Eight Wonderful Years

12•22•04

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12•22•12

8 Years. 2 kids. 7 Residences (9 moves). A Whole Lotta Fun

Happy Anniversary to my sweety of eight years today! He makes me so happy and I'm always thinking how lucky I am to have found him. He is a wonderful man, a wonderful husband, and a wonderful father. He never ceases to amaze me with his vast array of knowledge. He could give you advice on everything from plumbing to firearms to finances. And if he doesn't already know about a subject then he will spend the next month, or however long it takes him, researching it until he does know.

2003- At a BYU basketball game in December
 Probably the only picture of us together before we were actually dating. 

He's done a great job transitioning from one kid to two and taking on more responsibility with Julia so I can take care of Micah (and sometimes vice versa). Julia adores him. She says her favorite day of the week is Saturday because that's the day Daddy doesn't have to go to work. She has even broken down in tears on Monday morning when he had to go back to work. Micah also brightens up with a big smile whenever Robert comes home from work and Robert has the gift of being able to put Micah to sleep by just holding him, a gift I wish I had.

2004- Dating, Valentines Day at the Beehive House in SLC

Robert can also make me laugh and catch me off guard with his quirky sense of humor. Okay, so I'll admit that he's not perfect, but he is the imperfect love of my life and I look forward to many more years together   with him on this earth and then onto eternity.

December 2004- Wedding at The Salt Lake Temple. It was snowing, I was freezing, but too happy to care.

For some reason eight years sounds like a long time. Maybe because now we are closer to ten than to five? For us it seems to have flown by, and yet its hard to remember life without each other. Here are some things that I have learned about marriage in the past eight years:

2005- Riding in the rain on top of a minivan in Guatemala because it was too full inside, but also the last transportation across the border to Honduras for the day.

Marriage is not about always being right. Sometimes even if you still disagree with your spouses about something, it's not worth arguing about.

2006- Melarie graduates from BYU

Marriage is about treating the other person how you would like to be treated. If both people are focused on making each other happy, then they will both feel appreciated and happy. Marriage doesn't work if both people are focused on making just themselves happy and ignoring the needs of the other person.

2007- "Surfing" in Hawaii. Robert also graduated this year, but this picture was better : )

Marriages have their ups and downs. This may be shocking, but sometimes, I like my spouse less than other times (like during the first three months of pregnancy when I can't stand the smell of him.) But that's okay because I know that we can work things out, push through the down times, and come out even more in love than we were before.

2008- Machu Picchu

Learn to love your spouse for who they are, a child of God, and not who you want them to be or who you thought they were. Robert and I dated for about a year before we got married and felt like we knew each other pretty well. I remember looking back after our first anniversary and realizing we didn't know each other at all back then. Each year we find out new things about each other. I think the important part was that we know each other's character and the rest was just filling in the gaps. I also think that seeing your spouse as a child of God helps you to forgive them for things they have done wrong and realize that we both need to be in on this whole striving for perfection thing together.

2009- We welcome Julia into our family. Here we are on top of the Seattle Space Needle.

Okay, I could probably think of more, but I hope I haven't bored you yet.  Now you can just enjoy the rest of the Melabert (Melarie and Robert) pictures.

2010- Living in Virginia. In front of the Statue of Liberty during a  trip to New York City.

2011- Hiking in Shenandoah National Park. Pregnant with Micah.

2012- We welcome Micah into our family

December 2012, nine years from the first picture- A family of four (also the year Robert became a mountain man)