For Eternity Pt 2

Neither one of us slept very well Friday night.  We were so nervous.  We got up early and had to be at the temple by 7:30am.  As I was getting ready, I realized I forgot my slip to go under my dress...and it was pretty see-through.  I texted my Grandma Pat who was my escort, she suggested I wear my long slip and just tuck it in to my underwear or something at about the same time I thought of the same thing.  It was interesting, but it worked.  We met Cody outside the temple and went in to meet my Grandma and Earl.  The rest of the morning was wonderful!  We were out of the temple to meet our family at around noon.  It was quite busy out there being a Saturday in June.  We found everyone and I was so happy to see Elizabeth came with Rosie.  It really meant a lot to me to have her there.

I asked my friend Marvett to come take our pictures at the temple.  She agreed and I was so happy she would do them for us.  Her work is wonderful!  I met her a few years ago at a photowalk and we've stayed in touch ever since.  I wanted pictures by the beautiful doors...and so did everyone else.  So our sweet home teachers actually stood in line for us to get our turn.  I was so thankful for that since it was kind of crazy and I don't do well with all the craziness and trying to get everyone organized.  We finally got everyone to the doors and then got our turn up there real quick.  I only had a few images in my head of what I wanted and Marvett did awesome!  I'm so in love with these images and am so grateful to her for being part of our day.

The wind was blowing around really good and I was struggling to keep my  dress down and not let my long slip come out, it was quite comical.

Marvett's wonderful daughter took control of my camera while we were getting our pictures taken and got some really good shots.

Everyone was invited to Shannon's house afterward for a BBQ.  The food was so good and it was fun to have everyone together somewhere casual instead of sitting at a restaurant somewhere and not be able to visit with everyone.  We had so much fun. 

DJ was playing with Lucy and Bryn with the chipmunks, it was so cute.  I think it was even more cute because DJ was getting a little bit embarrassed with me taking pictures.

Then it broke out into a dance party with Lu and Lucy singing, so stinkin cute!

And DJ was content to sit on my lap and cuddle, gosh I love him.

It was such a wonderful day full of so many emotions.  I have waited so long to be able to walk in those beautiful temple doors and to finally have it be a reality was kind of surreal for a while.  I love the gospel and know it's true.  I'm so thankful for our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  I'm so grateful for his sacrifice and atonement, without which none of this day would be possible.  I'm so grateful to be sealed to my wonderful husband for eternity, something we've wanted for so long.  And I'm thankful to be able to have our future children sealed to us someday.  I'm so grateful for our family for helping us celebrate our day and for supporting us, and for our friends who are family and make our lives even more blessed.

For Eternity

Josh and I have worked really hard to achieve one of our goals we've had since we got married.  We are only almost 9 years shy but we finally did it.
When we went to have our temple recommend appt with our bishop in the middle of May, we each went through our records with the church.  When we left, Josh just said to me that it was weird.  I couldn't understand why, then he told me the dates of everything.  He was baptized, confirmed and given the priesthood on the 9th...the same day we were married.  Wow.  So we looked to see when the next Saturday  fell on the 9th.  June, like in 3 weeks!
I had always wanted to go through the Salt Lake Temple for my first time.  It is my very favorite temple, Josh felt the same way.  But with it being 3 weeks away and wedding season, we didn't know if we would be able to work it out.  I called the temple the next day and luckily we could do it that day!  We let all of our family know!  Then we went temple clothes shopping with Cody and Tara on the 19th of May and got all of our stuff.  It was finally becoming real and we were so excited!
We had decided we wanted to go down on the 8th to spend the night down there since our session started at 9 and we had to be there by 7:30am.  We got a hotel room at the Marriot at City Creek, which was the hotel Josh and I stayed in for our 3rd anniversary.  It was so nice!  Cody and Tara were supposed to come down and go to dinner with us but Cody got held up at work so they didn't make it in time.
So Josh and I went and walked around City Creek and then went through Brigham Young's home.

A letter written by Brigham Young

His hat and cane in his bedroom

I think this is the study

The wedding dress one of his daughters made for herself

An original drawing of Joseph and Hyrum Smith in one of the bedrooms

Brigham Young

Then we were looking for somewhere to eat dinner.  We decided on The Garden up in the Joseph Smith Memorial building.

