Our Anniversary So Far....

Today is our 2 year Wedding Anniversary!  I am so thankful for the husband that God has crafted and grown just for me!  Tom is the most amazing man I could ever ask for and never ever dreamed of having!  He is such a blessing to me everyday and TODAY is one of those extra special days!  He never forgets to make me feel special on those special occasions throughout the year!  He has to be to work at 7 am and must have woke up extra early to make blueberry muffins for me to enjoy whenever I decided to wake up (or my son wakes me up).  He always gives me a kiss before he leaves for work and he left the door open to our room and I could smell some yummy goodness coming from something!  So I got up before Titus woke up which is very unusual for me but I needed to find out what that smell was!  I went out to the kitchen to find a dozen red roses and a dozen blueberry muffins cooling on the cooling rack!  Mmmm, needless to say Titus and I had a very yummy breakfast!

And I know there is more to come because he lined up a babysitter for tonight!  He tried to keep that a secret but she returned his call while we were driving to some friends' house last night!  I have no idea where we are going but I can't wait to find out!

Thank you God for Your gift of marriage and Your gift of Tom to me!  I couldn't have asked for anyone better!

The Big Catch!

I am so excited because today Tom is on his annual Spring fishing day to never never gonna tell ya land to catch his tasty limit of 5 BIG trout!  They don't even have to wade in the waters at this place they go, they just catch them from the bank!  I have already invited my parents to join him for next year but if anyone ever wants to come to Montana for Easter and participate in this special fishing day, let me know!  Tom had started teaching a student in youth group some casting techniques for fly fishing and was hoping to take him along today because he said it is the perfect opportunity for him to know how it feels to catch them and all that jazz.  But that shows how easy it is where they go cuz the fish are spawning!  So hopefully tomorrow I will be able to post some pics.

Titus is now working on getting his 7th tooth in!  He is so sweet and handsome, that boy just melts my heart!  He has the cutest grin and giggles!  He's beginning to test his climbing abilities!  Sounds like some stories I have heard about his dad!  He loves music whether it is at church or we are listening and dancin in the living room to some of moms favorite artists.  He is finally just about over his cold, I have been bathing him every night to help him get rid of those icky germs and still drinking my 'great tasting' Emergen-C, I think I like the Raspberry flavor the best!  The nurse also suggested to make some saline solution drops for his nose which has helped a lot!  But other than that she said there isn't a whole lot to do at this age for them other than what I'm already doing.  He has been happy and playful and without fevers pretty much the whole time he has been sick.

Titus also LOVES it when mommy reads to him, each morning we read about 4 books right before he goes back down for a nap and he has become mommy's big helper and he turns the pages for me!  I LOVE IT!  So cute!  He also LOVES it when daddy practices walking with him, he likes to do that every night when daddy gets home from work.

Well here is the picture of 'our big catch' for Titus!  It is so nice and rides so smoothly!  Right now we just have the jogging kit attachment for it and Titus seems to love it so far!  Much more roomier than his regular stroller was.  This summer we want to get the cycling kit for it so that we can not only do lots of biking with him but we would love to do the Route of the Hiawatha with my family when they come to visit in July.  The adjustable suspension system for the weight of the passenger(s) is such a great feature too!  And the storage bag in the back can hold up to 8.8 lbs. which will be nice when we go to the local farmers/peoples market this summer!  We picked the 'avocado' color thinking that would best match our bikes plus they carry the red one in the store and we see that one everywhere!

Well I best be going, think I might have my car sold!  Got a response yesterday after putting it on Craiglist Saturday and she seems pretty interested after I sent her some pics!  Pray for that please!

9 Weeks!

A much needed Starbucks date with free petite baked goods!

Thoroughly enjoyin our butternut squash!

Only 9 weeks from today will our baby boy reach his one year mark of life here with us, outside the womb!  Where has the time gone?  It seems just yesterday that I got to meet him for the first time and find out that he was indeed a Titus, as we didn't know whether he would be a boy or a girl!  He is growing so fast and learning new things everyday and each day he just gets more and more precious to us as we get to know this little boy that God so intricately created in the womb.  He has the most precious personality and the cutest little grin that his parents have ever laid eyes on!

