This post contains affiliate links to Amazon. Which means Freshly Married can make a small commission on items you buy through these links. People have been asking how I am doing since I have been absent from posting much on the Freshly Married website and social media. And to answer everyone, I am doing GREAT! Some days are anxiety-ridden and November to mid-December we’re pretty tiring ( #sleepregression ). But we have been just enjoying life altogether regardless.

A Little Bit of Our Story It took 2.5 years of trying to conceive (TTC) to get to this amazing point of being pregnant with identical twin boys! We feel absolutely blessed that we get two babies as a result of our hard work with the Utah Fertility Center. We did 3 timed intercourse cycles that required more and more pills and shots each time, but lead us to our first try at Intrauterine Insemination (IUI).

Everything about this pregnancy has been super exciting, not just for us but for our family and friends. I mean, it took us so much to finally get here, but we also get to experience the rare situation of twins! It’s also my in-laws’ first grandbaby so it’s ALL very exciting for them. So of course, we did a gender reveal party to share the sex of our identical twins with our family!

If you’ve been following along this past year, every week I’ve been writing a blog post each week specifically about a joy that I have found in my marriage that week. Well, that project is now done with, and I don’t know if I’ve ever been as consistent with a project like this before, especially one that is every week for a whole year! You can read here why I started this project in the first place.

We have been feeling some joy this past week and I’m not quite sure how to sum it up into one word, but I think it could be summarized into patience and clarity. Patience usually is not a joyous word, haha, but it is when you have achieved patience, right? Well this weekend we got a new car! It’s one I’ve been eyeing for awhile now and even test-drove it over a year ago.

A quality in our marriage that brings me joy is our ability to count our blessings. We are good at that. And I don’t mean that in the literal counting sense, as if we are keeping track and pouting if we didn’t have as many as we did last month, lol. I just meant that in a way that we can find a positive spin to situations, or find things to be thankful for, even amidst times of trials.

Our church offers a Sunday school class on the topic of marriage and family, and the lesson yesterday reminded me of something in our marriage that brings us joy: the value we see in each other. I wanted to share this interesting object lesson the teacher used and why I loved it! One of the teachers held up a gold dollar coin and said that it represented us being “one” in our marriage.

I like to think my DIY skills and creativity bless our marriage for the better :) If we’re talking about it bringing joy to my marriage, it sure does because I fully enjoy doing little thoughtful surprises/projects like this one I did for hubby this week. We have this thing called “ultimate couch bed” that we like to do periodically throughout the year. Particularly when there are some movie marathons of tv show binge watching or someone is sick and we know we will be on the couch all weekend :) It’s where we rearrange our couch sectional pieces in the living room to form one giant couch right in front of the TV.

A characteristic about the both of us that brings me joy in our marriage is that we both are practical thinkers. This may seem like a boring trait to find joy in but if you are a person who struggles with anxiety and worries over little things, it could cause more anxiety to be with someone who constantly makes irrational decisions on a whim, haha. Since we both can relate to those worrisome feelings, I feel like we can rely on each other in a comforting way.

It’s getting harder to be vulnerable week to week sharing details about our marriage, but I committed to this project at the beginning of the year, and I know it’s helping me train my outlook on marriage for the better! There are only about 10 more weeks left of this project and it’s so interesting seeing things progress. I’m definitely a fan of personal exercises or campaigns that challenge you for a period of time in a way that strengthens and improves yourself as an individual.

A Joy that I found in my marriage this week is a joy I have felt before, but since it happened a few times this week, I think it’s been on my mind more. It’s sort of embarrassing to share, but I snore sometimes when I sleep, haha. I’m blaming it on all my sinus issues though! I had sinus surgery about 3 weeks ago, and though I have been doing so much better than we expected, I still have a little bit of inflammation here and there.

We got our wedding rings cut off this week. Sounds weird, I know, but it feels even weirder! Both of our rings have gotten tighter since we first got married, making them harder to take off. After my husband was reading on how that can be dangerous to not be able to take off our rings, he decided he wanted to get a new ring and I totally understand. I wasn’t planning on it when we got to the jeweler, but we ended up cutting my ring off too and are getting it resized.

I’ve been recovering from Sinus Surgery #2 the past week, and going into it I didn’t think I would have a lot to feel joyous about because the first surgery’s recovery was horrible. However, the surgery itself went so well, and the recovery afterward was so well that I didn’t need to use painkillers hardly. That’s a huge win in my book. And even though I experienced a lot of pain a week later due to airplane air pressure, I’m still feeling joy that I was able to recover as well as I did!

The joy I found in my marriage this week: cute banter :) We love being silly with each other, just like any other couple! Because it’s fun to tease each other, right? I gotta share a memorable one from this week :) Whenever I give my husband a piece of gum, he ALWAYS gives me the wrapper, haha. Sometimes it happens when there’s an obvious trash can near by or he has a pocket he can stick it in himself.

This joy is going to AGAIN sound familiar… trying new things together, or just things that we grew up doing but haven’t done since we’ve been together. We went to a little Idaho getaway with family this weekend and had a blast doing a whole bunch of outdoorsy adventurous things we haven’t yet experienced together, like riding on four-wheelers,fishing and shooting. It’s weird that in our 5 years of being together, 4 years of that in marriage, we haven’t done these things yet, even though both of our families are outdoor sports adventurists.

I’m happy to say that I’ve truly felt some joys this past week that have left me feeling content with life and my marriage! I have found joy in letting things go. I’m trying to not take disagreements so personally, and it allows us to roll them off our back more. I’m also trying to let go of things I can’t change – specifically the fact that I have to have a second sinus surgery in a few weeks.

I’m still shocked about Chris Pratt and Anna Farris splitting up 😩. Being a celebrity and being married is not easy. I’ve written about how celebrity marriages face different struggles than everyday marriages face. Even though their marriage ultimately ended, I’m still obsessed with this marriage advice he gave, “At least touch toes.” If you’ve read it, I hope you can see the sense he makes. I also see so much of the learning that took place to discover this tip himself.

The Joy I found in my marriage this week is trying new things. And this one is going to be funny because it has to do with trying new foods, which I am not very good at. A few weeks ago my husband even said to me, “When I ask if you want to try some of my food and you say, ‘No, I want you to enjoy it” I get that means you don’t want to try it.

