10 years!

 so, i haven't blogged in a hundred years and here is the reason. my little ocd self must blog in chronological order and october 1st was matt and my 10 year anniversary! and that's a big freakin' deal. so it needed a really big important post. and i just could not figure out what to write about it. how to be funny and inspirational and touching and reflective and a million other descriptive words about this momentous event. really though, it just made me stop blogging. i was too overwhelmed about it. and it's so silly... nobody could ever even care about this post. geez. i'm a loon. 

here are a few less seen photos from our wedding day. as i looked through our wedding album, it was shocking to see what a difference 10 years makes. i am seriously turning into an old woman you guys. i'm going to start all my sentences with, "i remember when..."

i remember when... just kidding.

lauren writing the names of my bridesmaids on the bottom of my shoe. the first name to rub off was supposed to be the next to get married. since i got married so young, my six bridesmaids were all unmarried. saige's name rubbed off first, which is silly... since she was by far the youngest bridesmaid and is the only one not married today. maybe we had the tradition wrong. ha.

my oh so precious flower girl, sophia. can you even stand her adorableness? she is still adorable and a teenager! as well as a competitive swimmer. and she still wears floral wreaths in her hair. even while she swims. i'm lying. 

 right after the ceremony, matt and i jumped into the horse drawn carriage i rode in on (can you handle my fanciness?) and matt's dad jumped right on in with us. it still makes me laugh to this day, when i see these pictures. just the three of us... it's too romantic. 

on october 1st a very special thing happened. we got married. another thing that happened is mt. st helens erupted. as it happened, wes was flying away from the volcano to our wedding. wes is a volconologist. he was just really super happy about the situation and you can tell by his face in this photo. it's been ten years, can you forgive us wes for unknowingly choosing eruption day as our wedding day? the answer, i think, is no. 

when i look back on my wedding day, there is a lot i would change. a lot. who knew how much my taste could change in 10 years?! just kidding. i wonder what a wedding planned by 12 year old cortney would have been like? probably spectacular. anyways, two things i absolutely would not change were the groom and the bouquets. they were so beautiful! i loved them that day and i love them this day. 

jenni gave me a sweatsuit to wear while i got ready that said bride on the back and had my new monogram on the front. i am not a sentimental person when it comes to inanimate objects. at all. this zip up is still hanging in my closet though. ten years later. it's probably the oldest thing in my closet. i can obviously never wear it outside. it's silly to keep it, but i'm just going to keep it forever anyways. 

this picture is one of the craziest to see. it is a bunch of totes adorbs, silly kids trying to pressure the dj into playing ridiculous songs. sean is the youngest person here (i think... i actually don't know when zane's birthday is). today sean is 18 and lives by himself in new york and works at a barn doing equestrian type things that i don't understand. so... that makes my brain explode. how are all these tiny people just adults now? my (exploded) head can't figure it out.  

 wowie wow. when you get married at 22 you have a pretty big crowd going for the garter... since most of your friends are not married yet. i wonder what size that group would be now? significantly smaller, for sure. i know my friend marcus caught the garter and he is now married, so it must have worked it's garter lady attracting magic. also, look at matt. what a handsome little baby face he was. no wonder i dragged my dad down the wedding aisle to get to him. 

oh little baby matt and cortney, all fresh faced and newly wed... ready to knock this marriage thing out of the park. ten years in and so far so good. we've had lots of moves, lots of homes, lots of jobs, lots of children. okay, not lots of children, just two... but they're pretty great so i'll probably try and talk matt into at least twelve more. i can't believe my luck, really. this life with matt is just so good. happy ten years to us!

8 ways to stay married for 8 years

i was inspired by this blog post i found on pinterest. it is a great article with great advice, you should really read it if you didn't already from when i posted it on facebook. 15 ways to stay married for 15 years  okay? good. moving on...

it's our eight year anniversary. here is a list of 8 things we do to make (and keep) our marriage gooooooood. and we have a pretty good marriage. we mostly like each other a lot... and we made it past the 7 year itch (which i just learned about) easily. we're in it to win it... fo sho. and by "win it" i mean be super in love for all of our days. 

