The Amazing Date Race.

Bryan, Megan, and I put on The Amazing Date Race for Jarom and his roommates. It ended up being the coolest date! Bry did such a good job making it exactly like the Amazing Race with all the clues and folders. He sent them to Sleepy Ridge golf course where they had to hit three balls past the furthest pole at the driving range, Neilsen's Grove to find four clues and feed the ducks, Trafalga to either earn 70 tickets and buy a prize or do a color by number, and then to the BYU castle to get their goodnight kiss (aka chocolate kisses). The last leg didn't work out so well because there was a punk rock concert going on at the castle; some of the teams may be bitter (Jarom and his cute date, Jill) because this led to the team in last place winning the entire race, Cousin Ryan and Erin, ending up getting first! It turned out great and was so fun to watch them all running around trying to win! It definitely brought back memories of the dating days as we dropped their first clue off at King Henry. We had some perfect times there! Hopefully Megan and Jarom will have the same fortune we did. :) And it just so happened that where they all planned to meet was right where Bryan purposed to me. Three years later and I still feel like the luckiest girl in the world.

For Bryan.

So my dear husband and I have gone almost 3 years without spending a single night apart. Some may think this is crazy, but we think we just really like each other. Bry had to fly out for interviews, ending our 3 year streak. But don't worry too much...our daytime streak lives on since he flew out in the morning and gets back the next night. :) So honey, these are for you. We miss you and hope your interviews went great! XOXO.

Women of Destiny.

Somewhere amid the calming cries, scrubbing sinks, cooking dinner, and never getting showered til afternoon it becomes all too easy to forget that we are a women of purpose and of destiny. I love being a mother and wife more than anything. I feel blessed beyond measure to have the life I do, but on rare occasions it's easy to become caught up in the monotony of it all and to selfishly worry, as the world would have me do, that I am losing myself and not accomplishing much of anything.

Last night I was able to sit down and read Women of Destiny which is reflections on the Relief Society Declaration. It felt like a tender mercy sent from a loving Heavenly Father written just for me. There were many things I read that hit home so perfectly that I wanted to share with all the mothers out there who may occasionally have days that they need a spiritual pick me up.

President Joseph F. Smith said, "to do well those things which God ordained to be the common lot of all man-kind, is the truest greatness. To be a successful father or a successful mother is greater than to be a successful general or a successful statesman." My baby may not be able to talk and thus I may not be teaching him much of anything yet but he knows I am here and that I love him unconditionally and that is more important than anything else I could be doing with my time. Each day I am growing to understand what Elder Neal A. Maxwell meant when he said: "When the real history of mankind is fully disclosed, will it feature the echoes of gunfire or the shaping sound of lullabies? The great armistices made by military men or the peacemaking of women in homes and in neighborhoods? Will what happened in cradles and kitchens prove to be more controlling than what happened in congress?"

"I know of no other place than home where more happiness can be found in this life. It is possible to make home a bit of heaven; indeed, I picture heaven to be a continuation of the ideal home." (President McKay) What greater divine purpose can we, as women, find in this life than making our home a piece of heaven? This is not monotonous; This can become our greatest accomplishment.

President Ezra Taft Benson put to rest any worry I had of my own lack of growth. He said, "Paradoxically, the more we serve one another, the greater is our spiritual and emotional growth." I am truly so grateful to be a mother and wife with so many opportunities in a day to serve my family and thus grow to a greater stature myself.

It is so important that as the declaration says, that we find nobility in motherhood and joy in womanhood. How grateful we should be to know that as woman we were sent to earth with some extra special qualities. President Faust observed that femininity "is the divine adornment of humanity. It finds expression in your...capacity to love, your spirituality, delicacy, radiance, sensitivity, creativity, charm, graciousness, gentleness, dignity, and quiet strength." It gives me a greater reverence for motherhood and womanhood to know that each of us possess these attributes. It gives me greater courage to do well those things which God ordained. It gives me a greater sense of purpose as I scrub toilets and cook yucky raw meat. :) It gives me great hope to know that the Lord instilled in me these things to be a good mother and to raise my children in righteousness.

How grateful I am for the priceless gifts we have been blessed with as woman. I am thankful for a tender reminder of our divine purpose that came in the form of a book. I am also eternally grateful for a Father in Heaven who I know will lovingly continue to send these reminders to me: his daughter, who goes through each day trying her best but will undoubtedly need this reminder again.

Dr. 90210

Today as we are waiting for the BYU game to start I'm flipping channels and get sucked in to Dr. 90210 which is quite possibly the most pathetic show on TV. So in the five minutes I watched, this girls tells why she is getting plastic surgery done. And let me tell you my assumption was right...she was an idiot.

"I found out my husband was leaving me and our two kids for his mistress so I told him that if he was going to turn my life upside down that I got a new car and a tummy tuck."

UH...seriously?!? A new car and a tummy tuck. If my husband was leaving me for his mistress I can promise you that is all he'd be leaving with. A new car and a tummy tuck would not even put a dent into the amount I would expect. I'd make sure I at least got a lifetime supply of botox injections out of him too. :)

Only Kidding.