Back to School InterviewThis is inspired by an email newsletter I received titled, “Interviews aren’t just for adults,” where I saw a cute picture of a kid holding up one of those back to school/all about me interview papers that people tend to do with their kids every year. And I instantly had a contradicting thought: “Back to school interviews aren’t just for kids!” haha. Which then inspired a great thought…

Exactly a year and one week ago today we sat on this rock and made an important decision to start trying to have children. With it being a year of trying and discouragement, it’s technically now considered an infertility journey. It’s crazy how you can talk about infertility with other people and learn about it, but when it becomes more real for you personally, it becomes this really hard thing to say out loud, or even type.

The joy I found in my marriage this week: that feeling when you kiss and make-up. You all know the feeling I’m referring to because you’ve felt it yourselves many times, I’m sure of it! It sucks when you disappoint each other because you don’t agree on something. But it’s also a reality of marriage because you are two different people joining your lives together. It still doesn’t feel good to hit that low, but man is it good to go back and hit that high :)

I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately, but primarily this week, how grateful I am to have the husband that I have. He’s very patient with me on weeks that I fall short, where I complain a lot, and don’t do the usual things that I do. And yet he gives me a break, realizing some of the emotional stresses I’m under, and also tries to help pick up my slack.

This week has been mostly anxiety, over an array of things, people, and situations. It’s put me off my normal self, since last Sunday. For those of you who also deal with this, I’m sure you can understand how frustrating it can be. In week’s like this, it can be difficult to find something to be joyous about. But I did. I found joy in my husband continuously being patient with me through it.

One of the joys I found in my marriage this week has been on how I’ve consistently stuck with this project every week and how it has benefited my marriage! I’m not very good with journaling sometimes, but this particular project and having the blogging accountability to do it has helped me continue it. Not saying that this project has been hard, but I’m not as consistent in my other kind of journaling, haha.

I don’t really like to say we are a mom or dad to our dog Oli, but we do take care of him and parent him in lots of ways. I didn’t think I would ever be a “dog parent” but I’ve been finding myself glad that it happened. And I don’t want to be one of those people that posts everything on their dog, haha, but I can’t deny the fact that he has brought me some joy this week that directly relates to my marriage, so I’m gonna write about it!

Today is my husband’s 26th birthday! Crazy enough, it happens to also be week 26 of this project, too! I love coincidences like that. And it works out well because the joy I have found in my marriage this week, is having that feeling like we know each other pretty well for our birthdays. We’ve celebrated 5 birthdays together now, which is 10 birthdays total! Weird when you think about it in total numbers, right?

I’m almost half way through this project to live a more joyful marriage! It’s been such a good exercise for me to do each week because sometimes I have to think a little harder about the joys in life and in marriage. And that has helped me see things deeper in our relationship. There have been a few things in our marriage this week that has brought me joy! :) But one main thing that I have found joy in this week was in our ultimate cereal date night on Friday!

This picture from last October is one of the most fun moments with some of my family members. While the boys were taking pictures with the photographer, the girls were scheming and did a surprise silly string attack on them! It was really funny and it brings me to the joy I had this week. :) The joy I found in my marriage this week: Effortless, no pressure fun. That seems like something obvious, and yet it’s something that can be easily taken for granted.

The joy I found in my marriage this week was my husband getting a new job that he was so happy about! I’ve kind of shared it mysteriously on here because we didn’t want to say anything until we had good news, but my husband actually got laid off his job a month ago. The decision was based on saving money, not on his performance whatsoever. It was very unexpected and very inconvenient in the timing.

We have been in our house for almost 3 years, this August! It’s awesome to think back on how far we have come with putting it together, and making it feel like HOME. I recently made an accomplishment with our house that I’m quite proud of – I FINALLY finished decorating and furnishing our home! This event has made me think about the home furnishing and decorating process, what I liked that I did, and what I would do differently.

The joy I found in my marriage this week is seeing the door to parenthood open wider. There were two reasons for this joy. This has been our first full week with our new dog, Oli. And though Trevor does most of the responsibilities, we’ve both had our eyes further opened to what being a parent is like. Being a “dog parent” I guess you could say, is a great segway into being a parent for a human, haha.

The joy I found in my marriage this week was adding this little guy to our family :) I’ll preface the story of this joy by saying that I did not think I would ever have a dog, or any pet for that matter. I’ve specifically told people I won’t have a pet, haha. I grew up with quite a variety of pets and I guess it just never became a passion of mine.

I had a couple of joys I found in my marriage this week. I’ll just share one of them though. I found joy in our outside date night we had this week. We both took some of the day off for some time with each other and we chose to go to a food truck round-up at our nearby lake. The weather was kind of perfect with it not being too hot, not too cold but just the right amount of breeze.

Before I tell you the joy I found in my marriage this week, I need to preface it by saying that sometimes you can be so consistently down (#depression) that it’s hard to find joy in things. When you’re done being so hard on yourself every day, we tend to jump to the person next to us and blame our unhappiness on them. Which means … our spouse. We start to let the little imperfections in our marriages feel like big imperfections and it’s not OK.

Something that I found joy in is actually something that initially bugs me. And others may not understand it but I’ve just gotta share this thought. Stop devaluing your relationship with your spouse This week I’ve heard many people say things like, “I don’t remember what life was like before our kids.” and other similar phrases. And it makes me sad when people say that, believe it or not. I get that it’s a loving way of trying to say that children have enriched your life in a way that you would never want to change, and that you can’t imagine life without them.

The joy I found in my marriage this week: doing service together. Yesterday we went to a Latter-Day Saint temple together to do some service, since it’s been like 4 or 5 months since we last went. When we first got married we made a goal to go once a month because we feel spiritually lifted individually and in our marriage when we go. We kept that up for about the first two years, but the past two years it has been about every 6-10 weeks.

The joy I found in my marriage this week: Unity. Not everyone is going to agree with the decisions you are making as a couple and as a family. And sometimes those decisions can hurt other people, without meaning to. So far in our 4 years of marriage, this is a recurring thing that comes up with the people around us, whether it’s with our family, friends, or neighborhood, we’ve had to do more balancing, say “no” a lot more, and even drop some friends.

THE SPECIAL OCCASION PRESSURES The night before Valentine’s Day, we were talking about our holiday plans and my husband voiced to me that he has spent hours over the past few weeks trying to figure out a special activity for us to do for Valentine’s Day that wasn’t something we had already done or that feels “same ole, same ole” like going to the movies. We even have a STRONG bucket list of so many more date night activities to try, but sometimes those ideas don’t work well with the season or other facts.

