I Love Us

Last weekend, we celebrated our anniversary and it was awesome!

It started out at the Provo Temple.
(No surprise there!)

Then we headed up to Salt Lake for dinner at The Roof like we did a few years ago. We started and ended our delicious meal with dessert.

 Jonathan noticed that we were sitting at the same table when we were there for our 3rd anniversary. I bet they are going to be holding it for us in another 3 years!

Next, we went to the Disney Store and fulfilled our childhood dreams. We each got our own light-saber! It is awesome! We worked on our dueling skills as we wandered around Temple Square.

Light-sabers + Anthropologie = AWESOME ANNIVERSARY!

I am so blessed to have Jonathan as my husband.

He is incredibly patient.

He makes the most delicious dinners.

He honors his priesthood.

He acknowledges his weaknesses and works through them.

He is easy to love.

He magnifies his callings.

He is graduating in 9 weeks!

He supports me and my goals.

He listens to understand.

He loves me and our family.

He is my best friend.

He is all mine for eternity.

Spiritual Enlightenment: Eternal Marriage

Another Year

Last week we celebrated the birthday of our family!

“The day that a couple kneel across the altar in the sacred House of the Lord becomes the most important day of their life because on that day you create a new eternal family.”

President Gordon B. Hinckley

Since it was Friday, I went to work as usual and didn't expect anything out of the ordinary. Well, after lunch a man came walking towards my desk in a suit and my favorite tie with flowers. Jonathan totally surprised me! He had been planning on delivering flowers for a few days and had a hard time not telling me. All the girls that I sit by thought it was adorable.

That same night we went to the temple and did the sealings for some of our family. As we were in the sealing room, I felt the same excitement doing the sealings for our family as I did when Jonathan and I were sealed. It was beautiful.

On Saturday, we went to dinner after finishing our shift at the temple. This time I surprised Jonathan. Earlier in the week, I talked him out of going to Tucanos for our anniversary dinner. After he surprised me with flowers, I decided to surprise him with an amazing dinner! He was very happy with my surprise.

It doesn't feel like it's been 5 years since we were married, but we've been through a lot during that time. Having Jonathan by my side through it all has made the hard times more bearable and the good times even better.

Three and a Half In

It's absolutely crazy that we have been married for three and a half years. There are times when it feels like it's only been three and half months and other times when it feels like it's been three and a half decades. (Even though neither one of us is that old!) 

Our time here in Utah has been so wonderful because now we get to see if the two of us can really do this marriage thing on our own. FYI, we can!

Jonathan is just amazing. He does so much with school and taking care of me. Just thinking about it makes me tired for him! Since moving here, he has become a stellar student. He still has a ways to go, but he's determined to get done.

I love him so much and look forward to seeing where the next three and a half years take us!

Three

Last week we celebrated our third anniversary. It's wild to think that we've been married for 3 whole years now. To celebrate, we made plans to go up to Salt Lake for dinner and then do a session in the temple. Things didn't quite turn out that way.

This was our view during dinner.

We were caught in some traffic and were a little late to our dinner in the Joseph Smith Memorial building. That made us miss the last session of the day at the temple. Instead we sat outside (it was only kind of cold weird for Utah in February) and talked.

We agreed that this past year has been the hardest one of our marriage, but it brought us closer together than we were before it. Looking back, if everything had gone perfectly according to our plans, we would have missed out on so many opportunities and chances to see what we could do together. I am so grateful that I have such an amazing husband at my side who is always there for me when life gets to be too much for me to handle. He loves me unconditionally and is such an amazing example to me. I am so blessed to have him and am so grateful that I get to keep him for eternity because we were sealed in the temple 3 years ago.

Lover's Month

When I was growing up, I don't ever remember really caring about Valentine's Day (especially when there were no more class parties and candy Valentines). Now I love the entire month of February! Not only for Valentine's Day, but also for our anniversary. I don't feel silly for leaving up all of my decorations for the entire month.

Jonathan and I take turns being in charge of celebrating Valentine's Day and our anniversary. This year he was in charge of Valentine's Day and can I just say that he made the best meal ever! He decided to cook dinner for us and I just figured it would be a really simple recipe. I was totally wrong! He found a recipe for Chicken Paillard with Cherry Sauce & Parsley Rice. I was really skeptical at first, but it was sweet and tart and delicious. (I LOVE tart!)

There was even enough for lunch the next day!

Here is the craft that I was hinting at in this post. I have been seeing so many cute embroidered crafts on Pinterest, I just had to try it for myself.

They didn't turn out perfectly, but it's a start!

A little something special thing that I tried to do for Jonathan was give him a cute little Valentine each day leading up to Valentine's Day. I was a slacker and only gave him about 5 or 6, but that means I can give him the other ones throughout the year.

For our anniversary we went out to dinner to Piatti. Holy cow do I love that place! It was a lot fancier than what Jonathan was expecting, but he really enjoyed it. (To give you an idea of how fancy it was on a scale of Ruth's Chris to McDonald's it ranked around PF Chang's.) While dinner was so good, we were both really excited about dessert. 

A little over two years ago, Jonathan and I went to the Imax theater with his brother Taylor and his wife Kenzie. Afterward I introduced them to Rick's Diner. All they serve are delectable desserts. (It's part of our tradition when we go to the ballet as well.) 

This is only a small portion of one of the two cases of desserts!

