12.11.16

we have been married for 6 years..... 6 YEARS, PEOPLE! how crazy is that. 

this year we celebrated a couple weeks early on account of our dear friend, jim gaffigan coming to salt lake. we thought it a perfect opportunity to celebrate our 6th year with some laughs with jim!

we drove down, dropped brecken off with normans parents who happened to be in salt lake for a funeral the following morning and headed out to city creek to eat, walk around, and head to the show.

we first went to the cheesecake factory because we thought... well... it IS our anniversary so we should do something fancier, right??? wrong. they had a 60 minute wait and we ain't into that. so we went over to the city creek cafeteria and got some delicious mexican food at the red iguana. that's how we do it in year 6, people.

then i made norman walk around west elm looking at rugs and furniture.

we stopped at rocky mountain chocolate factory, got some hot chocolate since it was FREEZING and some chocolate covered strawberries and made our way down to the vivint smart home arena (how many times are they gonna change the name...i mean really...i can't keep up). we thought the show started at 8, but i think ended up closer to 8:30 or 9... the opener for the show was pretty funny! i always get nervous for comedians if i don't already know they're funny... it's just so awkward... but he was good. and then jim came out and was hilarious as usual! 

after that, we headed back to the hotel where norman's parents were and went to bed! had a nice continental breakfast the next morning and headed home.

we wanted to do something fancy this year... stay in a fancy hotel... order in fancy room service... slip into fancy white robes... but we decided to save some money instead. #adulting

we figured we have plenty of anniversaries to come that we can do more "fancy" things where i won't be nursing or pregnant. i swear, every year it's one or the other. haha.

then sunday the 11th was our actual anniversary. we went to church, came home, had some dinner, then we put kids to bed that night and we made hot chocolate, sat down and grabbed our memory book and wrote down memories. (we have a book that every year on our anniversary we write down some of our favorite memories from the year). it was the perfect little evening sitting in our new home, christmas lights around us, reading old memories and writing new ones.

we are still learning... always learning. and i am happy that i have a spouse who wants to improve our relationship as much as i do. to always work to be better and to make each other happy. marriage is tough and sometimes causes for some tough self reflection and change... but it's worth it. always worth it.

so happy 6 years to you and me, my handsome! 

how we celebrated 5 years of marriage

we played it pretty low key for our anniversary this year. when you have a husband in his second to last semester of college, in the middle of finals, and you're 28 weeks pregnant, taking care of an almost 2 year old....sometimes the fantasy of a 5 year cruise, or overnight get away, or a spa day, or laying on a beach somewhere to celebrate your 5 years of marriage just isn't going to happen.

we rotate who plans the anniversary celebrations each year and this year it was norman's turn. a few weeks before our anniversary i told norman (knowing how stressed he was about the impending end of the semester) not to worry about planning a big "ta-do" for our 5th anniversary this year. to just focus on school and that would be good enough for me!!! i had already given him a new shotgun, and he had already surprised me with tickets to taylor swift back in october, so...we didn't really need to spend more money on presents, either....

however, my cute husband still managed to pull through in all his sentimental glory. (he's good at that sentimental thing...me...not so much). so the day of our anniversary we had an ACSE (a civil engineering society) dinner to go to. it was delicious and we had a nice time! we headed home, put grant to bed, and i was ready to just hang out, watch a movie, take a bath, something relaxing and norman tells me he has a little surprise for me. which was surprising because i honestly wasn't expecting anything due to finals. he told me that he had looked up what the traditional 5 year anniversary gift was, and it was wood.....

so he pulls out a handful or so of different sizes of stained pieces of wood and a drill. now, on my pinterest board for a while now i have had this shelf pinned that someone made that spells out the word "love". Well norman looked it up, figured out how to make it, cut all the pieces of wood, stained them...and now we were going to put them together! i thought it was the most thoughtful gift!! so when we said "we" were going to put them together, we really meant he was going to... so while he put it together, i popped in a movie, and got out our journal we write in every year and read through some of our old memories (we write 10 new memories from that year each year on our anniversary and then write down goals we want for the next year). it was so fun to reminisce and laugh and think back on our 5 years of marriage. it was a perfect evening.

