Two of the BEST Years of my Life!

I can't believe it's been 2 years since my wonderful husband and I said our handwritten vows to one another.

  

This is the man who makes me laugh 

Who works hard for our family

Who makes me feel special

Our special Chick-Fil-A date for my birthday

The spiritual head of our relationship

Leading Bible Study at Youth Group

We enjoy time together

playing games

and eating dinner

And now we share our love with our beautiful 3 month old as well.  He is the best father! 

So incredibly thankful for my handsome, God-given Prince. 

Happy Anniversary to the man of my dreams, literally!

***All Wedding photos courtesy of Kat Ritenour Photography***
*Last photo courtesy of Holly Wood*

Goals

Everyone has them.  Some people are better at executing their goals than I am.  I have many goals in my head but causing myself to actually accomplish them has been a bit of a different story.

Goal #1 

Being a better housewife

For me this has been very difficult.  I've never been one who particularly enjoys cleaning.  Ok, I've never really enjoyed it.  Usually I would much rather find something else that needs done.  I'm praying that God will help me to be a better housewife now so that when baby comes, I won't be so overwhelmed.  That means I have 3 months.  What are some of your tips to getting cleaning/organization done?  

I would love to have a craft room this organized, however don't have the space or the money to buy the supplies it would take to do this.  So for now, I'll stick with my egg cartons, baby food jars, and other assorted ways of keeping things sorted. 

Source: None via Julie on Pinterest

Goal #2
Cook More Meals
It's not that I don't cook meals, it's just that I'd like to cook more often for my husband. Especially since he's going to be trying to work 2-3 jobs here soon.  He is way more of the cook.  I'm a gotta follow the recipe exactly kinda girl, but he's really not.  However, I am getting much much better in this area.  Do you have any fun, relatively easy recipes you'd like to share with me?
We love some cheeseburger soup and have had it recently. Yum!

Goal #3

Make and freeze meals
This sort of piggy-backs off of the last one.  In case you didn't know, we are expecting a little one come January.  I've heard that you don't generally have the energy to cook the first couple of weeks home.  So I'd love to have some meals prepared ahead of time that I can just take out of the freezer and throw in the oven or in a pot on the stove.  Any ideas?

Goal #4
Participate in a real craft show
I have been wanting to do this for a while, however being pregnant I has had it's fair share of challenges in this regard.  One is that many craft shows that cost $$$ to participate and right now we just don't have it.  The other is that many craft shows are both Saturday and Sunday. Sunday is church for us and I hate to miss a service.  So that's been a challenge with wanting to go them. Also most of the craft shows have been on weekends where I already have something going on (baby showers as of late).  I would have loved to have participated in some over the summer, but was so nauseous that was just NOT happening.  
Hopefully after baby is a little older, I can find a craft show that's going on that I can participate in.  Until then, I'll keep looking at ideas on Pinterest of ways to display my items :).
I would love to do something like this to display purses, aprons, other items I create.  

Source: craftshowdesigns.blogspot.com via Melinda on Pinterest

So what are some of the goals that you have?  Have you had a hard time keeping your goals.  Please tell me I'm not alone on this one.

Also if you use the code: CleaningUp in the shop you will get FREE Shipping until October 25th.  Pass the word on please!  Trying to get out some old inventory to add some new! :)

On This Day 2 Years Ago and a Surprise ;)

My husband, was only my boyfriend, and he was very sick.  Poor guy!  He had a fun filled day planned for us and he felt like he was run over by a dumptruck.  (One of the ways I know he loves me, he still went through with our day).  

A few weeks prior to this day, Aaron had called me to ask if this weekend was open because it was the last weekend to go to Panama Rocks and he had wanted to take me there for a while now. I said yes, and yes again, and 3 more times.  He is NOT usually someone who plans things out.  He's more of an on the fly type person.  So I knew something was up.  I wondered if he had planned on proposing when he took me to Panama Rocks.  I talked about it later that day to my employer and then kinda let it go for a while. 

A few weeks later, the weekend of October 17-18th came, and my poor Aaron was so sick.  He could barely get off the couch.  I asked him if we had still planned on going on Sunday.  He said, "I don't know if we should go I'm pretty sick."  His mom overhearing it said, "WAAAAAHHHHAT??????? Not go???"  Yup, that pretty much sealed the deal for me and I thought for sure he was proposing.  So I was pretty sad when he said we wouldn't go (although I thought maybe he was just trying to throw me off as well.)  

So the next morning we got up and got ready for church.  He came down the stairs, and I could see the outline of the box in his pocket.  Panama Rocks is a beautiful place for hiking, and he was afraid of losing the ring so he kept it in his pocket.  I was having a terribly hard time waiting for him to propose.  I had wanted to marry him even before we started dating (maybe I'm crazy, or maybe it was just one of those God things). 

We went to church, had a quick lunch at Arby's, visited a friend for a little (I forget why we had to go that day but for some reason we did).  The whole time I watched the clock, I knew that the place closed at 5 and didn't let you enter after 4.  Oh and it was about an hour away.  So at 2 o'clock I was near pacing.  HAHAHA

So we finally got to Panama Rocks and it was BEAUTIFUL!  Do any of you know about my love for snow??? No??? Well I love it.  Like a lot.  When I wake up on my birthday and there is snow on the ground I sing Happy Birthday to Me!  The day before, it had snowed, not a lot but just a dusting.  PERFECTION!  We took some pictures of the entrance area, went and bought our tickets, looked at the map and then started hiking.  Aaron was super sweet in helping me get over my fears.  Some of the places I was too afraid to climb down.  (I didn't grow up in the country like he did).  He would grab my waist to help gently guide me down.  Too sweet.  

