March 30th. Our Anniversary Love.

We got married today.

13 years ago.

It was a windy, sunny, beautiful March day.

We got married in the Salt Lake Temple at 11:00.

A ceremony full of endless promises and words of wisdom.

Our Wedding breakfast at the Lion House at 1:00.

The menu:

Chicken Alabama, rice pilaf, veggie medley, garden salad,

and Lion House's famous hot, fresh, rolls

(with warm honey butter of course.)

Dessert: Cheesecake with fresh strawberry drizzle.

It was such a lovely day.

The flowers were in bloom, the temple grounds were beautiful. (amazing!)

We were surrounded by our family and all of our friends.

My bridesmaids, Amber, Brooke, Kim, and Em.

Ry's best man: his best friend and my brother Brandon.

It was fabulous.

The wedding reception at The Shalamar.

It started promptly at 6:00 and the line did not stop until 10:19,

hundreds and hundreds of people greeted, hugged, and thanked.

Ry looked at the looming line and took my hand and said, "Let's go!"

We invited 850 guests and I think they all showed up.

(more for our parents than us.)

Ry's Mom owning a dance studio and my Dad Stake president at the time...so many people!

We drove away to the Honeymoon Suite at the Hilton....

A month later we took a plane (after finals at BYU) and flew off to Palm Springs.

A hot, sunny, romantic week getaway on a beautiful golf course.

What a day. What a journey.

I have so much to say, I could go on and on about our love

and our crazy and fun 13 years. (but I won't here!)

The best part?

The birth of our four children, Ashlyn, Austin, Jake and Mace.

Our family. period.

We have been through so many ups and downs, twists and turns.

Our journey is ours.

And I would love to post a few pics.

But they were stolen, all gone in our move.

So I put a few of my favorite's of Ry.

Sad about the pics but I have all the memories in my mind and my heart.

That's whats important. I will always remember how I felt that day.

few of my favorite quotes on marriage:

"In a time where where there is nothing more certain than change, the commitment to one another has become difficult and rare. Yet, by it's scarcity, the beauty and the value of this exchange has only been enhanced. ~ Robert Sexton

"A successful marriage requires falling in love many times, always with the same person." ~Mignon McLaughlin

(yes so true!)

(Ry coming home from work)

(love this one...)

"Never go to bed mad. Stay up and fight." ~Phyllis Dillar Housekeeping Hints, 1966

(we just go to bed..much easier in the morning. haha :)

"Marriage is a partnership in which each inspire the other, and brings fruition to both of you."

~Millicent Carey McIntosh

(yes! yes!)

and one of my favorite quotes:

"Chains do not hold a marriage together. It is threads, hundreds of tiny threads, which sew people through the years." ~Simone Signoret

Happy Anniversary Ry.

Love you.

and yes, I think marriage is bound by: commitment, true selfless love, loving our faults and forgiving each other mistakes. Marriage is continuing on each day with each other always in mind, working together for the same goal.

I have a husband I love.

A father who cherishes his kids, his role as provider and our rock in our home.

I feel blessed to have Ry every day in my life.

Like the last quote said,

we have had hundreds (more like thousands) of tiny threads that sew

our story

together.

Each experience makes us stronger, more loving,

and more appreciative

of each other.

(Man I am cheesy right now..but it's true...)

(You love each other MORE now than you did when you first married...!)

I am a lucky girl.

I am grateful for our time spent together, for our happy and hard (yes!) journey

Cheers to many more to come.

(and wish I had a scanner to download some other pics or a blog that worked again. In due time... in CO we will buy a Mac. And for our anniversary, I got a new Nikon 5000 camera! (yay sooo happy about it!) I need to learn all about it and so excited to have great pics.)

Love you Ry,

xo!

Young American Award. Congrats Ashlyn and Austin

Ashlyn and Austin received their Young American Award a week ago.

To get the Young American Award you must:

M E M O R I Z E and R E C I T E:

1. The Pledge of Allegiance

2. The Star- Spangled Banner

3. Preamble to the United States Constitution

4. The Ten Bill of Rights (10 Amendments)

5. Gettysburg Address (by Abraham Lincoln)

6. Name all U.S Presidents in order

7. Locate all States and Capitals on the map w/abbreviation

8. Answer 100 detailed questions about American History

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

That is a lot of info and they did it!!

Ashlyn and Austin have been working hard all year to pass off these goals.

They've been working in their spare time in between homework and sports to memorize the American History.

They were the 4th and 5th kids to complete it!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Good job twinners!

We are so proud of Y O U.

xo, mom and dad!

Easter. Spring. Flowers. and Sunbeams

Today is my Easter lesson for my cute Sunbeams.

Next week is General Conference for our Church so today is our Easter lesson.

Easter:

Resurrection, Spring, Flowers

Candy, Easter bunny, bright colors.

Love my Sunbeams.

After 12 weeks

I got Sarah to smile at me,

Amelia to sit for sharing time,

Hannah to share my lap,

Ryan to not take his shoes off,

Chloe to speak to me,

Mace to share my lap too,

Myelle to say the prayer,

Sam not to fall asleep,

and Donovan to not play in the curtains.

