Fine Lines

Every once in a while the hubs will stop and take a little selfie with me, because let's face it, there's no one else standing by to take our picture so if we want one, often we have to do it ourselves. ;) My love and I recently got all prettied up, got my sister to come babysit, and took ourselves to a friends wedding! We don't do this kind of thing often and it was fun! We took a quick picture between telling the children goodbye and explaining everything to my sister. When I looked back at the picture, I almost immediately fell in love with it.

At that moment, I realized that, as we approach our mid 30's and are in the thick of raising 4 children, you can certainly begin to see the fine lines around our eyes and deep smile lines around our lips, and I realized that each line tells a story. Not a separate story but a together one. One that we share. It was such a treasured night together just being adults and not tending to children (not that I don't love doing that, but a little adult time was nice!) Attending a wedding gets sentimental and my mind wanders back to our special day. You remember the past and look to the future. Our faces have changed, yes, very much since we married.

Forever. Forever seems like so far away the day you get married and then as you live life together, forever just doesn't seem long enough. I couldn't even being to describe how incredibly grateful I am for this man. I don't know why God chose me to be his. I don't know how I managed to get the opportunity to spend my life with him. I am so undeserving and so thankful. Thankful for each fine line, each story, each year, each day, each minute I have to share with him and our children! Even the crazy, chaotic ones...those are, after all, the ones that make us, write our story and they make quiet moments like these such a treasure!

Father's Day

 He's a natural and he rocks this daddy gig! He gets up in the mornings and has his time with his running shoes and God, comes home and enjoys breakfast and coffee with his wife. Then it's off to work for 8-10 hours, sometimes accompanied by talkative kid or two, and home to immediate demands for tickles, stories, trampoline jumping, trail hiking and baby rocking. And he never complains! He amazes me! Often times, several times a week, he will push me out the door in the evenings  to have my own time with my running shoes and God, while he bathes the children and tucks them in for the night! Yall! he never complains or seems put out by us. He's held each of our babies for countless sleepless newborn nights and changed countless diapers, given countless baths, tends to illness and celebrates accomplishments...he's never divided his work and mine. We are in it together...both of us! Right in the thick of it...4 kids 8 and under and I feel like we are doing okay! He's as steady as the sun and as constant as the stars. He's humble, kind, stern and gentle. He's quick to forgive and ask forgiveness. He's my voice of reason and my rock. He deserves the whole wide world if we could give it to him, because he certainly has given it to us! We love him so deep and so wide! Forever and ever! Happy Father's Day to the most amazing man I've ever known! Thank you for doing life with us! <3

The best we could do to say thank you were some pictures in some cheesy homemade shirts, but he really is one in a minion! ;)