11 years

Our 11 year wedding anniversary was this past Saturday. Michael took off work Friday to continue our tradition of a family celebration for our anniversary. 

We rolled out of bed and went to cracker barrel for breakfast. We rarely go to a sit down place for breakfast any more, so that was fun! Then we ran some errands and took naps for the rest of the afternoon. In the evening we headed downtown.We started with a picnic in the park.

Our first photo as a family of 4. 
Somehow we never got one in the hospital or up until this point. Not a great picture of me, but there you have it...4 of us now! After we ate we headed over to the splash pad to play for a little while.

"Its OK Benny, don't cry",  she's saying. 

We changed Isabella back into her clothes and walked into Bricktown for a surprise. 
(Note to self, don't mention there's a surprise to Isabella prior to them happening, unless you want 20 questions about what it is. )

I had reserved the Cinderella carriage for our ride, but the company dropped the ball on our reservation, so we went ahead and went with this one. Isabella didn't know any different though and loved it. She's holding her Cinderella little people high and proud.  Izzy and I went to sonic for drinks for us while Michael went to get the car and picked us up. We had a great day together and it was nice to have a long weekend!

Saturday was a little crazy with different events going on that morning. Later that afternoon Isabella went to stay with my parents for the first time. My sister came over to keep Benjamin for us to go out on a date. We went to Signature Grill and it was just as good as I had remembered!! The bacon and mushroom risotto is amazing!

We had hoped to go to a movie after dinner, but the timing didn't work out and nothing was out that we were really that excited about anyway. So after driving for a while we ended up at cheesecake factory and got a slice of cheesecake and a dulce de leche hot chocolate to go. We drove to the lake and watched the sun set and talked about our favorite times over the past 11 years and favorite things about each other.

Crazy to believe we have already been married for 11 years, and have two kids! Happy 11 years! 

10 years

We celebrated 10 years of marriage this past friday! For our family celebration we picked up sandwiches from our favorite place for a picnic and went swimming.

 We went home and put Isabella down for a nap and began packing our bags. My sister and mom both volunteered some time ago to stay at our house and keep Isabella if we wanted to go away for our anniversary. My mom ended up staying with her, and after much debate of where to go, we settled on staying at the Skirvin, here in OKC. One of the upsides to Michael traveling is that we had enough points to stay for free. It was so great to pack a bag just for me, and not have to think about diapers, wipes, books, lugging a pack-n-play, snacks, and all the other extras.

 We were pretty pumped about it. We checked into our room and no one ran around the room screaming, pulling the phone across the room stretching out the cord, while putting the ice bucket on their head...

although, I have no idea where our child would get that

wild behavior from... :)

We got ready to go out to dinner.

Ate delicious food.
Watched a movie in bed.
Slept in.

Ate a yummy breakfast in bed.

I read. 

And then I said, "I'm ready to see Isabella". And Michael said, "Me too."

So we went home an hour or two earlier than planned. I suppose that is the sign of a good night away, being relaxed and refreshed and ready to see our girl again. Someday we hope to take a trip for a few days to celebrate, but until we are able to make that happen, we enjoyed our night away.

We were able to reflect on the past 10 years during our night away. We have grown up a lot, struggled at times, moved a lot, traveled a lot, and laughed a lot in 10 years. Through it all, I love sharing life with my best friend.

9 Years!

August 3rd was our 9 year anniversary!!

I woke up to breakfast in bed. Michael put a spin on our traditional birthday pancakes, with "anniversary year" pancakes. Served with peach compote and my favorite morning drink. Way to go Michael!


We decided we want to have a tradition of a family anniversary celebration in addition to our couple celebration. We want to impress upon our kids that marriage takes work is worth celebrating. For our family celebration Michael came home from work a little early and we loaded up to go swimming. But as we were driving to the pool, it began raining. Bummer. So we came home and let Iz play in her pool in the backyard for a little bit before we had to get ready for church. After church we had a family fro-yo date. Isabella loved the fro-yo!


For our anniversary date night we went out to Shoguns. YUM!
We enjoyed a delicious meal and were able to talk without one of us feeding or entertaining our sweet baby. :)


The classic onion-fire-tower.


