5 Years!

our engagement picture

I remember being a newlywed at BYU, counting how long we'd been married in months and meeting people who had been married a year or two and being impressed that they had been married that long! I couldn't fathom what it would be like to be married for years. If I had a crystal ball to tell me what was in store, I could have seen what an amazing man Paul was and how he only gets better and better the longer I know him.

5 years ago we were married in the Mesa, Arizona temple on October 11, 2003.

I want to say that it was the happiest day of my life, but I don't think that's true. I wanted to be married to Paul with all of my heart, and I appreciated my wedding and the family and friends who came to support us, but I couldn't wait to get the wedding over with so we could start our lives.

We got engaged in the middle of July after dating since the beginning of July and thought the prudent thing was to set our wedding date for December 20th, in between semesters and to give us a lot of time to plan, and sell our housing contracts.

Then around the middle of August, we knew that the only thing that mattered was being married, we didn't care if we had to get married in a whirlwind weekend and be back to class the next week. So, we called up our parents and told them we had changed the date. My mom planned nearly my whole wedding and reception from Arizona while I was in Utah and I was too busy being smitten with Paul to care about any of the details. I think she did a great job without me!

The temple was 45 minutes away from our house and I was supposed to be at the temple at 8:30 am for wedding pictures. Advice to any future brides and grooms, if you have time, do not do your wedding pictures on the morning of. I was 45 minutes late and the photographer took 37 spectacular pictures of Paul nervously wondering if he had been stood up. By the time I got there, there wasn't much time until the wedding so we had to hurry and take as many pictures as we could.

Isn't he so handsome? No wonder I was smitten

The rest of the day was wonderful though. I was so happy that Ocober 11th had finall arrived.

I can't believe everything that can happen in 5 years! I graduated from BYU April of 2005. Asher was born in October 2005 and we became parents and came even closer together through all of the trials becoming parents bring. We left Provo when Paul graduated from BYU in 2006 and moved to Washington. We bought our first home and Madeleine was born in May 2007. I am so grateful for the blessings that Heavenly Father has given me. Everything good in my life has come from him and through following his plan for happiness. The road I've taken hasn't been easy, but I am so happy.

I Love You Paul!

If anyone cares about our engagement story, you can find it in this back post