The Joy I found in my marriage this week: the power of a “thank you.” This week I have been noticing how much we say “Thank you” to each other. Whether it’s something big like bringing home the bacon from work every day, making dinner, or just giving a back scratch. For the whole week, I watched all these back and forth tokens of appreciation change the way we talk to each other, and the way we go about doing things for each other.

The joy I found in my marriage this week: We missed each other while on our separate trips. And that says a lot to me. We both went on separate little trips this past week and we enjoyed them. Trevor’s was for business, and mine was for leisure, haha. We spent only 3 and a half days apart, which felt long for us considering the last time we spent more than one night apart was 3 years ago!

The joy I found in my marriage this week: being reminded of all the family and friends cheering us on. I received two loving reminders this week: I’ve shared here and there that we’re concerned about trying to have kids. I’ll share more on that in another blog post, but basically, the last two weeks the situation we are in has been on the forefront of our minds. The unknown has been worrisome for us, but a text message I received from my mother-in-law this week expressed lots of love letting us know that the family is very supportive and comforting.

The joy I found in my marriage this week: There are still new things to discover about each other. It was my birthday this week and Trevor managed to surprise me with a few things that I feel very blessed to receive. They were things I have told him about and were on my wish list but he just knew the colors, styles, and other specifics I would prefer when it came to these thoughtful gifts.

The Joy I found in my marriage this week: Resiliency! Sometimes we have difficult conversations in marriage, simply because difficult situations happen. Ya know? And sometimes they’re difficult conversations over something that is so little, but our emotions get the best of us. That happened twice this week, haha. We get frustrated with each other sometimes but I’m proud to say we were able to talk it out/let our feelings subside fairly quickly.

The joy I found in my marriage this week: thoughtful surprises! In the past few weeks, a few situations have come up that make me look back on everything it took to get where we are now. We both had to go through a lot of learning and heartbreak before meeting each other, and being ready for each other. Even though you have a few tough minutes of remembering those hard times, it all makes you appreciate your relationship for what it is today, ya know?

The joy I found in my marriage this week: the opportunity to take care of my husband as he has had the flu/cold all week! You might be thinking, “You find taking care of your ill spouse joyful? Not only do you have to do more for them than usual but you have to pick up the slack of things they normally do… I don’t see how that is enjoyable…”

The joy I found in my marriage this week: Seeing a month’s worth of progress from working at our goals! It’s been a month now into the new year, and I have to admit that I didn’t have 100% success every week in my goals. HOWEVER, I can say I have still worked at them and have noticed some differences it has made in my marriage and my own life. And that is the whole point of making and pursuing goals, right?

I am sharing my experiences because I believe that the more positively we talk about therapy, the less stigma attached to it, and the more likely people are to seek help and actually get the help they need. I have seen a therapist at two different times in my life, and each time was for emotionally difficult situations. I ask for your sensitivity as I get very vulnerable here! (Just to preface this, I’ll refer to both counseling and therapy as one sometimes, just so it’s more simple to read, but the two professions are slightly different.

I feel like a lot of things this week have been telling me “No.” It’s a lot of things that have to do with my physical health mainly, but a few other things as well. Circumstantial things that just happen in the week like having to make two special trips to the grocery store for strawberries, on two different days, and both stores just happen to be completely out of strawberries!

The joy I found in my marriage this week: gratitude. I’ve always been grateful for my husband and felt like I have been blessed with a very extraordinary one. But this week as I become more aware of serious marital struggles others are facing, it has made me realize that our own (as in my husband and I) marital struggles aren’t so significant as we think they are. You read books, watch movies and TV shows, and even hear from others of crappy situations marriages find themselves dealing with like affairs or continual dishonesty, but it doesn’t hit you how real it all is until you’ve actually been married for a few years, and when things happen to people around you.

A joy in our marriage this week (from my perspective): Getting tickets to see U2 in concert this year!!! It’s not only a joy because they are in my top ten of my concert bucket list, but I was proud of my husband for being willing to fly somewhere to go see them with me. You see, he hates flying. [Holding his hand on flights (like the picture above) is a common thing with us because of it, and I don’t mind at all!

Background/reminder This is week 1 of my campaign/project/whatever about focusing on the joys in my marriage. I talked about this whole idea and why in our Christmas card blog post but basically the reasoning for it is this: I don’t like the pressure that comes with trying to be happy. It’s as if we think we aren’t/won’t/can’t be overall happy if the majority of our day had sad or difficult moments.

First of all, Happy New Year!!! We are on a Caribbean cruise ringing in the new year, so it’s a little belated from me! That’s also the reason why we just barely did our annual dinner date night where we share and discuss our goals for the year together. We typically do it on New Year’s Eve but we felt like saving it until we got home from our trip. Especially because this fun stuff was going on!

Since this is our 3rd attempt at Christmas cards, I kinda feel like I got it right. Maybe! I didn’t feel like I could put together a newsletter super quickly even though I already had our template from last year. Something inside me suggested making it somewhat more simple this year. But I like to give more than just the picture of us with a small Christmas phrase with our names on it.

Today is a special day :) Four years ago on October 25th, Trevor and I made our relationship official. See, it was declared on facebook so it was official … haha This morning I went through my old journal from that time we were first dating and it was so special to go back and read all of that. I obviously knew our timeline and the words we said but there was something so tender about reading about it all, and especially my feelings during the rise of our relationship.

After about a month of plotting, pinteresting, sketching, researching, purchasing, ironing, cutting, pinning, sewing, unpicking, and sewing again, I FINISHED MY HUSBAND’S QUILT! It turned out so well, and best of all, he loved it and appreciated it so much when I surprised him with it! WHY Last year my MIL made me a beautiful triangle quilt, and it’s been so comfy and matches our color scheme so well! I’ve been wanting Trev to have a specially-made blanket as well.

[sc name=“soundcloud” id=“276706899” ] It seems more people have been coming out and sharing that they suffer from depression and/or anxiety. Whether it’s just during postpartum or a life-long struggle, it’s not easy to battle, and not easy to share with everyone that you are among them. I’m grateful that more people are sharing this because it is not uncommon. We all experience hard and even traumatic things, and sometimes the explanation is just that the brain chemicals are imbalanced which causes the bouts of depression.

Sharing time These pictures depict our lives before we “re-met” and started dating. Trevor was serving a Latter-Day Saint mission across the country while I was living at home, working at a craft store, and riding my scooter around trying to find myself again. Though it was tough at times, these experiences were great for each of us to gain a new perspective and discover what we really wanted and what we were ready for… each other.

