Three Years (Plus One Month and Twelve Days) & Paige's Wedding

Derek and I have been married for three years! And since I'm blogging this a little late, we've currently been married for three years, one month, and twelve days. Things that happened during our third year of marriage:

• Reece started crawling, took her first steps, and turned a year old! She's growing way too fast.
• We moved back to Rexburg for the last time.
• We graduated!
• Derek completed an internship with a local Accounting Firm, and then landed an internship in South Carolina after graduation.
• I completed my internship as a  Wellness Coach for the Biggest Winner.
• We welcomed three new nieces and a nephew to our family.

That obviously isn't a comprehensive list, but it's all I can think of right now. We got to spend our anniversary in a really fun and special way this year. My beautiful cousin, Paige, got married! So we got to spend the day up at the temple for her wedding, we went out to lunch with her and her family, and then went to their reception later that evening. It was such a perfect way to spend our anniversary! Getting to be there in the temple when Paige got married was wonderful, and it was a great way to remind ourselves of the promises Derek and I had made to each other just three years ago.

After the ceremony, we all went outside for pictures. Here are some of my favorites.

Paige and Solon

The Smith Family (left), and the beautiful Bronson girls (right). We don't get to see the Smiths often enough, so it was really good to see them at the wedding!

Beautiful Family!

Paige and I on her wedding day (top), and us at my wedding day (bottom).

It made me so happy to be there when Paige got married. We have known each other since we were tiny little babes, and I love her!

My awesome parents.

My beautiful sister and mom.

You'll have to excuse my face in this picture. We had been asking her to do that for five minutes, and so I was surprised and happy that she did it for the camera.

The laughter that followed after the previous picture.

I promise I fixed Reece's hair before we left for the temple. And again when we got to the temple. And again after the ceremony. She just can't keep her cute, pudgy little hands out of it! So her hair always looks like she just woke up after sleeping through a hurricane.

This picture cracks me up! My dad tried to photo-bomb us over Derek's shoulder. Derek. Who is 6'4". Not the most effective way to photo-bomb.

I love my little family!

It was a wonderful day at the temple, and the reception later that night was beautiful! Not only did they have delicious treats, but it was so warm and comfortable, and the decorations were perfect. 

Derek and I left the reception early, gave Reece to my parents, and we went out to do a little shopping and catch a movie. While this was definitely the most simple anniversary celebration we've had, it was one of my favorites.

I love Derek more now than I ever thought I would. It's common for people to say that about their spouses, but you never realize how true it is until you experience it. He is one of the hardest working people I know. He loves me not only for who I am, but for the potential person that I could become and constantly encourages me to follow my dreams and reach my goals. I love that he knows me better than anyone else. He is everything to me. Being without him for the past month has been more difficult than I imagined. But it's all for the future good of our family, and he has the short end of the stick in this situation. And yet, I complain about being away from each other more than he does. He's amazing. Since the first three years of our marriage have been this good, I can't wait for the rest! 

Two Bachelor's Degrees, a Daughter, and Three Years of Marriage Later...

...and we graduated!

Yes, we actually made it. It's almost unbelievable, and definitely still a bit surreal. All those mid-semester "burn outs", where Derek and I told each other countless times how we wished we could be done already, are now laughable memories. (Though, at the time, a couple brought me close to throwing a pity party that would rival the ones held by my five year old self.) It felt like I was never going to stop being a student. And now, as I sit at this computer in the warmth of my parent's home, it feels like it was forever ago that I was in the world of professors, classes, tests, pop quizzes, and finals.

The day of graduation was insane. Derek and I were busy finishing up the packing and cleaning of our apartment. Reece never let it cramp her style though. She continued to play with her toys and act as though having a gigantic mess in the front room was completely normal. (Which it definitely wasn't because my house was always perfectly clean. Don't argue with me on that one. Just let me have it.) We started our graduation day early in the morning by finishing up some packing. We had my mother in law, my parents, Morgan, and Adam there to assist us, which was amazing! They were all such a huge help. I really don't think we could have done it without them. 

Reece and her Grandma Thetford

Reece helping Grandma Dorene clean the blinds.

We all stopped around 2:45pm to order lunch from Jimmy John's and then got ready for graduation! As graduates, we were supposed to be at the school at 5:00pm. We, of course, were running late, but we got there with plenty of time. Here we are, standing in line. How cute. 

Since Derek and I graduated the same semester, we walked together. We decided that we would walk with Derek's college, Business and Communication, so that we could receive our "diplomas" together. I was pretty bummed about that because I had so many good friends who graduated with us but were in my college that I missed out on seeing! Luckily Ashley came and found me though! I had Strength Training Theory & Application and Health & Fitness Appraisal & Prescription with her Spring semester. We became good friends, and our last semester we had Water Aerobics together! It was so much fun. I was the T.A., and as such didn't have to get in the water every day, but I did so that I could not only get a workout in but get in some chat time with Ash! She is one of the many people that made me sad to leave Rexburg. But, as fate would have it (or the order of the alphabet) our names were right next to each other in the program! How perfect.

