5 Years!

Ok, I really do not like this pic, it was 1 week after giving birth and I was still very swollen and fat looking...but it is our family portrait so I am sharing it with you all!

This weekend we celebrated Valentine's Day and our 5th wedding anniversary (we got married 2/11/06). Wow, how quickly time has flown and look at how our lives have changed in the past 5 years. We moved from Raleigh back to my hometown and are within an hour from Cedric's hometown. We had a son and this December a daughter. It started out just the two of us here in the house (plus Rocky of course) and now we are a family of 4 (plus 1 cute pet). We are both a little meatier, haha! I used to keep a VERY clean house. Everything had its place and there was not a lot of clutter. Things always were put back immediatly after use. Now, it is not so clean and very cluttered :) I try my best to keep it from being nasty, but there are toys everywhere and I have learned that I am fighting a losing battle with trying to keep putting them away. But hey, in the grand scheme of things, who really cares if your house is perfectly clean all the time? We LIVE here and you can't LIVE in a place where everything looks like a magazine spread. When I go to others houses, I am not critiquing the neatness, I really don't even pay attention to it at all..ok I may look at the bathroom to see if it is clean but other than that... I think I am my own worst critic when it comes to this. Zoloft has helped me to chill out some with this although I still obsess too much about things being put away/etc. :) My ob/gyn calls it "mother's little helper" and he is right, I recommend it to mothers everywhere!!!!

Anyways, we decided to celebrate on Saturday night. Cedric planned a surprise dinner and overnight trip and I had no idea what we were doing. We got all dressed up (I will post pics later on, I need to upload them and don't feel like it right now!) and dropped both kiddos off at mom and dad's. This was our first overnight away from sweet Izzie. We headed towards CLT and ended up at the Melting P^T fondue restaurant. Both of us had never been and I have been dying to go. It was as fantastic as everything I had heard! We started off with a beer cheese course with veggies, bread, and apples. Next came a delicious salad course. I had a spinach salad with goat cheese and Ceddy had the Casear. 3rd course was the entree--2 cuts of steak, shrimp, ravioli, fresh veggies, chicken...you cook them all yourself in a delish veggie broth, then they had tons of delicious dipping sauces. Everything was SO fresh and just so good. My favorite were the shrimp and the homemade cocktail sauce, it was out of this world. Plus Ceddy doesn't like shrimp, so I didn't have to share! The grand finale was dessert! We chose the creme brulee' dipping sauce, which was white chocalatey with caramel. They bring you strawberries, bananas, brownies, cheesecake, marshmallows, etc. to dip in the fondue. OMG it was awesome and we also had a champagne toast with dessert. So good, I totally recommend it. The food was out of this world, but I really liked to atmosphere too. So private and low key. It took probably 2 hours to eat, you felt so un-rushed, I just loved that.

After dinner, we headed to our hotel. There was a mix-up with the room, so we ended up getting a suite for the same price as a regular room, SWEET! The room was fabulous, complete with a whirlpool in the bedroom (don't worry mom, Cedric packed spic and span and we cleaned it before getting in!)....We had champagne and a wonderful night. It was so nice to get to spend some quality time with my hubby! We slept in and didn't have to set the alarm. After checking out, we headed to On The Bo*der for a delish mexican lunch. Next was a trip to Wal Mart to get a few things, and then we headed back to reality. I can't tell you how much I enjoyed this night. I enjoy every day with my sweet hubby and kiddos, but it was so special just to have some uninterrupted quality time together to reconnect. Oh, I forgot the gifts...Ceddy got a pair of waterproof ski gloves and a polo shirt. I got a grey hooded UNC sweatshirt with the old ram on it. Ok, not the most romantic of gifts, but we both loved them. There is not much I would rather have than a new hooded UNC sweatshirt! For those who know me, I usually wear one everyday in the winter, it is my standard outfit, paired with jeans and my tennis shoes or now my Lands E*d mocs..I am such a fashionista these days! So all in all, Cedric planned a fabulous outing for us, I wouldn't have changed one thing. I love you baby, Happy 5 Years! Thank you so much for planning such a special evening for us!