I Am Grateful For...

This evening I've been feeling like I need to share my feelings and thoughts with someone. I thought about writing a short facebook post or just sharing my thoughts in an abandoned journal, but for some reason this felt like the right place. I'm not one for writing, and I liked to leave this blogging thing to Sean as he's much better with words than I am. I feel a little strange not sharing an update on our family since so much has changed since our last post. However, I feel like I need to share my testimony, and I'm not even sure why. I get uncomfortable standing in church to share my testimony, so I don't get the opportunity to do this often. Please ignore the MANY grammatical errors. I tried to type as fast as my thoughts were taking me, and I'm to tired to change them now. 

Lately life has been busy..with taking care of our son and home, preparing for another soon, Sean's work and school, and both of our callings. It amazes me the time we do get together. Sean is an amazing father and husband. I admire him so much for the real quality time he takes with us with everything else he has going on. I know he is constantly exhausted because of it, but that he does it because he feels it's important AND he loves us. In fact, right now has been asleep on the couch for at least an hour, while I will probably stay up for a couple more. Somehow he manages (most likely because he gets little sleep) to make time for the most important things in life. This morning for example he woke up early to attend the temple, came home for a short breakfast with us, then it was off to a midterm. When he came home he stopped for a bit to play with Colby, helped move some furniture in the boys' room, then was off again to the hardware store to get materials to do a repair on our home. After he came home we had an early dinner (mac and cheese because some days that's all we have time for). He took a quick nap while I got ready to go to the General Women's Meeting, then it was up again to watch Colby, do our nighttime routine alone and make sure Colby was in bed before I came home again. I would actually say that this was a more relaxing day for him than many.

Why did I share all of that? Mostly to remind myself of these times, as I know life will calm a bit for him in about a year. I want to remember the amazing things he does for us, and how much I appreciate him. I also am sharing to point out that our life is pretty great. That sounds a little prideful and arrogant, but here is what I mean. One of the things I love about my calling is putting together the newsletter every month for our Relief Society sisters. It gives me a chance to really go through previous Conference talks and select a message for that month. Once I find a talk that feels like it needs to be shared I get the chance to really read through it and pick what little bit I can that will fit on the page. It allows me to study the lesson and really think about what the message is that they have shared with us. This month I chose a talk by Elder Bednar from the April 2014 Conference called "Bear Up Their Burdens with Ease." He talks about the Atonement, how it is not just for us to live again, but to lift our burdens of all kinds. The last few years I have thought, "man.. we really don't have any trials. Nothing hard in our lives at all." But as I read this talk it made me think about my life a little different. This part especially made me think:

"Not only does the Atonement of Jesus Christ overcome the effects of the Fall of Adam and make possible the remission of our individual sins and transgressions, but His Atonement also enables us to do good and become better in ways that stretch far beyond our mortal capacities. Most of us know that when we do things wrong and need help to overcome the effects of sin in our lives, the Savior has made it possible for us to become clean through His redeeming power. But do we also understand that the Atonement is for faithful men and women who are obedient, worthy, and conscientious and who are striving to become better and serve more faithfully? I wonder if we fail to fully acknowledge this strengthening aspect of the Atonement in our lives and mistakenly believe we must carry our load all alone—through sheer grit, willpower, and discipline and with our obviously limited capacities.

It is one thing to know that Jesus Christ came to the earth to die for us. But we also need to appreciate that the Lord desires, through His Atonement and by the power of the Holy Ghost, to enliven us—not only to guide but also to strengthen and heal us."

I've experienced many times in my life the Atonement as a means of becoming clean, healing emotional and spiritual hurt, and mostly think of that when I think of the Atonement. However, choices I made lead me to a pretty great life. I have a wonderful husband who took me to the temple. He is a righteous Priesthood holder and constantly encourages us to be better. I can honestly say that life has been pretty easy and great with his encouragement and support to stay close to the Lord. I started to think "wow, our life is pretty easy." I realized as I read this talk though that life didn't suddenly get easy. It doesn't suddenly get easy especially when you throw a baby into the mix. Our lives haven't become easier each year that we've been married by chance. We've changed the last few years. Especially this last year with Colby, we've been more consistent with things like prayer, scripture study, and Family Home Evening. And I realized that this last year has been the easiest year we've had, yet it is the most hectic and busy year we've had. 

THAT is what the Atonement is in our lives right now, and I'm so grateful for our Savior. I'm grateful for the decision I made to marry someone who would take me to the temple and honor the Priesthood he holds. I grateful I decided to go to church and FHE where I met my eternal companion. I'm grateful he chose me and for the wonderful life we have together. I am grateful for his constant encouragement to do the things we need to remain close to the Lord. I am grateful for our beautiful children and the love and joy they bring to our lives. I'm grateful for the Saviors sacrifice that allows me to have a light load and enjoy every little bit of our crazy lives. 

Neighborhoods!!

The new blink-182 CD - Neighborhoods - just came out and I have to admit, Emily is pretty jazzed about it. I believe her expression to me was, "This is the pinnacle of my existence... It's all down-hill from here!!"*

While I do share her excitement after 8 years of waiting, I'm not sure I would go that far...

*May or may not be an actual quote

'This Is The Place!'

Hola!