*this post contains affiliate links. I recently looked through the scrapbook I made of our first year together, and it was fun taking this trip down memory lane, again! How special it is to look back through journals, or scrapbooks, and other mementos, and recover a taste of a memorable moment. One of those memories is this one that I made a scrapbook page out of :) It was the day we moved into our first apartment!

So I’m finally sharing our beautiful trip to Hawaii we took in May! Two phrases I remember saying multiple times out loud and in mind are: “Bucket list item - CHECK!” and “That’s another new thing I can say I tried!” I liked being able to make those little steps of progression in life, but doing them felt a million times more special and held more purpose getting to do them with my husband :)

Every anniversary we do a little something to celebrate our love! Like everyone else! haha. Some people choose to follow the theme of their year from that list of anniversary gifts here. I guess I don’t want to be told what to get my spouse because my spouse is unique! Our gift to each other was celebrating in Hawaii this year, but I wanted us to do something special there to mark the occasion.

If you’ve been following along from the beginning, you’ll remember that I wrote about the following married milestones: being married for three weeks, and then three months. So naturally, I felt like doing a milestone post on being married for THREE YEARS! That’s such a small number, but I believe every year is an accomplishment! And we’ve experienced so much together in this short time, so it gets me excited about what we’ll experience at our 30-year mark!

This is a common catchphrase in religions, even though it might not be a guarantee. While I believe praying is a powerful tool in marriage, it doesn’t necessarily guarantee a couple won’t get divorced. However, it does pull a large weight when it comes to feeling high marital quality. I came across a recent article not too long ago from the Institute of Family Studies about how influential religion is in a couple’s marital satisfaction.

I’m excited to share this idea with you guys because I think it’s a fun, EASY way to switch things up when it comes to your sex life! For whatever reason, we all experience a hiatus of sexual intimacy at times. Sometimes it’s because there are natural life transitions happening like having a baby, and other times you’re just needing a nudge to get back there. This game can be that nudge for your marriage!

This week I asked how couples get their exercise - do they work out together or individually, and why. The reason I asked is because this is something my husband and I have been trying to figure out for a while now! I’ve seen many couples do workouts together, or go on the same diets. I think it’s cool to have it be something you can do together because you get healthy while spending time together, you can encourage each other, and it can be convenient to eat the same meals.

I’m grateful that I was able to experience college being both single, and then married. In the beginning I was doing the college thing for the experience and learning, but finishing college as a married woman for the last few semesters was for more than that. I wasn’t just doing it for me anymore. The Single College Life People tend to think that it’s best to go through college being single, or at least not yet married.

Three years ago I wrote this message to Trevor on the back of a picture quote as encouragement that we could do the long distance thing. (I’m sad we can’t find the original right now but glad I took a picture of the smeared message I wrote him!) The story behind this little message set a precedent for our relationship and it’s one I think every couple needs reminding of :)

A year ago I talked about some new things I learned about grocery budgeting, especially how my budget was comparing to the national averages. As I remembered that post, I realized my grocery budgeting has changed a bit in the past year, haha. Why? Because LIFE has changed in the past year! Life changes MAKE YOUR BUDGETS FLUCTUATE I was making more meals back in the spring of 2015. Come summer time things got CRAZY again.

I know pictures of food are annoying but there’s a reason I’m documenting it! We have obviously had to overhaul our meals with my food allergies, and it has been a whole bunch of trial and error. I’ve started to notice the affects in my body when I have even a little bit of something dairy here or there. I thought I could get away with cheating even just 2 tablespoons of ranch once a week but NOPE, haha.

In our short three years (almost) being married, Trevor and I have done really well about trying to be financially independent from our families. It’s something that had to be done in stages because tackling health insurance, car insurance, and a phone bill all at once is not wise! Health insurance is a headache on its own, am I right?! But slowly we made goals of what responsibilities we needed to take on and when to do it.

I’ve hit the quarter-life mark turning 25 last week and I feel the need to write about it. I have to say that I was not looking forward to this birthday just because the things I was wanting to do /to eat (but for reals!) I couldn’t have, or were out of reach. I thought that those things would make me happy. I have to admit that I totally cheated on my birthday and had two slices of cheese pizza that tasted so much like paradise that I didn’t even regret the inflammation and discomfort I had from it the next two days!

We used to have a cute little tradition that we started when we were dating called, “Stoplight Kisses.” When we would drive together and approach a long stoplight, we would lean over and kiss each other :) Sometimes they were hurried kisses, and sometimes one of us kept our eyes open in case the light turned green, haha. But we enjoyed these little moments. Any excuse to kiss right?! Over the past three years, I’m sorry to say we haven’t kept up with that tradition!

This Valentine’s Day is going to be a little more low-key for us and we like it that way right now. :) However, low-key doesn’t mean we aren’t doing anything new or special! Because we want to continue keeping our marriage fresh, right?! We plan to do that by going back to our 90’s childhood and play on our Nintendo 64!! Trevor has been playing Super Smash Brothers on the 64 with some of his friends and he realized how much he truly missed playing it!

That title sounds funny but you’ll get it when you’re through with this post. This past week I have been so grateful for Trevor’s support. I’ve been feeling down, stressed, and very emotional from some new medical developments in my life recently, and he has been there in ways I needed and also didn’t realize I needed. He reminded me how important support is between a marriage because it’s hard to receive that much support elsewhere.

The day I was proposed to, the day I gave Trevor his wedding ring, and the day I got married to him were all days that showed me the meaning of a wedding ring. However, there was something else that happened this week where I realized the importance of a wedding ring again. And guess how it happened? While watching an episode of “Duck Dynasty” with my dad! hahaha. I’ll explain.

If you are like me, you are at the point in your marriage where the idea of having children weighs more heavily on your mind. Whatever the reason for it, getting to this point has been an interesting journey, at least it has been for me! When we first got married the idea of starting a family was a simple goal for us: “Not for five years.” However as months and months have passed since then, I can tell you now that it’s actually not that simple, haha.

Story time When we were living in an apartment still, there was a new family that moved in below us; a wife, husband, and a few kids. Since they moved in, almost every day we heard them yelling. The parents would yell at each other, the parents yelled at the kids, and the kids yelled at the parents. I absolutely hated it; I cringed every time. Yes, I cringed because it is annoying, but mainly because it shows that they are were not loving each other and instead were hurting each other.

