12 Years...

Happy anniversary to me and Kelly! Twelve years ago we were married in the St. George, Utah Temple. I've shown friends the engagement picture above and they've totally made fun of it because (except for the fact that Kelly has hair) they think we (I) look way older than I do now:) I was so young, barely 20, but I guess the helmet hairdo added some years!


I honestly couldn't have picked a better partner! We've had some wonderful and hard experiences during our marriage that have made us grow. We've added four beautiful children to our family. I thought I loved Kelly as much as I could the day we were married, but now, looking back, I barely knew what love was. I love him so much more today!


I'm grateful for his patience, for his cute grin when he's trying not to let me know he thinks I'm funny. He loves me and our children so much and would do anything for us. I love the quiet ways he shows his love for us!

I love this picture. It was so hot that day and the sun was shining so bright that you can barely see the temple in the background. If you've ever been there you know how beautiful and bright- white it is. It really stands out from the red rocks that surround St. George.





Here we are at our reception. Don't you love the standard cultural hall backdrop? The only thing I would change about our wedding is, I wish we would have gotten a good photographer. I loved our reception! I thought it was so much fun. Kelly's Auntie Nani sent over all the fresh-flower leis from Hawaii. The most embarrassing moment of my life happened at my reception...I was forced to dance the "money dance" and I think I'm still scarred for life!! First of all, I don't dance. Second of all, there was mostly non-Polynesian people at my reception and they had no idea what to do. So my mere $300 seemed like a drop in the bucket when my sisters-in-law made thousands of dollars during their dances! I figured it had to be my dancing and people didn't think much of it, so, like I said, I'm scarred for life!


Happy Anniversary to us! Here's to many, many, many more!

Reminiscent Tag

My friend, Jenny, tagged me and I thought it was fun. Especially since we grew up together, some of the things we were doing were the same.

20 Years Ago: I was going to Girls Camp for the first time. I remember being really scared since my mom had just had Rachel, I was sure I would leave and something bad would happen. When I was away my mom had to go to the hospital because she had blood clots. Thankfully everything turned out okay.

I lived in the best neighborhood! It seemed like all the kids were the same age. We played Kick the Can almost every night of summer! I also did water ballet (synchronized swimming) with my good friends Jenny, Candace, Sunny, Jayleen, and my little sister Mel. Do any of you remember what songs we had routines to? All I can remember is Bon Jovi's "Livin' on a Prayer".I lived at the pool during my summers and had a killer tan!

10 Years Ago: I had been married for two years and had a cute 6-week old baby girl. Logan. Just starting out on this thing called motherhood:) We enjoyed spending time with our families in Blanding whenever we could get away.

5 Years Ago: We were living in the Beaverton, Oregon area. We had added Maika to our family. I was working part-time at Charlotte's Weddings as a bridal consultant, helping to pick out wedding gowns and doing some of the shipping/receiving, and book keeping. It's funny to me that I worked with brides...SO NOT my personality to care about what shade of pink their snotty bridesmaids have to wear!

3 Years Ago: We were in the process of building our new home. It was so exciting to be able to pick out colors and flooring, etc. We were loving the idea of having lots of space. Nalani was about 6 months old and such a cutie! Three little girls for us! I got to go on an Alaskan Cruise with my mom and her side of the family.

1 Year Ago: We were celebrating Bronson's 1st birthday...yep a little boy sneaked into our family:) We had just bought our boat and loved getting to spend so much time together as a family. We got to go to Jackson Hole, Wyoming for my family reunion and got to have most of Kelly's family visit us to help celebrate with Bronson's luau. I got to go to Hawaii and Chicago with Kelly!!

This year so far I've made it through another school year. We are enjoying summer. I'm learning how to sew really easy stuff:) We are planning a few vacations. We've been able to see family and hope to see lots more. I've enjoyed getting to spend time with friends and have shared lots of meals and laughs together.

Yesterday I took the kids to a magic show at the library, ate cheap KFC at the park while visiting with girlfriends and watching the kids be monkeys, and played some Bunco that night.

Today I'm looking forward to Kelly coming home from a work trip, blogging, and trying to recreate my grandma's bean recipe. I've never made them before, but they are smelling dang good!

Tomorrow I'm celebrating my 12th anniversary with Kelly! I'm thinking dinner and a movie.

In the next year I will have two kids in school all day and one in preschool. I'll have so much time on my hands I might decide to take piano lessons or something:)

I tag Jenni H., Lisa W., Kayela, and Nani

Happy Father's Day!

I hope Kelly has a good Father's Day! He kind of jipped because we both had to speak in Sacrament meeting so I wasn't able to get up and make him a nice breakfast or anything. We knew we actually had to be on time today:) We probably threw off the whole chemistry of the seating arrangement because we usually sit in the overflow area!

