Five Years of Marriage? Check!

Tomorrow will be our FIFTH wedding anniversary! It's so crazy to think how much has happened in five years but it's also weird to say we have been married five years. It makes me feel old or something, haha! We have accomplished a lot in five years and have been through many ups and downs but I wouldn't have it any other way!

We celebrated our anniversary on Monday because Michael had the day off. Thanks to my mom, who babysat Emily for us, we got to do a bunch of things!

First, we went to see a movie (which we hadn't done together in several months)...

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Then, we went bowling...

After bowling, we went to an early dinner at Claim Jumper. Yum!!

Michael showed off his new ring I bought him for his anniversary gift! We both love it.

Michael got me a gift certificate for a hour hour massage at Massage Envy. Score!!

I love getting massages!

I love Michael and I am so glad that after five years of marriage, we can still say that we love AND like each other! Haha!

Happy Anniversary, honey!! You are definitely the right man for me and a wonderful daddy, too! I love you!

Kissed A Lot Of Frogs (Happy 5 Years Together!)

This was orignally a guest post over at Domesticated Bliss last year but I thought it would be appropriate to share this with you now (in honor of being with Michael for FIVE YEARS total now) in case you hadn't read it yet.

I got married at 20 years old. Yes, I know. I was very young! But in my defense, even though I got hitched at twenty, I had plenty of experience with dating. Enough experience to know that the relationship I had with Michael was something different and special.
You see, it all started back in elementary school. You know, the days when you would "go out" with someone for a week and it was a huge deal? Yeah, I did that. I still have some love notes stashed away from those days because I find them so fun to read every 5 years or so.
Then, junior high school. Oh...there were crushes. I had my first peck on the lips in 8th grade. He broke up with me the next day because I wouldn't make out with him by the locker rooms after school in front of all his friends.
High school. This is when it all started getting a little more complicated! My first real kiss was a real monumental moment in time. His name was Tristan. He was a real "bad boy" and we flirted in gym class. As the bell rang and kids started heading back to the locker rooms to change, Tristan grabbed me and kissed me right in front of his friends, my friend (who, btw, I just talked to about this for the first time and she said it was hilarious), and probably a ton of other people too. You would think I would be traumatized by such a thing, but I was just so relieved to have my first kiss over and done with. I had been worried about not knowing how to kiss and now I knew! Or, at least, sort of did.
I did, however, swear off having a "boyfriend" until I was 16 after that. My family moved to Orange County during my freshman year and I took that as an opportunity to change my ways. Ha!
First there was Daniel. He was in my friends band. We dated for a couple weeks and I felt so proud to have the lead singer in a band as my boyfriend. He dumped me because my parents scared him.
Then there was Jered. He was a little younger than me, played water polo, and was known to be a bit of a hothead. He cheated on me, I still kept him around, and then he dumped me anyway because his friends were telling him I wasn't hot enough for him.
I went on a few dates with this guy named Mike. He had long blonde hair and wore neon green short shorts on one of our dates. He also had this tradition of buying his dates a huge slurpee cup from 7-11. It was my trophy for dating him, I guess.
Jordan. He was graduated already, worked for real estate, had a car, and his mom was barely ever home. We had fun. He told me green wasn't my color. My family loved him. He joined my church. I got bored with him and wanted out. He still clung on for a while. I was a little mean to him because he wouldn't get a clue. Not very proud of that!
Matt was a friend of a friend. He was 20 years old and mature. Sort of. He wouldn't take me to my prom because he felt it would be silly to go at his age. We did, however, dress up as if we were going, and then go to dinner and cosmic bowling.

