A Gooey Love Story

Josh and I have been married for just over 3 1/2 years, and they have been great! I am very in love with my husband...in case you didn't know that already. He REALLY is my best friend. As most of you know, we were friends long before we ever started dating. I don't remember actually meeting him. Of course I was only four years old. My family moved in down the street from his family, and we all became close friends. I was (and still am) best friends with Josh's older sister. And he was best friends with my older brother. Also our older brothers and younger sisters were friends, and our parents were pretty close too. So I guess you could say that our entire family had a playmate in their entire family.
Josh is going to kill me for putting this picture on here! HA HA! But it's so cute! I am the little weenie, and Josh is the Beefy one, hence his nick-name "Beef." The other two are Brandon my brother, and Emily his sister. We were just like the Butter Cream Gang! (Maybe that is an inside joke for 'feature films for families' watchers.) But we got into more mischief than the Butter Cream Gang ever did.
This picture is a little blurry, but that is Josh in the background with the hose. If you can't tell he is laughing hysterically. I'd like to play the innocent, but if you look closely, I have a cup of water in my hand. Let's just say it didn't quite do the job. I am going to out Emily though and tell you the real story. She told me to get a cup of water to throw on Josh, and she told Josh to have the hose ready. Then guess who grabbed the camera. That's right! Emily!! She set me up!!
Eventually Josh didn't think hanging out with his sister and her nerdy little friend was so cool any more. But at least he still talked to me. I think this picture is at his seminary graduation. We were still friends, we just didn't have sleep overs and go toilet papering anymore. We graduated from High School, and Josh went on a mission and I went to college. I wrote him a little, and we kept in touch. When he got off his mission I was still in college, and we would instant message each other. THAT is when he started flirting with me! I was dating other people so nothing ever came of it, but he did flirt! Ask him...he'll admit it!
On May 22, 2003 I had a kidney transplant. My dad donated a kidney to me. I could go into that for pages and pages, but this story is supposed to be about me and Josh. He came to see me in the hospital and he would just stay for hours. Just his presence was a huge comfort to me, and I knew we were going to end up getting married. I don't know how I knew, I just did. It was kind of funny because at that point I kind of thought of Josh as my brother or cousin or something. But lets just say, my interest was peaked.

About a month after my transplant Emily MADE us go on a double date with her and her husband. We went to a movie, and when it was over we just kind of drove around talking, and YES we really were talking! Josh drove to Sulfur Creek and we climbed down in the spill way. I was really scared. I kept telling him that there were witches---don't ask. So it wasn't very romantic. Then he took me to their family's ranch in Hillard. I had been there a million times with Emily. We listened to records and had our first kiss! Ahhhh. I just thought, "Okay, now I HAVE to marry him because I don't want this to ruin our friendship."

And we fell in love and all that mushy stuff.

We got engaged in San Diego. I went with his whole family on their vacation to California. He asked me one night on that very beach. And of course I said yes!

We got married on August 14, 2004. Don't we make a cute couple?!

We had a lot of fun as newly weds! We lived in Smithfield Utah. (Just north of Logan) Our good friend Jim Jacobs and his wife Leslie lived a few blocks away from us, so we 'played' with them a lot! Then I got really sick and ended up in the hospital 3-4 times with kidney infections. We decided that we should move to Ogden to be closer to my doctors. So we did. We lived in Westpoint Utah, and loved it! My brother Brandon lived close and so we spent a lot of time with him and his family. They even let me baby sit for them! I got pregnant with our little Tessa and we decided once again that it was time for a move. We wanted to be closer to home once we started our own family. So we moved back to Evanston. We bought a little house (from Doreen Voss, who is going to marry my dad now!)

I was six months pregnant when we went through the temple to be sealed! That was the best day of my life!

And one month later Tessa made a surprise appearance two months before we were expecting her. She weighed 2 lbs. 15 oz. but was a feisty little thing from the start!

And then, two months later, I was pregnant with Maggie. Now if you do the math, that would make them 11 months apart (if Maggie was born full term.) But gestationally, they would be 9 months apart. But that didn't happen. Maggie showed up three months early, making them 8 months apart. She was a surprise (not a mistake!) but we were VERY happy to have her! She weighed 1 lb. 10 oz. She was very tiny, but grew fast. Now she is a chunky little girl and you would never know she was premature!

We are very blessed. I am so happy to have such a wonderful husband, and two happy little girls! Josh is an incredible father, and that makes me even more in love with him! I couldn't ask for more in my life.