date night.

We've had more dates in the past two months that in the past two years combined!  That's pretty sad to admit.  Though I didn't realize it at the time, I really struggled to leave Caleb after he was born.  It wasn't that I didn't trust the person whom I was leaving him with (usually my mama!), or that I was afraid something would happen.  It was more a guilt of not being there to give him what he needed.  In my mind, I was all he needed.  I was his only source of nutrition, and more often than not, his only source of nurturing.  When no one else could calm him, I could.  As his mama, I knew him so intricately that I could identify little nuances in his cries that told me what he needed.  I felt guilty leaving my baby with anyone who might not be able to read these cues, my sweet boy's only way to communicate.

It wasn't until our anniversary that year (when Caleb was 5 months old!) that Dan finally convinced me to leave our boy with my mama so we could spend the day together "just us!"  It was one of my hardest hurdles to overcome as a mother, but I'm so thankful for such a sensitive, yet persistent husband who reminded me how important it was to nurture our marriage!

While it's still not easy to leave our boys, my desire to spend alone time with my sweet husband drives me to make it happen!  So last night my mama watched our boys while we checked out a local winery and enjoyed ice cream without a toddler or baby in tow!  No matter how brief the time we get to spend together, we always return home refreshed, renewed, and refueled with more love to give our boys!

In a perfect world, I'd love to spend a night out with my man every week, but for now I'm so thankful for the opportunity to spend every minute we get in this crazy season of life!  XOXO

date night

The other night we got a sitter and went out on a date, just the two of us!  We enjoyed great conversation over coffee, dinner, and even stopped for dessert on the way home.  It was a wonderful evening together right in the middle of a crazy week.  We are both thankful for these moments together and soak up every minute we get to be "just the two of us" again.

Long before we had Caleb, we recognized that our relationship needs regular dates.  For us this has meant about once a month leaving the house and doing something together, usually spending a few hours enjoying a cup of tea/coffee at a local coffee shop just talking.  We recognized that our conversation during this time was much more rejuvenating than our day to day dinner conversation.  By leaving the house, we were able to remove ourselves from the distractions of daily chores and the countless projects on our fixer upper.  Last year, when we set a monthly budget for the first time in our married life, we built in a date night each month, it's just that important to us!

When Caleb arrived all that changed.  Over the past 8 months, it's been hard to find time for just the two of us.  Between naps and feedings (Caleb's exclusively breastfed), and continuing to move forward on our house and etsy shop, it feels like we're passing Caleb back and forth trying to shovel a few bites of dinner in our mouth before moving onto the next task.  When we had time together, it felt foreign.  I can remember the first night Caleb went to bed around 7:30, leaving us with nearly 2 hours of time together, we just sat on the couch and marveled at how unfamiliar and awkward that felt.  Caleb had become an extention of us, a crutch of sorts that we couldn't be without! It was in that moment that we realized that we had been telling ourselves that we didn't need time together because he needed us, but in reality we didn't remember how to be us without him!  It reminded me that before I was a mama, I was a wife and if I was going to continue to be a good mama, I needed to continue to be a good wife!

Our first real date was on our anniversary, when Caleb was early 5 months old.  We spent the entire day away from our boy and it was hard!  I cried as we drove away, and was distracted much of the day wondering how our baby was.  But I made it and hours later as we pulled in the driveway I was overcome with excitement to see my little guy!

Since then we've had a handful of nights out and each one reminds us that before there was Caleb, there was us. And we kind of liked us!  We're a team and this journey in parenthood requires an incredible amount of teamwork.  It's important that we continue to nurture our relationship with one another so that we can be a great team!

9/52

"A portrait of my family, once a week, every week, in 2014"

One of these days I'll get a photo of more than just this little man, but for now he's the star of the show!
see more of our 52 project here.

{joining the 52 project at Practising Simplicity & Living Arrows at I Heart Snapping}

8/52

"A portrait of my family, once a week, every week, in 2014"

Caleb Roscoe: On the move and getting into everything!!  I couldn't settle on just one photo this week, but I think these two capture pretty accurately his constant movement and need to explore.

see more of our 52 project here.

{joining the 52 project at Practising Simplicity & Living Arrows at I Heart Snapping}

around here

After a lovely weekend together, I'm flying solo this week while Dan is away for work.  Caleb and I have a long to do list to tackle and lots of friends to visit with.  If the weather cooperates, we may even get a trip to IKEA in!!  I'm hoping to get the upstairs move in ready for when he returns, as well as catch up on some much needed deep cleaning.

Here's hoping to time flies!!

7/52

"A portrait of my family, once a week, every week, in 2014"

see more of our 52 project here.

