Three Years

Of that smile...

Of dancing in the kitchen...

Of singing in the rain...

Of talking and laughing late into the night...

Of making things hard, and making them better...

Of always heading back to what really matters...

Side by side...

We'll walk forever holding hands.

Love. It's what life is all about.

Walking In Memphis

OOOKKAAYYY....

So I've been absent for a while, but seriously, it's been a little crazy. Okay, no excuses. But I'm trying to make up for it right now. We're going to go back in time to April.

Brett graduated from his Engineering Basic Officer Leadership Course in Missouri! He was mostly just happy to be done with school for real for a while. He went to two more weeks of training after that before we actually left Missouri. The first weekend of the month we put our truck on a boat to be sent to Hawaii in hopes that it would make it there before we did so we would have some transportation. This little escapade involved driving to Tennessee to pick up a car Brett's parents were so nice to let us borrow, and drive back to Missouri the next night. But it was fun to spend Conference Weekend with his family, even though it seemed like a whirlwind of a weekend. The next morning we drove the truck to St. Louis to send it off. And this meant that I had to drive a manual transmission for the next month, which I have never done longer than like, well, 10 minutes at a time when Brett would make me do it. But I am proud to say I only stalled once at a stop sign on a hill. I never did get over being nervous to drive every time I got in the car to go somewhere though.

I took another trip to Tennessee with Brett's mom just after graduation to be there when the movers came to get the things we had left in his parent's garage. Once again, they are very kind for letting us stash our things like that. I got back to Missouri with a week left to pack up our remaining things, have one more set of movers come for just a small shipment of things, and clean the whole house so we could check out the next weekend when his training ended. But of course, I left most of the cleaning to the last two days, as it always happens. But we did it :) Brett just got bored and tired of all the cleaning and packing at midnight...and this is what happens when he finds foil lying around...

And after a few hours of homelessness between the cleaning check and Brett's class ending...we started our drive to Tennessee!

Brett spent two weeks working at the recruiting station near his house, but he only had to work part time, which left lots of play time. So we had fun. It was nice for him to have a break.

Zipline rides and landing in the pond

Shooting practice in the back yard

Canoeing and kayaking down the flooding river in the kayak Brett built when he was probably 14 :) 

(I have a picture of it, and it's really cool, but it's on my phone...)

Four wheeling through the woods and the mud

Running through the fields with the deer

Playing with Lydia and Sadie

Fishing in the pond and only Reed being successful

Brett hunting snapping turtles

A night walking in Memphis, complete with a stroll down Beale Street and almost riding in a Cinderella pumpkin...until we asked how much it would cost!

Dinner at the historic Majestic theater in Memphis

 

Watching the flooding of the Mississippi

Brett fixed and sold his old dirtbikes!

And front row seats to a Redbirds game...with fireworks at the end! (Thanks to Lindsay Blain)

I think I'm going to leave it at that for now. Just know it was a fun two weeks. And then we flew to Hawaii...

Hawaii will be another post. I'm getting there. Oh yea, and so will the baby :)

But for now, I'm going to the beach!

Easter Cards

So this is what we sent to our parents in Easter cards this year (its a Mad Gab, if you couldn't figure it out):

WEAR HALF INK ABE ABE BEE!!!!

Cool huh?

Yea that's what we thought too :)

Ramblings...

So it has been a while...and I don't have much to say.

But I bought these shoes.

I'm sorry if you don't believe me, but I did it. Not normal for me, but I did it. We'll see how many times I wear them. They make walking quite difficult for me. But I bought them for a reason. And Brett liked them. He actually picked them out. I had seen them and walked right by not even thinking of trying them on. 

They were the first ones he picked.

So I did it.

And I bought them.

And it was a fun night at the dining out.

Also, Hawaii is getting closer. We actually got our tickets today. So it is for sure now. We're going whether we like it or not. But we like it anyway. :)

Other than that...

