All about my husband

I love doing tags that are about my favorite person in the world. It's a little different than the one I did a while ago, so have fun reading all about my wonderful husband!

1- Where did you meet? At a BYU stake dance.

2- How long did you date before you were married? We dated for 10 months, then were engaged for 4 months.

3- How long have you been married? Just over 4 years.

4- What does he do that surprises you? Sometimes if I'm out of the house for an extended period of time, he'll clean one or more rooms in our house because he knows I don't enjoy cleaning or it's harder for me to do it.

5- What's your favorite feature about him? I can't just pick one. I love his eyes, his smile, and his hands.

6- What's your favorite quality about him? He is one of the most patient people I have ever met. He never seems to get mad when I'm having a bad day or when Will is throwing a tantrum. He just gives us hugs and tells us that he loves us.

7- Does he have a nickname for you? He calls me sweetie, which I love.

8- What's his favorite color? I think it's blue.

9- What's his favorite food? Otter pops :-) Hee hee, just kidding. That just seems to be what he grabs for a snack the most. I think his favorite food is chicken parmesan, or at least it was when we first met.

10-What is his favorite sport? He doesn't watch sports much, but when he does it's usually football.

11- Who said I love you first? I believe it was him, just after our first kiss.

12- When and where was your fist kiss? The beginning of November 2003 in his car after getting back from Idaho for one of my dad's concerts.

13-What's your favorite thing to do as a couple? We seem to enjoy watching movies a lot, or getting together with friends for game night.

14-Do you have kids? 1 and another on the way.

15- What's a hidden talent that he has? Umm...he does a great Yoda impression?

16- How old is he? 27

17- What's his favorite type of music? Classical or Church music

18- What do you admire most about him? Besides his patience, I love seeing how much he loves spending time with Will. He is a wonderful husband and father.

19-What's his favorite past time? Reading comics online.

20- Do you think he is going to read this? Most likely.

Random thoughts

So last night I was watching our new special edition wedding DVD that my brother-in-law made for us, and a thought came to me. I have an awesome family! Both my side and Bill's side have some truly wonderful people that I love dearly and miss terribly. It made me nostalgic for things like cousin dinners at Grandma Luce's house, BBQ's and family reunions at Grandpa Rollie's house, and many other wonderful memories. I remembered back to when I first met Bill's brothers and sisters, and how much I have grown to love and admire them, as well as their spouses and children. I thought about my amazing parents and sister and how much I love and miss them. Being away from the majority of our family has been hard, but I am grateful that we can keep in touch through e-mail, phone calls, blogs, etc. And we hope that we will have visits from at least some of you in the near future! Thank you all for blessing our lives in a variety of ways.

"I am thank thee for a prophet"

As Will gets older and smarter, I am always amazed at the abilities that shine through on a daily basis. One thing I love the most is how good he is at singing. We sing with him every night before he goes to bed, and I think that repetition has stuck with him. I am constantly hearing him around the house singing various Primary songs, Church hymns, even songs he'll hear on videos (his recent favorite is the theme song from "Milo and Otis"). He doesn't always get the exact lyrics right, but he's pretty darn close mot of the time, as well as being on nearly perfect pitch. I am so grateful that he has inherited some musical ability, because music has always been such a wonderful part of my life. Maybe this will motivate me to actually sit down at our keyboard every once in a while and practice again.

Cousin Playtime

I watched my niece Alice for a while this morning, and watching her and Will play together was so entertaining. I got a little glimpse into what Will might be like as an older brother. It was so much fun to be with them.


At one point Alice found a cell phone carrier and was putting it over her arm like a purse. Unfortunately I was a little slow with the camera, but I still love Will's face.


Reading time


This is Will explaining to Alice how to push the buttons on his toolbox. This was when I got a little glimpse of him with a younger sibling.


Alice was so good at sharing, even when it wasn't her own toys. She was always giving Will toys to play with.

This first video is Alice pretending this toy is a phone. She actually sounds like she's carrying on a conversation. So cute.


This video cracks me up. I love both their laughs. Sorry for the glare from the window.


We all had such a great time. It was definitely an improvement over the very first time I watched Alice. She cried almost the entire time she was here. Granted, that was almost a year ago, so she was a lot younger then, but I'm still glad she likes me now :-)

Image Tag #2

I did a tag like this a while ago, but I'm bored, my husband is gone for at least the next couple of hours, I have a quiet house to myself, so why not.

The rules:

a. Type your answer to each of the questions below into Google Search.
b. Using only the first page, pick your favorite image.
c. Copy and paste the html into your blog, or download/upload the image.

1. What is your name?

This is a picture of one of my dad's Christmas CD's. My sister and I sang a song with him, and my name (maiden name) is on the front of the CD.

2. What is your favorite food?

All I can say is that my mouth is watering right now just looking at this picture.

3. Where did you go to school?

Awesome school. Even though I am starting to love Illinois, I definitely miss BYU a lot.

4. What is your favorite color?


5. Who is your celebrity crush?

Even though the 6-hour Pride and Prejudice is one of my absolute favorite movies, I actually like Matthew Macfayden better as Mr. Darcy. So cute!

6. What is your favorite drink?

Man, where's some milk when you need it!

7. What is your dream vacation?

Anyone want to pay for me to go?

8. What do you want to be when you grow up?

This is a picture of a homemaker, in case you couldn't tell.

9. What is your favorite dessert?


10. What do you love most in life?


I tag anyone who feels like they want to do this.

Get out the Vote!

