For My Husband

Five years ago today I married my best friend.  Five years of happy wedded bliss has passed in the blink of an eye.  For five years, my husband has made me the happiest woman alive and I am so grateful I found my soul mate. 

I love you Andy, and thank you, for putting up with me for all these years together and thank you for taking care of us! 

Now time to PARTY!  We are throwing a 1 year birthday party today!  So come back for pictures later!

A little road trip with a lotta love!

We took the best little road trip today out to the Sequoia National Forest.  It was a great drive along the Kern River and we ended up finding the perfect camp out spot for this summers vacation.  Andy was so happy to take us out Jeeping.  He loves sharing his hobby with us.



 
It reminded my of a podcast my friend Candice is listening to by Gary Chapman about love languages.  I think we spoke his love language today by going out for a road trip and spending the day with him.  His love languages are physical touch and quality time.  It is so great knowing this because it helps me show him better how I love him.  My love language on the other hand is words of affirmation.  I am easily pleased with "I love you" and other great compliments.  This he does for me abundantly.  

Here are the 5 love languages
1.  Words of Affirmation
2.  Quality Time
3.  Receiving Gifts
4.  Acts of Service
5.  Physical Touch

What is your love language?

Magical Kisses

My daughter is a big wuss.  She cries over every little bump or fall.  Will is already tougher than she is.  I wonder sometimes if it is a problem I created by coddling her after she fell when she was a baby, but hey, I was a first time mom then.  With Will I know he will be fine so its no big deal.

So Emily cries.  A lot.  Over small things.  Actually, its fake most of the time.  When she is playing she will even take time out to come over crying to me.  It's a little annoying and yet cute (to, I'm sure, only me).  She is so dramatic about all things, so I wouldn't expect any less from her.

With all the annoying whining though, I get some fulfillment over the kisses I get to give.  Mom's magical kisses that instantly make all boo boos better.  I enjoy that I have the ability to cure all scrapes and bruises and overly dramatic tears.  She makes my heart melt when I kiss her and the tears stop and she runs away saying "all better!"  Now, after all this time of giving magical kisses, she is trying to give them to Will.  She is my little mommy.

Happy Mommy

I read an article this morning from US News about two ways to become a happier parent.  They asked two questions:
1.  When are you happiest with your kids?
2.  What part of your normal day causes you suffering?

Well suffering seems to me like a bit of an overdramatic statement.  But I will do this exercise anyway, for the fun of it.  They say that if you know when you are happiest you should just spend more time on those activities instead of the unhappy ones, you will then be a happier parent.  So here it goes, I am happiest with my kids most of the day.  I love to cuddle with them in the morning when we first wake up.  I love when we get to go do fun things like story time or play at the park.  I love when they nap because they are adorable when they are sleeping.  I love dinnertime because we have so much fun.  I love bath time because they are so happy, and after we play for a little while in Emily's room.  I love paying attention to them.  As for the suffering.  I hate potty training and changing her diapers.  How can I fix that without doing it?  Now if only the article would have told me that...