He's the best of the best.

When I met Seth and fell in love with him, I knew he'd be an awesome husband. But it's hard to imagine just how good of a parent someone will be until they are in the throes. But he's the best of the best of dads. The kids are so lucky to have a dad like him. He selflessly gives to our family, serves us when he can, plays hard with the kids, teaches them important life lessons, shows them the love of Jesus, and loves me well. So it's only fitting that'd we'd spoil him for Father's Day. We let him sleep in, gave him gifts and went to church. After church, I made steaks, mashed potatoes, garlic green beans and crusty bread with garlic oil (his fav!).

I also took the kids to run a few errands to Target in the afternoon to give Seth a chance to relax and rest. Then for supper, we went to one of his favorite pizza places around here that has his absolute favorite buffalo chicken pizza ever. And--ice cream for dessert.

We love you babe!

Hunting with daddy

Well, hunting season is officially over for us! Seth didn't have any luck in archery season, but got this 9 point buck on the first day of rifle! Needless to say, he was a little bit excited. (And if you ever want to see it in person, don't fret. It's being mounted in our house. Sigh...HA!)

 

 

The next weekend, Seth went up to the hunting land again because he still had a doe tag. He took Carter along with him, and well that is just the cutest little hunter I've ever seen!

They did not get anything that day, but on Dec. 10, Seth went out with my dad and brother while we were making cookies, and he got another one--this time a doe. My dad and brother each got one that day as well. 

So Seth had a very productive hunting season and is one happy husband! After some frustrating hunting seasons, I'm glad to see him happy. But the best news is that he's exhausted all his deer tags this year, so we don't need to deal with late-season archery!! WOO HOO!!

Father's Day

Happy Father's Day, Seth! The kids are so lucky to have you as a daddy. 

We love you to the moon! 

Only funny in hindsight

On Thursday, I left work about twenty minutes early, which was nice. It was Seth's last day of school and I had talked to him at 3:15 or so, while he was still at school. I tried calling him once or twice while I was at work but he didn't answer. Shocker. (He is notorious for this).

I called again a few times when I left work so that I could tell him what to get out for dinner, but he didn't answer...again. By this time, it was 5:10, and that's odd to not talk to him until that point. Usually the kids are freaking for dinner. I was getting increasingly annoyed, mostly because he wasn't picking up and that is a PET PEEVE in our marriage. :)

But then, I had a little chat with the kids' daycare in which I learned that Seth had not gotten them yet (our contracted pick-up time is 4:45, so this was DEFINITELY odd).

Cue panic.

I tend to freak out that something will happen to him often, so this reallllly freaked me out. It's not unlike him to not answer his phone, but it's definitely out of character for him to not pick up the kids. I called my sister to talk me off the ledge of panic while I drove. No lie, I was about to throw up because all I could think of was that he was in a car accident. In my panic, I got off the wrong exit (well, it's the correct exit, but the road to daycare is closed that way right now for construction). So, I ended up detouring all over the place, which sucks when you're worried/nervous/about to barf.

I hung up with my sister and called two ERs in our area. No husband. Well, that's good.

Called a third. No husband.

I got to daycare and got the kids. The center was closed but someone was sitting there waiting with them. Awful feeling, for sure. (And $1/minute when you're late. Super. 45 minutes.)

Then I called my mother-in-law (probably freaking her out) and asked if she had talked to him. She hadn't, so now the panic has kicked up a notch. At this point, I was literally shaking so bad and literally praying non-stop that he was fine and just had a flat tire or something.

I come flying down the street, thinking I'll be heading back out to backtrack his drive from work soon, when I see our garage door open. His car was in the garage, and I was literally scared to go inside because I feared that he'd had a heart attack or something (Do you know me? I'm a chronic over-reactor, thanks.)

I carefully walk in the door and...

HE WAS ASLEEP ON THE COUCH. (He set his alarm for a little cat-nap and obviously missed the alarm).

ThankyouJesus, he's alive. (Though I wasn't sure he would be for long, once I got to him.)