After I graduated, I realized how attached to him I was getting and it scared me. I was only 18! I wanted to play the field! So, I told him I didn't want to be exclusive.
Things got a little crazy for me after that.
There was the alcoholic marine who fell in love with me after a few weeks and I broke up with him because he went to a strip club in Tijuana with his marine buddies. Then there was a sweet guy who was training to be a fireman, was super tall, and left a rose and sweet note on my car while I was working. But once again, too attached to me. I do feel bad for how I ended it with him. I was just too young to settle down! After/during him (crazy times, I tell ya) I was having a little thing with this other guy who I knew from high school. That was just for fun. Perfect for what I wanted! But even that got old.
I decided it was time for in a change in my life. I moved out of my parents home and in with some friends about 7 hours away, back where I used to live. Then, despite the fact that all I wanted was to be single, this guy was very persistent. Do you remember my first kiss from junior high? Him. We dated for a year until I broke up with him. That was an UGLY breakup. Without going into too much detail, it was one of the worst times of my life because even after we were apart, he continued to do things just to hurt me. I moved back home.

While I was dealing with healing from that horrendous situation, I started dating someone else. It lasted a few months, we had some good times, but I didn't feel anything more for him. I was going to wait until after his finals to break up with him (aren't I kind?*facepalm*) but he beat me to the punch. He knew it wasn't feeling right.
So, then I started dating Michael. He had just broken up with my friend, and I had just dated his friend, so there were definitely some hurt feelings. We almost stopped dating because we were losing all of our friends and didn't know if it was worth it, but in the end decided that what we had going on was special and worth everyone hating us. Even though it was hard to not have any friends for a while, we fell in love and that was enough.We have no regrets!

I sure had to kiss a lot of frogs in order to find my prince and once I found him, there was nothing that was going to get in my way!

December Randomness

December is always really crazy for us. We have birthdays, anniversary, Christmas...so we have been busy! Emily turned 3 months old in Christmas day. My little girl is growing so fast!

My bestie Kaitlin came down for Disneyland and stopped by to visit and see Emily for the first time! I made chicken tacos because she loves them :). It was so good to see her! Last time I saw her was the week she stayed with us last January and we found out I was pregnant :).

Emmy started holding onto things...

Another friend of mine, Alyssa, came to visit too! I hadn't seen her in like 4 years! I didn't get a picture with her but she took this one, lol.

Bad quality pic but this was right before Michael and I went out to celebrate his birthday and our anniversary. while my parents babysat.

First Came Love...

First came love...

Then came marriage...

Then came a baby...

Happy Anniversary, Michael!! A lot has happened in four years and I feel so blessed to have you as my husband and the daddy to our beautiful baby girl. I love you so much!

xoxo,

Shelley

Mug

I'm pretty sure it is safe to share this mug with you since Michael never checks here. I made this for him and I'm pretty sure he will love it. I can't wait to give it to him!

A Delicious And Rockin' Anniversary

Thanks for all the Happy Anniversary comments! It was nice to come on here and on facebook to see sweet messages from people. So, thank you!

Wearing my Black Friday shirt purchased for only $8.00!

We had a good anniversary! We went to Cheesecake Factory for dinner and let me tell you...it was delicious! I got a BBQ chicken salad and Michael got some chicken with pasta. Yum! I also forgot how much I love Dr. Pepper. Michael ordered it and I had most of his :-). I try to stay away from soda most of the time but...wow. I couldn't help myself!

After dinner we decided to play some Rock Band. I like to sing and Michael is really good at the guitar so we had some fun rocking out, haha! I've recently been doing the "online tour" and it's so fun to play with people around the world. It's a bit nerve racking to sing with strangers listening on the other end but it makes it a more exciting time. :-)

Our anniversary is also Michaels dads birthday. It's an easy way for us all to remember each other! Also, my cousin David and his wife Kathryn welcomed their first baby into the world on our special day! Congratulations to you both!! Jocelyn Focha is a great name!

Happy Three Years!

Three years ago today I married this wonderful man...

Let's take a look at some good times we had the last three years!

First time snowboarding just about a month after we were married.

July 2009 Chile Cook Off / Swimming Party

Our first cruise!

