We LOVE our youth.

Jackie (Jon's sister) and Chad are engaged to be married August 7th. We are so excited and couldn't be happier for the adorable couple. Love you guys!

Memorial Day weekend was filled with wedding festivities. Jon's cousin was married in the Salt Lake Temple. The night before the wedding we had a reception at Cactus & Tropicals... the most beautiful luau I have ever attended (besides our reception in Provo, of course). The Tongan food was divine, as always. Just thinking about makes my mouth water for Auntie Anna's chop suey. The dancing was beautiful and the company was exciting. After the sealing the next day, we had a luncheon overlooking the temple in the Joseph Smith Memorial Building. Wow! Love, love that place. It will always be our special place. Jon proposed to be in one of the gorgeous ballrooms. After the wedding fun we explored Salt Lake and Temple Square. Being in a visitors' center brought back special memories from my time as a missionary in DC. It was a beautiful Memorial Day weekend indeed.

On Friday this past weekend we planned an "end of the school year...we are being released from our calling as teachers" party for our 16 and 17 year-olds. We love, Love, LOVE our "kids" as we like to call them. They are incredible people. We have grown as they have taught us with their examples of courage and faithfulness. We both received new callings... the hubby will be working in the Elder's Quorum Presidency and I get to work with the Young Women - Beehives! Yay! We will miss our kids, but we're excited to move on to what the Lord needs us to do. We had a night full of pizza, yummy desserts, and an outside movie. I felt so old and yet so young.

The Sweet Tooth Fairy

I'm an avid reader of NieNieDialogues. Many of you may know the inspiring story of Stephanie Nielson. She is incredible and has the most beautiful children and loving husband. In her blog she has often mentioned The Sweet Tooth Fairy Gourmet Bake Shop here in Utah. For our weekly date, the hubby and I decided to check it out.

"The story of the Sweet Tooth Fairy is as old as the love of family - because that is where the Sweet Tooth Fairy learned about the magic of sweets." We found this dainty and adorable shop nestled in the rather large strip mall of South Provo and we absolutely loved it! They offer a variety of decadent cupcakes, rich cake bites, cookies, gourmet cakes and an assortment of yummy sweets. Just thinking about it makes my mouth water. If you live in Utah check it out and if you don't live in Utah, check it out when you visit!

9 months.

This Friday we celebrate 9 months of marriage. I have learned more about love in these short months than at any other time in my life. I am learning from my sweetheart. I watch him and he amazes me with his love for others and patience with me. I have seen our progression together and it's exciting to me. He is my best friend. We laugh... a lot... and I think it has blessed our marriage. We have trials and disagreements. We understand our weaknesses. We talk about everything. When the day is hard he tells me that it's still a good day. We are respectful to each other. We try our best to be teachable. We have fun. What the life! I am blessed. A few months into our marriage my mom told me to always strive to be what Jon deserves in an eternal companion. As I have tried to do this I have felt my heart change. I have seen that my focus has shifted from changing myself, to just wanting to make him happy. Isn't it true... when we change our focus from ourselves to others, we automatically become more Christlike.

"Charity is, perhaps, in many ways a misunderstood word. We often equate charity with visiting the sick, taking in casseroles to those in need, or sharing our excess with those who are less fortunate. But really, true charity is much, much more.

"Real charity is not something you give away; it is something that you acquire and make a part of yourself. And when the virtue of charity becomes implanted in your heart, you are never the same again...

"Perhaps the greatest charity comes when we are kind to each other, when we don’t judge or categorize someone else, when we simply give each other the benefit of the doubt or remain quiet. Charity is accepting someone’s differences, weaknesses, and shortcomings; having patience with someone who has let us down; or resisting the impulse to become offended when someone doesn’t handle something the way we might have hoped. Charity is refusing to take advantage of another’s weakness and being willing to forgive someone who has hurt us. Charity is expecting the best of each other." - Elder Marvin J. Ashton

Love to you Sweetheart.

p.s. The pics are actually from our engagements, but I thought they were fun and cute ;)

"Please, no empty chairs."

My entire family was here this past weekend for my sister, Sarah's graduation. May I just say that I am so proud of my little sister. After getting married and having two beautiful girls she graduated from BYU. She inspires me, as does all my family. Spending time with my family is heaven for me. For many of us our families are growing up and moving away from each other for school, work, etc. This weekend I thought about what my family means to me... and I've decided that it's difficult to explain.

President Eyring in a recent conference address shared his thoughts about love and family:

"Love is the motivating principle by which the Lord leads us along the way towards becoming like Him, our perfect example. Our way of life, hour by hour, must be filled with the love of God and love for others. There is no surprise in that, since the Lord proclaimed those as the first and great commandments. It is love of God that will lead us to keep His commandments. And love of others is at the heart of our capacity to obey Him.

"Just as Jesus used a child in His mortal ministry as an example for the people of the pure love they must and could have to be like Him, He has offered us the family as an example of an ideal setting in which we can learn how to love as He does.

"That is because the greatest joys and the greatest sorrows we experience are in family relationships. The joys come from putting the welfare of others above our own. That is what love is. And the sorrow comes primarily from selfishness, which is the absence of love. The ideal God holds for us is to form families in the way most likely to lead to happiness and away from sorrow. A man and a woman are to make sacred covenants that they will put the welfare and happiness of the other at the center of their lives. Children are to be born into a family where the parents hold the needs of children equal to their own in importance. And children are to love parents and each other.

"That is the ideal of a loving family. In many of our homes, there are the words 'Our Family Can Be Together Forever.' There is a gravestone near my home of a mother and grandmother. She and her husband were sealed in the temple of God to each other and to their posterity for time and all eternity. The inscription on the gravestone reads, 'Please, no empty chairs.' She asked for that inscription because she knew that whether the family will be together depends on the choices each family member makes. The word 'please' is there because neither God nor she can compel another to choose happiness."

We are so blessed to have our families.

Many of us had just taken naps before these pictures. Can you tell?

Sarah's beautiful family.

So proud of her!!

My beautiful sisters.

The classic BYU grad pictures.

I am obsessed with my sweet nieces.

Alice still isn't used to the flash on our cameras. She always looks a little drugged. Don't you wanna just squeeze those cheeks?!?

Mr. Niu is such a natural with babies... hmmm...

Divine salad from The Trolley in Springville.

J-Dawgs... so yummy!

Celebrating the new grad and Gma's birthday with smiley face pancakes and a party.

Luvs!