27 years ago...March 1, 1983

here's my husband as a lil man:) isn't he cute?

he kinda has those cheeks you just wanna poke.

8th bday...

This man is amazing. the best husband I could ever dream of having.

and today is his day-and i get to make it special for him.

I've gotten to celebrate 4, and now 5, of his birthdays with him, and i pray for many many many more.

I can't wait to get home from work, so i can be with him, spoil him, and love him on his 27th birthday.

This man, although he's 27 today, is my baby, my love.:)

Happy birthday my sweet man.

Oh, Betty Crocker, how you've helped me so.

Dear Betty,

You've helped me feed my man and make his tummy happy. You've helped me cook well balanced meals that both of us enjoy. We love all the variety you have in your beautiful pages-and all your brightly colored pictures makes cooking easier and more fun.

I loved how you got me interested in healthy, low-fat cooking. You provide all the calories that are in each serving and you make it sound so easy to do. All the recipes have turned into amazing and delicious meals and have made dinner time talk SO enjoyable:).

I like all the categories you provide for easy to find recipes on the many different kinds of food, from baking to grilling to quick and easy meals. I LOVE how you showed me how to make vegetables SO tasty, that even my husband eats his veggies.

You've showed me the joys of cooking for my little family; you've helped me spark my love for cooking good food. I can't tell you just how fun it is to try another one of your recipes, and how much more fun it is to serve it to my husband and watch him eat it AND enjoy it.

I just love how you helped me as a newly wed wife, with no cooking experience at all-and now how I just love it and am actually quite good at it. Just thought I should let you know how wonderful it is to know you.

Love of food, Kristine

missing fellowship.

please pray for us.

ministry here is draining.

and we're discouraged.

we want to be strong in the Lord.

we need strength. encouragement. and true Christian fellowship.

we're relying on the Lord.

coffee, flour, and sugar

New jars for some of my favorite ingredients:).

got them for $5 dollars each at pier 1.

looove them, they're so sweet!

our cozy dining area:)

We found a beautiful new dining room table for a very low price! and to think, we found it in Chicago:) We'd been eating dinners on the floor, so I was so excited to get these new additions to our cozy lil home!:)

isn't it cute?:) what do you think?

the chairs aren't terribly comfortable, so we got seat pads:) and i think they're precious!

we also got a beautiful lil side table/shelf to set my lamp on. haha, yes, we purchased this especially for my special beautiful lamp:) i like it alot:)

I feel blessed-we got all this for a fantastic LOW price for great brand new furniture:) (the low price part is one of my favorite parts:))

Candlelight dinners are best in your own home...

Ryan and i celebrated our 6 month anniversary with a beautiful candlelit dinner-in our own home!

Ryan prepared it and cooked it all and asked that I relax and enjoy the evening while he did all the cooking:)

What a treat!

For an appetizer, he made avacados filled with shrimp and crab. WOW. it was amazing.

For the sides he made buttery potatoes and asparagus cooked in red onions and garlic. mmmm...

and for the main course, we had oven grilled steak, in a red wine and butter sauce. best steak i've had in Storm Lake! this is how the main course looked. Beautiful isn't it?

It was the perfect steak-sooooo good.

Ryan even put together a mix of songs by Frank Sinatra and other suave music. it was like going to one of those fancy nice restuarants that we used to go to all the time in Chicago-but this was in our own home!

and here's a picture of the fabulous cook-my man and love:) I'm so proud of all the work he put into this amazing meal!

the evening was beautiful, romantic, and perfect-the most wonderful anniversary dinner because of all the love that was poured into this meal:)

6 months ago today...

from dad's speech on our wedding day,

"I pray this day, you will love each other the least."

it's so true...

happy 6 months anniversary my dear Ryan.

I love you.