happy together

this is a totally lame and corny post so please spare yourself if not interested :)

 7 years ago i married this guy who was sort of amazing. we have had quite the adventure over the years and i thought it might be fun to take a look back at some of the main events in our life together.

 

april 9, 2006: curtis and i started dating. totally unexpected.

 

 november 9, 2006: engaged!! he took me up the mountain at sunset to an overlook of our hometown and popped the question. you obviously know what the answer was.

 

march 9, 2007: officially mr. and mrs.! my very favorite part of the day was right before our ceremony in the manti temple.  the sealing room wasn't ready so they took us to the celestial room to wait. it was so amazingly peaceful and absolutely beautiful.  i cant really describe exactly what i was feeling but i had a this overwhelming feeling of happiness and knew i was making the right choice.

 

 

april 13, 2009: mason!! he inhaled fluid during delivery which resulted in pneumonia only 24 hours after his birth.  luckily his oxygen levels were fine but he had to stay in the nursery for a week to receive antibiotics through an IV.  today mason is happy and healthy and dang smart. he starts kindergarten in the fall! love our boy.

 

may 2009: i graduated with magna cum laude honors from southern utah university with a bachelors degree in early childhood development.  so glad to have that over with!

 

may 2011: curtis graduated from southern utah university with his degree in business management. it had been a rough couple of years of him working the graveyard shift full time then going to school full time during the day but he stuck with it and it payed off with a job waiting for him immediately following graduation.

 

 may 24, 2011: sophie!! we had ourselves a sweet girlie who looked just like her momma.  almost 3 years later we are learning she is just as stubborn too :) sophie is definitely our hard child but we love her and her spunky personality.

 

 july 2011: we moved to dallas, texas and it happened to be during a record breaking hot summer. thank goodness our apartment complex had a pool. it was a huge adjustment for us all but we survived...barely :)

 

 october 2011: we moved into our brand new house located 30 minutes south of dallas in waxahachie, texas.

 

september 9, 2012: 14 weeks into my pregnancy and during an extremely scary situation, we found out this little one would not be joining our family here on earth. definitely the most terrifying, heartbreaking, and hardest thing i have ever gone through in my life. so grateful that our family is sealed together so we can see him/her again.

 

 

november 12, 2013: brooklyn!! we are now a family of 5 with another sweet girl in the mix.  b is so pretty with the cutest little smile and looks more like her brother than her sister. she loves attention and  will talk your ear off in the process. mason and sophie absolutely adore her and she loves them back (even though they pretty much smother her all day long).

 

 

i can't believe it has only been 7 years since we started our lives together. it seems like so much longer than that! we have had so much happen in that amount of time and it will be interesting to see what unfolds in the years to come.  even though we have tough times, the good ones definitely outweigh the bad. curtis and i have been to so many places together...the caribbean, washington d.c., and the grand canyon to name a few.  we have been snowboarding, hiking, and played with dolphins together.  we brought 3 wonderful children into this world and what greater accomplishment and happiness is there than that? i love when he walks in the door from work and he tells me how pretty i am even though i haven't showered and have worn the same clothes for the past 2 (maybe 3?) days. i am always amazed at how hard he works for our family and i know he always will do whatever it takes for us so i can stay home to raise our kiddies. i love how he goes to work then comes home, plays with the kids and helps me with dinner, dishes and laundry. my highlight on the weekend is getting the kids to bed then sinking into the couch with curtis, eating bowls of ice cream while catching up on our weekely tv shows. he loves the band "modest mouse" while i do not. i love black licorice but he refuses to kiss me if i've eaten any.  we respect all those difference in opinions that arise and compromise when needed. we have laughed. we have fought. i have cried on his shoulder (probably more than i should admit :). sometimes life is hard but through every trial we face i know that he is standing right beside me. he supports me and i support him (even if it means moving across the country....). he is my other half and i am seriously lost without him by my side.