i can say that we are in a place right now that i love! we have grown so much through these last 5 years and it's exciting to think about new experiences we have ahead of us. we have learned to compromise better, forgive quicker, laugh more, stress less (maybe not as much on that one...), and love harder. marriage is tough, but it's fun to figure it out with this guy that i get for forever.

happy 5 years to my handsome husband!
12.11.15

^^we don't have it hung up yet, so here's what it looks like...laying on my bed :)^^

then and now 12.11.14

4 years. 4 years i've been married to this cute fella. every year on our anniversary i think about our wedding day and how different we are now as a couple. we have learned a lot. we have a lot more to learn. back then....we weren't so good at disagreeing....at compromising...at forgiving...at being selfless.....it was a learning curve. and now...we still sometimes don't want to compromise...and we still aren't as quick to forgive....and to think about the other before ourselves....but we are better at it. marriage is a lot of forgiveness. you are with each other all the time...things are said...done...that aren't always kind or perfect. and you have to know that your partner isn't perfect, but they're trying. and sometimes it's haaaaaaarrrd. and sometimes it's easy peasy. but marriage is about forgiveness. it's about saying sorry and meaning it. 
i keep writing things and erasing them because it's so hard to articulate what i'm trying to say. i guess what i'm trying to say is i love this man. because although we bicker and aren't always happy with each other....we both want to be better. we both try. we both forgive. we want the other to be happy. marriage is about trying. i love marriage. it has taught me so much. and i truly feel like i've grown as a person being married to norman. although he is stubborn and blunt and sometimes obnoxious....he is also selfless, loving, loyal, funny, kind, devoted to God, and to our family....and those all outweigh the not so pretty stuff.

for our anniversary this year we went to the temple and did some sealings, remembered our promises we made and blessings that were given, and were beyond grateful to have been married there. ---then we stuffed our faces with costa vida and cold stone. because one of the many things we have in common...is the love of food. we love it. and as we sat eating our cake batter sweet cream brownie filled ice cream....we had the most tender conversation about life and where we are as a couple and what we want to become. it was heavenly. a perfect anniversary. 

happy four years!

how we celebrate

currently, norman and are night managers of the destinations inn in idaho falls. part of the deal is that we have to be in our apartment from 10pm-8am every day, just in case someone in the hotel gives us a call and needs some assistance. but this weekend, we were celebrating our 3rd anniversary. :) norman was in charge of plans so he got someone to stay at our apartment for us while we spent a little weekend away. 

we didn't get to leave til later because norman has been studying his poor life away in every spare moment before finals, but, when he got home we headed to pocatello to go to wingers for dinner. did you know they closed the wingers in idaho falls??? i was so disappointed...so to pocatello it was. after this we headed to the Red Lion Hotel. Norman had made a reservation for the same room we stayed in on our wedding night. :) very sentimental and cute of him. we had a fabulous time relaxing, reminiscing,  and not worrying whether the phone was going to ring or not. it was simply perfect.

happy anniversary!

12.11.13

yesterday was our 3 year anniversary. we didn't do anything special cause well, it's the week before finals, and we're celebrating this weekend. but norman and i both agreed that it felt like we had been married a lot longer than 3 years....in a good way.

but, i decided since i've posted about a lot of great memories in our life thus far like our first kiss.... and the day we got engaged...that it was time to share one of the greatest memories. which was, of course, the actual day of our wedding.

the night before our wedding norman had his bachelor party {which included him attempting the gallon challenge? i think? i dunno...i just know he barfed at his party...in true bachelor fashion} and i had my bachelorette party..which was much more fun than his, i'm sure...because we played stuff like minute to win it wedding style...and i learned some "special tricks" for the wedding night {that sounds a lot worse than it actually was....}. anywho...moral of the story is...both of us got to bed suuuuuper late. and both had to wake up suuuuuper early.

