Grateful

Lately the stress of planning a wedding has been a little overwhelming. We have the big things taken care of -the ring, temple, reception center, my dress, photographer, caterer, florist, honeymoon, etc, but it's the little things that are the most work and stress. At least that is what I have experienced so far. The little details seem to take the most time. Picking out invitations, looking at apartments, figuring out what to wear for engagements, getting everyone's addresses, trying to decide who to invite to the temple ceremony, etc, etc, etc.

But on top of all this stress, which is definitely not uncommon, I have SO many things to be grateful for. I have had numerous family members, friends and neighbors offer to throw showers or offer to help me with any of the wedding planning. I am so blessed to have such great people in my life. Sometimes I get emotional just thinking about it. I am so grateful for my parents for being as excited about my wedding as I am. They have been amazing and are giving me my dream wedding. I love that my mom is having as much fun planning as I am. I also have to thank my brother Tyson, because without him, this wedding would not be happening! My extended family has also given me so much love and support. I think some of them thought I would never get married. :) I am also grateful for the support I've had in my ward, especially from the fellow YW leaders. They have been so great to me and I love them all so much!

I am so grateful to be marrying into such an amazing family. I couldn't ask for better in-laws. Josh's parent's, Hugh and Sandy, are amazing and have already helped us out so much! Josh is the oldest of 5 boys, so there is always something going on at their house. It's a lot of fun for me because I am used to being the youngest with a 7 and 9 year age gap between me and my older brothers, so it's fun to have brother-in-laws that are close to my age and younger. And I am used to only having brothers, so I am well aware of what it's like to only be around boys. haha.

And last but not least, I am so grateful for my love, Josh. It is so great to have him as a support system-especially when we(mainly me)get stressed. It's so nice to be able to lean on each other and know that we are always there for one another. He is able to tolerate my girly-ness, even though I know it might frustrate him sometimes when he comes from a family of only brothers. It's fun working out our differences because I am such a girl and he is all boy. I am also grateful for what a hard worker Josh is. He is working 2 part-time jobs right now, while looking for a full-time job and he is taking 2 classes this summer and will be done with his bachelor degree the week we get married. Talk about a busy and stressful summer for him. I really have nothing to complain about. I love you, honey!
And thanks to all of our friends and family for your love and support! We love you! We can't wait to share our big day with all of you!

"My Josh"

Someone has a crush on Josh!! Good thing it's just this cute girl.

I've been teaching my niece, Ava, that Josh is going to be her uncle. The other day I said, "Ava, who's going to be your uncle?" and she said, "Uncle Josh" then she paused for a second and said, "My Josh!" She has quite the crush on him. It's so cute! Every time he's around, she gets really shy, but a flirtatious shy. It's so funny. When she leaves the house or if he and I leave, she'll say "Bye Josh" over and over again. If Josh is the one leaving, she'll continue to ask in a sad voice, "Josh go??" She's not even 2 yet and she's already chasing boys! haha. Sorry Ava, but he is MY JOSH!

Reunited and it feels so good!

On Friday I got to see my childhood best friend, Caisa Airmet. Caisa moved to Kamas when we were 11 or so, but we still kept a lot of contact and would see each other as often as we could. About 5 years ago, she moved to L.A. to go to fashion school and Friday was the first time we had seen each other in years! Her older brother Tannon got married, so we were able to catch up a bit at his reception. AND she got to re-meet Josh after all these years!! (see previous post) It made it even more fun to see her because of the history we have with Josh. haha. I think Josh felt pretty flattered when we were telling him all the stories about how much we liked him when we were little. I also got to meet her boyfriend Roger, and he was a super nice guy. Here are a few pics from the night.

Me and Caisa

With our childhood crush :)

Both of us with our Loves

It was so fun to see Caisa! I almost cried when we found each other at the reception. She was such a big part of my life during my childhood and has been the best girlfriend I have ever had. We had such a blast when we were little. We would wear matching clothes and Easter dresses, play Barbies for hours, ride our bikes - mainly past Josh's house, go to Raging Waters and Lagoon every summer, run through sprinklers, tend each other's dolls when one of us would go out of town, and whenever we would fight, we were so quick to forgive each other. We were the best of friends! Even though we rarely see each other, she will always mean the world to me and I will always consider her one of my best friends. I love you, Petree!