I was so relieved/annoyed/happy/mad, it took me awhile to get out of my funk, but thankfully it's funny looking back now.

Overnight Date Night

I'm going to be frank. Since about mid-December, things have been a bit more stressful than normal. Job stresses and sicknesses abounded and there seemed to be a nice amount of parenting stresses as well. It was beyond time for an overnight date night!! Oma graciously offered to come watch the kids while we went on our getaway.

 

We booked a hotel and headed out around 3:15 p.m. yesterday. We arrived promptly at 3:23 p.m. YEP! You got it--we went to a hotel in our own town. And it was glorious. No long travel time, we knew all the good restaurants, and it allowed us to maximize our relaxtion without spending some of our time away in the car.

 

We stayed at a Wingate, which we've never stayed at before. Since Seth's a teacher, we got a discount. It served our purposes well and was actually very nice. Had all the amenities in a room we require and then some, and also had a free hot breakfast. Score. :)

 

 
When we checked in, we did NOTHING, and loved every second. We watched regular TV...you may know the kind...it's any kind of TV that isn't on Disney Junior. :) Then we got ready for dinner. We had reservations at a local place we love but it's not really a place we'd take our kids. Too quiet. It was seriously delicious (because we didn't inhale it) but I kid you not, it took 50 minutes. We laughed so hard at that because we weren't even rushing! I guess when there are just two adults, things go much quicker. :)  Plus, we were going to grab dessert somewhere else later, so that cut off some time, too. 

(phone pic) - Heading out for dinner!

 

(phone pic) - Mmmm, delicious steak!

 

After dinner, we chilled and then went swimming and got in the hot tub. We gave that up around the time family upon family began filling up the pool (and canon-balling near me, thereby wetting my hair. If you know me, you know I don't like this.) :)

 

Then, we decided to go to a cute little local coffee shop nearby and get a frappe and  smoothie. Mmm, SO good. I hadn't been there in years. We sat and chilled (in! the! quiet!), and continued our theme of relaxtion.

 

We spent the rest of the night just chilling. I got a bubble bath while reading a book (I almost get re-giddy just typing it!), and Seth played some games on his phone (of course!). Ha!

 

We were still in bed decently early by most people's standards but much later than at home with two kids who don't sleep (and didn't for Oma, either. Whoops. Sorry, Oma!).

We slept until 7:45 a.m., which was MAJOR sleeping in for us, and then we had a really nice hot breakfast and got ready for the day. A quick stop at the grocery store (hey, it's a nice relaxing getaway but it's still life. People need food. Haha!) and we headed home.

It was great to see the kids, but boy was it nice to have 18 hours to ourselves to recharge and relax. Thanks again, Oma, for staying with the kids!

That time my husband put a dead deer in my trunk.

Hunting season is upon us. Yay. (sense the sarcasm?) This means I will be nearly husband-less on all weekends coming up until the Big One is shot. Which will hopefully be immediately on opening day.

Anyway.

I was looking at Anna's dropshots this morning and saw the photo of a dead dear in the trunk of someone's car and it reminded me a little (A LOT) bit of a certain husband who may have done something similar. And because I want to have this memory to remind him of when I want to do something absurd, I am going to write it down.

Seth went hunting back on October 13 during archery season, and got one. We (read: I) do not eat deer meat because...ew. But Seth insisted that he was butchering the deer this year for himself. I never put all the pieces together in my head until we were ready to leave my parent's house and he said we had to drop the carcass off at the butcher shop. Gross. Ok, no big deal. And then? It all came together.

Us? An hour from home. Butcher shop? Near our home. Driving? Our one-year-old minivan (you know, without a separate trunk space).

Um, no. Over my dead body. (No pun intended)

But he said there was no other way to get it there except in the back of our new car with! us! in! it!

I was mad. Really mad. I don't enjoy dead animals, and I most CERTAINLY do not enjoy them in the back of my new car with me and my poor, innocent children in it.

