The Colorado Times, Issue 3

After we stopped in the Springs, we took a ride to southern Colorado where we spent some time with Josh's mom. 

We had lots of fun with her as well.

There's a story of when Josh's mom was younger.  They went on vacation and her dad only took pictures of all the old war ships they saw.  When her mother asked him to take a picture of the children, he said only if they posed to point out the ship which was also in the photo.  Thus, the pose above is a necessary element of most photo opportunities.

The Colorado Times, Issue 2

After we went and spent some fun time at my sister's house we headed down to Colorado Springs and hung out with Josh's dad. 

We went to the zoo.




What'cha see there, Millie?





Feeding the baby giraffe.




Emma makes a friend.




Abby bonding with the gorilla.




I told the kids to pose like they're scared of the bear.  I think we need to consider some professional help.


And we had a big birthday bash for Josh.

Here are some rare shots of most of the family.

Kids and grandkids

Everybody... if you want names, let me know and I'll do my best to label everyone.



Left to right: Amanda (sister), Justin (brother), Curtis (dad), Jake (brother), Jaymen (brother), and Josh


It was tons of fun.

It's A Small World After All

Tonight I took the kids to the Groom's/Rehearsal Dinner for Josh's cousin. His cousin Breanna is getting married tomorrow in the Mesa AZ Temple.

It was a great reunion, although Josh had to work. We saw Josh's mom, his aunts and uncles, some cousins. It was fun. Millie was introduced to everyone and several people recognized the girls from their pictures well enough to tell them apart in person. That may not seem like a big deal, but you'd be surprised how often the two of them are confused. I was impressed.

I was also reunited with my former Visiting Teaching companion from about nine years ago. Josh and I lived in Mesa not long after we were married and that's where I met Michelle. Like I said, we were partnered together to visit certain sisters in our ward. She had just had her third child and I was pregnant with Emma. I approached her and we visited for a minute or two. She said she remembered me, but I'm pretty sure she was just being polite. But it's funny to come across someone from the past.

Oh, and just an update on my nephew Brayden. Thanks for all of your prayers. My SIL reports that he's doing much better and eating well. He should be able to go home within the next few weeks. Hooray!!

He's So Cute!!!!

Josh was laughing at me this morning because yesterday we got a cd in the mail from one of his cousins which contained over 200 pictures from that side of the family. Included is a picture of Josh when he was about 3 1/2. He's so cute I can't even stand it!

This is the only picture we have of Josh under the age of 19. I really, really want to raid my in-laws' pictures, but I can just see how that conversation would go:

"Hi! How are you! Haven't seen you in a while. I want pictures."

This smaller picture is cropped from this larger one. This is the day Josh's brother Jaymen was blessed. There are a lot of people in this photo I've never met, including Josh's mom's parents who passed away in the 1990s and his biological father's parents who are in CA. For that matter, I've never met his biological father. All I really have to say about that is, every family has dynamics. But that's a whole other story.

Josh's sister also found this photo. I can't believe she had a copy of it. This is Josh and me the night we met face to face. Josh had just come off the airplane, home from his mission to South Africa. He was still a missionary, and if you didn't know, missionaries aren't supposed to be too close to members of the opposite sex. So, we hammed up this picture a little, but you can see by how red our faces are that we're both a bit embarrassed about the whole spectacle.

I love old pictures.

Happy Birthday, Matt-ee-oh!

Today is Matt's birthday. Oh, the memories! I think of everything Matt has endured in his five years on Earth and I thank our Heavenly Father that Matt-Matt is here with us. He's very good-natured and loving and happy. He's a good boy and I'm lucky to be his mom.

So, for his birthday, Matt got some cool clothes and such from his Mema and Poppy, both of whom are in Colorado. Lori got him some cool jets while she was here visiting.

Mom and Dad got Matt some K-nex. Matt loves to build things. He really, really loves to build things. His creations are such a big deal to him and I've had to teach the girls to be respectful of them. I didn't realize how much had been drilled in until the cousins were over and I heard Abby tell Trenton, "Be careful, those are Matt's and they're very important to him!"

