Wedded Bliss

(Note:  This post was written on Monday, but it was a typical Monday, and I didn't get a chance to click "publish" till today... sorry for the delay) 

On Saturday, Benjamin attended his very first wedding!  And what a wedding it was ... one of the most joyful events we've ever attended.  Everyone present was grinning from ear to ear.  The bride and groom seemed about to burst with excitement.  God was greatly honored in that place, and we were so blessed to be there.

Benjamin did great, too!  Just played quietly on the floor during the ceremony.  During the reception, he was reaching his limit for crowds - sweet little introvert that he is - and so we had to take a "people break."  I took him to a side room, fed him a jar of his happy-food (sweet potatoes), and just played for a little while (read: unpacked the diaper bag while he investigated everything).

While definitely not the most flattering picture of him ever, it really captures the poor Little Man's heart at the moment ... Can we go home yet?  I just want to be home and play on my rug!

He did perk back up after a little bit (nothing like a boost for the blood sugar and getting to take off that oh-so-cute, but fussy, dress shirt) and we were able to enjoy the rest of the reception.

Adding to the fun of the wedding was that I got to bake cupcakes for the reception!  The more I cook and bake lately, the more I love it, so I was excited for the excuse to go all-out on some awesome recipes!

Before (Friday Morning)

After (Saturday afternoon)

So, I'm definitely not a professional at piping the icing, but otherwise, I thought they turned out pretty well.  (The recipe for Martha Stewart's buttercream frosting is here... and I didn't have to make as much of it as I thought I would for 3 dozen cupcakes, so I didn't quite use all the butter and eggs that are pictured in the "before" shot ... doesn't that make you feel better? :)

And now we're back to Monday - rainy, chilly, and Little Man's poor teeth are hurting him.  Ah well, I guess this is the rightful -and even glorious- continuation of "wedded bliss" - the joy of having a partner through life's bright, mundane, exciting, rainy, springtime, wintertime, laughing and teething days.

So, thank you Will for choosing me as your life's partner.  There's no one I'd rather share these (or any other) days with.

Saturdays are for running around

We had quite the busy Saturday around here.  We all got up bright and early ... Benjamin and I enjoyed the early morning (relative) calm at the farmers market and Will went on a bike ride with some friends from church.  We all met back at home for brunch - blueberry muffins with fresh-from-the-market berries - yum!

Our big adventure for the day was Benjamin's first swim!  The weather was cooler and cloudier than it was forecasted to be, so the water was freezing!  But sweet Daddy braved it and let Benjamin kick his feet in it for a little while.  The main idea, really, was to sport our super cool swimming outfit...

I'm lookin' good!

I can surf, Mom, really, I know I can!

Yahoo!  Let's do this thing!

Ok, its a little cold, but I can take it!

After swimming, we came home, got washed, dressed, and headed out for Date Night!  Sweet friends offered to let the Little Man snooze at their house while Mommy and Daddy enjoyed our first evening out since he was born...

Seriously?!?!  You guys are getting dressed up and going to have fun and you're leaving me here in my dinosaur jammies?!?!  Can't the Little Guy catch a break?

Can't Help It

I just can't help myself, I think this shirt is absolutely, roll-on-the-floor hilarious...

A sweet friend gave it to Benjamin for his six-month birthday. I've laughed every time I've looked at him today ... which is miraculous, since we've been up since 4:30 this morning. It also may have something to do with Monday night's poop-of-the-century that ended in all 3 of us yelling and a very long bath. Rice cereal evidently does wonders for the digestive system.

Also, I realized that I neglected to post a picture of my anniversary red roses...

Ok, so forgive the horrible picture ... I was trying to catch the afternoon rays streaming through the window but didn't think about all the clutter on the counter right behind the vase. But then, I guess that's an apt metaphor for six years of marriage ... beautiful blooms in the midst of the daily grind?

I suppose it's also an apt metaphor that I talked about anniversary flowers in the same post as the poop-of-the-century. Poetic, yes, very poetic. :)

Happy Anniversary!

Six years ago, I married my best friend.  And the crazy thing is, he is more my best friend every day!  I love you, Will!

We celebrated our 6th anniversary by spending the whole day together, just the three of us.  On our own schedule, no appointments to keep, no deadlines to meet.  It was wonderful.  It was tough letting Daddy go back to work today!

