6.

  Time can change so much. Our marriage is evidence of that. We are so different than the 22 year olds at that wedding 6 years ago, together and individually. We've moved and traveled and completed a new degree and started professional jobs. We've built a home, the same home we would lose one baby in, try a long time for another, bring Caleb home from the hospital to, and now, we're dreaming of another new life coming into soon. We've fought and made up and learned to communicate better. We've grown up over the last 6 years. 
  Marriage is hard in the best ways. Isn't that true with all the best things? There no fun or growth or change if we never face challenges. We can't live forever on the peaks, or in the valleys even. It's somewhere in between that we've found our sweet spot. It's an adventure, but also full of really routine and simple things. I'm so thankful I get to do the hard, easy, boring, simple, exciting, big and little things with you, Justin. Here's to year 7!

4.

  This week, J and I celebrated our 4 year anniversary. Gosh, that's crazy to think about. It feels like 4 months and 40 years all at the same time, you know? In all the best ways. I love the simple life we're building. If you would have asked us on our wedding day four years ago, I'm certain we couldn't have predicted where life would take us. 
  So, here's to year 5 and even more joys and challenges than we couldn't dream up if we tried. There is absolutely no one else I'd rather go through life with than you, Justin! 

ps. our 3 year anniversary
pps. our 2 year anniversary
ppps. our engagement story here and here

251. finding ways to love Justin
252. having a love to celebrate
253. extra time with Justin this week
254. surprises
255. a whole evening together
256. sharing our my favorite pizza
257. walks around the neighborhood
258. vacation excitement
259. 4 years ago I married my best friend
260. dunkin donuts 

Adoptaversary.

 Monday was the 3rd anniversary of Murphy's adoption. Its no secret that I love my pups, so you won't be surprised to hear that I go all out on birthdays and adoptaversaries for them. Its hard to believe we've only had Murph for 3 years. It feels like he's been a part of our family forever. It's always fun to think back to adopting him, how unexpected and non-puppy he was. He was grumpy and sassy when we first met him. Oh my goodness, how he's changed. If you've met him, you know I'm not exaggerating when I say he's the sweetest. Such a great dog. I really truly can't imagine life without him!

{Two things: I used this cake recipe. It was a HIT! Also, please note Jersey slowly creeping in the pictures. We finally cut the cake and gave her a small piece.}

Best of my days {6}.

Holy poop, this has been one long & busy week! I feel like I've barely had time to catch my breath- but who cares?! I'm off to Denver tonight!

68. Justin's Valentine's giftbag

69. sweet cards from sisters

70. favorite wine and fresh flowers

71. a good, hard cry {or two three}

72. crafternoon with wonderful new friends

73. Justin's home! 

74. check in the mail to cover dentist $$

75. sunshine

76. a good workout and sore muscles

77. thinking of the future {blogging}

78. sweet, quiet mornings

79. two cute valentine's dates

80. hours spent reading

81. graeter's ice cream

82. lunch w/J on my day off

83. God's mercy

84. being busy

85. going to Denver!!! I can't wait to hop on a plane tonight {weather permitting} and visit one of my college besties. Long overdue, and so so needed!    How was your week? What are you thankful for?

Best of my days {5}

I have a whole lot that I'm thankful for today. Justin's in Fl for a few days visiting his parents, but he left me some sweet cards and a thoughtful gift while he's gone. And he gets home tomorrow night...so I'm thankful his trip has gone so quickly!
Today would have been our due date. I'm at a really good place with the whole miscarriage thing. I think its one of those things, though, that never really goes away. The ache dulls, but there's probably always going to be a little scar, you know?  But today, I'm so thankful that our little one is in the arms of Jesus. So held and loved...and never knowing any pain. I'm thankful for that.
And I'm thankful that today is equal parts bitter and sweet. Not only would it have been our due date- it's also our engage-aversary.  So while I do wish life would have turned out a bit differently and I was sharing a birth story instead of another 'thoughts on miscarriage' post- I am so very thankful that I have the best reminder that I am not alone in any of this.

4 years ago today, Justin proposed. Gosh, that was a good day.  I'm so thankful for him.

My favorite guy.

Today is my favorite guy's 26th birthday!
As the most hardworking, fun loving, and honest person I know... he deserves to be celebrated. Every year on his birthday, I am reminded that I don't celebrate {or serve!} him enough. This year, I resolving to do that a bit more. Starting today.
So happy birthday, husband! You are hands down my favorite person in the world. I love you!
And just for fun...look at what babies we were!