But alas, Seth and my dad loaded that (thankfully, skinned and gutted) beast into a giant bag (I'm practically gagging again as I type this), and placed it on towels in the trunk of our car. Next to my gorgeous Vera Bradley duffle. I gave strict instructions for it to not touch ANYTHING.

Thankfully, I didn't smell it at all (he's so lucky), and nothing was ruined in the process.

For real, though? Can I get a collective EWWWW from any other woman out there?!?! :)

Thankful...

Without a doubt, the last seven weeks have been tough. Not that anything is wrong--just that new parent stuff! Addison is SUCH a sweetheart and bless her heart, is trying so hard to sleep better and better. :) And Carter is working on his obedience (whether he wants to or not!!!) ha! I've said it before--in some ways, going from one kid to two was easier because we knew what to expect, been there/done that. On the other hand, it was WAY harder because it seems like they both need our attention at one time and our time is just cut in HALF.

I obviously feel stressed some days--usually the ones where Seth is at work or I got no sleep. But, I've come to realize how much of an awesome "other half" Seth has been not only the last few weeks, but since we've been married. We aren't always SUPER good at expressing our gratitude or concerns, but we're working on it. We've read The Five Love Languages and are working hard to make sure we each feel special and loved despite the hardships of parenting. I read yesterday that NINETY-ONE PERCENT of married couples say their marriage took a dive when they had kids. So sad...and I never want that to be us.

I know he thrives on being appreciated and by words of affirmation, and I don't do well enough with that. But I AM thankful for him and what he does to provide for our family, all he does to help me out (which is apparent as we're both home all summer), little things he does to make me feel special, how he plays with Carter, and loves on his baby girl. He is, without a doubt, my support on a crappy day and the love of my life, and I can't imagine not letting him know that better than I've been doing.

I'm a lucky, lucky woman. And Carter and Addison are lucky, lucky kids.

We love you.

Almost to the big 3-0.

My gorgeous, wonderful husband is getting old. :) He's almost 30...he gets to eek out one last year in his 20s.

He's sort of like cheese. Or steak. He just gets better with age.

And tonight....DRUMROLL please....we are going on a kid-free date night. Carter will be spending the night with gramma and pa, probably getting spoiled (I think she's praying that he selects tonight as the night to sleep past 5:35 a.m.). I'm so excited for a nice dinner out where we are not feeding a small boy a steady stream of Cheerios. We'll miss him, but parents need alone time too. :) Thanks, gramma and pa!

Happy birthday, love!

Five years.

Happy five year anniversary to the perfect guy for me.

I love you.

(source)

He Loves His Daddy...

He was daddy's biggest fan at the softball game tonight. He stood and the fence and cheered and yelled for him.

It was absolutely precious and I love both of my boys (all three of my boys if you count the furry one). :)

Just to keep things interesting...

It's April Fool's day, so I'll say up front that this is real. :)

For the last three or four weeks, I have put off renewing the registration of my car because I had other more important things to do. Well, I remembered it yesterday, which also happened to be the day it expired. So I renewed it online last night, but of course the sticker on the plate is still old.

Seth's car is in the shop, so he had mine today. I said on the way out the door this morning "Haha, don't get pulled over today because you have an expired registration."

You know where this is going, right?

Well, he just called me and told me he got pulled over. I thought he was fooling me but he wasn't. He went through a yellow light, and the nice unmarked State trooper also noticed he had an expired registration. Uh-oh.

Turns out the cop was nice (are they ever???? Just kidding, Matt. :) and said he will take his word for it that he went through on yellow since he didn't have a good view. And, the cop wasn't even concerned about looking up the renewal in the computer system.

Anyway, cracked me up that the one time he has my car AND it has an expired registration, he gets pulled over. Ha!

Just a little update:  This afternoon, I was busting on him some more for this incident and I said "geez, you got pulled over twice this year (as an FYI, one of them was the morning that we got sent home from the hospital when I was in "fake" labor). He chuckled. A chuckle you say? Why's that now, babe?

