The Proposal

I had to do "Show Us Your Life" from Kelly's Korner this week because I love the topic--- Proposal Stories.

So here is how our fairytale :) began...

After we had been dating for about a year, Mark took me to Chicago for Valentine's weekend.  Our second night there, Valentine's Day, we went out to dinner at a great seafood place and then ended up in a really neat, jazz bar with amazing live music.  There was a piano player and singer who sounded just like Frank Sinatra and we were having a great time dancing.

I have to stop here to brag for a second... among all of the other things he is good at, my husband is a phenomenal dancer.  He has amazing rhythm and can swing, salsa, waltz, you name it and is that guy who everyone is asking to dance with.  Me, not so much. I'm not bad (I don't think) it is just not my favorite thing to do.  I think I have always been a little too self conscious to let it all go and just dance.  We always laugh about how I, one of the few women who doesn't like to dance, ended up with Mark, one of the few men in the world who actually can.

Anyway, back to the Chicago... so we were dancing and "The Way You Look Tonight" came on and before I knew it he was down on one knee and we were the only two people in the world.  To this day I still have no idea what he said because the music was so loud (and he won't tell me!) but I'm sure it was amazing and I do know it ended with "Will you marry me?"  I said yes of course, and the whole bar cheered and clapped for us.  Everyone came by our table to congratulate us and see my ring and since we didn't have a camera, one of the waitresses took our picture with a camera they had behind the counter.

We called my parents to tell them and then headed to the top of the Sears tower.  When we got back to our hotel room it was filled with dozens of roses and champagne.  I still have no idea how he pulled all of this off without me suspecting a thing but it was an amazing night.

The next morning I sat at breakfast with a phonebook on my lap trying to find a jeweler in the area who could size my ring immediately.  I was determined to wear it, fitting perfectly on my finger, home.

We were married August 5, 2005 and it has been a whirlwind ever since... some may say more like a tornado or a hurricane but the one constant has always been how much we love each other.  We never could have imagined in our wildest dreams, where we would be today and the five years we have to look back on but I absolutely love him more this minute than I did the day we said "I do."

Oh, and months went by after our engagement and we never did receive that picture the waitress took of us after we were engaged.  I was so disappointed.
Two years later, pregnant with the triplets, I received this in the mail...

Mark and I right after I said yes

and waltzing to "The Way You Look Tonight" at our wedding.

Love you Mark!

The Name Stories

I love the idea for Show Me Your Life at Kelly's Korner this week so had to participate.  Here is the story behind the names of my children...

Ashlyn Taylor
I saw the name Ashlyn in an Irish folklore book in high school (yes, I was pregnant in high school for those of you who don't know... one of these days I will blog the whole story in case your curious).  Ashlyn's middle name Taylor was a name I had always loved so that was that.  Being a single mom made the name-picking simple.  I found them, I loved them and my beautiful Ashlyn was named.
Since I decided to do things the traditional way the second, third, forth and fifth time around I had a husband to cooperate with on the rest of my names :)

McKenna Karen
Mark brought up the name McKenna after I volunteered him to help at a family picnic at my work.  He ended up at the face painting table and one of his little customers was the cutest redhead named McKenna.  We both loved the name and once we knew our triplets were going to be two girls and a boy we decided our first girl would be McKenna since it was the first name we agreed on.  Karen is the first name of Mark's late mom... so glad she carries the name of her grandma.

Parker Murphy
I honestly cannot remember where we first heard the name Parker (sorry, Parker) but I know that as soon as we heard it we both loved it and the boy name discussion was over.  Murphy is the maiden name of Mark's late mom.  I loved the idea of using Murphy for Parker's middle name.  I might be biased but I thought we chose the perfect boy name.  We had such a hard time with a boy name the next time around because we didn't think anything could top the first!

Hadley Jane
Can I just say before I explain that I LOVE typing her name??  I love saying it, reading it, writing it, every chance I get.
Hadley's name was the hardest for us to decide on.  I had read a book years ago (which I am now dying to find the name of) that had a girl named Hadley as one of the main characters.  I fell in love with the name and saved it somewhere in my mind.  Mark was not a big fan when I brought it up early in my pregnancy.  He actually gave it a definite "no" so I gave up and we debated our Baby C's name my whole pregnancy.  Right before I ended up giving birth he brought up the name Hadley out of nowhere.  He had admitted a new student to school named Hadley and said she was the sweetest girl and reminded him of what our girls may be like some day.  So, I got my way and Hadley it was.  We actually decided on her name when they were wheeling me into my c-section.  Jane was after my maternal grandmother Mary Jane.  I'm so glad I named one of my girls after her, I just wish they could have met.  The funny thing about Hadley's name is, since we debated it for so long, I felt like I knew her the best when they were born.  We would watch her in the ultrasounds, talk about how she moved and what kind of personality she might have, searching for the perfect name.  We never knew what precious time that was.

Sawyer Mark
This was a tough one.  We did not know what we were having so we debated the WHOLE pregnancy.  If he was a girl he would not have had a name at birth, he probably still would not have a name now.  We just could not agree.  I had all of these issues with our kids names being the same style, not beginning with the same letter, etc, etc and Mark had a bad student with the name of every single name I had left.   At some point I saw a picture of two brothers named Hudson and Sawyer and loved both names.  Hudson did not go with our last name so Sawyer was my pick and Mark decided on Owen.  Once Mark watched me go through days of labor trying to keep our little baby in as long as possible he decided it would be my pick :)  I was still going back and forth while I was heading into my c-section on giving Mark Owen or picking Sawyer.  The nurse anesthetist actually helped me decide while they were placing my spinal when she told me they had delivered lots of Owens in the last week.  His middle name is of course after his daddy.

And that is how we came about our names.