Bryan Jr.

As many of you know I didn't marry the most social man in the world. He's gotten tons better but we still constantly joke about it. That being said today when I'm leaving the house to go to a picnic with a bunch of girls from our church ward he says to Caden, "Buddy, don't make too many friends. We can't have you being too social."

So we go to the picnic and Caden will not smile at anyone. Normally that is all the kid will do. He just stares at everything that is going on around him. Then he gets fussy and just wants held and doesn't want anyone else around him.

The second we get home he gets this huge smile on his face and starts cooing and being all cute.

I'm pretty sure on the way home, from the backseat I heard a little voice say, "Dad, I would have made you proud." Just ridiculous.

Worried.

I'm pretty positive I am losing my mind to either (a) early on-set Alzhiemers Disease, or (b) some other brain disfunction.

I'm going to have to go with Alzhiemers since unfortunately it runs on both sides of my family. I'm pretty much doomed to relive the Notebook minus the whole laying in the street watching the lights change, and a notebook with our love story written in it. I have no, I repeat no, ability to recall things. Zero. I'm talking simple words just disappear from my mind. I sit there looking like an idiot trying to remember what I was going to say. My jokes are all super lame now because half way through the joke I forget the punch line.

...it's a good thing I did the Alzhiemer's walk in highschool because I'm going to be the next to need medical assistance. I just pray Bryan puts me in a nice home.

Love the White Pants

Thank you Bry for doing the pictures, for looking so good in your white pants, and for giving me a son cute enough to steal your glory in his own white pants. :)

Things I Never Thought I'd Say & Then Some

1. I LIKE COOKING.

Never, ever in a million years did I think those words would come out of my mouth, but here I am saying it; I like cooking. Being at home is great. Now that I actually have time to experiment and try new things cooking isn't half bad. Yes, this statement comes after two nights of cooking success, but hopefully even after cooking failure I will continue to enjoy it.

2. The word "poo" no longer makes me cringe.

Back in the King Henry days my roommates and all of our guy friends said this word just because it bothered me so much. I'm not sure why, but it was just one of those words that stung my ears. Simply put, it was major pet peeve of mine. They all harassed me saying, "What are you doing to do when you have a baby? Say 'Hey kid you crapped your pants?'" And they were right: Since having a child this word has become more acceptable. I never thought I'd say that. However, I still passionately despise the word poop. (I could barely even bring myself to type that.)

3. KBYU saved my day.

I am so sick of watching worthless TV while I feed Caden. All the talk shows where people give their opinions that I couldn't disagree with more are driving me crazy. And so I have found a new love in KBYU and the devotionals of 1989. :)

4. I am scared of social events that could put me on display.
It's true, Bryan has changed me. :) Sadly, back in high school I thrieved on being the center of attention...loved the spot light. Now I would much rather stay home or spend time with my closest friends. Obviously there are exceptions to this rule, but in general it's true. Bry has this reception thing for law school on Thursday and I'm actually really nervous to go.

Which leads me to my last thing. I always wanted this but now it's more important to me than ever.

5. The one really materialistic thing that I want most is a nice, large home. Because I want a large family, and because we love being at home this is what I want most. I want a huge family room and kitchen; I want a big yard; Oh and I really want a big play room for all the kids toys, that's decorated really cute. Maybe I'm unrealistic but for now I can dream!

Obedience Training

Caden decided he wanted to start rolling this morning. He was so funny: At first he was startled and then he was so proud of himself. With the first video, we are still working on "excuse me". :)

Blessing Eternal

We finally blessed Caden last Sunday. Bryan gave Caden a beautiful blessing that of course left me in tears. I feel so blessed to be a mother to this perfect little boy, to be married to a man I adore, to be an eternal family, and to have been surrounded by our families for this special day. Caden was such a cutie in his blessing outfit. I thought the little hat was adorable but Bry wasn't about to let him wear it. He was so good for his blessing, but after that he'd had it! You can see in about all the pictures that he wasn't very happy with us. I was kind of overwhelmed by the amount of people that truly love and care about our little boy's happiness. We are so lucky to be surrounded by such good examples of wonderful parents. After his blessing we all went up to Canyon View Park and had a picnic to celebrate. Bryan's old roommate and one of our closest friends. Matt, and his cute wife, Erin, were able to be there! It was so fun to have them around! My cousin Brenda had a little boy about 3 months before me; We were laughing at the fact that they can play inside together because they have the same WHITE complexion.
When the day was done and I was rocking Caden I couldn't help but be so full of gratitude to our Heavenly Father who truly does know us and love us. After two years of watching other couples bless their own beautiful babies and wishing so desperately for the opportunity to experience that, it was finally here; It was so worth the wait. We love this little boy more than we can put into words and feel so eternally blessed to be his parents.

Thank you so much to everyone that came so far to be there to share this day with us!