January 2018

SNOW!!!

Is there anything more exciting than waking up to snow?! In the Baden house, its pretty much at the top of the list (right after Christmas, birthdays, and Halloween, of course)! We typically get one or two good snows each winter, and the January 17th storm did not disappoint. We woke up to a winter wonderland, and the best part was Daddy got a snow day, too! We took full advantage of an unexpected day together and suited up right after breakfast to head outside.
 

It was much, much colder than the snow we had in December, but we still had lots fun sledding, walking, and shoveling together.

Anniversary Celebration

We were also finally able to celebrate our 9 year anniversary this month. Grandma and Grandaddy stayed with the kids while Scott and I enjoyed a little get-away. We realized this was the first time we'd gone away (together) overnight since Lydia was born!!! Since we didn't have a lot of time, we decided to stay local, which works out pretty well when you live in a cool city like Asheville! 

We had breakfast at our favorite bagel shop, worked out at the Y, enjoyed lunch at Luella's, and then headed to Asheville to check into our hotel. Since "delicious food" is a love language we share, we treated ourselves to the Friday night Seafood Buffet at the Grove Park Inn.

It was so nice to have uninterrupted time together. Our life is so different than it was when we married nine years ago. I don't think either of us realized how demanding the little kid stage of life would be or how intentional we'd have to be in our relationship with each other. So much of our time and energy revolves around our children, and while we don't think that's wrong, we are guilty of not always making time together a priority. Sounds like a good New Years resolution to me!

On our actual anniversary (December 27th) we celebrated with brunch at Well-Bred after taking the kids to their dentist appointments. And in keeping with our tradition, we watched our wedding videos that evening. It was really fun to watch with the kids this year. Lydia was very interested in the "ballerina" dresses, and Jacob was very interested in the ceremony itself. While we certainly don't have a perfect marriage, its our hope that we can be an example of a loving, forgiving, Christ-centered marriage for our children.

A few other pictures from our January...