Easter Week

A little belated as usual, but we got to spend a few days in Nashville over Easter for work and just to hang out some as well.

We spent the Saturday of Easter with Adam's extended family celebrating his grandfather's 80th birthday. It was so fun to get some hang out time with cousins, etc. since we never get to see them! At Aunt Cheri and Uncle Mark's lakehouse:

Grammy and Grandpa:


Hanging out with Syd:


Can you see the resemblance between Matthew and Grandpa? I think they are about the same age here:


The amazing family scrapbook that Aunt Cheri made:



All of the Rosenbaums:


Our side:



We stuck around for the week after Easter as well to do some work, and got to do some more of our favorite activity ~ hanging out with nieces!!

Sydney is super into Easter Egg hunting, so we hid, and re-hid, and re-hid eggs!


Another favorite activity is going to the Nashville zoo which we got to participate in as well! The animals were all great and all, but apparently not as exciting as the carousel and playground!


Just before we left to come home, we got to hang out with our other wonderful niece, Caroline, who is 3 months now!


A couple of favorites from her quick pre-church 3-month session ~ don't you just want to squeeze her?

Rosenbaum Christmas morning

It was our year to do Christmas morning at the Rosenbaums, so you can guess who it was all about this year!!!

Syd shows Matty her "baby orange" from her Elmo stocking:







It was a musical year foy Syd:

Harmonica followed by the required parade:




Uncle Daniel gave her a guitar just like his (minus the pink):



This is one of my favorite pics of the year:


Excited about her new webcam (though she doesn't know what it really is) so she can skype with Abba and Aunt Mary!



Finally, much to Mimi's chagrin, Granddaddy got the overalls he's been wanting for years:





"Reading" us the Christmas story:



It was such a fun day being with family and especially watching Syd try to process all of the excitement. Next year will be Caroline's year to be the center of attention!!

Christmas Odds and Ends

It was a crazy holiday season this year but I figured I'd just share a random smattering of Christmas activities and photos.

We started out our Christmas season by renewing our Disney passes (hollaaaa!) and letting Mickey put us in the holiday spirit!




We spent a lot of time in Nashville this year as we had 2 Christmas weddings (see photoblog), but we squeezed in one rocking Christmas party at the Carsons' house before we left. It was so fun to be together and celebrate with friends!

Allie, me, Jaime and Cole, Court, Jenny:


The SO cute ornament cupcakes that Alanna made!



Once we got to Nashville, there was lots to celebrate, starting with Daniel's college graduation from Belmont! His girlfriend Lindsey was in town from California so that was fun that we all got to hang out together!

Family Celebration Dinner at Buca di Beppo:



Graduation night! Yay!


Family breakfast at Monell's ~ yum! We were up to a grand total of 14 that morning!



Ok, this entry is getting long already so I'm going to save the pics of Christmas morning (aka pictures of Sydney) for a later entry and just wrap up with a couple of fun post-Christmas things.

First, it's always WONDERFUL to see girlfriends from college! I think we're developing an annual tradition of breakfast at Bruegger's. Luckily ALL of these girls now have blogs so I get to keep up with them a little more through the year! Lauren, Rachel, Missy (the bride-to-be!), Katie, and yours truly.


Also, while I was in town, I got to see my friend Jinni's son Sam get baptized ~ what a treat! I can't believe he's almost 1!!





Our last holiday season treat was that Ryan and Brittany were still home for the holidays in California once we got back. It was wonderful to get to be in the same city with them for a whole week! I have a feeling we'll be bumping into the 3 of them (yes! I said 3!!) again before too long, though. More details to come!

Attempting to make potstickers:




Ryan is going to be a great dad!


We finally went to Cook's Corner for lunch ~ something that we've been trying to do since I moved to OC!


Whew! It's been a crazy few weeks but really fun! I love the holidays!

Caroline update: If you're looking for info about niece-to-be Caroline, check back tomorrow! Anne is scheduled to be induced in the morning!

Birthday Weekend

We had a great weekend celebrating my birthday a couple of weeks ago! Let's be honest ~ 27 ~ these are starting to not be as fun anymore. "Late 20's" definitely feels much more adult than the rest.

We had a fun low-key weekend which was exactly what I wanted!

On Friday, Adam took me to Javier's for lunch. We've been wanting to go there for a while and my crab and shrimp chimichanga didn't disappoint. It was incredible!


Saturday night we went out and celebrated with friends at Cheesecake Factory ~ good food and friends ~ perfect!



My mini-sundae as my birthday treat . . . hmmm . . . what happened to free cheesecake? Luckily Courtney pulled some strings to get me a piece of my favorite ~ Godiva!



Lastly, I got this awesome little 10 seconds of a birthday present which is just so darn cute.




I mean, I know I'm partial, but her expression on the first "to you" and the way she says "birthday" are just incredible. I could watch it a million times ... maybe I have.

Happy Thanksgiving week!!

Catching Up: 2nd Anniversary!

For our 2nd Anniversary ~ Oct 1! ~ we had a fun little stay-cation for a night in Newport Beach!

I can't believe it's been 2 years ~ everyone always says this but time really does fly. We love being married to each other and have had so much fun over the past 24 months!

A little reminder of 10.01.06:


It was a super busy time for me at work and I knew that we needed to get out of the house to be able to really relax and enjoy a little anniversary celebration so we pricelined for a 4-star hotel at the beach and got (don't hold your breath) the Hyatt Newporter. I think it has seen better days, like probably in the late 70's, but it was still fun to get to spend time down at the beach (we're so close and rarely actually go down there just for fun) and with each other!

We started with an afternoon at Crystal Cove ~




Followed by a jaunt to the Shake Shack (not to be confused with this) on PCH that I've never actually been to before:


We checked into our hotel (and got upgraded to a suite ~ that never happens to us!) and got ready for our dinner reservation at the Cannery ~ a restaurant from the list that I've been wanting to try.


We had a really fun evening ~ we both loved the building and atmosphere! The food was pretty good but it was late on a Sunday evening so there were only a few other patrons. (*Sidenote ~ I left my hairbrush at home so I decided to try to go for the natural wavy look ~ I think it ended up more like the you forgot to brush your hair look ~ oh well, I tried!).


Because it was our first time in, they gave us a free dessert ~ the Balboa Sundae was incredible! AND, it gets better! I told the waiter we were debating between the Sundae and the chocolate cake and so he brought them both! Wow! I'm such a sucker for chocolate!


The next morning, we woke up and headed over for a stroll through Fashion Island and finished with my favorite Cobb Salad at The Daily Grill!

It was so great to get away (I only checked email on my phone once the whole time!) and celebrate and spend time together!

Can't wait to see what year #3 holds in store for us!