Eight Years!

Eight years ago I woke up early. I needed no alarm, I was up with the sun unable to contain the excitement I had for the upcoming day.

My wedding day.

I took a long shower, went and got my hair done and then stood in the bathroom of the house I had grown up in for the last fifteen house with my mom and two of my best friends doing my make up. In the room over another friend did my little sister and maid of honor's hair. My little brothers were getting on their suits.

Somebody put on "Going to the chapel....and I'm going to get married..." My dad was popping in the video camera on everyone filming the preparations.

Excitement and magic filled the hair. It felt like a movie, like somebody else's life.

Then my dad walked my dress and big puffy skirt out the car and my mom and I drove up to the temple leaving the mini van for my dad to follow up in with my siblings.

A couple of hours later, surrounded by family members Mike and I were sealed together.

Excitement still filled the air, but instead of being mixed with magic this time there was a peace.

Afterwards was a whirlwind of pictures and festivities. I felt like the princess that every bride should on her wedding day.

The reception was wonderful. I felt like the luckiest girl in the world surrounded by those that I loved and standing hand in hand with my new husband.

Looking back at pictures I can't believe how young we look. And we were young. But we were in love and we knew that we wanted to spend the rest of forever with each other. And the future was so bright.

Today, I reflected on this day as again I was up early. I sat in the stillness that comes just before dawn feeding the latest addition to our family.

Later, with the help of Handy Manny and a baby who is a spectacular sleeper, I managed to get in a shower.

I worked on my card for Mike sharing markers and glitter pens with Kiwi who was working on projects of her own. Card making was interrupted several times by Little Man who needed help finding Lego pieces and the littlest man who needed a binky replaced and later a feeding and a diaper change.

Tonight, Mike will come home at five. This will give us enough time to quickly do a run down on the day and then get the kids loaded into a mini van that I now drive and get to the pizza place for our first t-ball party.

Instead of dressing up, I will find something in the closet to wear (remember that latest addition who arrived three weeks ago today)

We will eat sub par pizza, wipe faces, cut up food, balance a baby and clap and cheer like he is the MVP of the World Series when Little Man his presented his first trophy. (We are planning on going out this weekend for something better then pizza and without the big kids)

We will then come home and divide and conquer to get the little ones bathed, jammied, and ready for the night.

We will sit on the couch with Baby M nursing, Mike reading bed time stories and the "big kids" snuggled up/crawling between and over us.

After getting the older kids down, we will watch hang out downstairs, possibly watching something on the food network, with the littlest guy keeping him up for a while so that he will sleep good tonight.

It will be busy, there is guaranteed to be some meltdowns, and we will be exhausted by the end.

But I still feel like the luckiest girl in the world (in fact even more so then I did that day eight years ago).

And sitting on that couch surrounded by those that I love more then I ever knew was possible I feel an underlying peace and I feel so blessed to have my husband by my side.

And although we have definitely grown up a lot over the last eight years, we are still just starting out.

And the future is still so bright.

I can't wait to see what the next eight (times forever) years hold for us.

Happy Anniversary!

Post Edit: So our night did not unfold like that at all. Mike got home just in time to leave for the party which had me scrambling to get all three kids ready to go. Kiwi was exhausted and losing it all the way home from the party. She ended up going to straight to bed. There was a Lego diaster with Little Man that needed to be put back together. Anyways, it wasn't the evening I was expecting, but I still feel like the luckiest girl.