Happy Anniversary to Me and Yikes Stripes!

isn't he cute...? Gosh I am a lucky girl.

Today is the day My Bryce and I got married. Three years ago. November 18 2006. It was a fall wedding and so beautiful. I remember walking out of the bride room in the Timpanogos Temple all ready to walk out and see everyone greet us newly weds. It was the first time Bryce saw me in my wedding dress. His eyes got so big and he smiled like I had never seen him smile before. He said, "you look gorgeous, you are so beautiful." He had me spin in a circle. I felt like a princess. And he still makes me feel like a princess to this day.

The Cake you see at the top is the bottom of our wedding cake. Our actual wedding cake. And three years later we are eating it. It is still frozen, so hopefully it will thaw out before tonight!!

After 2 weeks, of painting pretty much everything in our entire house, we are done, for now. I painted my dream of stripes on the wall. I have always wanted to do this, and finally owning a home can allow you some fun decorating ideas you have collected over the years. I am so happy!

Spinal Tap

As I walked into Primary Childerens Hospital in Salt Lake City I felt a little panic inside of me and I didn't feel too well, mother nature decided to pay me a little visit as I walked in holding my son. Don't worry the gift shop always provides woman products for emergency, so I was okay. But still, having to deal with that and then having your son go in for a spinal tap, an EMG, a G.I. scope and blood samples isn't what I call "ideal". First they couldn't find a vain to put the needle into for the anesthesia, so he was getting poked all over and just screaming. Poor little little. I felt like screaming too, I kind of did on the inside.

They took him in the procedure room and as he was in there, I walked around the hospital a bit. Watching children that were 8 in hospital gowns and no hair. And little ones with large casts on.

But it felt good to see them being taken care of. When Bryce and I were first at Primary Children's right after a neurology appointment. My Bryce and I had to wait in a room to get a blood sample for SMith. And in this room there was a grown boy, about fifteen years old, probably 150 pounds, in a wheel chair just looking up at the ceiling and smiling. It looked as though he had a condition, I didn't know what it was, maybe down syndrome, but he couldn't move, talk, walk, or look anywhere else but up. And the sweetest thing I had ever seen made tears drop on my lap. His grandma was holding his hand, she was a skinny woman. I watched her slide him out of this special wheel chair and hold him on her lap, he looked huge and awkward to hold, but she didn't care, she sang to him and smiled at him and talked to him, and laughed with him and rocked him and put her head on his and she smiled as well.

I looked over and saw my Bryce just staring, you really couldn't help but watch, it was amazing. But I knew what he was thinking.

He saw Smith in that boy.

He saw that as Smith's future. I held Bryce's hand tight and later asked him if that is what he was thinking. He said, "yes", and it was hard for him. We don't know what the future is for our son. We don't know what he will be capable of doing. Only a few results came back from the tests, and all they could tell us was "I am very concerned about your son", I liked hearing someone else is concerned. Thank you Doctor Sukonju and all the other staff at Primary children's.

Stephanie Nielson

I read the Nie Nie Dialogues.

And I love them.

For all of you who do love the Nie Nie Dialogues then you love the author of them.

Stephanie Nielson.

I have a little story to tell.

My Bryce and I were driving back home tonight from Grandma Smith's (you know, Monday night we always have family home evening with her) and my Bryce said, "Oh, we need to get some Milk." He innocently said we would go to Allen's, but I suggested we just stop by the BYU creamery instead because it was right on our way. He agreed. He dropped me off to go in the store while he waited in the parking lot for me. And I don't know why I thought this, but as I walked in the creamery I thought,"What if Nie Nie was in here right now?" I walked straight to the milk and guess who was right next to the milk? Stephanie Nielson. I am not a star struck person and if I saw Cameron Diaz in a store I would probably not say anything to her and tell everyone about it. But Nie Nie is different. I basically read her blog every week and when she was in Coma I read her blog archives and it really genuinely inspired me to be a better mom and wife.

So I decided to just do it. I wanted to thank her. I walked up to her and tapped her on the shoulder and as soon as I started to talk tears welled up in my eyes and I could hardly muster up a word. So I said, with a shaky voice, tears, and a deep breath.

"Hi Stephanie, I just wanted to tell you I read your blog, and thank you so much....." cry cry cry.

Guess what that Angel did? She gave me a big hug. Not just an acquaintance side obligation hug. It was a warm nice sweet embrace. And of course it made me cry more. Then she said

"Thank you so much, I was having a bad day, so I really needed that."

Oh my gosh could this woman be more of a saint? She is amazing, seriously.

Then she asked me my name. I said,"Beth", then she repeated it and said,"Thanks Beth."

"No, Thank you Stephanie Nielson."

I walked to the front of the store, bought my milk and hurried in the car. My sweet Bryce was confused why I came back with milk and a puffy tear filled face! I told him what happened and he smiled and said,"that's awesome sweetheart."

It was awesome. And now, I'd like to think we are friends. She is nicer then you would ever imagine.

Thanks Stephanie.

www.nieniedialogues.blogspot.com

Confessions

Confession #1- I have only taken baths since I moved into the new house. I know some are not Bath people, but I definitely am.

