A Look Back

I thought that, in honor of my 5-year wedding anniversary, I would post some pictures of my little family over the years. Let's compare and contrast and see how much we've grown! (Literally - darn love handles!)

Year One, 2005-2006:

Here we are, fresh-faced, innocent newlyweds. Look how thin and lovely we are! How unconcerned with the cares of the world! How optimistic about the future!

Here we are a mere 3 months later. As you can see, we're looking a little shell-shocked. Of course, that may be more due to the family reunion we were attending than for any reason to do with our marriage.

We went mini-golfing with my sister and Ben's brother. After attempting to steal me away from Ben, my brother-in-law went on to hit my sister in the head with a golf club. On accident. Twice. Kids, this is why you should never fake-sword-fight with golf clubs!


Here we are with my aforementioned sister and our friends, Heather and PJ. We all went to the fair in Idaho Falls, and for some reason we felt inspired to purchase cowboy hats. We still have them, even though we (Ben and I, at least) have not worn them since.

At this point, in January '06, I'm pretty sure Ben was starting to wonder what he'd gotten himself into. But I got pregnant with Evie that month, so I guess he MUST have still liked me! ;)




Year Two, 2006-2007:

Ben was gone for a good chunk of that summer, when most of our photos were taken, so we'll skip ahead to September - just a few weeks before Evie was born! As you can see, Ben is still thin and lovely (aside from the ironic basketball under his shirt), whereas I am beginning to look like a beached whale.

Halloween, about a month after Evie was born. Let's face it - we have tons of pictures from this time period, but we only seem to be able to catch one parent at a time. So a compare-and-contrast set of pictures from the same evening will have to do. See? Evie likes me better. ;)

This is from right after our visit to Romania for Christmas. Ben discovered that, by marrying me, he gets to see the world whenever we visit my family! As of now, with 5 years of marriage behind us, we have gone exactly... one places. Huh. Not much of a perk after all, I guess. Joke's on you, Ben! ;)

Ben and I practicing our, "Tough Air Force Guy and Even Tougher Air Force Wife" faces.

Ben was a little grumpy and disinclined to be photographed after he broke his collar bone. That may, in part, be because I made his sling into a fun hat! ...Poor Ben.

Year Three, 2007-2008:

At Rock Canyon Park in Provo, enjoying the sun and taking pictures of our cute family! This is the only one we had of the two of us. We took it while Evie busied herself trying to figure out what the funny green stuff growing out of the ground was.



Ben and I were in a show that summer. Here we are, looking lovingly at my brother. Don't ask me why, I really couldn't say. I'm pretty sure it was my brother's idea.

My aunt, Kristi, took pictures of my immediate family (parents, sibs, etc.) by the river in Idaho Falls. While we were doing that, we got some beautiful shots of our little family, too! Aren't we adorable? :) Please note, this is the only time you'll see Ben with long hair for at least another 10 years. Enjoy it while you can.

Our apartment in Provo, February 2008. We were getting ready to go play in the snow. Of course, I'm the one holding the camera, so I'm not pictured. It's all good though, I probably wasn't so cute that day. ;)

We're such an adorable couple! And we both look wicked good in blue. :)

Year Four, 2008-2009:

For our anniversary, we got to go to Disneyland! My brother stayed with Evie while Ben and I vacationed for a week! It was kind of hard, because Evie would have loved Disneyland, but it was awesome to get some alone time. This is pretty much the only picture we have as a couple, but rest assured, we have a LOT of awesome pictures of this trip!

This is us at my aunt Kathi's house. She has a trampoline, and Ben, Evie and I all enjoy jumping on it. :) I like this picture, even though it's not terribly flattering, because our bodies make a kind of sloppy heart shape. It's like our marriage - sometimes we're sloppy, sometimes we're not looking so hot, but through it all we have a firm foundation of LOVE!

At my sister's wedding in August. Evie was a flower girl, I was the "Matron" of Honor (what a terrible word! Ugh!), and Ben was my arm candy. My sister was gorgeous, of course. I just hope she can look back on her first five years of marriage with as much joy as I do!

Pensacola, Florida! We were in Alabama for 6 weeks of training in September and October, so we took some time to visit the beach! Evie loved it, and I absolutely did, too! The sand was cool, the water was warm, and the day was perfect!

Evie's (and my) first live college football game! Go BYU! I don't remember much about it, probably because Evie fell asleep in my arms and everyone around me was standing up so I couldn't see anything... But hey, it was fun getting into the spirit of the whole thing!


Whew! What an eventful year! After this picture, though, we moved away for Air Force pilot training... and all the fun came to a grinding halt. Ben couldn't go on any trips, he was working 12-hour days, and we barely noticed our 4-year anniversary. Still, we love each other more than ever, so I can't really complain. The hard times do more to show what your marriage is made of than the good times do.

We skip ahead to March, where Ben has just completed his first solo flight (and was subsequently thrown into a shady-looking pool of water). I'm not involved in this picture or the events (aside from being the one behind the camera), but I use it as an example of why Ben won't be in many pictures for the next year. He was busy learning to fly!

Year Five, 2009-2010:

Evie and I relieved our boredom with trips to the zoo...

Vacations with family...


And having little photo shoots, where we'd practice our Derek Zoolander faces. :)


That's not to say that Ben didn't spend any time with us. He certainly did his best to make us his first priority. That, in my opinion, makes him a real man. He puts his family before everything else. What a stud! :)

Finally, he graduated! Now we get to see him a little more. Until he starts deploying, of course. ;)

The last five years have been amazing! Look how far our little family has come! We went from being dirt-poor college students living on hopes and dreams, to fully-functional adults contributing to society and raising an angel in human form. Our love has grown exponentially over the years, and I barely remember a time before Ben and I were together. It's been an incredible 5 years. Here's to 5,000,000,000,000,000 more!

I love you, Ben!