One Year.

One year. Holy crap, has it only been that long?!

One year ago today I said "I do" to the most amazing man I have ever known. He pushes my buttons every. Single. Day. But good Lord, I love him.

We have been through an incredible year--getting married, merging a family, finding out we were pregnant, searching for a house, buying a house and finally moving into a house just as I was being put on bed rest, preeclampsia, a preemie, a major cranial surgery for our baby and so, so much more.

I cannot imagine going through the events of the last year with anyone else but Brian. His take-charge attitude during my hospital stay with preeclampsia let me know that he was concerned with my well-being, as well as our baby. He constantly asked the doctors questions after we found out about James' craniosynostosis. Everything that I was afraid to do--he was able to do.

I've always thought that marriage was a team effort. Brian possesses strengths that I do not. Where I am scared, he is confident. Where I am strong, he is weak. In many ways, we are polar opposites, but at the end of the day, it totally works for us.

Most women love the book and movie, "The Notebook." Of course it's the sweet, touching story of a girl and guy who fall in love, are separated, fall back in love and live happily ever after...sort of. But what I love is the brutal honesty in one of the scenes--the truth about true love and about commitment.

There's a lot more to the scene, including the couple's brutal honesty with one another at times. That's what marriage should be. No one wants to fight, but no one wants another person who doesn't care about them either.

And when the two of us are just about at the end of our ropes with one another, we remember what Stephanie captured in our wedding photos:

Be nice...