We were both young when I first saw you...

Yes, that's a line from "Love Story" by Taylor Swift, but it also describes the story of me and Josh. I thought I would share how we met, since that is one of the most frequent questions people ask when they find out about our engagement. We think our story is pretty cool, but maybe we're just partial.

Josh and I were in the same ward when we were Primary age. Around age 8, my childhood best friend, Caisa Airmet, and I realized how cute he was. We both had crushes on him, and we were both ok with it. I think that is the only age you and your best friend can like the same person without it turning into an issue. haha. We would write about him in our little diaries and when we played Barbies, our Ken doll was always named Josh. Both my family and Caisa's knew we had a crush on Josh and our older brothers were very good at teasing us about it and of course we hated it. We were too shy to ever talk to him and he was even more shy than we were and boys don't seem to develop crushes quite as early in life as girls do. Josh doesn't even remember us at all. haha. Anyway, when we were 10, Josh's family moved out of our ward and we were very devastated to say the least. Caisa's family moved a year later, but when we would hang out, sometimes we would talk about Josh and wonder where he was and what he was up to, but we never really thought that much about him.

Flash forward to 2007....exactly two years ago at this time, my brother Tyson tells me that Josh's uncle Rodney (who also used to be in our ward and was one of his YM leaders) had started making deliveries at his work. As Rodney continued making deliveries, he started asking Rodney what his nephew Josh was up to and found out he was single. Being the loving and teasing older brother that he is, he told Rodney that Josh should take me out since I had a crush on him when I was little. Rod talked to Josh and Josh demanded a picture. Typical. haha. I was so embarrassed because I didn't know if Josh would remember me or what things Tyson had told Rodney, but reluctantly I gave Tyson a picture to take to Rodney. Well, I guess the picture passed Josh's inspection because in August of 2007 I got a voicemail from Josh and reluctantly returned his phone call. (Blind dates are not my favorite.) We went out the next weekend and surprisingly enough, he was still cute after all these years! I usually don't get nervous on blind dates because 99% of the time, they are a bust, but I got very nervous when I got in the car and realized how cute he was.

We hung out and casually dated in the Fall of 2007 and Winter of 2008, but then I started dating someone seriously and Josh was kind of dating and doing his own thing. We had little to no contact for several months, but last August, my crazy boyfriend at the time decided we should go on a "break" and encouraged me to date and hang out with other boys, even though I knew deep down he didn't really want me to do that. To spite him, I decided to contact Josh because he was well aware that Josh was the last boy I had liked and dated right before him and I knew he would be upset. Boy was I right! haha. Anyway, Josh and I hung out and I had such a good time. The idiot hardly even crossed my mind when I was with Josh, but I didn't really think much of it at the time. A week later, things ended with the other guy, which obviously ended up being a blessing in disguise.

During the start of Fall semester, I would run into Josh on campus occasionally and one day he called me up and asked if he could set me up with one of his cousins. I agreed, even though I was slightly irritated that Josh had done that. haha. His cousin never asked me out and Josh and I started to hang out again a little bit. Then in mid to late January, we started going out a couple of times a week and having a lot more contact and then began dating seriously. It really didn't take us very long to fall in love and realize we wanted to get married. Everything just fell into place. We never had any drama or any worry or wondering how the other person felt about the other.

And now here we are, engaged and extremely excited to start our lives together. I feel so blessed to have Josh in my life. He is so good to me and we always have so much fun together. I couldn't ask for a better man to spend eternity with! So there's our story! Thanks for reading.

Blog time!

Well, the time has come to start a blog! I have no clue what I am doing, so don't expect much from us for the next little while. I am excited to use this as a way to keep up to date with friends and family and not feel as guilty for stalking my friends' blogs since I now have one. :)