Nine years and look where we are.

Around nine and a half years ago my heart was taken by this exciting, kind, spiritual, smart, kind of kooky, down to earth, and may I also add good looking guy. Oh was I smitten. :) It didn't take me long to hope he would be the one. After a surprise proposal I knew my life would never be the same again. Luke was everything and more then I had hoped for in a husband. I couldn't wait to see what the future would bring us.

So, on Sept.4, 1999 I had one of the best days of my life. We were married in the Portland Oregon Temple. I remember having a slumber party with my sisters the night before and not believing how quickly the morning came. I believe we were married at 10:00 in the morning. It was one of the first sealings of the day. We were sealed by the Temple President of the time, President Sellers. (Who also was a past Mission President of my Mission, weird huh??) I remember him speaking a lot about our children and how they would be our greatest source of joy. It really was a beautiful ceremony.

Like I said earlier I feel blessed to be able to say our wedding day was one of the best days of my life.
I feel like our life together has already in just 9 years been full of many different seasons. Our first few years together (which were childless) were spent traveling, traveling, and traveling some more. We just had a BLAST! Life was blissful.

Then we were blessed with Kar and our life got even better. She was an easy baby and we were able to basically continue with our travels and blissful life.

Luke graduated from college and we headed off to Flight School were our life started to experience a few changes. I guess you could say reality finally made it's way to our simple life together. There is so much I could say about this time, but I'll spare you the details. I will say this though. Now after the fact I can actually say I can see the blessings that came from that time. One that stands out to me in regards to Luke is being able to see attributes in Luke that I'm not sure I would of ever seen if we hadn't gone through our rough times together. Such as, learning that Luke has got some major endurance, not to mention a very strong work ethic. Excuse my language but Luke works his BUTT off to provide for our family. Sometimes taking on two extra jobs on the side of his flying job. There has been two different times in our life when Luke held three jobs and barley found time to sleep, just so I could stay at home with the kids. I'm grateful he has always recognized the importance of having me at home.

I also was able to see as our children entered our lives what an incredible Dad he is. I know I've said this before , but Luke is a hands on kind of Dad. I think he learned it from his own Father. He is also ALWAYS more then willing to take the kids when ever I need to get away or have some time to myself. I'm so grateful for that. Even after pulling almost an all nighter at work he comes home and will eat breakfast with kids and read scriptures and say family prayer with them before Kar is off to school.


So, nine years, four kids, a lot of good times, and a lot of challenging times later. Here we are. I've gained so much respect and adoration for Luke through the years. I've always told Luke when it comes to me being a good wife, "I'm a work in progress". What can I say, some of us are just more flawed then others. But I can honestly say I try harder every day to be a better me. Thanks for loving me regardless, most of the time. (Just kidding) Love you lots honey bunny! Here's to many more life experiences together. Happy Anniversary!