5 years and counting!

Today Michol and I are celebrating our 5 year anniversary! On one hand it is crazy to me that it has already been 5 years, then on the other hand it seems like I have been with Mike forever. I am so grateful to be married to my perfect match and for all of the things we have experienced with each other of the past 5 years. We definitely compliment each other and help balance out each others craziness!

Engagement Pic 2004

I looked back through some of our wedding pics (the ones I could find at least) and it was so much fun remembering our wedding day and all the chaos and troubles we had surrounding our wedding! It definitely seemed like anything that could go wrong DID go wrong but we always have a lot of fun stories to tell people about our wedding :) Since I use our blog as a scrapbook/journal I thought it would be fun to revisit some of the memories from our wedding so bear with me as journal some things I remember!

Mike was fortunate enough to get to work on the Nauvoo Temple before his mission and had some amazing experiencing in one sealing room in particular. I was also able to attend the Nauvoo open house when I went to visit Aimee in Kirksville that summer and it was a definite turning point in my life. I never in my wildest dreams thought I would return 3 1/2 years later ( having gone through many different trials and experiences I needed to go through) to be sealed to the man of my dreams! Since the Nauvoo temple had significant meaning to both Mike and I we decided it was the PERFECT place to get married. So I did my best to plan a wedding from Utah and kept my fingers crossed it would all work out.

I decided to head out to Ohio a day early to meet Aimee and the kids and help them drive from Ohio to Nauvoo. Once I had landed and deplaned I headed to luggage claim to get my bags. I waited, and waited................and waited and yep Delta had LOST my luggage! They reassured me it would be there in a few hours so to head home and they told me they would have it delivered as soon as it arrived. So we went back to my sisters and waited, and waited.............and waited. At about 2am the next morning I started to panic. We were on a tight time schedule and had to leave Ohio by 7am in order to make it to Nauvoo the day before we got married. Luckily my luggage arrived sometime after 2am and Justin was able to pick it up from the airport and get it to us just as we headed out that morning.

We made it to Nauvoo and Mike and I got our marriage license and everything was ready. So the morning of December 21, 2004 I got up and headed to the salon to get my hair done. From the second I walked into the salon I knew I was in trouble! I decided to give the stylist a shot, since I didn't really have ANY other options in Nauvoo, and told the guy what I wanted. To keep a long story short...........I ended up with a topsy turvee hairdo with curls (even though I repeatedly asked for it straight) and had to physically stand up and leave the salon because I was running out of time and only had 45 minutes until I had to be at the temple. It was seriously every girls worst nightmare. I ended up just flat ironing my hair and with the help of my sister Aimee laughing at the whole situation instead of sobbing my eyes out!

At the temple I knew that nothing else mattered and everything was perfect. The cute little temple workers talked with Michol and I briefly and then took us to a room to wait for a few minutes while everyone got settled in the sealing room. The temple workers ended up forgetting where they put us and so our typical 5 min wait turning into an half hour! It was so special though and Mike and always remember sitting in the room and just being together feeling at peace with everything.

Our actual sealing was absolutely perfect. From my family my Dad and Mom and sisters were all able to be there and from Mike's family Brent, Stacy, Gpa Dan, Gma Kathy, Uncle Dale, and Aunt SherRon were able to be there to support us. It was so special. We were so grateful for the faith of those who made plans to support us no matter what. It was such a pure and simple ceremony and truly represented what getting sealed is all about.

Nauvoo was FREEZING so we only were able to get a few pics outside and the rest were in the visitors center in front of Christmas tree's or statues, both of which were not ideal for wedding photography. Our photographer was a little crazy and we didn't end up with any good pics :(

We decided to do a intimate and romantic wedding dinner following our wedding and trusted in our wedding planner to create the ambiance of what we wanted. A few weeks before the wedding we started to get a little worried when our wedding planner was so distraught because she couldn't find any white paper doily's for our dinner. So luckily my Mom, Aimee, and I put together some gorgeous candles and a few accents just in case. THANK GOODNESS we did!



Our cake was absolutely gorgeous but we somehow failed to get a good picture of it. All in all I have decided that aside from our actual wedding ceremony I would very much like a wedding do-over! Ha ha :) Mike has assured me when we are celebrating our 25th anniversary I get to through a BIG bash and get all dressed up and hopefully get to feel pretty on our wedding day :)

We honeymooned in Nauvoo at a Bed and Breakfast and spent our time going through all the visitor centers and sites. Nauvoo was empty so every place we went we got special one on one attention from the Senior Missionaries and received some amazing council from them.
We will never for get the Senior missionary at the blacksmith shop. He was so in tune to us and our needs and was so wise in his counsel. Not to mention he was a lot of fun and let us be goofy in the shop!

Dessert our last night in Nauvoo at the B&B:

On Christmas Eve we got up bright and early to arrive at the St Lois airport only to find out that early in the morning Delta's computer system had crashed and NOTHING was heading out of ANY airports that day. We ended up arguing with Delta for hours they finally got us on a flight with another airline. 4 layovers later we finally made it back to SLC.

Mike has so many things that I love about him and I can honestly say the past 5 years have been the best ever! He keeps me by his side through everything and gives me so much strength when I need it most. Mike is constantly keeping me laughing and reminding me not to take life to seriously. He is the best husband and Daddy ever! Love you babe!