4 years!

This last week Tim and I celebrated our 4 year anniversary of marriage. I love holidays like this that remind us to take time to reflect on where we've come and where we're going. Tim had to work late on our actual anniversary, Thursday the 30th, so we weren't planning on really doing anything....but that was lame so I decided to have a nice dinner ready for him when he got home (around 8/8:30).

When I came home from work Tim had a pot of beautiful orchids waiting for me. I was so surprised! I always tell him not to buy me flowers because I think they are a waste of money....but he was so thoughtful and bought a flower PLANT that wouldn't die in a week (hopefully). I am really into house plants right now, so I'm really excited about this.

For dinner I decided to make fondue for two! (So romantic, right?) We had a spinach artichoke cheese fondue with ciabatta bread and broccoli, and red grape sparkling cider. Drinking out of thin stemmed glasses makes everything feel fancier. And I lite a ton of candles all over the house to set ze mooood. Tim came home and was very surprised :) We listened to our love song playlist and watched the slideshow of all of the pictures from our dating-our wedding day that I had hooked up to the tv. That was really fun to relive all those memories again, while snuggling on the couch with mah big baby bump. What a long way we've come from then!

Before dessert we also looked through our wedding scrapbook and laughed at how blinded by love we were when we were dating, and all the cheesy stuff I wrote in my journal. "I LOVE LOVE! AND I'M IN LOVE WITH A BOY NAMED TIM!" and so on.

Then for dessert we had a scrumptious chocolate fondue with strawberries, bananas, marshmallows, and chocolate chip cookies. Mmm mmm! And there may have been a little dancing and smooching that followed. How could I resist that squinty face??

All I could think of all night were the lyrics to the song "Then" by Brad Paisley....I thought I loved him so much when we were dating, then when we were engaged, then on our wedding day....and I definitely did....but that love has grown exponentially and deepened and matured so much since those times. I'm so grateful to have this sweet companion to share my life with, forever. I still get so excited to see him everyday when he walks in the door. In some ways it feels like 4 years is such a long time, but in other ways it doesn't feel quite long enough. I guess that's why eternity goes backwards and forwards.

Friday night we continued the celebrations by going out to this nice Italian place for dinner---Tim even asked (with only a little nudge...) if they did anything special for anniversaries and I was so proud ;) #lifewithanintrovert #itsthelittlethings. We got a special fire cracker dessert! Then we wandered around some of the surrounding stores. We found this one that we really liked that had a lot of interesting and creative toys/books for little ones. We read a few and imagined playing with our little boy as he grows up! #isthisreallife!? Tim even tried out this heavy duty backpack carrier:

Looks like a natural, huh? :)

Saturday we decided the party shouldn't stop so we made plans to go hike and explore a fun place in Texas Hill Country, but on our way out we ran into our neighbor friends and decided to join their group to a different hill country gem. We did 4 hrs of driving, but it was nice to just have that time together to talk without any distractions. I love adventures with Tim!! A great capstone to our anniversary weekend :)

I am grateful for the things we learned together this year. We learned how to truly lean and depend on each other, and the Lord, during our greatest trial yet. We learned that we I am not a puppy person....but we are dog people (and weird dog people at that haha.) I learned Tim is so willing to put my happiness above everything else, even when it means his own happiness would be at stake. We learned we are really lazy when it comes to diy projects...but still enjoy doing them together. Thanks babe for being by my side through it all!

I sure love this husband of mine.