Baby Shower for Jamie

Jamie's second baby, Bryce, is due mid-August. Yesterday we all spent the day celebrating his soon to be arrival with a small Baby Shower. Here are some pictures of the festivities... (it was very cute with a jungle theme).

Five Years

Hard to believe, but Jake and I celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary this past weekend. In some ways it seems like such a small amount of time, but in others so poignant, and certainly worth celebrating. Even harder to believe than being married five years is how much has happened in that time. An apartment, a dog, a job for Whitney, building our first house, another dog, Micah, a PhD, a job for Jake, Caden, a second home, a couple wonderful friendships... of course, those are just the highlights.

I remember sitting down to dinner with Jake in our apartment shortly after we were married... we were sitting on stools at our counter. We were talking about how amazingly blessed we were and how incredible God's provision was in our lives. At the time we were feeling a bit overwhelmed after receiving everything we could ever need and more in wedding gifts. I can honestly say that we still feel the same sense of God's provision and great blessing in our lives. God is good.

We celebrated our anniversary with a dinner date at Josephine's Modern American Bistro on Saturday night. The food was absolutely delicious and it was a really special meal together. Jake surprised me with some beautiful diamond earring studs -- something that I have been wanting since, well, pretty much forever. They are lovely. He decided that he wanted to pick out a picture to go above our couch in the family room for his gift, so we are still looking for the "perfect" one.

Here is a picture from our dinner at Josephine's...

Some of my favorites from Caden's 1 year photoshoot...

Some cute pictures

The boys have been pretty photogenic the last couple days, so I thought I would share...

Micah playing outside

Can't eat anything without holding that birthday balloon!

Fun time in the ballhouse!

Sneaking in time with Micah's Word Wammer!

A small "dream" realized

Okay, so this may seem a bit petty, but I have always had a little vision of enjoying a good set of rocking chairs on my very own front porch. Not just any rocking chairs. Oh no, not just any rocking chairs, but Cracker Barrel rocking chairs.

With the purchase of our new house last year, complete with a cozy front porch, we were halfway there. My in-laws gave Jake and I Cracker Barrel giftcards (enough for 1 chair) for Christmas, in order to help us fulfill my little dream. We had been waiting to purchase the chairs until we felt it would not be too much of a financial burden to foot the bill for the second chair, and finally did so last week after the news and blessing of a raise in salary for Jake at W.L. Gore.

With family in town for Caden's birthday, I put my brother in-law Derek, and father in-law Brian to work to assemble the chairs. THANK YOU TO YOU BOTH!!!

Here are some pics of my little joy...