"Three times."

Huh??? Three times? When was the other?

"Um, haha, last week." Punk didn't tell me. For what, I asked?? And where?

"About a block away from our house, because my inspection is overdue."

We are a mess. (And, for the record, his car is STILL NOT INSPECTED, which I did not know until today).

Funny Husband Story

The other day, while driving in the car, the song "Until the Whole World Hears" by Casting Crowns came on the radio.

There is a section of the song that says "Ready Yourselves, Ready Yourselves...."

Seth looked at me and said "I really don't understand what radio sales have to do with anything."
Thinking he was kidding, I said "huh?!?!"

However, he was not kidding. He really thought the line said "radio sales."

Oh how I love him.

Flowers

Life has been hectic. I feel like my head is spinning and I haven't had a chance to sit down in weeks. I have, of course, but it doesn't feel like it. I'm craving a nice, fall day when Seth, Carter, and I (and Bentley too!) can enjoy fall and RELAX. I need some family time.

So suffice it to say that I was super bummed yesterday when Seth called me at work and told me he was pretty sure he had to work that night. He never works Mondays so it never even crossed my mind. But sure enough, he had to. So it was just Carter and I again.

I expressed to Seth that I was sad, bummed, and just overall "blah."

And you know what my wonderful husband did? He left work early to surprise me (albeit more like freak-me-out-like-no-other when I heard the kitchen door slowly open)...

...with a bouquet of roses in hand.

I love him.

Show Us Your Life - Wedding Reception and Honeymoon

Kelly at Kelly's Korner is doing a thing called "Show us your life" where each week has a different theme. This week's was wedding reception and honeymoon. I just couldn't pass this up! :)

We got married on December 16, 2006 in Lancaster, PA. Our reception was at Willow Valley Resort, which has a lot of meaning to my family, since we've gone there the weekend before school for as long as I could remember when I was a kid. I loved having a winter wedding -- so pretty with all the reds, greens, and whites. The temperature was fairly warm though (in the 50s) for December so it didn't feel too winterish.

Just me!

Post-ceremony on the way to the reception

Again


Smoooooch!


being frisky...haha


Bouquet toss...I think Seth's cousin, Jessie, caught it

Then it was off to the honeymoon - We went to Sandals Regency St. Lucia, which I would hands-down recommend to anyone who is planning their honeymoon. I loved that it was all-inclusive and we never had to carry any cash, especially since tips were prohibited! It was so fun and romantic -- and lots to do...and eat. :)

Gorgeous, huh?

The Pitons!

Seth and I at dinner one night - with our "miniature leather sandals." During your stay, you can play games and do all kinds of stuff to ear points for prizes and those things kept coming up over and over. We had no idea what it meant until we got some at dinner!

The view from our room - it was like heaven! We can't wait to go back!!!

Compliments from the Husband

While singing funny songs to Bentley, Seth chuckled, never once looking up from his video games.

"What?" I asked him.

Nothing. Just that our kids are totally not going to be able to sing.

Good thing I have a sense of humor! :)

<3 him...

In Times of Remembering and in Times of Forgetting...

Yesterday, Seth's parents came for a visit. We had lunch and then decided to go take a walk on City Island since they have never seen it.


Well, of course while we were there, we showed them where we got engaged. Which made me turn into a sap later that night.


On the way home from dinner, I was recounting a lot of memories from our wedding day...the warm weather, all of the pictures, the kiss (which, if you remember was intense and made me look at our guests and smile and then laugh out loud after).


And then came remembering the vows. I still remembered them pretty much word for word to this day, so I asked Seth if he did. He paused. (Word for the wise, men: when your wife asks you if you remember your wedding vows, NEVER pause) :)


"You don't remember our VOWS?!?!" I may have shrieked.


"Yes I do."


"Ok, tell me one line then."


"I, Seth, take you Danielle."


Oh, what a smarty pants.


To his credit, I found out he was just messing with my head and could, surprisingly, pretty much say them verbatim. 176 brownie points for him!

