Proposal anniversary!

Five years ago, today, Elijah proposed to me. I didn't even see it coming. It went something like this:
He had asked me if he could take me out on a nice date, and obviously, I agreed. We went down to Temple Square and he took me up to The Garden (by the way, too expensive and food was average, however, the view was fantastic). We had our dinner, and he looked really nervous, but I didn't think much of it until he told me he wanted to go for a walk around Temple Square. It was snowing, and I was wearing sandals, so I said no. He was still persistent and I kept saying no. Eventually, he got so upset I finally just said, "Fine, you have 5 minutes!"

We walk around for a little bit and because my toes are mostly necrotic and frostbitten from the cold, I announced I wanted to go back to the car, although the five minutes weren't up yet. He then quickly proceeded to get down on one knee while a group of Young Women walking around for their Mutual activity began screaming and shouting, "Oh my gosh!!! He's proposing!!" or "AAAAHHH!!! That's sooooo cute!!!!"

He took my hand, and from then on, I can't remember what he said (either from the shock of being proposed to or hypothermia), but he slipped the ring I had picked out on my left ring finger, and we hurried back to the car.
It was a memorable night.

I can't believe it's been five years. We have been through SO MUCH in the last five years... I mean, they say you're supposed to love and support each other through the bad and the good, and we've done exactly that. We've been through lots of unemployment periods, sickness, a complicated pregnancy, the usual marital problems, and the good, such as a fun and "interesting" honeymoon, cool vacations, finding out we were pregnant when we weren't planning on it and welcoming our handsome baby boy into this world, getting my degree.... If we can make it through all of this, I'm pretty sure we can make it through anything. We've been together for 7 1/2 years now. It's been great!
Elijah's definitely my opposite:

I'm constantly uptight and stressed; he's totally laid back

I'm not great with kids; he's an AWESOME dad

I want to work outside the home; he wants to be a stay at home dad.

We fit perfectly.

Now... what to do for our 5 year anniversary coming up at the beginning of March. He wants to go out of town, but I don't. Any ideas?

Live Nativity

So my neighbor invited us to go see this live nativity program in Draper last night that was absolutely AMAZING. I had never heard of it, but that's because they never advertise and hope it's spread by word of mouth. It's put together by a Stake in Draper every year and it only runs for four nights at the Stake Center off of 12100 South and about 700 West.
Before going, my neighbor told me people drive all the way down from Boise, ID to come see this. And the line is VERY long. She said a few years ago they did an unofficial count and in four nights there was 20,000 people that walked through. It's all done outside, and the volunteers (mind you, they're all church members who do this out of their own time and money) construct the set and do all the costumes, and bring in all the farm animals (which I'll mention more of in a minute).
So Elijah, Jacen and I get there around 7:15pm and we meet up with our neighbors. They have little bon fires to keep people warm, and you go through each point and there's someone doing something, for example: there was someone writing the Bible passage for the account of the birth of Jesus Christ, then another stop with the Three Wise Men, etc... They have all sorts of animals walking by, including sheep, goats, chicken, baby cows, and you can even pet two camels (which, by the way, I was told they were the same camels used for filming Independence Day with Will Smith) then you get to go inside this stable where it's very tight and crowded with the actors doing different things such as building baskets, or cutting up wood, or there was even a beggar. The last room you walkthrough is a room with Mary and Joseph, and a real baby Jesus. That was the most reverent room of them all. The baby was asleep and Jacen points, "Was dat?" They made it look so real, it was fantastic, I mean, even baby Jesus was only wrapped in blankets and had no clothes on.
While I watched baby Jesus in the manger, I got very emotional (although I didn't cry, thank goodness!). I was very touched because the whole Christmas thing isn't about gifts or decorations. I mean, seriously! Since when did Christmas become a time to worry so much about gifts? It's so easy to forget about our Savior during this time, and that makes me really sad. It shouldn't be that way. Christmas should be about remembering the birth of Christ and everything He has done for us. Worrying about gifts and decorations and all the food can come last.
I hope all of us makes a point to remember and keep in mind the true meaning of Christmas this Holiday season. Isn't that what it is all about?!

NOTE: I feel bad I don't have pictures to post but that's because picture taking isn't allowed due to the fact that the flashes could scare the animals.

All the things I'm grateful for...

The tradition of celebrating a day of giving thanks is a new concept to me, introduced only within the last decade. It's interesting to see how ungrateful people can be throughout the year, especially when they have so much. In Brazil, people don't have nearly as many things as we do here (i.e. dishwashers, washers/dryers, bathtubs, etc). I know I've been very ungrateful this year, mostly because of all the other huge problems hovering over us. It's easy to forget to thank our Heavenly Father who sends us abundant blessings each and every day. In light of the Thanksgiving holiday that came and went in the blink of an eye, I wanted to post about a few things that I'm grateful for.
-I'm grateful to have a healthy family who is supportive of me going through this much schooling so one day we can have a better life. You don't usually find that supportive of a husband. Elijah's been sacrificing the little time we have each week together so I can barricade myself in the office doing endless hours of homework and research work. (For info on how my school is doing, click here)
-I'm grateful for having jobs. Jobs are so scarce, especially now that the unemployment rate is 10%+. We've been very blessed to work for stable companies that are flexible enough to schedule us when it works best for us.
-I'm grateful for all the things we own, including, but are not limited to, our house, our (now) functioning cars, all of Bubba's toys, furniture, pantry and fridge full of food, and all of the appliances that are working properly.
-I'm grateful for our parents and friends that help us with babysitting while Elijah and I are either at work or at school. It's HUGE to not have to pay for daycare or to have some strange person watch him.
-I'm grateful for the Gospel in our lives, although we haven't been to church in a while (because of work). It helps to know someone's there listening.
-I'm grateful for our friends and family that are also supportive and are there to help us whenever we need it.

For Thanksgiving this year, we went to Elijah's moms house and had dinner there, along with my mom and my brother James. Jacen went to town on the food. He ate a lot of what was on his plate, which was A LOT... The food and the company were great! The last two years have been quieter because Victor's gone on his mission and our family got smaller. But they've been good because it gives us a chance to really enjoy the holidays without it being chaotic. Then later that night I had to go into work, which was fine. I like spending a part of the holidays with co-workers. They make it fun and entertaining!

On a side note, I wanted to publicly announce I'm retiring my black backpack.

Obviously it doesn't look like this anymore, but it's still not worn out either. For any of you that went to Cottonwood High School with me, I've been using this same backpack since 9th grade. Yes, you read it right: 9TH GRADE. This backpack has survived almost 10 school years. It's been a very dependable, sturdy backpack, which I currently consider to be my lucky charm. It got me through high school graduation, and my associates degree. When I first saw it, my mom almost had a stroke when we found out it cost $60, but it's been a good investment. Thanks, mom!

Now that I'm a big girl and I'm going to the U for good, I'm thinking of switching to either a messenger bag or a more lively version of the black backpack:

What do you think?

I hope everyone enjoyed their holiday! Now, on to Christmas... Our favorite holiday of the year!

Bowlin'

After not doing anything as a family for nearly a month, we decided it was time to go out and do something different. I didn't realize how stress was piling on so fast!
On tuesday we took Jacen to The Pizza Factory and to Fat Cats for a round of bowling. He was so happy to eat pizza, first of all. He ate the majority of what was on his plate, and didn't complain one bit. What a good boy! He didn't even make the usual embarrassing mess of food on the floor, which was a nice bonus. I was shocked!
After that we went to the bowling lanes. I don't think we've ever seen Jacen so excited about something. He had his own turns, with the bumpers and the "grandma walker" looking thing that's used for the ball to roll off of. He loved pushing the ball at a whopping 4.5 mph. He'd clap and squeal with happiness. He'd even clap when other people would cheer. Funniest thing ever.
I don't remember the scores, but I know Elijah kicked my hiney by like 50 points, and hmm... Jacen kicked mine as well.
Let's not talk about it.

Halloween 2009

Despite begging Elijah for almost one week to post pictures of Halloween on the blog, he still refused, which left me to post these late.

Halloween was fun for the boys. I had to work the night before and the night of Halloween, so I didn't do anything except for sleep and clean the floors during the day. Also, I've been so busy with school these days that I sort of ran out of time trying to find the perfect Halloween costume for Jacen... I more like forgot to get him a good costume until the day before. *sigh* Elijah and I just figured on saturday morning he'd be the same thing he was last year: a pumpkin. Eighteen month olds don't remember, right? I still felt like a horrible mother.

Elijah took him to Fashion Place Mall to go trick or treating this year, that way he could bypass the monster that comes out of Jacen when exhaustion settles in. It was a good idea except they didn't start until 6pm, and a few angry store employees did not want Elijah to leave without feeling guilty for trick or treating at 4pm. Sheesh!

Jacen didn't know what to do at first, but towards the end he'd just walk into a store, and point to the bucket of candy since he couldn't say "I'm here for some of that, please. According to my parents I'm dressed cute, so please pass the candy over here and get this over and done with". Elijah recorded some of it and it was pretty funny! I wish I had been there :( His favorite was the Honey Teddy Grahams fun packs. He loves those! And I also found out he loves chocolate, just like I do. That made my day!
I hope everyone had a good Halloween!
And happy 50th birthday to my dad :) I love you!