Love, Ain't it Grand?

Since Andy's and my fifth anniversary is coming up next Saturday, I thought I'd spend the week loading you up with pictures from all of our wedding hooplah! (That is if I can get them scanned & uploaded--who knows how that will go! It will probably be way out of order!) This first set of pictures was from one of the best days of my life!! My dear, dear friend, Kelly pretty much threw me my dream bridal shower.
Knowing that I desperately wanted to have our wedding at this certain venue, but couldn't (because of the size of the guest list), Kelly threw a shower for me there!! We planned for it to be a mother-daughter theme together, but the rest was a surprise...even the location! When I found out where it was going to be, I just about fell over! I think I even cried!


Walking in the door, I saw that she had decorated everything with black and white toile (my favorite fabric pattern) with pink accents. The food was delicious and the company was even better. We all sat in a circle, eating and talking about how we were all connected to each other. Each guest told the group how they knew me and why they loved me and then I stood up and talked about how much each person meant to me. We were all in tears! From the rose petals sprinkled on the tabletops to the mimosa's and iced cappuccinos we had on the back patio, every detail was totally perfect and TOTALLY "me".


The cake really said it all, didn't it?: "Love...Ain't it Grand?" I was overwhelmed by the love around me that afternoon (and I don't just mean wedding love :o). I spent that day with the kids I babysat for and the moms I had grown so close to. I was there with some of my oldest friends and their mothers who I'd grown up with (we were just missing you, Sharon! You were there in spirit!).


My mom and sister were there with me, as were my step-mom and step-sister. My grandma was there, my co-workers were there. I will never, ever forget that shower!! Thank you Kelly for loving me so much!!! (I miss you!) And thanks to all of you who were a part of that day!

Our Anniversary

Andy and I thought we were soooo smart when we picked the date for our wedding. "Just between Thanksgiving and Christmas! How perfect!" we said. It is so perfect that we never, EVER have extra money for our anniversary! Yay for us! We always want to use every penny for all of the fabulous Christmas presents we want to buy....and every year, the list gets longer and longer. This year was no exception. Andy painted our living room for me last weekend as an anniversary present (my request) so I thought we were destined to sit around the house for the duration of our fourth anniversary watching old reruns of The Office and playing with Legos, but it actually turned out to be much better than that. My husband (who is famous for being...um...well, "less than romantic" on most special occasions, bless his heart) had a really sweet surprise in store for me. When he got home from work, he said he was going to take Landon upstairs to play. They called me up a few minutes later and when I got upstairs, I saw that Andy had a dvd playing on the tv. He had made a slideshow for me of our whole relationship displaying pictures from the summer of 2002 when we met, through wedding preparations (including some pictures from our wedding of me dancing with my Grandma right before she died) and our honeymoon...through family holidays and the birth of our son. It was awesome! It cracked me up because he had picked out some of the WORST pictures of me that he could possibly find (in one, my eyes were actually rolling back in my head...another was a very unflattering picture of me bending over in a bikini right after giving birth. Nice). He tried so hard to put it together and surprise me that the look on his face while he was giving it to me was worth more to me than the gift. It was so cute that I even bit my tongue about the terrible pictures--Hee hee!

I had decided awhile ago that we shouldn't go out to an expensive dinner right before Christmas shopping, so we were planning to eat at home...BUT!...we somehow (A little wink from God, perhaps?) received a gift certificate for $45 to Carabba's this afternoon in the mail (they sent it to make up for a mistake in a take out order from a couple of weeks ago!) So, we ordered tons of great food and had a delicious dinner for our anniversary in the comfort of our own home, joined by the best thing that has come out of our marriage: Landon! It was so much fun!After the dvd was watched and the food was eaten, I "let" Andy go to my sister's house to watch some of the Green Bay game. Yes, my friends, to my husband, that is romance.
So, I guess the plan is to go to the Grove Park Inn and the Biltmore Estate NEXT year! (We've officially been saying that for four years now! :o)