Derby fun!

It was Derby time again last weekend.  I love this time of the year!!

Dessert tent

Blake's mom and sister

 Blake and I, Blake's brother and his friend

Blake's sister and her boyfriend, Alan 

Alan, Blake, a sweet family friend Ed, and Bill (Blake's dad)

 Blair and I

15 years!

Today marks 15 years of dating my favorite guy.  

Blake asked me to our senior high school prom and the rest is history!   

He makes me laugh.  He makes me proud.  He makes me smile.  He makes me happy.  He makes life fun.  He makes me want to wake up another day being together.  I love being married to this guy.

9 years!

Today marks 9 years of marriage to my favorite guy.  We dated for 6 YEARS!!  So to say we were ready to get married to each other is an understatement.  Today I am so very thankful for those six years.  I feel like the transition to married life was a pretty easy transition.  We were 24 years old.  We share the same moral beliefs and standards.

We had celebrated a ton of holidays together.  We knew each others families so well.  We understood how each other's families worked and traveled.

We understood what made each of us tick.  We knew what each other enjoyed and also didn't enjoy.  We both had graduated college.  We were done with school.  We were both working full time with pretty much the same hours.

Our dating relationship was done in community.  We did very little with just the two of us.  We were either with friends or family all of the time.  We are so blessed with such wonderful friends.  Each friend who stood by our side that day, we still see on a regular basis.

Our wedding day was a perfect day.

I loved becoming one.

After our ceremony, we had a reception out of a movie.

It was incredible.

 We danced the night away and had the best time.

It was quite the party. (Sorry this one is so blurry.  I took a picture of a picture.)

This picture below is my favorite picture of the day.  Every time I see it, I remember how giddy I was and how much excitement and love we felt on that day.  We were finally married!

The day we got married was the first day we lived together.

Now here we are 9 years married.  Blake makes me want to wake up another day together and figuring this life out one step at a time...together.  I absolutely love being married to this guy.

Bringing in the New Year!

We brought in the New Year up at the snow!  It was Austin's first experience of playing in the snow.  I absolutely loved watching him figure it all out.  The beginning was so very frustrating to walk in, to move in, to go where he wanted, but it didn't take long to figure out how fun it could be.

Happy Birthday Blair!

We got to celebrate Blake's sister Blair's bday together in a fun way!  Chelsey, (my cousin and just so happens to be Blair's roomie) planned a whole day for Blair.  After breakfast, Chelsey took Blair to get her toes done and look who else showed up!

 Aubrey Rose got her first manicure.  She loved it.  She said it "tickled and hurt a couple of times, but only a little."

Then, we went to lunch together.

And for dinner all the family joined us and Alan (Blair's boyfriend).

Happy Birthday Auntie BB!!

Christmas night with the Smittcamp's

Christmas evening we went to our Uncle Bob's for dinner.  This was us leaving

 and we are ready to go!

 There were 52 people at Christmas dinner on Blake's side of the family.

 This year we had 3 tables!  Each year our family continues to multiple!

 Great Grandpa with the great grandchildren that were able to make it this year.

 And the Bill Smittcamp family!

Whew!  Four straight days of Christmas and we were ready for a day of rest the next day!  Christmas 2013 did not disappoint!  LOVED it!!

Christmas Lunch with the Chandlers

For Christmas lunch, we spent the afternoon with Blake's moms family, the Chandlers.

 I LOVE watching our kids with their Great Grandparents.

 It is too cute!!

 This is Blake's grandparents and their kids.  :)

 Blake's fam

 All of the family together...

 And to think it all started from these two!  What a wonderful legacy they have lived.  We love you MomMom and PopPop!

 Then, we ended the afternoon with another drive session in the new cars Santa brought.  Austin can't figure what he likes better...being driven by his sissy or 

driving his own.  Either way, they are both pretty darn happy.