"Its our anniversary"

Have you ever heard that song? The artist is Tony! Toni! Tone! (??). But I heard it all day long Sunday, April 10. Because Jimmy was blasting it....as it was our anniversary!

One year down many to go. Just as an FYI, the structure of this blog post and commentary is stolen from one of my previous blog posts...which I wrote when we got engaged, exactly 2 years ago today (April 11, 2009)!! Anyway, let's get this going. I have other sentimental ones to come...but this is the good one :)

We know it's our anniversary when we see THIS in our backyard.

Lucky for Jimmy - these blooms on our tree = our anniversary! And I love them!

So back to the real story. April 11, 2009 - we got engaged. At the dog park in Lawrence and it was a beautiful day. Not a cloud in the sky. I had an inkling what was going on, but I wasn't positive. But it was wonderful. And one of the best days of my life.

Down on one knee - asking the question (see the 3 leashes...ah!!)

This might be my favorite picture of the day because I look like a crazy person. Slightly possessed or maybe just over taken with happiness and surprise. Either way, you decide!

And there you have it - we were engaged.

And then a year later on April 10, 2010 - we got married, tied the knot, got hitched, etc. And that day was even better than getting engaged. It was a wonderful ceremony with a perfect message on marriage and followed by a GREAT party that was so fun with lots of our closest friends and family!! What a day!!

Oh yeah, and we even brought out dogs to the reception - in their own formal attire :)

And then a year passes before you know it and it's April 10, 2011. Our one year anniversary - married a whole year. Made it through a year of having to live together, adjust our lives for each other, combining finances...and more importantly laundry, sharing a closet and bathroom (weird) and a bed each night. Even on those nights where you don't so much like the person. Still love them, but if you were a four year old you would probably punch them in the face because they get so deep under your skin you can't stand them. Yep, we experienced all those. But let's not focus on the bad - I want to mention how fun it has been being married to Jimmy for a year. I love having a permanent roommate that I can boss around too :) Haha, just kidding, but seriously. I love having his positive attitude around all the time, his smile, his warm body next to mine in the middle of the night and those big muscles there to protect me when I wake up and "hear someone in our house". Haha. I love cooking dinner for him and watching movies with him...and then fall asleep, but loving that routine that is just ours. I love building things with him and house projects that we complete to make our house our home and just the way we like it before we start a little family of our own. And thinking about him as a dad - whew, now that brings me to tears. Because I see his calm demeanour and loving spirit right now and can only imagine how he'll be around a little baby.

Oh boy, it has been quite a year. A wonderful year, full of wonderful things. Lots of smiles, tears, laughter, jokes, yelling, eye rolling and fun. So to celebrate, we had a wonderful weekend hanging out with each other at home and do exactly what we wanted to do...which was nothing really :) On Saturday night we headed out to dinner at Capital Grille (compliments of a very night gift card!!) and I of course made him take cheesy pictures.

Captial Grille was so nice and welcomed us with a big smile, wishing us a happy first anniversary. They had a rose and some confetti hearts on the table (I felt like we were on our honeymoon in Mexico!) and even gave us a free dessert. Sweet!

Cheesy rose picture. Overall dinner was delicious, the conversation was good - not so light hearted haha (only Jimmy will understand that), but it was a great night out with my husband, followed up by a trip to Barnes and Noble to pick up a book to attempt to figure out how to use the fancy camera that Jimmy bought me our anniversary!!

Ok, so if you made it this far, I promise this is what you have been waiting for. The "list" that goes along with the list I made in my engagement post 2 years ago. I have made modifications as follows....

Here are 10 reasons why I continue to love him: 10. He's really like v-neck t-shirts and tanktops that are so old they might disintegrate and he looks sexy in them

9. His hair is red (I still like this)

8. He loves his dog, Toby, almost as much as me (true story)

7. He loves my dogs, Milly and Willy, as much as he loves as Toby (don’t tell Toby)

6. He has a great family and friends- including WONDERFUL nieces and nephews with more to come! – this is still VERY true. Now up to 8 nieces and nephews!!!

5. He can always make me smile/laugh by saying something ridiculous - always

4. He tells me when I'm being ridiculous (quite often) – he never misses a beat on this one

3. He really likes singing country songs and pop songs (like Kei$ha) and listening to me sing them (yes- this is if I sound good or not)

2. He has the greatest hugs in the whole world that can make any problem go away – ah, this will never change.

1. He understands/puts up with me/loves me like no one else can or ever could :) – no need to reiterate this one. This is and always will be the #1 reason I love him!

Only 5 reasons I sometimes think about going to my parent’s house for the week:

5. His obsession with P90X – yep, this still exists…wait until you see his birthday present.

4. This stupid game he insists on playing everytime we are in the car where a song comes on and he says "who sings this?" to me and five milli-seconds later blurts out the answer without giving me time to think – nope, this hasn’t gone away…nor has my annoyance with it

3. He knows what I'm thinking or what I'm going to say so often that sometimes I think he is a warlock or vampire – still true, still annoying – especially when he reads my “evil” thoughts I’m thinking about him when he makes me mad

2. He's obsessed with the Royals, Chiefs, KU, and Nascar...to the point that I'm not sure he will even talk to me when we're married during the month of March and on Saturdays during the fall – pretty sure this will never ever change

1. The first thing he does every morning is wake up and immediately check Jayhawk Slant website and new posts on his Blackberry – still true, but now he has an iPad too. “but Brittany, I HAVE to know what is going on”….and share his log in ID with like 15 people…but we pay for it :) Love you babe.