Happy Anniversary!

This week we celebrated eight years of marriage. I love this time each year when we reflect on our relationship: where we started, how we've grown and where we are going...TOGETHER! With the craziness of life there are times when it is overhwhelming and I forget to take a step back and cherish the incredible person I married. The everyday annoyances and irritants of life sometime cloud those thoughts and every now and then I need a wake up call and remind myself of just how lucky I am. I love that it is a day where we can just celebrate being us! I can think back 14(yes, 14!) years ago when people thought we were absolutely crazy. Just turning 18 we had found our soulmate and partner for life. People waited for the infatuation to die and for the wall to come crumbling down but there we stood strong together. Even spending two years, 13 hours apart, only made that bond and commitment to one another stronger. What a road we have traveled together. And now here we are, having experienced high school, college, careers, and our biggest and most important adventure yet...parenthood. Thank you God for the gift of this marriage and our children. We are truly blessed! I love you Eric! Happy Anniversary!

Lakehouse Vacation

We survived our first plane ride with our three little ones and I am so happy to report that they were EXCELLENT!! The trip was awesome and the kids had a fantastic time. Andrew and Ella were beyond excited to go on an airplane and see Papa and Grandma. There was absolutely no crying on either flight and were so well behaved! What little troopers! We had a wonderful time and filled our days with swimming, fishing, and boating. Andrew had absolutely no reservations about swimming in the lake and once he had his life jacket on, he did a running start and jumped right in. Ella (who isn't that fond of swimming anyway) went in a few times but was more content to hang out on the dock and coax the fishies to bite. She did manage to catch a fish (with a little help). Both loved riding in the boat and we took them tubing. They were a little apprehensive at first but warmed up to it once the tube went bouncing on the waves. Ella wanted to ride in the boat every free moment of the day and would say, "faster, faster, faster!" Uh-oh! A little speed demon...I will remember that when it is time for her to get her license! Elizabeth was a great little traveler and came home with a new trick...CRAWLING! She is everywhere and as soon as we got home we had to pick everything up off the floor. Definitely a whole new ballgame now with three on the move!

Said I Never Would...

drive a MINIVAN! I was bound and determined that I would always just have a big SUV and cart my kids in and out. Well, that was before I had three kids in carseats and trying to get them in and out of anything is challenging. So we did it! We bought a minivan yesterday and I have to tell you...I LOVE IT! All the room and getting the kids in and out is already a thousand times easier! Not to mention that the dogs can finally go in the car once again. Poor things have not been able to go for a car ride due to carseats and kids for quite sometime! We found a great deal on a "new to us" minivan near Daytona Beach...4 hours away. So we piled into our little SUV and made the trip. The kids were excellent the whole way. As a reward for being so good we made a quick stop at Sea World, making use of our season passes, and caught a nighttime Shamu show and fireworks. The kids were exhausted and so were we. We pulled into the driveway with our new mobile about 1:30 AM and collapsed in our beds! So it official...I will be a soccer mom. ;)