i can't remember the exact time i was married...i think it was 9:30? i just know i had to wake up at 5 am to be ready in time. we were married in the idaho falls lds temple. when dating, norman and i discussed which temple we wanted to get married in...i didn't really want to get married in the IF temple, but i didn't really have a good reason for why i didn't. i didn't even have a reason at all, actually. i didn't have any other temples that i was dying to be married in {i mean...they're all the same anyway right? just different structures}. but norman really wanted to be married in the idaho falls temple. it was his favorite. and to me...it didn't matter which city i was married in or what building, as long as it was a temple ... so i agreed. and am so glad i did. i love the idaho falls temple. i've been to a handful of different temples and the idaho falls is still top on my list. there's just something special about it...and maybe it's because i have that memory of being married there...i don't know...but i'm so glad we chose it.

anyway, i digress....

so that morning, norman and i drove together to the temple. we got there and had to do a few things for the record keeping, and then we went to get ready. the bridal room was beautiful and i had my sweet mom there to help me get ready. then i would meet norman in the hall and we would walk to the celestial room to wait for the sealer {who happened to be norman's grandpa norman. lots of normans :)} i remember sitting there....with lots of layers on ...thinking i was going to pass out....i all the sudden felt so nauseated, dizzy, and hot. it was rather humorous because norman got worried for a second...thinkin i had cold feet. but as soon as we sat down and relaxed it went away. his grandpa came in, gave us some simple instructions and then asked "you sure you want to do this?" in his sarcastic way. and then we headed down to the sealing room.

i remember being most nervous for this part. as loud and social as i am...i don't love being the center of attention...all the time. ;) so walking into a room where everyone is sat down waiting for you and staring at you made me feel uncomfortable. but walk in we did....and it wasn't uncomfortable at all. besides the staring....i just kept winking at everyone cause i didn't know what else to do. i probably looked like a freak. we began and i remember sitting there feeling so overwhelmed with calm and peace and the spirit. i know others must have felt it too because one of norman's missionary companions made a comment to him about it afterwards {which i won't add here to keep the sacredness of it, but it was something i'll always remember}. it was truly some of the best 20 minutes i've ever experienced being in that sealing room with all my family and close friends gathered around us. it was so small and close and intimate and perfect. and once we finished all our family and friends gave us hugs and cried and it was all sorts of exciting. we did it! we were married! it was my favorite part of our wedding day.

the rest of the day was great as well. good luncheon including my rather clumsy niece, amanda, plowing head first into the head table in the middle of my dad's sweet and sincere father of the bride speech. :) gave everyone a good laugh. then later we went to our reception which was beautifully decorated and ready for us. we had a great time seeing friends come and congratulate us. and of course as we were leaving the reception for the night my brother in laws couldn't help themselves....they all white washed me. {i had pictures of it somewhere...don't know where they went...probably a good thing}.

and then off we were! we spent that night at the red lion hotel and the rest is history! :)

it truly was a great day...some stressful moments, if i'm being honest, but overall was a great day and a happy memory. norman and i do often say that we're glad it's over, though. we just love being married and melting our lives together and growing together and when i think of us 3 years ago compared to today it's true that you just love them more and more and you never thought you could. i'm tellin ya...marriage is a pretty great thing. and i picked a pretty good guy :)

and as my dad recently reminded me....i "struck gold with norman"

:) happy 3 years, boo!

12.11.12

happy 2 year anniversary to us!

 

we made it, guys. we are now beginning into our third year of marriage...which starts to make us "oldy-weds"

it truly was a fabulous day and norman spoiled me the saturday before by taking me shopping in idaho falls.

i gave him a gift card to eBay for some fishing stuff {i didn't want to try to pick something out...}

 

but on our actual anniversary, we did this:

 

first, we have a tradition that we have some kind of breakfast meal together every year.

so i let norman pick the place, and we went to denny's :)

{very classy}

 

 

but i tell ya....denny's knows how to make a mean breakfast.

 

 

 

i also wore my new mustache shirt. :)

{nicknamed: the lorax}

 

then after dinner, we went to get some hot chocolate at our favorite hot chocolate spot: maverick gas station...

{this date is getting classier by the minute}

but it really does have fabulous hot chocolate.

 

however, norman had a little accident.

 

 

 

 

his spilled everywhere....{sorry for the blurry picture...but i was laughing really hard}.

 

then we drove around town to look at all the lights.