Good man...

Wing-Eating Contest

Update: Unfortunately, Seth did not win. Some large man did. Boo!!! He came in third, after eating a calorie-topping, throw up-inducing 1.3 pounds of wings in 7 minutes.

As we speak, my gorgeous husband is in Carlisle participating in a wing-eating contest. The mere thought of it grosses me out--men stuffing their faces with messy food for 7 minutes is in no way appealing.

He made it through preliminaries last week and was named one of the top 5 finalists. I'm not surprised at all.

If he wins, he'll win a cash prize, a gift card to the restaurant, a wing sauce named in his honor, and his name on a plaque on the wall.

I looked on the Web site, and it also said "celebrity judges." I have no possible clue who that could be or whose agent (if it is a "real" celebrity) would consider a central Pennsylvania-based food contest as work.

Anyway, I didn't attend because that would make him nervous. Plus, to be quite honest, I don't want to be in a car with him after he eats 4 dozen wings in 7 minutes. I'm just sayin'.

I'll keep you posted....

Wing-Eating Contest

Apparently, Seth is participating in a wing eating contest in a few weeks. The mere thought of that makes me gag--mostly just because wings aren't that good to me. They are so much work and so messy, and I just imagine lots of men covered in hot sauce to their ears and eating like pigs.

A restaurant near us has $.10 wings on Thursdays, so Seth and I went this week to check it out. He ordered 20 hot wings, and I ordered 10 bar-b-que wings.

He cleaned all of his to the bone, and ate some celery, and out-right said he could eat another 20 for sure. In that time, I ate 4.

Yes, 4.

And I was full, too. Needless to say, I don't think I'll be entering the wing-eating contest.

I'll leave it up to Seth to bring home the $500 prize. I'll supply the wet naps.

Where, Oh Where, Has my Honeymoon Video Gone?

For a wedding gift two years ago, Seth bought me/us a really cute video camera. It is one of those smaller ones that doesn't look like you are a news crew when you whip it out. On the plane to St. Lucia, I read the manual so that I could use it on our honeymoon.

The first day we were there, I broke out the camera and chronicled our first walk around the resort, showing our room, the gorgeous ocean views, native flowers and birds, the pools...pretty much everything a Sandals resort has to offer.

We haven't used it much over the 2 years--mostly because we don't have kids and I can't find the manual to read how to upload the videos to my computer. But today, for some strange reason, I had an urge to get it out and play around with it. Now that we have a puppy plus several nieces and nephews, I decided to take it to NJ over Christmas.

I got SO excited to look back over the tapes to reminisce about our honeymoon. I looked through all the footage on every tape in the camera bag.

And, as my luck would have it, all I found was footage of approximately eighteen 9th grade football games from when Seth coached and footage of the bear my brother captured walking through the woods before he shot it while bear hunting in Maine.

It's like that episode of Everybody Loves Raymond, except this one is not a script.

Apparently, I won't be reliving those honeymoon memories anytime soon. Fortunately for me, though, I can critique the tackling skills of 14-year-olds and look at a dead bear anytime I want.

How it All Began...

Tomorrow is our two year anniversary. I can seriously hardly believe that it has been that long, and that I guess if you think about it, we are far outside of the newlywed phase! Most people know how Seth and I met, but I'll recap a bit how I found the love of my life.

During my junior year at Messiah, I started the year living with a girl named Paige, but she decided to study abroad in the spring. Therefore, I was assigned a new roommate, Ashley. We really hit it off great, and had tons of fun. I didn't really know her friends that well, but one night, a few of them stopped over at our room to see her and asked her to come back to their apartment to hang out with the bunch of people that were there. Not wanting to go alone, she asked begged me to come too. So I did.

When I got there, I realized that I recognized some of the people just in passing, but never really met any of them. I immediately recognized Seth from the ONE time I had to go to the library and rent a movie for a class (a history movie of all things!). Plus, I had seen him around campus and he had dated a girl who was best friends with a girl on my floor. And I remembered that during my freshman year, he was the fill-in RA on the guys floor in Witmer.

