Relationship Rescue: Making Love Last

We have had a great weekend as a family! I am so happy that hunting season is over for many reasons, but the main one is getting to spend more time with Mark and for the three of us to have uninterrupted time together as well.

The weekend started off with a bang as we celebrated Hayden and Brady's 4th birthday at the bowling alley. This was Wyatt's first time to bowl- and he loved it, but loved the arcade games even more as he took off for the "light-up" room on several occasions. I am so happy that Wyatt has such wonderful friends to grow up with! Each and every time we go to a birthday party I feel incredibly grateful that we get to celebrate these special moments with such special children.

Last night, Mark and I attended a Valentine's Dinner at the church with several other of our couple friends. All of us in attendance had small children, and the thought of free childcare and exceptional Italian food was such a draw that they filled just about every seat in our fellowship hall :).

We had a great time catching up with friends and spending time together. This event was the big kickoff to the new sermon series on marriage that began today.

I am always thrilled when we can attend anything on this subject. Marriage, any marriage takes a lot of work. There are days when I love Mark so much I can barely stand it, and there are days that I can barely stand being in the same room with him because he is driving me nuts. The past 3 1/2 years have brought a lot of change in us both, and there have be

en a lot of happy times, but also a lot of hard times as we both adjust to these changes. The one constant is that Jesus is the center of our life. The more we look to Him, the more we grow closer. I am in complete awe of the man my husband has become - he is enthralled with God and everyone who knows him can see it. I am so very, very humbled by this man who trusts the Lord with everything-- including our family.

Mark is my special gift from God.

How blessed I am not to be wading around this world with no one to share my life with. I can't even imagine what life would be like without him. As I sat in the pew today, I was struck with how very, very important it is to pray for your spouse. I never had even thought of this before. I mean I pray for Mark's protection, I pray that God keep him safe- but how often do I pray to thank God for this gift of marriage? I am embarrassed to admit the answer.

Today Mark and I made the commitment to pray for each other each and every day. I pray God's blessings on him, I pray that God help me to be the best wife I can be to him. I pray that God work in our marriage, and that when I am 85, I can look back on my life and know that I spent it with my beloved. I hope you and your Valentine have a wonderful week!

Another Milestone, Another Update

This weekend we found out several new things about our little boy:

• He loves Salsa. I tried my hardest to keep him away from the stuff, but when he is screaming"DIP, DIP!!" at the top of his lungs in a very crowded Mexican restaurant, one can only hold out so long. We also found out he is a chronic double-dipper.
  
• He loves Elmo enough to pee in his Elmo potty the very first time we used it. YIPEE!! Hopefully, this is a good sign.
  
• He hates hair clippers. After four suckers and an hours worth of screaming, thrashing and crying - we managed to walk out of Great Clips with both ears still intact. I am still not sure how.
• When waking up at 6 a.m., the child cannot make it past 11 without a nap. There went our play date. So sorry Erin and Hudson... I think our play dates are seriously cursed.
  

Anyways, that's about it for now. I hope you had a great weekend!

Our Weekend- a little late

1. This doesn't have much to do with our actual weekend, but I noticed on Thursday evening that the roses that Mark planted in honor of my first Mother's Day are starting to bloom- aren't they gorgeous? He planted them right outside of our bedroom window, so I get to enjoy them inside and out. While my husband is way too practical to send me flowers, he is sentimental, and seeing these bloom every year reminds me of that :) Thanks honey for giving me flowers that keep on coming back- what a great gift.
2. We went to McWane with a couple of Wyatt's friends from church- this place is amazing. We had a wonderful time, and I am thrilled that our pass lasts all year. Mark and I are going to be taking little guy a lot. His favorite part was the water table- it's like a giant bathtub, but you don't actually have to get clean :)
3. I am looking forward to a girls trip to the beach this weekend... sand and sunshine here I come! Little guy has been spending some quality time with Grandma, but I am pretty sure we are wearing her out. Next month = no more traveling for the Olis clan! We are super grateful for our wonderful family who loves little man as much as we do.

4. Mark planted our garden last night. Another summer full of fresh vegetables gets me excited about the season change. This year we will have yellow squash, tomatoes, okra, bell pepper, cucumber and blackberries. Our fruit trees are also supposed to start producing as well, so I am looking forward to some homemade peach cobbler... let me know if you would like veggies this summer- we always have way more than we can use!

My Little Piece of Happy...

Mark came home with these last week, and it has really been a bright spot in my week (pun intended). They were originally in a plastic bucket, and he even took it upon himself to plant them in my favorite planter. This planter was used in our wedding so it is really special to me. Our florist filled it to the brim with white lillies and pink roses. One of these days I will dig the file off my computer and post the pictures... such a beautiful day :).

Anyways... back to my front porch. I didn't want to spend a ton of money on my "harvest" look, so I simply added a fall wreath. It doesn't look like much from the picture, but it always makes me smile when I pull into the driveway and see this:

And this is pretty sweet to come home to as well:

These PJ's crack me up- we put them on for the first time on Saturday night, and they are so tight they resemble Long John's. It is a good thing I bought them in a 2T... there is no extra room to be found :)

Erin, one of my good friends who just so happens to be an incredibly-talented photographer came out to take our Christmas/Wyatt's 15-month pictures on Saturday. She met us at the train depot in Calera, and it was a perfect day. If you need any pictures taken (maternity, engagement, Christmas, family ect...) I highly recommend her. This is the second shoot she has done with Wyatt, and I could not be more pleased. Check out a few of his pictures here. Did I mention that she is AWESOME and AFFORDABLE? Double-bonus: She can design your Christmas cards too! For busy mom's like me, this is one heck of a deal. Thank you Erin for capturing these amazing snapshots of my little boy.

Besides the Christmas shoot, we completely chilled out this weekend. It was wonderful to have a weekend off from entertaining, and not have to worry about my house. I declared it a "no-clean" zone and only did the bare minimum like dishes and laundry. The floors did not get mopped and the furniture did not get dusted... and I didn't care. We just played and played. I did get to the mall on Saturday morning and finished rounding out Wyatt's fall/winter wardrobe. He needed a few more long sleeve t-shirts, dress shirts and a couple more pairs of shoes. WHEW! I am glad we are done with that. I think he is okay until Spring- let's hope anyways. Mark's mom is making him an adorable Pumpkin Long-All, and my mom ordered him two fall appliqued long-all's, so I am very excited to get those in the mail this week and to try them on my handsome little man.

We watched the Tigers roll over the Vol's at Steph's house Saturday night. The food was awesome- Turkey Chilli, hotdogs and dip galore- YUM! Good food and family make the best weekends in my opinion. Thanks Steph for a wonderful evening. War Eagle!