Where There is Great Love Miracles Can Happen...

I can hardly believe that Shawn and I have been married for eleven years. The time has flown by so fast, yet somehow I can't remember my life without him in it. So in the blogging tradition here are eleven of the most memorable moments of the past eleven years

1. The first has to be our wedding day. The weather was beautiful the morning we got married, however the event was not without it's drama. The day before the woman we had hired to turn the church into a fairy tale with decorations and flowers was arrested, and truck full of stuff she had stolen and loaded up for my wedding was confiscated. So at ten o'clock the night before my mom and the sweet ladies in my ward through together my wedding. While it was not at all the wedding I had planned, it was still a beautiful day and I was so thankful for those dear women who worked all day making the church beautiful.

Number two of course would have to be the day our little Jackson joined our family.

It was three weeks before my due date, and Shawn was on an airplane on his way home from Japan. I started having conractions around six in the morning and knew I was in full blown labor by eleven. Shawn was not due home until later that evening.
I called my mom and she took me to the hospital, and both of us knew that there was about a 100 percent chance Shawn would not be there for the birth of his first child. My mom contacted the airlines hoping that maybe we could catch him on his layover in LA, but to our suprise they told us that Shawn actually caught an earlier flight from LA to Salt Lake and should be arriving within the hour. My sister Natalie jumped in her car, met him at the gate, brought him straight to the hospital, and forty five minutes later our little Jackson entered the world. I was so relieved that he was there, however all I heard about for the next two days was how tired he was because of his long, sleep deprived, flight from Japan. Needless to say I wanted to punch his lights out.

Third is building our first house together...
This was such a fun and scary thing to do together. Neither one of us really knew what we wanted so we left a lot of the decisions up to our builder (which of course now we regret). When we moved in we only had Jackson and the house felt so big. I remember the first night in our bedroom in our little queen size bed Shawn had from college, looking at our high ceilings and feeling like a little barbie doll. That didn't last long though, the house was quickly filled with children and with love. We have loved our house, our ward, and the memories we have made here.

Fourth of course would have to be Little Miss Emma. Or as we called her our little piece of work...


Emma's entrance into this world was so fitting for her, I was in between contractions, not pushing at all, and she actually pushed herself out. The doctor almost dropped her. To this day Emma knows what she wants, and does what it takes to make it happen.

Fifth would have to be our journey to Diamond. It seems every three or four years we make a big push in our business that consumes us for ninety days or so, and we accomplish things we never thought were possible. Going diamond in Nikken was so much work but celebrating it was a blast. It is a pretty amazing feeling to accomplish something like that together.



These are some pictures from the Awards of Excellence that Nikken held at California Adventures right after we went Diamond. The first is of Shawn receiving his Diamond pin and the second is a picture of us with Dave and Valerie Johnson, our sponsors in the business. We are so grateful for the role that Nikken has played in our lives. It really has brought us health and given us the opportunities to do things that we never dreamed of.

Sixth would be Britta...


Britta was such an easy labor and delivery. She has been a joy since the day she entered our lives, always keeping us on our toes and laughing.

Seventh would be our run to Royal Diamond. This was all Shawn and he did a wonderful job. It was Halloween time and Jackson's birthday. I was throwing a birthday party in the basement while he was furiously placing orders. He created so much volume and moved so many people to ranks to make this happen for us. He is a wonderful businesman with such a creative mind. He really can do anything he sets his mind to. I am so proud of him and what he has done with Nikken. This too was so much fun because Russ and Hollie were a part of it . We were so grateful for all of their hard work too!



Next is our little Kendyll Lynn...

I went into labor with Kendyll early in the morning and within three hours she was here and beautiful. She was five day overdue which was awful, and she was nine pounds, but she was the sweetest little baby you could ever imagine. They called her pumpkin at the hospital because she was so round.

Eight, nine, ten, and eleven have to be the wonderful trips we have been able to take during our marriage. We have been so blessed to have been able to travel often and we have had so much fun. We have taken so many trips, I can't even post all of the pictures. It is our favorite thing to do, and we are so lucky that we have gotten to do so much of it! These are only a few of the places we have visited.

We've been to New York City three times, which is by far one of our favorite places to go. We love the pace of the city and all there is to see and do there. Once we went alone, once with friends and then this last time we got to go with my mom and dad, which was so fun!

This family trip to Florida was the TOPS! we had so much fun!

Another picture of New York, with our good friends the Dana's and the Muirs. We have been so blessed to have such great friends!

We've gone to the Oregon coast a couple of times with Shawn's family and we love it there. This is a hot tub shot one day after the cold beach.. I couldn't resist showing off Shawn's big muscles.

Our trip to Washington DC with my family was SO MUCH FUN! We loved the history and being together.

We've gone on several Lake trips courtesy of our good friends the Dana's. We always have so much fun with them!

This was a trip we took to Seattle and then up to British Columbia, it was so fun!


As I went through pictures this morning I just wanted to post everything. I love my marriage to Shawn, we have had the best times together. I am thankful for the charmed life we have lived. It is not without its ups and downs but together we can get through anything. Happy Anniversary Shawn I love you!