Anyway, he introduced himself to us and everyone just kind of hung out and chatted. I can totally remember sitting there that first night in March of 2005 thinking to myself that I thought he was really cute and funny. When we left, we were not even down the steps in the front of the apartment complex and I looked at my roommate and said "Wow, that Seth guy was really cute. I will totally date him someday." She chuckled and we kept walking.

Over the next couple of weeks, I'd see him, and now knowing each other, we'd say "hi" or occassionally chat on IM or facebook. A bunch of people hung out in a group a few times. One night, Ashley and I had this brilliant idea that, in order to secure a next-day call back from the guys, we'd have to take drastic measures. Seth, being the rat-loving gentle soul he is, had a million of them in his apartment. They made me gag a little bit, but the quarter size ones seemed harmless. So, with my sights set on dating this boy, Ashley and I asked if we could, gulp...watch one of his baby rats. Seriously, who does this?!?! Bear with me, and remember it was all in the name of love.

Ashley and I picked one of the rats up that night. It was tiny--no bigger than a quarter for sure. I immediately dumped out my scrapbooking supplies and we put the baby rat in the container with one of those orange cheese/peanut butter crackers and a soda cap full of water. We didn't pet it. We didn't like to look at it.

And we went to bed.

About 45 minutes later, I hear scratching and wake up, put my glasses on and shine my flashlight onto the container across the room. It was literally sitting on the ledge at the top. We fuh-REAKED out. I did not sleep one wink that night as I finagled some contraption to keep the rat in, yet allow him to breathe. Because, quite frankly, I'm thinking that killing a man's pet is not the way to his heart.

The next day, I happily returned the rat. A few nights later, we went on a walk and chatted. It seemed that at this point, the feelings were beginning to be mutual. The night we watched Napoleon Dynamite, that was when I really knew he was quite the catch. Let's face it: any two people who can sit through that movie without wanting to scratch their eyes out are meant for each other.

But, in true Murphy's Law fashion, Seth was a senior, and it happened to be mid-May when we began really hanging out and talking. I was so bummed as I said goodbye to him the day I was done with finals. He had to stay a bit longer until actual graduation, but I was done. On the drive home, I was so sad, and kept thinking to myself "will I ever see him again?!" He called that night, and I ended up going back down to Messiah one night to go to City Island with him and his friends. That night, I decided that I would come back to his graduation.

I still laugh to this day, because I can remember that day like it was yesterday. I so vividly remember meeting Matt and Ben. I really remember because one of them, I think Matt, took a picture, and I walked over, looked at it, and said "eh, take another one" which I STILL do to this day. I remember meeting his parents, aunts, sisters-in-law and baby Charlotte. I also remember going back to his apartment and helping load his stuff--which was in complete shambles-- in the car and having everyone sort of looking at me, and at each other, trying to figure out who I was!

After that weekend, I really knew. We talked every night--sometimes for hours. Within a week of graduating, he came to meet my family. I think the next I was in NJ, the next he was in PA, and so on. Fortunately for me, he got a job nearby so that I would be able to see him more my senior year.

It's so weird to think of all the things that played into meeting him. The fact that my best friend, Allie, and I decided not to room together that year but across the hall from each other, the fact that Paige decided to study abroad, the fact that Ashley was assigned to live with me, and that she would take me to meet some friends.

So, that's the short (imagine the long version!) of how I met Seth. If I wasn't talking to him, I was horribly sad. When he left, I wanted to go with him.

Babe, you are truly the love of my life. You make me unbelievably happy, you protect and provide, and we have tons of fun together. I could not imagine my life without you. I'm so glad my wish came true and that "I got to date you." And, three and a half years after meeting you, and two of the best years married to you, I still remember why I promised to keep that stupid rat. Because I knew you would be the best husband ever. I love you more than you'll ever know.

Happy Anniversary.