Three years ago yesterday, Trevor asked me to be his wife! That was obviously a big moment for us, just as it is for any relationship. However, there were other things leading up to that moment that were also big in our relationship. Story Time Two weeks before he proposed I had finally decided I was ready and wanted to move to be closer to him in Provo. This was a big deal for me because exactly a year prior to that I did the same thing– move to Provo to be closer to a boy I was ready to marry.

In the previous post, “Lock Your Love,” I shared this awesome gate found in St. George where you can symbolically protect your love by attaching a padlock to a gate or a bridge. Go read that post because it’s a neat idea! I thought more about how this idea reflects marriage and found some great symbolism I wanted to share. Locked strongly into place My thoughts lingered on the lock itself, in that it’s nearly effortless to lock into place.

*This post contains affiliate links. I used to go to Dixie State University (it was Dixie State College when I went), so I lived down in good ole St. George, Utah! I loved it there so much. I could go on forever about why I love St. George but that would take all day! So I’m just going to share this one majorly awesome thing that came from living down there.

I did choose to send out Christmas cards again this year and man was it easier than my first attempt last year! This year I did a double-sided card so we could have a picture of us and a quick “happy holidays” message, but also have a back where we shared a picture from something special we did this year: we threw a Back to the Future party because I’m obsessed with BTTF!

Have you ever had a hard time buying a gift for your spouse while keeping it a surprise? I personally have a problem with it just solely on the fact that I just can’t wait for them to enjoy what I got them! Well for this post I’m talking about keeping it a secret financially. If you are like us and have openly shared finances, you probably struggle with getting gifts without your spouse knowing.

Isn’t it hard sometimes to be thankful in the midst of your trials? It’s not easy trying to see the positive in every situation. That’s why I felt like this new decor in our kitchen would be a helpful reminder to us that there is always something to be thankful, no matter what we experienced in the day! It helped even more to have pictures up representing things we are thankful for too.

In case I haven’t said this a lot lately, I’m super excited to be graduating with my bachelor’s degree in WEEKS. Well, to celebrate, we’ve been talking/planning/deciding/not deciding on taking a graduation vacation :) And what I mean by that is we have had ideas of where we would love to vacation and then haven’t been sure about them, so we put it on hold until the next idea comes along.

I love Dr. Seuss. And not just because we have the same birthday :) When he says things, it has a way of making you think differently. My perspectives change and sometimes it results with a smack to the forehead like I should have known it all along, haha. Well this quote is one of those moments for me. Appearances can be deceiving A lot of times we look at a complex question and think that finding the answer is also complex.

I’m so glad we happened to get a blooper photo of me actually picking my husband up because it worked perfectly for this ;) Mondays can be hard, huh? It’s beginning another week of the daily grind, wishing you could go back to Friday :) What helps us get by on these days where we are lagging? Sometimes it’s a funny video on youtube. Other times it’s a diet coke or brownie.

We all know that being kind can change someone’s entire day around, or maybe someone’s act of kindness has changed YOUR entire day. Kindness is so powerful, if you didn’t know that already! Throughout my marriage I’ve definitely been shown and taught how powerful it can be. When Trevor and I first experienced tiffs with each other, our process of being upset and also working through it was something new to me.

This week’s lesson: you have to know the misery to know joy! The past six weeks have been kinda overwhelming for us. School has consumed much of my daily life and my weekends. And I think it took me two weeks to finally get motivated to do my homework and be a part of school because I was just feeling so burned out– burned out from doing 4 semesters in a row and only having a week break before starting the fifth and FINAL one.

I’m excited to say that this guy is starting a new job at DOMO tomorrow and I’m pretty proud of him! Getting this job is kind of a bittersweet story for us, and I want to share it because I think it’s something every marriage will face on some level. “There is so much more of happiness to be had when we can rejoice in another’s successes and not just in our own.

It was exactly one year ago today that we broke our bodies moving into our house! haha jk but seriously, we didn’t move from the couch and unpack anything for two straight days because we were so sore. The time and effort was all worth it though because we have a beautiful, put together home to show for it :) And to think, it only took: 3 months to get a shower curtain in the guest bathroom 4 months to get actual blinds instead of the brown banner paper we had in every window… tacky I know, it’s fine.

Remember how I was so frustrated/annoyed/intimidated/scared of my iron? hahaha yeah so this started the very beginning of our marriage. It was actually my very first post, too! Basically, ironing was a stressful ordeal for me and became so much more difficult than it should have been. I was even more bugged about it because I felt like I NEEDED to ironing my husband’s dress shirts all the time, in order to be a good wife.

This week my Associate in Science degree finally came in the mail! I practically earned it last summer, and then had to wait to apply for it in the fall, and then it got sent to the wrong address, haha. So I have had these proud feelings for 9 months, but finally got the paperwork to show for it ;) Believe it or not, my college career began in Fall 2009… Over the past six years, I made important life decisions that took me all over Utah, and to three different universities… haha.

We celebrated our second anniversary this weekend, and it was just lovely. We stayed one night at the Anniversary Inn, enjoying the same room we spent our wedding night in. It was magical to have memories flood me from two years ago, and was just so relaxing to get away from the world for a little bit. On the way there we ate at Happy Sumo and it was just really chill, I loved it.

Found this quote the other day and I really liked it. Yeah it’s cheesy and cutesy, as well as simple and thought-provoking. Bittersweet decisions Throughout the past years I’ve come to know what’s most important in life. (Maybe it’s the selflessness I had to learn going into marriage, or maybe it’s just maturity? haha) It’s a bittersweet answer for me when I ask myself questions about the things I’m currently doing in my life.

A few weeks ago Trevor went to a conference in San Francisco for work. For many couples this wouldn’t be that big of a deal. Some spouses are away on business trips often. Well, for Trevor and I, this was a big deal because it was the first time we have ever spent a night apart… YEP. The last time we slept in separate beds on our own was the night before we got married.

*This post contains affiliate links. On our first date, Trevor and I started talking about some things we like to do, and we found most of them we had in common (of course!) Since he had recently come home from serving an Latter-Day Saint mission, I started suggesting some of the movies he should watch and music to listen to that came out while he was gone. It started as that, and then somehow it turned into things that we were possibly going to do together… :) So being the list people that we are, Trevor pulled out his phone and created a google doc, listing these things to do.