As we begin to think about that time coming, it will be here before we know it, we are hoping to do something simple yet special for him to celebrate.  We are hoping at this point that the weather will be nice on that day, as even just today it was snowing here in good ol' Montana!  Nothing that is going to stick but none the less snowing in April!  I am thankful for it because it is one way that God provides for the grass to stay green longer before it turns burnt brown and provides no color for our great landscape here.  But others would disagree with being thankful for it at this time of year, which is okay, it isn't that I don't long myself for Spring weather to arrive since it is officially Spring.

Anyway I just wanted to share with you what I am thinking about today, soon my baby will no longer be A baby but thankfully he will always be MY baby.  Reminds me of that book that I love to read to him and cried to by the end the first time I read it to him when he was just my newborn, Love You Forever by Robert Munsch.  The song the mom would always sing to her sleeping baby boy even as he grew into a great big man was:
"I'll love you forever,
I'll like you for always,
As long as I'm living
my baby you'll be."

19 Months & Thankful...!

I am very thankful for our 19 months of marriage today!  I'm thankful that God is gracious enough to have given us a great love story to share with our child(ren).  Not only did He redeem me from the past I came from, which I had to share with Tom before marriage and will most likely have to share with my child(ren) someday, but He kept Tom all those single years of his just for me!  And because of God's grace and our determination to stay steadfast for God and trust Him for our future, we have no regrets in our relationship to the extent of silliness I am sure to most people out there!  We chose not to hold hands or say the words "I Love You" until we got engaged 5 months into our dating relationship!  And we chose not to kiss until, that is right, our Wedding Day, 7 months after engagement.  Which by the way was Tom's first kiss!  I share these things not to boast, because like I said in the worlds eyes and even in the eyes of some other believers, that is silly!  But I am sharing because I am thankful for that history between Tom and I that we can share with our child(ren) as he (they) grows up and we do our best to teach him (them) to make wise choices for God.  So, that he (they) too will not carry into his (their) marriage any regrets between his (their) spouse and him(them)self(ves).  And honestly in a certain way I am thankful for the history I do have apart from Tom because that too is useful to God in teaching and training our child(ren).  In a way of sharing that this is what happens when you choose not to honor God with your body, mind and emotions before marriage and these are the feelings you will regret all your life and will regret having to share that with your future spouse and your own children.

Someone said to me and a friend the other day when talking about having kids "My (live-in boyfriend) doesn't have to marry me to 'prove' his love for me in order for me to have his children!"  I have been thinking about that statement since then because of course it bothers me, but just thinking about it in light of today too.  A commitment isn't about 'proving' your love, it's about saying "I Do".  I Do want to honor God and the design He has laid out in His Word for an intimate relationship between a man and a woman.  I Do want to honor you as a person who loves God and be an encouragement in your relationship with Him, not the person who leads you down the wrong path away from God.  I Do want to produce a Godly legacy with you AND for our children to feel secure that they have a committed father AND mother.  I Do want to mirror God's image to the world in our relationship of His perfect love, commitment, forgiveness and unity He desires with us.  I Do believe we mutually complete each other and I believe you as a person are worth making a commitment to.  I Do want to let the world know that I am a committed person to one other person by the outward symbol of a ring.  And I am sure I could come up with more reasons if I wasn't holding a crawling monkey child right now ;)

Our first kiss! I love the smirk on Daisy's face, all the girls in bridal party blew their party whistles and the guys in bridal party got out their cell phone cameras as we enjoyed our first kiss!

Just Because...

I love my husband, he is so thoughtful towards me, more than I deserve.  Usually he plays basketball at our church on Saturday mornings from 7-9 just for some exercise with whoever shows up for it.  Yesterday morning they couldn't have the gym for that because of a conflicting AWANAS event for the kids, but he never told me that!  He got up early as normal for what I thought was to get ready for basketball, but I woke up a little later and found it was starting to get light out and my husband hadn't come in to give me kiss before he left as he usually does each morning before work and basketball!  Then I started to smell something good coming through the top and floor cracks of our door and I could hear something sizzling!  Then I heard our son start waking up and I thought "should I go out there since Tom is busy cooking?"  Well I continued to hear Titus cry and wasn't sure if Tom was getting him up or not so I did go out and found that he was not in the kitchen and found this delicious looking breakfast with a rose was coming together.  So I slipped back into bed and waited for my delighted husband to bring me our son to be fed.  And he did along with something to feed me!  So sweet!

