10 years

 

 

On June 3 Nick and I celebrated 10 years of marriage. 10 YEARS. And what a crazy, hard, exciting, exhausting, thrilling decade it has been.

Right before our 10th anniversary I was getting my hair done. The girl doing my hair had been married for just over a year and when I told her I was approaching the big 1-0 mark she asked me the loaded question of, "So what's it like being married for 10 years?" Uhhhhhhhhhhhhh.... **mind explodes**

How do you answer that? I remember trying to dig deep for something profound, but all I came up with was "It's really awesome and really hard."

Because it is.

There's a John Mayer song called "Not Myself" The words in it resonate so much with me when it comes to marriage and what it means to "work at it."  

Suppose I said
I am on my best behavior
And there are times
I lose my worried mind

Would you want me when I'm not myself?
Wait it out while I am someone else

And I, in time, will come around
I always do for you

Suppose I said
You're my saving grace

Because really, that's marriage in a nutshell. Sometimes we're on our best behavior. Life is good and comfortable and its just easy to be in love and loved. But there are also moments when we "lose our worried mind" because of work stress, school stress, family stress, challenging kid behaviors, sleep deprivation, unmet expectations, unrealistic expectations, sleep deprivation (yes, it needs to be repeated), health problems (physical, emotional and mental)....

This quote sums of what I'm trying to say: "Marriage is not an easy venture. It is largely a one-time-through, do-it yourself project for the husband and wife. I repeatedly encounter the illusion today, especially among younger people, that perfect marriages happen simply if the right two people come together. This is untrue. Marriages don’t succeed automatically. Those who build happy, secure, successful marriages pay the price to do so. They work at it constantly." - Dean L. Larsen

 

Our engagement pic



 

Our wedding invitations

 



Wedding luncheon menu
 



 

Since 10 years is kind of a big deal, I felt we had to celebrate at the very place where we had our wedding luncheon: Chef's Table

 

When we told our server that we were celebrating our 10th anniversary she kind of chuckled. Then when she noticed we weren't laughing, she quickly asked, "Really? 10 years?"

 

She thought we looked much younger. Hey, no offense taken there. :)

 

Nick had salmon and I had halibut. I don't know about you but I absolutely love good seafood. Mmmmmmmmm. We ended our outing with a trip to Coldstone and headed home. Zack man was the perfect third wheel. :)

 

 

 



 

Love ya, Nick. Look forward to forever with you.

Baseball and Unicorns

 

(OK...I lied. My next post will be my anniversary post)

 

Toby started coach pitch in May. This guy loves sports and is a natural athlete.  Nick and I traded off going to his games and practices as Aspen and Zack bored easily if we decided to go as a family.

 

Toby and Zack in their baseball garb.

 

 

 

Aspen asked me one day if I could buy her a horn. I wasn't sure what she meant until she pointed to a unicorn horn. Ahhh. Yes.

 

Thankfully you can get just about anything on Amazon.

 

She was thrilled when her very own unicorn horn and tail arrived.  But I was really confused when she put them on and started grunting while looking at herself in the mirror.

 

"What are ya doing?" I asked.

 

"I'm trying to make magic!" She said, somewhat frustrated.

 

Pure cuteness right there.

 

 



Nicholas turns 35

I'm trying to get caught up on all the birthdays/family stuff/blog-worthy moments

 

Nick is now 35 and officially old. Ha.

(I'm just 2 1/2 years behind him)

 

Here he is with all of his Oregon Ducks shtuff. My parents bought him an Oregon Ducks pillow pet. Didn't know those even existed! 

 

 

I've been sitting here racking my brain trying to remember the details of his birthday (since it was 3 months ago). I think we just had a family party. Yeah, that sounds good.

Man, broken sleep sure does a number on my memory.

 

Happy 35th to Nick! So glad you were born and that I got to marry ya.

 

What a perfect segway to my Anniversary post... ;)

 

 

Aspen's birthday post (better late than never!)

 

It's only almost 4 months late. Oh well.

On April 18th my little Aspen May turned 4! This girl loves rainbows so I thought we'd do a family party with a rainbow theme. 

 

 

 



 Cousin Catherine and Jade taking a swing at the piñata. 

 

Not surprisingly, Toby caused the explosion of candy.

Somehow Grandma knew I was having a rainbow themed party and bought cheer bear (the care bear with a rainbow) for Aspen.

 

Not only does she like rainbows, but she is equally obsessed with My Little Pony, temples (I need to get her own temple calendar) animals and dinosaurs.

 

Here she is with Rainbow Dash and a few African animals that were super cheap at Wal-Mart. 



 

Rainbow cupcakes

 



 

 And rainbow ice cream (playdough ice cream)

 

Like most girls her age, she does enjoy being a princess every once in a while.  So we got her a Cinderella dress.



 

Aaaand a princess bike. It was love at first sight.

