8th Anniversary Dinner!

We celebrated our 8th anniversary a couple of days ago, and decided to just stay in.  Typically we do the whole dress up and go out to a fancy dinner thing, but this year I couldn't think of anything better than celebrating with the two best little things that have come out of these 8 years.

Lyla has been really into weddings for a little while now.  She gets out my wedding dress and makes me put it on, looks through our wedding album, and sings our wedding song with her dad.  She tells us not to worry because when she gets married she'll either live with us or right next door.  :)

It's so cute to me how much kids love family.  Both of our girls have always been obsessed about having our entire family together.  Each would cry for me from their cribs, and as soon as I showed up they wanted to know where Dada was too.  And when we were all together they'd list off everyone's names with a smile.  Evie still does that, finishing with "mine whole family!"  They just love being together, it's almost all that really matters in their little worlds.

Marriage is tough and wonderful and everything in between.  After having kids it's so much harder to stay focused on each other, but we do our best, and not just for ourselves but for our babies.  Because our marriage isn't only about us anymore, and it doesn't only affect us.  It's really about them too.  We work hard to stay committed, and getting to celebrate with our precious girls - the very best fruit of our labor - was absolutely perfect.  (And also chaotic and messy and mostly gross according to them ;)

Can't wait for a million more years!

- K

 

Ryan brought each of us our own bouquet of flowers when he came home  :)

 

Lyla tried king crab for the first time in Alaska and LOVED it.  So we had to include that in our little feast.  :)

 

 

 

Loving her crab!  I'm pretty sure she had more than Ryan and I combined.

 

Sis on the other hand said "not really like this", which we were thankful for.  More for us!  ;)

 

 

The girls took turns taking pictures with our camera.  Never mind the big spider web decoration in the background...

 

The best we could do for a family pic before my camera died.  Love these people.

Anniversary Surprise

Saturday was our 6th anniversary, and my husband totally got me. It was one of those weeks where I literally didn't step foot out of my house - at all - and didn't even notice until I went out the front door Friday morning to check the mail and I realized it was the first time I'd seen our front yard all week. And I'm sure the mail man loves us because the mailbox was just about as jammed as it could get.

We couldn't find a sitter for a date that weekend, but I decided to make the best of it and get everyone dressed up for a fun family date to celebrate. That is until I realized that Ryan had a rugby game which would prevent us from doing anything and actually making it home by our babies' bedtimes. Which made me a little sour. And then when he came home Friday night and announced that he also had to go into work Saturday morning, the sourness cranked up to about level 12.

Saturday morning Ryan asked if I wanted him to make an anniversary breakfast and I think I snarled "I'm going to the gym since it'll be the only chance I get this week." I went to the gym, then he went to work. When he came back a little while later he had his sister in tow. He'd flown her all the way from Denver for the night!  He'd also made a reservation at the Grand Hotel for the night and our favorite steak place for dinner. #dreamy

It was the first time we've ever done anything like that, and it was so fun! We had the absolute best time and splurged on almost everything. We drank a little too much and talked about our past and our future. Our babies and having more babies - I think I've settled on 10 of them. I felt awful the next morning, the lightweight I am these days, but it was completely worth it.

I married a real gem of a man. Love you, Ryan Chapman!

Thanks, Alycia, for  making the trip!

- K

Wanted: Ruby Slippers

A year ago today we made the big move out to Minnesota with our teeny girl, and my sister, Jo, who came with for 2 weeks and took these pics of us and our new home. 

I have mixed emotions with this anniversary.  It's so funny how time has a way of going excruciatingly slow and crazy fast at once.  In some ways it's been a great year, and we've built a little home with so many memories of our baby girl, but at the same time I can't fight this feeling that it's still not really our home.

I don't know, it's hard to explain, it's just that when I land in the MSP airport it still doesn't feel like my airport.  And when I'm driving around town it doesn't feel comfortable and automatic, and I end up missing exits a lot.  Which could just be chalked up to my extreme lack of direction and/or navigation skills, but still.

At the same time, I know I'll ball like a baby when we leave this place to go back to Colorado (some day).  Our girl has seen a lot of good days, and a lot of snowy days, in this here state.  I just wish I had some ruby slippers so I could click-click-click my way home every once in a while.

- K

P.S. Ryan will surely complain that there is only one pic of him and the baby in this post, so I'd just like to say, for the record, that he is a poor, poor sport about family photos and he arrived fashionably late.  Which resulted in just this one photo.

 

8 Years

"if you're a bird, i'm a bird"

Eight years ago tonight I went on a first date with a big, cute, hilarious guy.  I stressed out about what to wear.  He showed up right on time.  We went to dinner in Old Town, Fort Collins, and he opened my doors all night. 

We hit it off.

Looking back to that date, and where we are now is pretty incredible.  I can say without hesitation that every year has been better than the last.  Hope you're ready for some amazing times, Ryan Chapman, because we've got a lot of great years ahead of us.  Love you a million!

- K