{Happy Anniversary Joe!}

TEN YEARS! It’s hard for me to wrap my head around the fact that Joe and I have been married for 10 years today! Today also marks the day we first started dating 18 years ago! I’m sure that makes us sound much older then what we really are but Joe and I have been together since freshman year in high school. Yup! We’re high school sweethearts! I love this about our story! But, if there is one thing I’ve learned, it’s that the amount of time spent loving someone doesn’t constitute for the quality of love you have given that person. You can spend your entire life with someone but at the same time not fully giving 100% of yourself. OR you can spend a short 10 years together and have given yourself fully. If we died tomorrow I know that we have given each other an eternity of love in just 10 short years.

We’ve been through a lot in those years we have spent together. High school, college, careers, traveling, buying a house, building a house on our own, developing our own businesses, infertility, 3 beautiful children. It feels like a lifetime ago and we still have a lifetime to go. Looking back at all those years it’s easy to see that we really have grown up together and have grown FOR each other. We both will admit that it’s not easy, no marriage is. There are tough days. Days when we both feel that neither of us has given 100% that day. But we’re committed. I knew from day one that commitment was the key to a successful marriage and I promised myself that I would always be committed to us.

When I think about the future, I have moments of being fearful, but with Joe by my side I am reassured. We’ve made it this far together. There’s really no stopping us now!

Happy TEN years and here’s to 100 more! I love you, Joe! You are the greatest gift given to me!

On our 5th anniversary, Joe made this beautiful wine box for me. It is hands down the BEST anniversary gift he has ever given me! The oak is from our pasture where we built our house. He milled the wood my hand himself and crafted the box to hold 3 bottles of wine. One to drink on our 5th anniversary, one to drink on our 10th and one for our 15th. I was pregnant with Liella during our 5th anniversary so needless to say Joe got the bottle to himself the year. But this year I am so excited to drink the next bottle! And lucky me it’s my favorite wine…Kate!

Much Love, Carissa