hardly believe it, we've been together 81/2+ years and married for 4! I can still remember our first date (don't ask me what movie it was). When I look back at all of the events we've celebrated together, it's crazy. I mean, I was dating him when my brother graduated high school!!!! My brother is married and a father of two boys now. I am astonished that I was able to find the love of my life so early on; it allows me to spend more time with him & enjoy even more memorable events.

Anywho, enough with the sappy stuff right? lol.  We decided to celebrate our anniversary in style. Typically we go to PF Chang's, which is my all time favorite Chinese restaurant, but instead we ventured to a place we've never been. We decided to dine at Bone Fish Grill!

We had an amazing time! The food was delicious, I had the Imperial Longfin which was pan-seared, baked, stuffed with shrimp, scallops, crab meat and lemon caper butter. It was positively scrumptious. And to complement my dinner I had a nice glass of red wine. What? Red wine! I ate fish. I know, I broke the "rules" on that one but I wanted a nice glass of dry red wine & damn it I was going to have it! ;)

So here is the bottle of red wine I tried...

It was called Hayman & Hill Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve
Selection Napa Valley 2007

In Bone Fish it was $7 per glass, as a surprise my hubby bought me the bottle the night after for about $15!! I just finished the bottle yesterday and it was bold, complex, and structured, yet smooth on the finish.I really enjoyed it and will be adding it to the "list".

After dinner we grabbed Dairy Queen (I'm a sucker for their blizzards) and headed home to watch "our shows". Big Bang theory was all new and it was a requirement to watch with the Baileybear!

30 Before 30 List Update: New Car

Bringing it back old school, do yah'll remember my 30 before 30 list? Well, I've got a couple updates to that list.  Thus far I have completed the following (those crossed through):

1. Get another dog (Bailey needs a playmate)
2. Mend broken relationships
3. Do a full marathon (run/walk)
4. Take a cake decorating class
5. Take the next step in my career (management)
6. Buy a new car (that I LOVE)!
7. Have a professional maid come in and clean my house
8. Do a home renovation project on my own!
9. Become a mom
10. Create a piece of art (painting or drawing) I’d be willing to hang in my house
11. Get back into scrapbooking; make scrapbook of home renovations
12. Pay off my student loans
13. Read the Bible cover-to-cover
14. Finally be happy with my body
15. Redo two bathrooms in my home (gut & start over) RENOVATED ONE BATHROOM, SO 1/2 A POINT! ;)
16. Visit all the wineries in Virginia (that’s 156 wineries)
17. Go to Boston and see the RED SOXs play
18. Do another tropical vacation
19. Go camping
20. Not have a farmer’s (soccer) tan for one summer!
21. Take a cooking class with Ryan
22. Go on vacation and bring Bailey
23. Paint a mural on a wall in my home (future baby Luce room)
24. Take one full day to watch old classic 80’s movies (This list looks good: http://www.angelfire.com/pq/philgee/movies.html)
25. Keep a plant alive for longer than 1 week!
26. Convince in-laws to move back down to Virginia
27. Get a Smartphone
28. Run in a race with Ryan (5K, 8K, 10K…whatever!)
29. Make my own greeting cards for every occasion
30. Throw/host an elaborate black-tie affair! (Perhaps for my 30^th Birthday)

Okay, so my first update to this list would be.....I BOUGHT A NEW CAR!!! :) Yup, Ryan and I are the proud new owners of a 2011 Nissan Rouge! Here are some photos of what it looks like (camera on phone is broken so can't send my exact car photos). 

Two Saturdays ago I went for a test drive with my mother (been trying to test drive multiple car makers to narrow down the search). Ryan had mentioned the Juke & Rouge, so I went to test them out. The Juke is a fun car! With turbo and it's small like stature, it's a great car to ripe around and go crazy; however, not exactly the upgrade I was searching for as far as space. The Rouge however, is amazing! As soon as I started driving it I was amazed at how easy it was to drive! I immediately went home and asked (more like BEGGED) Ryan to come up to the dealership to see it. It's pretty much a blur after that....he said we could look at the financing and BAM...we bought a spanking NEW car!!!

We are beyond excited for this newest addition! My little Hyundai will be retiring soon, we're giving him away to charity so he can help someone else. We were actually so excited about our new car that we drove it on vacation this week....yup, all the way to Indiana!!