To Have And To Hold

Saying farewell to M for the day

 With my 26 week old date for the evening. In husband's absence, he does provide me with the sweetest company.

 I was able to snap this with the bride moments before she slipped into her gown!

Something blue  

 Beautiful bouquet!

Darling little face in the corner

 All ready
                                                      
 Love this one

 Man and wife!
                                               
A beautiful July day!

 Over the summer, I saw my sweet D three times~ each time at a wedding :)

 A beauty with an engineering brain
                                           
The bride-to-be!

                                                      
How precious

I love bustles~ the look~the process~ and all the helping hands

And she is a married woman!  After 3 years of marriage, don't you think I should know how to wear wedding rings in the correct order? I love the look of my four dollar "sticker" manicure.

 First dance

 Playing around with the huge sunflowers

Two of my favorite aunties

Celebrating

This summer has been wonderfully full of weddings. How delightful to see a dear childhood friend get married!  I also felt particularly blessed to be able to enjoy the prewedding festivities with her. We spent one evening together with her fiance and his family folding the wedding programs. Living far from her, I was deeply grateful for this opportunity to get to know the family she was joining; having never met them before, I was particularly gladdened to see how much they all cared for her.

The next day, I was able to get a lovely one on one outing with the bride. I took her into the city to treat her to lunch and pick out her wedding present.

We enjoyed lunch at Max Brenner. The restaurant is unique in its preponderance of chocolate.  They make amazing crepes, the best hot chocolate, and delicious cocoa free burgers. 

 Two days before the wedding, her sister threw her a days long party. We began the day at the shore.

It was a rare treat to be with so many of my girl friends at once (although we greatly missed you, DH!).

 The hand shot

 All ready to enjoy dinner at Maggiano's Little Italy in family style.

 These 2 girls are ready to eat :)

The restaurant was beautiful, and thoughts of the food is getting me hungry.

To Love and to Cherish

The radiant bride and groom

Her gown was breath taking

Dearest friends since grade school

How sweet it was to be with my dear girls once again and show them my 17th week bump

After five pictures, we got a great one together

Me and my date for the evening

Beautiful women from the inside out

I love this one

YES!!!!!

Four years ago today on January 27th, 2006, my love while on bended knee asked for my hand in marriage. "YESS!!" was my reply :)

He took me for a beautiful walk in the woods. This was particularly special to me because we loved talking walks together and because even in the middle of winter we were surrounded by the beauty of God's creation.

This spot overlooked the city of Philadelphia where he was presently attending college.

The hand which he now possesses.

Exactly two years later on the 27th of January 2008, here I am waiting for my ship to come in. I really like this picture because I think it artistically shows how I felt those six months fenced away from my love. How fitting that on the anniversary of our engagement my husband returns from his sixth month deployment!! (My favorite blog post.) He surely knows how to give great anniversary presents:)

Together!!

Here I am visiting him on his ship during his duty day a few days after he came home.

Happy 3rd Anniversary!!

This year hubby and I celebrated our 3rd wedding anniversary with a lovely dinner at one of our favorite restaurants. Can you guess where we went?

I enjoyed my amazing Thai Lettuce Wraps.


Hubby had his favorite selection the Herb Crusted Salmon and Steak Diane.


For me, a visit couldn't possibly be complete with out these delectable avocado rolls.

A close up of the rolls and a Gerber spoon.
O, yes! Did I mention baby girl came along for our romantic celebration dinner? She made for very pleasant company (as she was wonderfully well behaved and quiet) and just like her mama... she LOVED the avocado rolls too.

Our cheesecake of choice was the Lemon Rasberry Cream. This one was amazing!! Then again I have never met a Cheesecake Factory cheesecake that I didn't enjoy :) N gave me a beautiful pair of dangle earrings. He mentioned a while back that he would like to see me wearing earrings other than my classic studs. If you have seen me recently, I was probably wearing them :) I bought him two Dillard's suits that I got for 75% off.


And for a little walk down memory lane. Here we are in Philadelphia on our wedding day in 2006.


1st Anniversary in 2007. Since Hubby was deployed to the Middle East, my girlfriends were there with me to celebrate. We had a wonderful evening out, and they (along with many other friends and family members) were a great source of comfort through the whole deployment.

Great friends, D and A, with our Pumpkin, Oreo Mudslide, and Key lime cheesecakes.

2nd Anniversary 2008- Instead of celebrating with a dinner date, we decided to go all out and celebrate by having a baby! It was far from a glamorous evening out on the town, but it was the most beautiful day of my life!!!

Dearest Husband, these past three years have been wonderful, and throughout everything you have been my rock. Thank you, my love!!!