Anniversary...

Fall. It can mean a lot of different things to a lot of different people. For Stephen, it means BOISE STATE FOOOOOTTTBBAALLLLL! Is there any other kind of football?:) For a great deal of youngsters it means [uhhg] back to school. For others maybe it means oh crap winter is coming. For me, its LOVE. Fall is my verrrrry favorite time of year. What is not to love? The weather is perfect, my work starts slowing down and becoming not quite so hectic, the leaves are changing the breeze is blowing the sun is shining and it is just UH so perfect. Fall also reminds me of falling in love with my dear sweet husband. On September 28th, 2008 was the reflections of Christ fireside in the Jordan ball room at BSU. After, Stephen walked me to my car and I can distinctly remember standing on the 3rd floor of that parking garage waiting for the cute guy to make his move. Little did I know then, that he would not only make his move… but completely consume my entire heart and fill my life with more joy than I could have ever thought possible. We just celebrated our 1 year anniversary on September 5th and couldn’t me more happy or more in love. Stephen bought me these incredibly beautiful flowers!!





I’m so grateful to have such an amazing man. And I’m so grateful for the season of fall, because it will come every year reminding me of falling in love.

House Hunting...

First rule when looking for a house: DON'T get attached till the papers are signed.

We've broken the rule. We have been looking for maybe a minute and a half and found this perfect house in Tuscany subdivision off Eagle just past Victory. Yesterday afternoon.....we did a drive by. The house was abandoned months ago so we decided to walk around and peek thru every window possible. Although we didnt get a good view of the upstairs due to stephens cheerleading skills being rusty, the down stairs was just perfect.

Why does this process take so loooong??

We will be patient. And, although its sad to say it, we will keep looking.

...keep you posted!!

April 3rd

ITS MY BIRTHDAY!! My 21st birthday, the BEST everr birthday!! The celebration began friday night when Mom and Dad took us to dinner at my fav, the cheesecake factory! YUMM~ thanks again guys. When my cheesecake arrived they had written in chocolate syrup on the edge of the plate, "happy birthday to you!" It was adorable. The next morning I woke up to a thousand happy birthday kisses all over my face :) Stephen is the best at birthdays, he's always so sweet and thoughtful. We had an awesome birthday breakfast then both went off to work hard all day long. When I got to the salon there was a huge embarrassing display of balloons and a beautiful yellow daisy flower plant. I love my Orianne and all my asians. It was really busy but the day went really slow, which was good because it was my birthday! I got a million Happy Birthday's from friends and family to clients and co-workers and felt really loved and special. That night Stephen went to priesthood session and we met at his parents house for the traditional Chinese banquet. It was so much fun, who doesn't love panda express? After that Stephen had many tricks up his sleeve still to come! He drove me to the Anniversary Inn and we stayed in Sleeping Beauties Castle. This room was incredible!! It was huge! We felt like we were in an apartment! Down stairs, right when you walk in you have this huge rock jetted bath tub with the shower coming down like a waterfall then you move on to the common area, bathroom and vanity then the kitchen table in the bottom part of the tower. Then UPstairs we had a wrap around balcony overlooking the downstairs and our ROUND bed nestled in the top part of the tower. It was amazing, the attention to detail that was in every part of this huge room! The next morning it was pretty cool to wake up in a princess tower! Then we headed to his parents again for breakfast and conference. Then home to get ready for the Easter celebration and watch more conference and OPEN PRESENTS! Stephen amazed me with his thoughtfulness this year and so did my mom! Last month a lesson was given in relief society on Adam and Eve and she suggested everybody read the book entitled, "Eve and the choice made in Eden" so I wrote it down with the intention to buy it because its always been a subject that really interested me. Well my sweet husband found the paper and got it for me for my birthday :) I'm really excited to read it. He also got me a huge gorgeous framed picture of the Boise Temple, where we were married, and another duel shower head because ours broke. And we loved that shower head. A few months ago I asked my mom about a game I used to play on the computer when I was little...I really wanted to play it. She said they didnt have it anymore and that was that. Well she went online and found Hoyle board games and gave it to me for my birthday! Along with my fav scentsy smells, an hour and a half couples massage for myself and my husband, smelly good lotion and another book I wanted entitled, "1,000 places to see before you die" this book is like 3 inches thick!! Cant wait to pick our next vacation. Anyway, then we headed back to Stephens parents house with my parents to have Easter dinner and the egg hunt! It was so fun to have tons of family together and to have my parents be a part of it. I loved it! It was the best birthday weekend. Now time to rest and get started on my new books!! Till Stephens birthday...the 26th! Coming up!

