Happy Anniversary!

9 years-a long time, right?! I think so too! 9 years ago I was lucky enough to marry my honey and "high school sweetheart," J. We have been together for half of my life-having been together for 16 years (this October, but I figure I can round up, right?)! Crazy! Good crazy that is.
Tonight we went here...
for the first time. It was great! J and I love to try new restaurants and he picked this one. Great job, honey! We loved it! I love that we go new places together. It's probably one of my favorite things to do with J. We shared an appetizer (spicy sausage pizza) and a dinner (cracker crusted walleye). Then our server brought us one of his favorite desserts (banana cake) in honor of our day. It was so thoughtful! After dinner we went to Sebastian Joe's for more dessert (Oreo and Nicollet pot hole ice cream). It was great!

When we got home, we exchanged gifts. Yes, we still do gifts...one of those things we like doing for each other. J got me flowers (the usual), which I love and appreciate. But then we saw this sitting in front of us:

Yes, you are seeing the same thing on the table! It was the first time EVER that we had given each other the same gift! Guys...prepare yourself...I gave J a gift card for a massage. Something he's wanted to do for a while (I think!). And he gave me a gift for a facial and a pedicure-2 of my favorite things! We couldn't believe we got each other the same thing! I guess that's what happens when you've been married for a while!

As we sat tonight and thought about what we had done in past years on our anniversary, we thought about most of the years, but not all. So my recommendation would be...write down what you do on your anniversary, even if it's nothing! Because, often they blend together like ours have started to! This is what we came up with:
9th-today-I just wrote about it!
8th-dinner at Stella's, dessert at Zeno, movie
7th-can't remember right now
6th-trip to Duluth and then to a friend's cabin
5th-in the hospital with the kids! They were 3 days old.
4th-stayed at the St. Paul Hotel, dinner at W. A. Frost
3rd & 2nd-we can't remember these...I have to look back at pictures to see what we did!
1st-stayed downtown and went a few different places

So, those are my thoughts for tonight. I am so blessed to have been married for 9 years to the man I love with all my heart. Thank you for picking me, J. I love you.

35 years...

...and counting! That's how long my parents have been married. It's a long time! I think about that and can't believe how they continue to show such a strong example of love and what it means to have a marriage..
Thanks, mom and dad, for continuing to be that model for me and J; for showing us what love can look like, 35 years later. I love watching the little things you do to show each other how you care.
Here's to another 35 years of marriage! Happy Anniversary (yesterday!)! I love you!

Happy Birthday, Mom!

Happy Birthday, Mom!
Happy Birthday, Mamma!

We love you so much and are so thankful to have you as a Mom/Mamma. You're the best I could ask for. We are blessed to have you so close to love us so much. We are the lucky ones because you're around.

I love you, Mom.

No Words

Did I mention...

...that our children are turning 4 on Sunday? Yes...4!!! We cannot believe we have had 4 years with our kiddos already! 4 wonderful, tiring, fast, energetic, slow, amazing, loving years. 4.

Vacation Bible School

Right after school got out the kids spent a week of mornings at our church for VBS or Vacation Bible School. They did it last year when they were two, but they didn't do all of the things the "big kids" did. And, they don't remember it at all. So this year was a lot of fun because it seemed to be new to them. Their friend Connor came with too, which made it even better, especially for C.C, A and Connor had a great time at VBS! They were always all smiles when we picked them up!

A & C had 2 great group leaders-Ashley and Sydney. It's kind of cute because A always says "Cindy" for Sydney. She would start talking about something they did that day and would be talking about Cindy. It wasn't until the third day that we finally figured out she was talking about Sydney. Funny!

The last day of VBS ended with a family evening back at church. It started out by singing a lot of the songs they learned during the week. Needless to say, I now know all of them because we bought the CD. It's on in our car all the time! I guess there are worse things to hear over and over again! Then we participated in a service project of making blankets for families that come to the church for various things. At first we thought this would be an impossible task for our kiddos, but as it turned out, with the right scissors and lots of patience, we were actually able to do it!

The tying part was a little tricky, but watching meant just as much!

The working scissors...Thanks for helping, C! We had a great meal afterwards which was much appreciated. I'm sure the kids will love to go again next year.

Everyone Loves a Wedding!

Our friends Tim & Mel got married last month at a beautiful ceremony outside (but inside). The rain didn't have an impact on their beautiful day, that's for sure!

Everyone had a great time at the wedding and at the reception. We always do when it's one of J's friends getting married.
This was the yummy centerpiece we had for dessert. It reminded me a lot of our wedding in that sense because we had cakes for our centerpiece too. It's a great way to go because you get the centerpieces and cake all in one!

The reception was at a golf club which was very pretty and in the middle of nowhere. Lucky for us, it stopped raining so we were able to enjoy the deck a bit.

As I said, the boys always have a great time when they're together. Needless to say you can see this from the picture!

The best part of the night was that they ended it with a candy bar. Genius! What a great thought to get everyone through the night. Especially the us...I mean the kids at the wedding! We had a fun (and long) night!

Congrats to Tim & Mel! (Thanks to Em for letting me post this picture of them! She's a great photographer! M Photography)