Hapy 12th Anniversary!

As I am typing this post "Father of the Bride" is on tv. When Dan and I were engaged I watched this movie probably 100 times. I loved it. It's still one of my favorites. I love the original version too.

And 12 years later, here we are!

Over the last 12 years we've had a lot of joys, a lot of challenges, some sorrows--we've experienced life. When I look back at how young we look when we got married (at 24 yrs--we started dating when we were 20) in a way, I feel like we grew up together too.

I'm just really grateful to be married to a man that is committed to being the best Dad and Father that he can be. I'm especially grateful for his strong faith and how he really anchors our home and our family.

We've been attending a marriage class at our church for the last 5 weeks. They have child care there, and we go downstairs to the fellowship hall where there are tables for 2 with candlelight scattered around the room. We enjoy a (surprisingly delicious!) dinner that is served to us while we visit, then our class starts which is done over DVD with little break outs during which time you only talk with your own spouse about the topics discussed. It's been a fun and interesting process. It's a treat to have this meal each week alone with Dan. And it's been fun to learn even more about each other and how we can be better spouses. It's 2 1/2 hours each Sunday night, and while there are nights when we're tired and we wish we could just have a quiet evening at home, after it's over I'm always glad that we went. I'm grateful that Dan is willing to attend these things and continue to prioritize our marriage.

Because our anniversary falls on Mother's Day, Dan and I went out to dinner tonight to celebrate. Just a simple dinner at a Thai restaurant in the very small and quaint downtown of our little town. Nothing fancy. (After our trip, I just felt like doing something easy). Then we drove through the Dairy Queen drive through and got dipped ice cream cones and sat in the car and talked a little more. It doesn't matter what we do or where we go, I'm just happy to have time alone with Dan to talk and be together. That's the best.

Happy Anniversary, Sweetheart!

I love you!

11th Anniversary

Dan and I had a great Anniversary and a fun night out. (He has the kids in the bath while I'm trying to quickly put this together). :) We spent the day working in the yard and letting the kids play outside. I love days like that.

We went to Macaroni Grill for dinner and it was fun because it was prom night! I love to see all of the kids dressed up. Styles have changed a bit since we were young! (Oh my...I'm going to sound SO old and I can't believe I'm about to type this, but perhaps the puffy sleeves and higher necklines will come back around by the time Kaitlin is older. :) Enough said on that. The trend for the guys was to wear a black tux with sparkling white tennis shoes.)

You can probably tell I was completely entertained by the scenery. But I really did enjoy visiting with Dan and having time alone. And the kids had a fantastic time playing with Shannon's girls. You can see from these pictures Shannon shared with me...

Thank you SO much, friends!! We're so grateful that the kids have a fun place to be while we're out for a bit.

This is the same calendar year as when we got married. Married on Saturday the 9th, and Mother's Day on Sunday the 10th. So tomorrow will be another fun day.

Here we are at dinner...it was delicious!

Thanks for the great day, honey! Happy Anniversary!!

11th Anniversary!

(The song playing is the song that Dan and I danced to at our wedding reception).

Happy 11th Anniversary, Honey!!

Dan and I are going to spend the day in the yard with the kids and then we get to go out for a grown up dinner tonight! So I'll have a photo to share later, but for now I thought it would be fun to take a look back and remember a few things that might be fun for the children to know someday....

Here we are the night we got engaged.

I was dying for Dan to propose. We had been dating for 3 years and had from graduated college 6 months earlier. I was in town visiting for the weekend (Dan lived in Portland while I lived with my parents while doing a fellowship). We were downtown and Dan surprised me by suddenly stopping to get on this dinner boat cruise...when we boarded and were seated I saw the flowers on the table (which were accidentally brought too early) and started crying....I knew Dan would probably propose that night.

Which he did. To my delight.

I remember Dan getting down on his knee and someone on the boat saying loudly, "He's proposing!!!"

After he proposed and I said "yes" there was cheering and the singer sang "Night and Day"--which we were so pleased with because we love Frank Sinatra.

Dan worked SO hard to make the night special. Something he could do much easier now, but at that time it required SO much effort, planning and forethought. I still appreciate how hard he worked to make it a special memory. It still is.

Here we are at the engagement party my parents hosted the next month. I was SO excited to be getting married. I knew Dan was the person for me very shortly after I had met him. It felt like I had to wait a long time for this day!

On our wedding day!! I love this picture. Walking down the aisle toward the rest of our life...not knowing what the future would hold but knowing we wanted to experience it together.

