We were so thankful to Aunt Rebekah for using some of her vacation time, along with taking extra time off work to come help us drive from Washington back to Texas! What a champion driver she has been for us both last year and this year again! We are so incredibly thankful she could come with us, so I could slip in the back to help feed Joshua or get lunches and help out with the kids. We were so blessed to have your company and help Beka! We love you! Here is the beautiful sun coming up over the mountains somewhere along our journey home!
Woot woot! Partay in the van....blankets and pillows go everywhere when you are road-tripping 2054 miles! Love this crew!
We were so thankful to arrive back home safely to be back with Daddy again! Daddy arranged to get us all tickets to our ward social activity of going to a Texas Rangers Game!! Beka was super excited to come to a Texas baseball game! We were so glad to have her come along, the timing was perfect! Aunt Beka loves baseball, especially Mariners baseball, and we loved the time together. :)
We tried to make the most of Aunt Beka's visit to see us by going to some pretty neat places!!! We celebrated Isaac's 7th birthday by going to the SeaLife Aquarium with our passes, from Katelyn's Young Environmentalist Program! Yay for aquariums, cousins and this HUGE monster of a crab, probably 4-5 feet from one side to the other!!!
Aunt Beka made a super yummy signature ice cream oreo cake creation, everyone loved it!! Super delicious and fun memories for us all!
We also celebrated our 9th-year Anniversary that week too!!!! Thanks to the Heaths for watching our kiddos so we could go on a lovely date to Cheesecake Factory! We happened to walk past these amazing couches made by lovesac on display in the mall by the restaurant too! The cool part about them is that they can be completely disassembled and reorganized into entirely new couch layouts too! So impressed, but they are super duper expensive, so maybe that can be on our 5-10 year savings list of worthwhile investments for our home and family. We'll see!
The best part about the night, though, was getting to spend it with this guy! He is completely and entirely my other half. :) He completely complements all of my personality and character strengths and weaknesses, is so thoughtful, patient, loving and kind to me and our sweet children. I am so thankful our paths crossed in that social 180 dance class over 9 years ago, for his patience and perseverance in our relationship and his faithfulness in pressing forward, so that I could find someone who suits me so well, who loves the Lord and honors his Priesthood, who strives to do what is right, keeps us all on track and diligently works so hard to provide and take care of us all. I love that our first date was to do temple baptisms. I love that he could make doing homework together so much fun with smoothie creations, games of tag, food fights, and random scavenger hunts together. I love that we would do scripture chases together for fun and he was so knowledgeable of the scriptures, knowing so many stories just like the back of his hand. I love that he would do some super involved and ridiculously silly random handshakes with me and enjoy a night looking up at the stars together anytime. I loved doing service in the temple with him on a regular weekly basis. I loved listening to his Spanish music (fresh off from the mission) in his rodeo too. I loved that he was up for any volunteer service project day, including Martin Luther King Service Day, with me and that we were able to spend time tutoring some middle-school-aged-youth in our area together too!
I loved our talks about anything and the deeper, profound talks on what truly matters most. I loved pretending to eat a juicy apple into each others' ears and hearing the funny sound effects different fruits and food would make...watermelons and peaches are probably the best. I love that he was a family guy, with a big family, who honored, looked up to and respected his parents. I loved that he was able to give his sister a blessing when she had a seizure-like experience, and how ready and willing he was to serve and help her out.
I love his smile and looking into his eyes, that's where I can get the most peaceful, meaningful, and reassuring glimpses into forever. :) They truly melt my heart. I love being with him, being in his arms, playing board and card games with him, trying to show him truly how I will forever retain my place as master qwirkle player...hehe...and knowing he will generally, probably pull out a win in ALMOST everything else...haha..he's just really good at practically all things strategic that way, (*Just don't try to get him to play a game all about luck...lol....WOAH does that throw him off his rocker, and out of his strong playing field...lol*) but I still love playing and being with him along for the fun, adventuresome ride anyways. Even if it does happen to mean losing....some.....well, maybe lots of the time. =D I still love that I get to have this wonderful man by my side forever anyways!
I am so thankful for his diligence, hard-work, patience, kindness, funness and baing such a wonderful father and leader in our home. He will never pass up the chance to toss sweet little Joshy up in the air, or give tickles or snuggles to Gracie, or play a game of duel basketball or monopoly cards with Nathan and Katelyn. We have decided he is pretty much the fastest and quickest at, just about everything, and so when you take Daddy on at anything, prepare to be schooled....it gives all the kids a good challenge to know he really is always going to give something his best!!! I sure love him and am so thankful we get to be on this journey of life together and get to grow alongside each other. He truly helps complete my life in so many unspeakable ways and I am forever grateful to have him. Sure love you honey! Happy 9th year!!
I loved this quote about marriage I found during one of my morning scripture studies. As we read our scriptures everyday together (thankfully, we started that pattern before we weer even married and have continued that ever since!), kneel together in prayer each day (love this pattern we started day one too), and strive to put each other first, I know, we truly can be and have been so blessed. This teaches us that "God will then guide you...Your companionship will sweeten through the years, your love will strengthen. Your appreciation for one another will grow." I know that to be so true and am thankful for each day we get to spend learning and growing alongside each other through the ups and the downs and with our sweet little family and getting to experience everything in between! The past 9 years have had their sweet, fun, hard, challenging, and soul-stretching times, but I wouldn't choose anyone else to have right by my side all along the way! I am so thankful for our marriage and knowing this truly can last forever, indeed, through the Atonement of our Savior and His restored gospel, it never has to end!
Happy 9 years!
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