During a typical week day, there’s a time where my life becomes like an apron-wearing, oven-ready “50’s housewife cliché”. I love this time of the day. Around 3:30 or 4 pm, my thoughts start to focus on the refrigerator, and pantry, where I figure out what nice meal I can make for us for dinner. Sometimes it feels kind of stressful because I want to make something yummy, fulfilling, and healthy for us, and I’m not always prepared as I could be.

This is the last post in a series of three posts on this subject. It would be beneficial to read part 1 and part 2 before or after reading this post :) How social media has affected my marriage Trevor and I differ on our level of social interaction. I have a stronger need for it than he does, and it’s OK :)Being different in this way set a good example to me, that I’m grateful for.

This is part 2 of 3. If you haven’t read part 1 yet, reading it would probably be to your benefit. :) All the world’s a stage I think each of us are on a stage. We give a public presentation of ourselves to an audience – the people walking by us on the streets, our co-workers, friends, family, and our virtual friends on social media. When we go out on stage, we pick the parts of ourselves that we want people to see.

From about September to December, I really struggled emotionally with social media. I fell into some common pitfalls of comparing my life to other people’s lives, questioning how “real” people were, and spending more time being involved in it than I should have (though I wouldn’t say I was addicted). These things were lowering my self-worth, and making me feel ungrateful. I snapped out of this phase and realized some important things that have made me and my marriage happier.

Wanna know something funny? We’ve established a grocery budget for every month since we’ve been married and I don’t think I’ve ever truly been able to stay under it, EVER! haha. I even feel like I’m fairly frugal in my money-saving strategies. I look through the coupons we get in the mail to see if there’s a deal on something we actually use or eat, I’ll take advantage of good sales going on and stock up in bulk (one of the big suggestions to saving money on groceries), and I’ll avoid getting items sometimes that I think are too expensive that week.

I didn’t realize how big of a deal it was to have family pictures up until now. I always thought people made too big of a deal over getting family portraits taken every year, and switching the pictures out in their home every time. While I love the idea of that, it’s not about having formal family photos to show off. To be honest, Trevor and I prefer the silly candid iPhone pictures we take, even in selfie form!

One of my favorite things about getting married, was that I received another awesome family in addition to my own awesome family :) There are so many great things that come with having another set of parents to count on, another set of siblings to have fun with, and of course, don’t forget those nieces and nephews! One of the difficulties, however, in gaining another family, is having to split your time between them for holidays and other events.

Did any other couples gain weight their first months of year of marriage? Or was it just us? hahaha. We always joke to people that getting married must do something to your metabolism. Maybe we just didn’t start off our marriage eating healthy in the first place. I mean, we took this whole first tier of our wedding cake with us on our honeymoon to eat! haha I guess some of our eating habits changed when we got married vs.

Our first married NYE’s in 2013, we went out to dinner to Red Lobster and had a four-course meal discussing our New Year’s resolutions. We had a great time enjoying good food, good company, and talking about the goals and desires of our heart. We decided this year we would continue that as a tradition every NYE! So this year we went out to Buffalo Wild Wings (one of our favs) and listed out to each other our plans for the new year, and it was great!

We chose to send out Christmas cards for the first time this year, and this was our little insert. I meant to post this way before Christmas, but we had some technical difficulties on the back-end of our website. So even though Christmas has come and gone, we hope you can still appreciate our well-wishes to you for the holidays! I’m not sure if a lot of you send out Christmas cards, but I want to share what we did for those of you thinking about doing it.

I’ve totally been absent for a long time, I know. Sorry. I definitely have my reasons though. I love blogging and writing about aspects of married life that can be useful for people, but I think it’s important to take a step back from writing, and just enjoy those aspects of married life, instead. I’ve been so busy the past few months. Though I enjoy being busy for the most part, I start to hate it when it is consistent and doesn’t come with a nice break.

As you know, we moved into our first home three weeks ago. We are enjoying it a lot so far :) It’s been great to come home to our own place with a lot more space! (I’m cool because I rhymed.) There’s DEFINITELY some upgrades from an old apartment to a new home, that we’ve enjoyed. Like how my stove cooks chicken, and how my oven seems to bake things better!

I have loved our married student ward here in Provo, and I am going to miss it dearly! I especially will miss the Sisters who have been in the ward, as they have influenced my life in many ways. I guess, this post is a goodbye letter to them, as well as an encouragement for those who are also in married student wards. For those of you unfamiliar with what a “ward” is, it’s a way of referring to a local congregation within the LDS faith.

Our little apartment is being emptied. All the pictures and artwork have been taken down from the walls, leaving them as blank as a piece of paper. Our couch has been sold, so movies are being watched in our bed now. The shelves have been cleared, and the drawers are empty. Clothes are in bags, appliances are wrapped up, and the random things are boxed up.. Well, pretty much everything is boxed up… our life… it’s all boxed up and ready to be put elsewhere.

Buying a house can be expensive… Haha, that’s an obvious thing. The price gets higher and higher with every new appliance or furniture purchase, too. After buying the necessary refrigerator, washer and dryer, and a couch, you could say our savings is getting depleted! Even though we have the money for it, and are being responsible, it’s put us on a tight budget this month and next month, as we make sure we have enough money for all the living essentials and closing costs coming up.

If you read Part 1, you’ll know that we went into our appointment feeling worried about the huge price increase on the home plan we were interested in the most. We let them know we were very serious about this home, but that the price jump was going to be a deal-breaker for us. We asked the rep if there was anything they can do for us on that, since it happened literally overnight.

When we first started thinking about the idea of moving and buying a house, it was difficult to be fully invested in the idea because there were multiple factors that were up in the air that could alter that idea. It really felt like everything was about timing. We weren’t sure if the timing was right with me going back to school. We also weren’t sure if we should save up a little more, though we did already have a down payment.

Ready for these two exciting announcements? We are moving! We bought a house! Yep. This just got real. It’s awesome yet crazy, and just a huge step in our lives but we are so excited to take that step! Though the idea of moving has been in the works for us for about five months, the opportunity with this specific house came up quick. And when I mean quick, I mean that we had three days to decide on it, haha.

I like doing surprise/spur-of-the-moment dates. Especially when they are much needed. I have had some medical concerns (or you could call them annoyances!) for several months now. (I’m not pregnant, don’t worry, haha.) I’ll have slumps of days when almost any food sounds good to eat, but then I’ll have annoying streaks when I don’t want to eat anything; sometimes it gets to the point of just thinking of my favorite foods makes me want to gag.