This is Bill. Well, I don't usually post on here. This might even be my first post, but it's on a topic I feel strongly about, so here it goes. I just read a great blog post here, and I want to say that I can't agree strongly enough! In our day-to-day complaining about life, universe and everything, we often overlook the power that we do have to make a difference in our world. One of the simplest and best ways is to exercise the freedom we have to vote. This is, of course, an important election, but especially so for our friends and family in California. Those who live in California will have the privilege of voting on Proposition 8. No matter how strongly you feel about this proposition our church leaders have been very clear about the importance of this vote! Let's make the difference and get out the vote! Wherever we are, whether in California, Illinois, Utah, Idaho or elsewhere, let's let our voices be heard for those things that are "virtuous, lovely, or of good report or praiseworthy". For those of us who need constant reminders, now is a great time to make sure you are registered to vote! It is also a good time to make sure you are current on the issues and to make sure that your elected representatives stand on the issues. We are here to make a difference. The world will change whether we like it or not. Let's make sure it changes for the best!

Our Big Boy

When Grandma and Grandpa Evans came to visit us, they brought a special gift for Will - his brand new "big boy" bed, which his daddy also used for many years growing up. For the first couple of days the bed was used as a trampoline and a play area for Will and his cousin Alice, but in the last day or two we've actually had a couple of successes. One day he slept in it for his nap, and last night he actually slept in it the whole entire night. Granted, that meant he woke up around 5:30 am and none of us got much sleep after that, but hopefully that won't last forever. Now if only potty-training could be so easy :S


This bed is really great. It's got built-in bookshelves, and we even added the quilt that Grandma Evans made Will for Christmas last year.


You know you're a parent when you get a thrill out of taking a picture of your child sleeping.

We love our family!

What a week this has been! Bill's parents came to Illinois for a visit, so of course we tried to cram as much as we could in the 5 days we had together. I probably won't remember everything that we did, but luckily I have a number of pictures to help me remember most of it.

Sunday:
After attending church together, we all gathered at our house for a nice family dinner. Will loved putting his train track together with Daddy and Grandpa (and I think Daddy and Grandpa loved it too)


Monday:
Grandma and Grandpa Evans were gracious enough to help me out by babysitting Will while I went to a doctor's appointment. We all spent the majority of the day resting and doing our own things before getting together again that evening for a joint birthday celebration. It was my sister-in-law Susan's birthday on Wednesday, and my father-in-law's birthday is later this month, so we took advantage of all of us being together to celebrate. I attempted to make BBQ chicken in the oven, which sort of worked. If nothing else, I managed to set off the smoke alarm! But the evening was a lot of fun regardless of my so-so BBQ skills.

Tuesday:
We took Will and his cousin Alice to the Orpheum Children's Science Museum downtown in the morning. It's a great place for kids of all ages, and they both seemed to enjoy themselves while their parents and grandparents enjoyed taking pictures. At one point we all converged on a water feature, and Bill and his dad even got into it by making little dams. Hmm, I'm not doing the best job at explaining, so I'll let the pictures and video do the talking.


I think we definitely have a train lover on our hands. Will found this train track and wouldn't leave for the longest time.


Will steering a ship.


I'm not sure why they have a giant chess set outside, but Will enjoyed helping move the pieces around.


Will and Alice on the teeter-totter. They had so much fun playing together this week. More pictures of them together to come.


Bill and his dad trying to out-do each other by building dams to stop the water.

Later that day we all went over to Bobby and Susan's house to hang out and have some fun. Will and Alice had such a fun time playing together that I had to take a few pictures of them.

My cute niece.


Bill started giving the kids piggy-back rides.


I am so excited to see Will and Alice grow up together and become close. They are playing together so well now.


For some reason one of my favorite things to do was ask Alice and Will to hug a lot. It is so cute when they do.


Wednesday:
There's a great nature center and forest area near our house, so we all spent the morning looking at the animals and walking around. It was a beautiful day and a great place for some cool pictures.





Later we all had lunch at El Toro for Susan's birthday, which was conveniently located right next to our apartment complex. It was really good Mexican food, and it left us all stuffed for the rest of the day. That evening we spent a little time at Hessel Park, which has a fun water sprinkler thing. Will and Alice were somewhat interested in it, but they just roamed around and played on the playground for the most part while the adults tried to stay cool in the shade and chat.

Thursday:
We didn't really do much together during the day, but that evening my mother-in-law, Loretta, gave a special genealogy conference at the church. I call her the "genealogy guru" because she's amazing at this stuff. I'm always surprised at the little details she manages to find about people. Because I served my mission at the BYU genealogy center, this was fun for me too. When the conference ended we said our goodbyes and went home so that Bob and Loretta could get a good night sleep before making the 20+ hour drive home the next day.

It was an awesome week, and we are so glad that we could spend so much time together. Come back soon Grandma and Grandpa!

Where does the time go?!

So am I the only one that has noticed how fast time has flown in the last few years? It seems like only yesterday that I was graduating from high school, looking forward to the next phase of my life, dreaming about college and finding "The One." Then I blink and all of a sudden it's 10 years later. I'm now a college graduate, I've been married for 4 years, I'm about to be the mother of 2, and I'm researching possible preschools! It's almost depressing how much time has gone by, almost without me noticing. I feel like I haven't taken full advantage of everything that life has blessed me with. I look back at the life I've had with my husband so far and feel truly grateful. I look at Will and I am amazed at how much he's learning and growing every day. I think of this next child and hope that I have the strength and energy to go through it all again. Life is full of ups and downs and twists and turns. I feel like I am on a constant emotional roller-coaster - and not just because of the pregnancy hormones :) Am I ready for the next 10 years? I guess it's true what they say: ready or not, here it comes!