{entering our wedding reception 10.04}

1. be your spouse's cheerleader

when matt and i hung out together in a social setting for the first time, we went bowling with a group of people. i am not a bowler. matt isn't really either. every time it was matt's turn to bowl, i would stand up and cheer for him because... i was crushin'. at one point he even stated, "you are like my personal cheerleader or something!" matt bowled the best game of his life that night. whenever your spouse is doing something... you should be their biggest fan. it's your job and it will make a difference.  

{the actual bowling night! our first picture 02.01}

2. bite your tongue!

don't correct your spouse in front of other people. your husband is telling some hilarious story to your friends at dinner about a trip you took to italy. he makes a mistake in the story. he says the wrong city... you were clearly in siena, not florence when this event happened. before you open your trap to correct him, think about it. does it make a difference to the story? will your friends ever know the difference? does it matter at all? is the only outcome going to be that you look like an interrupting critical jerk? yeah, probably. so, it's hard, but just let it go...

{italy... siena. our engagement trip! 07.03}

3. play to your strengths

matt is a better cook than me. it's more than that, though. he is a really good, natural cook and i'm not. i need recipes to follow and even then things turn out poorly sometimes. this used to annoy me. i wanted to be a good cook too. i wanted people to talk about my great cooking. that was dumb. matt is good at cooking and he enjoys it. so he cooks a majority of the meals in our house. and i enjoy eating them. i don't need to compete with him... i just need to appreciate this area where he excels. after all, there are households with no good cooks and how sad for those people. plus, i'm a good baker. better than matt, even. 

{thanksgiving. i made rolls. matt made everything else. 11.08}

4. get some financial peace

money causes problems people... in almost all relationships, but especially in marriage. matt and i took the dave ramsey financial peace course and it really makes a huge difference to feel like you are on the same money team. and really, you are on the same money team... that's how it should be. so take some kind of financial management class or read a book or go to a seminar. make a budget together (together being the key word) so you both know and agree on where the money goes each month. 

{how debt free feels! tulip festival 04.09}

5. keep inside jokes on the inside

matt and i are both funny people. people think i'm funny right when they meet me because i am loud and more in your face than matt. matt takes more time to get comfortable in groups of people. at a dinner party... everyone hears the hilariousness spewing from my mouth, but only the person sitting right next to matt gets to hear his. i have a point here. matt says and does very funny things all the time. he makes me cry laugh a lot. he says and does those things for me because he is comfortable with me. he is not comfortable with everybody and does not like it when i ask him to do a crazy impression in front of 10 people that he did at home for me last night. it took me awhile to learn that. sometimes his most funny stuff is just for me and that makes it even better, really. 

{maternity shoot by nick dunne 11.10}

6. say cheese

take a lot of pictures together. when you are out... ask people to take your picture. when you are alone... take toaster pictures (as my mil calls them)!one day you will look back at all your pictures and it will remind you of lots of happy times and memories. and you will see in the pictures how much you loved each other. and it will make you love that person even more right then. i can look at a picture of our wedding day and remember that exact moment and how i felt and it's like i feel that emotion all over again... magical. plus photographs are my hands down favorite form of wall art. have you been to my house? you know it's true. 

{i know just why we look like this! christmas eve 12.08}

7. i chchchooooose you

if there is ever a disagreement between your spouse and a family member or a friend or a stranger even, take your spouses side. you are on an exclusive team and you've always got to have their back. i know you're thinking... but what if they did something really terrible or they're just really wrong. uh, well... i'm thinking don't marry someone who is going to do something you find really terrible. if there is a fight and i am forced to pick a side, i pick matt's. always. and i know he picks mine. always. we are a force to be reckoned with. mwahahaha.

{dominican republic trip 06.06}

8. pillow talk

at night, go to bed a few minutes earlier than you need to and take some time to talk. matt and i usually take that time to rant about things that are annoying or to gossip. eep... it's true. don't you wish you could be a fly on our bedroom wall? ha. creepy. matt and i don't keep secrets. if you tell me something in confidence, i'm going to tell matt... at night, before bed. BUT what is said during that time, stays between us. sneaky, sneaky. 

{hunger games midnight movie 03.12}

what's your marriage advice? not that we need it. ;)