nine and counting

Alex and I celebrated our nine-year anniversary earlier this week. Naturally, I'm starting to plan our ten-year anniversary getaway (attention grandparents: babysitting volunteers are now being accepted). But before that, there's this--a rare family portrait taken before Alex and I left for dinner on Tuesday. It's funny to see how far we've come in nine years. If I had thought of it before, I would have insisted on a picture of us every year on our anniversary to see how things change. Since I don't have visual evidence, this is my idea of how our pictures would have looked from years one to eight (taken before we went out to celebrate):

1. Alex and me standing in front of the fireplace in our barely-furnished new home in Charlotte, NC.
2. Alex and me standing in front of the fireplace in our more furnished home in Charlotte.
3. Alex and me standing in the dining room--we switched it up because I wanted to show off the new ghost chairs--in our home in Charlotte. I'm wondering if I look fat because I'm ten weeks (or so) pregnant with Catcher.
4. Alex, baby Catcher (6 months) and me standing in his nursery.
5. Alex, Catcher (18 months) and me sitting on the sofa in our house. I'm wearing a black empire-waist dress to hide my bloated belly because I'm ten weeks (or so) pregnant with Scout.
6. Alex, Catcher (2), Scout (6 months) and me hanging out on the sofa in our house that is now on the market.
7. Alex, Catcher (3), Scout (18 months), and a very pregnant (8 months, to be exact) me at our apartment in Austin, TX. Alex is now sporting glasses after he failed his eye exam at the DPS.
8. Alex, Catcher (4), Scout (2) and baby Tillie (11 months) sitting on the sofa in our house in Austin...pretty similar to the picture below, actually.