Another Year Older and Wiser

Jonathan's birthday was last week. We had a small cake for him on his actual birthday and then celebrated with family on Friday.

The original plan on his birthday was to go out to eat using a generous coupon for a free entree and dessert. However, the girls were under the weather, so we saved the coupon for our anniversary. Because Jonathan wasn't going to have any sort of dessert for his birthday I decided to whip up a small cake for him. I had quite the time cutting down a recipe to 1/3 of the original size, but it worked out!

For the past 6 or so years I've made Jonathan his favorite cake, German Chocolate. Since we found out about Abigail's allergy I've made it without pecans. Well, I just don't think it tastes the same without the nuts, so I thought I'd try something new. Enter Pinterest and a recipe I pinned last fall for Cheesecake Factory Pumpkin Cheesecake. It was SO good.

The girls were very excited to celebrate their Daddy's birthday.

Seven Years

Jonathan and I celebrated seven years of marriage this past Monday. We had a nice laid-back day celebrating. It started off with me putting Lily back to bed just before 5:00 AM thinking, "Man, it's Monday. But at least I can look forward to going out for dinner tonight." Shortly after falling back to sleep Jonathan gently woke me up, telling me, "I took today off." I easily fell back asleep, looking forward to having my husband around for the whole day! What a perfect anniversary gift.

Our main festivities included a walk around Horn Pond (at least part of it) followed by dinner. The girls get pretty crazy when we get them outside. They love running around and getting into things. Abigail seemed to want to stop every 30 seconds so she could throw a rock into the pond.

Dinner is always an adventure with the girls. They are very well-behaved when we take them out, but they get pretty excited being out-and-about. Lily was probably the craziest. She would give a shrill scream every time she wanted more food. I guess she feels the need to scream so she can be heard in the Kapaldo house (or anywhere else for that matter).

Oh, and of course, I was pleasantly surprised to see the blog "bombed" by it's second author with Jonathan's post. We have been blessed with a great marriage and I have been blessed with a wonderful husband.

Date Night?

What is Date Night you may ask? Well, for me and Jonathan it typically means dessert and a movie on Netflix (and, oftentimes, I end up falling asleep during the movie). When you have three little ones it's hard to get out much. And for me, it's hard to stay awake!

Jonathan surprised me with a date night out last Thursday. He made arrangements with our friends Jennifer and YiFeng to stay at our place while the girls slept. I had a feeling something was going on when Jonathan asked me if I had any milk stored for Lily and if we were going to have any leftovers from dinner (for Jennifer and YiFeng).

Jonathan whisked me away to Boston where we had a nice walk along The Boston Harborwalk. We then went to get ice cream, but not until a quick trip to the ATM because the shop only took cash. We ate our ice cream by one of the fountains on Atlantic Avenue.

I think it is so critical to spend at least one evening a week with Jonathan for "date night". If we don't set aside time once a week to invest in our marriage we will easily become distracted with our girls, our work, our to-do lists, etc. Thank you Jennifer and YiFeng for making last week a special one where we could get away for a few hours!

Photo Fridays 06.22.12

Jonathan took this picture of Sarah on Sunday. I love it!

Father's Day!

We had a great Father's Day weekend. It started on Friday where we got to spend all day with Jonathan who was given a day off from work. We went to a local pond for a photo shoot with our friend Krista. The girls had fun throwing rocks in the pond and picking flowers. The girls had a lot of fun and cooperated for the most part. I am very much looking forward to seeing how the pictures turned out!

Saturday was pretty low-key, which is always a good thing!

On Sunday morning we had a special breakfast and gave Jonathan his gift. The big hit was a set of cards we made where I traced the girls hands and measured their arm-span. The front of the cards said, "I love you" and when Jonathan opened the cards they expanded and said "this much!" I even managed to make one for Lily.

After breakfast we went to church. Then we headed to Nonna and Papa's house to celebrate Bridget's birthday. All in all it was a great weekend!

