Xena Pupdate

Xena is now almost 12 weeks old and we can't believe how much she grows every day! She has had a lot of good adventures over the last couple of weeks including a play date with Uncle Angus (Mike's parent's dog), road trip to my parents house in Waterloo, a fall in the pond with a successful exit all on her own, swimming in the Res, daily walks around the neighborhood, a couple of drama filled baths with the hose, her first tick, lots of new neighbor friends, and plenty of loving & playing with her toys.

Tonight is the first trip to the vet for shots- wish us luck!

look at the difference between 7 & 10 wks!

Anniversary Dinner

Mike & I celebrated our 2nd Anniversary with a trip down memory lane which included a fabulous dinner at the same place we went for our 1st, Daniel Arthur's.

This photo is of us sharing 2 desserts- bread pudding & creme brulee- SO delish!

One of our favorite parts of dinner was the the "amuse bouche" between courses which was a mango sorbet served on lemon slice to cleanse our palate :) Mike stayed true to himself and ordered the Filet Mignon while I tried the Chef's Signature Blue Crab stuffed pork loin.

We of course ended the night with an after dinner cocktail, Gibson martini for Mike & Lynchberg Lemonade for me.

Happy 2nd Anniversary!

2 years down, many more to go....

I can't help but think back to our wedding day and re-live each moment of that wonderful day that flew by so quickly!

I love you hubby!

Christmas in June

I've mentioned this before but my family does the coolest thing with our Christmas gifts for each other. We give each other 'experiences' for later in the year so that we can enjoy time together and special treats all year long! This year we have already had our Family Fun Day at Planet X + awesome dinner courtesy of Jason & Em and we have yet to cash in on the 'Choose Our Own Des Moines Adventure' gift from Jessie & Chris. Our gift to the family was a family photo session which we just had a couple weeks ago. The pics turned out fabulous (see the blog post of our family shoot from the awesome local photog we chose for this gift, who just so happens to be great friends of our wedding photog). Next weekend we are heading home to Mom & Dad's for a geocaching adventure (testing out our new GPS devices)+ book discussion+ dinner. I am loving Christmas in June!

Proud Sis

Last weekend Jessie & Chris came to our neck of the woods to compete in their first sprint triathlon! It was called the Pigman and was held in Palo, just west of Cedar Rapids. After I fed them a hearty nightbeforetheracemeal of spaghetti and homemade marinara they were off to bed to rest up, despite crazy thunderstorms. Up and at 'em we were at 5am. Mom & I cheered them on and snapped pictures throughout the race (we called ourselves their 'support piglets') and we had so much fun watching them and the other amazing athletes! Great job guys!

Welcome Home Puppy Party!

Pics from Xena's Puppy Party after we brought her home last Saturday



after a bit of whining, she comfortably slept at my feet for the car ride home (thank GOD!)




she'll have to grow into her food & water bowls :)







she slept most of the party!




my favorite sleeping position (the flying frog)

Mike & Xena