7 years of togetherness

So......Josh had been kinda sneaking around and acting funny when I would talk about what we were going to do for our anniversary.  I just kinda dismissed it, Josh loves surprises... especially if he gets to deliver the surprise.  So I figured he was sneaking around to plan my gift........well it ended up that he planned a lot more than just a gift! 

Wednesday night Kyson Spendlove came over and delivered this invitation.  He said " A special invitation for a special lady." When I opened it I started to wonder what he had been up to but decided to let him do his thing!!  

 

Then when I was busy doing something on our anniversary these appeared down stairs.

  

I got all gussied up....mind you I don't have a lot of formal wear.  It looks kinda funny to get that dressed up for church!!  So I went and dug out some old dance dresses to see what I could make work. I think it turned out just perfect.  I also decided to sport the jewelry I wore on our Wedding Day! 

 I was ready early....I know pretty crazy so the boys and I took some silly self portraits! Brax & Mom

 Boston and Mommy! 

 Josh & I before my ride arrived.....

 My ride.....I was so shocked!  A horse drawn carriage for 2!

They boys of course had to try it out!  Actually they got to ride it with Kayley after us, but no camera then.

 Josh & I 

We went for a nice long ride Josh had made Hot Chocolate for the ride, we ended up at the Spendlove's house and Josh took me around back and we had a gorgeous 5 star restaurant.  

He dug up our wedding pictures and had them displayed while we ate the appetizer we watched out wedding video.

   Spinach Artichoke dip

Chicken Cordon Bleu 

And a yummy desert 

My handsome Hubby 

Me

Our server extraordinaire Kyson Spendlove!  

It was a beautiful night....we have some amazing friends to help Josh pull this all off! 

Getting old is hard to do........ Josh Style

Josh had his 30th birthday, we partied hard core, or well we spent some fun time together as a family!!  I thought he needed some photos of being an OLD MAN!  I really can only say this because I am 2 years younger than him! :)  Not that he is really old.....

 

 He kept telling everyone that he was 24, it was so funny.  I asked Braxton how old dad was and he said 24, I said no he's 30.  Braxton was convinced that dad was only 24!  So I told him to show me how old he was and he was giddy to say 2  4......I made him try again and he was all grumpy with a 3  0.

 Josh is a MAJOR fan of the University of Utah......so I made him a drum cake.....not even close to perfect but I had fun and he liked it.

Happy Birthday Sweetie!  To many more birthdays and getting OLD together.

Hurricane Irene = Josh's First Deployment

Josh has been deployed to the east coast to write claims for Allstate Insurance for the homes that were damaged as a result of Hurricane Irene.  He got the e-mail Saturday the 27th of August.  He flew out  of St. George at 6 am on the 30th.  He went to Philadelphia, PA  for orientation and Allstate specific training.  He was then given 15 claims in North Carolina.  He is learning a lot as he goes from claim to claim.  He said he could definitely tell when he crossed the border in NC because there were trees down all over and you could see a lot of the damage.  His claims have been in a few different cities all relatively close together though.  He has met a lot of nice people and seen some amazing houses! :)  He closed out all of the original 15 in a week.  He now has 6 new claims.  We will see what happens next.  That is the hardest part, just not knowing what the future holds or how long he'll be away.

We love him and miss him lots, but we are proud of him.   It's hard work being away from your family for an unknown period of time.  He is trying to stay positive, though sometimes I get complaining calls ;-P  It takes a lot of courage to go out on your own in a new career and to be away from the family for an extended period of time, We LOVE you and Miss you DADDY!!!  Keep up the hard work :)

Josh's 29th b-day & Fathers day!

Josh had his 29th birthday on the 18th of June, he got quite spoiled, not by me, by him!  He's so funny he buys things then tells me that I don't need to get him anything.  Well that just isn't how it works around here!  So between the two events that are just for him, he got himself new golf clubs, new golf shoes, a month pass to Sand Hollow Golf Course, and a smoker ( for meats and such).  Then I got him 2 new pairs of shorts, some shirts, flip flops & two John Bytheway books.  He got a golf club cleaner set from my parents a golf shirt, and some flip flops.  He got a visa gift card from his parents.  So as you can see, he was not lacking in gifts even though the two events basically ran together!  

We had my parents over for dinner saturday, as a birthday/ fathers day dinner. This was what Josh dished me up as I was feeding Boston his mashed potatoes. 

 Braxton was using his cup cake sand kit to make us all cupcakes, he brought one to daddy,

 and to mommy!  Thanks Brax you are so thoughtful! :)