Happy Anniversary!

Happy Anniversary, Kev!

Kevin and I celebrated our anniversary yesterday with work, dentist appointments, errands, running kids around, meetings and a delicious dinner and dessert at home.  That sounds about right for year 21.  Kevin was slightly devastated to hear of Hulk Hogan's passing yesterday.  He was his childhood hero so that was a sad moment for him.

We've had an awesome summer full of travel and time at home.  None of us are super eager to get back to school in August, but we know we have packed in the very best times into our days home together.

We are excited for a new year navigating junior high, new schedules and routines, kindergarten for me and for Leo, new work opportunities for Kevin and Fletcher is working hard to build strong friendships at school.  It'll be another big year for all of us and we can't wait!

I'm not a fancy cake baker, but I can make a family recipe that's been passed down three generations.  I added our wedding cake topper for fun.  I had to dust it first, but it made me smile to use it again.

Cheers to 21 years!

Fletcher helped me make our anniversary cake.

He loves to cook!

We dusted off our wedding cake topper to use.  It wasn't all that popular when we got married to do a traditional couple cake topper, but I have always loved it!  I made Kevin's favorirte cake - a family recipe for Buttermilk cake.  It's not a gorgeous cake.  It just a delicious one that his family has been making for years.

Kevin's grocery store bouquet :)

See you back here next week!

Happy Birthday, Kevin!

My favorite guy turns 44 today!

Kevin brings the fun to our family.  He plans all of our trips, makes sure that I'm the passenger princess and is always looking out for us.  He loves a good deal and is great at finding hidden gems.  He could survive on trail mix, protein bars and coffee.  He's doing big things at work and making sure we are all doing great things at home.  He takes care of all the important paperwork, is our tech support, builder of all the things and loves a delicious dinner at home.  He's the one who leads bedtime devotions and always has his nose in a book.  We're thankful for him!

Olive loves to play volleyball with Dad.

Fletcher loves to go backyard camping and shoot airsoft guns with Dad.

Leo is so sporty and so silly - just like his Dad.

We celebrated with Kevin's family earlier this week - burgers, homemade cake and his favorite people.

Leo was present, just did not want to quit playing with cousins long enough for a family photo.

Wishing him a wonderful year ahead!

Happy Father's Day!

It's good to be back on the blog this week!  I missed blogging, but really enjoyed our time at the ocean.

We had a sweet Father's Day yesterday!  We rested after a long travel day home from Destin on Saturday and then took it easy on Sunday.  The kids and I worked together to make Kevin a delicious brunch at home.  It was so nice to not have to go out and fight crowds to pay for an expensive breakfast.  We had all of our favorites at home and that was a bargain.

Happy Father's Day to our favorite guy!!  Kevin takes care of everyone and is a good listener.  He always has a book and a coffee in his hands, he loves learning new things like gardening, is always the fun one in our family and is the best trip planner.  Look at our 2023 garden (and kids!!!) grow!

Leo and I worked together to make Kevin's favorite dessert - brownies!  Leo

The big kids helped me make brunch - sticky buns, scrambled eggs and little smokies.  They were really proud of the meal they made.

Our garden is doing so well!  It's so exciting to keep tabs on all the produce each day.

We're going to have tacos this week with all the veggies from our garden.  And maybe some zucchini bread for dessert.  The kids were so excited about our garden haul!

We went to my parent's lake house for dinner to celebrate with my side of the family.  The kids had fun with their cousins, did some impressive magnet fishing in the lake and we had a yummy taco bar.  Leo was so excited to see the deer come up for her dinner.

Best Dad Ever.  It's hard to find someone that is always happy to help you.  This guy has been happily helping me for 40+ years.  I'm so lucky!  

We got to celebrate our favorite guy in his favorite spot - Christmas Lake!

I hope you had a great weekend!  It's good to be back in our routines.  I've got some fun blog posts coming up about our trip to Destin and some easy lunch ideas for kids this Summer.

A Birthday & A Wedding

Kevin turned 41 last week!  We had a fun time celebrating him with family and friends.  We had a BBQ with his family and then we headed out of town on his actual birthday for a wedding.

We divided up the menu and I decorated with red, white and blue since his birthday is so close to July 4th.  Everything turned out great!

We arrived early and Kevin's mom left the cake decorating up to the kids.  Kevin's Grandma Sharon supervised and Fletcher put on as many candles as he could fit on the top of the cake.

We think these two ladies are GREAT!  Our kids are so lucky to have great grandparents.

Presents, cake and cooling off inside.

Pre-dinner fireworks.  Leo is telling Grandpa that he doesn't like loud fireworks I'm sure.

