Happiest of birthdays to my darling Randy.

This Valentine’s Weekend was absolutely perfect. It was our first one as a married couple and it honestly was an absolute dream come true.

We spent Friday night with some of our best friends, watching movies and eating pho (which is always delightful).

We started Saturday off by sleeping in a bit, then packing our bags and off to brunch! We ate at Mimi’s and it was DELICIOUS. Pancakes, bacon, sausage, eggs, potatoes, hot chocolate, croissants, and more. It was seriously awesome.

We then shopped at the Outlets in Lehi for hours. Randy and I love to shop, especially together. It was so fun to wander the stores, find things with awesome specials for the holiday, and just be together.

Randy and I then headed up to Provo where we saw one of my best friends, drove around and saw some of our favorite places, and Randy took me to my favorite nail place to get my nails done! Is he not the sweetest? We then got to go see my sister which was a blast.

Then it was off to dinner where we had great food, and only OK service. The waitress wasn’t super great, which was frustrating. But it ended in us getting free dessert so I was OK with it!

Back to our hotel for hot tubbing and then the Food Network and candy. Randy and I got each other watches (it’s kind of becoming a Valentine’s Day tradition) and he also got me some more jewelry, because he spoils me absolutely rotten.

We slept in on Sunday and had breakfast in bed. We then were off to our good friend Kristen’s mission homecoming with my family which was awesome. Valentine’s Day night was just full of relaxing and reading.

It was seriously probably the best Valentine’s Day we have ever had, and a perfect mini getaway that we needed.

I am so incredibly lucky to love Randy, and even more lucky that for some crazy reason, he loves me back.

I hope you all had a wonderful Valentine’s Day and got to celebrate with the people that you love.

Happy Monday and Happy President’s Day!

Love is an accomplishment. 


Recently I read an article on the Huffington Post detailing how love, and marriage specifically, isn’t an accomplishment. The author’s argument is summed in this paragraph from her article:

“In my opinion, getting married should never be put in a higher regard than the academic and professional successes that women work hard to attain. You don’t have to have a brain, drive or special skill set to get married. You just have to have a willing partner. However, getting into X school, graduating with Y degree, and landing Z job does require actual hard work.”

Reading this article made me a little sad, because I couldn’t disagree more. 

I am so proud of getting my Bachelor’s Degree in just three years, graduating Magna Cum Laude, landing a job that I love and excelling at it, doing freelance work on the side, and more. These are accomplishments that I am proud of, and worked very hard for.

But if I’m going to be 100% honest, my love and my marriage with Randy mean just as much, if not more to me than them all combined.

Unfortunately, the importance of marriage and love has been diminished in the world today. I fully understand that not everyone will marry in this life, that others will go through painful marriages or lose their loved ones too soon. My thoughts on this in no way diminishes their situation and their accomplishments. My point is this. That in the world today we are placing less value on marriages and families, and couldn’t that in some way be contributing to more and more of them falling apart? If marriage and love and creating a family isn’t an accomplishment, then why would anybody do it?

Marriages and families are the cornerstone of our society. Without them, there isn’t a structure. There isn’t stability, a place to begin teaching children, a place of nurture and love. The love of a family that leads to the stability of society, starts with the love of a couple, their engagement, and their marriage. 

Marriage is incredibly hard work, and so is the decision to marry when it’s taken seriously. Which it should be every time. It DOES take work to be in a relationship. To get to know someone. To love them, and to let them love you. It takes so much hard work to get on the same page enough to where you decide to commit to each other for life, and beyond. 

I think that if more people think of engagement, marriages, and love as an accomplishment, there might be more people fighting to stay together, or fighting to start a life together instead of waiting for it to be easy. 

I think we should be placing more emphasis on education, career changes, etc. We should be valuing those accomplishments. But that doesn’t mean we should value the accomplishment of falling in love and choosing to spend every day working for a marriage, any less.

On top of the worldly reasons that marriages and families and love should be valued, I have an additional reason. We don’t take our degree to Heaven. We don’t take the money that our big career promotion earned us to Heaven. We take our family. So the person that you marry, is the most important person in the world. It’s the most important decision and accomplishment you will make. It will set the course for your career and how you choose to proceed, your family and how they are raised, where you live, what you learn, and how you grow. 

Love, engagements, and marriages are accomplishments. Huge ones. And I am so proud of the work and effort I put into my marriage every day. 

You guys. This weekend just got away from me and the planned posts did not go up as planned!

day 12 and 13

Day 12 – So this Friday we had our friends Caleb and Nanette come over for dinner and games. It’s always so fun to get to hang out with our friends, and it really got me thinking about friendly love. I loved Randy like a friend before I ever fell hard for him. Finding good friends who make you want to be better, who will help you through the tough times, and will be there for you when you need it most, that’s the dream. Having family that’s also your best friends, and a spouse who is the ultimate BFF is also part of that dream. Loving friends remind us that we aren’t alone in this crazy life, and I’m so blessed to have the best friends, family members, and ultimate BFF.

Day 13 – Love is selfless. Love means giving them the last bite of chocolate cake, spending hours doing an activity they love, listening to their music in the car, cooking their favorite dinner even if it’s not your favorite, wandering the aisles of Target, and so much more. It means truly seeing that person as Christ sees them, and doing anything you can to give them what they want and need.

Stay tuned – the last day of love is coming today!

Love is undeniable (Randy post)

The last week has been difficult for my hometown. Our high school lost two beautiful girls within just a few days of each other.

I knew Jazmyn fairly well, worked with her, laughed with her, loved her.