{joining the 52 project at Practising Simplicity & Living Arrows at I Heart Snapping}

4/52

"A portrait of my family, once a week, every week, in 2014"

Caleb Roscoe: Investigating Maggie's paws, such an inquisitive little man.

see more of our 52 project here.

{joining the 52 project at Practising Simplicity & Living Arrows at I Heart Snapping}

a love story...five years together.

Before we were parents, we were just a husband and wife walking through this wild and crazy life together.  Today we celebrate 5 years of marriage and adventures and look forward to many more years together. 

When we met 10 years ago, I don't think either of us could have ever imagined this life together.  When you're 18 and a college freshman, getting married, owning a house, and having a baby are the furthest thing from your mind.

We met through mutual friends the first week of college.  My roommates had grown up going to camp with Dan back in Pennsylvania.  Having gone to a college where I knew absolutely no one, my roommates' camp friends soon became my friends.  I can't remember the exact moment when I really saw him, but I do know that by Christmas I was sure I had fallen for him.  Over Christmas we spent countless hours chatting online (with dial-up, no less!).  After returning to school second semester I remember telling my roommates that I just wanted to know if this boy really liked me or if I was wasting my time!

By the end of January we had the infamous "defining the relationship" talk.  And with that, we were a couple.  As the end of the school year approached, Dan apparently thought summer would send us our separate ways and that would be that....he's told me since, that he never thought we'd last through that first summer.  But we did.  We emailed, chatted, and he sent me the occasional sappy snail mail!


Summer's end and the start of school brought on a whole new set of challenges.  We no longer were miles apart, really we were next door neighbors...but we both had full class schedules and rarely did our free time overlap.  But somehow we made it work, not just that year, but for the next three years.

After graduating in December of 2006, I got a job locally and lived near campus while I tried to sort out what to do next.  It was great to still be close, but I wasn't happy in the job I was doing and knew I needed to be on the look out for a better fit.  In February I was offered a position at the Milton Hershey School in Pennsylvania, and moved to Hershey in June.  Everything seemed to be working out perfectly.  After graduation, Dan moved back to PA too.  We spent that summer in PA together seeing each other most every weekend - at the time Dan was living in Philadelphia.  But now he wasn't happy with his work situation!  So in the fall he headed to Ohio to attend the Recording Workshop, then an internship in Indiana.  Once again putting miles between us.  But again, we made it work!

That Thanksgiving I headed home to Indiana to visit family and was able to see him briefly before he returned to Pennsylvania having finished his internship in Indiana.  It was during this visit that he told me that he had be offered a job with Carnival Cruise ships for 6 months and would be leaving in January.  So, as if a few hundred miles weren't enough, we'd now be thousands of miles apart and he'd be unreachable most days!

After Christmas we met up again at his parents house to spend some time together before he left for the cruise ship job and celebrate the new year.  On New Years day I needed to head back to Hershey for work the next day, but before leaving he insisted that we go for a walk.  I was super annoyed as it was freezing outside and getting dark.  We ended up getting in his car and driving to one of my favorite spots near his parents house.  It's the top of the mountain and overlooks the town nearby...it was at this spot that I truly fell in love with Pennsylvania and it's mountains.  When we first stopped, there had been a large rock that we'd climbed up on and sat and talked for what seemed like hours.  This time, we were both disappointed when we noticed that the rock was gone.  Dan insisted that we still get out of the car and walk around; which I fought briefly as it was dark and way too cold outside.

We ended up wondering around, came upon a pile of wood.  We sat down, huddled close to stay warm and talked about us, talked about how hard the next 6 months would be.  Then, seemingly out of nowhere, Dan moved off of the logs and onto the ground in front of me, pulled his hands out of his pockets, held out a box and asked me the question every girl dreams of.  Honestly, I'm not even sure what he said, but I know it was along the lines of "wait for me...I'll be back soon...I love you...marry me!"

The next six months were hard, definitely the hardest yet.  While Dan was away, I single-highhandedly planned our wedding.  When he returned in July he moved to Hershey and we spent a few months making final arrangements for the wedding, but mostly just enjoyed being close again!

On November 22, 2008 we said "I do", and have spend the past 5 years waking up next to one another every morning, no longer separated by miles or oceans!

 Read more about our wedding, our 1st anniversary trip, our 2nd anniversary move, our 3rd anniversary blessing, and our 4th anniversary/announcement!

{4 years}

What better day to celebrate our anniversary than Thanksgiving!  It's hard to believe that it's been 4 years since we walked down the aisle!!

We started this blog as a way to chronicle our adventures as a couple, and it's so fun to look back at where we have been over the past 4 years...

last year.

2 years ago.

3 years ago.

4 years ago.