{then}

{now}

Christmas house.

First off, have you checked out all of the link-ups for Taking Stock of 2012?! Go do it! Its so neat to read how God has moved in different people's lives over the last year.

I realize that its not Christmas anymore, but I never got around to posting pictures of our house this year. Bear with me, because this post is more for me to have just to look back on years down the road...just like I forgot to do last year and remembered to do the year before. 

So, for good measure...here's a peek back at last year:

And a few from this year...

I still love this wreath from last year too much to justify making another. 

For the record, I love my kitchen. Its big and roomy with tons of counter and storage space and an adorable bay window. But I do hate the builder grade honey oak cabinets and outdated electric stove/hood. I have dreams of painting the cabinets and putting in a gas stove with mounted microwave. A girl can dream, right? 

Can you spot my favorite Christmas present of the year?!?! Swoon.

You may be thinking, "man...you have a lot of nutcrackers." 

Guys, that's only nine of my 50. I scaled back this year. Big time.

My favorite shots of three this year were taken on instragram in the mornings while I sat on the couch doing my advent study. 

My favorite, or most special decoration this year has to be the ornament I bought. I've started making a point each year to buy one ornament. I don't want to have this over-stuffed & cluttered Christmas tree, so I stick to one a year. And keep the others that are gifted to us in the Christmas box (is that horrible?). I don't want our tree to be super themed and fancy looking either...I love the character of special ornaments. Our first year, we got Raiders ornaments. {j's favorite nfl team}. The second year, I picked up a cute ornament from Cracker Barrell that I just liked. Last year, I found a cute glass house since we'd just bought our first home.

 This year, I found an adorable and colorful fabric star to remember our sweet baby by. I bought it after Christmas and got it on clearance...and packed it away before taking a good picture.
I love our home, and I love it more and more all the time. After Christmas, I snagged some deals on end tables and used some gift cards to buy some cute pillow shams and vases and a lamp. Its starting to come together...slowly but surely!

Shout out.

Have you noticed those 5 little ads in my sidebar lately? For the first time, I added some sponsor spots this month! Not because I want to make money or think my blog is the shiz and can drive traffic to other sites like craycray. I wanted to add sponsors just for fun and to highlight some of my favorites!
So, let me introduce you to some lovely ladies. {and really, they aren't paying me to say this!}
How about we start with real life friend, Gretchen. Oh my gosh, check her blog out RIGHT NOW.  But seriously, Gretch is wonderful.  We met freshman year of college through a mutual friend and that came full circle senior year when she started dating one of my hub's bff's. Now they're married. KG was in our wedding, J was in theirs. 

Anyways, I basically lucked out. J has a pretty awesome group of friends from college, and their wives are even more awesome. Gretch is one of those awesome ones. I love her! And she's finally back to blogging and sharing all the fun things she creates and cute pictures of her furbaby.  And she has a pretty awesome shake face,

so you should be her newest follower. :)
And then there's Emily. One of my first and favorite blog friends. Once upon a time we were workout accountability partners, but I suck at that. Now we're just friends :)  I love how down to earth and honest she is. And I'm mostly fascinated/freaked out by her past career as a prison guard. She's basically hardcore. But turned all girly. Best of both worlds, if you ask me! But really, she's one of my fav people on the interwebs, so she should be your's too. Mmmk?!
Jenny's super fun and cute and I 'met' {is that the bloggy way to say it?!} through my spring blog swap. We have lots in common and I basically feel like I know her IRL, though we've never met! Check her out asap. 
Ok, then's there's Stormie. We 'met' through my blog swap, too, and she sends THE best packages EVER. And got me hooked on nail polish. And is planning the cutest wedding. And has adorable pups that she never blogs about. And is just super sweet. Get to know her!
Finally, there's Kristen. This amazingly talented and sweet girl redesigned my blog and put up with my indecisiveness and complete computer ignorance. Those things alone make her a saint. But really, she's always writing about her fun adventures and amazing instagram pictures.
There you have it! Be sure to sign up for a free ad spot next month on my Sponsors page. 

