St. George Adventure

Two Saturdays ago Aaron, Annie, and I took a little holiday down in St. George with the McCombs parental units. Cousin Nick was getting married. He found a wonderful, beautiful girl, and they were so in love! It was a happy day. It was also very hot, which made us glad to return to our more northerly P-town.

Annie was a champ as usual. She is easy to take places. And she's really cute.




And here's the Jan and Ramon clan.



And the brothers:



After the wedding and reception, we stayed overnight in a fancy hotel in St. George. Seriously, this place was a step-up for the McCombs clan. Thanks Mom and Dad! However, Annie still couldn't get a normal sized bath tub. But fun can come in small packages.

A grand time was had by all.

Reflections on a Two Year Old Marriage

2 years ago today, I was getting married to my man, Aaron. It was not a day of perfect bliss--I was stressed out and late for nearly every event that day except for the actual ceremony. I got to see all of my family, but I didn't really get to talk to any of them. And, worst of all, I had lost my appetite with all the excitement and couldn't enjoy all of the amazing food I saw everywhere around me. I, who vowed for years that I would eat food at my reception, did not even try a single cookie.

Yet this day was still one of the greatest of my life, because it was the day I started life with this hottie:



Aaron is a great match for me. I think that more now, and I like him more now than I did when we got married. These are a few things about Aaron that make him a great husband:
1)He doesn't let me win at Big Boggle.
2)When there are two gallons of milk in the fridge, one nearly empty and one full, he uses the nearly empty one, even if it is behind the full one.
3) Aaron is a reflective person. He has good judgment because he takes time to think about things.
4)He plays with Annie and makes up songs for her.
5)He does millions of nice things for me and listens to me.

Here's a pictoral history of our relationship:

Here's when we were dating. This was taken at a ward activity where we had dinner and went ice skating. I remember it as a very happy, flirty evening. My roommate Jill knitted that scarf for me.


This was taken when we were engaged. The lighting is kind of weird, but I just think we look really happy.


Here's a good smoochy, smoochy picture from our wedding day.


Then this little beauty entered the family, and life got even better.


So basically, Aaron is pretty great. I knew our names rhymed for a reason.

3/4 Of A Year

Annie's 9 month mark has come and gone. She gets smarter and smarter about life every day. I sometimes just watch her and think to myself, "How did you figure that out?" I need to realize that she is growing up, because recently Annie has been having lots of accidents due to her new level of mobility. For instance, she can now get out of her Bumbo chair and land on her face. She can also get her arm caught in the Wal-mart shopping cart. And she can roll off our bed. We're living in a new world. Annie will be crawling any day now. Currently, she either rolls to get where she wants to be or she kind of pushes herself around using her legs with her face flat on the ground. Now that I think of it, this motion kind of looks like an inch worm.

Annie has also been learning the art of blowing raspberries. I consider that a sort of rite of passage on the road to childhood. Here's a video from when she was still in training.




Annie loves food of all kinds and has been getting excited about finger foods lately. She usually likes to pick things up with her thumb and index finger, but sometimes using your face is just easier.



So here is a day in the life of 9 month old Annie Dennis:
--Wake up at 6:00 am to nurse then go back to bed until 8:30. (Awesome!)

--Play with toys, eat some food, roll around on the ground, do the inch-worm workout until 10:30.

--Take a nap for 1 or 2 hours.

--Go up up to campus with Mama to take lunch to Papa.



--Take another nap
--Play with Papa when he gets home.



--Eat dinner and get ready for bed, including letting Mama try to brush my teeth.


--Go to sleep.

Life as a 9 month old sounds pretty great. I think it is except for the teething process (Annie has 4 teeth) and the occasional bout of constipation. (TMI?) We love our little munchkin and are glad for the chance to raise her.