Me & My Husband {First Edition}

Filling out the questionnaire from this post.

Question 1:

How it all began: How you met, first date, first kiss, how long did you date? First picture together...etc.

How we Met:

Race and I were {and still are} both going to school in Flagstaff, AZ. I had seen Race around at institute activities and knew that we had mutual friends. I remember seeing him at the beginning of the 2009 school year and thinking he was really cute but at the time he had a girlfriend. Later I remember seeing him at a mutual friends' Sunday make-your-own pizza dinner party. He did not have a girlfriend with him and I remember that he was wearing the ugliest pants I have ever seen...but I still thought he was really cute. A few months later he was leading the meeting surrounding a convert baptism that I went to. I was wearing a bright yellow dress and was SURE that I had caught his eye. I was especially sure when just a short time later he added me as a friend on Facebook. {He doesn't remember seeing me at the baptism or adding me as a Facebook friend--to this day we have no idea why he added me} He never said anything to me on Facebook so I mostly forgot about him. 

A couple of weeks later I heard quite a few stories about Race and how he would ask lots of girls on dates, lead them on, and then just never have it go anywhere. At the time I kind of just wanted to bug some of my roommates by getting a date with this guy they were all so annoyed with {...sorry ladies}. And I also wanted to see if I could get him to commit to me and not lead me on like he did with so many other girls. {I know, I know I did not have the best of intentions when I started going after Race...in fact they were pretty awful intentions originally} I started talking to Race on Facebook and we hit it off right away. He asked me out on a date that night and I said no mostly just because we hadn't met in person yet. The next night he got online and we started talking again. He invited himself over with ice cream! Of course I said he could come over--who says no to free Cold Stone Creamery ice cream? He came over that night and I was in a really goofy mood. I was wearing footie pajamas and was being really weird with my best friend. Luckily he didn't run away. Instead of that he kept bringing up how he didn't have to work the next day and he would be free all evening. FINALLY instead of hinting that we should hang out he officially asked me on a date.

First Date/First Kiss:

The next evening Race picked me up for our first date. He didn't tell me what we were going to do right away but drove two minutes down the road to Michaels Arts and Crafts. There we picked up crayons and candles. I still had no idea what we would be doing. Then we headed to Target to get two corked bottles of sparkling cider. Finally we headed to WalMart to get lighters {we forgot to buy them at Target} and dinner at Subway. 

We headed back to his place {he lived with his sister and cousin at the time} with our food and supplies. Before eating we popped the corks off of our sparkling cider {this was a first for me} and drank as much as we could. After eating we began making pirate candles. {Those are bottles with candles put on top and then you melt crayons over them so that they have colorful awesome looking wax dripping down the bottle. They are a super fun activity to do and would look cool for Halloween decorations or something.} After finishing our nifty looking candles we sat on the couch to watch Avatar. The date had gone great so far. We had not stopped talking at all and he had made me laugh lots and I already felt like I knew lots about him. Sitting on the couch was admittedly awkward at first. It was a small couch but we still sat about as far apart as we could. Throughout the movie we inched closer to each other and then ended up cuddling. Eventually some cheesy, romantic things were said and Race kissed me and I kissed him right back. :] Let's be honest, I had kissed a lot of guys before Race but his was an AMAZING first kiss! And all the kisses following that first kiss have only gotten more amazing. So, our first date ended very well and I was blissfully happy to have gone after this guy--and this is where all my ridiculous reasons for chasing after him fell away. 

How Long Did You Date:

Race and I did not date for very long. We fell in love fast and were engaged within four months of our first date and we got married within four months of getting engaged. I never thought that I would meet someone and fall in love so fast. I was planning on going on a mission when I turned 21 in a year--instead I spent my 21st birthday married to an amazing man. :]

This is the first photo I ever took of Race:

 

I immediately turned it into this with an App on my phone {Admittedly I was showing off how cool my iPhone was--Race shows his iPhone off all the time now too}

 

This is the first picture that I have been able to find of us even though this was at least a couple weeks into dating. This was on our way to Vegas for one of his old companion's weddings.

  

This was from the same trip right before we headed out onto the Vegas Strip--it was my first time!! 

Well,that's all for now! More is coming soon!!

{Kinda Crafty} Part Four

Click here to view this photo book larger




I had a gift-card to Shutterfly.com so I made this cute little photo book to have on our coffee table. I don't really know if this counts as being crafty since I left it pretty plain. But I love looking at it and I love showing it off to people. My mom even borrowed it for a couple of weeks to take to some of our family reunions to show off to people. :] It was so fun and easy to make and now I am working on one for my Grandma and Grandpa Olmstead's 50th Wedding Anniversary. I can't wait to show that one off too!

All Things Pertaining to Me & My Husband

I am just now realizing that I have very few posts with my wedding/engagement photos in them so for a little while I'm going to fill out this questionnaire and put in lots of pictures from my wedding. :] {Looking at all these cute pictures of us makes me really want to get professional photos taken again--too bad they're so dang expensive!} I will start answering all these questions soon so get excited! As you can see, Race is already excited!

1. How it all began: How you met, first date, first kiss, how long did you date? First picture together...etc.

2. When you knew he was the one: Self explanatory.. but how and when did you know? 
3. Proposal: How it happened, how long were you engaged for? Was it a total surprise? Pictures of that... etc. 
4. The ring: Tell us about it! Did you pick it out? Did he? Pictures! Tell us about his ring too! 
5. Engagement/Bridal pictures: Let's see em! 
6. The colors: Show some of the flower and colors you used.
7. The dress: Was it what you always imagined? Did you have it made for you? White or ivory?  
8. The little accessories: You know, veil? Shoes? Jewelry? What did your bridesmaids wear? 
9. The reception: Where was it at? Show us some pictures! What day did you get married? 
10. The cake/food: I love food. So tell me about what you had at your wedding!
11. Your song and/or the first song you danced to at your wedding: share a music video or lyrics if you can!
12. Favorite part of the day and least favorite part of the day: can be anything. 
13. Honeymoon: Where did you go? Was it good? ;)
14. Thoughts on marriage: What is the easiest/hardest part? If you could change anything, what would it be?
15. First place that you lived together: Pics if you have them! 
16. Kids: Do you have any yet? If not, when do you plan on it? How many do you want? Any tips on good/bad birth control?
17. Most recent picture of you and your significant other and what you love most about them :) And any other thoughts.

P.S. I know that "Me and my husband" is grammatically incorrect but I like the way it sounds anyway...sorry if it really bugs anyone! Thanks to Autumn I now know that it's not grammatically incorrect. I'm glad I can accidentally have good grammar. :]

The Post in Which I Ask and Answer My Own Question

The other day I couldn't focus on anything but my flaws.

I felt like my flaws were way bigger than everyone else's.

{Not that I really know other people's flaws}

Anyway, I read a lot of blogs and I kept asking myself:

How do all these big bloggers make their flaws seems so small and silly?

These bloggers often have flaws similar to mine but when I do the same things they do I don't see it as funny or small...it's always HUGE and the end of the world kind of thing.

After thinking about this and writing down all of my thoughts on it I realized a couple of things:

1. People often blog to try and focus on the good, funny things in life, so they learn to find good and funniness in their flaws.

And 2. When we see flaws in ourselves we just make them WAY bigger than the flaws we see in everyone else.

I know that comparing isn't good for anyone and that my flaws really aren't HUGE things. They are things that I can learn to laugh at. And I can do that through blogging about the things that make me happy and the silly flaws that I have just like everyone else.

P.S. Race is tickling my back right now and singing "She's too sexy for her hair, too sexy for her lips, too sexy for her....etc." I love my husband! He also just asked me if I was blogging about how sexy my hair is. Haha. Let me add a picture of my hair on here so you can all see how unsexy it is right now...

Something I Love {Second Installment}

For the past few days it has been raining in Flagstaff.

I love the fresh smell that lasts the whole day. 

I love the sound of the thunder and the pouring rain. 

I love having a gorgeous view out my windows.

I love standing outside my door and watching the ground soak up the rain.

Next time I'm not just going to watch. 

I am going to play in it. 

That's another thing I love: playing in the rain. 

Throw on my rainboots and I'll be set! 

Something I Love {First Installment}

I love the feel of a full notebook. 

I love the sound of the pages crinkling. 

I love the look of my handwriting and doodles filling up every spare space on every page. 

I love going back and reading the random thoughts I've had. 

I love seeing what random games I played to amuse myself. 

I love the many different colors of pen I used. 

My notebook isn't quite full yet but it's getting there.
I can't wait for it to be full and to get to buy a cute new notebook. 

I love that even though I can't always express myself well with my spoken words I can write out every single random thought that passes through my crazy brain.

I don't know if I will ever be good at organizing my thoughts and putting them into words {on paper or out loud} that make sense to anyone else...

But I am glad that writing, no matter how random and disjointed it is, is something that I enjoy doing and am able to do often. 

Writing is something that has helped me to learn so much about myself and often helps me to let off steam and get my thoughts out somewhere. I am grateful for the ability to write.

Silly Husband

Race and I do not go grocery shopping as often as we should. We haven't since we got married. This often means that our grocery lists are about a mile long by the time we finally find a spare minute to get to the store. In the first month of our marriage Race ended up having to do some of the shopping on his own when we ran out of the necessities. This was our texting conversation one day:





Silly husband :) It was quite funny to see the things from our list that my husband dubbed as necessities. He was so proud of himself though that I just had to be proud too. He is quite the bargain shopper! {Also, the frosting was delicious! Chocolate frosting straight from the tub is one of my very favorite treats. :)}

Summertime Picnic

My husband took me on a surprise date on Saturday.

It was a perfect date with perfect weather.

To start out we headed to Target where Race got me a picnic basket.

It was super sweet because I had told him that I wanted a picnic basket a while back and that I wanted a cute one, not one of the 'modern' metal handled, weird fabric ones.

He headed straight to the summer section of the store and picked out the cutest basket for me.

Then we got ourselves some food and something to drink.

We headed home and got plates and cups real fast and then went out on a walk with our basket full of food and the perfect picnic blanket.

I didn't know where we were going but we ended up about five minutes away from our apartment on a sand volleyball court. It was just like having a picnic on the beach.

The sun was setting and the weather was perfect and we had such a nice time enjoying each others' company.

I love when my husband comes up with cute date ideas for us!

Missing Them

I have mentioned quitting my job a couple of times in the past few posts and I wanted to talk about that a little bit. I quit without giving two weeks notice and I have my reasons behind that {If anyone wants to hear the whole story just email me at emsmiles {at} hotmail {dot} com...it's a long story}. Because of this I was not able to say goodbye to the sweet children that I spent the last eleven months taking care of. I miss them like crazy and that is my one regret about not giving two weeks notice. I was going through pictures on my phone and I just wanted to do a post about these wonderful kids who I loved and drove me crazy all at the same time. For those of you who don't know I was nannying for a family of nine children with the youngest being one-year-old triplets. It was a very hard job but also very rewarding as I was able to watch these kids grow and learn every day. There were obviously things that eventually made the job too stressful and hard that I really felt like I needed to get away and find something new to do but that does not mean that I do not love those children and miss them like crazy! So here is a post to help me say goodbye to the sweet Wesche children! {I don't think I have pictures of everyone but I sure do have lots of pictures of the triplets since I spent the most time with them}

Be prepared for a photo overload! {This is maybe a quarter of all the photos I have of these cute kids on my phone} Also, the captions will be below the photos.

Maggie and Grace doing a photo scavenger hunt in the woods.

Maggie and Grace doing stunts with me :) They were also pro swing dancers and gymnasts!

One of the first of hundreds of walks with the triplets.

Playing at the mall.

Cute Nick with the girls.

Finding ways to amuse the girls and keep them out of trouble for a little bit. Cue the blue cups as noise makers!

Cute faces!

Cuddles!

After one of Nick's baseball games. Playing in the field.

Playing at the park and in the backyard.

School plays :)

Birthdays and graduations.

The babies' first time at the zoo!

Going to Build-A-Bear :)

Cute jammies and attitude!

Cute hairdos

Shopping with Tommy for his confirmation clothes :)

Maggie with her broken arm.

Ice cream for turning two!

Happy Second Birthday!!

I know they are mostly of the triplets but I love and miss all of the Wesche kids! They were such a big part of the last year of my life. I spent hours with them, doing the girls' hair, bathing the babies, going to the park, going to the mall, cuddling, reading thousands of books to these kids, helping with homework, and so so much more! I was there when Maggie broke her arm and I rushed her to the hospital while holding her hand the whole way there, I was there for birthdays and graduations, bad days and good days, I held kids while they cried and found ways to make them laugh and I giggled with them at all kinds of silly things. It was a lot of work and I am sad to be done but it has been a good thing for me and for my marriage. These kids will always be close to my heart and I hope that they always remember the love I have for them. Goodbye Wesche's! I love you kids!!

Waiting in line

for Harry Potter!!