Baby Layne and Baby Jonathan said I DO to each other in front of our parents, beloved friends and the autumn trees.
We were a bit awkward that day, as we don't like to be the center of attention, but don't judge, people, we still got the job done.
Now, five years later, we're amazed at just how full our journey has been.
We've spent many happy hours with friends (and family and friends who are family) and focused on investing into relationships here in Brantford. From dinner parties to trips away with our Brantford crew, it's been a special season of doing life together.
We have worked with a few PhotogenX teams through the years, and the Status Welcomed girls will always have a place in our family and deep inside our hearts. Our time with them here in Brantford (who's counting, but it was almost 2 years!) stands out as a particularly sweet time of our marriage.
We started not only our photo business, but Layne also recently launched a team and leadership development company, which is growing by the week.
We are happily in awe at the amount of travel we've been able to do in these past five years.
Even though, as of 2016, we've put a pause on the travel bug, since we've been married, we've traveled to Mexico, Thailand, Argentina, Dominican Republic, South Africa, Hawaii, Amsterdam, Finland, Israel, Jordan, Taipei and Papua New Guinea. Most of those places were even together and a few of them were more than once.
Like we said, we're GRATEFUL. This feeling does not cease.
We've watched so many of our friends fall in love.
...and get married. (We were even in one wedding together-thanks, Sam and Sarah!)
We've watched our friends have babies (They are The Cutest and we love them soooo much.)
We've now celebrated almost eight birthdays with each other.
We lived in a freakishly cute apartment for five years...
...and then bought an even cuter house
People tell us a lot that they're confused about our house situation.
So I'll explain it quickly. We just bought a tiny house that we live in and love! We + the bank also own this guy which we rent out:
We are INCREDIBLY Thankful for that too.
Everyone's love story is different and, let's be honest, this blog post contains a mere fraction of the reality of ours. Marriage comes with an array of challenges, lessons and a heaping of the hard stuff.
We've learned too many of the aforementioned lessons the hard way, but we are investing in our marriage like it matters.
And I can honestly say I love Jonathan more now than ever before. Some specific things I appreciate about Jonathan:
-He works ridiculously hard for our family and never complains.
-He doesn't mind taking the hard jobs.
-He is always up for an adventure.
-He loves "Gilmore Girls" even more than I do.
-He almost always does the laundry (sometimes he even folds it.)
-He cooks for us at least 50% of the time.
-He does most of our grocery shopping.
-He's realllyyyyyyyyy quirky and hilarious. I remember being a bit weirded out by this specific quirkiness when we first met, and my friends rolled their eyes at me, trying to indicate I had my own peculiarities. Whatever, guys.
-I love how easily Jonathan makes friends and loves people.
-I love his huge heart and generosity.
-I love that he surprises me with coffees (People, I NEED THEM.)
-He doesn't share his heart that much, but when he does, the wisdom flows.
-I love his sense of curiosity.
As this entry is already ridiculously long, I'll stop there-you get the idea.
Even after "all these years" I'm still excited to wake up beside him tomorrow, give him a fatty morning breath kiss and face the day together.
So Happy Anniversary to us; I'll keep you posted on the lessons we learn along the way and I'm cheering on your love story too.
xo.