Progress. It feels good.

I will miss my cute little Sunbeams so much.

They have taught me more than I could teach them.

Off to make the Easter Egg hunt and handouts.

Happy Easter week!

love it.

xo!

p.s. Ashlyn took all the flower pics in the collage LAST Spring.

I love them!

A new light. glimpse...

I love light.

And if you know me, you already know that.

I love the way the light reflects off the tree's, the mountains, the clouds..

I love to sit in wide open spaces and just feel the

sunshine and look at it's shadows.

It makes me happy.

(hike with kids. Little Cottonwood canyon fall 2009)

Light brightens my days and my moods.

(golfing with Ry on his bday. Aug 2009)

We take full of advantage of the light in the summer.

We play outside all day long.

We hit the pools, the parks, the secret ponds (pic of Mace I took below...)

Us Stott's love the light.

So when we picked a house in CO.

We needed light. period.

and I knew that.

So here's a glimpse of the house we chose.

I love it's light.

and NO it doesn't have as much light as my house now, (none in CO do!)

but it has a good, warm feel.

and it has lots of light.....

I took lots of pics, but don't want to jinx myself and post them until the house officially closes!

We will see what happens. But hopefully we get our light!

and btw, this weekend calls for high 60's...

the summer light is coming!
xo!

Lucky.

Lately I 've been lucky.

I have these girls:

(Amber where are you?)

(And sisters, why are you all looking at my head?! )

Lately, we have had lots of sister lunches.

Times are changing for many of us....(ahem!)

so we get together with the kids and talk and talk

and let the cousins play and play...

It's fabulous!

In fact, Mace is so LUCKY to have these boys:

The six pack.

Mace's cousins.

Every single one of them. (all within a year of his age.)

Mace is a lucky boy.

The mom's:

Brie-Cade, Misty-Dax and Trey, Kristin-Carson, Brooke-Blake, Me-Mace!

And lately,

I have been lucky to have lunches with

these girls every week...

(missing Nancy and Jolee!)

and yes,

I had to put a summer pic!

Our favorite time of year! Oh how we miss the pools!

and lucky today,

I have a lunch date with my girls at 1:00 sharp!

They have been so good to me since our big decsion.

They are my friends for LIFE.

Lastly, lucky of course for these guys!
My family

Who make it all worth it.

Life is good and with me departing ways,

it makes me realize all the good things in life.

Lucky I am!

The good thing:

I have all these people forever, no matter where I live,

or how far apart we are, we will always be there for each other!

l u c k y me.

NOW off to class reports (Jake!) and lunch with the girls!

xo!

Happy life, no regrets, spring flowers.

What are the odds?

What are the odds of having the doorbell ring an hour apart....

and receiving flowers at your door from two separate people?

Well I guess I did!

(and besides vday and anniversaries, this doesn't happen often!)

I received two sets of spring flowers with two inscriptions.

One: "Home is where the heart is." May Colorado bring blessings to all of you,

warmest regards, Lisa L.

(I needed to hear that message...perfect timing..from our awesome realtor in CO)

and the second,

" To the greatest Woman in the world."

Love ya Babe, Love Ryan.

BOTH

made

me

cry.

(just a bit!)

I have had a crazy week

(with the hubs out of town for March Madness and CO)

It has been so busy.

I looked at those flowers all. weekend. long.

thank you!

Flowers seem to brighten any day and bring extra love in life's moment.

Not to mention they are good luck..... that day we sold our house

and we bought another.

Our week:

buying, cleaning, selling, showing, signing, Realtors, phone calls,

contracts, negotiations,

non-stop craziness.

It's been tough but so good too!

My flowers brought be sweet little joy every day.

(and they smell soooo good!)

Grateful for all the little things in life that keep me going and smiling along the way.

Thought I would end with a picture collage.

They are random shots I took at different moments.

I just put them together....

My G O A L:

"Don't put off your happy life."

"Create your best life- live with intent."

"Be grateful...life is a gift"

"Love, Believe, Blossom"

(all a bit cheesy, yes, but true!)

xo!

A message. Dear House....

I think we sold you in 48 hours.

No fliers or pics up yet, (comes Monday)

but

4 walk throughs, 2 offers.

(full price too!)

We will know shortly.

The cute doctor family loves it.

and I would love a cute family to love it too.

From one heart to another.

(but mine will always love you! period.)

spring

It's the first sign of spring when the sisters break out the beach chairs

and sit in the warm 54 degree sun.

It's the first sign of spring when the short sleeves are combined

with the winter boots.

It's the first sign of spring when the kids go play hoops, the girlies hit the parks,

and cold diet cokes are purchased....Oh it is a lovely time.

And perfect timing too.

You all know how much I love the sun.

Not layout get tan sun, but just the plain warmth of the sun. period.

And yesterday, grateful for lunch with my girlies at Cafe Rio.

(Nat, Robyn, Nancy, and Dani!)

I needed the sun and lunch because I cried all morning when

I saw my for sale sign

go up in my yard.

It was so hard to see my house the we built with our hearts, go up for sale.

And I know it's all good, our choice is made. A fab choice.

But it doesn't mean that every step of the way will be hard.

