Highlights of the Year So Far

I have been putting off writing on my blog for some time now. It's been a crazy few weeks and I am EXHAUSTED. But I want to give the highlights of my year so far from January until now. 

Ryan and I asked his dad to watch Rose for a night while we went to Salt Lake City for a night with just the two of us for our Anniversary. We had SO much fun. Having a baby is wonderful, but they make it incredibly difficult to take the time to focus on your spouse the way you did before the baby came, and this night away was so much fun. We laughed and joked over dinner and didn't have to worry about changing Rose's diaper or making sure she was fed or keeping her happy while we ate. After dinner at the Cheesecake Factory, we went back to our hotel which was supposed to be pretty fancy, but ended up being kind of a bummer. In the morning, when we realized that the hotel charges a minimum of $17 a plate for breakfast, we decided to go to Eva's Boulangerie instead, which definitely was the right choice. I got a chocolate filled croissant and hot chocolate, and Ryan got flatbread pizza. It was delicious. I've already dragged Ryan back there once since our anniversary, and I plan on making him take me back many many more times. Our anniversary trip ended up costing us a lot more than we were expecting, and being poor college students that was a bit of a bummer (there's a funny story involving a swimsuit purchase that you'll have to ask Ryan about that goes along with this).

Luckily, we had time after everything to stop and do sealings at the Provo City Center Temple to finish off our getaway and it was the perfect ending to a fun trip. It was a good reminder that it doesn't matter what we have or what we do or what happens to us, that two years ago we were sealed for time and all eternity in a beautiful temple of God and our little family gets to be together forever because of that choice we made. All in all, it was a really great date, and I'm already looking forward to whatever we decide to do for next year.

Some other fun highlights are:

Getting to learn how to make pretty flower arrangements with my friend Bette at her ward activity. We even got to take the leftover flowers home!

Trying out different restaurants with Ryan including a Peruvian place on Center Street in Provo and a new pizza place on University Avenue.

With our new apartment we have had trouble finding affordable furniture that will also fit up our stairs, mainly a couch and a kitchen table. Every time we have people over, we all just gather around on the floor. However, last month I found a cute round table that fits in our kitchen for $20 at DI! And then on Facebook Marketplace I found a futon that isn't ugly or too uncomfortable for $50! These finds are some of the top highlights of this year so far! I LOVE having a couch to sit on with Rose to read books to her, and I love sitting by our kitchen window at our new table in the morning when the sunlight is coming in. (Especially with the flowers Ryan got me for Valentine's Day sitting on the table.)

We also decided to buy a really old truck, it needs some work, but it's in really good condition and it was also a great deal. The car Ryan had when we got married is on its last legs and we wanted something else to rely on, and with all the snow in the winter, we wanted something a little more sturdy than our little car.

I've had the chance to watch two kids who I adore a couple of times in the last few weeks, and it's been fun to spend time with them. One of them was one of my husbands and my nursery kiddos from our last ward who we've missed since moving.

And last, but not least, my parents came out for a mini trip to Utah and I got to spend some time with them in a time of the year that I don't normally get to see them.

Phew! I am now all caught up on January and February and a little bit of March!

I also have a few not-so-highlights, that are kind of funny. Here they are:

I was told by a family friend that this snack puff has a "strong will to live." hahaha 

This is just a cute picture of Rose's hand dimples. I think they are so cute!

We tried to do laundry at my brother's apartment complex but someone was being inconsiderate and hogging the dryer, we ended up having to take a washed load (meaning soaking wet and very heavy) to the laundromat to finish off my laundry. While there, this cute girl hung out in the laundry carts. 

Grandma sharing her ice cream with Rose. You can definitely win Rose over with sweets. 

I think this one is pretty self-explanatory. :'(

I guess I just don't know my own strength. You can call me Mrs. Incredible. 

When you are too lazy to walk into the kitchen for a knife or scissors, but not too lazy to spend 10 minutes ripping a box open.... 

The decision to wear heels for our dinner date on our anniversary was a poor one. I ended up walking through the City Creek mall in my socks.. that isn't socially unacceptable, is it? 

Finding Rose in the crib like this. 

Trying to decide if I could carry Rose in the diaper bag and deciding I better not. 

I spent all day trying to keep the kitchen warm enough for these rolls to rise but then I ended up having them rise for just a little too long. They did not turn out soft and fluffy like I had anticipated.

Ashes and an Anniversary

Today is our TWO YEAR WEDDING ANNIVERSARY! Phew! We made it this far! ;)

It's only been 2 years but I look at this picture and I think "Babies!" We look so small!

I think I'll write another blog post tomorrow about what we did to celebrate our wedding anniversary, but I've been wanting to write about something else for a couple of years now and I've been waiting to write about it around our anniversary. 

Around the time we got engaged, we were trying to figure out all of our wedding plans. My parents lived in Texas, but my extended family all live in Northern Utah and Idaho (and Florida part of the year). Ryan's dad at the time lived in Southern Utah, and all of his extended family lived in Central Utah and Alaska. Figuring out the best and most convenient temple to get sealed in was a little difficult. 

One night, we were walking around the Provo City Center temple (because I was living in Provo going to BYU) and I told Ryan that I wanted to get sealed here. 

