8 years!

Today is mine and Stephen's eighth wedding anniversary! Stephen started out the day early by driving to our favorite donut shop in Birmingham, Heavenly Donuts, (while we were all still asleep) to beat the morning rush and brought home breakfast for everyone. Tonight we plan to go to a local, yummy, non-fancy (our style!) restaurant while the boys stay with Nana and Grandpa and maybe we'll get so crazy as to take a stroll around Barnes and Noble too. We are simple people! 

I'll save all the mushy stuff for his anniversary card, but I am so thankful for the commitment that we made and a lifetime of love and laughter together. We don't have a perfect marriage but I'm thankful for a good and faithful God that is at the center of it all...that orchestrated our story from the beginning!

If you've been following the blog for a while you know that we take a picture of the whole family on this green chair every year on our anniversary. It's so fun to replace the picture in the same frame each year and see how the family has grown and changed from year to year. I hope we continue this tradition forever...I'm sentimental this way!

I wanted something practical for our anniversary....a fence so that I could sit and rock Joah this summer in the back yard while the boys run and play! He worked rain and shine (and with the help of his dad on some parts) for several weeks and got it finished just in time!
Stephen is a good man! He isn't a "words person" like me and he'll probably never write me a poem or a song, but he serves me (and his whole family) in a million, little ways not only on special days like this one but every day. He is faithful and steady, and I know that he loves me unconditionally. He supports all my wild, creative dreams for creative projects that I've dreamed up or educational ventures for the boys or whatever...We are a good balance for each other. Eight years later (and a million memories later), there is depth and richness there that I could not have comprehended in those love-sick, early days and it feels my heart with so much joy!