5 Years of Marital Bliss

Last Friday was our fifth anniversary. It has been a fast, wonderful, lovely, challenging and beautiful five years.

Dustin I both work a lot and we haven't had much time alone since Dalley came along. I convinced him to go on a little overnight trip to get away. He said it had to be a less than two hour drive so my choices were very limited. When I was trying to think of where to go I remembered a B&B that I lived next door to in college. It is a beautiful huge old house. I walked by it every day in college and always wanted to go in. So I made a reservation there. I loved it. It was gorgeous on the inside. They have all of their rooms listed online so I got to take a virtual tour of each room to decide which one we wanted to stay in. I decided on the English room. It had a claw foot tub in the bedroom and a balcony with a breathtaking view.

Friday night we dropped the kids off with Dustin's sister Haley. I was a bundle of nerves cause they had never spent the night with her before, but they did great. We headed to Cedar and checked into our room. Then went to Milts for dinner. Then we did a little late night shopping and headed back.

I loved the B&B experience, but Dustin said it was like staying at a weird relatives house. It was not something he would have ever wanted to do, so I am very thankful he was such a good sport. He didn't complain once, even when they didn't have anything for breakfast that he liked.

It was really nice to have a special time for us and it is something I think we need to do a little more of, more often than every five years! I love Dustin so much and I am so thankful for him. He is a bit rough around the edges. I tease him that when we met he was barely house broke. It works for us though. He has a lot to put up with being married to me and he takes it in stride. He is a wonderful father and he is endlessly supportive of me and my crazy work and church schedules. I think he secretly likes it when I have to work long hours, cause he likes the alone time with the kids. that way they can eat ice cream and stay up late and I can't nag him about it. I sure am thankful that this rough and tough cowboy came into my life.

This is our engagement photo from five years ago

This is us today. We sure aged a lot in the last five years!

Who Turned Four? This kid did!

On February 28th my little munchkin butt turned four. I can not believe how fast time flies. Everyone tells you time flies, but I didn't really understand it until I experienced it myself. It really seems like it hasn't been that long since we brought our little miracle home. I am still amazed every day that we had a big part in creating a person. That seems like such a huge deal.

I am amazed at how wonderful this kid is. He is such a blessing to our family.

He is an awesome helper to me and his dad.

He is an awesome big brother. He loves helping with his sister.

He loves to do the dishes. I bribed him to clean his room this morning by telling him if he would clean then I would let him help with the dishes.

He really enjoys school and is lucky to have amazing teachers.

He loves everything cowboy. He loves to go with his dad to check cows and to help Papa on the ranch. He even got chased by a mother cow when he was helping my dad feed her calf. It made him a little nervous but he still went out the next day to feed the calf again. My favorite story was at Christmas. He was playing in my mom's kitchen with his cousin and best buddy Ira. They were taking turns branding and vaccinating each other. It was too cute. He does a lot of branding around my house to. His helpers are Daddy, Kade, Wyatt, and Josh. He has quite the imagination.

He loves hunting, especially chasing raccoons and shooting coyotes. We went on a walk to the calf barn today. The calf barn is about 1/8 of a mile from our house but it took us an hour and a half to walk there and back because he had to stop and check about 50 raccoon traps. He must be a really good trapper because he caught a bobcat in one of them.

He is such a sweet boy and I am glad to be his momma.

For his birthday I took the day off. I put him on the bus then went to his school and did a party with his class. We decorated paper bags for treat bags then we broke the pinata. After school he got to go play with his best friend, Kazlee, while her mom did my hair. That night some of Dustin's family came over for tacos and presents. Haley brought punching balloons and everyone had a great time. He was a tuckered out little boy by bed time.

Grandma Dyann playing with a balloon

Dalley was so funny when he punched his balloon, he had to hold his left hand out stiff at his side. He also had to have his mouth wide open.

I took the easy route on his cake

Miss Belle with her balloon

The Dukester

Whitlee LOVES her big four year old brother

Aunt Haley with her balloon

Daddy and Whitlee

Dalley's Best Fried Kazlee taking a whack at the pinata

Miss (Aunt) Teresa giving Dalley his birthday crown

Dalley taking a whack at it

The invitations to Dalley's party