Christmas Take One: Utah

The second week of December, Bryan and I packed up our luggage (all eight pieces!) and our kids (all three!) and flew to Utah for Bryan's youngest brother Jason's mission homecoming. It was so great to see him coming down the escalator from the terminal, and it was a great experience for my boys to see yet another Pearson boy come home from their mission. Jason was basically a celebrity to the other kids, who all fought to sit by him at lunch and, whenever he wasn't within eye's sight, they would all ask where Jason had went. The best part?? Jason was still good old Jason, and he fit right back into the crazy world of all the Pearsons.

After he got home, we packed up, yet again, to venture off to a cabin in the very snow filled mountains to spend some quality time with the family. We had lots of food, played and tubed in the snow, had a gingerbread house contest, and just hung out. Oh, and what would a Christmas party be without the Sesame Street play, acting out the nativity, and opening presents?? It was a great time and we made lots of great memories!

We spent the rest of the time in Utah seeing family and friends. We got to go have dinner with Kory and Ana Lee and had dinner made for us (so yummy!) by our friends Kramer and Lisa. A highlight of the trip was going to Brigham City for a Hawkes Family dinner, where we got to see some of Bryan's aunts, uncles, and cousins that we don't get to see very often! We went to church and listened to Jason's talk, and to cap off our vacation, we stopped at Cafe Rio (my tummy is grumbling just thinking about how yummy it is!) for lunch before heading to the airport.

Our trips to Utah are always special to us. It gives us a chance to see our family that we don't get to see very often, and our boys love to spend time getting to know their cousins and playing with them. They also love spending quality time with their grandparents and wrestling with their uncles. Thanks Grandma and Pompom for everything! We had a great time!

Oh, and an FYI: our camera broke while we were at the cabin, so the my picture stop at the Sesame Street play. I didn't get anything after that. At first I was bummed (although I know other people took plenty of pictures!) but then I felt relief. If you know me, you know I take a massive amount of pictures when we travel, so it was kind of freeing to not feel the need to have my camera by my side at all times!

Cole was a huge helper with the luggage! We haven't flown with all the kids since Cole was a baby, so they were very excited to fly! Besides Cole spilling my entire cup of ice water on my lap midflight (it sure made for a chilly flight!) it went pretty well!

Jason just came home! I love the smile on his face. Oh, and the cowboy hat.

Whenever one of the Pearson boys comes home from their mission, the rest of the gang does something interesting to welcome him home. Once we all had to wear pearl button shirts, once we all wore terrible mustaches, etc. This time we all wore sports jerseys since Jason wore them all the time before his mission, and of course, we added some weird mustaches. This was Rix's favorite look!

Grandpa's mustache was classic. He sure got weird looks from people!

At the cabin, all the grandkids opened an early Christmas present. BYU outfits! Taking pictures of 11 kids sure is crazy!

See? Crazy!

The kids loved being out in the snow. I wish we had an extra day there just for sledding! Jordyn was a good sport and took Cole with her.

Sledding down the hill is so fun. Dragging kids back up the hill? Not so much. But at least we were burning calories!

Bryce couldn't get enough of the sledding. He was a sledding monster!

Stina and two of her kids sledding. I think Stina and I crashed more than we sledded.

Lindsay and Cole. Cole decided he wasn't much of a snow bunny, so he found lots of willing people to hold him.

Cole and Bryce.

Jordyn, Roger, and Bryce on the snowmobile. Did I forget to mention that most of the brothers (including Bryan) grew handlebar mustaches for Jason's homecoming? Roger's was awesome.

Bryan talked me into going with him. Boy did we go fast down that hill!

There was a little hill, but the bump at the end was killer!

Cole found another person to hold him. Uncle John!

Rix loved the snow. Too bad we don't get much of it here in Washington. And since he was going on the snowmobile where you get lots of snow in the face, he was prepared!

Rix and Jordyn on the snowmobile.

Cole "helping" with the gingerbread house. He actually ate more than he helped.

Our competition!

This is what our family's gingerbread house turned out to be. See the icicles?

The Sesame Street play!

Jason is suppsoed to be a tree. It is a really funny play.

Bryan "planting" the tree.

The Chaos Before Christmas...

