Celebrate good times! Come on!

It's still the month of May, so even though it seems like forever (FOREVER!) ago that we celebrated our anniversary and juC's birthday, I'm considering it totally legit that I'm just now posting about it.  I'm going to blame my lateness on cC.  I totally could have posted this last week, but, he has decided to not go down for naps.  The last time he took a nap was last Monday.  So that means we are 8 days in a row with no cC naps, which means no free time during the day for me, which means no time for organizing a post.  And also, very sadly, means that I haven't been able to get my normal naps.  And let me tell you folks, it's not a pretty situation.  Not pretty at all.

So now I'm just neglecting luC and cC so I can do this post.

But back to the point!


On May 5, all of Mexico celebrated the 7th anniversary of the day that juC and I were wedded.  It's always nice to know that we have so many people celebrating with us!

All I wanted to do for our anniversary was have the whole family go to the tulip festival so I could get some fabulous pictures of the kids with the fabulous colors of the flowers.  Unfortunately, cC wasn't having it, and the pictures of the kids were all some form of this:

 The good news was I got some super amazing maternity shots.  And by "super amazing" I mean this:

Oh, and it also started pouring rain while we were there.  So that was awesome, too.  My anniversary adventure was not going as I'd planned.

Then we went to Chili's for dinner.  What else would we eat on our Cinco de Mayoversary?  It was when we were dining on our anniversary with these crazy kids that it dawned on me...

..wedding anniversaries are something completely different when 3 small kids are involved.  

The good news is that a week and a half later, while juC's parents were here, we got to celebrate right.  And by "celebrate right" I mean go on an over nighter that pretty much revolved around what restaurants we'd eat at.  

For dinner we ate at a lovely Italian restaurant.  And for lunch the next day we ate at a place that was a shoot off of a chocolate candy store.  It was on our little anniversary trip that I learned that juC and I don't take pictures together anymore.

In between our family anniversary celebration, and our legit anniversary celebration, we had an awesomely legit birthday celebration for juC.

I decided to help him out and get him a real sized grill, instead of the tiny wittle travel grill he'd been using.  I know, I'm so nice.  We set it up in the backyard, and the kids were so excited to stand there and wait for juC to walk around back coming home from work and surprise him.

 Then it was time for perfectly handmade birthday cards, puuuurfectly store bought cards, and a present.  And by a "present" I mean a cover for the grill.  Because it was the only logical other thing to get him.

 And then, of course, it was cake time!

Though the highlight of juC's birthday, for me, was the following night when we dined at a Tex-Mex eating establishment.  During one of the kid bathroom trips, I made sure to tell our super-trying-to-get-a-good-tip-waiter that it was "Dad's" birthday, as the waiter so affectionately called him.

So the highlight was when the severs were all rounding the corner clapping their hands, preparing to sing "happy birthday" and juC started dancing, having no clue that they were headed to him!  When I started laughing his response was "What?...Wait...they aren't coming to me are they??  You didn't!!"

Oh, how I wish I could have captured a non-blurry picture of the events.

Lest I not write about our month of May celebrations, and not include Mother's Day.  juC knows how to celebrate me right.  I was awoken to little voices our room, and juC standing there with the kids and this fabulous breakfast.  I can't remember what he made me for dinner, but I know that was good, too.   And good food is all that really matters in my book.

I'm thankful for juC and that each May I get to celebrate our anniversary, his birthday, and Mother's Day with him...and our crazy kids.  

Thirty Six

I say it every birthday.  I love birthdays.  Love 'em.  Almost as much as a love the person that's celebrating a birthday today.  I guess this is the week for sappy posts, because I've decided to do a post of 36 things I love about juC.  It will be hard to narrow it down.  But...I will do my best to keep it at just 36, as he enters his 36th year.

1.  I love that he is a good sport with some of my crazy ideas.  Like when we used to go bowling, and I had the rule that any time you roll a gutter ball, you have to do one roll on your pants leg.  I won't complain that he should have continued to roll up one leg until it wouldn't roll anymore, but would always divide it between the two legs.

