Catch-up

 It has been an embarrassingly long time since I posted.

Lately it seems like I start a lot of posts that way.

I have been pretty much using all my spare time to work on Nolan's graduation quilt.

I am happy to report that I have finally finished it!

A quilt-finish post is in the works.

In the meantime I'll play a little catch-up.

I can't believe I didn't make any posts in the month of October.

That means I missed sharing our anniversary picture...oops.

So here is our 26th anniversary family photo.

It amazes us how tall the boys are getting!

We didn't do anything special for our anniversary.

We just did life together...AKA parent/teacher conferences.

We did get blizzards on the way home!

25th Anniversary

We celebrated our 25th anniversary on October 15th.

Ok, we celebrated it the Friday before because life was happening during the week.

We enjoyed our day together just hanging out.

Twenty Four

This is our favorite photo from our wedding.

The funny thing is that this was not taken by the photographer!

I have no idea who took it but I'm glad we've got it.

Dwayne took the day off and we ended up at Bailey's in North Judson.

We love browsing there... the boys aren't as fond of it as we are.

We had strombolis for lunch at Pizza King. (We each brought home a half.)

Followed by blizzards a few hours later.

We ate entirely too much!

After we picked up the boys from school we took our anniversary picture.

This photo is from last year. Look at how much the boys have grown!

We were laughing at Pepper because she picked up her ball and

ran by thinking we were going to play with her.

Silly mutt.

23

Sunday we celebrated our 23rd anniversary.

We had angel food cake and chocolate cupcakes.

We had blizzards and Taco bell too.

And to round out the day went to a chili cook off.

Our traditional anniversary picture.

I'm getting shorter every year.

It won't be long before I'm the shortest one in the family.

haha

Sometimes the outtakes are funny.

Guess who knew I was messing with the camera...

Number Twenty-two

Today was our 22nd wedding anniversary.

I made a homemade yellow cake with duck eggs.

We enjoyed it with some chocolate ice cream.

A photo test shot... with goofy antics.

Connor is glaring at Dwayne.

They were trying to out glare each other.

I think it's safe to say Dwayne won.

Every year, for twenty-two years, we have taken a family picture on our anniversary.

It's been a fun tradition.

I was testing the light again with this photo.

Oh the perils of a breeze and naturally curly hair!

This one's a keeper.

Twenty-one

We celebrated our 21st anniversary Thursday.

It was the first time in years that nobody was sick.

We didn't do anything special.

It was special just being with each other.

I made a chocolate angel food cake.

We enjoyed the porch swing in the nice weather.

We had a wonderful day full of various activities.

Anniversary Picture

Our twentieth anniversary picture.

We recently discovered that Connor can eat pre-made graham cracker crusts.

I decided to make a peanut butter sunbutter pie for us.

It's super yummy.

One Score

I've thought about this post frequently.

We're not ones to toot our own horn.

We like to stay behind the scenes.

We like quiet.

But, it's our 20th anniversary and
that should be celebrated.

When we were dating Dwayne gave me this:

"Things to Share with Angela"

sunrise

sunset

moon

lazy days

M & M's

Ben & Jerry's

cheese sticks

hugs

kisses

long walks

hopes

dreams

life

me

Jesus

~

 In some ways it seems like we've known each other forever.

And yet, time has passed by quickly.

We've been through a lot in our 20 years.

Almost all of it good.

God has blessed us in so many ways.

We've had our share of not-so-fun times as well.

We've had ten vehicles.

We've moved four times.

We lived with Dwayne's parents for three years.

We're living in the only house we've ever owned.

And it's paid for.
We've never had an argument.
(We do disagree occasionally.)

We've had five dogs, two we had to bury.

We've been blessed with two boys.

We lost a baby.

We lost jobs.

We were baptized together.

Dwayne baptized both boys.

We've been through minor surgeries.

We've been through brain surgery.

We've been to Tennessee more times than I can count.

Things We Share Now

long walks

chocolate

baseball

Bible

hugs

kisses
laughter

pizza

Nolan

Connor

camping

dog

porch swing

life

each other

Jesus

Number 19

We celebrated our 19th wedding anniversary today!

It's hard to believe it's been 19 years.

We wouldn't trade it for anything.

18th Anniversary

This year's anniversary picture.

Happy Anniversary!

Our 17th wedding anniversary.  We've taken a picture every anniversary.  It's fun to check out the pictures and watch ourselves over the years.  It's especially cool to see how much the kids change from year to year.  Next time you're at our house check out our "anniversary" frames.  - A little secret:  Dwayne and Angela are on opposite sides each year.  We discovered that pattern on our seventh anniversary and now we check the previous year's picture to see where we should sit.  The kids, however, are always in the same place.