April 5th was our third wedding anniversary! It started out as a normal day, I woke up to Chris getting ready for work. When he was all ready to go he came to give me his usual goodbye kiss. But instead of just a kiss I got a surprise! Chris had been telling me for weeks that he would have to work on our anniversary, which was fine, but he informed me that he took the day off and that I should get ready because he had plans for us! I was completely surprised and so excited to see what he had planned for us. He told me we were going to drop Clara off at Grandma Kathy's house and we were going to go paint some pottery and then go to lunch. We had a lot of fun together coming up with ideas an painting together. We ended up painting a pencil holder for the kitchen. Here it is!.. The actual colors after they fire it in the oven are a dark brick red and an olive green.

Then we went downtown to go to lunch at Stoneground. We love to go here and actaully went her on our "second first date".
Kind of a long story, but there is no better time than an anniversary to tell it. Chris and I met at the University of Utah and an institute fireside. I was sitting in front of him and afterward they had a mingle and Chris came to talk to me. We hit it off and were talking for hours every day. We went on one date and then I got back together with an old boyfriend. The reasoning behind that decision being that I thought he was not that interested. I practically had to convince him to take me out because at the time I was 18 and still in high school and Chris was almost 26. When he approached me he thought I was 23-24 and received quite the shock when I told him I went to West Jordan..not the community college there, the high school! Anyway it took him a long time to decide to ask me on a date, and only after I told him that I would not be more mature in another month when I graduated, and his mom told him he was being stupid. ANYWAY, after the first date I was not convinced he was interested for lots of reasons. And so, in the meantime Chris called to ask my parents permission to ask me on another date, but they informed him he could, but I would probably say no. So he was very sweet and wrote me a letter about how he thought I was a very special person and that I should call him WHEN it did not work out with the other guy. And he included a CD of the music we listened to that I said I had liked. I am very stubborn so I was going to prove him wrong. I even got engaged! And Chris decided to make a promise to the Lord that if he could go on one more date with me he would never download music illegally again. Well, needless to say Chris never gave up hope and I ended up making one of the best decisions of my life. I did not feel right about the engagement and after I broke it off, I wrote Chris a letter. ( I had erased his phone number) I told him he was right and to call me if he was still interested. He did! And then we went on our "second first date" and REALLY hit it off, and the rest is history!

Okay back to now. We went to lunch at Stoneground which is where we went on our "second first date". We had such a great time and I loved spending time with just Chris and I. It was so sweet of him to plan out the day for us and we had a blast!

Chris,
I love you with all of my heart, and I am so grateful for you in my life. I could not have made a better decision than to marry you for eternity. You are so sweet and caring and amazingly patient with me. I know it has not all been easy and I am so grateful you have stuck by me and believed in me. We have come a very long way in three short years and I look forward to growing in love with you more and more as time continues to go by. I am so incredibly blessed to have such a good man as my husband. You are one of the most loyal and honest people I know. And now to see you as a father makes my love for you grow even stronger. You are the sweetest Daddy in the whole world and Clara is lucky to have you. Thank you for being such a wonderful husband.
I love you forever!