Josh and I went the easy route and combined Matt's likes in his two gifts from us. Matt LOVES Wolverine and motorcycles. So, he got...

Wolverine on a motorcycle!

He also likes Star Wars, Transformers, and jets. So we also got him...

A Transformer that is a Star Wars jet that changes to a trooper robot!

Matt asked for a Spider-Man cake. So, I tried to be fancy and this is what I came up with.

I think you get the picture of what it was supposed to look like. I only had two candles though (oops!) and I wrote Happy Birthday Matt along the sides of the cake. I guess it wasn't too bad. If you looked at it from a distance. A very far distance.

Today is also Tara and Jabon's anniversary. Tara and I are three years apart, but we have a lot of dates in common. We're about 45 minutes shy of being exactly three years apart. She was born right before my third birthday party, and she's tried to continue to steal my thunder ever since. (That's just a joke, Abby, I mean, Tara.) Tara and Jabon's anniversary is the same day as Matt's birthday--that one was Matt trying to steal their thunder. Our youngest children are exactly two months apart. Her oldest son, Cody, has his birthday the day before Josh's. Just a lot of similar dates.

And, I can't post this without showing you Millie's latest escapades.

Matt and Millie were playing under the table together. They were both giggling their heads off. It was so funny.

Fun times in the Johnson Household.

Anniversary Countdown Part C

The Test of Absence

New Years' Eve was spent at my parents house. My folks invited not only Josh, but his parents over as well. I can't remember if the other kids were there are not (Tara, Lori, were you?). I just remember that Josh and I held hands as we watched Godzilla with our parents. It didn't seem that weird at the time, but now that I'm voicing it, maybe it should've. I don't know. All I know is that there was a bit of a current of tension running through me all night because it was New Years Eve and what does everyone do at the stroke of midnight on New Years Eve? They kiss. Now, I'd made mistakes in the past when it came to kissing (Josh, just skip this part). Let's just say, I've kissed enough to know a good kiss from a bad kiss. But, I'd never had a New Years kiss before and I really, really wanted one from this big hunk of man that had quickly become my favorite person in the world. But our PARENTS were there! Talk about a buzz kill.

The movie ended just before midnight and all of us clamored out onto the deck to watch the New Years' fireworks pop off the top of Pikes Peak. It was very romantic, except that our parents were still around. Dang them! Oh, and the fact that Josh had just come from summertime in South Africa and it was subzero winter in Colorado. He was a bit chilly. So, New Years Eve was a bust.

Later that morning (New Years Day) Josh took me to the airport. I was flying to Utah to visit my friend Mindy before she left for the Ukraine to serve her own mission. We went to the gate for my flight to say good bye. Now the parents were nowhere to be seen. Still the everloving lady, I helped Josh make the correct decision by making myself very available for a good bye kiss. And he actually took the hint. Oooh, and it was a good one. Getting on the airplane was just a technicality since my head was in the clouds from that moment on. Ah, love.

I flew to Utah and loved visiting with my friends and I really wanted to know if Josh was missing me as much as I was missing him. He'd only been home for about three weeks, but we'd spent nearly everyday together and I was head over heels for him. I wanted to call him, but I didn't want to appear too eager, so I made up an excuse to talk to him. (This is the part where Josh says I played mind games.) I had asked him to substitute my Seminary class while I was gone and I decided the best way to get my Josh-fix but not seem needy (although I was) was to ask him how class was going. I think I jumped the gun out of nerves, though, because Josh swears that our conversation went like this:

J: Hi! How are you? How is Utah?

S: Great! How's my class doing?

He was pretty abashed that I seemed way more interested in my class than I did in him. If only he knew. He's all I talked about that week. But, he got his payback. I was hoping he'd come pick me up at the airport but he told me he wasn't going to be able to make it. I was crushed. My mom was going to pick me up a few days later.

I finished my visit with Min and headed home to find my mom waiting for me at the gate in the airport. I had hoped Josh could've come after all and I knew something was up because my mom was suppressing a smile. I looked over and saw this cowboy sitting in one of the gate seats wearing the same goofy Groucho glasses and fake nose that I was forced to wear when he had gotten off the plane just weeks earlier. My prince had come for me!