One of the many gorgeous chandeliers in the building

Brother Joseph

The beautiful temple!

We then went and walked around the temple.  We heard that Mitt Romney was in Salt Lake and wondered if he might be at the temple.  The grounds were almost empty since it was 8:45 and I think they close at 9pm.  As we went around the back side of the temple, we saw 3 guys in suits in the corner.  One came walking past us and had an ear piece in and we totally thought they could be secret service!  I got a few pictures of my favorite features of the temple.  The door knobs are one of my very favs!

Then we headed back to the hotel to go to bed and get up really early to get ready for our big day!

I Heart Faces: All Boy

At I Heart Faces this week, their photo challenge theme is All Boy.  Well this is my nephew Gavin.  He isn't the  typical "boy" boy as he doesn't like to be outside for long but we love him so much!  And he had so much fun hiking to Poppa's boyhood cave on Little Mountain to look for dragons and dinosaurs.

Hello.

Alright I need to pay some serious attention to my poor little blog.  I document everything in our lives with photographs and they are just taking up space on my hard drive for no one to see.  It might take me a while since I'm behind for a lot of this year so far and I'll start with some of our more recent happenings.  So, here we go...

Splash Of Color 5k (Color For Tessa)

Tara asked me to run in a 5k with her for a friend of her's from high school who has Hodkin's Lymphoma for the third time.  Neither one of us did anything to really train for the run and knew we would probably end up paying for that and signed up.  I love running once I get going but I haven't done it since it started getting cold last year.
The weather had been so nice lately, up in the high 70s and even 80s.  So wouldn't you know it, it got cold a few days ago.  It was freezing this morning.  The race was supposed to start at 9am and they wanted us to be there in between 7:30 and 8:30 to get checked in.  When Tara and I got there at about 7:40, there was only about 5 other cars in the parking lot and they were just getting the volunteers trained on what they were supposed to be doing.  And it was freezing, I think only about 28 degrees.  We got checked in, got our bags and walked back to the car to warm up.  We made sure our husbands were coming and then went to find out where the race would start.  We met up with a few of Tara's friends who were going to run with us and then Josh, Cody, my Mom and Chelsie got there to support us.

Me, Tara, Sarah and Sadie

Josh had some fun being the photographer for the day.

Snow-capped Wellsvilles.

We ran through a lot of mud but had so much fun!  

Let the colors fly!

The girls with the girl of the day, Tessa.  It was so fun to run for a cause and to help someone during a difficult time in the their life!  And so fun to be a part of it with my best friend!

A Little Backyard Visitor

When I got home from work today, the tulips were getting ready to open their pretty petals up and I couldn't resist them.  I love the sign of spring after a long winter.

We were sitting on the couch watching TV and I could see something big up in one of the trees out back.  It took me a minute to figure out what it was.  At first I thought it was a cat, but then I realized it was a baby raccoon!

He was so cute!  I know they are mean and are disease-infested but I wanted to bring the poor little guy in as a bad storm was making it's way into town for the night.  He sat there and watched us as I took pictures of him and didn't seem to mind us.

Conference Weekend = Fabulousness!!

So early yesterday morning, Josh got up to go play basketball with Cody.  About 10 minutes after he left, I get a text from Tara asking if I had any plans for the day...let me check, nope.  So she texted back that Nie Nie was doing a book signing at Deseret Book in the new City Creek Mall, wanna go?  Um, YES!!  So we decided to leave about 2pm to get down to SLC.  Atty didn't want to stay home with his dad and watch Sports Center and asked if he could come, so he followed us girls around all day and didn't complain!  This boy is going to make some girl very happy one day!
So we got down to SLC and knew we wanted to hit up Smart Cookie at some time during this trip, so we went there first for the fabulous sugar cookies. Oh, these things are divine!
I don't know why but for some reason whenever I get down towards Sandy, I just have this inner feeling of "I"m HOME!"  I loved living down there so much so maybe that's why I feel that way, I don't know.
We headed back toward downtown to the new mall.  Let me tell you, that place is fabulous!  It was wicked crowded and we hit it right after the last session of conference got out so it was packed.

