Another Fantastic Year

This Sunday will be Bryan's and my 4 year anniversary. It's hard to believe how fast it has gone, but at the same time it's hard to imagine life before there was an "us." We have a crazy few days coming up so we decided to go to dinner tonight to celebrate. It's always a little weird to leave Ryan at home, but at the same time it's nice to enjoy a leisurely meal at a nice restaurant from time to time. And since our alone time is about to become severely challenged, I think it was much needed.

Our friends Ana and John just had their 4th anniversary and he posted this cute little series of questions and answers about their marriage, which I'm totally going to steal and use to share some (possibly) little known facts about our marriage:

What is his name?....Bryan, also known as Bear, B, Bean and Daddy.

How did I meet him?....An LDS online dating site. Yes, I'm serious. It worked though, so laugh if you will.

Who said I love you first?....I honestly can't remember...

Who kissed who first?.....Bryan kissed me. But then I kissed him back, so it was all good.

Who proposed?....Bryan did on 4th of July weekend on the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. It was actually in the parking lot, but that's a whole different story...

What are his best qualities and features?....His best physical feature is definitely the eyes. Gorgeous. He has so many good qualities--amazing daddy, patience with my many, many quirks, faith that he never questions, the ability to help me realize when I'm being ridiculous, a great sense of humor, an amazing work ethic...really, I could go on and on. But I would say his absolute best quality is his generosity. The man would give you the shirt off his back if you needed it. He's just like that.

Guilty pleasures....Hmm, good question. I guess his favorite TV shows, Life, Chuck and House.

Who eats more?....I eat more frequently, he eats larger quantities.

Who cooks more? I do, but only because I'm home now. When we both worked, he did. He usually does all the cooking on the weekends though, which I love.

Who's the most sensitive?.....Definitely me.

Who is the first to admit they are wrong?....We're both pretty good at this, though it's not always immediate.

Who does the laundry?...I do. It saves us all from having pink underwear and blue button down shirts for Sunday :)

Who does the dishes?....I do.

Who is more stubborn?....Definitely me. And unfortunately that's a quality that my son has inherited.

Who pays the bills?....I take care of the bills at home, Bryan takes care of the bills for the business.

Who drives the most when we are together?....Bryan but occasionally I do drive if we're just running a quick errand.

What side of the bed do we sleep on? I sleep on the left side of the bed, Bryan sleeps on the right.

Who wears the pants in the family?...Bryan does. I just pick them out and make sure they look nice.

Who has more siblings?...Bryan--2 brothers and 2 sisters.

Who makes more money at their job? Since my salary is currently paid in hugs and kisses and I don't really keep up with the exchange rate, it's hard to say :)

Who holds a grudge?...Neither of us, at least with each other.

Is our marriage perfect?....It's perfect for us, and it seems to just get better and better. I'd say that's pretty close to perfection.

So Grateful...

Earlier this month, a hurricane slammed into Baja, Mexico destroying more than 600 homes and leaving hundreds of families with literally nothing but the clothes on their backs.

The Mexican government went in and provided water, rice and beans, but these people had no pots to cook in, and nothing to eat with or out of. There is a lady in our ward who is originally from there and still has family there, so our ward took it upon itself to help provide humanitarian relief to the people in the area.

We all got an email asking us to gather items that these people needed--blankets, tennis shoes, jackets and household items--and a man from our ward would fly everything down in his plane. I took about 20 minutes to go through our house and gather items and in that period of time I was able to collect three garbage bags full of stuff.

Afterwards it really struck me that we have SO much. The things I put in those bags we wont even miss. We have closets full of clothes and blankets, cupboards full of cookware and dishes, and so much more.

Lately I have been lamenting over projects I really want to get done in my house and I have been frustrated that we are at a point where the parts of my house that people see need to be practical rather than pretty. Our living room has a whole section filled with Ryan's toys, his car and his books. Our family room has a baby swing and a rocking chair that I would rather have somewhere else. My front room still has no curtains after almost 4 years because I just can't decide what colors I want in there.

However, as I thought about these people who have literally nothing, I realized I just need to be grateful for all that I DO have. My friends don't care that I don't have curtains and that the corners of my rooms are filled with toys. My son is happy because he doesn't have to be confined to some little corner of the house to play. And really, I am grateful to have a beautiful home where my family can be together, where we don't have to worry about an exorbitant mortgage like so many people we know, and where there is peace and happiness and laughter.

Could I really ask for more??

Our (unsuccessful) Attempt at Creating Family Memories

This year I really wanted to take Ryan to a pumpkin patch. There is a place relatively close by that has pumpkins, a carousel, various rides, a train, hayrides, a petting zoo, a corn maze and all sorts of other things to do.

We decided that we would go this weekend because we have other things going on the next couple of weekends. Yesterday I looked at the weather and saw it was supposed to be 96 degrees today, and that had me a little concerned. However after a little discussion Bryan and I thought we'd just get there right when they opened at 10:00 and we'd be fine. Um yeah, not so much.

Almost as soon as we started walking around, little Ryan's cheeks got bright red. All he was really interested in doing was sitting on the ground and playing with the dirt. And after about 30 minutes, he wanted to climb into his stroller, which was weird because he is not a big fan of the stroller. Bryan picked him up and realized he was super warm, so we figured we'd better get out of there and get him cooled off.

After a sippy cup of water and a few minutes in the air conditioned car, Ryan was good to go. However I don't think we'll be doing the pumpkin patch again until he's a few years older...

Oh, and P.S., this crazy weather is the reason October is my least favorite month in Arizona. It's fall, people. I've already endured 5 months of scortching temperatures. I'm done with summer. I'd like to pull out a sweatshirt on occasion, you know what I'm saying?

Construction Update

So today was the day of the final tape removal, and we now have absolutely perfect pink and lilac stripes adorning the walls of Miss Annie's room. I will say that it has been quite a process but after the purchase of many, many quarts of paint in various colors to find the perfect ones and many, many steps of a very meticulous process taken on by Bryan and Perry, I couldn't have asked for a better outcome. It is absolutely perfect and I couldn't be happier.

Obviously the room itself is still awaiting its fair share of work. Bryan is going to start on the floor this weekend and tomorrow we'll pick up new blinds. But it's definitely beginning to resemble to room of a little princess!

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