7th Anniversary - 160/365

Today was our 7th Anniversary! 

Seven years...it's crazy how time flies! 

We've had an awesome seven years of marriage. We've, of course, have our share of ups and downs, but we are better than ever. We're so lucky to have each other and have a blast together, too. Here's to many, many more! 

We do the traditional anniversary gives every year. This year was copper and wool, which was a little tricky. Jim did awesome! He spread my gifts out on the counter and spelled "love" in pennies. It was adorable! I also got copper bird and hummingbird feeders, a copper colored planter, a warm woolen mittens Yankee Candle and a little lamb. SO CUTE! 

I got Jim a copper card with a special message on it that you keep in your wallet, a wool sweater vest and some wool socks. I also got him a new grooming kit in a leather case. It didn't fit with our theme, but he really needed it and was excited. 

To celebrate, Jim's mom and dad came over to watch Reagan, while we went up to the Phoenix for dinner. We had a great evening!

My presents....

62 Years - 209/365

Pretty laid back day today.

 We went down to grandma and grandad Downard's this afternoon. They were celebrating their 62nd wedding anniversary, so everyone went down to have a little picnic! 

62 years! How wonderful is that? They are still happy, too! What an amazing accomplishment in this day in age! Hopefully someday, Jimmy and I will see our 62nd wedding anniversary! I'll be 90 and he'll be 92! We can do it! 

My mom and dad brought a Subway sandwich tray along with fruit, pasta and potato salad. We also had a yummy cake and Handels ice cream! 

 We were also celebrating Aunt Barb, Aunt Jean and Jim's birthday's, too, busy party! 

Reagan loved chasing around Zeke as usual and giving him lots of lovin'. She also loved walking around delivering pretzels and giving hugs to everyone! That pretty much kept her busy the whole time. 

At one point, she asked for the chalk. Aunt Barb had given her chalk for Easter when we were down there. They had gone out and drew on the sidewalk that day. Well, yesterday she remembered that and was so bummed there was no chalk! Poor thing....

When we got home from the picnic, I cut the grass and did a little weeding and trimmed the bushes. While I did that, Jim, Reagan and Brinkley went for a walk at the farm. After all that, we played with chalk on the driveway, since she didn't get to play with it earlier. I asked Reagan to lay down on the driveway so I could trace her. After she saw her super cool chalk person, she wanted everyone to do it! We have the whole family out on the driveway! Looks like a CSI episode out there....LOL! 

The photo of the day is grandma and grandad...Happy 62nd Anniversary!

The next is our chalk family...

 

Swinging Good Time - 165/365

The swing set arrived today! 

TOOOOO exciting! I think we may have been more excited than Reagan!

 Early this year, we thought we would wait one more summer to get her a big swing set. She still seemed so little. As the spring went on and summer arrived, she started getting better and better at climbing on the big ones at the park. We had gotten her a little Step 2 climber and instantly she seemed to big for it. We decided we would go investigate and see how long it would take to get a bigger one, ordered and installed. We thought a good 8-12 weeks....WRONG! They said 2 weeks, 3 max! We decided, since she would still have all summer, we would just bite the bullet and go ahead with the order this year! 

They showed up right around 8:30. I looked out the window and about died! They had all this stuff piled up on this trailer! It was hilarious! Next thing I know, two more trucks pulled up, one with the rest of the play set and another with a bobcat! 

 I started to get quite nervous when they started hauling the big pieces through the yard on the bobcat, after all the rain we had. It seemed like they were making pretty big ruts in the yard and I'm just so weird about my yard! Thankfully, they were taking a time out for awhile after they brought some stuff back and resumed the bobcat after it dried a little more. The yard has some lines, but it should clear up on it's own.

 Reagan stared outside all day saying, "those guys building mine swing set? I want to play on it!" It was so fun watching them put all the pieces together. There were 4 guys and it took them till almost 2:00 to finish up! 

