1 YEAR TODAY!

I have been married to my sweet boy for a whole year!! Last year on May 19 we were saying our vows and celebrating our love and commitment to one another in Christ with family and friends on a gorgeous sunny day. What an awesome day that was...and now today we are celebrating God's faithfulness and grace in our marriage! It is amazing how God has brought us even closer together, by his grace and not without some trials from his fatherly hand, he is sanctifying us through his wonderful gift of marriage! It has been SUCH an awesome year - lots of big stuff happening: Steve graduated, we got married, moved into our apartment, steve started a new job, he started coming to SGC, I began my last semester at ODU taking 18 credit hours, we started leading an Access community group, we bought a house and have been in the process of remodeling it for the last few months, I graduated from ODU, and we started the Equipped course for small group leadership and are going to lead a caregroup...probably starting next month!! Just to name a few...haha. Wow, it's been quite a year! So many blessings from his hand!

We are very thankful and humbled at the place where God has brought us, and we are looking forward to whatever's ahead! Steve is such a man of faith and humility...it is so evident that he lives his life being led by the spirit. He continually lays down his life for me and for so many others! I am so thankful for him and always amazed by his maturity, self-control, humility, ability to lead, and love for our Savior! I love the best friend I have in him!

Here are some pictures from our weekend getaway to the Outer Banks. We left Friday after Steve got off work, ate dinner at TGI Fridays, got Starbucks, and then drove out to Kill Devil Hills, NC.
Steve sippin on our white chocolate mocha :)

This was the incredibile view from our balcony!!
We rented this cute blue house (on the right) for the weekend! Beautiful, huh??
Just kidding!! We didn't rent a house..we stayed in an oceanfront hotel called the Colony IV by the Sea. It was really nice and we could open our door onto the balcony and listen to the ocean!

Lovin' some DQ snickers blizzard :)
We layed around on the beach most of the day Saturday, and then that afternoon we drove a couple miles down to see the big dunes at Jockey Ridge State Park. They are supposedly the tallest on the East Coast. It was pretty cool...nothing to write home about though haha. There were a bunch of people hang-gliding off the dunes, so we watched and laughed at them for a little while. Steve thought it was a pretty lame sport..he would much rather sky dive.
us on the dunes

lookin all serious...

Doing a little shopping for souveniers
Saturday night we ate at Barefoot Bernies...a laid back local place. The food was good and it was a fun atmosphere. Then we drove around looking for a coffee place so we could get coffee and take it down to the beach (it was kind of cool that night) but everything closed so early! So we got seven-eleven coffee (yeah baby!) and drank it on the beach. So fun!
Sunday we drove to Cape Hatteras. The drive there was so gorgeous! We made a couple stops along the way.
This is the Bodie Lighthouse.
Visitors center

me and the lighthouse :)


a beautiful spot where we stopped to collect shells.

There were TONS of beautiful shells!



The Cape Hatteras lighthouse

We got to climb it...287 steps!

Looking up from the bottom

The view from the top! Breathtaking!
Looking up into the top where the lights are.
excited face...

the ranger took our picture

amazing...

from the top looking down...
me by one of the windows
lighthouse and the flag...cool shot.

lighthouse reflected in Steve's sunglasses
us looking a little windblown but having a great time :)

We were both so thankful for that time to get away together and enjoy a whole weekend to ourselves! What a precious time of laughing and having fun together, reflecting on the past year and what God has done in our lives, and goals for the future! We feel very rested and refreshed from that time away. We went and saw Prince Caspian last night after we unpacked. Loved it! I thought it was a great movie..very well done. So today, our actual anniversary, we are going to take it easy, eat a dinner of Chicken Marsala, mashed potatoes and salad, maybe some chocolate dipped strawberries :) and just enjoy an evening at home together.

Happy Anniversary my love! Excited about each and every year we will have to spend together!