{my favorite part of christmas}

 

 

then we came home, snuggled up in bed and watched Dear John. {another tradition}

 

norman and i have 5 other people that live with us. my sister and her 4 kids. so it was extremely nice to have a night all to ourselves. we really enjoy each others company and have so much fun together. it made for a wonderful 2nd anniversary.

we were gonna do something really expensive and fun...but..lets be real....we're poor college students...and this was just as good :)

 

a few days later we wrote in our anniversary memory book thingy our 20 memories {10 each} from the year and reminisced on everything that has happened and how much we've grown in the last year.

 

i am so glad i got one of the good ones. and i love that i have a day every year that i get to celebrate that. he is so good to me and we have learned a lot. the first year of marriage is pretty rough...and there are a lot of arguments, but through this second year i really can see our progress and how we have grown to love each other more than we love being right. :) it's such a fun experience and i love him so much. i'm excited for many many MANY more years of learning and lovin. :)

 

happy anniversary, boo!

2 weeks with no internet

is waaay too long.

sorry for my absense. our router broke and we had to wait for a new one to arrive. and it finally did! so here i am!

i've been wanting to share what i've been up to lately cause, guys, trust me, i've been havin some fun.

norman works for our local school district as a bus driver! {it is so very great} and he takes a lot of teams/groups to their events. one of these was the highland band. they had a competition in logan, utah. norman was to leave at 9:00 am and not return til 10:00 pm!! way too long without my boo :) so i decided to meet him down there.

what's great about his job is that while the teams are playing or groups are competing he can do whatever he would like. so some friends of ours {kelsey and paul} and i drove down to logan and had a fabulous day!

 started our day out at the infamous kneaders {none of us had never been} we had heard it was fabulous, and it did not disappoint. then we headed to the temple {can you get paid while attending the temple?...well..norman did} then we did a little shopping {nailed me a $9 shirt from old navy and a chambray i've been searching for} then of course for dinner we went to a&w and let me tell you it's been waaaay too long since i've had a freeze! it was sooooo good.

the day was absolutely fabulous. good food, good company, beautiful place. can't get better.

some other things that have happened:

 norm and i had the opportunity to go to a mormon tabernacle choir concert at byu-idaho with his aunt, uncle, grandma, and grandpa. it was really good. fabulous music, and of course norm and i can't take anything too serious so in part of the concert we were laughing so hard we couldn't compose ourselves. {it's a long story....one of those "had to be there" things but it was oh so funny}.

then at school we celebrated 75 years of ISU's cosmetology program. we had a nice little dinner and a program.

saturday was the homecoming parade. i was supposed to be in it, but i opted out so that i could take these 2 little squirts to it instead. it was so fun. {yes, i do look like i've been attacked by the allergy season....cause i had been. i was sneezing up a storm}.

anywho...so that is what you all have been missing from my life while i have been away. great amounts of fun! hope i never lose internet for 2+ weeks again. :/

 

just a couple things.

well i shared what happened 2 years ago on 9.12, but i wanted to share what we did this year to celebrate! :)

 

it wasn't anything big, but when you live with a sister and 4 little kiddos, getting out for some alone time with my boo is greatly appreciated.

 

due to laughing about everyhing and unfortunate placement of the sun, norman and i had some problems taking any picture that looked halfway decent. so these will have to do.

 

but yes, we of COURSE went to wingers. :) my favorite.

i also ventured to walmart, stood in the fishing isle for a good 20 minutes looking at all the fishing bate having no idea what to get.

i finally settled on a rapala cause he was out of them {i was gonna get him a spoon cause i lost his in the river when we went fishing last time}. luckily it was the right one! right size, right fish and everything! i was so proud. and so was he :)

 

in return i got this:

 

honestly...cutest thing ever? i think so. :)

 

i am always always asking norman for massages and tickles and i know he gets so annoyed at it {especially cause i always seem to want them at like 11:30 at night....that's late for us, guys}. so this is a big sacrifice for him to do 12 of each willingly.

it's a big deal.

 

as you see, i've already cashed in on one massage and it was fabulous! {stupid short leg makes my darn back muscles work extra hard}.

thanks normy! :)

the day i got engaged...