Josh says it was during that trip that he realized that he loved me. I realized it too. It's funny that I knew I was going to marry him before I knew that I loved him. And we still hadn't been on a date yet.

Anniversary Countdown Part 2

The First Few Weeks

So, I've already gone over many of the details of that first meeting. Go here for that. Here's the long-short of it all: We met at the airport the day he came home from South Africa, it was awkward, he met my dad at 3am, my dad was in his robe, we've been inseparable ever since (Josh and me, not the robe). I was attracted to him right away--what's not to love? He's tall, dark and handsome. One of my favorite things about him is his eyes...ahhh.

Josh got home on a Saturday night and he invited me over for Family Home Evening the following Monday. He presented a nice lesson--I think he gave us the first discussion (if you're lost, I'll happily send some LDS missionaries your way to explain this all to you ;o) ) and afterward we watched his favorite movie Tombstone. Yes, it's an R-rated movie, something a missionary would never watch, or at least get caught watching. We were sitting on the floor by the couch. Josh was sitting upright and I was laying on my side with my arm awkwardly placed so my hand could be easily attained by any single young man looking for a relationship. Luckily he took my obvious hint because I would never make a move on him. My goodness, that would be too forward and I, sir, am a lady. I don't remember much more than that happening that night. I'm sure we stayed up talking for a while before I headed home.

The following night Josh and I went somewhere. I have no idea where. I just remember having a long conversation with him in the car on the way home. Up to this point, remember, Josh and I had regular weekly contact but it had never been face to face. We got along really well and I found it so easy to talk to him. I didn't feel it necessary to play the stupid games I'd played in the past to try to get the boy to think that I'm shy or vulnerable or hard to get. I was just me. Josh will debate that because of ONE instance, but I'll get to that later. Anyway, I realized that being with Josh was like coming home. I knew I was going to marry him and I told my mom and sister that later that evening. And that was it. I was committed.

Sometime that week, I just remember it was before Christmas, Josh asked me to lunch. Unfortunately, he wasn't comfortable driving yet because he'd spent two years driving on the left side of the road, so his family came and picked me up from work and we all went to Subway for lunch. I was having a bad day at work and told him all about it. He told me that his family was headed out for Christmas shopping and then would probably head over to his dad's hotel to check out a ball that was being held there that evening. We enjoyed our lunch and as I was getting back into my car and he was getting back into his, I recalled the day so far and said to him, "This day is so awful I could just go home and bawl!" Josh countered with, "Instead of going home to bawl, how about going to a ball?" Isn't that the greatest cheesy line ever??? He totally melted me. What girl doesn't dream of going to a ball with her Prince Charming? I went back to work and gushed over the idea of dolling up and going dancing with my new "friend." I got all dressed up, did my hair, and was ready. Then I waited. And I waited. And I waited. I got a phone call. Josh was calling from a pay phone in Colorado Springs (about half an hour from our town) to say that his mom was taking longer to shop than she had promised and he'd be about an hour late. I felt bad for him because I could tell he was upset about it, but he was stuck there since he hadn't driven himself. So I waited some more.

By 10pm, Josh had called me twice to apologize for being late and once to cancel our date. I was so sad! I didn't blame Josh, he was as upset as I was, but every so often I like to rib him about how he

STOOD ME UP FOR OUR FIRST DATE!

Really, it wasn't his fault. I don't dare delve into more details than that...if you can't say something nice...

We spent Christmas together. First I spent the afternoon at his house with him and his family. After dinner with a very slow-cooked turkey and my car getting a flat tire, we finally made it to my house where our families spent the remainder of Christmas evening together. I don't remember what I got Josh for Christmas. I remember that he gave me a bracelet. It was very pretty. I've even worn it, once. He's never bought me another bracelet since.

So, I knew I was going to marry Josh (even though he stood me up for our first date) but the man wasn't puckering up. I think he didn't want to rush into anything but, helloooo, he'd been home for almost a week... Put out, boy! Actually, I think he was more vulnerable than I was, so I tried to be patient with him. Still the lady, I left the kissing ball in his court, but I was itching for it to finally happen.

