Three Years + One Month

Last Thursday was a GREAT day of celebration.

Three years of marriage to this wonderful man.

I have a lot of roles in this life of mine... we all do!  Wife, mother, daughter, sister, student, employee, friend, etc...  Well, wife of Daniel is my favorite role.  I love him.  I love us.  Love, love, love... *We watched a comedian one time that had that in it, it's about a guy watching tv and having alone man time and the woman comes in and says she'll just sit there, then she says "it's cold" and turns the fan off, then wants to cuddle and ends up with legs wrapped around him, etc.

And another celebration the SAME day!  We've had this precious little guy in our lives for ONE month!

We celebrated with lots of adorable, double-chinned baby smiles.

We're doing really, really well.  I LOVE being Cooper's mom.  It feels right.  I feel good at it.  We've had a lot of adventures already!  In his first month, Cooper has:
*been to the beach -twice - with cousins and grandparents
*been babysat by grandparents on both sides of the family, Catherine, and Michelle & Ben [THANK YOU!]
*been to a San Jose Giants (minor league) baseball game
*had a photo shoot
*been on lots of walks by the water and even a few runs
*slept through church several times

He seriously loves bath time, listening to music, being sung to, and sleeping on his daddy's chest. 

Each anniversary, Daniel and I write each other a letter and add it to a beautiful wooden box that holds a bottle of wine.  My cousin made us the box for our wedding day.  Each year, we replace the bottle of wine with one that represented or we liked from the past year, read through our letters and look at wedding pictures.  Our wedding was awesome: a celebration of our marriage surrounded by people we love.  Here are some of my favorite pics:

Could I be any happier?!

Look @ the horse's tongue!

"Get off my momma!" - Landon

Whatcha lookin' at there, Daniel?

Ok, I seriously LOVE these girls.  Each and every one of them.

 Sometimes I feel the need to explain away or even apologize for the deep joy and overwhelming bliss that I'm experiencing these days.  I'm REALLY happy.  The only thing that makes me sad is that fact that I feel like I have to temper it or apologize for it, which is silly!  Life events affect our feelings, and this does happen to be a period of life with lots of happy events to celebrate (happy anniversary, new [wonderful] baby, graduation w/ masters degrees for Daniel & I, living in beautiful Monterey, exciting adventures ahead), but I also know we can all CHOOSE JOY in any period of life or situation.  It takes discipline and hard work sometimes to check our thoughts, words, and actions and make sure that we are choosing joy, rather than being critical, judging others, pouting, or focusing on the negative aspects of our situations, but the self-discipline produces results!  I'm proof!  

"Be joyful always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus." - 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18