We love living in Provo. There’s some great things about this area (Provo & Orem) that set it apart from other cities in Utah. The music scene has been great to be a part of, and has been the creator of some memorable date nights for us. Someone, somewhere nearby, for some inexpensive price is always playing, and they are usually pretty entertaining. I don’t know of any town that can do that, let alone, has enough talent to give birth to some great bands.

Music is one of my favorite things that this life offers us. It has the power to inspire, to soften hearts, to change a mood, to make our bodies move, and ultimately, it can make us happy. My favorite thing about music, however, is its ability to preserve a memory, whether happy or sad, silly or annoying. I absolutely love that because of the many, MANY songs on my personal favorites list, every single one of them involves a memory… Singing Backstreet Boys songs with my friend every drive I took from St.

We are now on month 13 and I’m feeling grateful for where we are at. It is funny because this month I’ve suddenly felt like we gained a little bit more maturity with completing one year. Every year brings it’s certain experiences that allow us to learn and grow, so each year we’ll become just a little tinsy-tiny bit more wiser than the year before, and I’m looking forward to it :) With that being said, I think it is important to look back at things we have learned.

We’ve mentioned our ideals on dating in marriage before, but we’ll mention it again: One of our expectations going into our marriage, was committing to have a date night each week. In looking back at our first year, I don’t think we missed a week. I know it’s so much easier for newlyweds to continue to date, and make time for dates, but that’s not an excuse to lack! No matter what stage of marriage you are in, I hope you ask each other out on fun dates still.

Well, Trevor and I have now been married for one year! It’s an interesting feeling of happiness, pride, excitement, and weirdness at the same time… if that makes any sense, haha. It is weird because of how quickly, yet slowly the year went by, and how different we are from a year ago! We were individuals that learned how to be one. We made plans, and some of those plans changed in unexpected ways.

I found this quote a long time ago, and it has been my favorite ever since. Unfortunately, I don’t like the song that these words come from, haha. I will credit the band and the song though anyways. The lyrics come from the song, “I Know How The River Feels,” by Diamond Rio. As a young adult, there were so many directions to go, and many crucial life decisions coming at me.

For more than 11 years I have kept a quote book, where I have written down any intuitive thoughts, quotes, lyrics, speeches, movie lines, or any other words that I have found meaningful. I’m very passionate about finding them, as they inspire, and encourage, me. I love relating some of these to my own life, and so I wanted to share this one I love relating some of these to my own life, and so I wanted to share this one that is very significant to Trevor and I.

Trevor and I really enjoy having awesome TV shows to watch. We’ve already made that known in a previous post, where we spent most of March inside, while trading off being sick. There’s only so much you can do when you don’t feel well, right? But then what about the days that we feel great? Is it bad to enjoy a few episodes of a TV show? I mean, we all do it!

On Saturday, Trevor and I were doing dishes together, and we had a funny conversation about something. I don’t remember all of the words that were said, but I think it was about how I almost pulled a “your face” joke on him. I know, I act like a twelve-year-old sometimes because I say “your face is a _____ “(fill in the blank), whenever the opportunity arises, haha. Well this opportunity, he knew it was coming after he created the perfect set up, so he said it before I could say it.

I remember reading an article last month on Huffington Post called, “Can We Bring The Holidays Down A Notch?” It’s a Mom telling about the stress that she feels comes with Holidays while feeling pressure from other moms who seem to make each holiday bigger than the last. I’m not a mom with kids who sometimes need to be pampered with gifts on holidays, but as a newlywed, I can relate to feeling that pressure as well.

The past three weeks, Trevor and I have felt like we’ve been bums, couch potatoes, or whatever you call it. I am just finishing a cold I have had for the past 3 weeks, so I haven’t had much energy to workout, or do extra things beyond the necessary chores. I’ve mostly been tired, while Trevor has also been tired from some adjustments in his new job. While he loves it, his brain can be on overload sometimes.

I didn’t think I would come across this dilemma so soon after marriage. I thought we were pretty great at this, and wouldn’t struggle with it as much as we have been lately. It’s something that I thought I might have a hard time with when we have kids, but nope. It’s already a struggle at 9 months of marriage. What is this problem, you ask? Meals. Yeah I thought you might laugh.

My twenty-second year was the best year of my life. Yesterday, I told Trevor my feelings on this past birthday year, and how I think it’s going to be hard to top. He said, “Oh, don’t say that! We are together, so every year is going to get better and better.” I loved it. I think trials are bound to happen in the years ahead of us, because there is so much more that we get to, and need to experience.

This new year has already been eventful for us. We’ve been blessed with a few opportunities and things to look forward to, and now our lives are going in a different direction, and we are very happy about it. Exciting news to share Trevor has chosen to start his career earlier than we planned, with a job offer from his dream job! He will be a Web Developer for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

I have been noticing some changes in myself since becoming a wifey to my amazing husband, Trevor. They are GOOD changes! We’ve been married now for about 8 months, and it’s been a fun ride. While the transition from the single life to the married life was so awesome, it was a bigger transition for me with how independent of a person I am. One of the biggest changes I’ve been proud of, is how much I have cut out of my life to make more time for Trevor, and to be a better wife and friend for him… I’ve focused more on the things that matter most.

[caption id=“attachment_2457” align=“aligncenter” width=“450”] There’s something great about laying next to your best friend every night, and waking up to them still by your side in the morning.[/caption] On Saturday morning, I woke up and rolled over in bed to face Trevor. I found him still asleep, which typically happens, but this time I couldn’t help but stare at him. I cuddled up right next to him, and he made subtle movements to hold my hand, or put his arm around me, like he usually would.

I’m sure many of you have read that article circulating, called “23 Things to Do Instead of Getting Engaged Before You’re 23.” If you haven’t read it, you might find it interesting. (Please note that the article in the link contains explicit words.) So many opinions can be formed about this girl’s views, and many opinions have already been mentioned. In having a website focused on strengthening marriage, as well as helping the world understand the beauty of marriage, we couldn’t let our opinion go unheard.

This was how our year of 2013 was well-spent. [caption id=“attachment_1860” align=“aligncenter” width=“550”] 67 dates. 348 days spent together. 1863 laughs. 32 special songs shared. 1.7 million kisses. (give or take a few) And 1 especially blissful day, when we became eternal best friends.[/caption] Happy New Year everyone! We are so excited to begin this new year together, but 2013 was a wonderful year! When I think back on all that we did, I can’t help but feel undeniably happy.