 2.  I love that he doesn't complain when I probably don't meet his expectations.  I hate to admit how many times he's come home to me having no idea what's for dinner and not really wanting to make anything.  He doesn't complain.  (well, he doesn't complain about me, to me.)  I appreciate that.

3.  Along the same line, I love that he doesn't make me feel bad when he comes home and finds that I'm still in my pajamas.  Being pregnant or having a small baby during most of our marriage means that it's happened a lot.  He never makes me feel bad about it.  That's love.

4.  I love that he kills bugs for me.  Remember the spider outbreak in our basement apartment!?  That was the scariest time of my life.  And here he was, kindly going around and spraying to ward off those horrible things!

 5.  I love that he never yells at me.  I cannot think of a single time in our 9 years of dating/marriage that he's yelled at me.

6.  I love that he takes his job as provider for our family so seriously.  I love that I get to stay home with our kids and that he wants to do it for us.

7.  I love that he is willing to do all the silly things that I want to do.  Like when I insisted we make a gingerbread house...before we even had kids.

 8.  I love that he can fix things around the house.  It's so nice to have a husband that knows how to do things.  And if he doesn't know how to do it, he will figure out how with the aid of google and youtube.

9.  I love that he smells good 99.5% of the time.

10.  I love that he calls me babe.  There aren't many pet names that I think I'm ok with, but babe is a good one.  It makes me fell like...a babe.

11.  I love that he takes the trash out.

12.  I love that he bakes things for me.

13.  I love that he's frugal.  Ok.  He's not always frugal.  But it definitely helps when he is.

14.  I love that he always wants to help people.  It's not always convenient for me, and sometimes it feels a little frustrating.  But if anyone needs anything, he always wants to be the one to do it.  He's a great example of being selfless.

15.  I love that he helps me clean when I ask for help.  Or beg for help.  Or demand help.

16.  I love that he takes care of me when I'm sick.  He's a good nurse.

17.  I love his smile.  It's the best!

 18.  I love that he is the most patient person I have ever known in my whole entire life.  I don't think there's another person out there with as much patience as him.  And it just so happens that he married the person with the least amount of patience of anyone out there.  Lucky me, poor him.

19.  I love that he gets all of my jokes...most of the time.  And that he thinks I'm funny.  It's a nice little ego boost when others don't.

20.  I love that he's been so good with me about choosing baby names.  It's always been a very easy process for us.  Hearing the horror stories of others reminds me of how lucky I am that he is the way he is.

21.  I love that he has a sweet tooth just as bad, if not worse, than me.  Then I don't feel so bad!

22.  I love that he makes the best out of bad situations.

 23.  I love that he lets me have time to myself when I need it.  Which is probably more than I should need, but he lets me and I am so very thankful.

24.  I love that when I want to take ridiculous pictures, he goes for it.

 25.  I love that he takes the kids with him when he goes places.  They always want to go with daddy, and he's usually willing to oblige.

26.  I love that he helps with bath time and bed time.  So, so, so very thankful for that!

27.  I love how hot he is with a beard.  Even though he can't have one right now.  It's still good to know.

28.  I love that he's so...just...nice.  For example--today is his birthday.  Today is also the day of my prenatal yoga class at 5:45.  I can miss the class, but I paid for a certain number of classes, so if I miss it it's kind of like paying for it but not getting it.  I can make it up with another class, but there aren't a lot of other classes that are prenatal friendly.  If it was my birthday, I would absolutely make sure juC clears his schedule so it can be all about me.  However, juC has willingly said that he is fine with me still going, and he will make the kids pizza, just like he always does on yoga Thursdays.  That's just the nice kind of guy he is.  When I said it wasn't fun for him, he said "It's fine."  I guess this is more of an example of why he's a better person than me.

29.  I love that sometimes when he has meetings at night, he brings a treat home for me.

30.  I love that he gives me a kiss and tells me he loves me every morning before he goes to work.  Even luC has noticed it.  And if he leaves later when the kids are awake and luC doesn't see him do it, when he walks out the door she says, "Daddy didn't love you!" all concerned.