I would love to say that I remember some profound thing from what President Clark said during commencement, but really, all I remember is how excited I was to be graduating and to be sitting next to my totally awesome husband. Derek was drifting in and out of sleep, and I was sitting there feeling giddy at the fact that I was finally there. 

After commencement, we waited in the gym for our families to come down (and that's actually when Ashley found me, forgive me for the non-sequential placement of pictures) and once they did, the picture taking frenzy began. To be perfectly honest, I loved every minute of it. That was our moment. We had worked so hard and sacrificed so much to get to that point and I felt completely fine being in the "spotlight" (of our small gathering) for those few minutes. 

During Commencement

I love the moment that was captured between Derek and Reece in these pictures. She sure does love her daddy.

My awesome younger sister, Morgan. I love this girl! She is beautiful.

And, ladies and gentleman, my ever handsome brother, Adam Joseph. He is stud though. Really. I love him to pieces.

After the onslaught of pictures, we headed to the Hart Building for Convocation. We found our seats down on the gym floor, and it just so happened that Jeff (who was one of the people I worked with during my internship) was just a couple rows in front of us, so we invited him and his wife Hillary to come back and sit with us. It was fun to see him again. And it was at this point that Derek gave me a hard time for whining about not getting to go to my college's convocation. I was a little disappointed that we were going to his college's because it was in the Hart, while mine was going to be held in the I-Center. Derek gave me a hard time because, after we looked at the program, we realized both President Clark and Sister Burton (the current General Relief Society President) were going to be speaking at the convocation for the business college. Overall, it was a great choice to walk with Derek's college. Not only because we got to hear from Sister Burton and President Clark again, but because we also go to see the Christensens! Brady and Kristen were some of our good friends while we were in Rexburg. They lived on our street, and were always such sweet people to us! We took some pictures with them, but I don't have them at the moment. I'm going to have to remember to ask Kristen to email me a couple. 

When we went up to have our names read, we gave both of our name slips to the reader and he read them together. It was fun to have our names read together and walk across the stage together. Sister Burton gave us a big two thumbs up as we walked toward her, and told us she was so proud of us for finishing and doing so as a couple. President Clark made remarks on the same thing. It was all kind of a blur, and we had to wait a really long time for all of the graduates to walk across the stage, but it was fun. Afterward, we rushed to our families, and they took more pictures!  

During convocation.

Reece was so tired! Her cheeks are all flushed and everything. But she was a trooper through the whole ceremony. Didn't make a peep.

I love the look she is giving me here. 

We're officially graduates!

In a way I feel as thought I wasn't quite ready to be done with school. But, in a lot of other ways that greatly outnumber the one way where I feel I wasn't ready to be done with school, I'm very glad that I'm done. I've graduated! I know that one day I will go back and get my Master's degree. But not right now. Right now is a time for me to focus on my husband, our amazing daughter, and the beautiful future that we have ahead of us.

Our Last Semester and What's Up Ahead

I have been SO behind with my blogging, so here I am, catching up. Derek and I recently graduated from BYU-I (another post on that later). Our last semester was absolutely insane. Derek was taking twelve credits, and among those classes was one of the most difficult accounting courses he had to take at school and a very demanding, time consuming group project. I was taking twelve credits and completing my internship with the Biggest Winner program on campus, which took up 25 hours a week. And on top of all of that, we not only had our sweet and crazy little Reece to take care of, Derek worked 15 hours a week.

We worked out our school schedules so that I had school on Mondays and Wednesdays, and he had school on Tuesdays and Thursdays. On Mondays, my classes ended at 1:45pm, Derek would come to the school with Reece in the car, we'd give each other a hug, he would head to work, and I would go home with Reece. Then, I would go to campus at 6:00pm for some planning/preparation for my internship and Derek would get her from me at 7:00pm when he got done with work. I would then head to my team workouts and individual nutrition meetings and come home between 10:00-11:00pm each night. And that was a typical day for us.

Trust me, it was crazy.

We only got to see each other in passing as we were handing Reece off to the other, and then in the very late hours of the night, finishing up the homework we had. We would then collapse in bed to try and get in a few precious hours of sleep before we had to wake up in the morning and do it all over again. But it was so worth all the hard work, sleepless nights, and stressful days. It was so good to be able to keep Reece at home with one of us each day. Our last spring semester she was with a babysitter on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. She had wonderful, amazing sitters, but we were grateful that we didn't have to miss out on the every day fun, craziness, and adventure with our little monster.

Derek had a really good semester despite how much schoolwork he had to complete and the giant project he worked on. He was also applying for jobs, internships, whatever he could find, he applied to. He had multiple interviews but we finally landed on an internship with URS in Fort Mill, South Carolina. This position may be all the way across the country from our home and families, but it's an opportunity that we both felt really good about. We don't know how it will all work out, but we're excited to try out a new place. Derek is actually currently in South Carolina, since his internship started today, and I am still in Washington. I'm having some oral surgery done, but once that is over Reece and I will be flying out to SC to meet Derek.

We had so much fun with our last semester, but we are really looking forward to all of the wonderful things that lie ahead of us.