Happy Anniversary in Asheville!

Matt and I recently celebrated our 6th year of marriage. I am completely blessed by this man I call my husband. I truly do love him more with each passing day. Not only is he an amazing husband, he is the best Dad. He gives 120% at work, and then he returns home and finds 120% more to give to Audrey and me. What an amazing man!

To celebrate our anniversary, we decided to sneak away for a weekend get-away to Asheville, NC. It's only three hours up the road, and neither of us had spent substantial time in the city. We had a great time just being together and enjoying each others' company. This was also our "babymoon" of sorts, as our second child will join us in three months or so. We spent Friday night in downtown Asheville, taking in the eclectic mix of locals and tourists. On Saturday, we made the obligatory trip to the famous Biltmore Estate and then drove up into the mountains along the Blue Ridge Parkway. Saturday evening, we celebrated our anniversary with a romantic dinner and evening out at the historic Grove Park Inn. We both slept in on Sunday (for the first time in who knows how long) and then had a coffee and breakfast at a small cafe in the warehouse art district of Asheville. Happy Anniversary!

Art with Audrey

Truth be told, I am not very creative. I love observing others' creativity, and I truly wish I did have more imagination in all facets of life. I've realized over the years, however, that God blessed me in other areas and I have to just "let go" of the fact that creativity does not flow naturally from my veins. Despite my shortcomings in the creativity department, I still feel that I want Audrey to have as many opportunities to develop creatively as possible. Since I am staying at home with her, I am stretched to try to provide different creative projects for her - crafts, painting, cooking. I feel like my attempts at creative projects with Audrey are bland at best, but she seems to love them none the less. I even started a "craft box" to store the supplies that I only own because I have a small child (paint brushes, yarn, googley eyes, sponges, paper, etc.).

So, a few weeks ago, we covered our kitchen table with newspaper and I let her go to town. First, she painted some big, dry pasta noodles. Then, she did some finger painting. Finally, she painted her own hands and just slapped them all over her paper. Thanks to this afternoon of painting chaos, she now has her own macaroni noodle neckless and I have a ton of handmade wrapping paper to use in the future!

As you can probably tell in the photos below, Audrey takes her art time very seriously - focus, drive, and perfectionism are common traits she exhibits while being creative!