We walked through to find the Deseret Book so we knew where we needed to go for the book signing and then went window shopping.  Tara and I both wanted to go to Tiffany & Co. so we went there first.  We walked around the store and they do have some beautiful jewelry, but I would have to win the lottery before I would ever blow money on something like that!  We got outside in front of the store and since Tara and I are both obsessed with our cameras, we went to take a picture of the store front.  I had my camera up to my eye, when a mall security guy came over and told us we couldn't take pictures of the store fronts, uh ok
 So then we headed back down to H&M, that place was packed and had some of the most hideous clothing.  They also had some cute things, but I never knew sequins were back in such a way except for on dancing costumes and even then we hated wearing them, they itch.  Tara did find a cute shirt and some leggings and I was looking at the bags since I want to make my own camera bag but didn't find anything I HAD to have.
Then we headed back down to Deseret Book at about 5:30pm  The signing didn't start until 6pm and there was already a little line forming.  So we got our books and stood in line.

There was a couple in front of us in there mid 40s maybe 50s.  I thought it was the wife who wanted to meet Stephanie and thought it was so nice of her husband to come stand in line with her for this.  But as we got up to her table, the man became very emotional and started telling Stephanie about his daughter who must have passed away and told Stephanie how she has inspired him to keep going.  She asked how old his daughter would be and he said 16 and she got a little teary eyed, too.  It was great.  Then I got up there and I feel stupid instantly.  I don't know what to say or what to do, just like I did with Ree Drummond.  So we just started talking about how much we love her and she was so sweet and so beautiful!  Her daughters were there, too and came to sit behind her for a minute.  I asked them how they were and Stephanie said they were so bored.  I bet they were, sitting in Deseret Book while their mom signs books!  After she signed my book, I scooted over so Tara could get her book signed too and she asked if we were sisters or friends.  I told her we were best friends and we also work together.  Everyday at lunch we get on her blog and show all the girls we work with how cute she is and how amazing she is.  We got our picture with her and it was fabulous!

She truly is amazing.  In May of 2010 she did a video for Mormon Messages, it brought me to tears and I had to share it, here's the link again.  Watch it.  She has come so far from where she was 2 years ago and is due to have her 5th baby tomorrow.  Which is something she wanted so badly and was so excited to be given the go ahead from her doctors to try for a baby, plus they will have extra skin to work with for her future reconstruction surgeries!  She truly has been an inspiration to me for the past 4 years.

We were starving and didn't want to eat at the mall so we left and went to the Old Spaghetti Factory.  The food was good like always and we all got cream sodas so we got a souvenir glass.  As we were leaving the mall and walking across the street to get to the parking garage, there was the most amazing view of the temple, at least from the street.  I love this temple.  It's always been the one I've loved the most and the one I've always wanted to get sealed in, can't wait!
I love conference weekend.  Anytime we get to sleep in on a Sunday when we usually have 9am church is fabulous!  But I also love hearing our Prophet and Apostles speak.  There is always something there for me to feast on, always.  And today proved no different.
We went over to Cody and Tara's for breakfast and the first session of conference this morning.  The talks were really good.  I loved Elder Uchtdorf's talk.  I definitely need to work on my judgement of people and being envious.  I have been really judgmental lately and I know I shouldn't be and all it does is make my heart hardened and makes me not feel good.  I've been judgemental of others, especially those who are parents thinking that we would be better parents.  And those who are pregnant, thinking why should they get to have a baby when I am a better person and am in a better relationship and would be able to love and care for a baby more.  Terrible, huh?  I know.  And then being envious of those who do have children and are good parents and seeing the fun and the joy of having children is.  As we were leaving their house this afternoon, Josh asked me if I really listened to that talk and I said yes and I know.  He said the part he loved the most was when he talked about not gossiping even if it's true.  Oh man, my own damnation.  Josh always knows how to pull me back down.  Even if I get mad at him for a minute.  But I get mad because I know he's right.  And I will work on it, it's not going to be easy but I will.
We came home and rested for a bit then went back over to their house for steaks tonight, man they spoil us!  Two meals in one day!  It was so good though!  We sat and talked for a good hour or so after we finished eating and laughed and laughed.  Josh and his stories get us all going!  Josh started a grease fire while cooking french fries and Cody gets so amused by that story.
Thanks you guys for such a fun weekend.  It was fabulous!  We love you and I'm so grateful we have you in our lives.