 Jonathan had a hard time picking out his dessert, but he finally settled on Death by Chocolate. I am pleased to report that in spite of the name, Jonathan is still alive!

Isn't that cake beautiful!

Jonathan's Death by Chocolate and my White Chocolate Mousse Raspberry Tart!

Jonathan's laughing at me because this is my 5th time trying to get a good picture!

 I love February (even though it seems like it went by really quick!) I love that I have 2 special days to celebrate my love for my sweet Mr. Nelson!

Two Years Down, Eternity To Go!

It's true. This week we are celebrating our 2nd anniversary. I don't know when that happened!
To celebrate, we are going out to have an Italian dinner and dessert at our very favorite place. It will be fun!

Here's some pictures from our year together.

Going on our first date all over again!

Checking out the solar eclipse.

Nap time

Playing around with my mom's iPad

Visiting the Oakland temple

Modeling in Idaho

Sleeping under the stars in Idaho

Hanging out in Yellowstone

My favorite part of Yellowstone

Our latest family picture

This year has been wonderful and I can't wait to see what this one brings!

I Love Labor Day

Labor day is a very special day to me. It's not all about having a 3 day weekend or awesome sales at the mall.

via

It's special because an experience I had two years ago. I was using the extra day to catch up on some math homework. I was sitting at the kitchen table with all of my notes and books. As I was sitting there, I couldn't focus. I fought as hard as I could to get some work done, but my mind continued to wander. I decided to take a little break and leaned back in my chair. I let my mind wander and the thought came into my head you're going to marry Jonathan.  My immediate response to the thought was duh I'm going to marry him! At this point in our relationship, we had been dating for only three and a half months and yet I knew that Jonathan was going to be my husband. Just a few weeks later, Jonathan let the entire world know that we were going to be married.

For me, Labor day will always remind me of the day that I decided to marry my sweet and wonderful Jonathan. I still remember that day like it was yesterday. I love waking up every morning next to my best friend.

Two Years Ago...

Two years ago, there was this guy that I knew who really liked me and wanted to date me. I liked him just fine, but I wasn't sure if I wanted anything more than just a friend. Luckily for that guy, I was researching for a lesson and I read that girls need to go out with a guy once before they should decline any more dates. I knew that sooner or later I would get a phone call from him and sure enough, it came on May 18th. I was never around my phone at that time and so this guy left a message saying he had a question for me (his mom taught him to never ever ask a girl out on a message). Now that really puzzled me and so I called him back. No answer. I didn't really care and went on with my evening. He called back around 8:30pm. He just wanted to see if I wanted some ice cream. I agreed to go with him and quickly got ready to go. He picked me up and we went to Big Spoon. It was a rather chilly evening so we sat near the fire pit. We ended up talking for 2 or 3 hours. He then took me home and gave me an awkward one-armed hug and left. I didn't realize at the time that I was going to marry that man in less than one year.

I love the story of how we ended up together. I think it's really funny. Anyways, I decided that we needed to do something special for the anniversary of our first date. So, we planned on going out on our first date all over again! (I completely forgot that we did this exact same thing last year. Sorry honey!)

It started out with an awkward message on my phone and then we planned on going out a 9.

We had way too much fun pretending that it was really our first date. We did the usual chitchat and had a hard time not holding hands. We sat around the fire pit and did a little more pretending, but then it was just too much.

Lounging as we enjoyed our frozen yogurt.

I am so blessed to have such a wonderful husband that takes such good care of me. I love all of our silliness and the time that we get to spend together.

A Whole Year!

It is totally unbelievable that Jonathan and I have been married for a whole year! It feels like we're still newlyweds. This really has been the quickest year EVER! Since our anniversary happens to be two weeks after Valentine's Day, Jonathan and I split up who was in charge of each celebration. I had Valentine's and Jonathan had our anniversary. I have been looking forward to see what Jonathan was planning all month long and it was perfect.

We started the celebration the night before our anniversary by exchanging gifts. Not all of them were there, but they will be coming soon! I think Jonathan's favorite gift was a Spanish Buzz action figure. We LOVE Spanish Buzz! Jonathan is still trying to learn some of his pick up lines, and hopefully will learn his dance moves too! My favorite gift was the adorable trench coat he got me. He wasn't sure what to get me so I made the suggestion that he should go shopping with my mom because she knows me so well. Thanks mom!

We dressed each other and then headed out for dinner. We went to Fat's and the food was AMAZING! My favorite was definitely the eggplant. The sauce is what makes it so good. We ate way too much and we still have tons of leftovers! After dinner we went to DQ for dipped cones. It was Jonathan's first time having a dipped cone and I won't be surprised if this turns into a new tradition.

On Sunday, my allergies were so bad that I couldn't go to church or do anything but sleep. Jonathan was the best because he not only taught my class, but also taught his own class. He really is the best! I took a long nap and when Jonathan came home, we took another nap. It was delightful! I started to almost feel human again. Then we watched a few movies and made some rice crispy treats that ended up exploding all over the living room! It was great!

Jonathan is such an amazing man. This past year has been the best because I got to spend so much more time with my best friend. It is amazing how similar we already are.We agree about almost everything (except food), but when it comes down to the important things we are on the same page. I can't imagine life being better than this. I truly feel like I'm the luckiest woman in the world because I get to have Jonathan forever!