Life Lately

Life lately has been full of me still recovering from being sick and trying to have some fun with my girls.  We played outside (a lot) and went to the zoo.  It's been a fun week and I am looking forward to a great week next week with Valentine's Day AND Elizabeth's birthday!

First let me say, happy nine-year-date-anniversary to Ben!  We started dating nine years ago today and these have been the best nine years ever!  I'm looking forward to more adventures over the next nine (and more) years! :)

February 9, 2008 - First date :)

January 28, 2017 - most recent date :)

Here is a little look at life lately:

 Caroline was super chilled out in the car last week ;)

 

 I was sick in bed... and the girls wanted to visit me

 By Friday, the girls had destroyed the playroom

 Ben said they buried themselves under all the toys in the corner...

 ugh!

 Sunday was Super Doubles at Harris Teeter and my first day out of the house

 Sunday afternoon, Elizabeth and I made brownies for the Super Bowl

 We had a blast watching the game with the girls

 On Monday morning, I took the girls to the mall to play after we ran some errands

 Monday afternoon we took a walk on the nature trail

 Well, I walked and they ran ;)

 And had stick fights

 And ran across the bridge

 After the nature trail, we went to the playground for a bit

 Caroline LOVES to climb the ladder

 We went back home and grabbed Elizabeth's roller skates and did a little practicing

 Caroline was too busy looking at Elizabeth's skates to smile for the picture :)

 Monday night I sent this picture to Stacy.

The girls either sat one me, held my hand, or wanted to be held all day.

I think they missed me while I was sick and stuck in bed

 Tuesday afternoon we walked the nature trail again

 Found rocks

 Had a rock throwing contest

 for awhile...

 We went over to the playground and they raced up and down the slides for 10 minutes

 Tuesday night we went to Chick-Fil-A kids club.

They made book marks and cards for Valentine's Day

 Oh, Hi Mom!

Elizabeth LOVES the cow!

Caroline does a nervous laugh around the cow and then hides.

 Wednesday it was 70 DEGREES!!!

We spent half the day at the zoo and had a blast!

First stop, the Elephant house.

 Three elephants came into the room right after we walked in.

 Caroline's favorite animal is an elephant.

 She loves to just state at them.

 We got to see one of them eat a snack

 And about five minutes later, they all went back outside.

 We went over to the Giant Panda exhibit next

 

 After the panda exhibit, the girls wanted a snack and Elizabeth wanted to sit in the stroller

American Bison

 Zebra

 More elephants

 Me: "Hey girls, please smile"

Elizabeth:    :)

Caroline: ....

And that's life lately.

Happy Thursday y'all!

Workin' It Wednesday: Love and Marriage!

I'm linking up with Shay and Erika for their Workin' It Wednesday.

Today's topic is about marriage.

I wanted to share a little bit about our relationship history
and a little bit about what we do to stay connected.

Ben and I went on our first date on February 9, 2008.
This is us on our date :)

 

September 19, 2008 we got engaged!
This is a few weeks later at an engagement party

May 9, 2009- we got married!!


Since we got married in 2009 we have had our share of adventures (good and bad)! 
We purchased a house in 2011.
We had two sweet, wonderful, beautiful girls (2012 and 2014).
We have changed jobs, had car accidents, and surgeries.
We have traveled all over the country,
going everywhere from Key West, Florida to Denver, Colorado.
We have had relatives die, seen friends and siblings have babies, and watched friends and family move to new places.

Life is full of ups and downs, and I wouldn't want to be doing life with anyone else.

So... what do we do to keep our marriage strong?

1. We are both Christians and our relationship is based on our shared Christian values.
Now I am not saying we are perfect Christians (because those don't exist).
But, we do try to set good examples for our girls; we attend Church as a family, Ben and I both volunteer at Church, and we spend time as a family taking about Jesus.
We set values together for our family based on our Christian beliefs.

2. We do stuff together.  We go to wineries, play golf, travel, play cards, etc.  We spend time together just the two of us AND we spend time together with our girls.

We enjoy packing a picnic and doing a wine tasting when it's warm outside, luckily the wineries in Northern Virginia are very family friendly and have games for kids and lots of outdoor space to run around.

We don't play golf as much as we would like too, but we do enjoy playing together. :)

Travel!  I have a life-time built-in travel partner.  I love to travel and having my best friend with me is the best thing in the world!

And we will do date nights in and play cards and have cocktails or watch a movie and pop popcorn.

3. We go on date nights. One of my new years resolutions is to go on one date night a month.

We went on two in January and I am hoping we can squeeze one in for February (it's a busy month for us). 

4. We do stuff separately.  

We both enjoy time with our friends, so we make time for a girls night out or a guy's camping trip.

It gives us a chance to recharge and keep up with friends.

5. We talk.  About everything.
I think this one is so important (save the best for last?)
We were long-distance until we got married, so we talked and talked and talked (on the phone, video chat, AIM, etc.)
We got into a great habit of talking about our days and everything that was going on that it carried over into our marriage.
We talk throughout the day while Ben is working AND then we spend 20-30 minutes talking when Ben gets home from work.  I love this time with Ben!  I tell him about the girls and me, he shares about his commute, his day, articles he's read, etc.

Love my guy!!


So those are a few things that come to mind.

Happy Wednesday y'all!

Super Bowl Sunday!

I'm still recovering from being sick, but we did take time to enjoy the Super Bowl on Sunday.  I'm from Atlanta and was super excited to be cheering for the Falcons this past Sunday.  Even though we didn't win, our little family had a great time celebrating together.

Here's a look at our Super Bowl Sunday:

 Elizabeth made brownies for our super bowl party

 She really wanted to dip her finger in the batter :)

 So proud!

  

 In our Falcons red

 

 Skyping with Nana and Pap Pap before the game

 Group selfie :)

  

 Our spread: queso and chips, potato skins, deep fried nuggets, deep fried french fries, deep fried mozzarella sticks, and football brownies 

 We had a picnic during the 1st and 2nd quarters

So much fun!!

  Mid-game selfie and the Elsa apron is back

 Love my girlies

 And love my man!

 We were winning at this point...

hence all the smiles :)

Go Falcons!

Happy Tuesday y'all!

Life Lately

Life lately has been full of:

1) Me being sick

2) Me staying in bed

3) Ben taking care of EVERYTHING

Today is the first day I have been out of bed since Sunday and I've made it all the way down to the couch (baby steps people, baby steps).

This is my 4th of 5th upper respiratory infection since November and I have to say, I am so over it.

I don't remember a winter where I have been this sick, ever. :(

Here is a look at our very boring week:

 Sunday snuggles on the couch

 Monday selfies with my new phone

 Tuesday, big sister is at school, little sister watches Frozen on her kindle

Glad she is taking full advantage of all the couch space ;)

Happy Thursday y'all!