(BTW, I have no pictures from our courtship and my scanner isn't set up right, so I'll get engagement and wedding pics up as soon as I can!)

Anniversary Countdown Part I

Taking a cue from my friend Mindy who wrote a series of posts about how she and her husband met, I thought I'd do the same thing.

Friday is our 10th anniversary, hence the countdown ticker to the right. I've been thinking quite a bit about our love story. It's pretty rushed and, really, we started off pretty rough. But, since it's the Big 1-0, I thought I'd make it a theme this week. So, here it goes...

Preparing to Meet

In October 1996, a few months after graduating from high school, Josh's family moved from Tempe, Arizona, to Woodland Park, Colorado. He actually submitted the paperwork to serve a mission for our church from their previous home and his call to serve his mission arrived at his uncle's house in Colorado a couple days before his family did. He spent just a few months in Colorado before boarding a plane for Durban, South Africa, where he spent the next two years.

In October 1996, I was beginning my first year at Utah State University. I was in a somewhat frustrated state of life. I didn't really know what I wanted to major in and felt lost quite often. I mostly went to college to find a boyfriend, but that didn't pan out very well. And, all of my male friends from high school were all preparing for their own missions, so there went all of those options. I was pretty sure I was going to be a 19-year-old Old Maid. I began writing to my friends as they headed out on their missions. I was determined that even if I had to wait two years, I was going to secure a few dates. I sent letters to Brazil, Venezuela, Mexico. Czech Republic, and several other places throughout the world. At one time I think I had a dozen young men I was dutifully writing to (one was my cousin but that was just because he's my cousin--no date warranted there).

I barely made it through that year of college (special thanks to my dear, dear friend Tara!), and made a few hasty dating decisions during that time. I even said the "L" word to one boyfriend even though I knew I didn't. But, he said it first! It wasn't my fault and I came away having learned a lesson about love (and non-love). Because I was paying my own way through school, I decided to take time off until I knew what to study because I didn't want to waste money on indirection. I worked full time and the following February (1998) I decided to move with my family from Utah to Colorado. We ended up in Woodland Park.

Not long after arriving in Colorado my dad and I were asked to speak in Sacrament Meeting (in the LDS church the members of the congregation take turns addressing the entire congregation each Sunday). I got up and spoke and unbeknownst to me, my future mother-in-law received personal inspiration that I was going to marry her son. She immediately began plotting. She asked me if I would add her son, Joshua, to my list of missionary pen pals since she wasn't as consistent a letter writer as I was (still had a dozen possible beaus at this time). I told her I would, but he'd have to write to me first--what the heck was I supposed to write to this stranger about?

Back in South Africa, Josh was working hard and was in a meeting with several authority figures when the front office called back to the meeting and told him they thought there might be an emergency because his mother was on the phone (phone calls in the mission field are limited to Christmas, Mother's Day, and extreme emergencies). Josh worriedly answered the phone and was greeted with, "Elder Johnson, I met your wife today." After hashing out letter writing details with his mom as quickly as possible, Josh turned back to the rest of the room who were worried about what the emergency was. Josh told them his mom found his wife. They all breathed a sigh of relief and continued with their meeting.

Over the next few months Josh and I exchanged letters telling the other about ourselves. Josh told me all about South Africa and I told him all about my boring life in a small mountain town where the big thing was to hang out at the newly opened Safeway (true story). I definitely got the more interesting letters. Problem was, mail service to and from South Africa is very slow. It took three to four weeks for a letter to be delivered. Evidently he sent me a package for my birthday, but I never got it. I sent him a package for his birthday (complete with a whoopee cushion, fingerpaints, and a couple 3 Muskateer bars). I looked forward to getting mail from "The Johnson Boy" as my dad called him.