26

{source}
25 was a good year. A bunch of really big and wonderful things happened...
I got a new sister {who I adore!}. We bought a house. Both of my sisters got knocked up and I got a nephew and niece {who is home from the NICU!!!} out of the deal. I got my Master's degree.
And a lot of little great things happened... I got a new camera and started taking more pictures, we travelled to FL for Thanksgiving, I finally cut my hair after 2.5 years, I did a lot of fun crafts, I got to watch my hubby do the Tough Mudder, my alma mater went viral, and I thought a lot about faith, desire, and love. Oh, and I made my first quilt!  
Of course, there's the stuff I didn't blog about, too.  We made our little life here a home. We found a few more friends. We continued to search for a church that fit. We took the pups hiking to our favorite state park. We ate a lot of good food.
Still, there was the tough stuff too. We had a miscarriage and found ourselves immersed in grief.  We continued to search {and struggle to find!} a church family that we felt a part of. We learned how to communicate with each other a little bit better. 
25 was a good year. I say that more for my sake than for yours. Gosh, looking at that list you'd think it'd be a no-brainer. The good clearly outweighs the bad. But the bad sometimes seems SO much bigger and weightier.  Taking stock is so important and helpful for me. It helps me see the bigger story, to take a step back from what's right in front of me. And the bigger picture screams blessing and hope and joy. Not perfection. But definitely hope.
Even still, today I'm glad its a new year. 25 was good and full and busy with great stuff. The hard stuff though, it was pretty hard. I know 26 will for sure have its challenges,  but I've learned a lot this past year and grown to rely on Jesus even more.  I look forward to being an aunt and snuggling my sweet niece and nephew. I look forward to a vacation with sweet friends and time with family in Florida and maybe a trip to Denver. I look forward to a job that is right for me in this season. I look forward to settling more and more into our home. I look forward to investing in our new church more and more and finding community there. Good things, for sure.

Labor of love.

I may have never mentioned it, but J made me a pretty amazing Valentine's day present this year. 
He built me a dining room table. and its finished and moved it into the house now.

That picture doesn't do it justice. Its huge and roomy. We're slowly {one by one!} buying nice Parsons chairs for it and one day there'll be a handmade bench.

I'm so excited for the memories we'll make here. Meals and small groups and work and late night talks. 

This table will be a part of our family forever.

Our kids will know it as a staple of our time together in our home, our friends will think of it as a place to gather. Our pups already know it as the best spot to beg.

It means so much that J worked so hard to surprise me and build this table that will be a part of our family forever.  Its definitely a labor of love.

{Don't forget! There are still 2 LARGE and FREE sponsor spots left. Go here for the details!}

Brunch.

 If you read Monday's post, you know life has been a bit rough in these parts lately. 

But in the last few weeks I have found so much healing in being able to love on others. Sending packages, praying for specific needs, cuddling with my sweet new nephew, and showering a sweet friend are some of the sweet ways Jesus has given me to love on others in the weeks since our loss.

These things are always so special to me, but lately...they've held an extra bit of joy.

{So if you're in the market for a camera strap, baked good, or fun package...let me know!!}

I gave you a sneak peek of the bridal shower I went to last weekend...

and here's the whole shebang! :) 

First, a little background.

I have known the bride for YEARS. Morgan's mom actually gave me my first swimming lessons when I was about 3. We went to the same elementary, middle, and high schools. It wasn't until college, though, that we became close. How did that happen, Mo?! 

Either way, Morgan is one of my favorite people.

And her love story with Landon is definitely my favorite!

They grew up together and even went to the same college. But again, it wasn't until after college when they realized there was a spark between them.

After some not so great guys, Landon is perfect for Morgan.

I'm a bit of a sap, and I always tell her how redemptive I think Landon has been for her. He loves her like she deserves. He doesn't make her second guess or question. His love is so Christ like...and I can't think of anyone who deserves it more than Morgan!

Ok...enough talk.

Pictures!

 First thing's first, I can't take a stitch of credit for this gorgeous shower. Marcie is the creative mind behind it all! Feel free to give her some love! :)

The theme was Bridal Brunch...and the rustic building it was held in set the tone perfectly. Mason jars, bright flowers, burlap runners, mimosas, and a stack of mini pancakes at each setting.

I mean, does it get any cuter?!

 In lieu of a guestbook, Marcie had everyone sign a cute platter that Morgan can bake and seal the signatures on. Adorable, right?!

And now I'm tearing up again thinking of how excited I am for this wedding in September!

Ever had a brunch bridal shower?