Valentine's Day Goodies

Anabelle got a package in the mail the other day from Grandma Sue and Grandpa Ken, wanna see what she got?

Thanks Grandma and Grandpa, I love my little monkey and I ate ALL of my chocolate heart for desert on Monday-yum!!

I also got a treat on Valentine's Day. I came home to a delivery of some beautiful flowers from my sweet husband. Thanks honey, I love you!

I am having trouble with video lately, but hang in there I'll get it figured out soon and have some for you to watch. In other news I packed away all the Valentine's Day decor today and boy it feels god to be done with all of the holiday decorations. I put out decorations from Halloween through Valentine's day and then for the rest of the year I just stick with the usual home decor (ok, sometimes I put up some Easter stuff). So I am ready for some simple, easy, and spring-y decor.

I also started Weight Watchers again. Honestly, I have been pretty bad with my eating habits for a while now, eating lots of goodies, snacks, and fatty stuff. So it's time to reel it in a bit and eat healthier. Ideally I would like to lose 20 pounds (well really 50, but let's be realistic people!), but I'd be happy with 10 pounds. John and I both did WW when we wanted to lose weight for our wedding. I know it works if you follow the plan, I lost 25 pounds before on it. So now here I am 5 years later trying it again. It is definitely hard to start and I have been slightly irritable and hungry. But the good news is that I know after the 1st week you start to get used to not eating as much and you feel better. So hopefully I'll be successful. If you have any great WW recipes please send them my way-thanks!

3 Day Photo Shoot??!!!

This is for all the people who think Anabelle just poses sweetly for all the photos I take, when in reality I just snap away like crazy and maybe 1 or 2 come out okay. This past week I was on a mission to get a cute Valentine's Day picture of Belle and man did she make me work for it! Here are a few outtakes.

Ooh look a heart!

You want me to do what? Why can't I just drink my milk?

Peek a boo!

Could she look any more sad and pathetic?

Ooh what's over there?

What's with this heart box?

You want me to hold this heart out? Ok I can do it!

Oh fun, it rips!!

Finally, we got it!! Happy Valentine's Day everyone!!

2nd Annual Valentine's Day craminasmuchasyoucan Date Day!

This was us a year ago...

We left Anabelle at my Mom & Dad's and went to a see a play, dinner, and a Blackhawks game.

This year we continued with our date day ritual and left Anabelle at my Mom & Dad's for a day packed full of fun in the city. Here we are in the morning dropping off Belle.

Ignore my weird arm, not sure what I was going for with this pose??

Anabelle was NOT in the mood to be held for a picture.

We said goodbye and headed into the city. It was a beautiful day, the temperature had warmed up to 42 degrees, a 40 degree increase from 3 days ago! So we were enjoying walking around and I decided to snap some pictures of this sculpture in front of the James Thompson Center across the street from the theater. It is called Monument with Standing Beast by Jean Dubuffet and has been there since 1984.

Then it was time to head over to the theater to see Les Miserables, which is celebrating its 25th year in production! I first saw Les Mis on Broadway when I was 12 years old. It was with a school field trip and my Mom, a chaperon, went with us. Our class had awesome seats, 4th row center, and I often recount how we were so close Jean Valjean spit on us! (which in case you didn't know is a good thing) It was my 1st trip to the theater and I was instantly in love. My mom took me to see Les Mis for the 2nd time years later in Chicago. And now here I am 20 years later seeing it for the 3rd time. I love the music and the story, and although it has some flaws, it will always be the play that kick-started my love of the theater. I had a great time, and would recommend this show to anyone. We had great seats, 4th row, right side. John and I both agreed it would have been better to be back a few rows and center. From our angle and you could see some things that took away from the overall experience. For example, a thrown punch that was visibly not even close. So save your money and sit just a little further back. Maybe John will leave his review of the show in the comments.

After the play we walked a few blocks to Cafe Iberco, our favorite tapas restaurant. When we lived in the Gold Coast we were just a few blocks from this place and I went there often with the girls. They have really great food, and it has been hard to find a replacement for it in the burbs. We ate a ton and had some yummy sangria. After dinner John had the idea to walk over to Ghirardelli's and get some ice cream. We spent many summer nights walking there from our apartment, and it is one of my favorite ice cream places. I thought that a little walk might free up some space in my very full stomach, and I could share one of their ice cream masterpieces with John. As we walked down the street I reminisced and talked about how much I missed the neighborhood. Just as those words came out of my mouth, out of the el walks 2 undercover cops dragging a man in handcuffs up the stairs. Things that make you go "hmmm".

Anyway... we made it to Ghirardelli's and as I looked into the window I thought, man I am really stuffed from dinner and I don't think I can possibly eat any ice cream. Shocking I know! So I turned down desert and we hopped into a cab to take us to the bar where we were meeting some friends from high school. We had a great time chatting and catching up with Mike and his lovely girlfriend Lindsey. Time flew by and we said farewell heading to our last destination for the evening. Another bar where some college friends were celebrating a birthday.