Looking forward to many more tomorrows spent with the love of my life, and more adventures than we can imagine!

thank·ful

 

adjective

feeling or expressing gratitude; appreciative.

______________________________________________________________________________

We are so blessed...so much to be thankful for this year. (as always!)

We are so very thankful for good jobs, with steady incomes;  a wonderful, miraculous puppy to come home to each day; our good health, family, friends, and neighbors.  We are blessed with a roof over our head and food on the table.  

This month has been full of "inconveniences" all of which have been out of our control, and have left us frustrated at times.  Regardless, we have much to be thankful specifically this month.  In late October Dan had a minor car accident {the hood of the car flew open while driving}.  Thankfully he was able to pull the car off the road before any injury or damage - we are thankful that the tire company who did not latch our hood {or tell us that it was not latched before we drove off} took full responsibility and paid for all damages {new hood and windshield = not cheap}.  Because it was going to take over a week to get the parts and fix the car, they even threw in 10 days of a rental car so that we were not without a car during this time! THANK GOODNESS...there is no way we could have survived those first few weeks in November without two vehicles.

On November 1st, our little Mei Mei was hit by a car and suffered major head injuries.  She remained unconscious {possibly in a coma} for 11 days, then miraculously woke up and began to slowly gain weight, strength, and mobility.  Today, she is able to move around on her own with little support, though she is very unsteady and runs into things.  So thankful that our wonderful puppy survived this often fatal accident!

We've spent much of the month working with Mei Mei helping her to gain her strength and because of this have not spent much time on the house.  Wednesday Dan finally started working on some final projects in the kitchen, however when he went down to the basement found that it had flooded!!  There was nearly 4" of water in the entire basement!!  Still not entirely sure what happened because when we finally realized, the sump pump was on and working!?  The water was completely gone in nearly 15 minutes, but left behind a big mess.  So instead of working on the house, the basement was the project of the day Wednesday!!  Thankful that there was only minor damage, and that the sump pump is still working, also it prompted us to clean up much of the basement that had yet to be cleaned up and organized since moving in.  We also moved EVERYTHING up off the floor with cinderblocks to ensure that if this happens again, fewer items would be damaged.

So, as you can see it's been "one of those months!"  But, we're so thankful for all that we have and where we are!

happy thanksgiving to you and yours!
-the ankney's

The Adventure Continues.

Two years.  It's been a wild and crazy ride, one that's taken us around the world and back. 

What better way to celebrate than to start a new adventure, in Indiana...

In December we'll be moving to Fort Wayne, Indiana where Dan will be working as a recording studio engineer at Sweetwater.


So much to be thankful for...it's good to be HOME!

Anniversary in Kenting.

To celebrate our first anniversary, Dan and I headed down to Kenting, a small town in southern Taiwan. We had plans to visit Hualien on the East Coast, but the forecast was calling for rain and cold weather so we decided to head south to warmer, sunnier weather.

We woke up early Friday morning and headed to the High Speed Train. The first train left around 6:30am. We boarded and slept for the nearly 1.5 hour trip to Kaohsiung. Then in Kaohsiung we hopped on a bus for another 2 hours headed to the southern most tip of Taiwan. Upon arrival, we found some lunch (it was around 11 when we arrived) and a hotel to dump out things. When getting a room at this hotel, we were given the choice of the Snoopy room or the Hello Kitty room…we chose the Hello Kitty room! (complete with a Hello Kitty painted on the wall in glow-in-the-dark paint!
After dumping our things, we wondered around the town, checked out the beach and the scenery around the town. The beach was nearly deserted and allowed for a number of beautiful shots of the beach and the coral along the coast.

Saturday we awoke early and rented a scooter. We spent our morning at the most southern tip of the island at Kenting National Park, where there are walking paths along the sea and a lighthouse overlooking the Taiwan Strait and the Pacific Ocean.

In the afternoon we scootered to the north side of Kenting and visited another section of Kenting National Park where we were able to do some hiking (okay more like walking as it’s a fairly built up area to accommodate for the number of visitors each year). We wandered around this park, seeing a number of amazing trees, plants, insects, and even some wildlife. We spent the evening watching the sunset and wondering the street market.



On Sunday we were up early for the sunrise and found our way back to Kaohsiung before lunch. There we spent some time exploring the area near the train station before heading back. We had decided to take the Express Train back instead of the High Speed. Unfortunately, this particular train issued tickets with seat assignments and others without seat assignments. We have always been lucky enough to have seats on our tickets, but this time we did not. When we boarded the train, there are seats available, so we sat…but at the first stop, that changed. Dan ended up standing for the nearly 3.5 hour trip while I off and on had a seat.