 Second Anniversary at Medieval Times.

 Shooting guns in the desert...

Our trip to San Francisco in April.

Adopting Jexibelle in May.

Buying our first home in September!

It's hard to believe we have only been married for three years! We've been through so much together in such a short amount of time. I love you, Michael! Happy three year anniversary!

Celebrations and Birthdays!

Yesterday was our 3 year dating anniversary.

We decided to celebrate by going back to where it all began!

{3 years!}

These are bad pictures of me but oh well! I love them of Jexi!

The chips are my favorite part, as usual! :-)

Turns out Jexi loves Chipotle too! We gave her a little bit here and there and later on she tried to steal Michaels left overs while we were distracted...several times!

{What's with my lazy eye?}

Last night my parents and one of my brothers and my sister came over. They hadn't seen the apartment since they helped us move in and so we wanted to invite them over to see it without boxes everywhere! I made a delicious dessert at Michaels request.

Oh and guess what- Michael passed his written test for the Riverside Sheriff's department! He just needs to schedule his physical test now and then wait for another academy to start out there. There is one in August, but it's already pretty full so he probably won't get into that one. Word on the street is that there will be another one by the end of the year! Yay! I will keep you posted!

Happy Birthday to my dear friend Kristen today! We are so glad we got to know you and Daniel and we are sad that we won't be living in the same area as you pretty soon. You guys are so much fun and we are excited for you to have your baby! You better invite us to Santa Barbara to see him! ;-)

Thursday is my MIL, Diana's birthday and my sister is graduating that night too! What a great day! I am so lucky to have such a great MIL. She's the best! She even let's me bring Jexi over to her house when I come over! Haha. No but seriously, I love her to death. She is such a great mom and role model. She works hard as a middle school teacher and she is great to talk to. When we lived with Michaels parents for the first year or so of our marriage, we never had problems with her. She kept me company when Michael was at work and she watched Gilmore Girls with me. That's how we first really bonded!

 I have talked to her in difficult times and she is so understanding and loving. You should see how much she loves her kids and especially her little grandkids! I have TWO great mom's and I feel so blessed!

Today is the 3 year mark of when Michael and I started dating!

{from the summer we started dating- at the county fair}

{a couple months of dating- beach}

{I think this is the month he proposed...}

We went to Chipotle and Yogurtland (frozen yogurt) door to door. He got Chipotle, I got yogurtland, and we met up and ate our different things. Then we spent hours that night just playing old school MarioKart and having so much fun together! We both knew that there was something there between us from that night on but we didn't kiss or anything! When we did end up having our first kiss about a week later (which is a whole other story!), we both knew even more so in our minds that this was something amazing! I'm so glad we continued to progress quickly after that because about 6 months later we got married!

So, just a little before our 3 year dating mark, we got our doggy! We never thought we would be living just like 5 minutes from that spot of our first date and have a little Chihuahua girl steal our hearts!

Michael calls this her "contemplating the complexities of life" look.

Feelin' pretty sad that she is in trouble for pooping on the bathroom rug. Yes, when she does randomly go potty in the house...it's kindly in the bathroom, lol.

Jexi welcomes me home like this! Please excuse my out of control baby talk! I just can't help myself!

Two Years Already!

In honor of our two year anniversary, I wanted to post this questionaire Michael filled out for my bridal shower. I treasure them so much and I thought it would be fun to let you all read them too. Sometimes I think we were crazy to get married so fast (after 4 months of dating). Compared to how much more I love him now, it seems like we hardly knew what love WAS back then even though, as you will see, we were crazy about each other. I hope you enjoy this even a fraction of the amount I do every time I read it.

 Warning: Extreme gushiness is included.


Q: How did you and Shelley meet? and How did you first start getting to know each other?