We brought our truck to St. Louis to get shipped to Hawaii so it will be there when we get there

We are driving a manual car right now. I get scared I'm going to back into someone on a hill every time I get in the car to go somewhere. But we're blessed to have a car, and Brett's parents are wonderful for letting us use it.

We are living with barely anything in the house. Our living room looks kind of funny.

We're hoping all of our stuff makes it to one place in Hawaii...storage in UT, TN, and here.

Brett graduates on Friday!

Little Ones...

I don't know if I have mentioned this at all, but I got called to the Nursery in our ward here in Missouri.

Love at first sight.

How many people get called to spend their church hours learning from 15 of the cutest children - the ones the Lord has always told us that we are to be like in order to truly come to him? I love Sunday School and Relief Society, don't get me wrong, because I love to learn. But not everyone gets to be called to the Nursery.

And I have been blessed.

Someday... when I have a little boy, I want to hang this in his room...

And if I have a little girl...this one...

I can't look at these and not realize how blessed I am to have children in my life. Even if they aren't mine.

I Love Long Weekends

We just got through Brett's last four-day weekend here in Missouri. I'm going miss these long weekends. A lot.

I was in NH for the whole week before, 

and I even missed Valentine's Day. We aren't doing well with these "love celebrations." We weren't together on our anniversary last summer either. Guess that's just how we roll... :)

But I left Brett little surprises for when he got home from his week out in the field. And he left me surprises for when I got home. (Rose petals, candy, and roses all through the house)

 I love him.

Lots and lots.

So we took our last chance and went to the Missouri church sites for the weekend with our friends. We started in Independence, went to Liberty Jail, then Far West, Adam-ondi-Ahman, and Haun's Mill. It was a perfectly wonderful weekend. It is amazing the spirit of the people that you can feel in these places. Adam-ondi-Ahman was still beautiful, even in the middle of the winter when the trees and the fields are brown. And it was probably my favorite stop of the trip. There are no guides are tours or anything. It is just peaceful, and perfect. I know nothing is perfect, but I think I can describe the feelings there as just that. Perfect. 

This one I thought was cute...it's our friend's daughter.

To finish off our long weekend I got to go running with Brett. Happy happy day. I haven't gotten to do that in a long time because of his training, and I forgot until yesterday how much I love it.

And I got to hold his hand all day everyday.

What could be better than that?

Two more things...sorry this is so long. I just procrastinate doing this for long periods of time.

It snowed before I went to NH...so we built a snowman family! This was the first, and the tallest.

 And we don't have a sled so we used our recycling bin and sledded down the street :) I think he looks like one of Sid's toys from Toy Story from behind.

 Well that's all for now. Lots of love to you all :)

Snow and Ice

It snowed and iced ALL day yesterday. Things I loved:

Brett was home all day with me.

The car doors were frozen shut.

Watching Brett do donuts and slide around the cul-de-sac we live on.

Snow.

That the plows didn't come out for hours. Strange. (At least compared to NH)

Everything was closed. Well mostly. Except for Wal-Mart.

Trees with snow on them.

The three or four layers of ice on the car.

Huge snow drifts in the road from the wind.

Walking on top of the snow because of the layers of ice and snow mixed. 

And snow.

Snow :)

He was trying to break the ice off the door and handle so it would open....

I don't know if you can tell, but that ice was stubborn.

 

 

 Oh yes. And our neighbors probably hate us. Well mostly me. Because this is what happens (see picture below) when you mix a bed on wheels + Brett tickling me + Brett not knowing what the word STOP means + Brett trying to tickle my feet and me STRONGLY disliking my feet being tickled because it's torture so I slither away as much as I can so he can't reach them + I laugh really loud and yell at him because it's just not nice... :)

Sorry for the unmade bed. But yes, it is supposed to be over by the nightstand.

But he makes me laugh. So it's okay.

In all of living have much fun and laughter. Life is to be enjoyed, not just endured.

President Gordon B. Hinckley