Christmas is coming! And fast! I feel like, for some reason, I have waited to do everything I need to do in the next few days, when I should have been doing all of this stuff weeks ago. I always do this to myself, and while I do work best under pressure (I learned that at college when my last minute papers got better grades than the ones I worked on for weeks) it also stresses me out! And pregnancy + my crazy boys + stress = a grumpy and tired mommy.

However, I am really excited for Christmas. I know Rix is going to be disappointed that there will be no Nintendo DS under the tree (the last thing we need is another video game in this house) but hopefully he'll be happy with everything else. We have several advent calendars in the house, and so the boys know exactly how many days until Christmas. And, just so you know, their constant reminding of how many (or how few!) days are left does add to my stress. Yikes! Only four days!

I still have all (and I mean all) the presents to wrap. I have a house to clean and about three more loads of laundry to wash, dry, and fold (and, yuck, put away). I have stocking stuffers to buy, three sick boys to take to the doctor, a sick mom who is surviving of little drugs - the joys of being pregnant! - a doctor appointment for me, baking, cooking, working at the office, and somewhere in there I need to sleep so I don't get more sick.

Two weeks ago we went to Utah to see Bryan's brother Jason come home from his mission. It was a fabulous time, and it the midst of it all my camera broke, and I haven't had a chance to pull off the pictures I did get. But no worries, I'll get around to it! We also took the boys to Great Wolf Lodge again this last weekend for an early Christmas present. It was a surprise for them, and it turned out to be so fun to see their faces when we pulled in! I love that place, and Bryan and I decided to make a yearly tradition of it. I'll post pictures of that soon too.

Well I hope you all have a great Christmas! I know I am excited about it, and even though I'm moaning and groaning about everything I need to get done, I'm also excited for the moment when my boys open their presents, and for the time I'll have to spend with my family. I'll take a nice long nap after it's all done!

Thanksgiving and Toad's Birthday - in the same weekend!

Last year, Cole's birthday was on Thanksgiving. The poor kid didn't get cake or presents on his birthday - he waited until the following Sunday when we had a family party. And this year his birthday fell on yet another holiday. Black Friday. Hopefully next year he gets luckier!

We started Thanksgiving off at my mom's house for the traditional appetizers and finger foods to help stretch our stomachs for the dinner that is just a few hours away. I love Thanksgiving because, of course, I get to spend time with family, and this year Kelli and Jeremiah and their kids are here, so most of the family was home (minus Kory and Ana Lee). And my friends Tessa and Cory came with their two kids, so it was a full (and fun!) house! But, really, if I'm being honest, and I so want to be honest with you, I really love it for the food. The turkey and the stuffing and the veggie platter (with ranch!) and this year Bryan begged for a ham too, so of course I had to make funeral potatoes. So good! And the green beans and the desserts. It sort of makes me wish Thanksgiving was a monthly holiday!

It was sort of the family joke that Rix got the turkey leg. For a few weeks he had it in his mind that we were going to McDonalds for Thanksgiving and Burger King for dessert (they don't even have good desserts there!). He wrote it on any paper he could find and I found them everywhere - at home, at the office, and on school work. He even told Papa of his "plan". So my dad found this Dennis the Menace comic in Thankgiving's paper, where Dennis said he'd prefer a burger, but the turkey leg isn't bad. My dad thought of Rix, and I have to say, Rix agrees with Dennis!

My dad the official meat carver

Bryce, Macade, and Jack

My sisters have more pictures, so if you want to see more, check out their blogs when and if they update about Thanksgiving.

For Black Friday my sisters and Jeremiah hit up Toys R Us, which was supposed to open at 10 pm Thursday night. However the line was ridiculously long, so we went to Walmart, who was already open. The sale didn't start until midnight, but we could put most of the items in our cart and we just waited until midnight and checked out. We were like the third people in line to check out. It was awesome, and I was home by 12:30 and did not get up early to go anywhere. Totally my idea of Black Friday shopping! We went the next day around lunchtime to some other stores too. I love this time of year!

On Saturday we went to Chuck E Cheese's for Cole's birthday (he has been talked about going there for his birthday for months, literally every day he'd mention it) but they were so crowded you had to wait outside for other people inside to leave. We vetoed Chuck E Cheese's (much to Cole's dismay - it was so sad!) and went to McDonalds to get the kids ice cream and let them play. We were basically filling up time. Then we went to Red Robin and met up with Nana and Papa. It was a great evening with the family and a great way to celebrate Cole's birthday. He loved being sung to!

