love of my life.

this little girl is the love of my life!!!!!! I simply adore her. she makes me feel such sweet joy & I am so grateful to be her mom. my heart is so full of love for her.

the zoo.

We took Adelie to the zoo for the first time yesterday. Sadly, we picked the wrong zoo to visit. The Minnesota Zoo is lame!!!!!!!! There are 2 zoos in Minnesota: the Minnesota Zoo & the Como Zoo (which is between Minneapolis/St Paul). We picked the wrong one. The Como Zoo has WAY BETTER animals! The Minnesota Zoo is lame. lame. lame. No elephants. No giraffes. No zebras. No penguins. Aren't those standard at any zoo?? Nope. Not so. I was really excited yesterday when I saw a picture of puffins...I thought the exhibit we were seeing next was a puffin stop...nope...just a nice photograph. The Como Zoo has puffins. Next time (and probably from now on, unless they do some major renovations & animal additions at the Minnesota Zoo) we will be Como Zoo visitors. I love seeing giraffes and penguins and elephants...

Anyway, Adelie liked the aquariums. I think she liked seeing the fish swim by & all the colorful coral. Other than that, the zoo was disappointing. Next time will be better!

our sweet "LITTLE A MONSTER"

We gave Adelie a nickname shortly after she was born: "little A monster". Of course we have many loving, tender nicknames for the little peanut, but "little A monster" describes her ferocious little appetite/attitude that she likes to display lately. She will eat (correction...TRY to eat) anything these days!!!! HILARIOUS!

Here is a post dedicated to her aggressive eating techniques.

Watching her try to eat the tissue pom-poms was outstanding! So entertaining! And I personally LOVE the photo of her eyeing up my ice-cream cone.

(and, NO I did not let her test out the ice cream...just in case any of you were worried)

Happppppppy birthday!

happy happy happy birthday to my adorable husband!! 

Nate turned 32 on Sunday & we spent a long weekend up north at the cottage on Pelican Lake. The weekend was perfect!! We loved spending time in the sunshine and it was so great being up at the lake. We saw some beautiful sunrises & cool sunsets (full moon over the weekend, reflecting over the water...so pretty!). We grilled out on our little smoky joe each night (I am SO grateful to be married to such a great cook! we had some DELICIOUS meals!). We had a bonfire each night (loved cuddling up with Nate by the cozy fire!).  We went out on the paddle-boat! So fun. Nate golfed 3 times while we were up there (Adelie and I golfed with him once!). He's such a good little golfer. I love watching him!! I decorated for his birthday with these fun tissue pompoms - super cute! Adelie loved them! 

My favorite part of his birthday celebration was breakfast on Sunday morning. I bought a really cool new pan for the birthday celebration at Williams-Sonoma which I plan on using as often as possible...it's an Ebelskiver pan - so sweet!!!!!! Any guests visiting MN anytime soon will be spoiled by me with some Ebelskivers!!! It's my new favorite breakfast dish. Actually, I've never been a huge breakfast fan...but these Ebelskivers are delish! So so so yummy! We bought a Ebelskiver cookbook as well - so I'll have to test out some new recipes! They were really fun to make & even more fun to eat, sitting on the deck by the lake with the sweet birthday boy!

Nate's testing out a new hobby: fishing. He has been unsuccessful up until this birthday weekend (when I say 'unsuccessful', I mean...he has cast his fishing pole at least 50+ times and has NOT caught anything!!). He finally caught a couple fish up at the lake (most of which were about 3 1/2 inches long! ha!). The pictures of him fishing crack me up! Such a silly guy.

It so fun celebrating Nate's bday. I sure love that boy!!!

OHIO!!

We were so happy to spend a week in Ohio over the 4th of July. We loved spending time with Nate's family!! It was so great to relax & spend time with everyone. Adelie went swimming for the first time (she loved it but she got cold pretty quickly...her little feet and legs were turning purple, so we had to call it a night a little early, but she still was happy!). We went to an Indians baseball game with Nate's parents & Catalina (our adorable niece). It was super fun. Great seats! I'm glad to be a Twins fan...those Indians fans don't even show up for the game. A HUGE part of the stadium was empty...so strange. Anyway, it was a great game, followed by a 4th of July firework show which was so much fun! Adelie was awake for the entire baseball game...and then slept through the postgame fireworks. The fireworks were awesome!!! Huge fireworks right over the outfield! So cool! We had a lot of great dinners with the family & loved catching up with everyone. My favorite part of the week was hanging out on the front porch on the porch swing. So relaxing & happy. I loved it! Oh...and the WORST part of the week was being in Ohio with a family full of Cavs fans who had to listen to Lebron's decision. Awful. Terrible. Horrible. We were bummed.

It was a great trip. We miss the Cartwright family already...it's always so wonderful seeing everyone!

Oh...and check out Adelie's how strong Adelie is (holding the umbrella for daddy when on our Lake Erie walk...). Pretty cute kid!

yay for cute toys!!!

yay for new cute toys!!!!!!!! ok...so I realize that these toys will not be played with by little Adelie for a little while...but I couldn't resist purchasing these adorable little toys this morning!!!! I'm pretty picky with the 'type' of toys I am willing to buy little A - I just don't want a bunch of junk...and this is EXACTLY the type of toy I love!!! I can't wait till she can play with them. I am so excited to have a little girl to play pretend tea time & have pretend ice cream sundaes together!!!!!! So excited. Can't wait till the package comes in the mail!!!! yay! yay! yay!

Adelie...4 1/2 months...

look at this darling face!! I promise I did not edit her eyes - they really are that big & blue!! she is the reason we've been missing in the blog-world lately. sorry! I just can't help but spend all my time loving this little face!!!! I promise I'll post more tomorrow....we've really had an amazing past few months and I need to post more...but hopefully this cute face can keep you all satisfied for a little bit till I have more time! love you all & miss you! love, N&L&A

Adelie...3 1/2 months!

sneak peek into our 1 yr anniversary celebration...we'll post more soon....

Adelie's new favorite toy!

Thank you, Alice for the adorable giraffe!!! Adelie loves it!!!! It's definitely her favorite thing to snuggle with. Jim picked out the adorable outfit (in LA with Nate's cute sister, Alyssa)...so Adelie is definitely in style! These pictures don't do the outfit justice...obviously (since she's bundled in a blanket!) but it's super cute!! Thank you!