The story behind the Provo City Center Temple is SO cool to me. 

Before it was a temple, it was a beautiful, historic tabernacle that caught on fire and was destroyed. The outside was able to be preserved and from the inside out it was turned into a temple, a sacred house of the Lord. 

When I stood outside of the temple with Ryan thinking about marrying him, I knew I wanted it to be this temple because of it's story, it was a perfect fit for us. The tabernacle was beautiful. It was a great building with great purpose, but something happened and it burned down. It can be hard to see something so wonderful turn into something so awful, but God always has bigger plans that we can't always understand. He knew that the tabernacle was done with it's time just being a tabernacle, it needed to be destroyed so it could be rebuilt as something with greater purpose. 

It reminds me of that CS Lewis quote:

“Imagine yourself as a living house. God comes in to rebuild that house. At first, perhaps, you can understand what He is doing. He is getting the drains right and stopping the leaks in the roof and so on; you knew that those jobs needed doing and so you are not surprised. But presently He starts knocking the house about in a way that hurts abominably and does not seem to make any sense. What on earth is He up to? The explanation is that He is building quite a different house from the one you thought of - throwing out a new wing here, putting on an extra floor there, running up towers, making courtyards. You thought you were being made into a decent little cottage: but He is building a palace. He intends to come and live in it Himself.”

Before meeting Ryan, it felt like Heavenly Father was messing up my plans and getting in my way. I made mistakes and I felt pain because of them. I went through my refiners fire, and so did Ryan. It took a lot of banging and bruising and wrong paths and right ones. Bad choices and good choices. I never wanted to serve a mission, but Heavenly Father pushed me in that direction. Ryan had his own struggles but was pushed in that direction as well. Sometimes it blows my mind all the tiny little details that went into Ryan and I meeting. Heavenly Father knows us so well.

I just feel like I had no idea what wonderful and beautiful plans God had in store for me, or what plans He has for my future still.

I love this picture because it's right as we are walking out of the doors of the temple after getting married, and look, Jesus is standing right behind us holding a lamb. I just think it is so symbolic of how He is looking out for us, and our marriage/family. 

When the tabernacle caught on fire, some people were upset that God would let something so horrible happen, but they had no idea that it would turn into the most beautiful and best temple in the world (in my totally unbiased opinion...) Now, it's a place where families can be sealed together forever, and I am SO SO grateful for that blessing.

Any opportunities to share my wedding pictures are opportunities I will take! This one is my very favorite.

Happy 2 years to us! I can't wait to see what the rest of eternity will bring.

#SOblessed

365 Days

On Saturday, Ryan and I celebrated our ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY! It is so hard to believe that it has been a whole year already and at the same time it is hard to believe that it has ONLY been one year! Our wedding day was the most wonderful day ever, and I've already written about it on here, so I won't talk your ears off about it again, but I am going to put a couple (maybe a couple more than a couple... you know me...) of pictures on here because I don't think I ever did.

Our lives have changed so much in the last year. We finished two semesters of school, Ryan grew a beard, we finally got callings in our ward, we flew to Texas, we filled our house with furniture, we bought a car, we found out we were pregnant. You know, the typical adult married life stuff, but it's all new to us!

It's probably been the hardest year I've ever had, with school, and work, and figuring out that birth control and my mental health don't really mix well, unexpected expenses, morning sickness that isn't just mornings, and learning how to be part of an eternal relationship instead of just independent me.

It's also been the very best year I've ever had. I've learned so much at school, I've made friends at work, I quit taking birth control and we were blessed with a cute little parasite... baby, we have recognized over and over and over again how blessed we are financially and always have had exactly what we need, we found medicine to keep the morning sickness at bay, and our growing and strengthening relationship has taught me so much and has brought me so much joy.

It also doesn't hurt that I have the very most perfect husband in the world for me. Here are some examples of what makes me love him so so so much:

When I throw up, he doesn't just hold back my hair, he flushes the toilet so I don't have to see what just came out of me which might make me throw up more.

When we are walking around anywhere, he always just takes my purse and carries it for me without me ever having to ask.

He still lets me put my ice cold hands on his stomach or back to warm them up.

He tells me I'm beautiful and perfect on a regular basis, and refuses to let me convince him otherwise.

He buys me a two pack of Nutella every other week, and sometimes jokes about weaning me off of chocolate, but would never actually stop buying it for me.

He vacuums the carpet because he knows I hate vacuuming.

He never laughs at me when I'm crying, even the one time I cried because I didn't have any clean matching socks.

Even when he has to wake up at a ridiculously early hour, he will wake up to tell me it's alright when I'm having a nightmare (which is pretty often.)

He tries SO hard to stay awake when I'm talking his ear off at night, every night.

He almost always goes along with my silly ideas, because he loves to make me happy.

He will listen to me ramble on and on and on about every minute detail of what happened throughout my day, even when it just involves the weather, my homework, or how much water I drank during the day.

He laughs at my jokes and makes fun of me when I accidentally say something inappropriate.

I literally could not have picked a more perfect person to spend the rest of my life with. He's my best friend, my biggest supporter, my favorite person to tell everything, my best defender, my everything. I can't wait to see what the rest of eternity with him holds.