Sunday he had a family party where we have cake and ice cream and open presents. It's a tradition in our family to have these parties and we all love going. It's fun to get all the cousins together and to sing our way-off-key version of Happy Birthday. We get worse at singing every time! And, on a sad note, Cole did not get to go to Chuck E Cheese. We went on Monday night, but he threw a fit at dinner and literally fell asleep in bed at 5:30pm. Soooo, we went without him. Sorry Cole! We'll make it up to you!

I love going out with my family! We take up a lot of space and there is never a dull moment!

Getting ready to be sung to.

Stuffing his face with whipped cream, the only part of the sundae he was interested in!

At Nana and Papa's for the family party.

Watching us all sing to him.

The family!!!

Dave and Bryan singing to Cole. Best picture ever!

Cole couldn't figure out how to blow out his candles. So he asked for help.

Okay, all together now... "Awwwwwwwwwww!"

Some things about Cole:

We call him "Toad" and he responds to it more than Cole. He got it because Bryce was only 18-months old when he was born, and he couldn't say "Cole". It came out sounding like Toad, and the name stuck.

He hates to go to sleep. He wants to be where all the action is!

He isn't much of an eater, unless the food being offered is candy. Then he's starving.

He loves Diego and Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.

He still sleeps with his blankie.

He's quite the spitfire - he always keeps up on our toes! But he is also the sweetest kid - always telling us he loves us without being prompted. And he has an amazing imagination!

He loves to get his "tools" down and work with daddy.

We love you Cole and are looking forward to another year of watching you grow!

Halloween!

If you're wondering why I'm just now posting Halloween, please read the post below. It's not because I got lazy. I fully blame Best Buy :)


This year Halloween landed on a Sunday, which put us in a new situation. We knew we didn't want to trick or treat on Sunday, but that meant the kids couldn't go door to door trick or treating. We don't live in Utah where it would be "normal" to go out on Saturday night. My sister's kids did this and said it was fine, but here in Lakewood? Not so much.


Luckily our awesome ward had a Trunk or Treat again this year, and held it on Saturday night. I love the Trunk or Treat for several reasons: it's safe (no vehicle traffic during the event), I know most of the kids and the boys get to see a lot of their friends, and it's a quick way to get lots of candy! It's also festive. No one ever comes to our house to trick or treat (we live in that kind of neighborhood - like no other kids around!) and we get a chance to hand out candy and be a part of the holiday. Oh, and I can't forget about my friend Andrea's famous hot chocolate! I seriously had like 3 or 4 cups in the hour or so we were there.


Halloween weekend Rix was sick. He was soooo sick! He had a high fever (around 103) and he was throwing up and had this terrible headache that would keep him wriggling on the couch, crying in pain. It was so sad. And I knew, as Saturday night approached, that he was not going to the Truck or Treat. Seriously my heart broke for him. He'd been waiting weeks for this, and had already got his Mario costume, which he was so excited about. And yet he was so sick that he couldn't even feel sad about not going. He just wanted to sleep. So my parents, being awesome like they are, came over to sit with Rix while the rest of us went to the Trunk or Treat. Bryan brought Rix's bucket and got lots of treat for him. Most people felt so bad when they heard Rix was sick that they gave him extra treats!


And then, Bryan and I decided that it was so sad, and we felt so bad for Rix, that Sunday night we took Rix, Bryce, Cole, and Olivia out around Carissa's neighborhood to go trick or treating for about an hour. They didn't get a lot of candy (they really didn't need anymore), but it gave Rix a chance to wear his costume and participate. He was so excited to go! And we loved the neighborhood we went to. Next year, we know exactly where we want to go!

 Seriously, isn't he the cutest Woody ever? He even had the freckles!

 And, yup, the most adorable monkey.

Isn't it so sad?? It breaks my heart still!

So funny story. The day before the Trunk or Treat Bryan went hunting and got "skunked" (or for those non-hunters, i.e. my sisters, he didn't get anything). Then at the Trunk or Treat we pull into the church parking lot and what do we behold? A nice meaty deer. And it gets better. Bryan was dressed up as a HUNTER! He even tried to shoot it with his fake gun. He kept saying he wished he had his real gun. Seriously? You were going to shoot a deer? In city limits? At a church function with small children? Nice.

 Bryce, Rix, and Olivia trick or treating.