We recently took a very scenic hike through Salt Lake's backyard to Ensign Peak. It is home to a poetic view, spiritual insight, and immense gratitude. It was amazing to get to the top and reflect on the fact that such men as Brigham Young, Heber C. Kimball, Wilford Woodruff, etc. stood right where we were and, though baron at the time, envisioned this as a place of refuge for the early saints.

(do your best to ignore the guy doing his best 'Rocky' impression...)

We've loved Salt Lake so far and are looking forward to future adventures. Here's one more pic of what we saw on the walk home. It's been rough:

I am one lucky girl!

I always thought Sean would be the one keeping this up to date, but he told me a few weeks ago that it was my turn. I'm not great with words like he is, but here it goes. So much has happened since we last posted. We've missed sharing Halloween, Thanksgiving with the Shuman gang, Christmas/New Years in California with the Halls, and Valentine's Day. Unfortunately we didn't take pictures for most of it, so we'll have to be much better about that in the future. We'll have plenty to share soon though. Sean graduates from BYU in just two weeks from today! He has worked so hard over the past few years to make the most of his time at BYU, and I couldn't be more proud of him! It will fun to see where life takes us after this. Sean's family will be here for graduation, and we can't wait to see them! I feel like it's been far too long. Only two days after graduation will be our 1st anniversary. This last year flew by! I was just sitting here at work thinking about how crazy it is that we've been married for almost a year now.

Sean - I don't know how I got so lucky, but I'm so glad that I met you and that you picked me to spend eternity with. I love you more than anything, and I can't wait to go through the fun adventures/challenging times that we will continue to go through in our lives. I feel so blessed to be able to go through it all with you!

A Happy, Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday to the Wifey!!

I Love You!!

Good Grief!!

Yes, my friends, family, and loved ones. That is the bitter face of defeat. Cougars lose! :(

So it's been far too long since our last post. We've been busy getting back into the grind of fall: school, work, etc. It's been a busy few weeks, but we're finally starting to get ourselves together.

We've also had the tremendous good fortune of going on a few adventures together, such as a Ward campout not too long ago:

That was the maiden voyage of our tent.

We also were able to take in a game by our beloved Cougars. Too bad they couldn't pull out a victory for us:

(We must've been losing at that point)

It's good to be back in the blogging world. Everyone have a great week, enjoy Conference, and until next time...

Zip-Lines, Canoes, and Park City

Crazy how time flies! I've been meaning to update for quite awhile now, and I finally made the resolution to quit the laziness and get things up-to-speed.

This summer has been so much fun! Emily and I have been insanely busy with vacations, reunions, weddings (not only ours), moving, etc. It's been a blast and we're bummed the summer is coming to an end!

This past weekend we were able to go to the Hall Family Reunion at the girls' camp up by Heber. It was great hangin' with family, canoeing, zip-lining, and - of course - eating. Afterward, we headed up to Park City to check out the town. We were there during the Art Festival and it was amazing to see what people can do. Here's proof of our travels:

It's been so much fun having family here to spend the past few weeks with us. It's been a ball!! And yes, there has been tennis involved.

This weekend we'll be moving into our new place, as well as going through the temple with Brian in preparation for his wedding/sealing in September. We couldn't be happier and more excited for them!


PS. Those who still haven't had the chance to check out Inception, please go now. This very instant.

The Long-Overdue Post

It has been a busy couple of weeks!

After logging in countless miles on separate visits to California, we are now - somewhat unfortunately - back in Provo getting reacquainted with reality.

It all started with a visit to Northern Cal to see our friends Daniel and Ashley get sealed for time and all eternity in the Oakland temple. We were also able to stay and hang out with family, and we couldn't have had more fun! We all went to see the Golden Gate Bridge, and after we went to check out the Muir Woods. We had such an amazing time and are grateful for Mark and Annie's willingness to have us up there for a few days!

The following weekend we took another trip to CA, this time to San Diego. We got there a little ahead of schedule - thanks to a night of zero sleep - and had a ball with our family! I believe there was some tennis involved, fireworks (July 4th), dance recitals, Phase 10, etc., and I'm pretty sure there was a vampire-sighting in there somewhere, too! (ECLIPSE!!). We had such a fun time!!

(Only in San Francisco!!)

Adventures at the "Y"

Adventure. Charisma. Laughing-in-the-face-of-danger. What do all of these characteristics have in common, you ask? One word: us. You already know.

With exactly that fact in mind, we decided to take our thrill-seeking selves to see if we could conquer the infamous "Y" together. It has been a goal of ours for quite some time and we finally set out to do it Saturday night. Were we able to accomplish the feat? You tell me:

Gone Fishin'

This past Saturday we took advantage of not having any prior morning engagements and took our adventurous selves to the wild outdoors of Payson, UT. Hidden by this glorious city in the mountainous terrain lies several lakes that seemed appealing to our fishing instincts. We ended up choosing a lovely, secluded place named Box Lake. The following are pictures of our escapade:






















































































































































































































All in all, the trip was a success - we didn't get skunked, which is always a plus. 6 fish later, we headed home, happy and excited for our next trip.

Our 1st Apartment!!

So I know everyone's been dying to check out the new place, so here's some much anticipated pictures to check out. Hope they live up to the hype:


And one more of when we first moved in. Please excuse the mess: