My first GenCon

In April of 2013, Kendall and I were lucky enough to take a trip to Utah with Kendall's mom to see General Conference for the first time! General Conference is a bi-annual conference held by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints where we are able to hear the prophets and apostles of our church speak. Not only is General Conference an amazing part of our year, but Utah is also amazingly beautiful and one of my favorite place to visit...even if I hate the 10 hour drive there.

Our first stop was a little town about an hour and a half outside of the Salt Lake City area called Manti, where Kendall's aunt and uncle live. There we visited with family, played with Otto on the farm, and saw the most beautiful temple my eyes have witnessed since becoming a member.

Otto definitely belongs on a farm...we'll get to that later!

Next, we drove up to Spanish Fork, UT, about 40 minutes outside of Salt Lake, where we stayed with Kendall's cousin, visited with family, and visited with Kendall's favorite mission buddy, Colin, and his wife. We had tickets to both the General Conference session and Kendall had tickets to the Priesthood session, which is for the men of the church who have received the priesthood.

Utah in the Spring is breath-taking -- I miss it so much! We are so lucky to have amazing family and friends around us that share these experiences with us.

Adopting Otto

A few months after Biff died, we decided that it was time to look for another little pup to join our family. We were lucky to find a breeder pretty close to our house, and she just so happened to have 2 black male pugs up for adoption.

We went to her house to meet the grumble of pug puppies, and were surprised by about 20 baby pugs running around her backyard! It turned out that two of her mama pugs had pups within a week of each other and she had a HUGE litter. We both gravitated immediately toward the two black baby boys. As I was cuddling the runt of the litter, the bigger of the two incessantly pulled on my skirt while making the cutest little snorting noises. Kendall couldn't handle the cuteness and decided we needed the tugging pug to be our next little friend.

We were a bit nervous adopting another black pug, thinking maybe that he would be too similar to Biff, remind us of Biff, or we would be bitter towards the new puppy for not being Biff. Boy, were we wrong! If any dog is perfect for me and Kendall, it is Otto.

Enjoy his cute puppy face with all the heart eye emojis:

I really think there is nothing cuter than a pug puppy. Otto has brought so much love and joy to our house, not to mention he has us laughing daily. I can't imagine our lives without him!

Birthdays!

Moving right along with catching up, Kendall and I have both had THREE birthdays since I've been a journaling slacker. THREE. I can't promise that I remember everything about these birthdays, except that I'm glad I get to spend them next to my favorite human.

2013:

In 2013, I turned 22 and Kendall turned 23 (if you couldn't tell by his clever cupcake candles). We spent most of the day with each other, family, friends, and our sweet puppy Biff.

2014:

The following year, we spent my birthday in beautiful Sedona, thanks to our sister-in-law Ashtyn generously lending us her family's timeshare for the weekend! It also happens to be our puppy Otto's birthday as well, so I had to take a picture with him. Kendall's birthday was spent at home and then we had a birthday dinner at Cheesecake factory. He ate the biggest burrito ever made and didn't regret it for a second.

2015:

This year, we took our pups Otto and Sirius to the dog park and on a hike for my birthday, and for Kendall's birthday we ate out and stayed in.

Every year I feel so grateful for this little family of mine. Even if we don't do anything amazing for our birthdays like we used to, being with each other is enough.

And of course, eating cake. That's always important.

Catch Up.

It's January 1st again, and with this day comes hopes of a new start, dreams coming true, being resolute, a new year. Every year we, as a culture, reflect on the year we've left behind, wanting something better. As I reflected on these things, as I always do on the First, I couldn't help but realize the wonderful, crazy, beautiful things that have happened to me this year - and how I failed to report on these things publicly and privately. So, I resolve to catch up on my own life in order to move forward with my new year.

The last time I truly updated this space of mine was two years ago, so I'll start there.

2013.
Twenty-thirteen was quite a year. Where I left off in February, Kendall and I were going strong with our New Year's resolutions, living in a beautiful home that was basically in foreclosure condition when we moved in that we completely turned around. Kendall was raising his first puppy, Biff, who showed him a love that he didn't know existed.

On February 26th, I woke up to get ready for work, and went to let Sirius and Biff inside. Kendall didn't normally leave the dogs outside, but I didn't think twice about it when I opened the door and only Sirius came in. I called for Biff a couple times, then thinking that he was hiding from me, like he often did, I started looking around the yard for him. After about 3 minutes with no luck, I started to get nervous as I inched toward our pool, only to have my fears confirmed. There floated our sweet little puppy, only 4 months old, who had not yet learned how to swim to the step.

We cried for a really long time. We read our scriptures for comfort. We learned the value of life and the unconditional love of an innocent being. He was one of the sweetest blessings of our lives as a young couple and we missed him more than we could have ever imagined. Though he was just a puppy, he stitched our hearts together as we learned to share our love with another living thing. Through all the pain and sadness, we learned that we will see him again!

I know this is a sad way to start my 2015, rehashing sad memories, but a few months after Biff's death, we found our hearts ready to adopt another little puppy...

Otto!

Though nothing can ever replace our first puppy, Otto definitely helped us move on and not be bitter about losing the first soul that we loved together. We missed the snorting and sniffling that came with having a pug puppy and we hadn't given up the idea that we wanted a funny little pug to befriend Sirius.

Though, we could definitely do without the pug farts...

...party time (long awaited pt. 3 of my wedding)!

After our wedding ceremony, we went straight into our reception. Our family and friends had slaved all night and morning to set it up, and it was better than I could have ever imagined it.

Dancing Shoes - Green River Ordinance

Cinderella - Steven Curtis Chapman

The Way You Look Tonight - Frank Sinatra

To this day, two years later, our friends and family still call it the "Pinterest wedding." Everything was made by me or one of Kendall's wonderful family members. It was intimate, casual, and personalized for the two of us. It was the most magical night, filled with Italian soda, cheesecake, country tunes, sparklers, and the greatest love I've ever known.

I'm still obsessed with everything about that night. I wish I could relive it everyday. It was the start of our lives together, this great adventure we've embarked on. And to me, the party still hasn't ended.

It's been a long, long time.

A year. A year since I took an unintentional hiatus. A year since I last poured my soul onto these pages. As I sit here recovering from my 2nd surgery of the year, I can't help but think about all the things I've missed this past year. The things that my future children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren may never know because a year has passed.

I don't want another year to pass.

I want to be better about documenting my life. The further I go in discovering my family, the more and more disappointed I become that my ancestors didn't think it was important to write about their lives. I want to know if that southern gentleman was in the civil war, and I want to know why my great, great, great, great aunt married 4 times. Their lives are important to me, and no matter how small or unimportant a story may seem, someone, somewhere in my family will think it's important. Someone will relate to it.

I'm easily swayed by what is "hip" and what others see as cool, but no one ever did anything important doing what was "hip" and "cool." My plan is to update my last year and to continue to update the adventures that Kendall and I embark on, so that someday our great, great, great granddaughter will know where she came from, why she's a mormon, and that her grandmother had great conviction and unending love for her family.

Welcome back, old friend!