14 Years and Counting!

We celebrated our 14th Wedding Anniversary yesterday and you know I had to pull out my wedding dress! I horrified my kids by running around the back yard in it for a bit.

They grabbed the camera, so this is what I look like explaining how to work the camera...while in a wedding dress:



This is what I look like jumping around in the back yard...in a wedding dress:



My 9 year old decided to recreate one of our wedding photos. We were inspired by the Young Me Now Me website.

THEN:



NOW:



I started to plan our annual watching of the Wedding Video only to realize our last household VCR croaked this year, and my video is on VHS! Note: need to copy that video onto DVD!

We all went out for Italian and played Frisbee in the yard instead.

We exchanged cards and laughed when we realized we had bought each other the husband/wife version of the same card!



Good times. Ready to begin another year of wedded bliss :)

Don't forget to link up your Tutorials for a chance to win an Antique Framed Chalkboard from The Magic Brush!

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My Anniversary Tradition - It still fits!

My Anniversary Tradition - It still fits!, originally uploaded by hopestudios1.

Each year on my anniversary I pull out my dress and romp around a bit in it. I've danced in it, eaten lunch in it, watched a beauty pagent in it while drinking wine, gone to the mailbox...you name it. Right now, I'm Flickr-ing and blogging in it! If I can zip it, it's a good day :)

I must have known I would have boys. Thank goodness I never preserved it - what's the fun in that???

The Tradition Lives On

I woke up this morning and kissed my husband and ran into my son's closet to pull out "the dress" for the annual anniversary tradition that began 11 years ago!

I must have known I was destined for boys because it never even occurred to me to preserve my dress for the future. I couldn't bear only viewing it through a little plastic window. I want to feel it and smell it and wear it around a bit once a year (or more). I still keep it in the hanging bag it came in where it's easily accessible and ready for me whenever.

Each year on my anniversary I pull it out and try it on at some point in the day. One year I ran over to my neighbor's house to watch some beauty pageant with it on. We sat on the couch drinking wine, her in her jammies and me in my dress and watched Miss America or something. Her husband was puzzled, but kept it to himself.

This year, I ran around the backyard, went down to get the newspaper at the end of the driveway, and ate Cheerios in it. We watched our video and cried and then I danced to the reception songs. Two of my boys kept asking me when I was going to take it off and the other one kept hugging me. I told my oldest I was wearing it to his football game today and he looked at me with fear in his eyes then ran to his dad to tell on me!

Before I took it off I took my annual photo and sent it to all my friend's cell phones then I finally put it away for another year. Happy Anniversary to us! :)

12 Years

Tomorrow is my wedding anniversary! Some days I can't believe it's been twelve years already and some days it seems much longer :)

We always sit down to watch our amateur videos, filmed by two friend's dads. We laugh at how skinny, young, silly, hairy we all were. We bitch about the fact that they both forgot to tape us coming down the isle or dancing our first dance. We crack up at some of the dance moves (the weed-eater, anyone?), the way one of our friends forgot her name and introduced herself on camera as "Mark's wife", and how my little cousin looked into the camera to find "Jenny the Princess".

We roll our eyes as the one dad takes up an inordinate amount of camera time flirting with the waitress and filming butts and boobs. And avert our eyes to avoid motion sickness when the other dad begins to dance while still holding the camera.

We laughed and cried, danced and sang...it was a truly great day.