Becoming His 31: Married Life

Valentines Day!

8:49 PM

We like to make a big deal about holidays around here, even the ones people say are just made up by the greeting card companies. ;) But you know what? Valentine's day is for showing people love and we're all about showing love around here! We also really love anticipating and counting down to things!

We had it marked on our school calendar since we switched it over to February and Reaghan has been looking forward to it all month.

We did fun heart shaped activities during our school time because Valentines Day is all about the hearts!

And while I love tracing and writing activities I'm all about the chance to learn while we play games and work on some gross motor skills and balance.

The night before we made some heart shaped cookies and decorated them so we could take some to my brother Adam whose birthday is also on Valentines Day and so the girls could have a special treat for the day.

The morning of we woke up to a sweet surprise from my the girls Uncle Noah... He lives a few hours away but had a friend help him out by leaving some roses for his sisters, mom and nieces on their doorsteps.

For breakfast we made protein heart pancakes for breakfast... I tried to start the day off on a healthy note before we indulged in a few treats!

Since Valentines Day is Uncle Adam's birthday we dressed up in some fun heart outfits and headed over to spend some time with him.

We brought him some cookies and his favorite drink,

We went shopping at the mall with him, my mom, grandma, Aunt Nin Nin and baby Blake and then came home for an evening at home with daddy. Of course Mark brought home something special for his Valentines; daisies for the girls and roses for me. Along with a healthy, Trim Healthy Mama approved, chocolate treat and a new cup holder for my double Bob jogging stroller!

We didn't celebrate that night but went out together the night after for dinner at a new restaurant that we had never tried before. It had been a while since we'd had a date night so it was nice to get dressed up and go out together. {And by dressed up I mean that I dressed up and Mark wore his usual attire because he's not a 'get dressed up' kind of guy. ; )} The food was delicious and the conversation was easy and sweet, as its always been. I hope we never lose our ease of conversation and the way we can flow into and out of serious and silly topics.

This was our 10th Valentines Day together and it was a simple, sweet one that will always hold a special place in my heart.

Here's to many more decades of Valentines with you, My Love!

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Anniversary

5 Year Anniversary

9:02 PM

Last weekend Mark and I celebrated our 5th Wedding Anniversary by taking a quick overnight trip to D.C. Mark really surprised me a couple months ago when he suggested going out of town for our anniversary and then he planned the whole thing out for us! We left early Friday morning and headed straight up to the Air and Space Museum's annex hanger outside of D.C. Neither of us had been there before so we were both excited to check it out. Mark was especially excited because he wanted to see the space shuttle!

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Anniversary

3rd Anniversary

8:10 AM

I've been the queen of starting posts and not finishing them lately... I think it might have something to do with having an 8 month old thats on the move, so sitting down for more than a few minutes at a time has become a rarity. : )

A couple of weeks ago Mark and I celebrated our 3rd wedding anniversary! It fell on a Tuesday so Mark took the day off so we could spend some time together. We had originally planned on going to the beach like we did last year, but it ended up being super hot and we didn't really want to take Reaghan out there. We decided to go to the zoo instead - yea, it was still really hot, but we could make pit stops inside cooled exhibits and gift shops and walk through lots of shaded areas. :)

Our first stop was grabbing some lunch though! We went to Doumar's - a classic, drive in/eat in your car place in Norfolk, Va. thats been around for a few decades.

We had some yummy burgers and fries.

And Reaghan enjoyed people watching.

This was Reaghan's first trip to the zoo!

She was happy as long as she had her water cup :)

We enjoyed watching this Orangutan groom himself.

And a picture by the elephants is a must.

We love elephants!

Every year we've been getting each other a little something that corresponds with the "traditional" anniversary gift list, but this year, since the gift was supposed to be leather, I had a brilliant idea! An autographed football! *pats self on back* Its leather and its awesome. I wanted to get him a Tony Romo signed football, but those were like $500 a pop, so I went with another of his favorite players for much less.

(Okay. So actually my first idea was to get him an autographed Cal Ripken Jr. baseball - which I did - I got it super early and I was so proud of myself only to walk up into his office room and see a signed Cal Ripken Jr. autographed ball sitting on a shelf!!!! What?!? How did I not know he had that?!?! Wife fail. So anyways, I panicked, sent it back and got a football instead. I told him the story and he was really excited about the football, so I'll still give myself that pat on the back. ;) )

Later that night we took Reaghan over to my parents. They watched her for us so we could go out to dinner at the Melting Pot (my favorite!)

