Happy 5th Anniversary Gregory

Ok--so it is October and we celebrated our anniversary in July. Greg loves me and thank God he does! So it has been a long five years that we have been married. We have done an amazing amount of stuff since we have been married. Our first year of marriage was bliss. We did a lot of eating, drinking and loving. We were blessed with having great friends and family close by. Madelyn was born and we were lucky enough to enjoy having a babe that was adorable and started preparing us for what was to come!

We visited a great little town, St. Michael's and Tilghman Island, for our 1st anniversary. We stayed in a bed and breakfast, played golf and went for an amazing sail. Ahh, the life of leisure that we were so anxious to throw to the wind. It was a blast while it lasted. Not that we didn't have almost five years of DINK (dual income, no kids) life that we took FULL advantage of.

Year two was full of ups and downs. We found out we were pregnant in February and also found out that we would be moving to NC! WOW! The day we found out we were having a little boy was incredible. Greg was so overjoyed and I cried, a little, b/c I wanted a little girl. God knows what he is doing! Chipotle was the celebration of choice! Then we had a couple of trips to NC to house hunt and we had a rocky road but found an unbelievable house. It was a give and take. We lost a great house with a terrible backyard but gained a pretty incredible house with a pretty incredible backyard, not to mention neighbors! The day we settled on our humble abode we received some pretty bad news--that our baby might possibly have Down's Syndrome. Talk about being on such a high and then being brought to your knees in an instant. After a couple of doctors appointments and an amnio we discovered that the baby would not have Down's.

I moved to NC the last week of June and we celebrated our 2nd anniversary at the Melting Pot. We came home to our new neighbors setting off fireworks in our driveway! Welcome home. After the move and what felt like 100 business trips, our baby decided to join us early....seven weeks early! Sam was in the NICU for five weeks and boy did we not have any idea what we were doing and/or in for! We made it to year three with a few falls and lots of pick me ups! Talk about your major stressors!

We loved our first year with Samuel. We were so overwhelmed and out of our minds but we loved it. He was a challenging baby but we loved him to pieces. So comes July 2, 2008. I can't even remember what we did. Must have been memorable...I think we watched a movie, on demand.

July 2, 2009. I was pregnant with babe #2. I was HUGE. I put on a fancy dress and we went to Cheesecake Factory. I looked like a giant blueberry but that was ok! We were in baby bliss. We were about to welcome another little boy into our lives and we were thrilled. Ahh, little did we know, that chaos was about to ensue. It has been so fun though!

July 2, 2010. We actually got to get out of the house. Suzz and George were here so both boys were well taken care of and we went to Flemmings Steakhouse. It was a rough time for us. We were both very stressed about several things going on, jobs, cupcake envy, family, both extended and OUR family. But I think through devotion to each other and to that family, we pulled through and once again there was light at the end of our tunnel. Our struggles are not new and I think that all families at one point or another have to face difficult decisions and tasks but I that we accomplished these with teamwork, it sounds queer I know, and love.

I can't wait to see what this next year holds for us and can't believe how lucky I am that you harassed me into dating and then I harassed you enough into marrying me! I love you, Greg! Happy Belated Five Years!