the St. Paul Rodeo

this was D and I's second time going to the 4th of july st. paul rodeo. This is tom's... well i dont know... time. The roberts seem to go every year - so its tradition. Its one of the largest 4th of july rodeos in the nation. It is SO much fun. They have fair food, fair games/rides and then the rodeo with PRCA - so its the big stuff. We saw bucking horses, bulls, pig races, cow hurdling/milking, barrel racing, etc. Last year when we went, Dulany didn't want to sit and wasn't entertained (and i only brought one diaper. wasn't pretty) and we had uncomfortable seats. This year we had nice seats, Dulany was entertained the WHOLE time and i brought LOTS of diapers.

We did really bad with "being healthy" - yikes. We ate lots of fair food including cotton candy, nachos, REALLY good strawberry lemonade, italian sausage... yeah. enough said!

Dulany ate red licorice ropes, a few pretzels and a few nacho chips for dinner - horrible. i know. But towards the end she had some pizza - sad to say that was the healthiest thing. But it was only for one night and we only do it once a year - so why not!. She was a trooper and with only a 30 minute nap in the car on the way there, she stayed awake till 10:30 and fell asleep on the way home.

Here are some of my favorite pictures!
















We decided to let dulany ride the pony (ayla went too, she loved it). And well... Dulany HATED it. She did NOT want to get on. But they wouldn't let us have our money back so Grandma had to walk next to the horse with her. We were a little bummed. She wouldn't even go on the fake horse on the Carousel. At least we got our tickets back for that!




ps ---- Newer post below involving ICE CREAM!

Icey Creamy

the other day we went to the farmers market. I was pretty small compared to the ones I've been to back east. But there were some neat booths. We decided to walk down 3rd street (the main street here in downtown) and went to Serendipity which is an ice cream parlor. Its so cute and old fashioned. Tom and I went there for his birthday and we got THE BEST milkshake!! and i always thought this place was pretty expensive. Then the other night i was craving a milkshake so bad and we drove past a Baskin Robins - psh! nevermind. now THAT place is expensive. So anyways. we went back and sadly they didn't have mint chocolate chip - but Tom got a NWMixed berry milkshake and D got the same in a cone. It was delish. and it was gorgeous outside!







and speaking of icecream!!!!!!!!!!!!!! - GIVEAWAY! my friend - who is probably the most talented person i know when it comes to making up recipes and cooking - is giving away - An ICECREAM MAKER!! how awesome is that?? i would LOOOVE me some home made icecream!!
the contest ends tonight at midnight - but check out her site anyways cause her stuff is seriously so delish (just look at the pictures!). I mean, she was on GMA with Sandra Lee this year - that means she's really good.
here is the link -
http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/97VuNu/www.laurenslatest.com/cuisinart-ice-cream-maker-giveaway/

not going to lie. i reaaaaalllly hope i win!

Dulany's Birthday Party

here are pictures of Dulanys birthday party we had combined with Tom's cousins little girl (theyre 2 weeks apart). Enjoy!

Tangled Tower take 2!

So today I made my second tangled tower - you know, since this one fell apart fast! i figured i would do it today to see if it can hold up. I just finished... its still standing pretty well. But im still nervous. I mean the party tomorrow isnt till 7 tomorrow night (what was i thinking doing it today? oh thats right so im not crunched for time tomorrow while getting all the other stuff ready).
lets just hope it stays in tact this time! if not, at least ill have pretty cupcakes. And... im not sure how im going to be able to drive with this for 15 minutes in the car.. i didnt even think about it till now! um....
anyways.

here are the results. Bagels this time. much more sturdy! (for now at least!)

Happy Fathers Day!

"Any Man Can Be A Father, But It Takes Someone Special To Be A Daddy" -
(we had this quote hand stitched and framed in our front hallway when you walked into our house growing up I loved it. I want to try to find one just like it to put in our house.)

first to my husband and daddy of Dulany - So grateful for you and knew before we even dated that you would be an amazing father. Dulany and I LOVE you SO much!!
this is my favorite picture of daddy and his baby girl right after she was born. they're looking right at each other.


this is the most recent picture I have of them.

To my dad - who taught me everything. So grateful for him and his great example. He is definitely one of the most selfless people I know and is so giving. Love you dad/Grandpa! This is the one picture i could find of both of us (and Dulany - this is at E's baby blessing forever ago!)



and to my father in law - thank you for raising Tom to be the hard-working, family loving man he is today. Grateful to have an awesome father in law as well! (this is the only picture i could find on this computer - this was when D was 1 1/2 months old - yikes!)
Hope everyone has an amazing Fathers Day!

Happy 2nd Birthday Dulany Kay

Happy 2nd Birthday to our Dulany Kay! Can you believe that she was THIS little?! i miss my little itty baby girl. But I absolutely love how much of a little lady she has become! She's getting pretty darn smart - and sometimes too smart for her own good!





i remember when she turned 1 thinking how crazy it is that i had a 1 year old. Now i have a 2 year old! that is even crazier!

Dulany @ 1 year old

Dulany @ 2 years old

Now its time for potty training, a toddler bed, and im sure a lot more tantrums/attitude! But i'll take it. I love my little girl!! So glad we were blessed to have her in our family.

HAPPY 2ND BIRTHDAY DULANY KAY ROBERTS!

at this time 2 years ago..

exactly 2 years ago - i had my first what i thought were braxton hicks contractions.( No pain -just tightning.) then a few hours later.. the first real painful contractions.

Just a few more hours ---

and she will be 2 tomorrow at 11:40 a.m.!

D's family birthday party

Since aunt Sessie is leaving for chicago tomorrow, and Daddy is away for the week working in washington, we decided to have a just family mini birthday party for Dulany last night. I wanted to give her a little party with decorations and since she's obsessed with tangled i figured it would be fun incorporate it.

a lot of it is really ghetto.... thank you dollar tree. here is what the whole set up looked like (minus i forgot to take a picture of the banner i had with the purple flags with the sun symbol from tangled)

Also - tom's cousin has a little girl D's age (2 weeks apart) and they were planning to do a tangled party as well and she invited me to do a joint birthday party for both the girls. Im excited cause now i can actually try to do this tower again and do a lot of the activities i wasn't able to do just for family). So that will be in 2 weeks.

here is the banner i made - (sorry these pictures are dark!)

here is the tangled tower i made - and then it fell apart... too much weight. For the next party - im going to use something more sturdy to hold up the weight uptop.

this was the beginning - while it was up straight!


then it started to get crushed from all the weight....



so i quickly put everything on the table so i could get a picture quickly! this is the finished product (although i wanted to do a yellow braid coming out of the tower down to the grass) with her cupcake and repunzal tiara
here is the tower with the cupcakes i made as well
this is where it got smushed...


close up of the flowers

the cupcake i made her (i didnt even realize i did purple/yellow until after and realized those were tangled colors!)and her repunzel tiara



she was all ready to blow out the candle ...





then we started singing - she didnt like it.

watching the movie while eating her icecream cone

we got her a kithen and aunt sessie got her play food/pots pans and aunt kaylee got her the little kitchen aid toy


and grandma got her this little table! she loves them and hasn't been able to stop playing!

Wish my family was able to be here to help celebrate! and thanks to toms family for coming and making her birthday fun!

ps. in 3 days, i will officially have a 2 year old! AHHH!