What I've Learned

Yesterday was our three year wedding anniversary. Brian and I got married March 29, 2008 at 4:00 p.m. I had the great honor of having the wedding of my dreams and having my family and friends present for the big day. This time three years ago we were on our way to Jamaica, where we had a blast. Today it is a dreary, rainy day and I am sitting at work - what a difference three years makes!

I have learned a lot in the three short years we have been married, here are a few that come to mind:

Brian doesn't know how to hang his towel up after taking a shower
He doesn't know that we have a closet, you know the place where you hang your clothes up and put your shoes up
He also doesn't know where the trash can is located in our house
He is however learning that we have a dish washer, but he hasn't quite gotten the hang of how to load it yet
He does not know how to make the bed up
He has no idea what our monthly budget is and I have given up on placing him on one
He thinks we only have two channels on our tv - the outdoor channel and ESPN
He does not like to travel, which he kept a secret until we got married
He can't stay awake to watch a movie to save his life

Oh, I am sure I can come up with lots more things, but even despite all these lovely qualities I love Brian more today than I could have possibly thought imaginable three years ago. Is that possible?

Marriage isn't about picking up after yourself (although that would be nice), it is about compromise and love and Brian does these unconditionally. He loves me for who I am, not who he wishes I could be. He accepts all of my faults and believe me I have a lot. I am just glad that Brian doesn't blog because then you would read the little things that I do that drive him nuts!

In short, I married Brian three years ago because he had become my best friend and of course I thought he was cute too. But in those three short years I realized something about him that I never knew - he is the most amazing Father to Hayden. He loves that little girl more than life itself and that my friend makes me happy. I knew he was good with kids, but to see him with her is something else entirely.

Brian and I aren't lovey dovey, that just isn't us - we like to pick on each other and make fun of each other, not in hurtful ways, but in fun ways. That's just us, it is how we work.

So what did we do for our 3rd anniversary? Well amazingly enough Brian washed the dishes for me after I cooked and while I was giving Hayden a bath, then we watched Elmo, while Brian fell asleep in the chair - HA!

We also exchanged gifts - sort of:
The traditional gifts for the 3rd anniversary are leather - if you remember we are doing this and by we I mean me.

So this year I got Brian a leather belt with silver AU logos on it and Brian got me, well Brian doesn't really do gifts so much either so this weekend we are going to the beach, just the two of us, and he said I can pick something out!

Waiting

Is it ever going to rain??



We wore our rain boots to church yesterday, anticipating the rain and Hayden got more sweet little comments. She knew she was something else the way she kept kicking up her feet! And before the rain came, we did find a little puddle for her to splash in walking back to our car after church.

Book Review

I LOVE to read! I have so many books, my shelves are overflowing. I have several on my nightstand at any given moment and I always have at least two with me at all times. I don't read more than one at a time of course, but you never know when I might finish one and can immediately start on the next one.

I have just finished a book that was amazing! Actually the last two books I have read have been great so I wanted to give you a little review in case you are looking for something new to read. I have already recommended the first one to a friend that is expecting her first child, but of course I told her to wait a few months before she starts this one.

The first is Real Moms...Real Jesus - By Jill Savage, she is a great writer and definately helps to relate things on everyone's level. You can find a link to her blog somewhere to the left, she updates it several times each week with little stories, quotes, etc.

Let me just say that this book completely changed my life! I view parenting and everything that goes along with it totally different now and I hope I never take a day or any of the interruptions for granted.

Here are a few things (of many) that I highlighted or underlined while reading and I really wanted to share them with you.

"The profession of motherhood is about meeting the needs of others, caring for them physically, emotionally, and relationally. It requires a giving heart, a selfless spirit, and a strong sense of identity to serve generously" (that sounds tough doesn't it?)

"They say with kids more is caught than taught. What they see us do is far more important than what we tell them to do. They follow our example and grow up to be more like us than we'd sometimes like them to be. They "catch" our good and bad. Many of the things I do as a mother I do because I'm following the example of my mother. But she's not the only example I have to follow...

Personally I'm thankful to have a God who not only says "Do as I say," but also, "Do as I do." He led by example and showed us it is doable."

"Jesus modeled for us to how to handle the demands that are placed upon us. His strategies included prayer and knowing how to find quiet moments in the midst of chaos. He understands. He gets it. He knows what it feels like for everyone to want a piece of you."

If you are a mom, you know what it is like to finally have a moment to yourself early in the morning, late in the evening, just after dinner, in the bathroom, in the shower, etc. only to be interuppted suddenly by a crying child, a toddler that just can't wait to show you something or a husband who just doesn't "get it" right? Well here is what Jill says about those moments and this is one of the main things I took away from this reading, this is what has changed me the most! "What I've had to do is learn to see those moments not as interruptions, but rather God appoitments. Those are moments that I didn't plan for, but God did." Isn't that just amazing, I had never taken a moment realize that???