9.12.10: the day we got engaged

 

one of the happiest and surprising days of my life :)

and since i've never shared it on this here bloggity blog, i shall proceed to do that now.

 

the 3 pictures above were all taken the day we got engaged, but before the big event took place. :) my long time high school friend, brandon, had returned from his mission and was speaking in church that day and we went to attend. Little did i know as i was just enjoying my sunday morning my sweet norman was a nervous wreck hoping that all things would go as planned and i would remain in the dark about the proposal that evening.

 

now, you all need to know, that i was rather cocky about this whole engagement thing. i thought for sure i was going to know when he did it. for sure! for 2 main reasons:

 

1. when norm and i were together we did the regular jungle book conversation of "what do ya wanna do?" "i dunno, what do YOU wanna do?"..."I dunno....whatever you want to do." {it was exhausting....and it still happens} and so i just knew that once he had a legit plan and we had to be certain places at certain times that something was up....like a proposal.

 

and 2. i worked at molinelli's jewelers. which is where we purchased my ring. kinda hard to sneak around computer records right?

 

WRONG!

 

i most definitely underestimated my dear boyfriend {at the time....that's weird calling him that}.

 

so i also coached jv volleyball at pocatello high school that year, and had to leave work everyday at around 3:50 to get to practice. well that's when the little bugger snuck in to figure out the details with my boss.

 

we had ordered a ring from a catalog and i was waiting for it to come in to see if i even liked the ring at all, or if it was just pretty cause it was blown up on a page in a big book. well...everyone was in on it...even our UPS lady who delivered to molinelli's. the ring came in rather quickly and i had no idea cause lance, my boss, told me some lie about how they had to send it back cause there was a manufacturing problem with it. so i patiently waited everyday for it to arrive.

 

little did i know, it had arrived, the UPS lady snuck it in, norman came in after i left and picked out a diamond, they had it mounted in the ring, and gave it to norman to propose without putting anything in the computer til he did. all the while i am completely clueless.

 

now let me tell you, i had my doubts. and i questioned people to death, but apparently everyone i know are good liars. {scary?...probably}

 

anyway....

 

so that day we went to brandons homecoming, then norman left to go "home teach" aka: finish final preparations, and i caught up with my friend, brandon. we then went to normans parents house for his grandpa's birthday dinner. while we're there we get a call from my sister, kelsey. she said she has a wedding photo shoot coming up and wants norm and i to come out to some wheat field and practice posing for her. i told her no, cause we were at norman's house. she argued with me and made me get norman on the phone to ask him. he said yes {of course} and his mom followed up with "don't be too long, please." {all very convincing acts by everyone...i was still in the dark} i even invited his sister, brittany to come with us, she gave norm a hesistant look {asking with her eyes if it was ok for her to come} he gave her the nod of approval and she hopped in the car with us.

 

well we drove out to the middle of no where! a hay field that had just been harvested out by the pocatello airport. the whole way there i'm making jokes. norm and i are in our sunday attire still and i mention "hey, this is kinda what we'll be wearing in our engagement pictures.....if we ever get engaged" {we had some disagreements on when that would be....norman was trying to mislead me of course}. we drive up and kelsey is waiting for us at the top of a little hill.

 

we get out of the car and she positions us where she wants us. takes a couple pictures:

 

 

she then tells norman to get on one knee...as she does i say "what's he gonna do, propose?" ...no one laughed...i was thinkin geez, tough crowd. so then she tells me to sit on his knee....and i'm also thinking kelsey, don't do this pose for someone's wedding pics...it's pretty corny. then she tells me to look in the opposite direction, so i do....as i'm doing so, my arm that is around norman can feel his heart beating at a rather fast rate....too fast.... so i turn to look at him and say "why is your heart beating so fast?" {still have no idea}

 

well as i said this my sister yells at me to turn my head back! {he had the box in his hand, luckily i didn't see it and quickly turned around}.

 

 

this is me trying not to laught because in my head i'm thiking wow, kelsey is really serious about this fake photo shoot.

 

she tells me to look back at norman:

 

 

completely shocked! norman said something to the affect of "i love you, will you marry me?" i sat there with this face for a good 10-15 seconds not saying anything....all i could think about was is that the ring from the book? how did he get it? how did he pull this off without me knowing?

