5 Year Anniversary

This last Friday, on May 22nd, Nathan and I celebrated our 5 year anniversary. There is a part of me that can't believe it has already been 5 years...it's gone so fast. Another part of me, can't remember what it was like before I married this amazing man. God truly brought me His best! He didn't bring me a perfect man, but that is good, because if I was married to a perfect man, I would have to be a perfect woman and wife...and I am FAR from perfect!

God knew what He was doing when He brought me Nathan. He knew me even better than I knew myself. Nathan is the strongest, most tender, most loving, humorous, manly man I know. There are truly not enough words to describe this amazing man. He is the kind of guy who loves to go hunting and camping and play sports, but who will also watch a romantic comedy with me or take me to a play or musical. He loves me and encourages me when I am sad or fearful. He pushes me to be independent and to take initiative when I want to withdraw into a dependance on him or our relationship. He lovingly corrects and calls me out when I am being unloving or ungodly. He is the head and priest of our home. He leads us to the foot of the cross and encourages and inspires me to seek after the knowledge of the Lord and not just settle for what I've been told. He works hard to provide for me and now for our son and is the most brilliant, wise, and creative man in his business. God has given him favor with his clients and his fellow workers.

He loves to impart wisdom and learning on the young men in the Youth Group he is a leader in and his friends look to him for support and help when they are struggling. Nathan loves to laugh and he loves to make others laugh. He has a wonderful and unique sense of humor and he keeps our marriage fun and exciting. He is an amazing father who LOVES his son. He doesn't hesitate to change diapers, hold him, sing to him, and talk to him. I remember that first night after he was born and we were in the hospital, Judah started to cry and it was after he had eaten...Nathan jumped up from his bed to go and get him and change his diaper so that I could rest...without even being asked. When he gets home from work, the first thing he wants to do is hold and talk to his son. If it is possible, I am even more in love with him now than ever before!! I knew he would make an amazing father, partly because of how wonderful his own dad is, but to see him in action surpasses all of my wildest dreams. Our son is so blessed to have such a great dad and I am blessed to have such a husband!

So, my wonderful parents asked if they could babysit so we could get a chance to go our for our anniversary. As luck would have it...our 5 year anniversary actually fell on a 3 day weekend (Memorial Day weekend) and we weren't able to take advantage of that by going away somewhere, etc...because of our newborn son. Though I think the reality definitely outweighs what could have been the alternative. Anyway...my parents babysat so that we could go out for 2 hours. (I left after I finished feeding him and had to be back by his next feeding.) We went to the Biltmore and got Mojo's Frozen Yogurt...which is amazingly good and had a great time talking and then walking around the Plaza. It doesn't seem like much but it was WONDERFUL. Here are a couple of pictures of us that my parents took before we left for the evening.

The rest of these pictures are some random ones that were taken over the last two weeks. Judah is growing and thriving and as of Friday was already 8 pounds 2 ounces and an inch longer than when he was born. So, he is definitely a great eater!

These next two pictures were taken after Judah had eaten and I was burping him. He was a little "milk drunk" and we were laughing because when he's like this, he will literally sleep in ANY position!

Here's Judah just chilling in his boppy. (Actually we are borrowing the boppy from some great friends of ours...but he loves sitting in it, so thank you Stacy for your sweet generosity. We love you so much!)