Around July or August of 1998 I decided I wanted to serve a mission also. I wasn't eligible to submit my paperwork for a mission for another few months (not until my birthday in September), but I let everyone around me know of my intentions. Somehow, before my birthday, Josh's dad asked me to commit to teach a religion class to high school student (Seminary) for the following school year and then consider a mission after that time. I say "somehow" because Josh's dad admitted later that he was trying to keep me around until his son would be home in January. There seemed to be a few conspiracies involved in all of this.

Near the end of his two years in South Africa, Josh served in the country of Swaziland. Because he was very isolated out there, his mission president allowed him to email (missionaries now get to email all the time). He was given permission to email me, specifically, once a week. By this point we had exchanged pictures (I devilishly sent him a headshot since it made me look like a hotty) and we emailed every Monday and wrote snail mail as regularly as possible.

December 1998, Josh was preparing to come home. His Visa expired the end of the month and although he would be short a couple of weeks of a full two years, extending his Visa was more trouble than it was worth, so he'd get to come home before Christmas. I was so nervous! Everyone at church knew we'd been writing and they knew he was coming home soon. All I knew was that I had spent several months writing to this guy that had a great sense of humor, a strong spiritual nature, and secretly excited me. I was very worried, but hoping, that this guy was the one.

Emma's Baptism

This hair accessory is actually a bracelet Emma wore on her wrist as a baby when she was blessed. I braided it into her hair. The next time we pull it out will be to put on her garter on her wedding day.

Emma with Aunt Genica and Uncle Peter

Abby and Emma with Aunt Jo and Gramma.

All four kids with Poppy (Josh's dad).

Emma's baptism was an incredible experience. We had a great turnout, even though it was Easter Sunday and so many people were out of town. We started a little late because finding a white jumpsuit to fit Josh is a trick. He's losing weight, but he'll always be 6'4".

Aunt Genica played the piano (and did MUCH better than I could've done!), Grandma Diane gave the opening prayer, I gave a talk about baptism, Josh baptized her with our dads as witnesses, Mema Rose gave a talk on the Gift of the Holy Ghost, Josh and our dads and Pete confirmed Emma a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, and Pete gave the closing prayer. We involved as much of the family as we could. Gramma Courtney and Aunt Jo also came. It was a great night.

After Emma was baptized, as she, Josh and I were all walking from the changing rooms to the meeting room to rejoin everyone, Josh asked her how she felt. She said, "Wet and happy!" What a sweet girl!

Be sure to scroll down to see pictures from Emma's birthday celebration and click here for pictures from Easter.

Emma's Birthday and Sightseeing

We celebrated Emma's birthday Saturday night. It was fun and we loved having so much of our family there with us.

We had dinner at 3-Ds for Emma's birthday.

Curtis (Josh's dad), Abby and Josh

Dad, Mom and Gramma

Mom, Gramma, Curtis, Josh, Rose, Grampa, Pete (what a goon!)

Then we headed to our house for ice cream cake.

Me, Curtis, Emma, Gramma and Grampa

Rose (Josh's mom), Abby, Genica, Emma, and Matt

Curtis and Josh

Gramma, Grampa and Dad

Emma, Genica, Matt, Mom, and Millie

We went to check out some of the falls that are supposedly so "great." They were all closed, so we went to Black Eagle Dam and crossed the bridge to the island and took some pictures.

Our question was, What happens if there are only seven short blasts?

I almost forgot to mention that Emma got one more birthday present yesterday. We went to Claire's (at the same mall I went to) to get her ears pierced. She's growing up sooo fast!!

Springing into Cleaning

Anyone else think Gary Larson is a comic strip genius?

Today I began my Spring Cleaning. For no other reason than because it needs to be done. Ha *choke* yeah, right! I never clean unless there is some sort of ulterior motive. My MIL is coming into town and is staying, you guessed it, with us. Not that I want to appear to be something I'm not, but the last thing I need to worry about this weekend is having a dirty house. I may be done with my cleaning tomorrow, but I'm not going to worry too much. Que sera sera, eh? If it gets done, it gets done. If not, then it won't. Now, the trick is going to be, will I wear my usual exercise clothes with my MIL in the house, or will I try to dress a little more appropriate for company? I guess we'll see, won't we?

Millie's Blessing Day

Today Millie was blessed by her daddy at church. There are so many things running through my heart.