There are so many other things that I took away from this book that I can't possibly type them all here but I will leave you with one last truth that hit home with me. I am busy, my calendar fills up every single month. I have doctor visits, meetings for work, cook-outs with family and friends, trips to the zoo, date nights with brian, shopping trips, work conferences, and so many other things. The life of a working mother I suppose. But the book makes this statement that I highlighted for a reason. "I fill my hours with dentist, orthodontist, and doctor appoitments and don't even pencil in an appoitment with God. Yet God waits..." Can you imagine that God waits? I don't want God to wait on me, I would rather my Doctor wait on me, but not God. I had never thought about him waiting on me, that is heartbreaking to me that I have caused him to wait on me!

The Zoo

What a wonderful weekend we had! I am so sad that it is over, but already looking forward to our next one. We don't have anything planned for this coming weekend, except we are having some friends over on Saturday night to grill out. I suppose we will just get outside and enjoy the sunshine again and I can say we are all getting a little bit of color to our pale arms and legs with all of the beautiful sunshine!

Saturday morning we got up and headed to the Zoo. It was crowded, but not too bad and it didn't seem to bother any of us and we never had to wait at any particular place, although we stayed away from the playground.

We signed up for the train ride, and to feed the giraffes - awesome day!

Look how close we were, we petted them and fed them - amazing to be that close to animals that are that BIG!





Train ride - Hayden was so good during this she just sat still and looked around at all the sights.



And of course these two ended the trip with their favorite sweet.

It's the Weekend!

For some reason this week has been dragging and I couldn't be happier that it is the weekend. Looking forward to enjoying the outdoors with Brian, Hayden and Maggie! Brian will be working some outside the house on the lawn and I will continue doing a little Spring Cleaning! Out with the old is my new motto and so far so good.

And with another week under our belts, Brian and I are only two weeks away for enjoying some peace and quite here...



That's right - we are heading to the Beach in a couple of weeks and it will be just the two of us! We love this place, it is The Grand Sandestin and this was the very first place we ever took Hayden to on vacation. We traveled there almost two years ago when Hayden was only 6 weeks old! And we haven't been back since, so we are ready for some good food and good music and hopefully good weather.

So instead of lounging around here this weekend...



(yep this is the pool)

We will be hanging out with these guys (in their defense, aren't they so cute?)



You got it - we are heading to the zoo! Get out and enjoy your weekend, we plan too!

Time to Read

We love to read at our house, it is quite possibly one of our most favorite things to do.



I am pretty sure she gets this from her Momma, it is definately not one of Daddy's most favorite ways to pass the time...

Nighty Night

This past Saturday we headed to Gram and Pap's house to celebrate my Dad's Birthday. We had a wonderful time and I always look forward to these times together. I have always loved getting together with my parents and my sisters, but now that I have my own little one these times are so much sweeter. I didn't even pull out my camera until we were just about to leave because honestly we just never had time. There was never a moment when the girls were being still. And as you will see the only pictures I took were when the two little ones were confined in a small space!

We all enjoyed everyone's company and of course not everyone was in attendance. It is Spring Break week, which meant my older sister and her family were in Disney World (a little jealous) and Lesley's hubby is on a Mission Trip in South America. But even though they were missed we still had a good time. I will tell you this, Hayden adores Reagan and Gracen, she talks about them ALL the time. She says their names in the morning and at night, she constantly interupts me while I am saying our nightly prayers and says their names at which time I say a little prayer for them and she seems satisfied like she was telling me that is what she wanted me to do! I hope these precious relationships continue over the years and that we get to spend more and more time together.

As I was saying these pictures are the only ones I took because they couldn't run around. I wish I had one with Reagan in it, because Hayden follows Reagan around and tries to do everything she does, when Reagan runs, Hayden runs, when Reagan is loud, Hayden is loud - so needless to say it was a rowdy evening at Gram and Paps!

Toward the end of the evening we all somehow managed to convene in the back bedroom where we change diapers and the crib is located. The two little ones played in the crib and we told them to be quiet and go nighty night. They both pretended to be asleep, until I pulled out the camera and as you can see Gracen LOVES the camera so she posed!





I can only imagine what would happen if these two actually slept together overnight. So until next time, Nighty Night!

New Furniture

I am so thankful for our new furniture! It seems as though it was such an ordeal to get it, but thankfuly it is here now and we are really enjoying having a sofa and loveseat again. We went for a little over a month without either, we made do of course and I think Hayden really loved it because the den area became her playroom. It seemed impossible for me to keep the den clean and honestly I just decided to let it go.

But now we have our new furniture and we love it, but isn't it funny how when you get one new thing it always leads to so much more? Next on our list are new end tables and a new coffee table and hopefully after that a new dining room suite. We have a coffee table now, but we are just choosing not to put it out at the moment. It is glass, just like the end tables and we both prefer bigger wooden tables now.

Here are a couple of pictures, we still have some work to do - but we love it! Thanks for your help Dad, I know it was such a pain, but well worth the wait for us.