 So another funny story. Cole's costume covers his feet, and we didn't realize we had forgotten shoes for him until we got to the neighborhood we were trick or treating at. So Carissa and I took turns carrying him from house to house, but his feet still got really wet.

See how happy he is? And check out Cole in the background. He was so interested in all the other kids!

The Mario hat is a favorite now in our house. Rix even sleeps in it.

Rix's moustache wouldn't stay on well and apparently it got in the way of saying "Trick or Treat", so we took a picture of it when we got home. I always thought moustaches were sort of in the way for most guys, and I still don't get why men choose to have one.

So Halloween has been over for almost a month, and Cole still thinks he can just throw his monkey costume on and go get free candy. He doesn't get that it's a once a year kind of thing.

I'm baaaacccckkkk!!!

So after several weeks of not posting, I can now say I officially own a new computer that works, so I can update everything from Halloween and Thanksgiving and in between. Our old laptop was breaking at the hinges and the CD-rom drive didn't work. Thankfully we bought a warranty on it and we got it replaced with a new one. But it took over four weeks for them to finally say "We can't fix your old computer, so we are replacing it." It was all probably run by men. Because if women ran it, we would have got the computer back sooner.

I'll update pictures of Halloween, which will be my next post, after this post. I feel like I've started blogging all over again because, to be honest, I have never let this much time go between posting, and I feel like it's been forever!

So here are some tidbits and randomness to help fill your need for my posts.

It has been snowing here like crazy and it's coooooold. I don't like cold. It started on Sunday and after church the boys wanted to go play on the trampoline in the snow. Not really having a ton of snow experience myself, I threw them in coats, gloves, and hats and tennis shoes. It was a disaster. Within minutes Rix and Bryce came ine freezing. Their pants were soaking wet and icy, and the snow had melted into their shoes, making their socks wet. Their skin was bright red! And poor Cole lost a glove on the trampoline and wouldn't get down by himself. He just sat on the trampoline screaming and crying. Finally Rix went to help him and he came in just soaked and freezing. And I think the whole event traumatized him. Now, whenever we go out in the snow, he makes me hold him so he doesn't get (and these are his words) "fuzzy". I guess the snow does look fuzzy. And no worries. We have snow bibs for them to wear next time. Our next purchase? Boots.

I am now 11 weeks along. My nausea is still very present. I had a prescription for nausea that I used in my other pregnancies, but this time it doesn't seem to work at all (except it makes me oh so tired!). So today I got a new prescription so hopefully that works better. I'll start taking it tomorrow. My nauea has really taken over my life. It's all I think about all day, I guess it's like feeling like you have the flu for two months (or more). I constantly have to think about what I can eat, what I need to bring with me to work so I don't get hungry, what foods will and won't make me nauseated, etc. Bryan has been so amazing at helping me out: he comes home from work and helps with dinner, does dishes (I know!) and helps clean the house. He also runs errands and puts the boys to bed if I'm feeling too sick. And the boys have been really helpful too, expecially Rix. He's old enough to know that I'm sick and he loves to help get me things or help with his brothers. Several times I day he'll come to me and say "You don't feel good, huh?" And I'll say "Yeah, I'm sick." And he'll give me a big hug and say he hopes I feel better. It's really very sweet, and he is very concerned for me.

Cole will not drink regular milk. Only chocolate. And Bryce won't drink chocolate milk. Only regular. And Rix won't drink milk at all (except at school, he says their milk tastes better??). So today Cole was saying "Bryces drink regular milk. And Coles drink chocolate milk. And Rixs don't drink milk." And he would say this over and over. So I said "What about mommies?" And he said "Mommies have babies in their tummies!" See, this baby is taking over in every way!

Rix is convinced we are going to McDonalds for Thanksgiving dinner and Burger King for dessert. He told Papa he was making plans for Thanksgiving, and he wrote it all up, and that is what he came up with. Since then, I've found several papers throughout the house with his "plan". He doesn't seem to think I'm serious when I say we're going to Nana and Papa's house.

I'me excited to finally start posting pics again. I feel a little foolish for putting Halloween pics up in the end of November, but my kids were way to cute to not share with you all. Keep checking back because I'll be posting more often now!

