15 years

On November 16th I celebrated 15 years of marriage. I am so grateful for my marriage to Dustin. It has been a happy marriage. We have had our trials for sure and I'm sure I wasn't happy going through them, but I am thankful for them and who they have helped me to become.

I have learned a great deal being married to Dustin. I have said before how different we are. But his strengths are clearly my weaknesses. My strengths fill in the gaps where he is lacking. I feel this is what marriage is truly about. You work together to make eachother better and happy. It takes lots of work, dilligence, and a willing to sacrafice. The rewards in the end are worth it. If you do it right, you are better for loving eachother.

I am so thankful for the children that have blessed our home. They each carry a little piece of Dustin and I. It is fun to watch those traits appear (most of the time). Because of them Dustin and I work harder to make things work. We talk about the things we will do after they are gone, but it makes us sad to even think of it. So for now we will enjoy the time we have with them.

This year's celebration I will always remember. We had a horrible experience at dinner, but we laughed all the way through it. We were also able to slip away for the night to the Salt Lake City Marriot. It snowed during the night. We watched from the 10th floor as people ice skated below in the falling snow. We talked about living downtown. I felt it would be an adventure. He wasn't fond of the idea. He gave me beautiful flowers and wrote me the sweetest, cry-my-eyes- out letter.

I love you Dustin and I look forward to many more happy, hard working years together. As long as it is that way, I think we will always appreciate what we have worked for.

35

This month I turned 35. I'll be honest, I was scared. I could no longer round down to thirty. I now had to round up. That made me closer to forty. YIKES!!

When Dustin and I were new in our ward, I was 23 and he was 25. We were the young bucks. I remember going to dinner with some friends and they were talking about turning 35. I was thinking in my head, " Oh my gosh. That's so old!" I couldn't even imagine 35. I was trying to think of the things I might be doing, but I couldn't! It seemed so very far away.

Well, here it is. I'm totally there. And I'm okay. My body, at times, feels its age, but mostly I feel as if I"m still in my 20s. And when people ask me my age and the age of my children, I tell them. They always respond with absolute shock and a, " You don't even look that old!"

Inside my head I give a little chuckle and mutter, "Just you wait. You'll be here sooner than you think!"

It comes so fast!!! I just hope to keep out running it (with the help of my dear friend, Oil of Olay, that is)!

October is over.

This month seemed to scream by. I hate it when that happens because I feel like I never really enjoyed that time. Don't get me wrong, I try to find happiness in each moment, but it seems life quickly, and abruptly, carries me to the next moment, never getting a chance to exhale and relish in what just happened. Is it just me?

Well, anyway here are some of the things we did in October:

October 8th, I ran in my first ever race. A few friends and I had been running and getting ourselves ready for the 6K (3.72 mi) run. It was fun "training" -totally can't say I trained because it almost sounds like I'm professional or something, which I'm not - and I really enjoyed being with friends.

me before

we're a little excited, can you tell?

Every fall the ladies in Dustin's family get together and celebrate fall birthdays. It's kind of nice because we are all in October, November, and May. So, in spring we celebrate May birthdays. We had lunch at Gardner Village. Yummy!

G Nelson, Wendy, Lori, Taryn, Shandi, Ally, and me

We had fun getting ready for Halloween. I let the kids pick what they wanted to be this year. Normally I try to convince them to pick something we already have. But it was fun to shop with them and have them pick out what they wanted to really be. It took a whole lot more work too, but that's okay.

Aaron was a SWAT member (preteens don't like their pictures taken, just so you know)

Grace was a millionaire

Kate was Hermione Granger

Becca was a cheerleader, she learned a cheer and everything!

Ryan was nothing. He's 8th grade now.

We had our annual FHE pumpkin picking night too. That was fun. We only ever pick two pumpkins, one for the boys and one for the girls. This year they did them all by themselves. And I'm pleased to report I took pictures of picking the pumpkins out, but not any of the final product, terrible mom! Afterward we went to A&W and slurped up some root beer floats.

root beer fun

After typing this up it doesn't seem we were all that busy. I think a lot of the busyness came from the kids being off-track all month long and Dustin working like crazy. Whatever it was, I hope it slows down so I can really enjoy the next upcoming holidays... A girl can dream anyway,right?