Perfect.

Today marks our 1st wedding anniversary. Traditionally, a gift of paper is what we should be exchanging, perhaps a love letter of sorts. Now a days, letters are few and far between and have been replaced with text messages and/or email. (Who knows how Ava will communicate when she's older!) So, I am opting for the technologically advanced 1st anniversary wedding gift in the form of a dedicated blog entry.

Jeff,
Everyone always says "the first year is the hardest"; and that's probably mostly true. And at some points during our first year, I may have agreed. But as I sit here in our beautiful house, with our sleepy dogs beneath my feet, and our beautifully perfect baby daughter upstairs sleeping as snug as a bug, I feel so truly blessed. Somehow during the most stressful of times you always manage to make me laugh, even though I don't often get your jokes. I love that we rarely disagree, and if we do, it never lasts long and we don't yell at each other. This past year I learned how wonderful of a husband you are. I love that we can tell each other anything, and we support each other in anything. (Sometimes after a little persuasion!) I love that our favorite date night is still at home, with a RedBox movie, a pizza and a bottle of wine; but when we have our out of the house date nights, I love that we still get excited and get dressed up!

One of my favorite things about our first year has been watching you with Ava. You are a great dad. I have loved the mornings when she wakes up, and you sneak out of bed first to get to her. When the monitor has been left on, I love listening to you talk to her sweetly. I love when you sing and dance around with her. (Although we are going to have to sign her up for dance classes because we don't want her cursed with either of our "moves"!) Learning the kind of dad that you are and are going to be, over the past few months just excites me more for all of our years ahead.

One year ago today we had a perfect wedding. We had a perfect honeymoon. We have a perfect marriage, perfect baby and pretty much a perfect life. I love you and happy 1st anniversary.