Celebrating 8 Years

My hubs has been my hubs for eight full years, now. My how time flies.

 

 

We celebrated our anniversary in style by going to a fancy restaurant.

 

We sat outside by the flowers and got to watch the sun set during our meal. Every bite of every single thing we ate was absolutely delicious. We shared a cheese assortment for an appetizer and a berry cobbler for dessert. For our entrees, Bradley chose the "Seared halibut over caramelized fennel and Vidalias in a blood orange vinaigrette," and I picked the "Roasted Amish Chicken over parmesan whipped potatoes in a caramelized fennel, smoked bacon and chive jus." You guys, it was amazing! And each course was paired with a wine that perfectly complimented the taste of the food. We really felt like high rollers.

 

The night was very romantic, and it was fun to celebrate another milestone in such a classy way. We like being fancy every now and then.

 

 

Eight years. It's gone by so quickly, and it's also been forever. I still can't believe it. How have eight whole years already passed us by?

 

Love you, Boo!!

Blessed Valentine

My hubby surprised me with the sweetest gifts this Valentine's Day! Instead of a traditional bouquet of flowers, which I always love, he upped the ante by giving me a live, potted orchid! I've been drooling over live orchids for years, but I've never gotten one, because we already have a fake orchid plant in our house. But Brad thought I'd like one for my desk at work. He was right!

 

And to top it off, he also gave me heart-shaped fruit snacks! (Confession: I may eat Chester's body weight in fruit snacks a day. No judging.) My favorite treats full of extra love! Now this is a guy who knows his way to my heart.

 

I'm a regular ol' girl, so I thoroughly enjoy receiving some flowers and chocolates for Valentine's Day. But these gifts mean even more, because they're unique to me. He knows me and what I'd like, and he gifted me items accordingly. Only my hubs would know to get me these specific presents, not just some random Joe Shmoe from the street. It's nice to feel special. And known. And loved. What a blessed wife I am. ♥

Christmastime 2012 Highlights

Merry Christmastime!! (It applies until January, right?) I hope your Christmas has been wonderful! Mine has been very blessed, indeed.

 

 

Disclaimer: Ever since I got my iPhone for Christmas last year, I've been highly dependent on it for my photos and have, therefore, been negligent with my real camera and bad at taking a good amount of pictures. So, since Instagram has become my more consistent form of mini-blogging, I'll just share the images that I highlighted as they occurred throughout the season.

 

The week before Christmas, Matthew and Heather joined us at the historic Ryman Auditorium for Andrew Peterson's "Behold The Lamb of God" concert.

 

 

The tag line for the show is "The true tall tale of the coming of Christ." Within the concert, they tell the whole story of the Bible in song, from the creation to Jesus' coming and including His crucifixion and resurrection. It's awesome, and a great way to put the focus on Christ at Christmas.

 

And it was so cool to see so many amazing artists and musicians on one stage coming together to proclaim the Good News.

 

Moving on to other highlights, Brad and I won 1st place in our neighborhood's home decorating contest. Again. Holla! We already have big plans to up the ante next year.

 

This year, I bought some Scentsicles to make our artificial tree smell more like a real one. They're scented ornaments that are just fragrance-infused sticks which blend into tree, allowing you to "smell the real smelling smell of a real tree" without seeing the true source. I loved it.

 

We personalized our annual ornament to add to our growing collection. We also (secretly) backlogged one from 2006, which is the only year of our marriage that we failed to commemorate with an ornament. It has been bothering me for six years each time I trimmed our Christmas tree and strolled back down memory lane. I figured if we could get one unique to that year, it wouldn't really be cheating. So we snuck one in honoring our college graduation. Now we officially have an ornament for each year, and in the future, nobody is any the wiser. Trick, trick. Well, except all of you guys. But, shhhh.

 

Brad's family came down early to celebrate the holiday. I didn't take any photos (oops), but here's one that Matthew took of the aftermath. Jeremy got a toy train set, and their dad got a remote controlled helicopter. For not having any children in the family, we still represent the toys!

