Friday, February 10, 2012

A Year Ago Today

A year ago today, was one of the BEST days of my life! It was the day I had been waiting for, for almost a full year, and the day I had dreamt about since I was a little girl. 

It was the day I found out I was going to be a mom!

I remember it like it was yesterday and hope to never forget it. You can read about that day here.

Now, a year later, I'm the proud mommy of this sweet, adorable and happy baby boy.




I feel so blessed beyond words and am so grateful to God for placing Jackson in our lives. I'm so thankful that God has given me the opportunity to be a Mommy to Jackson. I pray daily for God's help in raising him. I'm looking forward to watching Jackson grow and seeing what God has in store for him. However, I'm really enjoying this stage he's in now and am trying to soak it all in as I know before long he'll be all grown up. :-( 

Our Love Story

 I'm linking up at From Mrs. to Mama for her Love Story Link-Up


Taken Ladies: 

1. How long have you and your significant other been together? We started dating on July 5th of 2001, so this July we'll have been together for 11 years!!

2. How did you meet? {What's your "love" story?} We met at the church we attend. We met when his family started attending our church. He was around 9 or 10 years old and I guess I was around 13 or 14. He's about 4 1/2 years younger than me. At that time, I never would have dreamed we would ever end up together. But several years later, a new family (with 4 boys) came to our church. My sister and my best friend started dating a couple of the boys and Jake happened to make friends with them. So we all hung out together ALL THE TIME. And Jake and I were the odd 2 out without a boyfriend/girlfriend. Jake had a little crush on me and I always thought he was cute, but just felt like he was too young. My sister and best friend talked me into spending more time with him and seeing where things would go and we started dating a couple months later. It was great for about a year, but then the "puppy love" wore off and the reality of our age difference really made things hard. I was ready for a more serious relationship and he just wasn't. We broke up and got back together several times, but never dated anyone else in the meantime. We had all the same friends and went to the same church, so we were always together. In the fall of 2005 Jake made a stronger commitment to our relationship and in November of 2006 he proposed. 

3. If married, how long have you been married? We will be married for 5 years this July 14th.



4. If you are married, where did you get married at? Big or small wedding?  We got married at the church we attend with around 150 of our closest friends and family.


We had our reception at the Gateway Convention Center.

 
5. Do you have any nick-names that you call one another? Do share! Jake's a big nick-names kinda person. He has nicknames for almost everyone. He calls me "Sweet Thing" or "Babe" and I don't really have any nicknames for him.

6. Name 3 things you love most about your honey. I love his sense of humor. He always knows how to make me laugh. ♥  I love his outgoing personality. Everyone always loves Jake. ☺ And I love that he's such a great dad to Jackson. He was not too sure about having kids and never has been much a "kid" person, but he just adores Jackson and loves to hold him and play with him.

7. Tell us how he proposed? It was his 21st birthday and also happened to be Thanksgiving day. He proposed down by the Arch that morning and then we told our family that afternoon!

8. Is he a flowers and teddy bear kind of guy for v-day, or strawberries, champagne, and rose petals? 
Probably more of a flowers and teddy bear kind of guy. Last year I got these at work.

9. Are you a sunset dinner on the beach kind of girl, or pop a movie in and relax on the couch? I would probably be more of a sunset dinner on the beach kind of girl, if we lived near a beach. However since we live in the mid-west, I will take a movie on the couch any chance I can.

10. Tell us one thing you'd like to do with your significant one day. If you could do anything? Go anywhere? I would love to take a gondola ride in Venice. I just think that would be so romantic.♥


11. Tell us what you plan on doing on this Valentine's Day. We will probably just do dinner and a movie. I'm hoping we can go see The Vow.

 12. Are you asking for anything this Valentine's day? No, not this year. We are planning a big trip for our 5 year anniversary in July, so we're saving up for that.

13. Give us one piece of advice of keeping a relationship strong and full of love. I believe prayer and making God the center of your relationship is most important. I also think communication is key. If you can't tell your significant other how you are feeling about a certain situation or issue, it will never be resolved.

14.  Show us a picture of what love means to you.

Wednesday, February 8, 2012

What I'm Loving Wednesday


Its Wednesday again, and that means its time for...

♥  I'm loving that Jackson finally rolled over from his belly to his back last night! Twice! And then again this morning for my mom. He doesn't seem to like tummy time at all, so I rarely put him on his tummy (which may be why its taken him a little longer to roll over). But while in the nursery last night at church, I gave him some tummy time so I could play with some of the other babies and after a few minutes of being on his tummy he rolled right over!! Now I'll probably never be able to keep him on his tummy. Ha!

♥ I'm loving the Fray's new album, Scars and Stories, that was just released yesterday!

♥ I'm loving that Jackson has stopped spitting up as much. Yay! I hope I'm not jinxing it by saying this but since the Dr. said I could put a teaspoon or two of rice cereal in his bottles, he has been spitting up WAY less than before. I also learned a trick online that seems to have helped as well. Jackson is not too fond of being burped during his feedings. He cries and stiffens up, making it almost impossible to try and burp him. (He's very serious about his food, he takes that after his Daddy.) So while searching for a solution online I found that several people give their baby's a binky during burps to keep them pacified til they get the bottle back. This has worked like a charm. No more screaming during burps and he's actually getting to burp now because he's calm and not throwing a fit. Yay for calmer feedings and for using less burp cloths and bibs!

♥ I'm loving that Jake and I are in the process of planning our 5 year anniversary trip for this July. I can't believe it will be 5 years already! We are planning a week long trip to Mackinac Island, Michigan! I can't wait!

There are no cars on the island. Transportation is by bike, carriage or walking. ♥



♥ I'm loving these new chicken McBites from McDonalds.

♥ And as always, I'm loving my sweet and supportive family! They are amazing!


♥ What are you loving today?? ♥

Tuesday, February 7, 2012

Our Weekend

I had a great long weekend and am back to work today. I hope you all had a nice weekend as well.

♥ Friday night we had my nieces and nephew spend the night with us. The girls and I watched Never Say Never. Of course they're big Justin Bieber fans being that they are 11 years old. I had heard really great things about the movie so I asked the girls to bring it with them so we could watch it. It was very well put together and fun to watch how J.B. became the star he is today.

♥ Saturday, the girls and I went to the first, of hopefully many, sewing class at church. A friend from church, Wendy,  is a great sewer and offered to give us a little sewing class. We all made a bag out of a pillow case. It was so fun! Here's a picture of all of us with the bag we made.

Then Saturday evening I cleaned the house to get ready for our Super Bowl party the next day. While cleaning I finally got around to one of the pinterest projects I'd been wanting to do. A picture frame collage for our living room wall. It took me a little while to figure out how I wanted to do this, and it wasn't easy getting all the picture frames hung evenly. But I managed to get it up and I absolutely love it! Here are some pictures.


♥ Then Sunday we had our Super Bowl party, which was a lot of fun. We've had a Superbowl party every year since we've been married and they're always a fun time. I never really watch the game, but its fun to visit with everyone and eat all the yummy food. This year I decided to try making football shaped brownies. They were surprising easy to make and so cute!


Cheese ball my mom made for the party! So cute.

Everybody watching the game in our basement.

My cousin took this picture of Jackson. He had on a cute little football outfit. I wish I would have gotten a better picture of it. :-(

♥ Then yesterday I had the day off, so I spent the day just hanging out with this handsome boy! We did a little photo shoot as I was trying out some different settings on my camera and some different editing tools on Picasa.



I'm so in love with his blue eyes! ♥♥♥


Now its back to work. Boo :-(  But at least I have another 3 day weekend coming up!! ☺