29 Reasons I Love My Man....

As the author of this blog I put a lot of detail of myself into it, so I am sure even those who don't know me as well feel like you do just from reading our blog from time to time. However Eric very rarely makes an appearance as far as doing posts go, so I thought his birthday would be a good opportunity to list the little things that make me love him so darn much!!!

He is now 29 years old, so this list will be long, I will try to keep each one short but again if you read my blog I can sometimes be long winded so.....fair warning.

1. His love for sweets, no cookie, ice cream or donut ever goes uneaten in this house.
2. He loves sports, I can understand how some men do not but I grew up with my dad loving sports so it seems so natural for me to have a basketball game on in the background.
3. He initiates FHE, family prayer, scripture study, etc... I have had to to pick it up with him being gone all the time but I love that it is his desire for his family to stay on the path of righteousness and he goes out of his way to ensure these things are being done in our home.
4. He worries obsessively about our children's safety. He won't let anybody put their car seats in the car but him, he baby proofs everything and has a hard time letting them ride in anybodies car but his own.

Example: on Thanksgiving the kids all went for a ride in the rhino at my moms house. My cousin's husband Kyle was making sure all the kids were harnessed in correctly and about two minutes passed while we were inside. I could see his mind just working overtime and before his mouth even opened I knew what was going to come out of it "I better go make sure Kyle put the boys in right".
5. We love to say phrases from sitcoms with each other, Seinfield, King of Queens and The Office are the favorites. I think he has every Seinfield made memorized and can tell from the opening scene exactly which episode it is.
6. He reads Calvin and Hobbes before bed every night. I can be sound asleep and I will look over and he is laughing hysterically with a flashlight propped up at good old Hobbes. It makes me smile every time.
7. He says the same old jokes over and over and they make me laugh every time. Another example every time we go to the Bountiful temple he makes a big production about not being able to tell which house is the temple, he thinks all the houses are huge up there. Every time he throws a different spin on it, "now wait I could have sworn it was around here somewhere, " or " wow, they restructured it, it looks completely different", such a dork so why do I laugh at every single one.
8. His arms, which may sound weird but I LOVE his arms they are so manly to me. There perfect just big enough, strong like a husband's should be, lift heavy things but yet fit so perfectly around me.

8. His chosen profession, call me fickle but I love that he is going to be a lawyer. Don't get me wrong I would love him with whatever profession he chose but for some reason I have always had a thing for lawyers, it's a big turn on for me.
9. His talent with anything musical, he sings well, can play the piano beautifully but the most amazing is his ability on the guitar, he even taught lessons for awhile. There is something about a man that can play music that makes me melt.
10. He is crazy about his Utah Jazz, the other night for his birthday we went to the Jazz Game and he is so funny to go with. Kind off embarrassing actually, he hollers ands groans and whatever else sports fans do and when I ask him a question he looks at me like I am insane how dare I speak when he is in his Jazz zone. Luckily for me I keep plenty occupied with eating food and staring at all the funny people surrounding me.
11. He has an abnormally big head he tries and tries to find the perfect hat and never can because they usually never makes sizes big enough to fit him, however it's so darn cute that he keeps trying and trying to find just the right one.

12. He knows me and I mean really knows me. He can tell from just the sound of my voice who I am talking to on the phone, the look on my face whether I am mad or happy or sad, he knows what my reactions will be to things before I even have time to react. I love being known like this by my best friend, there is such comfort in that thought that he knows me as well as he knows himself.
13. He is smart, and I mean really smart. I think you probably have to be to get through the amount of school he has done, but that's not really the kind of smart I am talking about. He knows directions in strange cities, he can always fix my computer problems even over the phone, he is always caught up on current events. The joke around my family is they ask my opinion on topics because they know my source is Eric and he always knows what he is talking about it.
14. He amazes me as a dad, he loves to play with our kids and have a good time but what I love even more is that he truly believes as a father it is his duty to take turns with late night feedings, diaper changes, bath time, it makes my job as a mother so much more enjoyable having help like this. I have been spoiled rotten by him and have greatly missed this the last few months.

15. I love how big he is I don't meant that rudely honey. I am somewhat of a petite person and he is definitely not someone you would call petite. He towers over me and it's almost impossible to hold hands comfortably as we walk because of the heigth difference, but I never feel more safe than when I am with him. He's such a manly man, love it!
16. He calls me quite literally at least ten times a day, which I admit doesn't always happen in the most convenient times and I have to call him back more often than not, but I definitely know I am missed.
17. He wears church socks after church with jeans, because he is too lazy to change, which he tells me is not a cool thing to do, but for some reason I find it so cute.
18. For as big and strong as he is I ALWAYS and I mean ALWAYS win him at thumb wars and he is not just letting me win him, I really do kill him every time.
19. He genuinely loves playing with our boys, I admit sometimes when Lance wants me to play Cars with him or something most of the time I am thinking alright I will give him ten minutes and that is all I can stand but not Eric he will sit down there for hours playing silly game after silly game with them.