Fletcher was very proud of this candle situation.

Time for fireworks!  Kevin loves fireworks more than anyone I know.

Leo prefers fireworks from inside - air conditioning and not so loud.

It stormed big time that night and then we woke up the next morning to head to a wedding.  One of Kevin's former students and our favorite babysitter was getting married in Illinois.  We took the whole crew and headed about 5 hours away.  We did a quick gas station clothes change and headed right to the wedding.

Congratulations Cara & Carter!  The kids adore her!

The kids loved the bubble send off and the candy bar at the reception!

Happy Birthday, Kev!!

We spent the night in IL and headed North to Wisconsin the following day.  Busy birthday weekend!

Happy Father's Day!

Hey, Friends!  I missed you all last week. We've been busy.  We got back from our vacation in Ft Myers, Florida on Saturday afternoon and hit the ground running.  We grabbed groceries and celebrated Father's Day with our dads.  Happy Father's Day Kevin!

He's funny & fun.  He's adventurous and loves planning adventures for all of us.  The kids love doing things with him and this is my favorite picture of Vacation Kev :)

We celebrated him with his favorite foods, a few gifts, watching sports and doing whatever he wanted most of the day.

We had dinner with my dad/Papaw and stopped by to see Kevin's dad.  I think this was our first time being with our dads on Father's Day in years.  I can't remember the last time that happened.

 I hope you had a great weekend!  Come back the rest of the week for some really fun Florida posts!

Cheers to 17 Years + 4 Marriage Tips

Kevin and I celebrated 17 years of marriage on Saturday!  What a big milestone :)  We didn't plan any big trips or do anything extravagant; just celebrated with our little family and it was nice.  I guess you'd call that a real life anniversary.  Sweet and simple.

We always look forward to our family's birthday and including the kids in our celebration.

We exchanged cards and no gifts.  Actually, I take that back.  We bought a few things for the house that had been on our wish list this year - like a nice patio table!  And we really love having a big table for entertaining out there.

Let's walk down memory lane for a sec... July 24, 2004.

We planned our wedding in 6 months.

It was an unseasonable cloudy and cool day in Southern Indiana.

We took almost all of our wedding pictures before the wedding.  It was so nice to have those done first.  And we had a private moment alone where we got to see each other for the first look.

We had a candlelit service at 5:30pm

I loved my dress.  I tried on several and just knew this one was perfect for me.  It was only $99 and my veil cost more than my dress.

We ordered a square cake to go with my princess cut diamond ring.   

Kevin wanted to wear gray tuxes and my mom said no.  He still gives her a hard time about this.

I wanted hot pink and light pink roses in my bouquet, but my florist said no.  Something about brides do don't bold colors in their bouquets.  We compromised by adding Lily of the Valley, greenery and some pretty ribbon.

Back to reality... We enjoyed a quiet weekend at home :)

We headed to our favorite hibachi restaurant in town with the whole crew.  Our waiter was one of Kevin's former students.  He got called Dr Jordan all night :)  We also bumped into some friends that used to be our neighbors when we first moved to town.  It was fun to catch up with them and everyone wolfed down their food.  Leo loved it, too.  The kids love the hibachi cooking in front of them.  We headed to a bookstore afterward to do some browsing and book buying.

This cutie was the only one at our table who caught the zucchini the chef tossed at him in his mouth.  Everyone else missed and he was very proud of himself.

I love this crazy crew!

Kevin picked up grocery store flowers (probably with a coupon :) in our wedding colors like he always does - light pink and dark pink.  They are so pretty!  I am making us a strawberry pie - our favorite summer pie - to celebrate. 

I'll end with 4 marriage tips:

1. Communicate.

Talk about everything.  The good.  The bad and everything in between.  Don't expect your spouse to read your mind.  Even after 17 years we have plenty of things to talk through.

2. Always ask your spouse, "How can I help you?"

Whether you're having people over for dinner, planning an event, managing kid schedules, working full or part time, making dinner or cleaning the house.  It just feels good to know that someone sees your effort, notices you and is asking how they can help.  Both spouses need to ask and answer this question.

3. Establish your own family traditions

Both of you will come into your marriage with traditions you grew up doing.  Some will be super meaningful and others may be less important to you  Pick and choose the ones you want to continue and then establish some of your own.  It'll feel really special to have these traditions to look forward to all throughout the year.  It's especially fun if you add kids to the mix and you include them in your family traditions.

4. Do new things together.

Visit new places.  Learn new hobbies.  Move to a new city.  Buy a new house.  Try new recipes.  All those new things you do together will bring you closer.

What's your best marriage tip?