. [caption id=“attachment_1442” align=“alignnone” width=“550”] This is a picture of our “hobby” room. One half of the picture is Amy’s “crafting corner” and the other half is my “coding corner”. Can you tell which side is Amy’s and which is mine? Uh…let’s just say we have our own styles of organization…hahaha :)[/caption] Two IS better than one As you can see by this picture, we are very different in some ways; I am a perfectionist, soft-spoken, and nerdy.

It’s been said that this is the most wonderful time of the year. And other than this freezing cold weather we have been having, it sure feels true to me! This seems to be the best Christmas season I’ve ever had. The first reason is because I get to experience it married to the love of my life, who automatically makes things the best. :) The second reason is because I feel a special kind of excitement for the many “firsts” and new traditions that we get to have.

Trevor laughs at all the little moments in our relationship I try to commemorate, or that I feel the need to commemorate. When he sees a bottle of sparkling cider in the cupboard, I think he traces his memories to find out what moment I’m wanting to make a toast about with it (haha). Well, today is our six month anniversary, so naturally, I pulled out a bottle to celebrate over dinner.

Amy asked me this morning, “Am I beautiful?” I was thinking, “Of course you are beautiful!” But I know many of you women reading this ask the same thing. It’s obvious that many women are self-conscious about the way they look. I learned some disgusting statistics today: In 2012, women had more than 9.1 million cosmetic procedures - breast augmentation, liposuction, tummy tuck, eyelid surgery, and breast lift, to name a few.

Do you and your significant other have different likes and dislikes? Yeah, we do too. We have had some since the beginning, but are starting to know a lot more, lately! We are so glad that we have those differences, because they provide a little variety in our relationship (haha). And if we were the exact same person, we might get bored after awhile. I think some of those differences have started to get to us a little more, recently.

I love the word, “family.” There are so many emotions and meanings that encircle this word: The feelings of love, comfort, home, dependability, kindness, humor, and humility, are just a few to name. I have learned a few things in my life about families, especially recently. Every family is different Every family has some sort of challenge, obstacle, or trial to overcome. Growing up, I quickly learned the first part. My family and I have experienced certain trials that I know many of my friends and their families were not experiencing, at the time.

What does it mean when you hold hands with your spouse? I remember the first time that Amy and I held hands. We had been dating for a few weeks and were really starting to like each other. I was shy and didn’t know how to make any moves. Amy could see that I was struggling so she helped me: we were watching a movie sitting on a bean bag and she put her hand on my arm.

Amy had sinus surgery this week. I sat worried in the waiting room attempting to get some homework done. After a long wait I was allowed to go to my wife’s bedside in the recovery room as she groggily emerged from the fog of anesthesia. I was able to help her eat, get dressed, and even use the bathroom…simple things we all take for granted. I held her hand tightly and stared at her beautiful face as she drifted in and out of sleep…quietly thanking God for all of my blessings.

Our dear, dear parents have paid for full insurances on our health, dental, and vision care all our lives… Until now. We’ve been getting our dental work in this summer, while we have insurance through Trevor’s company, and WOW! What a confusing puzzle insurance is. I never knew everything that goes into making sure you don’t pay a million dollars for small medical services. I mean, just in choosing a dentist, you have to carefully choose a great dentist, while also double-checking that they carry your insurance.

Amy and I can be a little goofy at times… Actually, pretty much all the time :) One of the goofy things we do is call each other “mine.” I came home to a note on the table today that said “mine.” I love my wife. I am very thankful for the nice little notes that she leaves me around our apartment, on our bathroom mirror, on the fridge, through text messages, and through voicemails.

You don’t hear about many newlywed couples who have food storage, but we are now one of those couples. We’ve been planning since before we got married, to have a three-month supply of food storage, and we just reached that goal this week. No, this isn’t because we worry that a zombie apocalypse will occur. It’s because we fear the unknown. I know many of you think that the topic of food storage is one that older people are involved in.

In our first three months together, I learned: Routines are comfortably nice. To take a deep breath and be patient. You can gain weight quickly as a newlywed! (Yikes!)

The sealing The best and most important part was done first thing in the morning: Get married to my best friend! After that, the mishaps don’t matter, because you are happy as can be! Photography Pictures were taken with family and friends on the temple grounds, and afterwards, Trevor and I spent about an hour taking pictures just us and the photographer. I know many people do groomals before-hand, so that the wedding day isn’t rushed.

I would like to start out, by saying how much I loved my wedding day. From the Groom to the ceremony; to the decorations to the guests; and from the food to the fun, I loved it all! Of course, the day had a few blips, but that is inevitable! What it all came down to, was that I had just married the most perfect man for me, and we were celebrating that fact with people who loved and supported us.

Remember to cut the price tag off of your brand new blouse before you wear it to Sacrament meeting, in giving a talk at the pulpit, in front of a large congregation. It’s fine. My husband slyly pulled it off after I sat back down. Well, the time came, sooner than I had expected, that we were asked to speak in Sacrament meeting. To many of you, this may surprise you, but we actually enjoyed it.

In the first three weeks of being married, I learned: The difference between wants and needs. Showing your love can sometimes be more important than saying it. Selfishness will never prosper in a partnership. Cuddling can fix sooooo many things!

We were recently married in the Latter-Day Saint temple. We wanted to share this experience with you - from our engagement to our lives now…post-marriage. We hope you enjoy the words of the bride (amy) and the groom (trevor): This post has 2 parts: The bride’s perspective, and the groom’s perspective! The Groom Hello. I’m Trevor I’m Amy’s husband and I wanted to share my side of the story too :)

Well, more like, the best friends before we met our spouses. Saturday was Trevor’s (before me) best friend’s wedding. It was a beautiful, yet hot, day full of love and happiness for them. It was a long-awaited day for them, especially since we both started dating within a week of each other, and were engaged about the same time. It was so hard for those boys! They were so in love with us and they just kept waiting until we fully came around!

My husband asks me out on a date every week. I KNOW RIGHT?! He really is the cutest husband. We had our partial date tonight in the park, having a picnic together. We grabbed the cute woven basket my cute mother-in-law gave us, and packed it full of buns, bananas, and BBQ chicken. It was lovely just sitting on the lush, green, grass, just eating, talking, and laughing. Trevor makes me giggle so much.

We just bought a new iron two weeks ago. I was excited to play wifey with it, and iron things for my husband, just like the movies show wives and moms doing. (some of you might chuckle at that). So while Trevor went to run errands, I thought I would try it out on his dress shirts, and have them wrinkle-free for his Sunday-dress. You need to know two things before you judge me.