8 years ago...

I'm calling this an anniversary post, but it's dreadfully late....

like our anniversary was, um...a month ago.

So, better late than never right??

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On October 5th, eight years ago...I married my bestest friend...

....that's what we were first...friends.

Good friends.

We started dating the summer before Jarrod's senior year of high school...

before my junior year.

We hit it off right away, and after only a couple of months we started using the M-word...

yes, in high school...freaky huh??

                                                   We had and still have so much fun together.
 

Our relationship is a bit unconventional in the way that we just celebrated our

8th anniversary and in a couple of months

you'll read about my oldest baby's 9th birthday....

ok, you do that math on that one.  :)

So because of that fact alone, I can say that our marriage has not been exactly stress-free.

But then again, who's has been??

Nobody's marriage is perfect, but when you throw in a baby from the get-go,

 it

adds a whole other level of effort.

We never had a "honeymoon" stage...never got to enjoy that alone time together...

but we've gotten through those tough college years when we had 0 dollars to our names,

gotten through the "up all night" baby years,

successes and losses...we've been through it.

Together.

One of those successes we've had together...all by ourselves is this...

our first house.

We had decided not to get each other gifts this year.  But when I found out Jarrod actually was getting me a gift, I knew exactly what I wanted to get him (us).

I had seen the coolest post over on my sweet friend, Becky's blog.  She does these adorable custom paintings (among other great things) and I fell in love!  She calls her art "almost childlike" and I love that!

I thought...what a better symbol of our life together, than a painting of our home.

Ms. Becky added all the details...the vines in fall colors, the urns on the front steps, the 204 on the front door.

So, do you love?

I love!

And most importantly, he did too :)

(he even took a pic with his phone to show his bank peeps. sweet, right??)

Probably one of the coolest gifts I've ever given.  :)

Love you, sweets :) 

I'm so happy to be Mrs. Hutchinson.

Thank you for your support and for taking such good care of me and our bebes.

 I'm looking forward to our honeymoon stage....

in about 16 years.

It'll be better that way, we'll have more money than we would've when we were 20, right?  :)

love always,

a.