 

i know, probably not the most romantic thing that should be going through my head when the man of your dreams asks you to be his for forever, but then i snapped out of it, and of course said yes!!

 

right as i did, norman's best friend, tyeson, jumped out of kelsey's truck with a video camera and had been filming the whole thing from in there, while hiding.

 

the schemers: britt, kelsey, norm, tye

afterwards we went to normans parents house where both families were waiting for us with dessert and a set up so we could watch the film tyeson took of the proposal.

 

best.day.ever.

 

{oh, and just a side note...to everyone who knew i was going to be getting engaged that day and let me sleep past my alarm so that i couldn't shower that morning and just threw myself together.....a big no thank you to you!}

 

 

 

i love this man with all of my heart, he is honestly my aboslute best friend. always the person i go to for everything. he is my lover. he is so sweet, genuine, caring and i got completely spoiled by being able to call him mine for eternity. i am feeling so blessed as i reflect on that sunday exactly 2 years ago today and am grateful i was sealed to this man in the temple. a complete blessing that i often feel like i don't know what i did to deserve.

 

i love you, babe. for forever.

happy engagement day anniversary!



12.11.11....

So...Today is our first anniversary!

We made it through our first year, which they say is the hardest, so... i guess we're good to go right? :)

precious.

So Norman and I had decided a while ago that we were going to switch off every other year who was in charge of what we are doing for our anniversary. And of course...I made Norman have the first year.

So first off, being that it is Sunday, we went to church and I was a wee bit antsy the whole time. couldn't wait to get home and start our celebration!

So we got home, and had to wait an hour and a half before going to tithing settlement. Then the rest of the day was ours.

First on the list: gift exchange.

I gave Norman a nice Seiko solar powered watch from my place of work ... and then had it engraved on the back to make it extra special :) He loved it.

Then it was Norman's turn...He is probably the most thoughtful guy ever and his gift was so precious to me and always will be. We had previously talked about how we wanted this first years gift to be more of a long lasting gift.

Now before I tell you what it is, I have to tell you that Norman came to me the day before telling me he wanted to make a tradition of on our anniversary sharing ten memories we have from the previous year together. So both he and I had written ours out and would share them after gift giving.

So...after I gave him his watch. He gave me a leather bound journal.
He proceeded to tell me that he wanted us to write our ten things down in this journal and anything else throughout the year that we wanted to. Any day and any time we could go write a little note in it to the other, or write an experience we had with each other..anything we wanted. but every year on our anniversary we were going to write the ten memories down and also some things we want to work on the following year in our marriage.

so sweet.

I then opened it to find a message from him. It was so heartfelt and touching. I loved it.

So we wrote down and shared our ten memories which some were hilarious and some were really tender. It was fun to reflect back on the last year we had spend together. we then continued in our celebrations...

{the journal}

After that, Norman said that also every year he wanted to somehow incorporate a breakfast meal, whether it's the morning of, or the night of, or something, but he said he wanted to do this because our first meal together besides our luncheon was breakfast the following morning at the Red Lion Hotel.

So, we made my favorite.

German Pancakes and Hashbrowns

{the after picture...we were hungry}

We then watched a movie...Dear John...this movie has a special meaning to us. So Norman wanted to start another tradition of watching it on our anniversary.

After that was finished....we had gotten the top of our cake from my mom's freezer. and yes, we ate it....and did some other things...

12.11.10

12.11.11

Norman then decided he wanted to play a little bit...

by the way...the cake still tasted delicious.

{this made me laugh so hard i could barely take the picture}

Then, Norman thought that because of what i did to him last year.....

he had to get me back...

Norman made our first anniversary so special and i love him so much. He is the most thoughtful man and so sweet to me. I am a lucky girl to be married to such a person and I am so excited to be spending the rest of my life and the rest of eternity with him. I love you, Norman.

Now onto Christmas. It is my favorite holiday and I love Christmas lights no matter where they are! Here is our Christmas tree...very cute...last year we didn't really have time to put all the ornaments and stuff on it.

But here's the beaut...

merry christmas.