A: Technically we first met through her brother Steven when her family first moved down here from northern california. But we didn't really get to know each other until earlier this year when we started hanging out in the same close knit group of friends. For the longest time all I knew about her was that she was my friends little sister and she was really really cute. Then as I got to know her better I found that in addition to being really really cute and being Steven's sister, she is also this amazing, go get em, fun to be with, good girl.Q: Who was the more aggressive one in getting things started?

A: I think I was definitely the more aggressive one. I knew that we had a special connection right away when we first started getting to know each other one on one. I wasnt looking for love at the time, but I found it and I recognized it, so I just kept moving forward. I told her that I loved her after just about a month of dating and I propsed after only 4 months of dating. Some say that I moved too fast, but I say that I still went too slow.


Q: Tell us about your first date. (How did you ask her, where did you go, how did it go.)

A: Well I would say that our first real date was probably the best date that anyone could ever hope for. We had just started to kind of date but it was seemed to be causing drama with our friends so Shelley wanted to stop to avoid problems. I might have agreed with her under normal circumstances, but the circumstances were not normal.. I was already madly in love with her and I knew somehow that if I let her go I would always regret it. I told her that we should go on one real date and that since it would be our last one that we should go out with a bang. So we got all dressed up, I wore black slacks and a slick black shirt with a tie and she wore a beautiful black dress. I brought her roses and we went to this really ridiculously fancy restaurant called the Ritz in Newport Beach. It was so fancy that they served us water from a glass bottle imported from Europe. We had such a good time talking, laughing, eating giant delicious steaks, that Shelley realized what I already knew.. that we had something that was too good to give up just to avoid drama. We had something that most people only dream of and that night I made sure to show her that. I swept her off her feet and made her feel like the princess that she is.Q: Tell us what you first thought of Shelley when you started to get to know her/went on your first few dates. What stood out about her?

A: The very first time that we hung out together by ourselves we went to Chipotle and Yogurtland. We were friends at the time and we had been around each other alot, but never alone. There were other things going on with our other friends and we just decided that we would hang out together instead of both being alone on a Saturday night. I was surprised at how well we were able to talk and how smooth our conversations went. I was instantly impressed by how down to Earth and real Shelley was. Her sense of humor got my attention too because it was surprisingly like mine. In fact we seemed to have a lot more in common than I would have thought.


Q: What did she do to make you first realize you were falling for her/when did that happen? (for example a certain date or a certain act of service..)

A: I started falling for her the minute we hung out one on one. It was impossible not too.


Q: Where was your first kiss?

A: The first time we kissed I knew that we should be together. It was on her door step at the end of the night. Some other friends and I had just left her house and she called me back, so I came back. She was standing in her front door way waiting for me. Neither of us said anything, we just kissed. It was very short and sweet but it said so much. I'm still seeing fireworks from that first kiss.


Q: What is YOUR favorite date between you two? What do you think SHELLEY would say her favorite date is?

A: Her birthday ( July 21st). With the help of my brothers I surprised her with a romantic candle-lit dessert (peach pie, which she loves) with flowers and music playing.. all set up under the stars on my roof. I wrote her a poem and had a rose laying on top of it on the table too. Her huge smile that she carried with her for the rest of the night made me so happy. I think she might say that was her favorite date also, or when we went to the Ritz.


Q: In your time together, what is something embarrassing that happened to Shelley/something that she did.
A: Thats a hard one because when I'm with her I try really really hard not to embarrass her or react in a way that would make her embarrassed. She did tell me on the phone once that she tripped like three times in a row walking to class in front of a bunch of people and she was really embarrassed.


Q: What tends to be your favorite thing to do together now?

A: Just relax and enjoy each others company. We are so busy with school, work, and wedding stuff that anytime that we get alone to just relax and maybe just put in a movie and snuggle up on the couch is great.

 Q: What activity does Shelley probably not actually want to do, but does anyways because she loves you?

A: She watches action movies with me even when she doesn't want to, even when she has to hide her face in my shoulder to hide from a scary or intense part. And I appretiate her for it because a guy can only watch so many chick flicks before he needs to see something with arnold swarchtenager in it to feel manly again.