31.  I love that he does his own laundry.  (OK, this list is making me look like a really, really lazy wife!  Sorry juC!)

32.  I love that he talks to the babies in my belly with a weird voice.

33.  I love that he makes me laugh so much.

34.  I love that he is such a good dad.

35.  I love that he doesn't look at day over 29.  I think we really throw people off.

36.  I love that he married me and that he is happy with being married to me.  Older, experienced men always tell younger men to marry up.  I guess juC decided not to follow that advice because I'm definitely the one that married up.  

Although juC keeps inching closer and closer to 40, which just sounds SO old, I still love him for so many reasons.  In spite of my yoga tonight cutting into his evening, I hope I can do my part and make this day special for him.  He deserves a day to feel loved and appreciated and celebrated.  And hopefully I can do that for him!  

I love you dearly sweet little juC! 

Lucky #7

7 happens to be my favorite number.  Ever since I was 7.  When someone asked me what my favorite number was, and I said 7 (because I was 7) but when they called me out on saying it was 7 just because I was 7, I denied it.  So then when I turned 8, I had to prove that 7 hadn't been my favorite number just due to my age, so I continued to say my number was 7.  And thus it has been every year since.

So if the number 7 has been my favorite number for the past 25ish years, I guess I have a pretty good relationship with the number 7.  7 has never let me down.  7 has always been there for me.  7 is good to me.

Which is good news because juC and I have just officially entered our 7th year of marriage.  And if my experiences with the number 7 have been any indication, our 7th year of marriage is going to be a good one!  Maybe the best yet??!!

It's kind of crazy because 7 doesn't really sound like a lot.  To those that have been married for many, many more years, we are just getting started.  But for us, 7 years has brought us a lot.

We've owned 2 homes.  We've had 4 different cars.  juC changed careers.  I've had 3 different jobs.  And we've had 3.5 kids.  We most definitely haven't spent our 7 years in wedded bliss stagnantly!

I also recently realized how sentimental I am when it comes to some of the things that mark the beginning of our marriage.

The morning of our wedding day, there was a little bit of rain.  juC bought a nice big, umbrella that morning for the rain.  For nearly 7 years, that umbrella has been by my side.  Each time I used it, a reminder of the day it was bought, bringing back lovely memories.  And a few months ago, I went to use it and...nothing.  The umbrella would no longer extend out.  Most people would toss a broken umbrella in the trash, but I just can't seem to bring myself to do it.  Every time it rains, I attempt to use it again...in the hopes that it's magically healed itself and works now.  No such luck.

We also got a spatula when we got married.  The sort of spatula you use to scrape the sides of a bowl.  It was a very basic one from Target.  Metal handle, red spatula.  Nothing fancy.  But it was with us since the beginning.  The number of cookies and cakes that that spatula has aided the production of over almost 7 years is innumerable. I couldn't help but think of us first acquiring that spatula at the beginning of our eternity together each time I used it.  And a couple of months ago, while Jud was using it to mix something that was getting too thick, the tip of the spatula broke.  I nearly shed a tear when it got tossed in the trash.  (Maybe I'll blame pregnancy hormones for that.)

Over the past 7 years of marriage we have laughed more times than I could ever count.  No one makes me happier than juC and no one makes me madder than juC.  We've learned how to be married.  We've learned how to be adults.  We've learned how to be parents.  We've learned how to sacrifice and how to work together.  We've accepted (for the most part) each others faults.  And we've done our best to be strong where the other may have weaknesses.

I often think that of all the people in all of the world that I could have married, no one was made more perfectly for me than juC was.  He loves me, imperfections and all.  He is more patient with me than I think any other human being could be.  He puts up with more from me than anyone else is capable of.  And he is just...the perfect person to be at my side.

It's only been 7 years, but if the rest of eternity looks anything like the past 7 years have, we're good to go!

**Photo credit, Thomas Photographers