Our Family's Birthday

Today is our wedding anniversary. We plan to postpone having a date for when we are in the cities for Thanksgiving. That way we will be near decent restaurants (that won't bake my salad), and have access to a babysitter. We still planned to celebrate our family's birthday.

We have explained to our kids that our anniversary is the day of the year we celebrate the beginning of our family sort of like a birthday of our family. So I bought some fun sparkling drinks and picked out a family favorite for dinner, that way we could have a happy family meal with no complaining. I planned to make chicken fajitas, and my fresh garden salsa with chips. I was also going to make a treat of some kind. I was going to mop the floor and and have the kitchen spotless.

Nine years ago today, we started our family and it certainly has changed and grown over the years. I can't say that life is at all how I would have thought it would be. Really, I look back and realize that I am quite lucky. I had no clue what was headed our way. However I did one thing very right, and that is marry the most wonderful guy on the planet. There was no way for me to possibly imagine how much more I could love Jeff now then I did nine years ago. At the time I loved him with my whole heart so the idea of more love was impossible to imagine. But in the time we have been married, Jeff has been able to step up and prove himself as the best father and husband imaginable on multiple occasions. From getting up with sick children, to helping an over emotional tired pregnant wife, he has been amazing. I can't even list all the ways he has been there for me. No matter how tired or sick he is; he always manages to put the kids and me first. He is kind and caring, soft-spoken and has integrity like few I've met. He is committed to our Heavenly Father, and keeps me grounded. And after nine years he can still make me laugh.

Once when we were in school in Utah I was chatting with a friend and she explained to me that she loved her husband even more now that he was a father. She said that her son Tyler had been up all night with the flu and she was pregnant so her husband took care of their toddler and cleaned up the messes, even though he had class to get to the next morning. I have to admit at the time I found it funny that she could say she loved her husband even more because he cleaned up vomit. Obviously this was conversation was pre-children. For now I know exactly what she means.

Jeff and I may not have the money we thought we would by now. I don't have the college degree I planned on having years ago. Our house is smaller, and a little more cluttered, and a lot noisier then I imagined. Our location is definitly not ideal, but even with so many things not as imagined I am so grateful. We may not have the picture perfect suburbia life we imagined but we have something else. We have absolutely proven ourselves to each other that we will love each other even though life is hard. We enjoy each anniversary even though none have been a picture perfect anniversary (although anniversary #5 was really nice). He is still my very best friend, and I trust him complety.

So I planned a fun family dinner and pictured us sitting there eating by candle light in a perfectly cleaned kitchen and telling them all about how much we loved our wedding day. Our family anniversary celebration is not happening as planned. I was sick this morning and was finally starting to feel better this afternoon and hoped I would pull something together, but when I brought Cori home from school, she began throwing up all over the driveway. So things are not going as planned. And to top it off, Jeff is working late. He told me not to worry about dinner or the state of the house. He would pick something up and be here to help as soon as he can. I really love that guy!