Sure, we don't need a day to celebrate our feelings of love because it should be an everyday thing. Anyone knows that celebrating everyday is exhausting! After 7 short years of marriage and every aspect of life crying for attention I'm happy to announce, for us anyways, the excuse to celebrate our vibrant relationship is welcome!
Amber and I (yep, this is Aaron!) had a wonderful opportunity early on in our relationship to be very far from each other. So romantic, I know! You know what they say, distance makes the heart grow fondue. Despite being the beginning of a rom-com for the ages it allowed us to build a relationship of communication and appreciation for each others characters. (Here is usually where I would address the overly-sensitive individuals of the internet that I am not saying that you can only have a relationship of communication and appreciation if there is a large distance between you both. That would be silly.) Once we finally tied knots together it was great to able to talk about it after. Of all my great friends, Amber is my best. She sometimes feels inadequate, weak and fragile but I can't see it. I've searched her all over. So even though I love her immensley, she sometimes lies to me. We forgive each other before we've even done anything. Even before we tied knots we decided together divorce would never be an option. Our knots will never be undone. Some might see that as bondage but for us it is liberating. We have never had an argument that was "serious". Simply because we discuss serious things, we argue about everything else. Amber belongs to me. *Internet Crashes Due to Perceived Sexist Remark* I belong to Amber. We belong to each other. She is mine, I am hers. If that was not true I could justify being selfish, but because we have ownership of each other we are actively engaged and responsible in each others lives. If my back itches she scatches it, if she has the shakes in the morning I shout, "HERE COMES THE STEAMROLLER!!" and as slowly as possible roll over her with all my weighty bodyness. It's grill and steak... oh sorry, give and take.
Ultimately there are many things that make our lives wonderful, it's just so nice that we work together to collect them all.
This One's Dedicated to the One I Love
I don't need to say this for those that know Amber already but she is a wonderful person. For the ease with which she could join the many who are overly negative, downtrodden, angry and poisonous she soars above it. She makes it look effortless and many interpret it that way. Of course she struggles but she is strong. I admire her as much as she doubts I do! Without her I would lose one of the most important pillars in my life. I'm thankful she chooses me every day. She is my love, she is my life, and she has at her exposal all that I am.
Some of my favorite shots of Ambs:
Time keeps flying by. I’ve been a little bit “blog frustrated” lately because my writing program stopped working. Luckily it’s fixed now and here I am! Although I’ve pretty much accepted the fact I can’t blog as often as I used to—I wish I could. This post will cover bits of our life from clear back in September until December-ish! Woowee… I am very out of practice with this, so bear with me!
We’ve been soaking in all the moments and milestones and experiences that come our way. Things have been pretty good for us. Aaron’s health is improving at a slow pace… I think. He’s still sick most of the time, but the good times are better than they used to be… and that gives us hope. We are grateful for disability insurance these days. It’s such a unique situation we have being all at home together during the days. Personally, I don’t mind it much. *wink*
aaaaand here are our pics:
↓↓↓Air had fun taking photos of Ames at the park one late afternoon in September. He’s such a fun and happy little guy//We sold this old Camry (that we never used) and bought a 2004 Toyota Sienna instead and haven’t looked back! Minivans rock my world.↓↓↓
↓↓↓The night of the ‘super blood moon’ I pulled Ames out of bed and brought him out to the front yard to take a look. He thought it was glorious//This daddy REALLY gets into his hide and seek, and likely took a nap while waiting to be found↓↓↓
↓↓↓On General Conference weekend we took a (very cold) walk down by the river with Tam and baby Jake… fall was glorious, as always
↓↓↓Air’s Mom caught this adorable moment with Ames with her phone while we were taking our family picures//We had fun at the park with the family one last time before the cold and snow came rolling in↓↓↓
↓↓↓Alice fell asleep in Relief Society and I just fell in love with her all over again looking down at her beautiful little face//I took Spiderman out on a date to the Halloween dance and had so much fun with him dancing all night↓↓↓
↓↓↓Alice finally got to switch to a forward facing car seat… HEAVEN! Now we’re a forward facing family in our big minivan↓↓↓
↓↓↓We are all in love with Alice in piggies//Sometimes I feel like some sort of stalker Mom looking at two video monitor screens at night. haha↓↓↓
↓↓↓Roxanne moved into our tree ornament… it was a very awkward eviction//We went to a Christmas creche display and then went to Denny’s with the family afterwards—where Ames ordered the most lovely little Rudolf pancakes you’ve ever seen↓↓↓
↓↓↓We took the babies to their first movie in theaters. Turned out that our friends, the Caddy’s, were in the exact same movie at the exact same time! What are the odds?? Ames got to sit next to his best friend Rhys for his first movie. Awesome↓↓↓
↓↓↓Look what I made at Super Saturday *wink*//Ames drew this picture of the nativity and I was thorougly impressed. The funny thing, to me, is the big cane in the center of the drawing was actually supposed to be part of baby Jesus (a leg?), but it actually looks like Joseph is holding a cane and it really works that way.↓↓↓
↓↓↓One of many snowy adventures we’ve gone on in our yard. These do not last long because I’m a wimp in the cold!//Ames looooooooves the snow↓↓↓
↓↓↓Alice is also a fan//I took Ames to a ward candy house decorating party and had a blast. He has never eaten so much sugar in his life↓↓↓
↓↓↓These two looooove visiting Grandma at work when we take Air to his doctor’s appointments↓↓↓
↓↓↓Air has mastered the art of making spring rolls. I don’t mind at all!//We live at the indoor playgrounds around the city during these winter months↓↓↓
↓↓↓One afternoon I spent way too much time building a huge lego house and a realistic lego firetruck with Ames. He made a “poodle” that gives rides//Air took Ames out one night to pick me up a “surprise Christmas gift”… What they didn’t realize was that the real gift was leaving me with a quiet house in which to do some Christmas baking↓↓↓
Congratulations you made it through the pictures… now enjoy these videos:
↓↓↓Alice was so sick one night and had a febrile seizure which resulted in a lot of tears and an ambulance coming to our house in the middle of the night. It was a horrible experience, but the next morning she was happy as ever and we were so grateful↓↓↓
↓↓↓Blanket rides with cousins are the best↓↓↓
↓↓↓We love dance parties at Grandma and Grandpa's house↓↓↓
↓↓↓We also love dance parties at stores↓↓↓
↓↓↓Have I mentioned that Alice learned to walk in December? She totally did!↓↓↓
↓↓↓Ames trying to pull his sister in the sled. He was very determined↓↓↓
↓↓↓I'm such a good Mom: "Here kids have some whiplash!"↓↓↓
↓↓↓I have been trying to catch Alice dancing on camera but it is so rare and unexpected I'm never prepared when it happens! Here's a taste (just ignore my horrible singing)↓↓↓
↓↓↓More indoor playground fun. Alice loves to be chased, so when she sees me walking behind her she gets anxious and tries running, resulting in the hilarious bounding you'll see here↓↓↓
YOUR GRAND FINALE IS.....
↓↓↓Our very passionate musician↓↓↓
And now you get a double congratulations for making it through! If you are reading this, just know that I love you way way a lot. MUAH
