Our Endless Love

It's that time of year again that we sit back and reflect our marriage. Today marks eight years. Crazy to think about!

It would be easy for us to feel that we haven't accomplished what we thought we would by now like the fact that we only have one child and most couples have two or three by now. But I like to think about the hard work we've put into getting our one child. The closeness it has brought to our marriage could not have happened any other way. Referring to how young we got married, I recently told Gregg how lucky we were that neither of us turned out to be psycho and if we are we must both be on the same psychoness level. I could go on and on about how much I love him, but I'll save that for Gregg personally. {your welcome}

So here's to eight beautiful years and not being psycho.  Love you babe!

I just had to share these pics I found of us from Emme's sealing.  This guy makes me laugh.

Love is...

Cleaning up my throw up.

Yep, you read right.  I had a rough week as far as my body is concerned.  I came home from work Tuesday in immense pain from cysts on my ovaries making my endometriosis  flare up to no end.  When my body couldn't take the pain any longer I threw up down the hall, all over the bathroom, all over me, and finally into the toilet.  TMI, I know, but I don't really care.  The last time I threw up was in 11th grade when I had the flu, so it was a surprise to me.  I felt like I was five years old and unable to make it to the bathroom on time.  Gregg was right behind and said "Just go to bed I'll clean up everything."  Well, I had to shower first, but when I got out I had clean clothes waiting on the bed and a garbage can next to the bed in case I had another episode. (Which I did.)

The point of all this is to share what a great husband I have.  He has a horrible gag reflex and yet throughout the years he has cleaned up my puke, emptied my bed pans, held my hand while I screamed at a gyno appt, gone to the store millions of times to buy "feminine" products, and given me blessing after blessing to comfort and heal my broken body and heart. 

I'm positive he got the raw end of the deal when we said "I do." We're still standing seven years later.  We've been a little beaten up a long the way, but we're stronger and blessed beyond comprehension. 

Happy Anniversary.

First Day

 I realized I haven't shared our story of how Emme came to us.  Like almost all adoption stories ours was a miracle.  Our story really started years ago, but I will start with the day we found out. 

Our case worker called on Sept. 1st and asked if she could bring some papers to sign because they were getting audited.  We had just barely moved to a different location so we thought nothing of it.  Adoption papers are never ending.  She asked how things were going and I said it was hard.  Waiting is hard.  She agreed, but said she believed in adoption karma and if you do all you can you will be blessed.  She then gave us the papers to sign.  We both quickly read through and initialed each line, but started to get a little confused towards the end.  See below....

We both looked up in shock and as I saw the tears in our case worker's eyes I knew it was true.  We were getting a baby girl.  I kept saying "I'm in shock!  I'm in shock!"  Could this really be true?!  Was our trial of 5 years really coming to an end?  and fast....

We were able to call Emme's aunt {J} and make arrangements for a few days later to meet her and {M}(our birth mom) in Idaho.  Yep, that's right!  Idaho!!  How cool is that?  

At Olive Garden a few days later Gregg and I arrived first.  I've never been so close to throwing up from nerves before.  We were so scared {M} would meet us and not like us.  The minute they came around the corner and we met, all nerves went away and all we felt was the comfort of the spirit.  We loved {M} from the second we met her.  Her and I have so much in common, and I could see how the Lord prepared us for each other.  We made plans to meet again so Gregg and I could meet the whole family.  It was nice to get to know Emme's birth family.  We felt very lucky.  {M} let us know that she had thought about it and wanted Gregg and I to be the first to hold the baby.  How amazing is she?  How did we get so lucky to have {M}?

We then had a week to prepare for baby and work out arrangements at work.  We both had butterflies all week.  Then back to Idaho we went.  Emme was born c-section bright and early.  Gregg and I waited in the recovery room and could hear Emme screaming.  It was so exciting.

Me waiting in the recovery room.

 

 

They wheeled her out and she was all scrunched up and mad as heck.  Her cry was as cute as can be.

My first time holding her.

Gregg's first time holding her.

Mad at the doctor while he was doing his tests.

Showing {M} Emme for the first time.  

{M} was pretty sick from the c-section, poor thing. 

Feeding Emme later that day.

{M} taking a picture of Emme.  

Gregg and I have truly been blessed.  {M} has such an awesome family.  We felt so comfortable with them.  We're thankful we live in a time that adoptions are open and Emme will know her birth mom and the amazing person she is. 

Birthday Traditions

Gregg's birthday festivities continued with the annual Sunday celebration at Bruce and Deb's.  As tradition follows you get to choose dinner, eat with a Happy Birthday plate, and choose whatever dessert you want.  As far as I'm concerned, we'll never get too old for this.  Happy Birthday Babe!  I love you!