 

 

While his family was in town, we all went to the Belcourt Theater, which is this old, historic movie theater that plays mostly independent films, classics, or movies with cult followings. We saw one of my Christmas favorites, "Home Alone." It was so much fun to watch such a familiar movie with a large audience. Every time something hilariously unfortunate happened to those darned Wet Bandits and I heard the innocent laughter of children (and adults) all around me, my heart was filled with even more Christmas joy. And I may or may not have taken a picture of the title art as it appeared on the big screen. I hope I don't get arrested for copyright infringement!

 

 

Later in the week, Bradley and I spent an evening in our car driving around town and looking at Christmas lights while we drank some warm coffee. I do love memories like these.

 

We didn't see any of my family this holiday, but we did ship gifts back and forth. My parents let this beauty appear on our doorstep! With their encouragement, we opened it before Christmas morning, and we are so glad we did! We used it to make a couple batches of Brad's delicious eggnog.

 

We kicked off Christmas Eve by going back to the Belcourt Theater to watch "It's A Wonderful Life." They host multiple daily showings of this Christmas Classic every year during the week leading up to the holiday. It may become one of our annual traditions. Watching movies at home without an auditorium full of other film lovers just seems so boring now.

 

When we got home, we swapped our gifts of Christmas PJs, made some cookies from scratch (We seriously love that mixer!), and waited for Santa to come.

 

Christmas Eve just isn't Christmas Eve without a reading of "The Night Before Christmas."

 

Nor would it be complete without boarding the Polar Express!

 

Christmas morning we woke up as a family and exchanged stockings.

 

Chester was anxious to dig into his. I think he was irritated that he could smell bones and treats in the bottom, but he couldn't get to them easily. Even though the sock monkey was initially tossed aside to get to the tasty goodies, he has since played with it a lot. It's actually already missing an ear. Oops.

 

Then we had our traditional Christmas morning breakfast of cinnamon rolls and hot chocolate. Brad tried to make a batch from scratch, but he accidentally killed the yeast and the dough didn't rise. (Yeast is so finicky!) Luckily, we had a tube of Pillsbury on hand. That's still homemade in my book.

 

Later Christmas morning, we finally got to the (other) main event of the day: "Les Miserables"! We had both been so looking forward to this film release, and we were not disappointed. Seriously, go see it. It's amazing. Such great acting and singing and storytelling and visual cinematography!

 

That evening, we had Hill Ridge over for Christmas dinner. With Publix' help, Brad perfectly roasted a ham, and I baked a couple casseroles. Our friends brought over some other side dishes, and we topped off the meal with sparkling grape juice. Oh, and Brad mastered the yeast and made some awesome rolls from scratch. I was thrilled to not only get to spend a great Christmas dinner with our best friends, but also to set my table with my new Christmas dishes!

 

After that, there was nothing else to do but settle in and finish this year's Christmas puzzle.

 

I sure do love Christmastime. I can't wait to finally have children to share all of our traditions with. 

 

How was your Christmas holiday season??

Beach Vaca

A few weeks ago, the hubs and I enjoyed a much needed little vacation in Florida. We're generally more of a "city folk" than "beach people," but we wanted to relax after our first half of 2012, and we had a great time doing that on the coast.

P.S. Please excuse all of the very amature photo editing. I was having fun on my software. :)

The sand was white, and the water was clear. We spent most of the week reading and/or napping on the beach. It.was.wonderful. (Except for the severe sunburn that came from all that reading and/or napping on the beach, but shh.) 

I may or may not have gotten burned badly enough that Brad had to go buy me a souvenir t-shirt to wear instead of the tank tops I packed, just so that I could leave our hotel room.

But it was totally worth it, because he surprised me with a horseback ride on the beach!

Our last day there, we went snorkeling together and saw all kinds of cool water creatures! Sadly, we could not keep them. However, I did steal a few of Florida's finest sea shells!

And, yes, I am wearing a super cool, emergency purchased, surfer girl shirt in order to protect my roasted skin and still be able to get in the water. I was just that awesome.

I believe this is the first appearance of B's finished tattoo on my blog. It makes him look even more B-A, huh? Combined with the aviators... Humina, humina. (Or is that just me?)

