Category: Marriage

Nathan from Lauren’s Perspective

It’s almost Nathan’s birthday. We’re celebrating him this weekend, and I had planned a really fun blog post where he’d answer some questions about himself. I sent him the questions, to which he responded, “geez, these are really hard. When do you need these by again?” Always the man to do everything just in time at the last minute, I scrapped the “interview” and decided instead you’re getting Nathan Lane from Lauren’s perspective.

Why is Nathan a Denver Broncos fan? Because he doesn’t like to cheer for a winning team. Kidding! He reminds me constantly that the Broncos have won more Super Bowls in his lifetime than the Chiefs. He’s a Broncos fan because his parents and all extended family are from Colorado. Nathan was born in Colorado, and then moved to Kansas City relatively young. Did a brief stint in Dallas, Texas, and moved back to Kansas City around high school for him. He jokes, I think, that his dad would tell him and all of his siblings growing up that they can cheer for whoever they want, but he only allowed Broncos fans to live in the house. (Maybe that’s not a joke at all…)

What trait of Nathan’s do you wish you possessed more of? His luck. Is that a quality? I swear the man could fall into a pig stye and come out smelling like a rose. He just seems to be naturally lucky. If luck isn’t a trait, I’d say his adaptability. He can easily adapt to change, and I hate change.

Best thing that Nathan cooks? His burgers are the best ever. There are other things that he does really well, but the burgers take the cake for me.

What is always a Nathan job around your house? Mowing the grass. I know there are plenty of women that love mowing the grass, but I have never learned how to do it, and I have no desire to learn. I’ll learn out of necessity or hire somebody.

You’d be surprised to learn that…he has a very large rare bourbon collection. It became his hobby during COVID to collect limited release bourbons and hard to find bourbons. While the collecting has slowed down as he’s honed his taste, it’s really still quite a large stock. Someday, he wants a bourbon tasting room/bar in his basement.

Where did Nathan go to college? He went to K-State (or K-Stake, as the boys pronounce it) in Manhattan, KS. He started off, I believe, as an architecture student and ended it as an accounting major. I’d describe his interest being more broad, macro-level finance based versus accounting based. And truthfully, and we still say this now, he should have probably been an architect. His mind is naturally gifted at envisioning and designing buildings and structures. He designed both his parents backyard deck and our backyard patio. He’s re-designed our house more times than I can count, although, we’ve never gone through with the renovation. Maybe it will be a second career?

Who is more competitive: you or Nathan? Nathan. I hate losing, but Nathan haaaaaates losing. Hates with a lot of a’s. Especially at something that he believes he has the full capability to win. The stories that I hear about Nathan as a kid playing anything competitive, and quite frankly anything that was competitive and the need to make it into a competition, sound very similar to Harrison.

Nathan’s oddly picky about…his hair. Generally speaking, think his hair looks the exact same. Same styling day after day. Same haircut, time after time. But he will pick apart his hair.

Our Wedding: Part II

Today is our eighth wedding anniversary. Last week, I shared some pictures and stories from our actual wedding day. It was such a special day for us. We got married in Kansas City, and it’s been so fun to go back and actually look through our wedding photos. My mom always tells us that there are few times in life where you can pinpoint a single day that your life changes forever. One is your wedding. Another is the birth of a child.

If you missed Part I, you can check it out HERE. Today, I’m sharing pictures from our reception and more!

Newly married!

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Our Wedding: Part I

Our wedding anniversary is October 18th. This year will be our eighth anniversary. Since I started this blog far after we got married and after we had kids, I realized that I had never really shared any details or pictures from our wedding. It was fun to pull up all of the old pictures and look back at this day as a prepared these blog posts. It reminded me of how young and naive we were that day. But also about how much fun it was, as well. It was a reminder of how much we’ve grown, and in particular, how much greater my love for Nathan has deepened since that day eight years ago.

October 18th was a perfect fall day in Kansas City. It was crisp and cool in the morning, and warmed up to about 65* in the afternoon. It was sunny and beautiful, the leaves in KC were just starting to change.

Both Nathan and I got ready our respective parents’ houses. Being both from Kansas City, we were lucky to be able to get ready in each of our childhood homes.

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Let’s Look At…How We Plan & Do Date Night

First off, thank you so much for understanding the need for a break last week! Everything just seemed to go haywire, and I needed some time to catch up. But I missed you guys! My week felt like it was missing something the whole time, so I’m so happy to be back!

