Happy 9 Years And Many More To Come...

Today Marc and I celebrated 9 wonderful years of marriage. There will be plenty more but its exciting every year when this day comes around. We are so blessed with such a happy marriage and wonderful healthy family!

We first woke up, got the kids ready for school, and then headed off to my final ultrasound! After the appointment, Marc's parents kept the kids for the afternoon so Marc and I could go out to lunch! It was so nice to eat a meal with just Marc. We then ran some errands, which was also just as nice withOUT kids. Time sure went by fast because as soon as we arrived back home it was time to pick up Liliana from school and in came the other two from Papa's house!

At this point in the day it was time to get things in order for a nice family dinner. Before we could eat I wanted to get Marc's gifts out of the way.

In the years past we always struggle on what to get each other as far as gifts go. With my birthday 3 days earlier, Christmas 2 weeks later, and then Marc's birthday in January it sometimes get a bit tricky to not overspend and go overboard with all the spoilings this world has to offer. So a friend of mine got me thinking about "themed" gifts according to the number of years we have been married! So last year kicked off the first themed gift and STRICT budget of $10 each!! The budget made both of us think really hard about what to get each other.

This year I wanted to follow the same path as last and stick with another themed gift. It was hard to come up with something that I thought Marc would like and with Marc so busy with the new job I knew he would have no time or desire to think about what to get me. This years theme was to be either Willow or Pottery. I ended up waiting until this past week to go and get Marc's gift. I told him the gift I was making him would count for both of us, since we have all been so busy. He was of course fine with that. The gift I made was at a local pottery place where I found 2 matching ball ornament shaped plates. I decided I would paint one red and one green. On the plates I painted a quote that has a lot of meaning to us when thinking about being married in December. "When December's snows fall fast, marry and your love will last"

To go along with these plates I took it upon myself,with NO HELP this year from Marc's mom, to make him his favorite philipino food, lumpia! (Lumpia is just like an eggroll with fresh veggies and ground meat inside) I am so happy they turned out so yummy since it was my first time making them all by myself! Marc was like a kid in a candy store when I brought the bags of them in from the garage freezer ( I hid them a couple days ago so he would be surprised)!

When dinner was over Ava said Happy Special Day to both of us! We explained to the kids early this morning that mommy and daddy have been married for 9 years as of today and that its "our" special day! It was very sweet that they could somewhat understand how special the day is/was to Marc and I! Especially this day in age where so many parents are married one day and divorced the next!

I can honestly say I have no plans to ever NOT be married to Marc and he says the same thing about me! We definitely were meant for each other and always will be!