Twelve

Nov 2010

Yesterday was our 12th Anniversary!

It kind of snuck up on us this year. 

I realized it was coming up a couple of days ago.  Ben didn't until late Sat night!

I meant to remind him about it.....I swear!

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With that being said, I absolutely love where we are with our marriage.

We've definitely gone through various stages in our relationship, but we seem to have settled nicely into the "comfortable phase".

I think this phase gets a bad rap as boring, but really it's fabulous!  It might not have quite the excitement as the early years, but it's great in it's own way!

The baby phase was probably our toughest.  We were so sleep deprived and grouchy.   We were in a bit of a survival mode.  Parenting came before everything else.  I did love those years, but looking back, I'm glad we are on the other side of them!

About the time Ollie hit 3 or 3 1/2, though, the fog of babies seemed to lift.

It was like, "Oh!  Hello!  Nice to see you again!"

I don't think either one of us realized how much we had lost each other until that point.

Now our lives have calmed down, and we've gained back a little chunk of ourselves.

It feels like we go out on dates less often than we use to, but we're okay with that.  We use to need dates to save our sanity, now they're just a bonus!  We've always been pretty good at making our own little dates out of nothing, anyway!

Plus, Luke's old enough to watch his brothers if we want to run a quick errand together--without kids!--and sometimes that 15 minutes is worth more than an entire night out alone!! 

Really, though, it's just so lovely being settled.  Settled is what I strive for! 

Starting out, I would have never guessed that this would be one of my favorite anniversaries, but really it is!

I love where we're at with our little family!  

And I'm still completely crazy about the tallest boy!!