Wondering

Below is a daguerreotype, taken by Louis Daguerre, who invented the first method of capturing pictures. I saw this on Yahoo and was so curious about the picture and the people you can see in it. Because this picture method took about ten minutes to copy, anything that moved too much would not appear in the picture. Because of this, pictures of people in landscape pictures are usually non-existent, but in this picture you can see a few people who stood still long enough that they appeared! A man getting his shoe shined, another man reading the paper, and a woman who was possible waiting for someone. They are hard to see, but so cool.

If you click on the picture it should enlarge it and you can see the images better. Also, my blog cuts off the left hand side of the picture, so clicking on it (or click this link) lets you see the whole thing.

The purportedly first picture of a living person. The image shows a busy street, but due to exposure time of more than ten minutes, the traffic was moving too much to appear. The exception is the man at the bottom left, who stood still getting his boots polished long enough to show. Look closely and you will also see another man sitting on a bench to the right reading a newspaper. Also in the upper left hand side you can also see another man standing under the awning of the 3rd building from the left. What looks to be a woman standing under the street lantern at 10 o'clock from the man getting his shoes shined and another one in the big white building,1st row 3rd window down. Notice the child in the top floor window of the white building in front. (From Wikipedia)

I look at this picture and wonder what it would be like to live during this time. Don't get me wrong: I love my modern conveniences - running water, medicine, and DVRs, but looking at this picture, it makes me kind of want to know what it would be like to live then. Life was probably a lot simpler, and the building are so cool looking. I hope you enjoy looking at this picture as much as I did!

The Newest News

Okay, first you should know that I don't have my laptop for the next few weeks. It needed repairs and they had to ship it off. It was a semi-tearful good-bye, but I stayed strong and let the nice guy (geeksquad?) at Best Buy take it. How did I ever survive before without a computer and internet?

In other news, we finally got the garage painted! So really, that means we are almost done. Almost. I have to paint the trim, but it's the garage, so there isn't a lot of trim. Oh, and I have to touch-up the blue where I accidently painted it white (who put me on paint duty??). We have to finish the front porch steps. By "we" I mean Bryan. And he is almost done with the back fence, just a few more top boards and we are d.o.n.e. with that project. Really all that leaves for a project is the kitchen. We have ordered our granite and hopefully we can get it done this winter (please pray for us).

Bryce looooves preschool. I hear from 7:30 am until 11:15 am "When am I going to school?" or "Is it time to take me yet?". And he doesn't have school on Wednesdays, so there is mutiny. But he's doing really well, he is a terrible writer, but loves learning the letters and their sounds and numbers and stuff. We'll work on the writing. Rix is not the best writer either, so it must be genetic, and I have great handwriting, so I can only conclude one thing. It comes from their father.

In preschool they get stickers on their hands so that we know they were good that day. One day, Bryce came home with a sticker on each hand. I said "Bryce! What's with all the stickers?" And he looked at each and I said "I was two good!" Get it? Too good? Two good? Anyway, I thought it was funny.

Oh, and if you haven't heard, which would sort of shock me because Bryan is basically telling everyone including the grocery check-out lady and random people at church, but I'm pregnant. I'm about 7 weeks, and already sick. Ugh. And tired. Last night I was in bed at 8:30. And weird that I get really excited about things like that. Early bed time? I must be getting old. I have my first ultrasound in a little over a week. And no, we are not finding out the sex of the baby. Unless there are babies, then we will. But we will not joke about me having twins (or, yikes, more) because it's not funny. Really. It's not. I would die.

Cole is definitely my child. He saw Bryan's BB gun and got all excited because he wanted to go outside and shoot it. What did he want to shoot? The weeds. Yup. Like not animals or trees or the obnoxious cat the hangs out on the trampoline. He wanted to shoot weeds.

I'm feeling overwhelmed with housework lately. Laundry is piling up, and I can't put it away fast enough. The floors always look dirty. The carpet needs cleaning. Legos are multiplying and replenishing in the boys room and spilling out into the living room. And they hurt to step on. Every Saturday I do a deep clean of bathrooms and the kitchen and all the floors, and make sure all rooms are cleaned, but by Sunday afternoon you'd never know. I need a new game plan. And more energy. Too bad baby+lots of caffeine don't mix.

