9 year update

On January 4th, Ashley and I celebrated our 9 year anniversary. Each year we write in a book our thoughts of the past year. In the book we also include a picture of the two of us ... here is the only picture Ashley could find with the two of us in it without other people from the past year ...

Nice. At least it shows that we did have at least one date this year. Thank you, CC, for being our first babysitter.

The morning of our anniversary, Eden and I "snuck" out of the house to get flowers and beignets (and a cafe au lait for Ashley). The flowers were from Eden to both me and Ashley; she saw it on Dinosaur Train. We're now doing beignets for most of our celebratory breakfasts and just realized their slogan ...

 

That afternoon I went to Whole Foods to put together a nice meal for the two of us (though we learned our lesson eating said meal with the girls - not as peaceful as we envisioned) ...

We had steak and shrimp with a white wine reduction sauce, grilled veggies and pineapple, a nice salad with homemade dressing, and baked potatoes. {Editor's Note: It was delicious! Graham did a fabulous job. I thoroughly enjoyed it despite being interrupted every single time I tried to speak.}

One of the reasons dinner was not as pleasant as we had hoped was that we told Eden we were going to watch the DVD of our wedding after dinner. Every 10 seconds or so we heard "I want to watch the wedding. Is it time to watch the wedding yet?" Seriously, every 10 seconds.

We did eventually watch the wedding as a family, and Eden really liked the first dance, the part where people were coming into the church before the ceremony, and hearing the fireworks when we were leaving the reception. She was also quite impressed that we had an Arthur and a Thomas in our wedding {more PBSKids brainwashing}. {Editor's Note: It was really great to see all of our friends and family again and to hear Lydia Lofton and my Daddy singing. So wonderful. As Graham said, listening to my Daddy sing the Lord's Prayer always gives him goosebumps.}

Here are the closest pics Ashley could find of "just us" from the past year ...

... perhaps, then, the ninth year was a year of family - that is the story the pictures tell. And why not, we have one for which we are very thankful.