5 years of Marriage, 6 years of Michael

so today is our 5yr wedding anniversary! Its crazy to think I have been with Michael in marriage for 5yrs, it seems like we just started talking. Let me tell you how we got married, we were on the phone, him in Georgia and me in Texas, he said i have a 3 day weekend, i said well lets get married and that was about it 15hrs later he was in my house and next day we were off to the justice of the peace and then to the lake. No one knew we got married but us it was spontaneous, we had a ceremony planned but didn't wanna wait, we eventually told our family and had a renewal ceremony the following April. Now we are on our 2nd beautiful baby girl! through out these years we have had bumps and smooth sailing, and im proud to say more smooth sailing than bumps, but man the bumps have been BIG! I know that with him by my side no bump is to big, he has seen me at my best and definitely seen my worst a little more than id like him to have seen. God has truly blessed me with the most amazing man, a man who will work 12hrs and still come home and help me with dinner, or baths and cleaning and not say a single word, a man who has a hard day but knows i did to and will hug me and let me vent and hold his venting till im done, A man who no matter how hard it gets he is right by my side, not in front or behind but right beside me fighting whatever battle it is with me. There have been many times where we thought the battles against each other werent worth it anymore, but when we sat down and took a look and saw our future, it wasnt clear unless we were there together, I cant imagine having grand-kids with anyone else, or reading the paper with our gray hair and glasses and talking about the daily's with anyone else but him. No matter how much he can drive me bananas he is mine and mine forever. I still get excited when he gets home from work, and get sad when he has to work late and then get even more excited when he has more than his usual 2-3 days off! I cant even begin to describe the love that has grown since we had Mckenzy, watching him with her makes me love him a million and ten times more, each and every day, he is the best father in the entire world, he really is the daddy that will do anything for his daughter, dress up or wrestle whatever she wants shes got it, she wants to be rocked he stops what hes doing, she wants daddy to feed her, sleep with her, play in her kiddie pool.... answer is always yes! but just watching him love her and know that i will never have to worry if he will leave her or hurt her is the most amazing feeling, knowing that her daddy will be there for her no matter what brings happy tears to my eyes, its something that i didnt have and something that was most important to me for her to have. this blog is probably very bouncy but putting how much you love someone into text is hard, because it is such a strong love, so to conclude this i just want to mention that i am the luckiest woman on earth to be married to Michael Strickler for the rest of my life, God truly gave me the ultimate gift when he blessed me with him because since Michael i have had so many blessings and the 3 most important ones are him and my girls. so thank you Lord and thank you babe for such a wonderful 5yrs of marriage and for my beautiful babies!

Peaceful

Life has been so peaceful lately, we have ridden ourselves of the negativity and focused ourselves on the positive and the lord has brought us so much peace since doing so. This year has blessed us with soon another beautiful little girl, Great new friends a goal to work forward to and it has brought mike and i even stronger together. This time last year was insane, we had a new family drama every day, lies deceit and just all around negativity, we finally decided to let it go and not fight with it anymore but as a family the 3 of us started attending church, and that brought us so much peace, we had found where we needed to be, things became more clear with who we wanted in our life and what we wanted in our lives. Since then we have grown so much, Mike is taking all the right steps to become an RN and i couldn't be more proud of him, in his 2009 Deployment to Afghanistan he volunteered at the hospital and he was so happy doing that, and i knew that he was meant to be in the medical field, i would support him no matter what he chose to do in life as long as it made him happy, its going to be so nice to hear him gloat about his job instead of hearing things he doesn't enjoy. Mike is an amazing cop, he knows his job i think even better than the back of his hand but i can tell it doesn't bring him the happiness he deserves considering all the hours he puts in. Mike Also Just put on promotion and is now an E-5! after all his hard work and dedication it was awesome to hear him say he made it! As Far as Education goes for me i think i finally figured it out and settled on dental assistant, its a job i can work part time and still be a full time mom, being a mom is my passion, i love being home with mckenzy and i dont want to miss anything, being a dental assistant i will have weekends and holidays off and i can work till the girls get out of school and be home with them. Mckenzy is growing like a weed, she seemed to have gotten taller over night, at her 3yr check up in April she was 5th percentile for height and now shes 25th! still 5th for weight but im sure we all know by now that kid is gonna be tiny lol. she counts to 12, says most of her ABC's, knows her shapes and colors, knows a handful of songs and can pretty much describe each book that is read to her, her vocabulary shocks us every day and its just amazing to see her grow. So 2011 has brought us so many blessings and clarity that it can only get better and better from here on out :)

Not Gonna Lie

So as most of you know, Mike is deploying sometime the end of this year before the holidays. I have been telling myself over and over that its a good thing, and trying to look on the bright side of the situation that when he comes home well be debt free! meaning anything we wanna do or where ever we wanna take the girls we can we wont have to worry about the credit card bills that take up half our checks.... BUT I cant help but stay up all night sometimes crying and sometimes just thinking of all hes gonna miss, all I am going to miss, and most of all what the girls are going to miss.. Alivia is going to be about 6wks when he leaves, he is going to miss her first smile, and laugh and possibly word, first time sitting up and crawling and trying new foods all of it including her first holidays, i tell myself well at least he saw all that with Mckenzy, but its still painful to think im going to enjoy all of that alone. and then the subject of Mckenzy just tears me apart, she IS a daddys girl to the Tee, she knows when he should be home, she waits for him, they play and laugh together everyday, she wakes up and asks "mommy is daddy at work?" and then after i answer she proceeds with " hes gonna be home after my nap?" both of the answers to her questions are yes. Mike often comes home for lunch or to say hi or drop off a coffee being the wonderful husband he is, and she cries when he leaves running to the door or the window saying "i want my daddy back." it kills me to think my answer to her first question will be yes for 6+ months and my answer to her 2nd will be no for that period of time as well, and i dont know what shes gonna think when she only sees him thru the computer and asks for him back. Mike is going to leave a 3.5yr old and a 6wk old and come back to a 4yr old and a 7-8mth old. Im going to miss him so much, 6 yrs with him and hes been gone a total of 12mths, he is my best friend, the one i go to when i need comfort or a laugh, he makes me smile just by watching him with our daughter, he drives me nuts but i wouldnt trade any of it for anything or anyone, he is my lifetime the one i will grow old with and as much as i try to tell myself that its gonna be okay and that ill be okay ill have my family around.... its going to be VERY hard.