Our SEVEN Year Anniversary!!!!

Today seven years ago I made the most amazing decision of my life and married my sweet husband!  In honor of our seven years of married bliss, I thought I would do a list of the seven things I love most about our marriage!

1.I love that we compliment each other well... I'm the overreactor and he is the underreactor... together we meet somewhere in the middle... usually more on his side since I overreact more than he underreacts!

2. I love that in all of the years I've been cooking for us, he has never not eaten something I've cooked.  I have refused to eat several of the meals I've made, but not him!  I love that he isn't too picky and that he is actually much more of a health nut than I am!  It makes it fun to cook for him!

3. I love that we can have just as much fun staying in eating take out while watching tv on the couch as we do going out on the town.

4. I love that when it is just the two of us we still act incredibly stupid together.

5. I love that he can put me in my place and be the head of the household even if sometimes in the moment I'm not a particularly big fan of it.  I don't know if I would really respect him if I always got my way!

6. I love that we both LOVE our sleep and even though I've become more of a night owl since having kids, we both still go to bed at the same time and enjoy an infrequent nap here and there.

7. I love that we both put our marriage above our kids even though admittedly that is more difficult at certain times than others.  I am so grateful that Devin greets me with three kids hanging on his legs begging for attention as soon as he walks in the door.  I am thankful that we know God intended for us to put Him first, our marriage second, and our kids third and understand what a powerful example that is to our kids.  I'm so appreicative for date nights and our "let's put the kids to bed early" nights so that we have a chance to spend some extra time together just the two of us.

So thankful that God brought us together and that we've had such an amazing seven years!

Our Five Year Anniversary!

On Friday, Devin and I celebrated our 5 Year Anniversary!  Every year I am amazed at how on one hand it can seem just like yesterday that we were saying our I do's and yet at the same time it seems like we have literally been together forever.

It's crazy to think back to our wedding day.  I married my best friend and he's just as much my best friend now as he was then, but I know him better now.  Know him in a different way than I did then and I love that.  I love the fact that I will know him better in another 5 years than I know him today.  It's exciting to think about how much we've experienced together only to know that this isn't the end and that the future holds more.

I imagined our five year anniversary being spent just the two of us on a beach somewhere.  I thought we'd go somewhere really special since it was a significant anniversary.... maybe back to our honeymoon spot or on a cruise.  Instead we went to Chicago with the cutest four month old ever in tow!  How different things always turn out and though at one point I would've been heartbroken to let go of my expectations, I couldn't have been happier with how we celebrated.

Chicago was a lot of fun and a perfect place to go with a baby.  And thankfully, little J was an angel and an easy traveler allowing us plenty of time to reconnect.

On Friday, we had big plans to get dressed up and go to eat just the two of us to celebrate the actual day, but upon returning from our trip, we quickly found that the sweet and mostly happy girl we left behind was replaced with an overly emotional and insecure toddler that we had never seen before.  Wednesday was the most trying day I've had as a mother BY FAR and to say that I didn't seriously consider locking her in her room and hiding under the covers of my bed would be an outright lie.  Thursday was only a moderate step up from the day before and Devin and I quickly rescheduled our anniversary date night knowing that our little girl needed the safety of her parents instead of being left with Grandma and PaPa or a babysitter.

So Devin came home from work with surprise cupcakes from Pinkitzel and we loved on our little ones giving extra time, attention and patience to Finley.  By 8:15, we had convinced her that Mommy and Daddy weren't leaving her and that we would always come back for her and she thankfully fell asleep.

Once the kids were in bed, we enjoyed take out from my favorite restaurant....

drank champagne from the goblets we used on our wedding day (a gift from Beth's sweet parents), and cuddled on the couch to watch our latest obsession.... episodes of 24.

Call me boring, but it was perfect.

This is where we are after 5 years.  We are husband and wife and yet, we are also Mom and Dad.  Being parents is such a high calling.  One that is often completely selfless in nature.  And though we hope to always prioritize our marriage over our children sometimes being a parent reminds us of what is really important.  Going to a beach and to a fancy dinner would have been nice, but anniversaries are about spending time together.... of falling in love again and again... and that's what we did.  No hammocks or fancy waitors required.