1-year anniversary

Thursday, December 17th, was our first anniversary. I can't believe we've been married for a year! It's been such a wonderful year and I'm so grateful to be Josh's wife! He's an incredible husband and I have been so very blessed since he came into my life!

To celebrate this special occasion, we decided to go to Little America for two nights and get away from everything for a little while. We stayed there on Wednesday and Thursday nights and came home on Friday. We both had to work on Wednesday, the 16th, and I was anxiously awaiting the end of the day when Josh surprised me. He came to my work all dressed up in a black button-up shirt, slacks and a red tie. He carried a red rose and had a big smile on his face. He looked soo good and it was a perfect way to start our anniversary vacation!

On our way to the hotel, Josh saw someone whose car had broken down and was on the side of the road. He pulled over and helped to push her to a gas station. He did this same thing when we had our engagement pictures taken. We were waiting for a light turn and he quickly jumped out of the car and told me to take the wheel. The next time I see him, he's in the middle of the intersection helping to push some poor person out of the way. It makes me smile that he's such a considerate person!

Once we were on our way again, we went through a Wendy's drive-through and picked up dinner. We actually did this same thing on our first night as husband and wife. We didn't get a chance to eat at our reception and were pretty hungry, so went through the first drive-through that we saw.

As we pulled up to our hotel room at The Little America, Josh got out to get us registered, or so I thought. After a few minutes he came out to help bring in our things, leaving the door to our room open. I walked in first and started crying the minute I did. I had just walked into another surprise. The room was beautifully decorated with rose petals, white lights, a dozen roses and streamers in our wedding colors. There was also a banner and two glasses with a bottle of sparkling apple cider. The cd Josh made when he proposed was playing in the background. Apparently he had gotten off work early to do this for me. I still marvel at the fact that such a wonderful man fell in love with me!




On our anniversary morning we ordered room service. It was really good food and nice to have breakfast in bed. I had an omelet and Josh had a breakfast burrito. The tray was set up so professionally and there were cute, little bottles of ketchup and Tabasco sauce. We didn't use them, but brought them home as souvenirs.

Later that day we went walking around The Grand Hotel which is just across the street. They have a ginger bread village set up and
many festive decorations. The gingerbread houses were made by local chefs and were expertly decorated. They were up for auction and the ones we saw were going for at least $150.



That night we went to Temple Square to see the lights. I loved enjoying that with my husband! The nativity sets were so neat and we watched the story of the first Christmas that is played every few minutes at the center nativity set. It was such a meaningful time for me to be in the same place we were a year ago. We were married in the Salt Lake Temple and that will always be special to me.


After our joyful time at Temple Square, we took a carriage ride back to the hotel. The carriage we took was heated and as an anniversary present the driver took us on both of his routes before taking us back to Little America.


The last surprise of our anniversary happened when we walked back into our hotel room. This time it was for Josh. I had the hotel decorate with rose petals and bring in chocolate-covered strawberries and more sparkling apple cider. There was also a bottle of bubble bath. I hardly ever get a chance to surprise him because I'm not very good at being sneaky, but this time I got it right. It was great to be able to show Josh just how much I love him!


It was a perfect 1-year anniversary! Thank you, Josh, for all that you have done for me! You're a wonderful husband and it's been a wonderful first year together! I hope we have many, many more together! I love you!

Christmas Season

I love the Christmas season and am excited to be able to enjoy it this year! Last year we were distracted by wedding plans and missed out on it (not that I'm complaining!) but it's nice to be able to enjoy it again. To start things off, the weekend after Thanksgiving we put up our Christmas tree. We had to do some furniture arranging to fit it in our front room (our loveseat is now in the second bedroom) but it all worked out and the tree is really pretty. My two favorite ornaments are the ones we got for our wedding. The bear ornament is one my mom gave us at my bridal shower, and the other is a wedding gift from Paul and Kelci.
Josh and I have decided to make it a tradition and get a new ornament every year. We bought one for 2009 that has a snowmen on it with a place where we can put our picture. I think it will be fun to be able to look back through the years and have an ornament to remember each one by!

Several other decorations adorn our apartment. We have our stockings hung by the fireplace and a sweet, children's nativity set. A jingle bell wreath is on our front door and I think it's one of the coolest things. We found it at Home Depot and it's made entirely out of jingle bells. At the top is a ribbon and mistletoe. It's fun to open and close the door with Santa's bells jingling merrily each time we do! These plates are in our dining area and were a gift from Josh's aunt, Kathy.

There's one decoration I'm bummed about, though. Over the weekend I strung colored lights on our balcony but we couldn't turn them on because we didn't have an extension cord. We finally got and I plugged them in tonight. They were so festive and fun, but since there's no outlet outside, I had to pull the extension cord through the sliding glass door. The door doesn't shut completely or lock with the cord in it, so we won't be able to keep them up there. Dangit!

Another fun thing I love at Christmas is the cards. We got our first one about a week ago and it's from our dentist. It's actually a really nice card and is now above our fireplace with the other cards we've received.


We've been able to enjoy a little of the season almost every day this month. We've watched some Christmas movies and went to The Festival of Trees. We also saw Josh's cousin, Lindsey, dance with the Dance Company at West Jordan for their annual Christmas Concert. And a couple days ago I went to enrichment night which was centered on Christ and really helped me to remember the reason for this wonderful season.

There's one last thing I'd like to mention on this post which is not really related to Christmas, but made me so happy that I wanted to share. Josh had last Friday off and he was a such a sweetheart for cleaning the house and running errands. But the best thing was when he came and saw me at work and had this beautiful bouquet in his arms. It was such a nice surprise and the flowers are absolutely gorgeous! Thank you my incredible husband!