We celebrated 9 years of being married back at the end of May (and next month, we’ll have been a couple for 10 years!), and I never wrote an anniversary post or anything to commemorate it. Michael doesn’t appear on the blog quite as much as he used to before we had kids (and 99% of my photos are now of them), so I especially like writing something that features him!

I thought I’d make a short list of the things I love most about being married to Michael:

ONE. Watching him with our kids is the absolute best. He’s funny, silly, and makes everything into a game. He’s beyond patient (an example that I look to when it comes to my own parenting skills), and incredibly compassionate. These girls are so lucky to have him as a Daddy.

He includes them in anything he possibly can, whether it’s building a cabinet…

…or making brownies and sharing the batter left in the bowl!

Seeing how much he has loved our daughters from the moment they were each born is absolutely priceless to me.

TWO. He puts up with my chronic photography habit. He’s almost always my test-for-lighting subject… so he’s gotten really great at pulling faces like these! I like seeing all the craziness when I upload my memory card to the computer, and of course, I have to save some of these because they’re just so Michael.He likes pretending he has a baby bump in a lot of them…

THREE. He supports me no matter what crazy ideas I come up with, whether it’s been something big, like growing our family, or something small, like using cloth diapers. He’s been there cheering me on while I’ve done hard things, like run races and give birth. He said yes to homeschooling when I felt strongly that it was what we needed to do. He was there taking care of the girls when I was too sick to during my pregnancy, and he’s picked me back up and encouraged me when I felt like I couldn’t endure anymore. He absolutely never judges and never complains.

FOUR. He just makes me laugh. Seriously. (And I think he wears this pink apron better than I do…)

FIVE. We have the same big dreams. We love working on our house together, albeit slowly, and making our vision a reality. One day, we hope to travel- to Europe, Australia, and even just camping around the USA. I know that when our kids are grown, we’re still going to be having a lot of fun, just the two of us. I have so much I’m looking forward to doing together.Love you Buddy! It’s crazy to think we’ve been together for a third of our lives.