20. He hates hugging people, his mom, my mom, distant relatives, it's so awkward and uncomfortable for him. His mom always told me she was worried when we got married that he wouldn't hug me enough. I was so flabbergasted because there is nobody in this world that gives me better hugs than him, he saves up all those lost hugs for me and the boys. His arms are the most secure place in this world for me.
21. He tells me I am beautiful, this means the world to me. I know he loves me as his wife and mother of his children but it's wonderful knowing he still finds me attractive and as appealing as he did when we first started dating.
22. I am so proud to be his wife, I still find myself particularly when we are on a date without the kids thinking I am so proud to be on his arm and that he chose me as his wife. He is the man of my dreams...
23. I love the sound of his laugh, he has so many different ones. He has an almost roaring laugh when he plays video games or the WII with his brothers, he has a high pitched laugh when he tells a stupid joke and is waiting for me to roll my eyes or something, and my most favorite is his really deep soft laugh that he does when I have done something to make him smile.
24. I find him so incredibly good looking, I sometimes put on an act that I am upset that our boys look so much like him and really very little of me but really nothing thrills me more. He still makes my heart flip and I thrill at the thought of my boys doing the same thing to some lucky girl one day, one very long day away that is.
25. He would do anything to make me happy, and well cared for. He does so many things for me that I know I take for granted. He would never even consider letting me get the car registered, or the oil changed, he handles insurance, utilities, all the things that scare me to do he takes care of, even now being miles away he still does these things for me.
26. He watches House Hunters on HGTV with me and loves it just as much as I do, we love to make fun of the houses people pick or dream about what we would do in their position. This is one of my most favorite things to do together as a couple, it has happy memories in it.
27. He is so quick to say he is sorry, I am so stubborn sometimes but he only lasts minutes before he is apologizing and trying to make up with me, we are really never in any disagreements that last longer than a few minutes.
28. When I am getting ready for bed at night in the bathroom he will stand behind me and do silly things with my hair, pinning it up, braiding it, you name it he tries it. It's so cute and funny, I love it.
29. My most favorite thing about him is he is all mine, he is my everything and my best friend. Please don't think I am trying to brag or anything here, he has many faults as we all do but he has thousands of things that are truly wonderful and inspiring about him and being his wife I think I am entitled to write them down. I want him to know how much I love him and all of his cute little quirks that make up the wonderful person I married. Happy Birthday Eric I love you!

Happy 2nd Birthday Lou!

Happy 2nd birthday to our little Loubird! This is the craziest month for us with Christmas then Luke's birthday on the 27th and Eric's birthday is today on the 28th. Holy cow life needs to settle down soon for us there will be a post for Eric later and another for Luke, I am feeling pretty good that I was even able to get this much done on time as far as blogging goes.


It is so hard having a child with a birthday so close after Christmas, I had the hardest time coming up with anything to even get him for his big day. Not to mention funds are a little tight in the month of December I am sure you can all relate. But we have really tried to make Luke's birthday every bit as special as Lance's, we don't want him to feel overshadowed or anything with everything else going on right now.

We just played around all day with all the new Christmas toys and then took him to Cafe Rio for dinner. My sisters and their families came along to make it more special for the little guy, the kids all love being together.

We then had a birthday party for him at Grandpa and Grandma Smith's house, with all of our family. I just have to say thank you to all of you who came we were not missing anybody and that means so much to us. I know everyone is partied out right now and everything but we truly appreciate all of your love and support for our family. We were so grateful to you all for celebrating with Luke on his big day and we know he loves you all so much!

It's just getting harder and harder to get a cute "brother" shot of these two, I thought this one was pretty good, Luke could be smiling cuter though.....

Grandpa Smith and Luke, he was having a hard time waiting to open his presents, there was just a few people we were waiting for to arrive and the poor kid couldn't understand while we weren't letting him just dive in. Though it was his birthday maybe I should have just let him anyways.

Opening all of his presents, he got some really great stuff though I am dreading finding a spot for all of these new toys. We haven't been home yet since Christmas morning and our car is chuck full of Christmas and birthday presents. I think it may be time to take a trip to the DI and dejunk the boys bedroom when we get home.