17 Months Today And Fish?

Wayne, our good friend, with a Brook Trout, couldn't keep those!


Tom with all the fish that he and Wayne caught together! Now all missing theirs heads and guts and soon to be in our freezer! Yummy.


Well today has been 17 months since Tom and I said "I do." The day started with Tom getting up early, like 5:00 am, to get ready to go ice fishing @ 5:30 for the day with a friend of ours for trout and salmon! He was doing his "hunting and gathering" for us. I on the other hand had plans to sleep in a little, spend some time with my aunt putting up Christmas decorations at their house and then babysitting our little Jayce buddy while his sisters and parents went to enjoy the new Narnia movie (#3) in the theater. Well I didn't really sleep in, Titus woke just after 6 this morning and mommy was planning on trying to get him to take a bottle today so that maybe while we are home in IL my mom can watch him while we go to enjoy the Narnia movie ourselves. Well since he woke up earlier than I anticipated I was trying to get a bottle ready of my own milk while he was crying in his crib :( Then he screamed the whole time (15 minutes) that I tried to give him the bottle. I tried again a little later in morning, still cried, not as bad but mom was heart broken and I am not trying that again! After his morning nap, we headed over to my aunts and on the way I had to get gas and figured out I left my wallet at home! Yikes, so I got back to the pump and I got a call that the babysitting was cancelled because one of Jayce's sisters had been a little under the weather for unknown reasons and they felt one of them should stay home with her and Jayce instead of Titus and I.

So I spent the day over at my aunts and had fun. Later this afternoon I got a text from Tom that they had gotten 55 salmon! There is no limit on the Salmon where they went but a limit of 5 trout per person, which they only got 1 trout! But awesome anyway! So I headed home after a short visit with my Grandpa on Skype with my aunt, which was sweet! When I got home Titus just wanted to cry the whole time and I couldn't figure out what was wrong and he refused to nurse, which NEVER happens with him. So after much agony of trying everything and starting to worry something was seriously wrong because his tongue had been sticking out all day in a way he hasn't done before, Tom said to try some Orajel! Well I didn't think it would help because I couldn't see or feel any teeth coming in, well, he almost instantly started nursing and fell asleep like the sweet baby he is.

Got to show you these pics though before we leave for IL! Only 41 hours till I see my family!

And I decided to make a playlist of "love" songs to be able to put on here when it is our anniversary! I was listening to some of our honeymoon cds today we had made for us by my cousin Lauren and one of our other good friends. Sometimes it is so sweet to reminisce.

9 Months of Wedded Bliss!!

Well today is our 9 month anniversary, it has gone by so fast and it has been so wonderful. God has truly blessed us in our relationship with one another. Every day that goes by I love Tom more and more and there has been times when I have been overwhelmed by the thought of ever losing him to some tragic accident or something and all I can do is cry. The things you sometimes think of when your pregnant! I love being his wife and the one that he comes home to (although he is usually home before me) and the one he snuggles with every night and one he loves to cover with kisses in the morning. Yesterday the instructor in our class had us think of a peaceful happy place we love to go for a relaxation exercise (which by the way never really works for me) but anyway I thought of our warm snugly bed when Tom caresses my face and talks with me at night while I fall asleep because his voice is so calming and it is so peaceful there next to him, it is our favorite part of the day. We only have 2 more months and then we will be sharing our room with a newborn! Then it will be the 3 of us snuggling! We also bought a bassinet today speaking of lil muffin, we haven't really been able to find one and then we were on our way to church this morning and these people right down the street were having a garage sale. But we actually stopped later this afternoon to pick it up since it was still there and it was only a $1! I already cleaned it all up and washed it, it is waiting for a beautiful little baby to sleep in it! Anyway I believe I should go, I have a cribbage match to win against my wonderful husband.