Memorial Day Weekend 2013

This past weekend was truly enjoyable. Brigham and I have had some recent unexpected/unwanted job shuffling. Unfortunately, I'm back at work and he's looking for new opportunities. So life is taking some interesting turns and this weekend was nice to have a bit to sit back and have some time for ourselves for a minute, and to remember all those who sacrificed for us.

Saturday we thrilled the kids with a trip to Costco (seriously, they love that place) and sample-hopped our way through the store. We also stopped by the mall to try and figure out a cell-phone fiasco we are trying to solve (anyone know how to fix the glass of a Samsung Galaxy S3?). At the mall there was a dollar store going out of business so everything was marked down. That's right...marked down from a dollar. Cheap. Sure, most of it was junk, but the kids love junk and I didn't feel guilty spending three dollars to get them a load of cheap toys to entertain them.

Part of that load included new sunglasses that you can use indoors or out because the shades simply flip up. Brigham thinks they are weird, but I find them hilarious, and awesome, and adorable on the kids. The kids wore them the rest of the day.

That night we walked from our house to 7-Eleven and got Memorial Weekend fifty-cent slurpees, a dessert that Lydia actually enjoys. We watched a movie as a family and sipped our slurps and had an all-around good time.

Sunday was a family party for cousin Emmy's birthday. Oh, and at church I got called to be second counselor in the YW's. It was a shocker because I had only just received a brand-new calling so I didn't expect to be switched to soon. It should be good though.

Monday morning we went to the Hill Air Force Base Museum to see all the airplanes and to remember those who have come before and paved the way for our freedoms here.

The kids loved being able to touch the airplanes...and throw rocks.

The weather was absolutely perfect. Sunny, and yet cool.

I had recently just finished reading a book about a WW II true-story that involved pilots and I really, really loved being able to see the planes that I had just finished reading about. It made everything so real and I felt a deeper appreciation for everything the servicemen went through for our country. I highly recommend the book, Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption.

Later that day we had a picnic at Wheeler Farms with Brigham's side of the family and got to enjoy some frisbee, dinner, animals, and the kids' favorite, the tractor.

It was hard to return to work the next day, but life must go on. And to honor all of my ancestors and military, I will be grateful for that life and work that I have and choose to be happy as I continue on.

Anniversary Pictures of Weddings Past

So it's been almost a month since my anniversary and I have yet to post a single thing about it. Which is sad. Partly because our anniversary was so fantastic, and mostly because we have awesome pictures to post from it.

For our actual anniversary weekend we went out of town to Anniversary Inn (our first time ever), and it was really fun. We stayed in the Swiss Family Robinson room, pigged out, watched Unstoppable, which we both thoroughly enjoyed, and slept. A whole lot. We were both so exhausted that it was perfect to just get away, stop, and rest together with no other interruptions. We got to go do a session in the temple we were married in and that was just the icing on the cake. I felt so happy coming out of the Jordan River Temple with Brigham.

Then we took the kids for a picnic at the park for some family time that we had been missing for so long. Really, that weekend was amazing. Too bad I don't have any real pictures to document it.

However. The weekend before, Brigham surprised me with my anniversary present, which was to have my sister-in-law Katrina come retake wedding pictures of us outside the temple. It was a gutsy move, let me tell you. First he had to trust that I would fit back into my wedding dress, that I would get over the stress of getting back into my wedding attire, and time everything perfectly.

At first I thought it was a horrible idea, mostly because I was so stressed about getting ready and looking good. Pictures already stress me out, and trying to look good in my wedding dress, worrying about getting it dirty for nothing, Brigham badly needing a haircut, and figuring out how everything worked, had me complaining that whole morning like a pain.

And then I got my hair all done, and makeup put on, and dressed up in the tiny little bathroom in the front waiting room at the temple. My wedding dress fit and when I walked out..I felt beautiful. And people told me I looked beautiful. I got to pretend I was a beautiful bride all over again. Talk about a self-esteem boost. It was a blast taking pictures and I fell in love with my dress all over again. I never wanted to take it off.

There are tons of pictures that I love from that day, but I'll try to keep the volume down and post my very favorites.

I've been told that these pictures are going to confuse my posterity. It's true. And funny. Which makes me love them even more.

I love the pink/purple trees in the background!

 I loved having my children there and taking a couple pictures with them (though you should have seen some of the raised eyebrows and confused looks we got as we were taking pictures and yelling at our kids in between).

This picture is so beautiful to me because this is my family in front of the place where we became forever.

One of my favorites of all time. I was laughing because I felt really awkward posing for this picture, which made it turn out freaking adorable.

This one makes me want to go find my husband, no matter where he is, and have another kiss.

The weather was sort of drizzly that day, making for incredible skies in the background.

The flowers were all out in bloom, just as they were six years earlier. It reminded me so much of our wedding day that I wanted to go get married all over again. Heck, I was already in the dress! April is such a perfect spring month to get married in.

Though I have more wrinkles, and you can see the trials I'm bogging through in my face, I love these pictures. I like that I had so much more youthful innocence and joy on my actual wedding day. That's how it's meant to be.

And no matter how tired I look, I fit back in my dress after two kids. Boom baby! Now to only keep it up for the rest of the babies I plan to pop out. Hopefully in another six years we can do this again and look back to these pictures and see how far we've come.

So thanks Brigham for such a thoughtful gift that turned out so wonderfully. You had just the perfect idea to boost my spirits for a time and made me feel beautiful for our anniversary.

I love you, I love our six years together, and I love the future ahead of us. As we work as a team we can get through anything!

To Make Up for My Absence

If you haven't noticed, I've been on a blogging hiatus lately because my life is beyond crazy, stressful, normal, interesting, eventful...you get the point. Basically, until things calm down a bit, blogging has taken a back-burner. However, I do miss it so I hope to at least be a little more present.

Today should be a meatless Monday post, but instead I'm going to treat everyone to some beautiful family pictures to make up for the lack of posts. These were taken on Easter Sunday. I had been wanting updated family pictures taken for quite some time, and since my sister-in-law, Katrina, is into photography, we did a quick shoot before Easter dinner hoping that something would turn out, but not really caring if it didn't work out. I was surprised with how many did turn out!

So enjoy!

I love the tough-guy, manly look that Brigham has. Oh so sexy I say. Lydia's signiture quirked eyebrow makes this a favorite even though it's not the "perfect shot". Sometimes I'm more in love with the crazy pictures than the formal, nice ones

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Love this one! We caught Lydia smiling and looking at the camera and Brigham and I don't look too bad ourselves. If only Ammon had caught on, but I'll take what I can get.

Another candid shot I love because of the interaction with our kids. It shows our true family: happy, busy, wonderful.

Another favorite because it shows how much Ammon makes me laugh.

He kept pulling his cheese faces making us all giggle...except for Lydia who decided the ground was really interesting to stare at...

Ah, finally. One where we are all looking. How I love this little family.

And how beautiful this girl is. And she's all mine. How lucky am I?

From cheese-faces and hamming it up, to all seriousness. This boy is all mine too.

I hope you enjoyed our pictures as much as I have. I hope to be returning to a semi-normal life soon with lots of posts about food and crafts, and of course, lots of pictures of these two sweethearts.