After the Melting Pot we really tapped in to our romantic sides and went grocery shopping at Trader Joes and Whole Foods! We never get out to these places because they're a good 35 minutes away from our house, but since it was right next to the Melting Pot we really wanted to stop in there and get some of our favorites! I did get a bouquet of wild flowers while we there, so that counts as romance right? Actually, we truly did enjoy ourselves. It's really doing the every day, ordinary things together that remind us so much of why we fell in love. : )

3 years in and a lifetime to go. <3

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Anniversary

2 Year Anniversary Beach Day

7:28 PM

Mark and I celebrated our 2nd Anniversary this past May 12th. With everything thats going on in our lives right now - house projects and preparing for baby we didn't quite get to turn our anniversary into a little babymoon/getaway like we were thinking about back in March. But we didn't need to, we enjoyed a beautiful day together down at the beach with our pup instead.

Our anniversary fell on a Monday, so we both decided to take the day off and spend the whole day together.

We stopped at our favorite little local sandwich shop/bakery/dairy farm - Bergey's Breadbasket - for lunch. They have picnic tables outside so we were able to take Piper with us while we ate.

After lunch we headed to the beach where we spent the rest of the afternoon.

Piper couldn't wait to see where we were at when we got to the beach...

Since it was a Monday, the beach wasn't too crowded. We found a nice open spot to set up our little camp and enjoy the warm sun and the ocean air.

My love and our first "baby".

There are few things better than spending the day with your toes in the sand, sun on your skin and your love by your side. (And your sweet pup.)

After we spent some time just relaxing, we couldn't resist seeing what Piper would do when she got to the water - and Piper had pretty much exhausted all of her patience with us just sitting around when there was so much to do and see! I would apologize for all of the pictures we took, but she's just so cute and we had so much fun playing with her in the water, I had to post them all!

I had to get in for a little bit too - but not too deep because the water was freezing!

Yay for the Baby Bump ;)

I ended up purchasing a maternity swim suit just before Memorial Day, because even though my normal suit fit me fine here - I knew it wasn't going to last very long!

Our sweet girl didn't like laying in the sand after she got all wet, which makes no sense since she loves to get wet and dirty, but we let her have the beach blanket anyways.

After the beach we came home, got cleaned up and exchanged a couple gifts. Spending the day in the sun feels amazing, but it tends to put you in a pretty drowsy, chill state of mind, so we just decided to keep with our laid back Anniversary theme and went to one of our favorite pizza shops for dinner and then got some ice cream for dessert.

The day was perfect. Incredibly relaxing and focused just on spending time together without any distractions. I could never have imagined this beautiful love that God has allowed me to enjoy with this man. Here's to 2 whole years of marriage, many many more years, and a house full of babies to come.

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30 Days of Thanks

30 Days of Thanks - My Husband

8:04 PM

Day 4:

My Hubs. I knew when when I was 16 that he was the man I was going to marry. His friendship over the years, from before we entered into a relationship until now, has been instrumental in shaping me as a person. I am grateful that the Lord allowed us many years of friendship and fellowship as christian brother and sister before falling in love. (Or before allowing love to be woken up.) I love and respect my love for the man that he is. He is my provider, protector, leader and best friend. He challenges me, supports me, and loves me despite all of my short comings. I am blessed.

I dug through some photos today for a very short walk down memory lane with pictures from Mark and I's early years. (Are we still too young to have early years?) Whenever I look at these pictures I marvel at how God granted me one of my deepest desires by giving me Mark.

Our first "couple" picture. Taken after our churches Easter Ministry drama that Mark and I were both a part of that year (March 2008)

College Group Ski Trip (2008)

Missions trip to Costa Rica (Summer 2008)

My 21st Birthday (2009)

My first trip with his family to pick apples (2010)

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Husband

These Hands...

4:52 PM

Yesterday, as we were coming home from our trip, my husband casually reached over to grab my hand, as he usually does when we are in the car for an extended amount of time. The familiar feeling of our joined hands sparked the warm fuzzy feelings that usually accompany Mark's touch. When I looked down and saw our fingers intwined I became aware of how grateful I was for this strong hand that was holding mine.

These hands that work all week to provide our house, our food, our clothes - our livelihood.

These hands that work in the evenings to fix our toilets, our walls, our leaky washing machine and our cars.

These hands that work outside to trim our trees, cut our grass, and kills the bugs I hate!

These hands that throw a ball for our pup and will one day hold our babies.

These hands that open up the scriptures and fold with mine to pray.

I love his hands and how perfectly they fit with mine.

Oh memories of the days when these hands would "accidentally" brush mine before we were dating. Or the way they made my pulse race when he purposefully held my hand for the first time.

How is hands were trembling when he placed the ring on my finger and asked me to be his forever..

The way his hands held mine firmly and surely at the altar as he promised his life to me.

Is this getting too sappy? It probably is. I'm sorry, I just can't help it sometimes! It's good to just take some time and appreciate your husbands love, you know? I am so grateful the Lord saw fit to give me these hands to hold for the rest of my days and I pray that these hands are always strong for their tasks and that their touch always gives me that warm fuzzy feeling.

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Valentines Day!

5 Year Anniversary

3rd Anniversary

2 Year Anniversary Beach Day

30 Days of Thanks - My Husband

These Hands...

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