Happy 7-Years!

On Saturday, the 6th, Jake and I celebrated our 7th wedding anniversary! We both commented that it seems like it should be a lot more than that (in a good way, that is!), and that it's hard to remember life before each other. For our celebration, Jake and I left the girls (minus Ireland) at grandma and grandpa's and stayed the night at the Marriott. We cashed in a bunch of gift cards and ate at The Cheesecake Factory and later went birthday shopping for Pieper at Toys R' Us. Not the most romantic, but hey, it was practical and sometimes just spending the time together is better! The next day, we had a leisurely morning enjoying the fact that we didn't have two extra little bodies in bed with us when we woke and chatterings of "mommy, I'm hungry or mommy, I want to watch cartoons!" We found our way back to my parents house later in the afternoon for a BBQ and visits with family. Thank you again, mom and dad.

As I think about the last seven years with Jake, it amazes me to think about all we've accomplished and how far we've come. Let's face it, marriage is hard. It takes work, compromise, compassion, loyalty, honesty and sometimes just grinning and bearing it! I'm not afraid to say that we've had our ups and downs. But, through it all, we've always stuck together and worked as a team. It sounds so cliche', but really, I'm so blessed to have someone that sees me eye-to-eye on so many issues from parenting, finances, family and all the little things in between. So, to my babe, I love you, I am grateful for you, I'm extremely proud of you and I think you're pretty dang awesome. Happy Anniversary, babe!