Q: What do you do with Shelley even though you don't like to, but you do because you love her?

A: I got a facebook page even though I swore I never would and i'm not very computer savy. I feel like I should say that I don't like going into store after store of girly clothes and shoes with her at the mall, but for some reason I actually do like that.


Q: Tell us about the proposal!! (including getting the ring, planning, how you asked, how she reacted..)

A: I told Shelley for weeks that I wouldn't have enough money to buy a ring for a while so she was not expecting it. I hid the box with the ring in my sock and we went to disneyland. We both have annual passes there and it's kinda like one of our getaways when we don't have anything else planned. It was really crouded and Shelley didn't want to stay very long at all, which was not good for my plan because I wanted to wait for the fireworks. So all day I was being extra romantic, just laying it on thick. Shelley started getting grumpy because I wouldn't let us leave and I was making us go on boring rides just to stall for time until the fireworks. Finally she just wanted to go home so we were heading back towards the entrance. As we walked by the castle between the wishing well and the castle mote it was just too picture perfect so I stopped Shelley on the bridge and started telling her how much I love her as we looked out over the gorgeous blue purple and pink reflection of the castle on the glassy water. It was the perfect moment and right before I popped the question, two teenage girls popped out of the wishing well nearby as a joke to scare passer-bys. Shelley was officially totally distracted and my magic moment was gone. I was sad that those girls had thrown off my groove and we continued towards the entrance as if to leave. As we passed right in front of the castle I wanted to stop and do it in front of all the people waiting to see the fireworks but right as I was about to do it Shelley pulled me on and pretty much told me to pick up the pace. I was starting to get grumpy too now and we made quite a pair of grumps. We got halfway down main street when an announcment came on the loud speaker saying that the fireworks were about to start so I stopped Shelley and said basically, hey we have both had a long day, let's just stay and watch the fireworks after all because we never do. She agreed that it would be a good idea to just chill and watch for once so I dragged us back up to the front of the castle where we watched the explosions closer than we ever had before. Right as the last firework went off I got down on one knee in the dark and opened the box that had a little light that shown right on the ring. Because the lights were low for the show, and the fireworks were just finished, the ring really stood out against the dark that surounded us. She was so surprised and overwhelmingly happy that all she could say was yes and then we hugged for about 15 minutes while we cried and smiled and laughed. People around us clapped and congratulated us and we just kept hugging. It was a really special moment and one that I will forever remember as vividly as the day it happened.

 Q: What is Shelley's comfort food? What do you think Shelley would say your comfort food is?

A: Me and Shelley are both eaters. And I LOVE her for it! I can't stand when girls won't eat good food because they think it won't be attractive. I don't know of many things more attractive than a beautiful girl (like Shelley) eating a nice 2 pound steak. Anyways, one of her comfort foods is mint chocolate chip oreo shakes. mmm sooo good. She would probably say that my comfort food is a Chipotle burrito, or just anything made of meat.Q: What about your fiancé annoys you/or maybe is like a pet peeve of yours?

A: Well maybe I should plead the 5th on this one considering she will be reading this later.. haha well actually I really can't think of anything.Q: What do you think Shelley would say that YOU do that annoys her?

A: I think she thinks that I take too long to get ready after I get home from work, and it drives her crazy when I make us late to anything.Q: Who drives the worst between you two?

A: I don't trust anyone as much as myself behind the wheel. But Shelley is a really good driver too. She is the only other person I let drive my truck. And I must admit that she is definitely the best looking driver out of the two of us. She makes my truck look good.

 Q: Who spends more money?

A: I spend way more money than her, just because I have more bills to pay and the fact that I am the guy, and the guy is supposed to be the provider. It makes me feel like i'm doing my job when I pay for dinner and stuff when we go out. She does like to shop though.. In fact, if you gave us each a million dollars I bet she could spend it first, all at the mall.Q: In your opinion, what is something that shelley does that you consider to be a big waste of time? (this is all lighthearted for fun!)

