Happy Anniversary!

Scott,

Today we have been married 8 years! When comparing it to the tomorrows we have left, 8 years doesn't seem like long, but comparing it to the yesterday's past, I feel like 8 years is a lifetime. And it has been a lifetime. I feel like my life really started over when we started dating.

More has happened in the last 8 years of our lives than the previous 22 it seems. And we've been through it all together. We have experienced some incrediably high high's. Getting our first jobs, buying our first few homes, starting our own family traditions, having a baby, and another baby and another baby, financial peaks, amazing friendships, watching loved ones get married and have babies, getting to know each other better, getting to know our parents and siblings on a different level, getting to know ourselves better.

We have also experienced some low low's. Job loss, DEATH, religious differences, the stress of being apart when you're traveling. I know there is more that aren't coming to mind now. Those aren't the things that stick to my memory.

And now 8 years later we are stronger, more in love, better people, because we experienced all of these things together. We were just babies when we got married and we heard the statistics. We knew we wouldn't be a statistic. And we aren't. We could have been. We could still be. But we won't. We won't because we don't want to be. Because we love each other that much. Not because we have kids or because we share a bank account or because of what other people would think. Because we love each other. That much.

I am not ashamed to say that we haven't always had a perfect marriage. Anyone who says they do is lying. I am happy to say that we have a really solid, incrediable, loving, accepting, understanding marriage. All because we have earned it. Because we try. Because we are best friends. Because we are a team. We are two halves to a whole. We need each other and we know that.

I love you, Scott. More than words can ever express....

Scott

I've been MIA. It's a long story. I'll get to that another day.

In honor of my anniversary and Valentine's Day, I am dedicating this week of blog posts to Scott.

After 8 years of marriage and 2 years of dating, I am still realizing things about Scott that I love every day. Today while I was laying on the couch in the fetal position and Scott was cleaning the kitchen, bathing the kids, taking out the trash, etc., I realized that Scott really steps up.

I am a helicopter. I hover over everyone in my household, basically telling them how to do everything. It is a weakness of mine for sure. I remember when Scott and I had only been married for a very short time I got on to him one morning for not making the bed the right way. He, very sweetly, told me that he was more than willing to make the bed every morning, but it wasn't going to look exactly like it did when I made it. He had a little different technique and it looked just as nice, just a little different. So, if I wanted him to make the bed I had to let him do it and stop hovering over him telling him how to do it. I didn't ask again. I liked the way I did it and didn't want him to mess it up. Helicopter.

Since I have been staying home for the last 5 years I have gotten even worse about this. It's hard for me to let other people do things around the house because they don't do it the way I do it, and come on, I do it pretty well so why wouldn't they do it the way I do. This is a monster I have created, however, I get frustrated with everyone else (aka Scott) for not helping out enough. I am aware that this is not fair, however, it's hard for me to remember that from time to time.

I haven't been feeling well lately. As I laid on the couch and watched Scott perform all of the things I normally do, I was so impressed with how good he actually is at it all. It got me to thinking about all the times when I needed help, but was too proud to ask, and Scott stepped up to the plate.

Every time I get pregnant Scott goes into training it seems. He works out harder, eats healthier, and works harder so that he is in his prime for when the baby comes.

Charlotte wakes up ridiculously early some days and then goes down for a morning nap before the rest of the family is even awake. If I doze back off with Charlotte, Scott gets up with the boys and makes them breakfast and lets me sleep.

Anything that even remotely resembles manual labor, ie. moving furniture around, carrying heavy things upstairs, etc., he takes care of it and tells me to "just sit and look pretty."

When I am feeling puny, like today, and am not up for much of anything he steps up. He does what needs to be done. Without me hovering like a helicopter telling him how to do everything. He is awesome. He is seriously so so awesome.

I am glad that after 8 years of marriage I still don't take him for granted. When he is traveling for work things just don't feel right around here. Sometimes his way is the better way. And now I know that.

Dragon Babies

They kids all have such adorable imaginations, and they are all so different.

Charlotte plays "house" with her babies all day long. She carries around this one baby and this little pillow all day. The baby, and the pillow, have to go everywhere with us.

Porter has his own language. He makes up words for everything that sound like gibberish. For example, apparently "blukie" means soup. Don't ask.

Paxton will play with his action figures and robots and cars and trucks all day long. I can hear him in the other room making up these elaborate stories about what all of his characters are doing.