After we made it about halfway through, we had to take a break.  Aaron being sick, could no longer really breathe and needed to rest for a bit.  Only he was resting for a long time.  He was making small talk.  I can't really remember it.  I asked if he was ready to continue.  He said no, let's talk some more.  Ok, I can be patient.  Then while sitting there on that log, he says, something to this effect (I can't really remember exactly because I was far too excited), "Amanda, you know that my motto is 'It's always an adventure with Aaron Wood' and today has been no different.  We've climbed over a lot of obstacles so far and I know that there will be more, but with God's help I know we can get through it.  We've been climbing over rocks. Let me show you the most beautiful rock here.  *gets down on one knee*  Amanda, I love you so very much, will you marry me???"

*Swoon*  He forgot to put the ring on, so I was like "Yes, I love you please put the ring on! Please put the ring on!" *freaking out*

Then we took some photos as we both cried.

It was just so beautiful!  We finished walking through Panama Rocks both of us talking about our future.  When we got home we told Aaron's parents.  Called my parents, and then started calling everyone else. HAHAHA

And then we couldn't wait and put it on Facebook =P.  Since then we've gotten rid of Facebook but back then we were just so excited!

Unfortunately I can't find the photos from that day, but all the photos except the flower and ring were taken by Aaron's Mom.  She does wonderful photography.


And you're reward for making it this far:

Don't forget that 10% of all your orders go to Project Hope for the next two months.  Read more here. 

Please share with me your engagement stories or direct me to where I can read them.  I'd love to hear the stories!  Hopeless romantic here. 

The 12 Week Bump

Well, even though I really don't feel like I have a baby bump yet, I can feel that my clothing is getting tighter more and more.  I can't believe that we are already 12 weeks along already.  At our next appointment we get to hear our baby's heartbeat.  I can't wait. We've also spent a lot of time yard saling lately for clothes for mommy and baby.  We have had some great luck getting cheap clothing and are way excited about that.  God has been looking out for us sooooooo much in allowing us to purchase items that are inexpensive.  Without further ado, here are the pictures from yesterday! 

 Can you believe there's a baby the size of a lime in there??? I can't! It's a little miracle in the making!

And that means we only have 28 weeks left in our pregnancy, that is still a long time but considering we have 12 weeks under our belts that feels like nothing! 

Saturday Snapshot

It's that time of week again!  Time to link up with Kim from Yellow Songbird.  I really enjoy getting to look back on some old photos.  This week I'm posting one from the beginning of my relationship with my husband.  I can't believe it but tomorrow is our 1 year anniversary! Where did the time go??? Ooo, pick me, pick me, I know I know!  We went to Mexico for our honeymoon, then we went to Lynchburg, VA for his summer classes, then we went to a few weddings in this area, went to Pittsburgh for Christmas, back to Lynchburg after that, then to Illinois for another wedding.  We also started a youth group this year, what a blessing.  We both left Facebook.  We have had such a wonderful first year of marriage, sure there are some disagreements, but we can't stand to be upset with one another.  We always make up before we go to bed.  God is sooo good to us.  I know this may not always be the case but I'm so thankful for how much we think alike and work together.  Oh sweet husband of mine I love you!!!  Thank you for a wonderful year! 

In this picture, I stole his hat, which I did frequently.  He had "hat" for like 8 years.  Unfortunately somehow, hat disappeared last year, (no, I didn't throw out hat, I loved him as much as Aaron did). :( This was probably in our first 3 months of dating. 

Source: Kat Ritenour Photography

About an hour before the ceremony, our photographers decided to "torture" us by allowing us to be so close without being able to see each other. They backed us up against the wall so we couldn't see each other. . . I was just a hands reach away!  I loved it though because I could at least hear his voice even though I really didn't want him to see me before the I walked down the aisle!  Can't believe this was a year ago now!  Wow!

Love you Husband!!! (and don't call me Wife-band!) 

Thankful Thursday

1. I got to spend a lot of time with my family the last week.
2. I serve a risen Savior!!! That's the most awesome thing EVER!
3. I have two little girls that I watch that just love spending time with me.  Thank You Lord for the time I have left with them.  I love them soooo muchly!
4. Aaron and I celebrate our 1-year anniversary this weekend! :) So exciting to me!  So So So excited!!! So I'm sooooooo thankful for my relationship with my AWESOME husband!  I seriously love him so much.  I know that God put us together!  Too Perfect!

Our Two Year Dating Anniversary

Photo Courtesy: Holly Wood (My Mother-in-Love) 

Here is a photo from when we got engaged:

Photo Courtesy: Holly Wood (My Mother-in-Love)

Our Wedding Day

Photo Courtesy: Kat Ritenour Photography (Our ROCKIN' Photographer)

What are you thankful for this week???

Please write a post and link up with what you are thankful for on this Thursday! Or feel free to share in the comments! :)