Happy Anniversary!!

We've just hit the big mark of 3 years of marriage. Yea for us!!! Each year brings its own special moments and surprises, and needless to say, most of the ones from this last year involve Janie. It's been interesting and wonderful growing closer together as we figure out how to be parents together. And most of the challenges have been related to time and the lack of it because we wish we had more of it to spend together. I'm even more convinced that I married the best person for me that I could have. And at the rate things are going, I think we might just make it another few years . . . or maybe even eternity.

As a funny little thing, I like to tell Mark that he's not a "checklist husband" which sounds kind of mean in the beginning. But it all comes down to us girls and how we select our men. I guess guys do this too. While dating we all have our little checklists of things we want in our potential spouse and we usually have everything from looks, to talents, to career choices, etc. "I want a guy 6 feet tall who's going to be a doctor and plays sports and has handyman skills and served a mission and blah blah blah." We always include the things we SHOULD - honors his priesthood, treats me well, loves his family, etc. - but it seems like when it comes down to picking out the ones we want to date the more important things kind of get shoved down toward the bottom of the list. I know too many girls who married lesser quality men because they focused on the wrong things. And I think we've all done it at some point during our dating careers, some of us just either got lucky and still got a good one or others wised up about our selection process. So when I say Mark's not a "checklist husband" it's because he's not a doctor, and is much taller than 6 feet, and is still learning handy man skills, and plays sports for fun - not cuz he's professional quality. Instead he treats me VERY well, he lets me know every day he loves me, he works so hard to take care of our family, he honors his priesthood, has a strong testimony, and still speaks of his mission with so much joy and fondness for his experiences. He does happen to be really really good looking though so I did check that one off my checklist. :o)