Our 5th Wedding Anniversary!

On October 22nd we celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary! These past 5 years have been the greatest of my life! We have grown so much as a couple over the last 10 years ... I can't believe how quickly the time has gone! I am looking forward to seeing what the future holds for us!

We had an amazing weekend celebrating our special day! We ate dinner at a great new restaurant downtown, Mesh on Mass. We could see our old condo from our table, which brought back a lot of fun memories! After dinner, we walked over to the Flying Cupcake and got a cinnamon cupcake to share for later ... OMG, sooooo good! We then checked into our hotel ... The Conrad! They upgraded us to a corner suite on the 8th floor for our anniversary, which was spectacular! It was HUGE!! After checking out our room, we walked over to the Hilbert Circle Theatre to see the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra perform with a trio of young guys called Time for Three ... they were incredible!!! Check them out HERE!!

After the show, we grabbed some Starbucks and walked back to our hotel ... the next morning we walked to Le Peep for breakfast, then, headed home to see our boys!! This was the first time I have ever left Gabe over night and I did surprisingly well! We had so much fun and can't wait to do it again!!




I know, I'm a total dork for taking pictures of the hotel ... but I DON'T CARE!! :)


This hotel was beautiful, and not to mention FANCY ... not quite as fancy as the Peninsula in Chicago, but enough that I still felt a little out of place, but it was so fun to pretend for the night!




This bed was total luxury ... it was like sleeping in a cloud, really!






Our view from our living room! So pretty!


View from our bedroom!


This suite was huge, it had a half bath if that gives you any idea. There were 4 flat screen TVs ... including one in each bathroom!

Pictures at Ft. Ben

After church on Sunday, we headed over to our favorite German bakery, Cafe Heidelberg! We enjoyed a light lunch and dessert with Oma, Opa, and Aunty Karey! Then, we headed over to Ft. Benjamin Harrison to take Gabe's 12 Month pictures! (Brookie, this is by no means a substitute for your pictures, just a little fun on the side! PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE take his pictures for us!)

I wasn't sure how this was going to go ... Gabe was tired and a little cranky, but once we got there he was so happy!! He enjoys anything outside, and when we let him play in the leaves he was so excited!










Adam and Karey were dropping leaves over Gabe's head ... he would giggle like crazy ...


and then wipe his eyes! It was hilarious ... and very cute!


More, More!!


My favorite! Aren't they so handsome?!

Stonycreek Farm

Gabe and I met up with our best buddies Shelly, Layton, and Amy at Stonycreek Farm! What a beautiful place and the weather was perfect! We had so much fun taking the boys on their first Hay ride! They loved it! We picked out our pumpkins and then had a picnic! We can't wait to go back and take Adam and JJ! Thanks for a great time!

Happy 1st Birthday Gabriel!

On October 11th Gabriel turned 1 ... that's right, our baby boy is 1 year old! Hard to believe, right?! This past year has been a blast, watching Gabe grow and learn! He has quite the personality! God has truly blessed us with this amazing baby boy that we love more than words can express! What a joy!

We had Gabe's birthday party last Saturday. It was so much fun and I know he really enjoyed it! It was great to be able so celebrate with our family and friends!!

On his birthday, we went to Cracker Barrel for breakfast with our families... Gabe LOVES their biscuits and gravy. After breakfast, we all went shopping and we bought Gabe some really cute clothes! We ate lunch at the Cheesecake factory and then went home and spent the evening together! I think Gabe had a great first birthday!

Here is just a glimpse of what Gabe is up to ...

*He's on the MOVE! So close to walking with each new day! Standing for longer periods of time on his own

*When he is excited about something, he started this new thing where he scrunches up his face ... OH MY! SO CUTE!

*LOVES his best buddy Layton!

*Saying all kinds of new syllables ... most recently "dadada, gogogo, yayaya"

*LOVES his dog dog Hunter

*I'm still nursing him in the morning and at night, but we started whole milk during the day!

*Still loving bath time and his books

*He LOVES cats, I don't know why, but he can find them in his books and he scrunches up his face in excitement! My mom and dad also have a cat that he loves, but the cat won't let Gabe anywhere near him! (Smart kitty)

*LOVES swinging at the park

*LOVES his baby einstein videos, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, and Handy Manny

*Enjoys going on walks



Brace yourselves ... LOTS of pictures to look at!
ALL PICTURES WERE TAKEN BY MY DEAR FRIEND BROOKE!!


Owl-Fall-Halloween theme :)


My dearest friend SHELLY created these BEAUTIFUL invites! Aren't they amazing?!! I'm truly blessed to have such wonderful friends that just so happen to be amazingly talented at so many things!

























CAKE TIME!!

















He loved the cake, but he wasn't too excited about his hands caked in cake :)