four years

Today is our fourth anniversary.  We have officially been a married couple for as long as we were an unmarried couple.  I wish I could say we have something special planned, but Ryan is working all day and I am packing up the girls and I for a weekend trip.  However, I am hoping to come up with something amazing for dinner with whatever I can find in the kitchen.

I also wish I could say I completed our wedding album like I have been wanting to do since the day we got married.  But no, I haven't done that either.  By the fifth anniversary, for sure.  Maybe.

I suppose we don't really need anything special on this day anyway.  In the past year, we had a new baby, built a new house, and bought a new (to us) car.  So, yep, it has been a pretty special year.

And even in all the very, very, very stressful times over the past year, we managed to stick together and use those struggles to strengthen our relationship.

There is this one certain part of our vows that has always stuck in my head,

I promise to respect and support you,
to be patient and loving towards you,
to work by your side to achieve the things we dream of,
and to savor our time together.
I pledge to you all of these things
from the bottom of my heart
for the rest of our lives.

I feel like Ryan and I have always had the same vision for our life together, and that is one of the many reasons our relationship works so well for us.  All the love in the world can't keep two people together who don't dream of the same things.

So, Happy Anniversary Ryan!  Just four years in and look at all we have accomplished.  I can imagine that the next four, forty, four hundred, will only bring better things.  And even if we don't accomplish anything else amazing, I will still feel content for the rest of my life.

~ our first dance ~

...and just a few other favorites...

a very uncooperative ring bearer

Ryan and his dad

the moment after I stepped on the front of my dress

 

our sweet, adorable flower girl during the ceremony

**All photos by Julie Ryland Photography