Finally, it was her time! She took off running and jumped right on! At first she didn't like the blue slide because it was a little slow. Nana stopped over to check out the finished product, so after Nana and I went down a few times breaking it in, it started getting a little more slippery. Then she was OK with it. She was instantly in love with the yellow tube slide though. Another favorite, is her little playhouse underneath. She loves going in and out and sitting on her little table and chairs in there. It worked out nice, that there was lots of extra space in front of it, so we could add her smaller Step2 climber and her picnic table that Nana found at Sam's Club. 

She really loves her play land! We are absolutely in love, too! It's better than we could have ever imagined! Even Brinkley loves going up the gang plank to hang out with Reagan up top. We try to keep him off the slides though, after his slide accident last summer...LOL! It's going to be great having that right in our back yard! Who wants to come over for a play date!? 

This evening, Jim's mom came over so Jim and I could do dinner and officially celebrate our anniversary, from last weekend. We decided to go to the Phoenix. It's one of favorite places and I can't get enough of the zucchini parmesan. We had a really nice time! We came home and played on the swing set before Reagan had to go to bed. Our neighbor, Josh, came over and was so sweet playing with Reagan. He was helping her do so much! 

After we got Reagan to sleep, we finally exchanged our presents! We always try to keep to the traditional gifts for our anniversary year. This year was iron and candy. Jim ended up getting me some Gorants Candy, a Yankee Candle with a iron, flag illumalid! It's too cute! He also got me a certificate to get another private family photo shoot down in Disney! YAY!We did it at Epcot a couple years ago and it was FABULOUS! I'm so excited to do it again!

 I ended up getting Jim, a new Callaway sand wedge. It isn't technically an "iron", but close enough. I also got him some personalized M&M's. I ordered them in purple and black (our wedding colors) and had Happy Anniversary, along with our wedding picture, printed on them! They came out ADORABLE!!!

The photo of the day Reagan in her new play land... 

 The next is the back of  the swing set...

I had to add the two buddies in the tower...

And lastely, us on an M&M....

Happy 6th Anniversary to US- 160/365

Today is our 6th Anniversary! 

Time sure flies! It seems like just yesterday, we were knee deep in planning our wedding and now somehow six years flew by!! It's been a great six years, and though we've had our ups and downs, we are still going strong! We're best friends and we wouldn't have it any other way!

Traveling in the car, isn't exactly how we wanted to spend our anniversary but, oh well. We had already decided we would pick a night this coming week to do dinner and exchange presents. We didn't want our special day to get lost in the shuffle of travel. 

We woke up and were moving a little slow from our vacation and travel. We had hoped to make it downtown DC to see a few sights, but we were lazy. We did make it to Georgetown Cupcake in Bethesda to grab some for the road, of course...LOL! I also wanted to grab my mom and dad a few for taking care of Brinkley and the house all week. We got our cupcakes and by then, it was already going on 11. We knew we were going to have to stop for lunch with the little one, which always takes awhile, so we decided to just hit the road. 

We got home around 5:00 and got to unpacking. We were greeted with a lovely surprise on the counter from my mom and dad. They left us a bottle of wine and a gift card to the Phoenix...YUM! It's one of our favorite places to eat! We actually hoped to maybe go tonight, even before the gift card, but by the time we got unpacked, we were pooped. My mom and dad had to go to calling hours this evening, so they dropped Brinkley off around 6:00. We were so happy to see the little guy! Reagan was thrilled, too! She gave him big hugs! We chatted with them for a bit, then I continued my laundry quest. I ended up getting three loads done...whew!

As we were calming down for the evening, I took Brinkley outside and dressed him up in his souvenir from the Outer Banks. They had an all dog store called Outer Barks, so I couldn't resist getting him a little treasure. 

It was an OK travel day and we're home safe and sound from our trip. We wanted have a picture of us for our anniversary day, but we were looking pretty beat from travel day. Just awful...LOL!
So, we'll roll with this.....

The photo of the day is Brinkley sporting his OBX souvenir.

The bonus pic, is our little surprise from my mom and dad...THANKS SO MUCH!!! :)