A: I don't think she really needs make up, she is naturally pretty and i'm going to see her beautiful face in the morning without make up anyways pretty soon so I dont think she really needs to spend time on that. Also I think Oprah is a big waste of time! No offence to anyone :)

 Q: What do you think Shelley would say YOU do that is a big waste of time?

A: I think Shelley thinks that I spend too much time at the gym.

 Q: What is the first movie you two saw together? (while you were dating)

A: We saw Surfs Up when we were dating kinda secretly and this guy from the singles ward that knows everybody saw us there holding hands. Shelley was worried, but I was happy he saw us. I wanted the whole world to know that I was holding hands with the most amazing girl ever. On a side note, we saw Transformers three times in theaters and we liked it more each time.


Q: Do you have any pet names for each other? What are they?

A: We call each other just about every corny mushy name you can think of just for fun. One we use alot is snickerdoodle. Haha. We started that after watching the movie Matilda.

 Q: What is the first thing Shelley will want to throw away once you two are married?

A: Nothing. I had the foresight to throw out my own stuff. Pre-emptive strike.. on myself. I already took about a week to gut my whole room and closet of anything I don't need. I figure if I keep my junk to a minimum, then I can keep the things that I really want to. I guess it gives me more leverage. "But honey I already got rid of sooo much stuff, cant I just keep that?"

 Q:What is the first thing you want to throw away once you two are married?
A: Some of her millions of shoes, where are we gonna put all those?

 Q: What is your favorite place you two have traveled together?

A: We took a road trip to Utah this last conference and that was so much fun. We had a blast both on the way up and back and we never got sick of each other, even after spending 10 hours in a car with only each other to talk to, twice. Utah was beautiful too. Shelley kept pointing out the natural beauty like the trees and mountains.

 Q: What is your favorite physical feature of Shelley?

A: Besides being beautiful inside, Shelley is drop dead goargeous all around on a physical level. I love her hair, she could be a model for shampoo ads with her silky blonde hair. To be completely honest, even though there are a lot of women from church there hearing this, i'm gonna have to say that Shelley's hips are my favorite physical feature of hers. Her mom is right, she just has that certain walk that shows off her hips and drives me crazy.


Q: What do you think Shelley's favorite physical feature of you is?

A: I think Shelley really like my abs. I'm no body builder that's for sure, but I try to do enough situps to keep my stomach from becoming a belly and I think Shelley appreciates it. At least she tells me that sometimes to make me feel good about myself. Haha and I can appreciate that too, she is so kind to me.

 Q: Please tell us WHY (give the reasons) you love Shelley! And tell us what it is about her that you love.

A: I love Shelley because she is a good person. She makes me want to be better, I want to live up to her expectations and it keeps me on my toes. I love how excited she is to do anything related to the temple. I love her because she is my best friend and I can count on her to be there as a best friend and not just some romantic interest. I love her because we can spend all day every day together and never get sick of each other. I love her because she doesn't think less of me when I make a mistake. I love her because I feel like I can tell her things that I can't tell anyone else. I love her because she listens to me when I ramble on and on and on as I tend to do. I love her because she is the funnest person ever to be around. I love her because she is a do-er and not just a talker, she takes action when others would sit and do nothing. I love her because she is not afraid to do what she feels is right. I love her because she is nice to me and makes me feel special and like I am an important person. I love her because I know she will be a loving wife and a caring mother to our kids someday. I love her because she likes to cuddle and be close, and she always lets me hold her hand. I love her because she lets me know that she loves me and that she appreciates me. I love her. She makes me happy. I am so blessed to be able to be a part of her life. I can't wait to spend the rest of my life and all eternity with this wonderful woman, this beautiful daughter of God, my best friend and team mate, Shelley.