Then we went to see the last HP movie. Here we are with our 3-D glasses.
I loved the 3-D and had to refrain from reaching out and grabbing at the characters/objects that looked like they were right in front of my face. :)
Over dinner we were able to reflect on the past 9 years...things we have gone through, fun things we have done. We decided that in many ways our life was easier before having a child in our family, but life is definitely better with her in our life. Things have changed over 9 years, but I am glad I can honestly say I love my husband even more today than on August 3rd, 2002. Happy 9 years!

Valentine's Day Celebrations

I think I felt extra celebratory this year for Valentine's Day for two reasons. One- having Isabella makes everything seem more special. Two- last year for Valentine's Day I had nausea with a side of vomit, and could have cared less about the day and it came and went with no special observance. So this year I C.E.L.E.B.R.A.T.E.D! :)


I made heart sugar cookies...

(I can't wait for my girl to be able to bake with me!)

Isabella and I had a quiet morning at home.

I love her so much!

A man delivered flowers to my house and stated "Happy ValentiMes day" as he handed me the flowers- I love it! (But more so with small children, grown ups should be able to say it right!)

I bagged up the cookies...

And we surprised Daddy at work with a visit, cookies, and lunch.



Then for dinner I called in a to-go order at 501 Cafe. We shared a fresh pear salad- My favorite!

And shared the slow roasted sirloin- my other fav...

We opened our cards and small gifts. A framed picture of my favorite shot of Michael & Isabella for Michael, a sweet thoughtful gift Michael made for me, and a pop-up I love you book for Isabella. I cried at the sweet card Michael got for Isabella- her first Valentine for many years to come from her Daddy!

I made these super easy chocolate molten cakes for dessert.

YUM!

We have had a variety of valentine's celebrations over the years, from purposely doing nothing, to watching Major Payne in my dorm room, to a fancy hotel and dinner. This year's was different than any other. Sitting at our dinner table together, the three of us, wearing sweats, entertaining a baby while we ate, pausing before dessert to feed her...
It may be years to come before there are fancy hotels and dress up dinners again- but I wouldn't trade this season of life for anything!

I can't believe it is mid-February! Didn't we just have Christmas last week?!

8 Years

We have been married 8 years today!

We ate dinner at Red Rock


And celebrated with the 'Something chocolate'


Michael sent these beautiful flowers to my work



Being that our anniversary is on a week night we are going to celebrate this weekend also. I love being married to my best friend!

That guy...

Michael has been super sweet and encouraging to me throughout my pregnancy. A couple of weeks ago I randomly mentioned that a nutella crepe sounded REALLY good.


Luckily we have nutella on hand and he decided to try to make some. I just supervised the process, but it turns out they are super easy to make, even though we don't have all the "crepe making" tools.


It was SO GOOD!! :) I am very blessed to have him.

We are headed out of town now to go to Arizona for a few days. I wondered if I would dread being the car for that long, but I am not. It has been a really long last couple of weeks. With check out in the apartments for a week, and other things we have had going on, we have had something pretty much every night after work plus busy weekends. I am ready for some stillness, quiet, and downtime. I am looking forward to spending a few days alone with my best friend, seeing beautiful places God created, and checking off another place that is on our list of places to see.

7 years

Yesterday was our 7 year anniversary! I can't believe it has already been 7 years! After work we went to dinner at Michael's Grill . Everything we had was really good.


The flowers Michael sent to my work


Us at dinner


Our complimentary dessert for "sharing our anniversary with them", the chocolate gateau. YUM!
We are leaving Wednesday evening to go to Destin, FL to celebrate our anniversary and relax at the beach. There is tons to do between now and then, but I can't wait to be on vacation!

Date Night

Last Thursday night we went to Orange Tree, and hung out there for a while. Then went home and watched the movie New in Town. It was a fun night and good to spend some fun time together that didn't involve moving or packing!

Happy Valentines Day

Flowers Michael sent to my work and the dress I had been wanting he surprised me with!


At Red Prime

I don't think I could have a better match for me. Michael I love that: you are my best friend, you listen to me talk and talk and talk... :) ,we can laugh for hours, we can tell each other the most embarrassing or disappointing things about ourselves, we can sit together quietly at home or go out and have the best time either way, I miss you when you travel and I'm excited to see you when you get home, and I think I'll stop here to save those who are ready to vomit in their mouth just a little bit! Love you!

We had a fun weekend away at a retreat this past weekend at Lake Keystone. We met some new people, played games, made a craft, ate, and "retreated". :)
Here are a few pics: