4 years married to my best friend and lover.

Today we've been married for 4 years.

1,460 days to be exact.

4 years ago I arrived at the Bountiful temple with nervous flutters in my stomach, but oh so ready to be married to T.  After a year and a half of dating/engagement, we were pretty ready to just be married.  Our wedding day was perfect.  We kept it pretty simple and basic (due to the fact we got married in the middle of my student teaching and in the middle of the semester). 

The weather was awesome- sunny, cloudy, overcast, light sprinkles, and even a light snow at times.  It was fun to get pictures done with all the different weather going on!  AND props to my cousin who took our wedding pictures after having a baby less than 2 weeks before our wedding.  She rocks.

Our sealing was one of the most spiritual moments of my life.  Kneeling over the altar from my soon-to-be eternal companion and holding his hand was both humbling and exciting.  We were sealed by one of T's family friends in their stake.  Brother Sargeant gave us beautiful advice and made us laugh and cry.  I will never forget the moment we got our glimpse into eternity looking into the forever mirrors.  Our first kiss as husband and wife makes me smile thinking back on it.  T and I had both talked beforehand that our first kiss as a married couple would not be a wimpy peck.  Getting sealed for eternity meant sealing it with a dang good kiss.  At that it was!

I remember walking out of the bride's room in the Bountiful temple and walking out to meet T for the first time in my wedding dress.  He was sitting on a bench, leaning over with his hands clasped between his legs and looking at the floor.  He heard my heels on the floor and looked up and got the biggest grin on his face and just said, "Wow."

Walking out of the temple together and meeting our families was amazing.  We both couldn't stop smiling and laughing!

T's mom did a great job with our luncheon (we just showed up a little late due to having too much fun taking pictures!  Whoops...).  Our reception was fabulous.  My old catering teacher made our 3-tiered cake, my mom along with aunts and grandmas made some dang good food, and we got to reconnect and meet with some of the most amazing people.  One thing about our reception we'll never forget is the fact that we had people coming constantly.  They never stopped.  We never sat and hardly got to eat much!  We were both so grateful for the amount of time and money people spent to come see us and join us for our day.  It made it that much more special.  

Our cake was delicious.  The garter toss was rockin' and so was the bouquet toss.  

Then it was onto the honeymoon.  

Suffice it to say, we enjoyed ourselves.

Now, 4 years later, I still get nervous flutters in my stomach when T comes home from work.  Our marriage is soaring and we can't wait to meet this Baby Girl of ours.  It's amazing to look back on what we've done and accomplished together in the past 4 years and even more exciting to look forward to the future and see what's in store for us.  I may not know exactly what the Lord has in mind for us, but I do know I'll be doing it with my best friend at my side.

{engagement #1}

{engagement #1}

{engagement #2}

 {engagement #3}

{first picture as a married couple!}

 {a favorite}

 {we still need to make this one into a canvas...}

 {another favorite}

 {nose kisses}

 {T's hands.  They truly are the best hands. *sigh*}

{love.}

 {jumping.  my feet hurt pretty bad after this one!}

 {a top favorite}

Happy anniversary to the love of my life.  I hold every moment close to my heart.  We've had some struggles, we've been at odds sometimes, but man oh man has the good always overshadowed everything else!  Here's to my patient, caring, loving, and ever attentive husband and soon-to-be father.  

I love you and I always will.

one of my best friends got married today.

Peter and I aren't just cousins.  We're friends.  Every time our families visited each other during the summer or during Thanksgiving, we were the ones who were inseparable.  We played in my grandparents clubhouse together, climbed trees, road 4-wheelers, spent endless hours jumping on trampolines, walked to the duck pond and threw stale bread at the ducks, and spent endless nights watching Disney reruns snuggled in sleeping bags in each other's basements.

He was always the cousin I looked forward to visiting.  Even though we only got to see each other about twice a year, he was always one of my favorites.  

Most of the pictures I have from past Thanksgivings have Pete in them.  Always.  If I didn't get to sit by Peter at the Thanksgiving table, I threw a fit.  Hence the reason why we always sat by each other.  By the pumpkin pie and yams of course.  Thanksgiving was always a holiday to look forward to because of this kid.  

And today, that so called kid got married.  The sealing was beautiful.  And giving him a hug completely teared me up.  Sheesh.  I sure do love this guy.

{Heidi and Peter-sealed for eternity!}

 {J and T.  Sealed for time and all eternity.  3 1/2 years and still going strong!}

 {J and Daddy.  Another hunk that I love and adore.}

 {Hot mama and J.  This woman has done a lot and been through a lot the past couple of weeks.  Heck.  She's done a lot in her life!  She's pretty remarkable.}

{Ben, Grandma, and the Toad.  Did I mention how good it was to see cousins who we love and miss?!}

{Pete and J}

Boy do I love my Peter!  He's always been my Peter, but I know Heidi is going to take great care of him and we look forward to game nights and fun in the future with the two of them!  

And so, Peter, congratulations from the bottom of my heart.  I'm so proud of you.

I love ya, kid.

a wedding and memorial weekend.

Memorial weekend was spent at Talya and Stuart's wedding.  Talya is T's little sister.  She's beautiful and sweet found the perfect guy for her.  Stuart is a gem and we're so excited he became part of the Kussee family!

They were so happy coming out of the SLC temple, I don't think either one of them stopped smiling the entire day!

Talya made a beautiful bride.  Simple elegance and brilliant beauty!

We got to spend the day with a lot of family and friends.  Grandma Gutierrez flew in for the wedding and we got to spend the whole weekend with her!  I love it when we take pictures of T and his brothers.  Even though T is six feet tall, he's the shortest of the Kussee brothers.  With any luck, our kids will get the height genes from the Kussee side of the family.  Along with their great hair.

We finally got around to buying some new suits for T the week before the wedding.  We picked out a summer gray suit along with a dark brown/gray suit.  T was in desperate need of some new suits that weren't fit to him pre-mission.  If you ask me, my favorite is his new gray one.  He's one attractive husband in it!  

After a day full of photos, good food at both the luncheon and reception, and the hot sun we all dropped into bed and slept late until Sunday morning.  For the first time in a long time, I actually napped during sacrament meeting!  

Monday morning brought another day of boating for the Kussee family.  We left early to fill up with gas and head to Willard Bay.  We started up wrapped up in sweatpants, hoodies, and towels to protect ourselves from the frigid air.  It eventually warmed up and we baked our skin to our hearts content.

Papa Kris usually mans the boat along with T's brother, Kole.

It was the boys men that got out on the lake this time around.  All of them wore wetsuits, except my crazy husband who dived in to the cold water in just his swimming trunks.  

After his last surf on the wake, T ended up slicing up his knee.  Good thing the water was cold enough to keep it numb.  We cleaned it up (good thing little brother was there with his first aid experience!) and Tanner bandaged him up.

Little brother and the little sister vegged out the boat and ate half of the snacks.  Though T and I had our share!  There's something about boating and being out in the sun that makes you starving.

I think this is one of the few pictures we have of Tyler and Morgan.  It's rare to get pictures of T and his siblings lately.  

We need to work on that.

And just to prove that yes, I was on the boat, we took a picture to prove it!  Nasty hair and all.  

Although the sky does look pretty spectacular in this picture of I do say so myself.  

Pretty awesome weekend if I do say so myself.  Great family, good food, eventful weekend.  

Along with a painful sunburn that even got to my eyelids.  Now my eyelids are flaking off in big ol' chunks and I look like I have dandruff in my hair.  That should make for some interesting last day of school pictures tomorrow...