For Time and All Eternity

Bry and I outside the Temple

Brittany, Becky, and I have been best friends since high school. We haven't seen Becky in FOREVER! It was such a fun reunion!

Our forever family! Giovanni informed us that he doesn't know how to smile, hence the dirty look he's giving! lol


I don't even know how to describe yesterday. It was... perfect. And I'm not only talking about being able to wear a temple dress that was 2 sizes smaller than I usually get! ;) Yesterday was the moment I've waited my entire life for, regardless if I knew it then or not. I am so amazed at how strong the Spirit was during our sealing.
When the sealer came to talk to Bryant and I before we went into the sealing room we found out that the sealer was Bryant's old steak patriarch, it was pretty neat!
I'm not sure if I'm allowed to talk about it so I'm not going to go into details, but the things Brother Ashcroft (the sealer) spoke to us about were amazing. It was like he knew what we needed to hear and then elaborated on them so much more. I wish I could remember every single word that was spoken.
We feel so blessed to be able to take our marriage to the next step and be sealed. We feel blessed we were able to do that in front of so many of our amazing family, friends, and ward friends.
We loved that you were able to be there with us and be witnesses to the start of our Eternity. Those who weren't there we felt your spirits with us and know if you could have made it there you would have.
I especially feel so blessed to have amazing friends that drove from California, Utah, Vegas, and even Tucson on the freeway for the first time EVER to be here with us. It was an awesome reunion for some of us who we hadn't seen in too long.
We love you all and are so thankful for the plan of salvation and for Temples so we can be sealed as eternal families.

Remembering Grandpa

Though I didn't get the chance to know him all that well I knew him well enough to know that Bry's Dad was a wonderful man. One memory I have of Ed is when we were all over for dinner to celebrate his birthday and asked for his "new daughter to say the prayer". One of the first times I met Ed was to tell him that Bry and I were engaged he looked at my ring and asked "how much did that set you back". He had a good sense of humor even after being in the hospital for nearly 2 years. The kids talk about Grandpa all the time and miss him so much. They know that he is watching out for us.
Today is Grandpa's birthday so after getting Ma and Nate the four of us headed over to the cemetery. First we stopped to get him balloons and carnations. We "sent" 4 balloons up to him and left the flowers and the other balloons on his grave. We sang him "Happy Birthday" and "A Child's Prayer" which I'm told was one of his favorite songs.
We are so blessed to know that if we strive to do what is right we'll be able to live with Grandpa again... in the mean time we know that he's having a great Birthday party up there!

Fuel for My Body

About a year ago I started tracking my weight and calorie intake via an online tracker called whatdidyoueattoday.com it's a nifty, free tracker that Bryant's old co-worker designed.
Well, it had been a while since I'd been on and today I wanted to see how many calories I had been taking in and how it compared to my "old" self. So, I logged in and put in my weight and it informed me my BMI was down 5 and my weight was down a good amount, too! (I knew that part but I didn't know about the BMI) So then I put in everything that I ate today and it tells me how many calories everything is and I go back to look and the difference in my calorie intake from 1 year ago made me SICK!! I had only tracked breakfast and a snack before and my calories were 500 more than my breakfast, lunch, and snack today!! Wow!! It was a very proud moment to see how I'd become just a tad more cautious of what I was putting in my body.

Another thing I've noticed lately is how much energy I've had! I've been walking the kids to school in the morning and walking to get them in the afternoons. Sophie has been liking the walking, too! Yesterday Giovanni and I jogged the long way back home! I can't tell you the last time I jogged!! This morning I woke up and cleaned the bottom of my house in less than an hour! Like SCRUBBED! Then I went to work on the upstairs! Maybe "they" were always right when "they" said food is fuel for your body!

Happy Heart Day!

What a fun Valentine's Day we had! We decided to keep it pretty low key, and I'm so glad that we did! The night before Valentine's Bry brought me home orange-ish roses and 1 single red rose. They were beautiful! At like midnight we were still up and I had finished getting all the kids stuff together so I gave him his gift... I made us the shirts that we are wearing in the pics. He loved them and we had fun wearing them!







The next morning I woke up and made the kids red heart pancakes for breakfast! They kind of enjoyed them but were a little weirded out that I made them with crystal lite for the color (we didn't have food coloring! oops!)

That night the kids went to Bamba's house for pizza and movies and fun while Bry and I went to see He's Really Not that Into You. It was ok. Long, funny, had a lot of language that wasn't needed. But overall it was ok. After the movie it was 10:00 and we hadn't eaten (the nice part of the band, it tides you over for a good 4 hours or more! lol) every restaurant we went to was closed by the time we got there so we settled for Denny's. lol. It didn't matter what we ate we were able to spend time together.

I know that Valentine's Day isn't important because you should show the ones you love that you love them every day but I'm still glad we were able to spend time together.
I'm so glad that in 4 days we'll get to do the ultimate celebrating when we are sealed! :)

Questions for a Four Year old

I saw this on a few of my friends blogs and thought it would be fun to do with Giovanni-- the other kids would give the right answers and what fun is that? lol

What's your name? Giovanni- you want me to spell it?
What is your favorite color? Purple
What is your favorite ride at Disneyland? The carousel (amazing that he's never been to disneyland and still has a favorite ride)
What is your favorite breakfast? 10 Hard boiled eggs
What is your favorite lunch? pizza
What is your favorite dinner? spaghetti
What is your favorite kind of juice? apple juice
What is your favorite snack? fruit snacks (something I never buy super!)
What is your favorite movie? (scratching his chin) the Hulk
What is your favorite book? Twinkle Twinkle Little Star (it's a bed time book)
What is your favorite song? The Devil Came Down to Georgia (ROFL)
What food do you NOT like? Ugh, peppers
How many people love you? Da Lot
What is your favorite toy? transformers
What is your favorite holiday? Valentines Day
What is your favorite #? 1000
What do you like to take to bed with you? Teddy bears and puss (puss and boots from Shrek)
What do you want to do tomorrow? Buy movies
How old is daddy? 10... him 10
How old is mommy? 21
What do you want to do when you grow up? Work with Daddy
What's your favorite game with daddy? ugh, the shooting game
When you can drive, where will you drive first? ugh, to the gas station to get a hot dog and corn chips
Are you going to get married? ya
To who? Natali
What is your favorite animal? giraffes
Who do you think is SO cute? Ugh, baby Nate
What are your favorite clothes? Ummm the blue pants and blue shirt (it's a track outfit)
Who do you like to play with? Brytany (our 15 year old neighbor)
What are you thankful for? the food
Why? because it can nourish and strengthen our bodies
What is your favorite TV Show? Elmo (can't tell you the last time he watched that)
What is your favorite color jelly bean? white
What is your favorite ice cream? black with vanilla on it
Who is daddy's wife? Autumn
How much does mommy love you? Da lot
What do we do on Sundays? Go to church, come home, change, eat lunch, take a nap.
Who do you want to go see? Mita Mida
Who does mommy love? Ugh, Daddy
Where do your cousin's live? Ah, by our house.

Sealing Invite

I wanted to send out something to our friends and family inviting them to our sealing so my super awesome, super creative bff helped me make these (and by helped I mean she did them herself and I just told her what I wanted them to say lol)! I think they look so cute!! Thank you sooo much, Britty! I am truly blessed to have such a wonderful friend for all these years! You'd think with all that you know about me you wouldn't want to be my friend but you've totally stuck with me and I'm so thankful!!
What do you think of the invites? Also, if you didn't get one and would like to come, we'd love for you to be there! :)