4 whole years...

In addition to being my dad's birthday (see below), yesterday was our 4-year anniversary!! I meant to post this on our actual anniversary during Shane's busy Wednesday night activities, but because he surprised me with a night out, I didn't have time.

You see, he acted as if he still had mutual from 6:30 to 8:30 followed by basketball from 8:30 to 10:30 so I assumed we'd just eat a quick dinner at home so he could leave on time. Shane even went so far as to call me on his way home to ask if I wanted him to pick up anything from the store for dinner. But when I got home, there was a card on the door that said we had other plans...

We went out to a nice restaurant in Scottsdale and Shane even shared dessert with me (which is a big deal considering his strict focus on eating healthy). And, despite our no gifts agreement this year, he magically produced a present at dinner...sneaky little man! After our nice dinner, we made a pit stop at Wal-mart (which I was planning to do while he was gone all night), started some laundry (very romantic), and watched our wedding video... It was a great evening and I'm so glad I got to spend that time with Shane, especially because I thought I'd be alone all night!

Our wedding video got me thinking back on the past 4 years (and the year before that when we were dating). We've come a long way (brace yourselves folks, this is may be a LONG walk down memory lane)...

We met at BYU. It took Shane a while to realize he was interested in me, but I tried my best to get his attention!

We dated for about 4 months...

...and then we got engaged! (Yeah, this picture isn't a very good one...but it occurred right after he propsed)

Then, 4 years (and 1 day ago), we got married...

...discovered Rocky Point for our honeymoon...

...moved into BYU married student housing a couple weeks later...

...and bought a scooter to supplement our one-car household.

The next summer we experienced life back east during our three-month stint in Baltimore.

The next summer, we graduated from college together...


...and packed up all our belongings for a move to Phoenix.


That summer, we enjoyed family trips to Peru...




...and Hawaii...



...and bought a house!!


Then we both started REAL jobs and life got boring. But we still found time to teach each other things, like how to love our native climates...





...and the joy of exploring historic ghost towns!

These are definitely only the highlights (and what we have pictures of), but it's been fun reflecting on what we've done and how far we've come... It's been a crazy journey so far and I'm so glad I've had Shane to share it with. And I can't wait for the crazy journey ahead of us...especially our fast approaching life change:

Yep, this little gem is a reward for those of you who made it all the way to the end of this post!! This is me today, at 23 weeks + 2 days. Excuse the red face and gross hair...we just got back from working out (my version of working out is walking at 3.5 mph on the treadmill, but somehow I still manage to break a sweat!), but I decided it was time to document my ever-growing self, even if I don't appreciate it now.

I don't know if it's possible to express just how excited we both are for this next step in our lives, but we can't wait to take it together!