let's go back to aug 15th, shall we?

alternate title: "why i have the coolest daughter (& best babysitter) ever"


so, you might remember, doug and i just celebrated our 15 year anniversary and went to Dayton for the weekend. and i posted about it here with a 'to be continued' at the end.

well, i finally have a moment to continue it. LOL. life's been a lot on the crazy busy side lately.

so on the way home we kept getting frantic phone calls from the oldest girl, asking when we'd be home. she was up to something and didn't want her plans foiled. we were given strict orders to call when we were within and hour. and that call gave us orders to call within 10 minutes.

we arrived home and were quickly told to close our eyes and were escorted up the stairs by the young set. and when we opened our eyes, this is what we saw on our bedroom door....

what a riot, right!? then, we had to close our eyes again, so ashlyn could open the door and place herself just perfectly inside---wanting to see our expressions, i suppose. we opened our eyes to see our bedroom transformed into a little girl's decorating masterpiece. awwwwwwwww.



complete with her bedspread on our bed, mix-matched sheets, her heart pillow with her wedding flowers from her dress up box and her favorite fuzzy little teddy we bought for her before she was born. and streamers that were embellished with "happy anniversary" in her 3rd grade scrawl.

oh, wait....there's more. butterfly balloons and welcome home soldier balloons and a congrats on your wedding balloon too. LOL. so, adorable, that girl.

and a poster board with the most adorable drawings ever!


side story: on the poster board....you see that heart with the keyhole and the key. well, the mister, every time he see's a tattoo shop starts talking about "when i get my next tattoo....." and proceeds to tell me about what he'll get. so when we were in dayton, i saw a tattoo shop and said, hey, let's get tattoos! then talked about what we'd get. it started with matching somethings, then got creative from there. of course, i'd want something cutesy, he'd want something that wouldn't have his friends calling him a pansy. so, we decided i'd get a heart with a keyhole and he'd get a skeleton key----both small-like on our wrists.

but, yeah....we didn't do it. then he'd have to be committed to me---for life. *insert heavy sarcasm*

i should mention that this planning/decorating, was all ashlyn. suzi just funded her imagination. gosh i love her. she'll be an awesome momma someday, i just know it.


so, now, zooming in close to the bed, you can see a little 'love tray' filled with a box of our 'favorite' candy---hot tamales for me, gobstoppers for him. some sparkling white-grape juice and a cupcake to smash in each other's face, um.....eat.

she was SO proud of herself. so proud. but falling apart every few seconds because all spidergirl wanted to do was play with the balloons and bat them up to the ceiling then pull them back down and do it all over again.

so, then we all had some sparkling white-grape juice, while locking arms and looking like a total doofus----who/why is that even a wedding tradition anyway!? awkward.


then ate smashed cupcakes.


and later, when looking at the pictures, realized...........how perfect---we were sitting right in front of the picture wall where i have "established 1995" on the wall in the background. totally not planned.

the end.