Given that tomorrow is Harrison’s birthday, and my post will be fully dedicated to my little guy, I’m posting ”Let’s Look” a day early! I love this link up. A fun little prompt sharing a little part of our lives. As usual, the link-up is hosted by two of my favorite blogs (Shay @ Mix and Match Mama and Erika @ A Little Bit of Everything). Before we get to this month’s prompt…a look back at what we’ve looked at this year:

And today, we’re talking date night. You guys, I love a good date night…or date day. 🙂

Here’s the guy I go on date night with for the past 10 years…

A couple of things about this topic as I thought about our seasons of life.

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Valentine’s Day Get to Know Lauren + Nathan!

Happy belated Valentine’s Day! I thought it would be fun to do an old-school questionnaire style post all about Nathan and me to celebrate Valentine’s Day!

  • How’d you meet: We met at a work happy hour. Nathan had just joined the company after graduating from K-State, and I had been working at the company for close to a year after moving back to Kansas City. He says he tried to strike up a conversation, and all of my responses were short and uninterested. He’s probably right the way he remembers this. 😊 Good thing he kept trying!

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Our Seventh Wedding Anniversary

Monday will mark our seven year wedding anniversary. As I sat down to write this post, I thought for a long while about what a surreal feeling it is to have spent so many years doing life with one person. The feeling that day to day feels like it bumps along, and not in the weight of hours, days, weeks, years we have spent working together as a team and loving one another.

But when you go to celebrate an anniversary, the weight of the words of seven years seems substantial. And I keep waiting to feel the weight of that. The weight of seven years. And still, I don’t. I look at our marriage…

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A Birthday Interview with Nathan

It’s Nathan’s birthday today! At a full three years younger than me, he’s turning 33 today. I sat down with Nathan to do a quick interview so you all could get to know him a little better. 😊

When you were younger, what did you think you’d be when you grew up?

N: How young? Um. An athlete.

L: Like a professional athlete? What kind of professional athlete?

N: It varied. Depending on the season. But that was probably the most common answer I’d give as a kid.

L: At what point do you feel like you had to give up your professional athlete dream?

N: Who says I have?

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Let’s Look At…Our Love Languages

Once a month I link up with two of my favorite blogs (Shay @ Mix and Match Mama and Erika @ A Little Bit of Everything), to share a “look” into some little aspect of our life. Here’s a peak back at what we’ve “looked” at this year:

Today, we’re looking at love languages. When I hear someone talk about love languages, I immediately think they’re talking about Gary Chapman’s book, The Five Love Languages. Both Nathan and I have read his book, and it clearly speaks to millions of other people, as well. With over 42,000 five star reviews on Amazon 😲, it’s sold millions and millions of copies, been translated into other languages, and is probably the most notable ‘relationship’ book on the market. Even if you haven’t read Dr. Chapman’s book, you’ve probably heard of the five love languages.

  • Acts of Service
  • Quality Time
  • Gifts
  • Affirmation
  • Physical Touch

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Valentine’s Day Traditions

Nathan and I used to celebrate Valentine’s Day in a traditional way when we first started dating. We’d have a date night out somewhere, exchange small gifts and cards. Being a homebody, though, and not wanting to deal with the crowds of Valentine’s Day dates and restaurant reservations, we decided one year to make our own pizzas. We made our own dough and sauce, opened up a nice bottle of wine, and enjoyed pizza and TV. And we loved it.

We loved the chance to cook something together. Loved analyzing how we could perfect our dough. How much we loved the sauce. And enjoying a TV show together is just kind of homeostasis of our relationship. It’s our go-to together time.

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Christmas 2020 – A Photo Diary

We missed our family this Christmas. Our usual Christmas routine involves a chaotic day. It starts with Christmas at our house to open presents from Santa and our immediate little family. It’s then followed by brunch and presents with my side of the family at Mimi and Papa’s house, and then afternoon naps and Christmas dinner/presents with Nathan’s family. And we missed it this year. Especially having extra sets of hands to entertain kiddos during the day. 🙂

But we made the most of it, and had our little Christmas at home with just the four of us. Complete with Zoom calls to our families, a big brunch and ending with steaks for Christmas dinner. It was both exhausting and so much fun. Harrison really started to understand Santa this year (he comes down the chim-a-lee) and had so much fun. Here’s what our Christmas looked like this year…

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