Our Tenth Anniversary
Saturday, July 28th, 2012Happy Anniversary to us! We have been married for a decade now. We have so enjoyed being married to our best friend for the last ten years. Thank you to all of you for being a part of our lives. We like writing this letter every year, not only to keep in touch with all of our friends and family, but to remind ourselves of how lucky we are. We love you!
Now what exactly happened in our tenth year together? Well, Donovan joined our family and grew from a (sort of) tiny infant to a big boy that climbs and chases after his sister. And takes balls from his Daddy whenever he tries to play with them. Serenity had her first year of school, which means we got the pleasure of participating. Chrissie is the class rep for her class, so she got to plan the class art project for the auction, and a Valentine’s Day party as well. Eric volunteered his services for Field Day. And in case Chrissie didn’t know what a great husband she has, nearly every teacher there commented on how wonderful and helpful he was that day!
We celebrated our birthdays this year with some great fun! Eric planned a movie event for Chrissie’s birthday. She got to see three movies with friends and family! For Eric’s birthday, Serenity was pretty sure Daddy wanted a ball. So Chrissie got him a pinata filled with bouncy balls, and a Perplexus Epic. Other exciting celebrations this year included Tina’s Wedding (Serenity was the flower girl), Baby Everett was born (Chrissie is his godmother!!!  She is so thrilled and he is adorable!) We hosted our annual Cookie Party and Epic Duels. Ann celebrated her 70th birthday extravaganza and we got to attend. Oh, and we got to go to Henry’s Countries and States birthday! Chrissie went all out on the kids birthdays of course. Donovan had a Beach Ball Birthday and Serenity had a Sparkly Science Birthday.
Hmm… maybe we should talk about holiday traditions here as well briefly. In December, Chrissie blogs every day for Daily December, and we have a great advent calendar that we fill with treats, activities and surprises! For Easter this year, we had our traditional Easter Bunny Scavenger hunt, where we hide all the stuffed bunnies we own and leave clues for Serenity. (Yeah, we have a dozen bunnies. =) We also did another egg hunt using maps of our house that was a blast! In the fall we went to the pumpkin patch with Mike, Kelly, Raegan and Carson, which has become a tradition as well. I love that we get to do so many fun things with cousins, from activities like this, to the zoo and sleepovers!
In addition to all these great parties, we also did a lot of travel. We went on our first family vacation to a destination other than Oklahoma and California. We went to Branson! It was an awesome trip and you can read all about it here. Dad went with us, which made it perfect! We visited the Palfreymans quite a bit, although more often down here now that Gavin’s parents are back in Tulsa. We went to Texas for Braley’s first birthday, and stayed with the Vos. Serenity adores Samantha and often pretends she’s visiting us. We went to Cali for Halloween (Serenity dressed as Lemon Meringue, Donovan was Curious George, and Eric was the Man in the Yellow Hat.)  We went to Diane’s cabin a few time, and especially enjoyed celebrating the 4th up there. We also had a few wonderful visitors, including Fred and Sarah Steffen with their kids Meghan and Freddie, and Brian Vo and Samantha Vo! Ann and John came to visit us too!
In hobbies and activities, we still play a lot of games. The big winner this year was Pandemic, which Tina gave us along with the expansion. We played 168 games of Pandemic this year and won 61. Yes, we’ve kept track. We’re trying to play all the different combinations possible =)   Serenity got her first bike this year, and we are really enjoying going for walks together around the neighborhood. For his birthday from his sister, Donovan got a little car that has a handle we can push, so he gets to ride in style as well. The weather has actually been pleasant this summer, and Dad got us a crazy backyard pool with slide that the kids love. We watched a little television, mainly Downton Abbey and the final season of West Wing, which we owned for years and just now watched. Oh, and Game of Thrones. Yeah, all addicting shows. Our other hobbies continue as well, Eric still likes to play Magic and LOL. He played Ultimate Frisbee and has begun playing tennis with Andy at last! He won both his football drafts this year, which is crazy. One of those he’d never won before! Chrissie still does lots of crafts, especially with Serenity. She made a lot of felt food this year, thanks to a great set of patterns she got from her mom. She is currently watching Bunheads every week with her mom.
Work-wise, Eric’s job at Tradehelm ended. Sad, but we’ve enjoyed having him around all the time this summer! Chrissie is still blogging at http://cleverfaeries.blogspot.com.
We still love our house, although Chrissie is getting the urge to change things up! She painted the fireplace, the bathroom upstairs and the kitchen with the help of her Dad, and has plans in store for more!
Keep your eye out for news about Fantastico 2014! We love you all, and thanks for reading a little bit about our lives. =)
Love, Chrissie and Eric