2 Year Anniversary!

This first picture has nothing to do with the post but I just had to put it up. Taylor feels it's a good idea to start them early.

So yes that's right, Taylor and I have been married for two whole years and let me tell you, it has been the best two years of my life so far. Because we have a three and a half month old we decided to keep it simple because a few hours was as long as we could stand being away from the bebe. We dropped Mercedes off with Taylor's parents (who are always willing and LOVE to babysit for us) and then started our date. As you can see, we made yummy chocolate dipped strawberries with Dove chocolate. I highly recommend it.

See this fondu set? Taylor got it for me for Christmas from Crate and Barrel and I just love it! It matches everything in my kitchen which is always a plus. :)

My adorable man. xoxo

Hehe...

Taylor's cool picture of the inside of the fondu set.

The happy couple!

Love.

Chocolate is ready, let the dipping commence!

We went with strawberries and also the last pieces of Taylor's homemade caramel. Oh my gosh. It was AMAZING. These lining the plate are the caramels. We learned we probably should have place them on a flat surface. And later, wax paper.

The finished products!

After the chocolate dipping we went to dinner at PIATTI. Very delish. The service was A+, probably the best I've seen.

We tried the lime, mint and ginger ale drink. Oh it was good.

Unfortunately we never got a good shot of our food but I did get a shot of the nice agua bottle on the table that they so kindly kept filled. We drink a lot of water apparently.

So, it was a very fun night and has been an awesome two years. I love you Taylor, and I can't wait for the next 50+years (and then the eternities after that)!

Birthday surprise

Yesterday was my 22nd birthday and Taylor and his family surprised me with gifts to boost my motivation to exercise. I'd been wanting running stuff for who knows how long but it's just one of those things where I have a hard time spending the money for. Finally I have actual RUNNING clothes and will no longer have to run in holey scrubs and other old things. They're the activewear brand Lucy and super nice.

I also got a really nice ipod holder that goes on my arm, AND the Nike+ SportBand, which is the chip that goes in the shoe and the watch/band that goes on the wrist. It'll track how far I've gone, how many calories I've burned, etc. I've wanted that for a long time too.

And on top of that my amazing husband bought me brand new really awesome Nike running shoes, which are so much better than I had. The Nike LunarElite+. Happiness.

What a fun surprise it was! I was always mentioning to Taylor how bad I needed real running clothes. He and the family sure went the extra mile! Thank you Taylor, Mom (and Dad, Morg, and Slade), Tammy, Galen, Jonathan, Adam, Hannah, Thomas and Mercedes! I love you guys! And I can't wait to work out!

Some stuff

Hey guys this post is just a jumble of events from the past week. This was last Monday. Our friend Edward the crane came to visit us outside our bedroom window. Here are Edward's friends. We enjoy their company.

Mercedes is over 3 months old now! I know I can't believe it. She is such a crack up and we just couldn't imagine life without her.

She loooves snuggling her face into my neck when she's tired, and I love it too!

And here she is, chewing away.

Monday night we moved Mercedes out of her bassinett and into her crib!

The bassinett was taken out of our room...

And in went the crib. :) We're not ready to move her out yet. She looks so tiny in her crib!

Okay so I have a caramel story for you. Last weekend Taylor got the desire to make caramel. This would be is first attempt. He gathered all the ingredients and began his quest. Later I put Mercedes to bed and went into the kitchen to help. As he was stirring for a while and after almost all of the ingredients were added we went over the recipe and it said to stir until the soft ball stage. We assumed that meant the caramel would start to thicken and ball up in the pan. Well we stirred, and stirred...and stirred. And all the while the color of the caramel got darker, and darker...and darker. Finally I decided to google the term soft ball stage. I discovered that it meant to drop a bit of caramel into a bowl of cold water and see if it balled up between two fingers once in the water. Well of course! How did I not know that's what it meant!? ... So I went back into the kitchen and noticed the air was a little smokey. Hmmm. We looked into the boiling pot and watching the dark brown caramel bubble. DARK brown. I went to taste some cooled caramel on a spoon while Taylor dropped some caramel into a bowl of cold water. My teeth clanked on the hard surface. The caramel was totally solid. I reached my fingers into the bowl of cold water with a blog of caramel inside, and the caramel was totally solid. We discovered that we had practically CHARRED the caramel. After much disappointment the almost solidified chunk of caramel in a bag was thrown into the dumpster with a loud "thud" and we went to bed defeated. Poor Taylor, he was so excited to make caramels and now he was going to bed with nothing. I felt very sad for him. Well I encouraged my hubby to give it another try and so Monday night he did just that. I even went out and bought a candy thermometer but found it broken in its package later when we opened it. So Taylor went without. At last, the batch of homemade caramel was made perfectly and tasted amazing! I guess it helped to understand what the balling stage was.

Taylor's delicious caramel.

Reaping the rewards.

My husband is amazing.

And these last pictures I took last night. These two were absolutely adorable.

Have a good day!

Pillow talk

Mercedes is a happy baby, but sometimes gets restless while mommy is blogging. Today I found a small solution.

Meet Pillow.
They stared at each other for a bit. And stared.

And contemplated.

They got a little closer.

Later after Mercedes had to leave to get a new diaper, pillow was upset and they got mad at each other.
But they realized it wasn't worth ruining their friendship.

They told jokes and had a great time.

Happy pillow. Happy baby.

And in the process of finding her some new entertainment while I blogged, I found new blog material. Happy mommy.

Friday morning smiles

This morning Mercedes and I have lots of smiles. Especially Mercedes. She is so happy in the mornings and I can't ever get enough pictures. She brings us such happiness! Have a happy Friday!

-Mackenzie and Mercedes

And by the way, don't forget to check my other blog! http://lovecreatelive.blogspot.com