Millie on her Blessing Day

Emma, Millie, Abby, Matt

First, I'm so grateful for the Priesthood, the Power of God, that Josh holds and that my dad was able to be there to assist. Millie was given a name and a blessing and within that blessing she was given the opportunity for so many great things. One thing that she was promised was the desire to learn and work on her genealogy. I thought it was appropriate to show a picture of her Great-Grandmother Mildred Johnson, since I'm sure she'll be learning a bit about her.

Grandma Mildred Johnson and Uncle Matt

I met Mildred when Josh and I got married. We have a favorite quote from her. She wore this fantastic white, feathery jacket to the temple and my friend Cindy was video taping the goings-on after the ceremony. We all were walking around to the back of the temple for pictures. When Cindy called out to Grandma to say hi to the camera, she called back, "Hellllooo...it's me!" Josh and I say that all the time. It's one of my few memories of her.

Our grandparents at our wedding: Gramma and Grampa Williams, Josh and me, Grandpa Bob Small, Grandma Pearl Haskin, and Grandma Johnson

Also, Millie's middle name is Marie, after my Great-Grandmother Opal Marie Shaffer Bailey. I'm really looking forward to learning more about these two women and especially for Millie to learn more about them.

I'm also so grateful that Millie has been so healthy so far in her life. Having one child with health issues has really opened my eyes to how fragile life really is and how truly blessed we are when the hospital is not our second home. All three of our girls are beautiful and their health is something that I no longer take for granted. Of course, Matt is our handsome man and as far as I'm concerned, he's the only one of the kids with the right kind of temperament for the challenges that he's experienced and will continue to face. Funny how that works. Well, I guess it's not funny since our Heavenly Father knows us so well.

Anyway, this has been a good day and I love that Millie wore the same dress Emma did on her blessing day. It's one of the few things I kept from the girls' clothes.

Emma on her blessing day, June 2001. (Ignore the bear, I had to scan this off a scrapbook page.)

2008 in Revue (okay, not really)

First, before I begin on whatever it is that thinks it needs to leak from my mind, let me wish everyone a Happy New Year. I hope 2009 brings us all even more blessings than 2008.

Here are some of the blessings brought to us in 2008:

We moved to Montana Dec 29, 2007. Okay, that happened in 2007, but we were sick for the first few weeks we were here, so life didn't really begin in Montana until 2008. We lived with Mom and Dad and had a fun time getting the girls back in public school. I had homeschooled them the beginning of the schoolyear because of the substandard public school system we lived within in Colorado. Josh also started his new job right after New Years and has made some great friends that we absolutely love.

Februrary 23. 2008. Emma lost her first tooth. This was a big deal because it was like realizing that our oldest baby wasn't such a baby anymore. Not only was she in 1st grade with real, actual homework, but she was losing that baby look. Emma has continued to blossom into an incredibly beautiful young lady.

March 23, 2008. Easter Sunday. The kids loved being able to have their Easter egg hunts and dressing in their pretty new outfits for church.

April 2008. This month was filled with birthdays and change. Mom and Dad bought a new house and we moved right along with them. Luckily, the new house was about seven houses away from the old house, so it wasn't too hard to move everything. Unluckily, Josh was working a lot during the week we tried to move so I was trying to be as helpful as possible by moving all I could by myself while trying to care for our three children. I moved most of the dressers and the kids' beds by myself. The mattresses were tricky. I didn't want them to drag on the ground, but they were a bit awkward to just heft, so I took inspiration from Josh's mission stories of South African women and balanced the mattresses on my head (one at a time, of course) and carried them to and from the truck and then assembled the beds back together before the end of the afternoon. I'm going to say I don't want to brag, but of course I do. I don't want to brag, but I had begun to lose quite a bit of weight by that time and I was kicking butt in my exercising. Every other day I did circuit training which included a total of about 80 push-ups. On the opposite days I did my cardio, which included 200 crunches. I was totally ready to use my newly trained muscles to move our stuff. Anyway, we also had birthdays galore. Emma's 7th birthday was on the 12th, Grampa's 80th birthday was on the 23rd, and Mom's birthday was on the 26th. We had a big party for Grampa which included his brother and sister-in-law who came up from Mississippi, my aunt from Idaho, and my cousins who were finishing up their semesters at school. For Emma's birthday we went to the circus. The kids thought it was really cool, especially when the elephant pooped during the grand finale.