On a side note, Burn Notice comes back in November. Bryan and I got Netflix, and we have really enjoyed spending time together watching our shows. We don't really watch TV often, but when our Netflix DVD comes, we'll watch a couple episodes together. Of course, we love Burn Notice, but it's on hiatus until next month, so we have been catching up on Leverage (LOVE that show!) and Lie to Me. Netflix has past seasons of these shows, so we get to watch them without commercials. Really the best thing ever. We also love to get together on a Friday or Saturday night and make a big plate of messy nachos with all the fixings and eat and eat and eat and watch a movie. We call it Nacho Night (really creative, I know) and it's on our calander at least once a month. My waistline can't take those nights too often though!

Rix is also loving school. He loves learning new things. He is by far a math child, and will do his math homework without me asking. But anything that requires writing he fights me on. "NO!!! Not the write to self!!!" My English Teacher side is saying, you will love it! You can be creative and silly and it's okay! But my mom side is saying, just write a couple sentences now and we'll do a little bit later. Like baby steps. For writing. Yikes. He also still has the strong desire to be first in everything. Carissa told me that one day he said to her "I was first in line today to go into class from recess!" and she said "How did you do that?" and he said "I stood in the spot where our class lines up for the whole recess!" Really? Instead of playing and running and socializing, he felt it was more important to be first in line to go back to class. That is Rix for you!

Dancing Machines

Most of you have seen Rix's awesome dance moves in the past. And I think awesome pretty much sums it up. But apparently it's genetic. Because Bryce and Cole have some sweet moves too!

P.S. This is what happens when I leave for a meeting and leave Bryan at home. Instead of cleaning up or putting away dinner, he has a dance party with the kids. But at least he got some good footage!

Rix Round One. We try not to laugh while they are dancing. If they see us laughing, they will stop because they don't understand what is so funny. Yet. Wait until these videos get busted out for their wedding reception or something.

Bryce Round One

Cole Round One

Rix Round Two (aren't things usually better the second time around?)

Bryce Round Two

Cole Round Two

I should also probably warn you that these may be the last pictures you may see for a while. I have to take my laptop in to get fixed, and it may be gone as long as three weeks! Yikes! I'll survive somehow. I'm still working on my survival methods, but it'll be good. I'll still update, but unless I find another way to add pictures, they will be imageless. And by that I mean mostly boring. So enjoy these videos, and if you find yourself going through Rix or Bryce or Cole withdrawals (who doesn't?), well, you can always watch them again. And again. And again. They are that good.

Eight is Great!

Okay, it's more than great! Last Monday Bryan and I celebrated our 8 year anniversary. We sort of celebrated in Friday Harbor, but on Monday we went out to dinner and some "us" time.

First off, we had told each other we weren't going to buy anything for each other, so of course I didn't buy anything and of course he did. Of course! He had a dozen long stem roses sent to our house. I was truly surprised! I've never had flowers delivered to my house before. They were gorgeous and so thoughtful.

**I forgot to mention (thanks Carissa - how could I forget??) that I made Bryan a peanut butter brownie cheesecake for our anniversary. I figured since we weren't supposed to buy anything, the least I could do was make him something delicious! However, it paled in comparison to his gifts!

Bryan took me to Anthony's on the Waterfront, where I got fish and chips and Bryan got steak kabobs and shrimp tempura. I should have got the salmon alfredo, but I chickened out. Then for dessert we shared their Burnt Cream - oh my. It was so good we were fighting over who would get the next bite.

We went to the mall because Bryan wanted to show me a ring he found that matches my wedding ring. If it wasn't so dang much *cough$800cough* I would've been more interested. Buuuuuut, I don't need it right now, so we went to the Gap to get Bryan some new pants. So romantic, right?

Then Bryan showed me the other present that we weren't supposed to buy each other that he bought me. He got me a gift card to Gene Juarez for a pedicure and manicure. Hooray! I am way excited about some pampering! And they do a fabulous job by the way. He did good!

Aren't they beautiful?? They smelled amazing too!

Haha! We were having fun with the fish!

Okay, so I was trying to make the number 8 (you know, for 8 years!) but look at my fingers! They are so messed up! Nice.

See, that is what 8 is supposed to look like!

Bryan and me in front of the restaurant and the Sound.

One more try! Ah!! Still failed :)

I was so excited about our anniversary this year. Eight years?? That is crazy! We are each other's best friends, and love every minute we have together. We love spending time with our boys, but love having "us" time for fancy dates or at night just watching a show and eating a plate of nachos together. We have the best time planning our future and what we are going to do together, especially when we are old and senile and grouchy. It's going to be so fun! Here's to another eight (or eighty!!) years!!