Our 20th Wedding Anniversary

20 years! Holy moly!

It's been a very eventful 20 years. Married in the San Diego temple, honeymoon to Cabo, Mexico. Moved to Las Vegas. Made friends. Learned lessons at jobs. Got an education and graduated from UNLV. Got pregnant with Parker (soooo joyful!). Bought and lost 2 homes during the market crash.

Moved to Laguna Hills. Gave birthday to Parker and had 2.5 years of pure bliss being a stay at home mom to the greatest son and living with my parents and Muzzie. Moved to Utah and Tanner attended (and graduated) from BYU. Worked as an ultrasound tech which was the BEST. Struggled with years of infertility. Tanner worked LOTS of various jobs- one regret is not staying with Qualtrics and going full time with them because they are billionaires now. Whooops! There was a definitive ying to the yang of those years- suffering with baby loss and infertility but also living the BEST life has the 3 musketeers in beautiful Utah. Tanner applied to and was accepted to PA school in Pennsylvania. He left before I did and I packed up and said goodbye to our little life in Orem and road tripped across the USA with my mom and Parker who turned 5 that summer. Those days were cold, dark, and lonely. BUT, the BRIGHT shining light of our Ray of sunshine came into our lives during that time! I laid down most days holding my tummy and praying she'd stay with us. Oh, my heart! In the night at a fearful pace, we left Pennsylvania and drove straight back to the warmth and love of California to re set out life. We stayed with my parents for a few months and got on our feet. Tanner began his career as a hospital administrator and I gave birth to Rayleigh! We dashed up to Northern California for one short year, surprisingly got pregnant with Jack, and moved back down to Southern California. We found a house in a mysterious city called Eastvale, gave birth to Jack and started planting some roots. We made lots of friends, played at the beach and Disneyland, started school, and welcomed Ella into our family.

Now, our family is complete and for the last 6 years we've been raising the most wonderful children in all the land, working hard, and traveling as much as we can. There has been a lot of growing and movement in the last 20 years and I feel like the next 20 will be helping our children to grow and move and experience the joy of Christ centered family life.

Tanner works so hard to provide for our family's lifestyle and it is my constant prayer that we will be rewarded with the means to build up the kingdom of God here on the Earth.

I cherish my role as the mother of these 4 incredible humans. Nothing brings more happiness to my life than actively being their mom. They are the lights of my life and I'm so eternally grateful for each and every one of them!

In the next 20 years, when I'm 60, Parker will be 36, Ray will be 30, Jack will be 29, and Ella will be 26. I picture everyone happy and healthy, graduated, returned with honor, married, and parents. I picture lots of little grands for me to play with. Lots of family vacation and special times together. Lots of sacrificing, learning, and growing. Maybe a little heart ache. Lots of love. 

Also, me living in my beach house. 

Take your vitamin pills and hold on to your hats and glasses because it's going to be a wild ride!

Tanner and I celebrated our anniversary at a fancy restaurant called SET in Newport Beach. We are poor so it was a big treat and a little awkward. But good to get away and be together.

The next day I was stressed about money, like always, and feeling kinda down. Amanda texted me and asked if I could pick up Sophia for her and that was the perfect remedy to my mood. That girl means so much to me and she was so cute and fun to have over. The next day, Eli Hill brought his family over to meet us and what a treat that was! It was so good to see him and we can't wait for his wedding this summer! I took the kids to Ca Adv and guys, I'm sorry, but I just love doing Disney with my kids. I know it sound counter productive when I say I'm stressed about money and then we go to Disney, but it seriously brings us so much happiness. 

Ella drew a picture of our family with angel's watching over us. And that pretty much sums it up, doesn't it? Those angels, our grandparents and great grandparents and so on- they want us to be happy. They want to see us succeeded. They know what we're feeling and what we're going through raising kids and trying to make a living. They are proud of us, I know that for sure. And they want us to continue along the covenant path so we can be a family forever.

So that's what we'll continue to do and find joy in the journey!