At the end of a fun and full day!

Me & Darcy

We chatted for a while and had fun visiting and then suddenly we were exhausted and it was time to head home. Thank you John for a great date, I can't wait to do it again. I don't know what we'll do next year to one-up ourselves and cram more in, maybe I'll have to actually eat desert?

What do you do when it's too cold to go outside and play?

Jump on the couch and look out the window.

See what Mom and Dad left on the table that I can reach.

Give up and go to the mall to run around. We like to watch the fountain.

Bring the snow inside.

This afternoon I filled up a pan with snow and brought it in for Anabelle to play with. Whenever we are outside it is always too cold to not have mittens on and Anabelle never gets a chance to really play with the snow. Today she sat for 45 minutes and scooped, stirred, shoveled, packed, patted, dumped, threw, and ate snow. It was lots of fun to watch and also get a chance to just sit and drink some tea while Anabelle actually sat still for an extended amount of time-something we rarely experience.

I got my laptop up and working again. I needed a new power cord, which thankfully wasn't expensive. So blogging should resume to my normal schedule - whatever that is =)

Panasonic Lumix DCM-FH20

I got my new camera today!!! Before Anabelle came around my favorite subject was much harrier, my 1st baby Morgan the kitty cat. Today he was being particularly cute and cuddly sitting on the couch with me while I took the time to read the manual (shocking I know) and play around a bit with my new toy. So here are just a few pictures of our little fur ball.

"Morgan don't lick my new camera!"

When it rains, it pours...

I wish I was talking about the weather, but sadly I am not.

Last week my camera broke. I went to turn it on and it had a weird display, and wouldn't take pictures. I tried to reset everything, I tried to clean it, but nothing worked. I survived for a few days using my old and crappy camera, which only takes pictures, no video. Of course as soon as you no longer have the option to take video, everywhere around you are scenes that must be committed to video. After asking around and looking online we were able to find a new camera that was pretty reasonably priced on Amazon. I get it tomorrow, and I CAN'T WAIT!! It is definitely an upgrade from the camera I had, and has HD video, so hopefully you'll be able to feel like you are right in the room with Anabelle =)

A few days ago my netbook stopped being able to charge, therefore making it unusable once the battery died. My computer-knowledge-blessed brother took a look at it and determined that I needed a new power cord. So John found one online and ordered it, I will get it on Monday. Hopefully when I get the new power cord, my laptop will be able to charge and work properly again.

So now I am looking at my phone and hoping that nothing goes wrong with it too.

You may be wondering how I am blogging if I don't have my computer? Well, John has a laptop that I have been using. While I am thankful that I can use his computer, I miss mine. I have all my pictures on my computer, and all my different blogs and websites bookmarked on my computer. So I will be very happy when I get my computer back up and running. Until then, blogging will be on hiatus-sorry. If you are looking for something fun to do in the meantime go through the archives and look at old video of Anabelle, it is amazing how much she has changed!

On a positive note, I am much more productive without my computer and camera for distraction.

Umm... yea so we got some snow, but just a little bit

It was late Tuesday night and the wind was howling and snow was blowing all over. We were in the middle of a blizzard and were expected to get anywhere between 15-20 inches of snow. The kid in me wanted to stay up and look out the window watching the snow whirl around while drinking hot chocolate. The adult in me thought about my little girl and how early she was going to wake me up in the morning, so off to bed I went. After hearing that my brother was out of power I got out the extra candles and put a flashlight on my nightstand and hoped for the best.

Around 7:30 I woke up to a world covered in fluffy white snow, and a lot of it! I think we got about 18 inches of snow, but the wind blew so much that there are a lot of snow drifts. Some of them are up to your waist. I can't remember ever getting this much snow before, even though I'm sure we have. I think John said it was the 4th biggest snow storm in history for our area. After breakfast and play time Anabelle and I decided to get bundled up and head outside with Daddy. Here is what we saw...

Trying to open the back door

John digging a path to the garage

I don't think Anabelle is too sure about the snow

Path to the garage

Thank goodness we got a snow blower this year!

I tried to pull Anabelle around in the sled, but it was difficult. I had a hard time walking in the snow, and the sled kept sinking and tipping over. We decided to walk around a bit and after about 25 minutes Anabelle's cheeks were cold and we went inside, leaving Daddy to finish the driveway.

Back inside with red rosey cheeks

How do I get these snow pants off?

Ooh I can watch Daddy from inside where it's warm.

After about an hour and a half John was finally done and came inside to warm up and relax. Anabelle had some lunch and before heading off for a nap I snapped some pictures of her in the front of the house next to the snow.

So we are surviving the great blizzard of 2011, and I bet we'll be out playing in the snow over the next few days. Here's hoping that we don't have snow on the ground for too long, and that when it melts we don't have a flooded basement.