May 2008. Josh and I celebrated our 9th anniversary by going to Helena for a day out. Abby turned 6 on the 21st. She got a bright pink cowgirl hat to match the bright pink cowgirl boots she had gotten the previous Christmas. We found out we were finally pregnant after two years of wishing, praying, crying, and negative tests. We also found the house we wanted to buy and made an offer that was somehow accepted. We began to prepare to live on our own. Peter got home from his mission in Equador and we loved hearing his stories, seeing his souveniers, and just having him home.

June 2008. Pete's birthday was the 6th. Thirteen days later he and Genica got married. (12 days after his birthday he told us they were getting married the following day, so we spent less than 24 hours preparing for the wedding.) Now Mom and Dad were sharing their (thankfully) bigger home with Josh and me, our three children, Peter and Genica, and Lori and her boys came to visit at the beginning of the month. It was a houseful, just to say the least. The kids and I made a trip down to Colorado for Mandy's (Josh's sister) wedding. Since she and Patrick had already been legally married at the courthouse, they opted for a more formal vow-exchange ceremony. They wanted Josh to officiate, since they didn't need a legal officiator, but he couldn't get the time off work, so I was then asked to officiate. That was an honor. We went down and met up with Josh's dad and his wife Karen. They graciously allowed us to stay with them, and we had so much fun getting to know Karen better. We went to the wedding on the 28th and Matt's 4th birthday was the 29th. We went to the Pueblo Zoo where we met up with my sister Tara and her family and my brother JC and his wife Kelsey. We had a lot of fun with them and then met up with Josh's mom and brother Justin. It was so nice to see so many of our family in such a short trip. After the zoo we had a birthday party for Matt at Dad and Karen's house. We had to leave the next day, but loved the visit. While we were gone, Josh signed for our new house. Tara and Jabon drove up to Montana with us and stayed to visit for a week or so.

July 2008. After the 4th of July we finally moved into our new house. I kept waiting for someone to tell us to get out of their house. But, it's ours and we love it.

August 2008. We began to prepare for school to start. The girls were going to a new school since our new house is across the river from Mom and Dad's house. I was beginning to show a bit with the pregnancy and Matt would often stuff his blanky up his shirt so he could be pregnant too.

September 2008. Matt began preschool. But first we had to teach him that some words are not acceptable to say (like "dammit") in front of your LDS preschool teacher. Okay, they're not appropriate for him to say ever, but the day he said it in front of his new teacher I about died of embarrassment. He didnt' learn that word from Josh or me! I swear! My birthday was the 16th and that's about when I started this blog. So, to keep this long story short (too late), I'll let you read about that yourself. Just scroll down to the Blog Archive on the right.

October 2008. Josh's birthday on the 9th. Halloween--see the Blog Archive for pictures.

November 2008. Dad's birthday on the 23rd. Lori's visit over Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving. Again, go to the Archive if you want more details.

December 2008. Our precious Millie arrives. Here's a link the hospital created for her birth announcement. Our Christmas was fun. New Years is going to be a bit of a bummer since Josh's vacation time is interrupted by a mandatory stretch of shifts covering New Year's Eve and New Year's Day (tonight and tomorrow). I'm sure he'll be plenty busy around 2am until his shift ends at 7am. I'm just fine with staying home tonight. I still need some of the good medication a couple times a day. I seem to be healing fine, but major surgery hurts for a while afterwards. Not so fun. I'm so glad Josh is such a good nurse, though. He was able to take the staples out for me so I could avoid an additional trip to the doctor. And, he's just such a great man. Have I mentioned how much I love him?

So, that was our year, how was yours? Any great memories that stick out? I think Millie is our greatest memory by far, but it's so incredible to relive so many of the blessings we've received this year.