One day several weeks ago, Porter and Paxton were playing behind this chair in my bedroom for what seemed like forever. Paxton would come out from behind the chair and bark some orders at Porter to stay behind and "protect the babies." When they are playing so nicely and independently like this I don't want to say a word to them as not to distract them from this pleasant play. Finally, I had to know what was going on, so I asked Paxton what they were doing behind the chair. "We are protecting our dragon babies." I looked back behind that chair and what do you think was back there...about 500 Q-tips! Apparently the Q-tips were their dragon babies and Porter was the mommy and Paxton was, of course, the daddy. Needless to say, the term dragon babies stuck.

I was talking to my mom the other day telling her about the doctor's appointment I had just finished up with the boys, "Well they have a virus, I guess. The nurse stuck that dragon baby up their nose and they tested negative for the flu."

Scott's ear was itching the other day and I saw him scratching it. I said, "what's wrong with your ear?" He replies, "it is itching like crazy. I wish I had a dragon baby so I could scratch it on the inside."

Porter, having to go back to the doctor still sick, says, "please mommy, don't let them stick that dragon baby back up my nose!!!"

So if you ever hear me refer to a dragon baby, at least you are up to speed on the terminology now!

Unconditional Love

The day Scott and I got married I didn't think I could love him any more than I did that day. We spent the first year of dating just staring at each other. Seriously, we would just sit there...and stare at each other. We spent the next year talking a little more and staring a little less, which made me love him even more. I knew unconditional love before I met Scott from my family and friends, but this was a different kind of love than I had ever felt before.

Then we had Paxton. The unconditional love I once knew had changed again. It is unexplainable. Of course, I loved Paxton more than I could have ever imagined and now I loved Scott in a different way than before too. My heart was overflowing.

When I was pregnant with Porter I was so scared. I thought there was no way I could love another child the way I loved Paxton. Then he was born. And sure enough, oh my goodness, did I seriously have 2 perfect children and a husband that I was crazy about?

And then comes Charlotte. This is getting too good to be true. I cried pretty much my whole pregnancy with Charlotte. I wondered if it was the extra estrogen inside my body, but seriously, I was just so in shock at how wonderful it was that we were having another baby...and a baby GIRL at that.

And now I know unconditional love like never before. It is something that I can't describe in any other way.

Scott and I will celebrate 8 years of marriage next month. We dated for 2 years before that. 10 years we have been together. I am 30 years old. I have spent one third of my life with Scott. Experiencing this love like no other. Watching my heart grow and change in ways I didn't know existed. My love for Scott, my love for my children, and my love for God have grown by leaps and bounds over the last 10 years. I can't wait to see what the next 10 will bring.

Thank You Mother Nature

It has been so beautiful! We have taken full advantage of the beautiful weather going to eat lunch outside at Whole Foods, going to the park, driving with the windows down and the music up! It has been the best January I remember in a long time. I am not much for snow or cold weather so the 60+ degrees is just fine with me!

What a great way to start the new year!

Awe, tute mommy!!!

We have always wondered if Charlotte is going to be a girly girl or a tomboy. With two older brothers the potential to be a tomboy is extremely high. But with a mother like me... it could go either way.

She is rough and tumble, but the girl LOVES girl stuff. She is always going through my makeup and putting on my lipstick. She loves her baby dolls and she loves shoes. Every time she sees my toenails painted or sees me with lipstick on she says, "Awe, tute mommy!"

So today when I got home from my pedicure and she saw my polish change she takes one look and says, "Awe, tute mommy! I too! I too!" and runs into the bathroom. So what was a girl to do but paint her little piggys!!!

I Whim

The boys started swim lessons this week. They both did really well and seemed to like it. I was surprised at how they don't waste any time putting them under on the first day. I have high hopes that they can swim by the time summer rolls around. I am highly paranoid around water, so having 2 of the 3 swimming would greatly calm my nerves this year. We shall see.

**Disclaimer: I realize that these pictures are horrible because of the glare of the flash off of the glass, but hey at least I remembered my camera!**

I was most dreading dealing with Charlotte during the 30 minute lesson. Charlotte LOVES to swim. She asks on a daily basis to go swimming. Some mornings the first thing to come out of her mouth is, "I whim. Go bye bye. Go poo." I knew that her feelings were going to be so hurt that she didn't get to swim with the boys. The lesson started out like this...

Luckily there was a vending machine and I bribed her with a huge bag of fruit snacks. Note to self: come equipped with $.85 to every swim lesson. I really do feel bad for her, but you have to be 3 years old. I am going to have to figure out a way to get this girl in a pool some time soon! The girl loves to "whim!"