Anyway, all sun poisoning aside, we had a really great time hanging out together on the ocean. We're just going to keep on planning and enjoying "babymoons" until that's what one actually is! However, with my fair complexion, the next one may be in the forest!

Seven Years is Legit

We may not have looked that legit back on June 11, 2005. But now, we're the real deal.

Today marks the end of my seventh year as Brad's wife. I love this picture of us acting silly on our wedding day; the first day of my life as a Mrs. to my Mr. I'm starting to look back at our wedding photos and think, "Man, we were just babies!" At the time we thought 21 was sooooo grown up! Ha.

I'm finally beginning to feel like we've been married a long time. Up until recently, I was like, "Oh, we're still newlyweds! We just got married! It seems like only yesterday!" Now, I think, "Wow, we've really been married a long time. Seven years is kind of a big deal. We have accumulated a lot of history and experience as a married couple. We've grown up a lot together over the course of this totally legit marriage."

I thought I might feel sad when the "honeymoon phase" was over, but I actually think I like this part even better. It's real. I know it's real. I'm not worried about what it'll be like when the fantasy is grounded. I trust myself as a wife, and I'm not always wondering what kind of wife I am or want to be and how to be that. And I trust Brad as a husband; trust him to know how to put our marriage first, to treat me in a way that would make our parents proud, and to strive to be the husband God expects him to be. We really have learned a lot together; about ourselves, about each other, about life and finances and responsibilities and friendships and compromises and adulthood and love. I know we'll continue learning various lessons as the years go on. I can't wait to learn how to be a mama to his many precious babies as he masters the art of being an incredible daddy. Hopefully, the eighth year will also be the year we add parenthood to our marriage cocktail. Only God knows that at this point.

Anyway... (Sorry. My brain seems to always find a way to back to babies, right now.)

I feel very blessed to have been able to spend the last seven years as Brad's wife. I'm honored that he chose me to be his One. I'm happy that the dork I fell in love with in high school remains the handsome stud I continue to love today. ...Even more than I ever thought possible back in the day when he held my hand outside my locker.

Love you, B. A whole lot. Happy 7th anniversary, my sweet boy.

Happy Valentine's Day!

My honey surprised me with a dozen roses and some chocolate covered cherries! After our big date night over the weekend I would have been pleased with just the card!

Hope you get to experience some form of love today!

Running across the state

This past weekend, Brad joined a twelve-person team as they ran from Chattanooga to Nashville. Yeah, you read that right. They ran from Chattanooga to Nashville. Obviously, they're crazy.

The annual race is called the Ragnar Relay, and they each take turns running three different legs of the course. They were split up into two group of six runners, and one van would rest/eat/drive while members of the other van consecutively ran their sections. At each exchange, they passed off the baton slap bracelet so the next person could start his/her portion of the relay.

Someone from their team was running every minute for the 30+ hours it took them to arrive in downtown Nashville. Brad's middle run was at 2:30 in the morning. Like I said, these people are crazy.

I've never even heard of people doing such a thing. Who just sits up and thinks, "Gee. I sure would like to take a jog from Chattanooga to Nashville and enjoy the autumn scenery"?  But I can tell you this: I can somewhat understand the sense of accomplishment they must feel. I was tearing up simply watching them run (as a whole team) across the finish line along Nashville's riverfront.

 

I'm so proud of Brad. He trained really hard for this race, kept a faster pace than he expected throughout the entire thing, and helped his team complete the course quicker than they projected. He definitely deserves that medal that so appropriately displays their slogan, "Run. Drive. Sleep? Repeat." Even if he is crazy.

Twenty-Eight

Yesterday, my One and Only turned 28 years old. That's so many candles for one little cake to hold!

We had a pizza party with our neighbors best friends. Then we watched our favorite shows on TV as we gobbled some delicious birthday cake with rainbow chip icing. Yum.

When you're this old, you don't necessarily need a big birthday bash to celebrate. Sometimes a laid-back night with your besties (and Ron Swanson) are all ya need to make your special day special.

I'm just impressed that he managed to blow out all of those candles with one great big huffandpuff!

Happy Birthday, darlin! 28 is going to be a good year; I can feel it!