I didn’t know Sadie very well, she was in one of Randy’s seminary classes and I remember passing her through the halls, and seeing her cheer at football games.

It is devestating that they were taken so soon, and my love and prayers go to their families.

I feel so blessed to have even interacted with these girls a handful of times. They were both a light to those around them, and were examples of Jesus Christ.

It’s been truly wonderful to watch all different kinds of people from the same small hometown, rally together. Express love, sorrow, concern, and hope.

I can’t even express how much I love scrolling through my social media feeds and seeing the many testimonies of the Plan of Salvation, of Jesus Christ, and of eternal families. Through the sorrow, many people reach for Christ and rely on their testimony of Him and His plan. It has strengthened mine to see so many people confident, sure, and thankful for the knowledge they have of where these two sweet girls are.

Love from God is the opportunity to have eternal families, to see our loved ones again, and the chance that we have to have an absolute knowledge of that here in this life. I am 100% positive that there is life after death. I am 100% positive that Jesus Christ perfectly understands the sorrow that death brings, and can help us get through it because of the Atonement. He can help. He can heal.

I’m so grateful for that love from God and Jesus Christ, and the love of a hometown where people are caring, kind, and so willing to share their testimony.

I remember very vividly coming home from school in the 7th grade, with a note from friends of mine, telling me that they didn’t think the friendship was working out. I ran off the bus after a horrifying 20 minute ride with those very friends. I sat further up in the front than we normally did, away from the gang. I listening to music and sat by someone I knew from my neighborhood, that wasn’t in that particular friend group. I didn’t talk, just put in some headphones and silently counted the blocks and familiar landmarks that lead to my house.

I jumped off the bus at my stop and ran towards my house. I walked in the front door crying. My dad was home from work earlier than normal, and he was vacuuming the house while my mom mopped. They both asked me quickly what was going on. I produced the note, and the crying continued.

My parents were both furious. And looking back now, they weren’t furious for the same reasons I was. They were so sad that I was having to go through that. They told me it was ridiculous, they told me that those friends of mine weren’t really my friends, they went through the list with me of other friends that I had to spend time with. They told me I didn’t have to go to a ward activity that evening where some of those friends might be. I remember my dad saying “That is just…aght…” and shaking his head. I remember my mom getting very serious and saying “You know what, those girls don’t have any idea what friendship is. So what if you don’t all like exactly the same things? That’s ridiculous.”

I remember having late night conversations on the stairs with my parents about this group of friends as I went back and forth with them for the next two years.

But I’ll never forget how they never brushed off my feelings, no matter how irrational. They let me cry, and be embarrassed and hurt.

They let me feel.

They also loved me enough to let me fix things in my own way. No phone calls to parents. No party throwing to try to woo them back. They knew eventually I would figure out the right path, the right choices, and make them. They just let me be sad, and vent, and work it out in my own head while they gently gave guidance and assurance.

They loved me enough to let me feel.

And I will always be so grateful for that.

Sometimes we don’t want the people we love to feel pain. We don’t want them to hurt. That’s a factor of love. But loving is also understanding that feeling is living. That it’s a part of this life, and that sometimes we need to let the people we love, feel. We need to be by their side while they feel instead of asking or willing them to stop.

Love is being yourself because you know no matter how you are feeling, the people who love you will understand and be OK with it. It’s laughing as loud as you want, crying as much as you need to, venting more than necessary, and smiling for no reason at all.

Love is being raw, emotional, passionate.

Love is feeling.

[Love day 8]

love is never static.

I’ve heard a few times how junior high kids and teenagers aren’t capable of love. They say the words, and have no idea what it really means.

I couldn’t disagree more.

Even tiny kids with a crush, feel that as intensely as they can.

I fell in love with Randy as a 17 year old girl. It’s not even close to the same love I have for him now. It’s not even the same kind of love I had for him when I was 19, or 20, or 21. It won’t be the same love I feel for him when we have kids, grandkids, and more.

Love is always moving, never static, ever changing.

As a 17 year old girl, that love I felt for Randy was real. It was the love I could feel at that time in my life. And I will keep striving every day to love Randy, my family, and my friends, with all the capability of my heart. As we grow, experience things, learn, and progress in our lives we learn to love even more. To love deeper and stronger.

I’m so glad that I had crushes, glimpses, and moments of love. I’m glad that I still am learning how to love better, stronger, and more. I hope my love never becomes static.

Whoa. I’m behind now friends.

So here’s the love days six and seven coming at ya!

[day of love 6]

Love is a forever family. I have the best family in the universe. I can’t get over how lucky I am! And, I also am so lucky to know that my family can be together FOREVER (said in the Sandlot voice. you know. FOR-EV-ER).

But really. Why would I not want to be with these guys for eternity?

Walking through the Provo City Center temple with my family just resonated that again and again to me. We have the chance to live in perfect happiness, together, all of us, forever. I don’t want to be the one who isn’t there because I messed it up. No empty chairs in heaven.

Love is knowing that even though we’re not all perfect, we love each other and are excited for forever because we all will be perfect, and it will be perfect to be together.

[day of love 7]

Love is finding the little things that make you smile. Whether it’s a football game, some nachos, little smokies, or in my case buying adorable things at Target for Valentine’s gifts. Finding the little things every day that make you happy is finding the love in your life, and relishing in it. This life is tough, and it would be super easy to find all the bad things and never see tiny moments where you can absolutely love your life. It would be way to easy to do that. Instead, we have to fight to find the moments full of love and laughter, and hold on to them.

Trials and tribulations are mandatory. Misery is optional.

So find the little pieces of love and hold on to them!