I love you baby.

MARCH

What a month. We have been pretty busy! Having way too much fun. March first we returned to dreary Idaho after a beautiful Caribbean Cruise with Stephens family. We couldn’t have asked for a better Christmas present. We had the privilege to travel in style on the Royal Caribbean Liberty of the seas, the second largest cruise ship in the world!! It was incredible. We ported at Costa Maya, Mexico

Belize city, Belize (forgot the camera that day) and Cozumel, Mexico

As well as the infamous island of banks! The Grand Caymans. There are over 300 banks on this little piece of land.

We had the best time and came back very refreshed and ready to take on the month of march!

Our house has been for sale since before we even were engaged, Stephen bought at the peak of the market 4 years ago and we were anxious to get out of such a high mortgage! Well while we were away the process took off! IT SOLD! Which was very exciting. They didn’t have a date they wanted us out by so we had a legal 90 days to vacate. Well my BEST friend Lauren got married in Utah on the 12^th of march, she couldn’t have asked for a better spring day. It was beautiful and we had the best time! While we were on that little get away… they offered us more money if we were out by the end of the month! So we got home from Utah and immediately packed up and left! It was amazing how great our families were with helping and how incredible Stephen was at getting everything moved while I was working! He’s so great. So since it went so quickly we decided to move in to my parents basement apartment. It’s a pretty sweet set up, as far as living with your parents is concerned. We have the entire basement to ourselves, its 1700 sq ft with two bedrooms one bathroom and a kitchenette. We are so fortunate! So we’ll be here till the end of summer or whenever we can get into our next house. The trick is finding the dream house!! I get to help pick this time : ) Anyway, that’s what we’ve been up to.

It was so great to be there in the temple with Lauren; both while she received her endowments and was sealed to andy. I’m so happy we could be a part of that. After going thru it myself, there is nothing I wanted more for the rest of my family and for my friends. I was so incredibly proud of her and how far she has come.

The last week of that darn month of march was a pretty tough one. A friend of ours, Paul Root, committed suicide. He jumped off the high bridge at Lucky Peak. It was very sad news, we knew Paul and his sweet wife Kristi from the singles ward we attended for years before we were married. Paul was a great person with a great sense of humor and a love for all people. Paul was mentally ill, he struggled with schizo affective disorder. He went thru many times of ups and downs and I’m sure it was so hard for him and his family and his beautiful wife to endure. He was married to Kristi for a short 10 months. The funeral was beautiful, huge bouquets of colorful spring flowers and pictures of Paul, smiling huge, having fun with friends and family. Those were fun to see. And then there was a room that had Pauls body in it. Sadness immediately filled my heart when I entered the room and saw his sweet new widow standing by his side with a never ending stream of tears running down her face. I cant imagine the pain she must go thru every single hour of the day, having to keep herself together. Kristi is such a sweet girl, she knew exactly what she was getting when she married Paul and she went into it fearless. She loved him and married him anyway even though she knew they would definitely have their tough times. She got up at the end of the service to bear her testimony. The spirit was so strong and I, along with every other person in the room, bawled like a baby. Her faith is so strong and she knows that heavenly father will make everything okay again and that her and Paul will have their time together in heaven and that there will be a time for them to raise a family and do all the things they couldn’t accomplish here on earth. I am amazed at the strength this young widow has. That day she spoke with wisdom beyond her years and I am so proud of her for holding on to what she knows is true even when it seems unfair. We love the Root family and wish strength and love to overcome their sorrow and despair. And for Kristi, I know she will be alright because of the testimony she bore and the friends and family she has to comfort and protect her.

We are so happy for March to be over so we can begin April!! We loovvveee April.

Bright spot in a never ending cloud of grey...

The Beautiful roses my sweet husband came home with this morning to help his ill wife survive this plauge that is upon her.

He sure knows how to make me feel better. Now ever time I walk down stairs I get this immediate smile from ear to ear, curing me even for just a split second. Thank you baby:)


I Love you Stephen

You're Welcome cards...