SURPRISE! Gregg Is THIRTY

I threw Gregg a surprise birthday party the weekend before his actual birthday.  Thanks to the help of Tricia it was a HUGE success!  My brother Quinn also got roped in to running a trillion errands with me the day of the party.  So a big thanks to him too.  Gregg thought that we were going to hang out with Tricia and Brad, but when he opened the door to their house he found that there was a lot more people than he was expecting.

                                                                      SURPRISE!!

This is Gregg's "ah, babe" face.

We played a game where everyone wrote down a memory about Gregg.  I read the stories and Gregg had to guess who wrote it.  It brought some great laughs.  Staci brought up their handshake in her memory, so here they are demonstrating. 

Part of the group

The yummy cookies Tricia made. 

Peanut butter cake from Leatherby's

 

He almost got them all.  Let's face it...there were a lot of candles.

 

Awkward?  I think so...

Easter "Eggs"travaganza

Our Easter weekend consisted of decorating eggs, finding Easter baskets, General Conference, and a yummy lunch at Grandma's J's. General Conference was awesome this year. We heard some things that we really needed to hear. I'm so thankful for the Savior and the burdens he lifts in my life.



With our eggs. Mine are actually on the left and Gregg's are on the right.

Our Easter Baskets.

Gregg's mad photo taking skills.

A Lucky Girl

We recently celebrated out 6th anniversary. It was my turn to plan and thanks to Tricia and Brad I surprised Gregg and we took off to St. George. I packed all our bags and when Gregg got home from work we got in the car and left. He had no idea what was going on. (I even made him drive.) About 20 miles outside of St. George he said "okay, I just need to know if we have 20 miles left or a 130." I lied and said 130, but then felt bad and told him the truth. It ended up pouring rain most of the time, but it was still a wonderful get-a-way.

So here goes the 600 things I love about us....

1. I'm totally kidding and realize even if I did write 600 things no one would read them. But, here ARE a few funny things that I would like to remember about our trip.

-Me forgetting Gregg's hair pomade. Going to Walgreen's, buying the generic brand of LA Looks for .99. Gregg applying it to his hair in the car. Using a 1/3 of it just to get a little bit of hair standing up. Us, laughing that I would EVER buy such horrible hair product, but that I would rather Gregg do his hair with something then nothing at all. Hey, I'm a hairstylist.

-Being called KIDDOS by our waiter who was probably our age. Gregg's salmon being completely raw in the middle. Waiter telling us, if we didn't want it that way, we should have said so in the beginning because that's the way the chef prefers it. (what?!)  Waiter later apologizing, admitting it was pretty raw.  Getting free Creme Brulee, just for us kiddos.  

-Playing Bananagrams on our phones while waiting for the movie to start.  No one else in the theater until, a group walks in and sits right next to us. 

-Searching for shopping places on our phones.  Gregg finding a shopping center in Hurricane.  Driving there in the pouring rain.  Find out our shopping center is a FUNERAL HOME, FURNITURE STORE, and two empty spaces.  Gregg, doing a circle around the "shopping center".  Me laughing hysterical, asking Gregg if he would like to shop for our caskets.   Driving back to St. George, in sprinkling rain. 

-Googleing  sites around St. George.  Discovering there is volcanoes.  Driving to them.  Two tiny black hills.  Take pictures anyway, because we drove all that way. 

-Spending time doing anything, with the one I love...Priceless.

fo-toes

We had some pictures taken by the amazing Duston Todd back in April. These below are just a few of the pictures we had taken on that fine day.

He did it!!

We are so excited to announce that Gregg is done with school! He's worked full time since we've been married and gone to school at nights and all his hard work has finally payed off. Good job Babe! I'm so dang proud of you!

What Not to Wear

A little while ago I was complaining to Gregg that I had absolutely nothing to wear. As most of you can relate this is not REALLY the case, I just didn't have anything I wanted to wear. Gregg simply said he would pick something out for me and I just laughed knowing ANYTHING he picked would not be acceptable for the function we were going to. So he took this as a challenge and when I got out of the shower I had this lovely outfit waiting for me. He then explained why he picked each article of clothing.
HAT: so I didn't have to do my hair
LONG SLEEVED SHIRT: so I didn't get cold
CARDIGAN: I actually don't know why he picked that
SHORTS: so I didn't get too hot
SOCKS: to keep my feet warm
SHOES: and I quote "to keep things classy"

Ya gotta love him. It made me laugh anyway...