A jaunt through memory lane

With ten years under our belts, we feel like we have plenty of wonderful memories stored up. I thought that I would post a few snapshots of our lives together up to this point, but as I looked through our old pictures I was a little disappointed. I am sad to say that these snapshots pale in comparison to the sweet memories captured in my heart.


We were married November 6, 1999 in the Logan, Utah temple. It was a beautiful day! We spent our first year together in our first "home" a cozy little trailer in U.S.U. student housing. The only home that we have ever had to register at the DMV.

We were bracing ourselves for the tough first year that everyone warned us about, but it never came. Of course we had plenty to learn about love, communication, and happiness in the home, and there were ups and downs. For some reason, with John it all seemed easy, especially when each "fight" ended with me laughing until my sides hurt.

2000

On our first Anniversary, I told John the news, we were going to be parents! It was such a surreal time for me, I had no idea how to be a mom. Again, John and his sense of humor made it easier.

2001

After we graduated, John got his first real job as an engineer at Bently in Gardnerville, Nevada. We moved into our first real home--and had our first real baby two months later.

2002

Hannah was beautiful, life was good, but we still had more to learn.

2003

Johnny joined our family, and after much thought and many prayers we decided to make our move back to Utah only a month after he was born. We bought two fixer-upper houses in Kearns, one to sell and one to live in and fix while the other sold. Things didn't turn out how we had planned, and this was a very hard year for us. Our experiences this year only seemed to make our love for our little family and for our Heavenly Father grow.

2004

John worked hard on our little house, and slowly it got bigger and better. He landed a job as an engineer at L-3 communications, the perfect job for him. I loved seeing him happy to go to work. I learned a lot about being a mom to two adorable puzzling toddlers and John built the garage of his dreams, 1000 square feet, "from scratch."

2005

I was starting to make some wonderful friends and felt more settled in our home, neighborhood, and ward. I joked with John that if we had another child he had to sign a contract that we wouldn't move during my pregnancy or shortly after. John was still enjoying fixing up our little home, this year we finished our basement.

2006

Madeline joined our family, she has been such a joy in our lives. John continued to enjoy his job, he spent a lot of his time traveling to places all over the world. This year John remodeled our kitchen and added a dining room onto our house.

2007

Our children were growing before our eyes, and I was pregnant again! This year was full of happiness, chaos and exhaustion.

2008

Lucy was born, such a sweet girl. John built an awesome awning in our back yard, and life quickly filled up with church callings, the many duties of parents, work and friends. Hannah and Johnny were starting to be more independent and that worried me in our neighborhood, so the search started again--time to move.

2009

This time it was me convincing John to move, but after much persuasion on my part he embraced the idea wholeheartedly. He did have to grieve a little over leaving all of his hard work behind, but it didn't take long for him to start planning some new exciting projects in the places we were looking into buying. Such a wonderful husband to make such a big change for his family and never look back. Thanks John, I love you, and am excited to see what our lives will bring in the coming years.