I don't say it often enough, but our girls are blessed to have such a wonderful dad. Jonathan gets up in the middle of the night to help when Lily (and sometimes Sarah or Abigail) wakes up. He'll play along with the girls when they give him birthday gifts in June consisting of things already belonging to him when his birthday is in September. He sits down with the girls to read them bedtime stories. And he always encourages the girls and lets them know he loves them.

Thank you, Jonathan, for being such a great dad and for seeking out to be the best husband, dad, and leader God intends you to be.

6 Year Anniversary

This weekend Jonathan and I celebrated 6 years of marriage. I was thinking about it and realized that for 3 of our 6 anniversary celebrations I was pregnant.

Anyway, we decided to celebrate the same way we did last year. Since we've been the only ones to put the girls down for the night we typically go out during the day. We had "fajitas for two" at a local Mexican restaurant followed by a round of mini-golf. I beat Jonathan by 10 points (to be fair, last year he beat me by 10 points). For those wondering what a pregnant woman (with 8 weeks to go) looks like playing mini-golf here you go:

And here's one of Jonathan:

Jonathan's Birthday

This past weekend was Jonathan's birthday. Now he is well into his 30's (ok, I'm exaggerating, he's only 31).

We had a pretty laid back birthday weekend. We finished it with nut-free German chocolate cake, homemade ice cream, and presents. Happy birthday to a wonderful husband and Daddy!

Father's Day

I can't speak for Jonathan, but we had a very lovely Father's Day. We started off with a special homemade breakfast. This is also when we gave Jonathan his Father's Day gift.

What Dad doesn't love getting a new shirt for work ;-)

This is a picture Abigail drew of her and Daddy earlier this week.

After church we headed over to my parents' to hang out. The girls had fun hanging out with their Papa (and everyone else, of course). We could all tell though that the girls were getting tired, so we had them lay down to watch a movie and relax. I couldn't believe it, but Abigail actually fell asleep!

We ended the day with dinner and hanging outside for a bit-which made for a great opportunity to take pictures!

Can you believe that this is the first one I took of Jonathan and the girls!?Family portrait courtesy of my Dad

Jonathan's Big 3-0

Saturday was Jonathan's big day-the day he turned 30. Jonathan started his birthday the same way I did mine-he slept in. We then had a special breakfast of buttons and bowknots. Abigail serenaded Jonathan with the Happy Birthday song. If you listen carefully she includes herself in the birthday greeting.

The main event for Jonathan's birthday was our annual trip to Smolak Farms for apple picking. Auntie Laura, Uncle Nick, and Bridget joined us. This was Sarah, Bridget, and Uncle Nick's first apple picking experience.

We were able to make great use of our new wagon. During apple picking each of the girls gave Jonathan a special "apple"-a brand new iTunes gift card. Abigail did enough apple picking to fill our bag and the Hanks' bag. Sarah spent most of the time inspecting our apples.

After we picked a few pecks of perfect apples we ventured off to the pumpkin patch. We then went to the playground briefly. I didn't want to spend too much time there because it was so crowded. However, every time I suggested to Abigail that we check something else out she would say, "No thanks" or "I wanna play". I am constantly amazed at the new phrases that have come out of her mouth lately!

We did end up leaving the playground and headed back to the pumpkins for pictures. After that we went back to Nonna and Papa's house.

I planned on making pizza for dinner at my parent's house. Let's just say, though, that the execution of my plan was anything but flawless. I ended up burning the pizza. My excuse is using an unfamiliar oven. Jonathan made his own birthday dinner by ordering pizza.

We had Jonathan's favorite-German Chocolate Cake for dessert. I modified the frosting recipe by omitting nuts (in case Abigail got a hold of it). It was actually pretty good! For his birthday a group of us chipped in to get him AppleTV. Because I could only pre-order it I ended up wrapping a deck of cards and made it look like a TV with an apple logo on it. I think Jonathan was pleasantly surprised.

We ended our day with pictures of the girls in their jammies before heading home for the night.

All-in-all we had a great day celebrating Jonathan's birthday! Happy birthday to such a wonderful husband, father, and friend. We love you!