And then photos from our honeymoon...We went to Lake Tahoe. The goal was to find somewhere CHEAP. :) Dan broke his leg at a company softball game the first month after he started his job. He had to spend the night at the hospital....His health insurance hadn't started yet and so a portion of our honeymoon money needed to pay for Dan's leg. So we looked for someplace inexpensive that still felt honeymoon-ish and we landed on Lake Tahoe. The problem was, it was off season for everything...too warm to ski, too cold to enjoy water sports, so honestly the wasn't much to do! We rationed out one activity a day (one thing being a time share lecture...yes, we were that desperate for something to do. But they gave us chips for the casino so we could go play roulette)! We were the masters of stretching $10 in the casino (we loved roulette) and walked away one night with some big winnings and so we splurged on room service which felt SO extravagant! :) (We were small town kids).

Most of all, we were just happy to be together.

Frank Sinatra died while we were on our honeymoon, so that day our activity was to go to the "Cal-Neva" resort that Frank had owned.

This photo was our dinner cruise on Lake Tahoe--I remember it was FREEZING and rainy (I didn't pack appropiate clothing).

And here is our very humble first home....

It was a one bedroom apartment. I remember there was an elderly lady that lived next door to us named "Beverly." She had a tanning bed in her tiny living room! She used it regularly. :)

Our budget was nonexistent when we first got married. In the sense that we paid our bills and then had a small amount left over for food and that was IT. (Dan's starting salary was far from impressive and I didn't have a job yet). I don't remember this ever bothering me as I always knew it would get better. But it definitely was stressful at times. One of the things I remember was that Dan had to wear dress clothes to work 4 days a week, and could wear khakis on Friday. His dress pants kept tearing and right before I got my job he was down to one pair. We couldn't afford to buy another pair but really wanted to be independent and not ask for help from our parents. I remember my Mom asking what Dan might like for his birthday...we said "dress pants!" She kindly bought them a little bit early.

We ate out by going to Costco for dinner because it was $1.50 for a drink and a sausage. We used to laugh and wonder if the people thought to themselves, "There is that couple that never buys anything and just comes to eat!" But its a fond memory for us now.

It took 3 months to find a job. I remember spending my time scrubbing the apartment, working on various little projects, and watching too much tv...The days at home sometimes felt long as I didn't have friends close by and Dan worked long hours. I didn't know my way around the city and was scared to venture too far. So I'd drive down the street to Linen's N Things and wander the aisles. Never buying anything, but it was an outing! When Dan got home from work sometimes we'd drive around and dream of having our own home someday.

The first year of our marraige was hard. While I was happy to be married to Dan, I was lonely (Dan was in public accounting and worked a lot of long hours) and I was extremely homesick. (Poor Dan...I cried a lot of tears). But we hung in there. Lately I've seen that difficult times just bring us closer together.

I remember after I was hired for my first "real" job (in pharmaceutical sales) we finally had some extra money--I felt SO rich!) :) We took $40 out of the cash machine for something and it felt like an incredible amount of money.

Things have changed in so many ways since these early days. Not only our life, but who we are as well.

I'm so lucky to be married to such a wonderful person. Dan's character runs deep. I am always amazed at the goodness that resides in his heart. I'm the recipient of much patience and tolerance (even when I'm not deserving of it) as well as kindness and love. He tries so hard to be a good Dad, husband and Christian. I'm grateful to be married to someone who is constantly trying to grow and improve himself. He's a great example for his boys to follow. And he really makes life fun. His personality is unique and is the type of person that stands out in a crowd. (Not just because he's tall and LOUD.) :) I love his booming laugh and how his eyes crinkle when he smiles. That is what drew me to him in the first place. He has the happiest eyes.

I'll stop there and save the rest for his card....

Happy 11th anniversary, Dearest.

First Anniversary....(I'm not sure what is going on with my hair in this picture).

Second Anniversary....

Third Anniversary....

Fourth Anniversary....

I was 8 months pregnant (weighing in at 63 more pounds than I do now!) on our 5th anniversary and that's when this tradition ended! :)

Happy 10th Anniversary!!!

Friday, May 9th was our 10th anniversary. Dan's parents offered to come down and watch the kids so we could go out to celebrate. We went to one of our favorite restaurants in downtown Portland on the waterfront. The last time we had the opportunity to go there was for my 31st birthday when I was expecting Andrew! So it really was a special treat. The weather was beautiful and it was so wonderful to have a chance to sit together, have an uniterrupted conversation, and enjoy the view of the river. We had a wonderful time.

Here we are 10 years ago...

And on our Anniversary....


10 years into our marriage, we've built a really beautiful life that I love. Of course it isn't perfect, and we have our own challenges, but I feel so incredibly blessed to have the husband and children that I have. I won't embarrass my husband by saying too much...he knows how wonderful I think he is and how deeply I love him. Happy 10th Anniversary, sweetheart!!