Three Years Baby!

Somehow, another year has gone by and Ryan and I have now been married for THREE years! I was looking through all the pictures that we have together and trying to gather my thoughts about how I feel about it and about how I feel about him. Part of me is thinking "Only three years? It feels like we've been together for way longer than that!" and another part of me can't believe that three years have already passed.

Second date

I wrote a blog post that I'll share on Valentine's Day about how love manifests itself in the little things, and it really does. With Ryan working so much and me being so pregnant and grumpy all the time, we just don't have the kind of romantic love that I was sure we would never stop having when we got married. I'd like to think that we can still be in the honeymoon phase if we want (mostly because so many people told us that it never lasts and I'm stubborn!) but honestly, life has a way of kicking you in the butt and making it difficult to keep up with all that lovey dovey stuff that you do when you first get married.

I used to make dinner for Ryan every day and some days I'd make all of his favorite foods to surprise him, or I wrote little love notes and hid them in different places for him to find. We lit candles when we ate dinner and we always ate dinner together. We made out a lot. We went to bed together and woke up together.

Using my new camera for the first time. This was when I was pregnant with Rose. 

Now, Ryan works three nights a week so our sleep schedules are very different. And I go through phases of cooking and not cooking dinner depending on how I feel. And every time we try to make out, a little toddler who is obsessed with her mom starts throwing a fit and pushes her dad away because she thinks Mom belongs to her. *insert eye roll*

Our trip to California when Rose was about 9 months old. 

But something else that comes with a life together is a depth to the love we share. I feel safe when I'm with Ryan. I feel secure. I feel loved. I'm honestly blown away by how hard Ryan works to take care of Rose and I. No one knows me better than he does. And I was so worried when we got married that we would run out of things to talk about, but it's been 3 years and Ryan is still my favorite person to talk to at the end of the day, and I still want to tell him about every tiny detail of my day, including the fact that I washed the dishes or woke up late or cried over something silly or whatever, I want to tell him everything. 

We have a system. We work together. We figure things out together. We're tired, and we don't get to go on dates nearly as often as we'd like. Life is stressful and exhausting and overwhelming. We argue and we get frustrated with each other. But we always talk through it and figure things out. Every morning when I study my scriptures and say my personal prayers, I thank Heavenly Father for putting Ryan in my life and allowing me to have the life that I have. I wouldn't trade it for anything.

VERY pregnant with Rose.

And, it helps that Ryan is still the hottest guy I know, still opens my car door (and all other doors) for me, and is always making me laugh. For all that's changed over the last three years, he is still making my dreams come true, he still makes inappropriate jokes, he still gives me the best forehead kisses, he still hates getting his picture taken, and he still loves me and puts up with me and my hormones on a daily basis.

You'll never guess what this picture is from. haha

Here's to three years and infinity more!

Oh and, if you are bored and need a rabbit hole to go down, here are all of my anniversary and wedding blog posts from the last three years. :)

Our Love Story/How We Met

My thoughts on marriage at 6 months

Our First Anniversary and some wedding pictures

Our second Anniversary and why we picked the Provo City Center Temple

Probably our most recent picture of the two of us. (We almost never get pictures of just the two of us anymore, I'll have to work on that. He probably does it on purpose.)