 

If you can't tell in the pictures, Aspen is really tall! She has grown a lot this past year -- physically and with her speech.  I was reading through last years post and remembering how I could barely get her to even say just a few words (and understand those words). Such a difficult and frustrating time for both of us. I'm happy to report that after another year of speech therapy and a lot of work at home, she's saying complete sentences and saying words a lot more clearly. She still struggles with omitting words from her sentences and some words still are hard to decipher...BUT she has improved immensely! Her doctor says give her another year and she thinks Aspen will be close to - if not already sounding like - most kids her age. My heart goes out to my little girl though.  I get a little worried about her starting preschool and the possibility of getting made fun of because of her delay.  Those things are hard on us mommies. 

 

A few more things about Aspen: she is a great eater! Sometimes I forget to let her try new things because I am so used to Toby giving me his barfing gesture when I'm eating Thai food or sushi (or even delicious homemade chicken pot pie. Crazy guy). Also she loves, LOVES The Lion King. It's like what Frozen is to most girls her age.  And I kind of like that she's in the 1 percentile there.

Other favorite things: books, practicing letters numbers and coloring and painting.  All new things for me as I'm used to my high-energy, needs constant physical stimulation Toby-man. I've really loved having a girl.  I can already tell we are going to be good friends through the years. She's my little sweetheart and I'm so grateful she is apart of our family. 

Catching up!

 

So it has been just over 3 months since my last post.

In my defense, I did have a baby.

 

 

Life sure slows down when you have a baby. Or does it speed up? What's that saying..." The days are long but the years are short."
When you have baby number 3, you're officially outnumbered. You forget how it takes an hour longer to get out of the house. You forget about the body aches and how heavy your legs, arms and eyelids feel from fragmented sleep.  You forget how showers are once again a luxury. You forget how forming a coherent sentence is amazing. You forget how you forget everything. You forget the feelings of guilt because someone or something is always neglected. And it's because of this little squish. He needs you. All of you. All the time. Every minute. Every hour. Every day.  

 

 

 

  

But you also remember the cuddles. The sweet gummy smiles. The marshmallow thighs. The spontaneous giggles.  You remember the deep sense of pride because you and your spouse created this perfect little person who has your husbands strong chin and your almond shaped eyes.

 

 

And then you try to remember what matters most by ignoring the dishes and laundry at times. You try to remember to snatch your "free time" and give it to your son or daughter who needed a hug, a book read to them, or just a smile  - even though you're a little unstable yourself. Yep, when you have a 3rd child you try to remember how very special and fleeting these moments are.

 

 

Because they don't last forever. You blink and your newborn is a 1-year-old.  Then an emotional 3-year-old. Then a quirky, independent 7-year old.

 

 

A line from a favorite song sums it up quite nicely: "Time flies on wings of lightning."

 

   

 



So that, in a nutshell has been the last 3 months in the Sibert house.

 

 

But wait, there's more!

 

 

On February 15 we had Zack's baby blessing.

 

 

 

It was a beautiful day shared with friends and family.
(I had a ton more pictures but alas I can't find them.  How ridiculous is that when everything is online or digitized or whatever. Mom brain.)

 

 

*



 

The Tobester turned 7 on March 8th!

 

And guess what? I actually did a friends party this year! Hey, it was no Pinterest party where all the cups and plates were handbrushed and color-coordinating. 

 

But I feel like I did a pretty good job making it special and fun for the kids - and especially for the T-man.

 

And there was a theme: Avengers!

 

 

Thanks to Wal-mart, Partyland, and Toby's toys, I had some nice decorations.

 

 

And there was a bouncy house.

 

Could not find an Avengers piñata anywhere. But luckily I think the kids were more worried about what was inside.

 

 

 

OK, not everything was store bought. I did make something.

 

 

 

Captain America cookies! Go me.

 

 

All in all, I think it was a success. And surprisingly not as stressful as I thought it would be. I kind of just planned it a little day by day and things just kind of came together the day of.

 

And we definitely took advantage of the fact that we had the bouncy house for the weekend.

 

 

Oh Toby-man. I'm so grateful for your big feelings, your desire to help others, your endless supply of energy (well, most of the time) and for making me laugh every single day. So glad you are mine.

 

 

St. Patrick's day was just slightly acknowledged with a gold coin hunt.



 

Just thought I'd throw in this brownie face picture of Aspen. :)

 

 



 

 And here are some more of the Z-man...

 



 

 He really is an easy-going baby.  Likes to snuggle, loves to eat. Smiles a lot. Doesn't sleep great... yet.

 

 

 

His faces kill me.

 

 



 

 

 Aspen adores Zack and always wants to know where he is in the house. She's been a good big sister.

 

  

I couldn't survive without this guy. He picks up my slack, gives me naps and lets me know when I need one (which feels like all of the time). So grateful for all that he does for our little family.

 

 

 

That's all for now. I'm feeling optimistic that I will get Aspen's birthday blogged before summer begins. :)