L.A. Date: Conan, Thai-town and Griffith Observatory

 Our cousin came into some Conan tickets and graciously offered them to us. We accepted happily! We love Conan and have always wanted to go to a taping. It was so fun to see how everything went down, walk through the studio and see celebrities! We laughed and clapped and had a great time, even if we were sitting in the back :)
It took a few hours for the taping so after we were starving. We headed to Thai-town for some good food. We picked a restaurant from Yelp called Jitla that had good reviews and a recommendation from Curtis Stone. The food was amazing and there was artwork all over the inside by Matt Groening. I guess he's a fan of it too!
We drove up to the observatory afterward and walked around. It was getting late (for me) and it was cold out so we didn't stay too long. It was SO wonderful to spend the whole day together and not have to worry about getting a baby in and out of the car. We missed Jude and were so glad that he was in good hands while we had our little adventure. Getting away for a little while every so often is very refreshing and gives you a little recharge as a mom. You come back renewed and ready to jump in.

Let's Get Happy

The six years before Jude entered our lives I'd changed a lot. "Change" should be the theme of my married life. When David and I got married I was 20 years old and left my parent's home for my new married home. I had been out of high school for a year and a half. Now, I've always been an old soul and a little more mature in some ways than others. But suddenly living with someone I'd never lived with before was new, and hard in a lot of ways. And it wasn't the living together that was hard. It was sharing money. It was deciding how to spend that money. It was figuring out our time together. It was figuring out how to decide things together and for me to remain calm during those decisions, and for David to realize that I have a strong opinion about everything. In our first two years of marriage we moved a few times (new jobs, flooding houses and living with siblings had big effects on us). Anyway, we had some work to do. I. I had some work to do. I loved David and I wanted to have an awesome marriage. (Once in an email he sent me right after we were married he told me, "I want for us to be able to look at each other and have nothing to say but, 'It's good!'"  But I had to be really happy by myself first. And I was most of the time. Just sometimes I was negative. I was negative a lot, actually.
David finally told me. Do you want to be happy? You can be happy all the time. Even if things are bad. Even if people are mean or we don't have any money or things are hard. You get to decide how YOU feel. No one else tells you how to feel.  So I worked on it. I prayed every day to my Heavenly Father, "Please help me be happy today." And I got happy. I changed a lot. It was hard, but it worked.
Jude has done the same thing for me. Once I had him in my life I thought, "He sees every single thing I do. He hears every word I say. I can't be negative. Everything I do is teaching him how to be. I have to be happy. I have to not yell. I have to be positive." So I got happier.
My dad is a really honest person. He says what he thinks (with tact). He told me he saw a change in my when I had Jude. That I was happier. That made me happy.
So I have two men to thank on this momentous day where a little man came into our lives. Thank you for giving me another reason to be happy. I've always said I like boys better than girls, and now I have two that I get to spend every day with. Boys are sensible and my boys give me every reason to be happy. They've turned me into a better version of myself.

I'll dig a tunnel from my window to yours.

Five years down. I love you to the moon and back.

I brought you flours

One of our faves. I love that he brings her flours. And I love that he just says "I want you". I like when guys get flabbergasted when they're overcome with love- especially since most are very sensible. :)

Have you seen Stranger Than Fiction? If not, you should. It's David's favorite.

Happy Birthday, David (via the iphone)

I love that you are 31 years old today.
I also love:

That you are adventurous.


and hilarious.


and loving.


and mine.

Photos of us

Since it had been almost 4 years since we have had professional photos taken of us, I decided to recruit the fab Ellsworths to shoot us. The outcome is beyond amazing.

the sweetness

2 whole years

This is the first picture ever taken of us.. there's a few more from the same night that are better but I dont have them on my computer. David and I met at volleyball on a thursday night and started talking afterward at TGIFridays. I was 18 and he was 24...the age difference was a little weird but once he started talking I forgot everything. He was and is so funny, he ALWAYS makes me laugh. He tells the best stories. He takes care of me. We have fun and are best friends. He is always positive even when our house is completely flooded on Christmas Day or there's troubles in our families or I'm really sick...he just wants me to be happy. One of my favorite things is that neither one of us remember who said 'I love you' first, we just always remember saying it. We've been married for two years but together for over three and since I've known him I've never been happier or had a better outlook on life.

This is us then night before our wedding- we were putting together the play list for our reception on my computer, which was also going to play a slideshow that David made of us growing up.

This is us at a birthday dinner in San Bernardino...we'd been dating for about a month.

And the most popular: Paris. This is one of the first pictures taken of us after we started dating. We were at Coachella (which David had surprised me with tickets to barely after we decided to date) and the background was ugly so he used photoshop to put us onto the lawn in front of the Eiffel Tower. The BEST part is that I never thought we'd be able to take a real one and last year we actually did! This one is still a better picture of us so I like to remember our trip to Paris with this fake picture...haha.

Our engagement picture: we had so many to choose from but this was totally us.

And our wedding day; it was the BEST day. Driving to the temple with my parents I was excited and sitting together waiting to be sealed, us seeing each other for the first time after I put on my wedding dress, dancing and cutting cake, seeing our families...it was awesome and I will never forget it. I had basically been waiting for that day for over a year and a half and it had finally come!




Us...now. Well a few months ago.

'cause I know when the kids are all grown we will still have this blue and gold print'