As we looked back over our years together, we were amazed over and over again at God's faithfulness to us.  If you had told us on our wedding day where we'd be six years later, we definitely would not have believed you.  But isn't that the amazing part of walking with God - its more perfect for you than you could know yourself.

A Sweet Day Indeed!

Yup, those are 2 dozen red roses just for me!

As I had previously mentioned, we were waaaaaay excited about Valentine's Day this year. I think in part this was because the last couple Valentine's Days have been, well ... we're not using the c-r-a-p word anymore in preparation for Benjamin picking up our vocabulary, so we'll just say they've been less than ideal.

Last year, Valentine's Day was the first day I really struggled with morning sickness ... all day long. Also, in hindsight, I was coming down with the flu (yes siree, I had the flu and morning sickness all at the same time). So anyway, I distinctly remember craving a cheeseburger, but feeling horrible (I ate more cheeseburgers while I was pregnant than the whole rest of my life combined). So we got take-out at Backyard Burger ... woo-hoo. And we probably went home and watched a DVD of 24. I don't remember that exactly, but that was around the time we started watching the show. I guess we have a tendency to start watching intense tv shows during stressful times in our lives. Lost after the tornado, 24 during the pregnant-graduating-job-searching-moving chapter.

The year before that was the year of the tornado. Valentine's Day being only 9 days after that, you can imagine how much we felt like doing anything special. So, we got take-out from Rafferty's (boy, I do miss their fried chicken salad with honey-mustard-hot-bacon dressing and a croissant - yum!) and went home to watch the season of West Wing that Will had gotten me for a gift.

So, this year, we were ready. Sarah offered to keep Benjamin. Reservations were made at Bonefish Grill. Flowers were ordered (many kudos to my wonderful husband). A special outfit was even set aside for the little guy...

And I carried a cute purse to the restaurant instead of the ginormous diaper bag!

And it was truly a wonderful day. Benjamin did great with his first babysitter - even took a little power nap for her! And lunch was wonderful - yummy seafood, great atmosphere, and I didn't worry all that much about being away from Benjamin for the first time (though I must admit I had my cell phone on its loudest setting, and then placed it on the table 6 inches from me).

Hope you all had a wonderful day as well!

Two Is Not Twice One...

Sailing this weekend in Salem Harbor
(notice Will's great new glasses ... pay no attention to my crazy hair :)

I have the best husband in the whole world ... maybe I'm biased, but I'm so glad Will Trautman married me! I've been thinking about him a lot today - he's had a stressful week and I can see the weariness on his face (but he still went to - and participated fully in - childbirth class last night! :) So, right now, I'm baking him some cookies - nothing like some sugar and chocolate to melt away a stressful week, right?

I'm so grateful for these few months we have in CNY before our "Little Buddy" makes his appearance in the world. It's given us time to reconnect after a most intense semester of school, work, job-hunting, putting our house on the market, and moving prep.

The title of this post is from G. K. Chesterton's book The Man Who Was Thursday, which we read aloud to each other the summer we were dating. We were actually at the lake for the weekend with two other couples (I have no idea which lake - I was just along for the ride to "the lake"), and the reading aloud earned us the nickname "Reading Rainbow." I don't remember a whole lot about the book (I think I mostly just listened to Will's voice :), but this line resonated with me then, and still does now: "Two is not twice one, two is two thousand times one." This was Thursday's feeling when he discovered that another character (some other day of the week) shared his undercover mission.

At the time, I had that same sense about this dashing young philosopher with the Clark Kent glasses - that I had found the man whose mission I shared. And though the past 5 years haven't been easy for sure - after all, now I'm married to a dashing young engineer - I am still thrilled to be his partner and helpmate... Just thought I'd share :)

Niagara Pictures

At long last, here are some pictures of our day at Niagara Falls a few weeks ago! The waterproof disposable camera didn't take the best pictures ever, but we were glad we had it ...

Here we are on the Maid of the Mist Boat tour (so, for those who haven't been, we're on a boat at the base of the falls getting soaked by the mist blowing off the water - woohoo! and I only got a little seasick towards the end. :)


Here we are on the Cave of the Winds walking tour - we were most grateful for the little ponchos that were included with each of the tours!

Will, being the brave one in our family, made it all the way up to the "Hurricane Deck" only 20 feet from the waterfall itself - he could barely wave for the wind blowing his poncho up over his head. As for me, someone had to be available to get the picture!

It was an absolutely beautiful day!