Cake and ice cream and singing happy birthday with all the family. Lance is so cute in this picture he has learned the words to "Happy Birthday" and was singing along with the rest of us to Luke.

Luke's favorite part of the night was of course eating his cake and ice cream. This boy loves his food and our family knows it. As part of his presents he got a box of ice cream drumsticks from Uncle Matt and Aunt Brooke and my Aunt Tammy gave him a gift certificate to McDonald's. I thought it was so cute of them to think of that, he will LOVE IT!

Happy Birthday Luke, we love you so much and are so grateful you are a part of our family. I think back to two years ago today and spending hours in the NICU with you as a little 2 lb baby, I can't believe how far you have come and how much joy you have brought to our lives. WE LOVE YOU OUR LITTLE ANGEL! I can't imagine a life without you, we are forever grateful to the miracle that was given to us when we are able to bring you home as a forever part of our eternal family.

Let Earth Receive Her King

We had a wonderful Christmas Day we made the rounds to all of the family, starting out with my mom in Brigham, then to Eric's parents for Christmas Dinner, and finally my dads. It went so perfectly, sometimes pictures speak louder than words, so enjoy the MANY pictures!

As Christmas Days go it was pretty ordinary opened too many presents, ate too much food and enjoyed the company of our family. However this year will stand out to me as memorable because it was one of the first years I was able to experience it through the eyes of a child. I have been a mother now for four Christmases but my kids are just now getting to the age where it was magical watching them experience it all. From our advent calendars, to watching Frosty the Snowman almost daily, to visiting Santa on many occasions just so there was no confusion on where he stood as far as Lance's wish list went. However my most favorite memory is reading Luke 2 to our boys and taking many opportunities to teach them about the birth of our Savior. One night we were driving around Logan seeing all of the Christmas lights and Lance said "look the temple has lights too" it of course did not have Christmas lights but was indeed all lit up like all temples are standing above all else that surrounds it. What warmed my heart though is that my children know what temples are, they know we say prayer, they know who baby Jesus is and almost daily I can see their testimonies growing as they understand more and more about the great plan and Jesus Christ our savior. One of my most favorite Christmas Hymns is "Joy to the World" my most favorite phrase is "let earth receive her king". I am so grateful for this wonderful day spent with those I love most celebrating the birth of our savior. I hope you all had a joyous holiday season and felt the magic as well that this time of year brings!

Santa Came!

It was so wonderful being on our own place on Christmas Eve the last three years we have been in Kentucky so we would open up our gifts before leaving for Utah and then would spend Christmas Eve at Eric's parents which was fun. But now that Lance in particular understands what's going on it was wonderful being in our own place in our own beds and celebrating Christmas morning alone as a family. We debated about spending the night at one of our parents house because of the huge storm that was supposed to hit Christmas Day, in the last week they have closed the canyon because of the storms we keep getting. Thankfully we made the decision to stay put and hope for the best, I am so glad we did it was a treasured morning and the huge storm held off until last night after we had arrived safe and sound in Layton to spend the day with family.

Eric and the boys reading Luke 2, I thought it was a sweet picture.

I have to laugh I forgot to take a picture of the boys setting out cookies and milk for Santa. This story describes my boys to a tee, their personalities are so funny. We set out five cookies for Santa and Company. According to Lance the first one was for Santa, then Rudolph, Prancer, Frosty and last but not least Lightning McQueen go figure I have no idea where he comes up with this stuff. Then we leave the room for a minute to get our scriptures and come back to see Luke shoving three of those cookies in his mouth at once. If that doesn't describe my two boys I don't know what does.

Christmas Morning....

The much anticipated McDonald's has arrived, "Santa" spent the night Christmas Eve putting together this little treasure and thankfully we got the reaction we were looking for. He screamed in delight when he saw his "Donalds" and really didn't give much attention to his other gifts.

Santa also brought the boys these bean bag chairs that were also a big hit. Lance got a Wall-E chair and Luke's was a Mickey Mouse. I love their positions on them Lance opened all his gifts from the comfort of his chair parked right smack in front of McDonald's. He doesn't dare leave it's sight even if it's for more presents.

Luke opened all of his presents leaning against his Mickey chair. This little microwave was his favorite gift so far. He loves little compartments and things that he can stuff his treasures into and pushing buttons is always fun, Santa knew this would be a success with him.


Another favorite was a remote control Buzz car, it's just like the one on Toy Story that Buzz and Woody take to catch up to the moving truck. I think Lance likes to pretend he is Andy in Toy Story, he loved this car!

