Eight Reasons Why I Love My Husband

March 23rd was my eight year anniversary with my husband Rodney.  There are so many reasons why I love him, but I thought I'd list eight of them here in honor of our eight years together as husband and wife.  Here they are, in no particular order:

1 - He is tall, dark, and handsome!  Here we are on our wedding day eight years ago - see for yourself, isn't he adorable???

2 - He compliments me often, even when I am hugely pregnant, wearing no makeup, or have gained a few pounds.  His compliments are genuine and sincere, and make me feel really good about myself.

3 - He LOVES his children.  Loves them.  And he tells them every single day.  When they grow up, they will remember their dad being very loving towards them, and that makes me very happy.  He will often get tears in his eyes when he's talking about his kids.

4 - He loves my daughter Lindsey as his own.  He is technically her stepdad, but he never says that she is his stepdaughter.  She is his daughter in every possible way.  I could never put into words how thankful I am for this.

5 - A few weeks ago, he took our six year old daughter on a date.  She chose an expensive steak house type restaurant to go to (even though she is a vegetarian - she wanted their salad and mashed potatoes!) so that's where they went.  He came to the front door to pick her up and brought her flowers, and took her to the bookstore afterwards.  He is teaching her the way boys and men should treat her, and I love him for that.

6 - He works extremely hard for our family so that I can have my dream job of staying home with my kids.  I feel so lucky that he wants me to stay home and that he supports me in doing so.  He also listens and seems interested when I tell him about all of the "mundane" details of my day as a stay at home mom.  He's only asked me what I do all day a few times - haha!

7 - He is not a romantic per se, but he does some really romantic things.  When I walked downstairs on our anniversary, there were a dozen red roses waiting for me, and the sweetest card I've ever gotten from anyone.  He always writes a note to me in every card he gives me and I will cherish those little notes forever.  Several years ago he left me little "love notes" all over the house - I found them in drawers, cabinets, stuck to the mirror in the bathroom, etc. 

8 - He is not afraid to be silly and act like a kid.  He makes up songs and dances and acts crazy often.  He also plays on the playground like a ten year old.  I love that.

So, there are eight of the (millions) of reasons I love my husband.  I feel so lucky to be married to such a wonderful man!

Happy anniversary, Rodney!  I love you!!!

Sick =(

We can't seem to get rid of the sickies around here. Well, at least poor Emily can't. Two weeks ago, she got a really bad virus where she had a fever above 102-103 for five LONG days. Today, she got off the bus with yet another fever - this time 102.6 - and she has STREP! My poor sweet girl =(

In between taking care of Emily and playing with a fussy baby boy who would rather pull outlet covers out of plugs than play with his toys (!), I also pulled a muscle or pinched a nerve in my neck/shoulder this afternoon. The fun never ends! ARGH!!!

On a more fun note, the weather is AWESOME here - total springtime weather going on! I need to make something "springish," so I'm making some of these from Shelley's blog - they are fun but I have about a million more to make to cover the wreath I have! Look how pretty Shelley's wreath turned out:



Also, I'm very excited about this giveaway I ran across on Make It and Love It - I've been wanting one of these camera straps for, well, forever! And now I can win one - I figure I am due for SOME luck after today, right????

We have a big dance competition this weekend (on Sunday) so I'm looking forward to that - just praying Lindsey doesn't get strep between now and then!

Have a good weekend everyone!!!

Lucky...

I don't know



how



I got so LUCKY.



Out of all the moms in the world, God chose me



to be theirs.



I am so thankful



that I get to be



the Mommy of these three crazy, beautiful, loving, perfectly imperfect little people.



Thank you, God!!!

Happy St. Patrick's Day to everyone! It sure has been a lucky day for me!

PS - here is last year's St. Patty's Day picture - what a difference a year makes!

Carter's Circus Party

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We had Carter's MUCH anticipated circus birthday party last weekend - I still can't believe that my baby boy is ONE! SOB!!!


As usual, my party planning went into overdrive on this one, and I had SOOOO much fun putting it all together. With the help of my mom (who always goes along with my whims!) and my best friend (who stayed the night before until after 11pm to help me decorate), I was able to pull off a pretty cute party for my sweet baby boy.


We held the party at our community's clubhouse - it was easier and bigger to accomodate all of our guests. However, it was a little difficult to decorate such a big, blank space. I felt like I had TON of decorations, until I got there!


First off - here he is - my BEAUTIFUL boy!!! Be still my heart!



This is the shirt my mom helped me sew - note to self, don't attempt sewing in a circle the first time you even touch a sewing machine! It wasn't pretty - thankfully my mom was there to rescue me!



Now for the decorating fun - first, the outside - we had a few games set up (I didn't have alot of time to put this part together, so don't laugh at how pitiful they are!) and we tried to make the outside of the door look like a circus tent!






Entry table with the favors (boxes of animal crackers!) and month by month banner I made in Photoshop:




This is a TERRIBLE picture of the amazing banner my mom made - she's so talented! It was adorable!



A couple of centerpieces - I had bigger plans for these, but these were what I had time for and they were cute enough!




The candy bar - the biggest hit of the party with the kids! The painting on the wall (you may see a couple more in other pics) was done by my dad when he was EIGHT years old! How cute are they? And so special to be able to use them at my son's first birthday party =)






The "concession stand" - this was before all the food was put out. We had hotdogs, popcorn, soft pretzels, peanuts and chips - circus food!



The adorable cakes - Carter's "smash" cake got a little pre-smashed when it was taken out of the box - ha!




Carter's high chair bunting - made by my mom:



Cute photo opp that I purchased at Hobby Lobby:



I also had a "photo booth" set up with a clown wig, glasses and a clown nose, but it was super windy and the place we had it set up outside wasn't the best idea - so it wasn't my "vision" but at least I got this shot of my dad - ha!



Carter was none too thrilled with his cake - nor his party hat which I made and he wore for approximately 2.2 seconds! At least I snapped a quick picture!





A few more pics of our fun day! Happy birthday, my sweet, sweet boy!









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