The funniest thing JUST happened. Stephen woke up this morning with a burning desire to finish his half of the thank you cards. I had a burning desire to blog about our sleepover with the kids yesterday! So we were both doing such and he starts complaining about a hand cramp so he takes a break for a while then he says, “okay I’m gonna get to it!” And I say, “mm back to thank you cards” and he says “oh…no I was going to get ready to go to the gym..” and I say “get back to it mr.!” HAHA I have never seen him not want to do something as much as he doesn’t want to be writing these thank you cards right now. All of the sudden he stands up and with a very sarcastic tone says, “I’m sure glad I don’t have to write thank you cards for my Christmas presents. You know the only time we have to do this is for like weddings and showers and stuff. Who came up with that idea? What ever happened to just a simple thank you? We already sent them an invitation to come share with us our special day! They should be thanking us! If anything we should send them a ‘You’re Welcome’ card.” Meanwhile I’m just rollin with it. We’re totally not being serious he was just complaining so I’m agreeing with him you know… feeding off each other. All the sudden he stops and is waiting for a response from me and I say, “But… you still have to write them… though…” He squints his eyes with the look of the deepest disappointment... sits down in a pout to keep writing and says, “I thought you were on my side!!!”
I take it when he paused awaiting my response he was hoping for me to give him permission to quit or for me to agree and feel bad for him and offer to do them for him. Needless to say he was crushed with I had no sympathy for him. All along he was just trying to get out of it.
I laughed for 5 minutes straight. With tears. Maybe you had to be there :)
I love you Stephen.

Parenthood is calling...

We absolutely adore our nieces and nephews. Especially those Hone children! This week, Stephen and I had an opportunity to have the kids stay at our house to allow Tiffany and Justin to celebrate their 7th wedding anniversary. That night also happened to be our big family Christmas party! They went all out this year. We had an amazing dinner then a program where all the little kids sang us songs and then put on a nativity. It was so cute. Santa Clause even made an appearance to bring all the great grandkids a special early Christmas present! Buddy the Elf made a guest appearance!

He was a great helper. I sure love that big guy :) Then all the adults did a gift exchange. It was very fun and we were very satisfied with our gifts. Then we loaded up the chillins and headed home to star. They were so cute; we gave them a tour to let them know where everything was and what not to touch and all that good stuff. Then we watched to polar express and had some hot chocolate and chicken nuggets!

The last thing we did before bed was show them where our room is again and told them the door would be open and if they needed us to knock on the door to wake us up. Sure enough… 6 a.m. rolls around and I hear a tiny little knock on our door and in the doorway is sweet little Cameron (5) with his blanky and the saddest look on his face and he says in his sweet little voice, “I had a bad dream” it was too sweet for me to tell him ‘its okay’ and to ‘go back to bed’ so instead I told him to come climb in bed with us. He was really good he hardly moved and went right to sleep. Then about an hour later started snoring really quite loud for a 5 year old! Then Jaxon(3) came to the door, without knocking, in a hurray shouting, “I need to go yuckies! I need to go yuckies!” poor little guy he was trying to get his onezy unzipped and couldn’t. So I got up quick as I could and helped him into the bathroom and unzipped him. Then I left and told him to let me know when he was finished. Well I went back to lay down and he came running back in buns naked and he says to me, “Sinee I want to sit down please” HAHA so I went back in with him and sat him on the toilet so he could go yuckies. A few minutes later he yells, “IM DONE! IM DOOOOOONNNNNNEEE!” and all it took was a long glance at my sweet husband and he went and took care of him. It was only when he was putting his jammies back on that he realized they were wet and Jaxon told him he tried really hard to hold it in but he had an accident when he was running up the stairs to our room. Oh dear sweet Jaxon.

So while I gave Jax a bath Stephen took Cameron and they woke up Kendall and made waffles. We ate breakfast and watched the snow fall outside our window then the kids wanted to bake some more so we made some homemade bread. They were such great little chefs! We then colored for a little bit and played a game called memory barn yard. After that we built a sweet fort in our living room!

Stephen had this great idea to put the sheet over the TV so the kids could watch a movie while we cleaned up breakfast! It was pretty awesome. They only stayed in there for a little bit but it was long enough to get our poor kitchen in order! It then came time to go home so we cleaned up our fort and packed up their things and took them back to mom and dad. Stephen said he learned a lot about how much you give up to be a parent. It was perfect because he is starting to agree with me on waiting longer before we have our own. But its true that having children and raising them is one of the most selfless things we will ever do. It takes all your time and energy..and free time? Forget about it. We are so lucky we will be fortunate enough to have BOTH sets of parents here and ready and willing to help us out when we need them. I really enjoyed the experience. I think the reason it was challenging was because we went from no kids to 3 kids, twin 5 year olds and a 3 year old. I know that when they’re my own and we get used to having them one at a time it will be much different. But I still don’t want it for a few more years! All those commercials when I was a kid really worked! Sex lasts a moment! Being a parent lasts your wholeeeee life!! I cant wait for the honor of being a mommy…. But then again, I can.