Thanks to my girls and my sis's for words of encouragement.

I am sure gonna miss my days with them.

Some days are easy and some days (like yesterday) are so tough. My heart worries for the kids, for new friends, new neighbors, the stress of making sure everyone is happy. Oh it can be hard.

The good thing: I know it won't be easy and I can't expect it to be for quite awhile.

Cute thing Jake said to me yesterday (after I was trying to hide my tears) He looked up at me and said, "MOM, don't worry, it will all be great....He said, we are going to CO alone, but at least we will ALWAYS have eachother...right!?

Ahhh cute words of wisdom from my 8 year old. I gave him a big hug and said, "of course we will. always."

Now off for more...life is so busy right now:

Showings, home tour photo's, and life..oh and S P R I N G!

yay!

Wish me luck.

(cuz my heart will so need it!)

p.s. My blog is not the same. Considering whether to stop till CO and a new computer. Can still only do 4 pics and my collages are too big.

It is driving me crazy. We will see.

xo!

Pearl Street.

After we looked up and down CO, we had a few hours left to do something fun.

We decided to check out Boulder and walk Pearl Street.

It wasn't a very far drive and with our GPS we got there fast.

(and thanks goodness for my Garmin or I would of been LOST all weekend long. Those little talking guys are heaven sent! It got me to every school, church, rec center..etc.)

So I expected Boulder to be like Park City (Utah). But it wasn't.

I would say somewhat of the same crowd, but different atmosphere.

More affordable shops and locals on the streets.

Some were playing the guitar, doing magic tricks, and selling jewelry...it was cool.

Lots

of people

everywhere.

We had a fun night walking around in the nice cool mountain air.

A nice break from the stress of our move....

The mountains reminded me of home so it was nice to be up there.

As we walked around, we wanted to eat at all the fun places:

an Italian joint, or Sushi, or Mexican.

We picked a mexican joint called Rio Grand.

The enchiladas were fab and the best part:

FLAN for dessert.

I took lots of pics and put some in the collage at the top.

Boulder was great....it was a fun getaway.

The next day, I flew home.

I had so many mixed emotions running through my mind....

This new adventure is so hard but so good too.

I am just grateful to have the BEST sisters and friends who help me every day.

Ry and I and the kids are excited and nervous for all the new adventures to come!!

Hopefully it all works out smoothly! We will see!

Now off to life...xo!

snapshots

Beauty.

A most likely view of every day life for me in CO.

It looks like we are up in the mountains,

but really,

just 5 minutes away from busy city life.

(snapshots off the back deck)

Looking at house lots, homes and new construction.

It was such a busy weekend.

(snapshots of house lots.)

It was fun to just be with the hubby for a few days.

So much to decide....

Overall, I felt CO was beautiful and more than I expected.

Coming home!

(snapshot from my car window)

Loved the white peaks that imitate CO's horizon.

Next post...Boulder, CO and walking Pearl Street.

new horizons. new adventures.

Just returned from many N E W adventures.

Did so much,

looked at schools,

junior highs,

swim clubs,

my new ward,

homes,

homes,

and M O R E homes!

oh and hubbies new work! loved it.

ate a lot,

toured a lot,

saw many new things.

wow.

it was a great trip.

So much to process and so so so many decisions.

(possibly standing on my new house lot.)

more to come.

fun pics. new cities. new neighborhoods. new people.

here we go!!

now off to gazillion loads of laundry, homework, dishes, cleaning, and my kiddos!

I have the realtors

coming tomorrow to put the house up!

yikes!

new babies, chocolate fountains, pink

My cute sis-in-law Angela is having her baby soon! (her first!)

Of course we had to throw a baby shower to celebrate!

I volunteered my house because I won't be able to much longer.

We got everything ready: food, chocolate, gifts, decor....we were excited for Ang.

(Angela is in the purple shirt...isn't she so cute?!)

We invited all the sweet little Brown girl cousins too. (they loved it!)

Words to describe the shower:

Pink, chocolate (lots of it), babies, cute games, gifts, hand made quilts (mom!), and laughter.

We set up a chocolate fountain and dipped strawberries, bananas, carmels, pretzels, pound cake, rice krispies, cinnamon bears ( my fav) ..

It was D I V I N E!

We had a great night with all the Brown girls.

We are so excited to welcome another Brown girl cousin to the family!

Love you girls.

xo!

Friends for L I F E.

Do you have those best friends you haven't talked to in a long time

and you pick up the phone and start off from where you ended last time?

I do.

Do you have a friend who you grew up with, shared all those crazy junior high moments, had crushes on boys, lazy summers, and sleepovers all night?

I did.

Do you have a friend you cherish because she listens, cares about, and checks in every once in a while even if she lives all the way over on the East Coast?

I do.

I want to thank that "friend" who I love and feel so lucky to have. I grew up with her since 5th grade and she was my Maid of Honor at my wedding.

A little gift came in the mail

and it contained the sweetest note and my favorite treats.

Oh she knows me well...

it meant the world!

You KNOW who you are. I am lucky to have you girl.

and thanks for your message. I needed it.

Loves to you and your fam!

xo!