 



 

 

i love you curtis barnum (i know you are going to read this :). i have loved our time together and i am looking forward to many more years with you!

happy anniversary!

holiday season madness!

fair warning....this is a HUGE blog post. it covers everything from when brooklyn was born to new years eve. pretty much just pictures though so enjoy and forgive any mistakes as i am sleep deprived and distracted :)

 

after my mom was here for a week to help with brooklyn, curtis' mom took a turn. she was a huge help and the kids had a blast and did a lot of different activities with her. one day the kids went to the zoo with grandma and dad so mom could rest at home with the baby. i think it was great for all of us :)

 

i love this picture of mason and sophie. mason has gotten into this phase where he makes mad faces or pirate faces or does random things in pictures. not only is he smiling in this one, they are BOTH smiling and looking in the direction of the camera.  

 

grandma took on the huge task of making sugar cookies and letting the kids decorate them.

 

after curtis' mom was here for a week, curtis' dad and brother also came down to celebrate thanksgiving with us.  casey was a great sport to play with the kids and they had a good time building a train track around the kitchen table.

 

these next two are just a couple shots i got of b. she is just so cute i cant stand it!

 

 after thanksgiving comes christmas tree decorating! letting the kiddies decorate the tree is a little hard for a perfectionist to sit back and watch but we got through it :)

 

we have heard stories of the ice storms they get down here but had yet to experience one until this year. i can remember seeing things on tv for people preparing for blizzards or other big storms and thinking how crazy that would be...whole cities shutting down and everyone hiding out in their houses...we never got one snow day growing up in utah! but a few weeks ago we got our first taste of a bad dallas winter storm. days before the storm arrived the news was warning everyone, recommending no travel if it wasn't absolutely necessary. offices and businesses shut down, all the schools were closed, and the nightly news pretty much was the weather report the whole time. shelves were empty at the stores and everyone was rushing to hardware stores for supplies to protect pipes and outdoor faucets. when we woke up the morning after the storm first hit, our poor tree in the front yard was bent over completely and touching the ground from the weight of the ice as were many of our neighbors. i got these next two pictures from our oak trees in the back yard. it took a very long time before things got back to normal! luckily we were at the edge of the storm and weren't affected too bad but north of us gas stations had no gas, shelves remained empty and christmas packages arrived late because trucks couldn't travel. it was crazy!

 

next up...christmas!! my favorite!!

christmas eve cooking making! gotta have something yummy for good old santa.

it wouldn't be christmas without new pajamas :)

can we say spoiled?!

 

 

last year mason asked for a drum. he didn't get it. this year he asked for drum. curtis wanted to get him a drum set....i don't think I'm quite ready for that but i did agree to this little one. he was super excited. my ears and sleeping baby....not quite as happy :)

 

 

mason got a bike last year for christmas and i think sophie rides it more than he does. betcha cant guess what she got....

 



 

here is sophie's loot,

 

here is mason's,

 

  here is Brooklyn's,

 

and here is mine and curtis'.

 

i am usually pretty on top of things but this christmas was filled with lots of procrastination. i have not taken brooklyn anywhere for 6 weeks except her well check visits and our good friends house to prevent getting any nasty germs and that made it a little hard to get things done. kinda glad this year is over with :) it was still a lot of fun and the holidays are so much more fun with little ones! i love the magic of the season and the joy and excitement it brings.

 

we were planning on blessing b the first week of january but then found out my family wanted to come down and visit so we asked the bishop if we could bless her the last sunday in december while they were here. it was a little depressing thinking we wouldn't have any family members to join us so i was so happy to hear that my dad and brother would be able to join in the circle! it was a wonderful blessing given by curtis and b look beautiful! i was nervous about taking her to church but i needed to get back to my calling as primary chorister so fingers crossed she doesn't catch something.

i have started venturing the wonderful world of making hair bows and head bands and this one she is wearing is one of my firsts...a little bigger than i wanted but it still turned out really cute.

 

my little family!

there is this cute idea of celebrating new years early in the evening for kids but my 4 year old can tell time so no tricking him. he really wanted to stay up until 12. we convinced him 9 was good enough after some popcorn and fireworks. 

 

 happy new year!!

 

 just a shot of grandpa reading bedtime stories.

 what a year it has been and it was a good one!! cant wait to see what the next year has in store for us!