Category Archives: Love

First night away…

I’m sitting in a hotel room in Florida right now and it’s bright and very, very quiet. Too quiet. I’d turn on the TV, but is there ever anything good on in the afternoon? I don’t remember as we haven’t had cable for a long time. I’m watching the clock and I know that Josh is on his way to pick up the kiddos and while most people would probably be out exploring and enjoying the quiet… I just feel a tad lonely. I’m not used to having an evening alone without rowdy chaos, you know? I think one of my coworkers has plans, and the other, I’m not sure. Like me, she’s quiet and introverted as well. Anyway, what better time to share a few December pics that I haven’t yet!

It’s hard to believe that it’s already almost February. We’ve had a remarkably mild winter, so it hasn’t felt as long as usual. Still, it’s 72 degrees where I am now, so perhaps in between slightly boring insurance convention classes/workshops tomorrow I’ll sneak out and step into the warm sunshine for a bit. I’ll at least make an attempt to not miss my family on a ridiculous level and wonder what they’re doing and if the kiddos miss mama or not. I’ll hope that Phoebe goes easy on her daddy and doesn’t pull one of her “Mama only or I’ll scream until I wake my brother up” cries in the middle of the night.

Will I sleep better than I have in a long time tonight? Maybe. Part of me says I will because there won’t be a monitor next to my head where every tiny little cough or movement wakes me up, but then part of me wonders if I won’t just subconsciously be listening for tiny baby snores and will wake up in a panic when I don’t hear any other sounds in a dark empty room. Ack, being a mama is harder than I ever thought it would be. It’s nice, though, to have someone to miss. I wouldn’t trade it for the world and maybe this little break is exactly what I need to really appreciate just how much I love those stinkers (husband included), rough days and all.

4 Years

Today marks 4 years of marriage for Josh and I. We’ve been together a total of 7 years, and it’s amazing to think just how quickly that time has passed and how much has changed. I also realized that I never actually posted many pictures from our wedding either… mostly just on Facebook for family and friends to see, but not much beyond that. So, I’m going to post a bunch now simply because I loved our wedding. 🙂

We had our wedding reception in a barn, which I had always wanted. Plus, the price was right and it was ours the entire day with lots of room outside for the ceremony and to just enjoy the day afterwards.

We made pretty much everything ourselves. It didn’t always save us money, but it definitely made everything more personal (the tables were each named after a random place we’d gone to). We had so much help from family and friends the day of when it came time to set up and then take down – we couldn’t have done it alone, and I’m so grateful for all the help we received that day.

Yep, we had a candy bar… cliche, but so perfect and it was gone fast!

We had a mix of elements going on what with paper cranes and a variety of sari fabrics I’d collected for use in the middle. I also love marigolds, so there were pots of those at each table. We had chopsticks at each plate because we went with Chinese Buffet for the meal. Needless to say, it was a big hit.

Getting ready time! Not the most glamorous place to get ready, but having someone else do my makeup and hair wasn’t in the budget. Plus… I didn’t want to risk looking too different than what I look like normally.

And I didn’t even end up having to do my own hair, anyway. 😉

First look kiss.

More color! Kind of an ongoing theme.

My brother got ordained online and married us, and was definitely the perfect way to go. Josh and I didn’t want a long ceremony (short and sweet is more our style), and we were able to make it our own. Daniel started things off Princess Bride style (“Mawage is wot bwings us togedder tooday”) and about 10 minutes later we were married. Yeah, we didn’t realize it was going to be quite that short, but never actually did a practiced read-through. Whoops!

Husband and wife!

Oh yeah, Chinese food.

Yes, that is our cake. So much fun!

Also, very tasty. It was funfetti because we are 12.

While there was some dancing, neither of us really enjoy it, so we decided that we’d rent a projector and have Rock Band available to play. Lots of fun, especially since Rock Band was much more popular 4 years ago. Does anyone play Rock Band anymore??

Further evidence as to how organized we were… we almost forgot to sign the marriage certificate entirely. Thankfully Lyle (the fabulous man behind the camera) reminded us that we should probably do that.

And then the night was soon over, but not until we lit our lantern. Full of many wishes and hopes for the future… many of which have most certainly come true.

Happy Anniversary, Babe.

Date Night… er… Day

While I’m a lot more comfortable leaving Phoebe and Enzo in someone else’s care than I was when it was just Enzo, Josh and I don’t really go out on dates all that often. We have a few babysitters (in the form of family), but schedules don’t always coincide so more often than not we just hang out as a family on the weekend. Honestly? I’m okay with that. However, Josh and I have discovered that sometimes the easiest way to spend time alone is to just take a day off of work, drop the kids off at day care, and then do whatever the heck we want to. In February it ended up snowing on our day off, so after we went out to breakfast we went home, snuggled up with the cats, and watched ‘The Hobbit.’ Wild, right?

This month, though, we thought it would be fun to get out and go to a couple of breweries and hit up some antique stores, something we both enjoy as you never know what kinds of oddities you might stumble upon. Breakfast is my favorite meal of the day, and I wanted to try somewhere we hadn’t been before, so we went to The Freehouse, which also happened to sort of be on our way to Stillwater. What better way to start the day then with a beer tasting, right?

The food was also really, really good. Mine was basically hash browns covered in eggs and cheese, and while that might sound boring, it was definitely not bland and I ate until I thought I would explode. The beer was also quite tasty, and we each found a combo that we enjoyed (out of 7 total). I’m usually not a fan of really hoppy beers, but apparently my taste buds have been changing as those along with the stout were my favorites.

It was a little chilly and overcast, but we bundled up and walked around Stillwater anyway stopping in at just about every antique store that was open, or at least as many as we had time for. I forgot just how big some of these stores are, and my wish list kept growing and growing at each one we went to. There was one in particular that had the most amazing furniture and suddenly my daydreams of owning a small home near the beach turned into owning a castle on the moors of Scotland. One can dream, right? Granted, each store also had its own share of nightmare inducing horrors such as one of the worst examples of taxidermy I’ve seen.

Those eyes will haunt me forever.

Eventually breakfast wore off, and we decided it was time to get more sustenance and libations. We hadn’t been to the Lift Bridge Brewery, so we headed over for one of their tastings and ordered pizza from a local place to deliver while we were there. I wish I could remember the name of the pizza joint because they had the most amazing garlic bread knots. Lift Bridge also had a fantastic stout, and after our tasting I tried out their root beer, which is equally awesome.

All in all, it was a day well spent, and now we’re just planning next month’s date.

3 Years

Today it’s been 3 years since Josh and I were married.

We’ve been reminiscing a lot lately and talking about just how much has happened in the past 6 years we’ve been together. I think it started when I realized I had a ton of emails from when we first began dating. I didn’t even realize how fast things moved. Within a couple months we were already talking about living together and in 6 months we were talking about moving from Colorado to Minnesota. It all just felt so right to move quickly, though… so meant to be.

Moving was a big step for us, and it had its ups and downs, but now look at us… we’ve got a 14 month old and another on the way. It feels very surreal at times. I look back at me 6 years ago and it seems funny to think of where we are now.

I wouldn’t change of any of it… I’ve been exceptionally lucky in finding someone who can put up with my crazy so well. 😉 Ha ha.

Grateful

Feeling especially grateful for this little man, and family in general today.

Dino and Bunnies

Every day adventures