Confession #2- I started listening to Christmas Music. I once had a conversation with a close friend and she said she hated it
when people started to celebrate Christmas as early as September. Well, my friend, I might not have started
decorating right now, but I am enjoying Mo Tab's Handel's Messiah and Amy Grant's Christmas and I love Chris
Martin's version of "Have yourself a Merry little Christmas" There is so much beautiful Christmas Music out there!!

Okay, so my confession session is over but I have a story that combines them both together. I was taking a bath while little Smithy was sleeping and I put in the "Little Women" soundtrack. Oh dear. Amazing. I closed my eyes and smiled. Of course my thoughts took me to the beautifully made movie that I was basically raised on. I remember sitting next to the fire place at 1082 Via Verona Dr. Chico, CA on a Sunday afternoon, curled up in a blanket watching Winona Rider play the roll of Jo March and crying when Claire Danes, who plays Beth, dies, and always getting mad that Jo March didn't say yes to Laurie. Then I thought I have 3 sisters, which makes four of us. And there are four little women. Four of them, four of us. So I decided to say who each of my sisters would be and why.

Amy- Definitely Laura. Amy is eccentric and adventurous. She loves to socialize and wants to be involved. She is also very
Creative and fun.

Beth- Defintely Megan. She is more reserved and a little shy, loves to play the piano and is very sweet.

Jo- Not only is she my favorite character, but I relate with her the most. She loves to write fantasy and is curious of the
unkown. She loves to have fun. So Me!

Meg- Aubrey. She is responsible, mindful of everyone, she thinks about what is the best for those she knows. And is has
extremely good etiquette.

So those are my sisters. I love them. We, are all very different, but we all love each other.



Me and my sisters........

my wonderful sister in law

Alyssa is the one furthest on the left.

It goes Laura, Me, Aubrey, Meg.

Dryers

When you have a back yard you decide to do funny things. Like hang your clothes up to dry instead of using the dryer. When I was serving my mission for the LDS church in the lovely Canary Islands, I never dried my clothes in the dryer, WHY? Because the people NEVER use them or own them for that matter. So you would see balconies of apartments chalk full of drying racks. I grew to appreciate dryers very quickly, BUT, today I wanted to hang my clothes dry. It was so fun and Smith liked it too.

Little Smith.

My Bryce wrote a song for Smith the other day, and as he was playing it I was holding that little bundle of joy in my arms and rocking him. I love Smith the way he is, and I accept how ever he turns out. HE saw the Geneticist, he is seeing the G.I. specialist, and he has a spinal tap coming soon. He has already gone through so much for such a young little boy. If any of you know Smith you know he has the sweetest spirit, as you hold him you feel heaven all around you. I get to feel heaven every day. I am lucky. Thanks Heavenly Father.

Dinner at Midnight

I haven't eaten dinner at midnight since crazy nights with roommates at the rain tree apartments and probably other fun times with all my Chico friends as well. Anyway, my Bryce and I were unpacking all of our BOXES AND BOXES AND BOXES of stuff and I realized my tummy was rumbling for some food and my Bryce was pretty hungry too. As all of you well know, I love cooking and so my kitchen, of course, was the first thing to get completely established. Some set up the bedroom because they want a cozy place to sleep, some the bathroom so it wont feel so foreign, but me, I chose the kitchen to make my domain first. So I was all geared up to make my very first meal in my very first house.

We only had food that we brought over from the apartment. Good, a challenge.

So I mustered up Italian Rice with Cranberry Bourbon Steaks. It took me a little while to come up with a savory meal that sounded appetizing at 12 in the morning. A success! It tasted rich and delicious, especially after packing and unpacking and loading and unloading. I also bought some items at good ole' D.I. and "refurbished"... I had so much fun refurbishing old things and make them my own creation.

Now I wake up to the sound of whistling leaves on trees and birds, oh the beautiful birds!, and I must say, I do love it here. I really do.

Oh and by the way, I saw the movie "500 days of summer" with my best friend Courtney Lee Jones (C-Jones). I thoroughly enjoyed the movie and I enjoyed the soundtrack. Especially the song "sweet disposition." For those of you who appreciate clean flicks I would wait to see it on there, but it is definitely worth the wait. I loved it.

I am a slacker in the Web World... but the real world I have been rather BUSY.

I am moving.

We are no longer basement apartment dwellers. When Bryce and I first married we managed a bed and breakfast and lived in the basement. I have nothing but fond memories of that little apartment. As my Bryce and I set up the rooms for the guests we would put cold sparkling drinks in each room and flirt and chase each other around the Mansion. Sometimes when no guests were there we would dwell upstairs and turn the fire place on and pretend we were Mr. and Mrs. Hines (it was called the Hines Mansion Bed & Breakfast) and play checkers in the front room. I loved that place. Then we moved to Bryce's Parents basement apartment to save $$. And we did. That is why we are moving. And I am so excited!!!!

No more footsteps above our heads, and window wells.

The house was built in 1944, is white with blue shutters, and has grape vines in the back yard. There is room for a herb garden and the house has wood floors through out.

Here are some ideas I have for decorating.

I like these wall papers

and I like this area rug because it tells a story

I love love love this couch

I like this wall

I like these pillows too.....

Of course these things are on my wish list. The rug however is from that dang cute store called Anthropologie, I believe it was around 1000 u.s. dollars. But I might find something close to it for less? Who knows. Doing the decor of a house is very satisfying and it's fun to make a house into a home. I love things that brighten and beautify. Moving here we come!