Christmas Eve at Grandpa Cherries

Sorry tons of Christmas pictures I go kinda crazy on the holidays with my camera. This is the first of many posts to come of our Christmas celebrations. On Christmas Eve we always go to my Grandpa Woodyatt's or as the kids all call him "Grandpa Cherry" because he has a ton of cherry orchards. It is one of my favorite nights of the year, I almost love Christmas Eve more than Christmas Day just because of the anticpation of it all. We had a great time this year as always!

Family of three picture darn Lance wouldn't come upstairs and take a picture he was too busy playing with all of his cousins. Also not really the greatest picture of Luke but take what you can get I guess.

I just thought this was a cute picture of a lot of the kids crowded around some silly magnets, you get them all kinds of toys and 5 round little magnets draws the attention of seven kids, go figure.

Luke opening his present from the two sets of Great Grandparents there.

Lance opening his present, he by far had the greatest reaction. He LOOOVES toys, I never regret buying him toys because he seriously plays his little heart out with all of them. His toys are so loved and his Dinoco Helicopter he received was no exception. He could barely contain himself enough to tear off the paper he was so EXCITED!

Love at First Sight!

Luke kept trying to steal everyone else's toys he loved this Thomas the Train laptop in the toy store but he wasn't too interested in it that night. He loves it because he can hear the noise it makes and it was too noisy for him to hear much of anything that night, but he is back to loving it now that all the commotion has died down.

Every year it's tradition to get all the kids matching Christmas PJ's, this tradition started when I was a child and has gone on now for over 20 years. Where now it is me and all of my cousins buying PJ's for our kids. There is probably close to 30 great grandchildren so we split it up into groups; the older girls, younger girls, older boys, younger boys. For some reason every year it is a cinch to get the girls pictures and the older boys but the younger boys it's impossible. In this picture which is pretty much terrible we are missing about three of the boys and not one of them is looking at the camera. Gotta love all these crazy boys!

Chuck E Cheese!!!

Last night we had to call an audible we were supposed to go to Malad ID, for a party at my great aunt's house (my Grandpa Williams sister). It is one of my favorite parties of the whole year. It it always held the Saturday before Christmas and it just does not feel quite like Christmas without it. I think this is the first time in about 10 years that I did not go and I am still feeling a little sad about missing it. The food is great, Santa comes and some how this Santa always gives the best presents every year as a kid I could not wait to see what he had in that bag for me. We were all set to go kids were dressed, diaper bags packed and then SNOW.... Now I love the snow but not when it ruins my plans, the annoying thing was it wasn't even snowing at all in Layton but I guess the more North you went the worse it was getting. My sisters and I were all down in the dumps about missing the party the kids especially the older boys were devastated they wouldn't be seeing Santa so.... Chuck E. Cheese to the rescue!

It worked cheered us and all the boys up tremendously, I am still thinking about all that good food, the pizza didn't quite cut it for me but the boys had fun and that is really all that counts. Though next year the snow had better not ruin my plans again, Williams family I hope you all had fun and we will be there next year for sure!

Layton Lights

Teri and I took all the boys to see the Layton Park lights on Friday night and stopped first for pizza at I think it was called The Pizza Factory in Syracuse.

This is Lance's new smile I am now getting for every picture I want to take of him, out of five shots of trying to get a decent picture of the three of us this was the best I got.

Teri and I doing our best to look like we were having fun even though it was freezing cold outside, there was another big storm on Friday and it was freezing temperatures that night, that's probably why we only stayed about 20 minutes. A few rounds of walking through seeing all the sights and the boys and us were ready to go home and get in the nice warm bath tub or in my case a nice warm shower. Luckily I stayed with my in-laws this weekend so it was a nice short drive home intstead of an hour. It was one of those nights when after a hot shower, thick socks and lots of blankets I still never really felt completely warm.

Carson and Lance spent quite a bit of their time fighting over who got to push Luke in the stroller which was fine with me. I forgot my gloves and didn't want to take my hands out of my pockets to push him, worked out well that the boys took over for me!

I'm a terrible mother I also forgot the boys gloves too, Lance borrowed a pair of Carson's and Luke made due with a pair of socks.

Carson kept breaking all of Layton Cities rules and crossed the lines to stand next to the figures of lights, Lance thought that sounded like a good idea until he realized after traipsing through all of that snow his pants were now soaking went. He spent the whole ride home in tears and tearing at his pants mad that they were so wet.

Thanks Ter it was a fun night, a little cold but worth it!