Last night I watched a great movie, with a great message. It was called, "Facing the Giants" and even though it was about football, I found many things to learn from it.

One year ago today, two days before Christmas, Jonathan and I were married! He stood at the end of the aisle in his Air Force blues, smiling at me, while I was so incredibly nervous!

It all seemed to go by in a blur and soon we were man and wife! I was so happy and excited, I don't think anything could have ruined that day, no matter what happened!

Soon after, all we had time for was taking pictures! We took every set of pictures you could possibly imagine, and I would say we had fun doing it too!


After lots of pictures we went inside and ate. And I was waiting very patiently to eat our lovely cake! I had begged Jon before we got married to not stuff cake in my face, because I knew I would work so hard to get pretty and I didn't want the cake to ruin it! Yes, I am very girly. But true to his word he was a gentleman!

After the bouquet toss, and of course the garter too. We wanted to get more pictures taken. The photographer told us he has this really amazing idea (to which I was quite unsure of) and so while they were setting that up, we pretended we were leaving to get some pictures of that and so the guests could leave when they wanted.


Afterwards, we went to see what the photographer's great ideas were. My church had been building a new church building, but it was not quite finished yet. The photographer thought it would be a cool idea to take pictures in the unfinished building. The results are below...

Of course there were ton more pictures from our wedding, but I could post a few and the quality of this pictures, are not that great because blogger resizes them. If you would like to see more picture click here: Bella Pictures And our photographer was Paul Nguyen, visit his website here: Chi Photography

A year has passed by very quickly and sometimes I can hardly believe it. I will not lie and say it has been an easy year, we have gone through my miscarriage together, Jon failing his very important Air Force CDC test, and even dealing with the fleas that took over our apartment for several months! But I would not take back a moment that we have had together, and I know the things we go through make us stronger. It has been an incredible year, and I thanks God for this wonderful, incredible man that He gave me. He is my true love, and my best friend. I am incredibly blessed!

My Funniest Christmas memory is not a story, it's more of something funny I remember my mom giving me for Christmas in my stocking!

Haha so I had to take another photo after I saw Courtney from her blog The Weiffenbachs, post hers! We are only a few weeks apart! So she inspired me!

So this is me at 14/15 weeks. I am so excited and cannot wait until the end of January to find out if it's a boy or girl!

I hope to start writing more about the pregnancy and becoming a mom after Christmas, and already have a few topics planned! I am so excited!

...If your wedding date has changed at least 3 times, and the final date had to be 2 days before Christmas, because that was the only time he could come home!!

I have only been married one year, and the last Christmas we were on our honeymoon, so this is our first Christmas at home together. So for this topic this was all I could come up with, but hopefully, it will still come out alright!

When I was younger and was planning my wedding, I had always wanted my wedding to be in June. June was the perfect time of the year. Usually not too hot and not cold. I loved summer, and always hated the cold so I had picked June!

We got engaged June 5, 2008 and because Jon was heading to basic in July we tried to come up with a date that would be right after he graduated from Tech School, which was after basic. We decided on January 10, 2009.

A very good friend of mine, who had a lot more experience with military things, and whose husband was a marine warned me in love that my date would probably change more than once, and she was so right!

Well once Jon completed basic, we knew a little bit better when he would be done with Tech School. We figured out how many weeks, and it was a month past our date we had picked out. I had to cancel the reservations I had made for the reception place.

We realized then, that the only time that would really work would be Christmas when he was on Christmas exodus and would come home. So I waited about two more months to find out when Jon's Christmas break was... And let you tell you I was very impatient! Two months of not knowing what date you are getting married and not being able to plan is not fun!

Finally Jon knew what days he would have off, and we picked Tuesday, December 23, 2008 as our date. Th funny thing was that he didn't come home until two days before, and very few people came to our Christmas wedding because it was so close to Christmas!

I wouldn't change it for the world though because no matter what I love my military man!


Dec. 16 – You Must Be a Military Spouse at Christmas time if you….
http://www.wivesoffaith.org/you-must-be-a-military-spouse

I am really excited about this post, because as soon as I saw the topic in Wives of Faith, I knew exactly what I wanted to post about!

In December 2007, I went to my now in-law's house, to spend part of my Christmas vacation with my boyfriend (now husband) Jon and his family! He had been planning to give me a special gift for Christmas and I knew it because he has been telling all my friends at college about it, because he was so excited he had to tell someone!

Now, I am usually a pretty good guesser when it comes to surprises, but I will be honest and tell you I was totally shocked when I got this present, and it was something I will always remember!

He wanted it to be special so he waited until the right time. His parents and sisters were in the other room and all was quiet. First he took me outside, and wanted to watch the stars, and we just talked and looked, and then it was really cold, so we went inside. We sat on the couch and he gave me my present and I opened it up and it was the music box pictured above!

The real name for it is the, Anastasia Musical Keepsake Box, and it was engraved with some special words that we had always said to each other, "Forever & Always." Whenever we had said, "I love you" to each other one of us would always ask, "Forever and always right?" And then the other of us would say, "Yes, Forever and Always." And it become our thing!

Another reason this gift was so special was that I had always wanted a music box my whole life, and I had never been given one! I was so excited to finally be given one! This music box was one I had been "eyeing" for awhile and was really hoping that sometime I would own it!

Well that wasn't the entire part of Jon's gift to me, and as I opened the music box, there was a small black box in it! I was shocked! At first I thought he was proposing to me, but when he saw my face he quickly told me he wasn't proposing yet! So I opened it and it was a beautiful ring and he told me it was a promise ring! It was white gold and had three diamonds in it as you can see in the picture below. I wore it until I got engaged and then switched to the other finger!


So that is my little story about the best Christmas present I ever received! What was the best Christmas present that you ever got? I would love to hear about it!

This post is for the Wives of Faith Blog Carnival! Dec. 15 – The Best Christmas Present I Ever Received.
http://www.wivesoffaith.org/the-best-christmas-present-i-ever-received