Kelly gave an awesome talk about his dad's life and how he was a pioneer for his family. I'm tempted to post it sometime, so our kids and grand kids know how awesome their grandpa was! I took Bronson out to the Mother's Room during Kelly's talk and was able to listen to it there. I'm glad I was the only one in there because I could cry without worrying about who could see me!

We are having a BBQ with some friends later this afternoon. I will post pictures later...

We got him some model rockets and Rochelle and I made Jer and Kelly matching "manly" aprons for BBQ-ing. Last night we came home from a date with a plate of cookies waiting for Kelly and a cute card that the kids made for daddy with the help of some awesome babysitters.

I love you, babe! I'm so glad that my kids have such a great daddy!

2 for 2...Yay it's summertime!

This is Logan's second year at her current school, and it's the second year she's been rewarded with the "Explorer Award". Every year each teacher gets to choose one or two students that have exceeded academically and in citizenship throughout the school year. We are very proud of Logan and what a good girl she is. We are grateful for the high standard she sets for the rest of us:) It was fun to stay and watch the end-of-year slide show with Logan. Bronson ran right up to her and sat quietly on her lap the entire time. It was neat that they dedicated an entire section to Shane (a little boy that was in her grade that died tragically).Maika also did very well in Kindergarten. She is a good little reader! One of my goals this summer is to make sure my kids read everyday. I think I'll try to take them to the Library once a week so that they can choose books they are interested in. Maika is so excited to be in 1st grade next year!

Hopefully it will warm up soon! We are ready for summer at our house, but don't want to spend it bundled up in winter clothes. I have to say, I'm having a hard time believing there is such a thing as "Global Warming" right now:)

On the wagon...

Not that I've ever been off the wagon, but, I've jumped on the bandwagon and have been sewing aprons like crazy! I, along with the help of Rochelle, made five aprons to give to the Laurel girls that are graduating. The YW pres made some really cute recipe books to go along with them. Hopefully they'll be well-equipped to whip up some yummy meals for all their dates at college.

I also made some for Logan's and Maika's teachers as end-of-year presents. The only ones I've managed to take pictures of is the one I made for Nalani. It was the most time consuming since I added the rick rack. I also thought it was the hardest, since It was miniature in size. I had some left-over fabric and made and even more miniature one for Jodi's little girl, Megan. I thought they turned out really cute! Now I need to finish one for Logan and Maika...Maybe I'll whip up a BBQ one for Kelly as a Father's Day present.

This one's for Megan!

Tutu

Today is Kelly's dad's birthday. In honor of Tutu we went and ate at the local Hawaiian restaurant and had some yummy food. Earlier in the day I went and got some helium balloons and after dinner we all wrote notes and tied them to the balloons and then let them go up to the Heavens. Hopefully Tutu will get a glimpse at them and know how much we miss him.

Tutu was such a great example of love and strength, kindness and service. He was a talented musician and we miss hearing his beautiful voice. We miss his voice mails when he would sing "I Just Called to Say I Love You." We miss his cute giggle and the way he would tease. We are so grateful for the knowledge that we have that families are forever and that we will get to see him again. We love you Tutu!!

tagged again...

I'm not too sure about this tag. Rochelle tagged me on what I would want my funeral/celebration of life to be like. So, the part of me that is always guilt-ridden HAS to do this tag, but the rebel in me is being a brat about it.

So, you'll all have to wait in suspense. If you show up at my funeral you'll see how it goes. If you can't make it, well, you missed it.

I do think it's important to tell people about what you want, so I will write it down and tell Kelly and my kids where to find it. But let's face it. I won't be there, so I don't really care what goes down. Besides, I sort of think that funerals are more for the people you leave behind. So, whatever comforts you and fills the HUGE hole left in all your lives after I'm gone, I'll understand.

As far as tagging goes, if you feel like doing it, consider yourself tagged:)

Happy Birthday Auntie Rachel

Today is my littlest sister's birthday! She is loved by her nieces and (not pictured) nephew, as you can tell by the picture:) She is such a good auntie! She came to our house to babysit while Kelly, Bronson and I went to Hawaii and we love it when she comes to visit! We hope she comes to our house again soon!

I was 12 when Rachel was born, so I feel like I got some good practice in babysitting:) I don't feel too bad when she babysits for us! Payback. I always thought it was pretty cool to have a little kid hanging around when I was in high school. She always had something embarrassing to say in front of boyfriends, friends, coaches. You name it, she said something to embarrass me in front of it! Now my kids are doing the same thing to her. Again, payback. We have a good and weird relationship...I'm jealous of her tiny(ness) and beautiful green eyes! No fair!! She's jealous of my toes. Go figure. She has a picture of my toes on her phone so that when I call she knows it's me:)

We love you Auntie Rach! Have a wonderful 20th birthday!