three

Christian and I have been married for three years!
The longer I'm with him, the more I realize how great this whole marriage thing is. It just forces you OVER AND OVER again to let go of silly things, be vulnerable, and put someone's happiness before your own. While we were away over the weekend, we had a conversation that made me so thankful to have such a rockstar husband. We'd left our hotel bright and early, without showering or doing anything, so we could hike before it got too warm. After a few hours longer than we'd expected being all outdoorsy, my greasy hair, unshaven legs, and broken-out makeup-less face were starting to drive me crazy. I said something to Christian about starting to feel embarrassed being out in public like that, and he sweetly said "Don't feel bad at all. You look beautiful to me, and you don't need to worry about feeling gross or dirty. It's intimate, and I love seeing you like this no matter how you think you look."

It just made me stop and think about how important and special that intimacy is in a marriage. Your spouse sees you at your literal worst sometimes, physically, emotionally, etc. It's so wonderful to know that despite all of that, they still love you and think you are the bees knees. I know it's how I feel about Christian and it's apparently the way he feels about me too, lucky girl that I am.

Marriage isn't a walk in the park, but it is pretty great. Happy anniversary to the funniest, most steady, best breakfast chef I know!

the week of all weeks (of all weeks!)

I am long overdue for an update (March and April were like just like "what is LIFE?!"), but we just wrapped up a super great week SO! Here it is!

Our families were in town from Michigan for our official graduation from BYU. I didn't think I'd care all that much about walking, but it was wonderful to have a formal "goodbye" from the university that I came to love so much. Cliche and cheesy be darned, it completely changed my life!

My parents are like "yeah we are smiling lol"

Saturday, we had an early birthday celebration for Nash with everyone in the family, and it was the BEST. Poor baby has been sick and teething for a few weeks now, so he wasn't as happy as I was hoping (he didn't even try to eat his birthday cake!), but it made me so happy to watch all our parents and siblings celebrate him with us. His official birthday is a week from today, and everyone is gone now, so I'm thankful we were able to squeeze that in!

Nash only poses for birthday pictures with his best girlfriend mom of course!

THEN! Christian and I took off to St. George for 3 days as a sort of anniversary trip/celebration of graduating and surviving the first year of parenthood, etc. etc.

It.
Was.
THE BEST.

To the point of being completely delirious with happiness the whole time, obviously.

We've been terrible about having consistent dates WITHOUT Nash. It's happened maybe 6 or 7 times in the last year. Getting 3 whole days with just Christian made me realize how important it is to take time for the two of us. You'd think it would be a obvious, but it's really hard for us to find babysitters since we don't have much close family here in Utah, so we usually just end up going out to dinner and bringing our little crazy octopus along. NO MORE! I have a new found obsession with "Brooke and Christian time" and my goal for the rest of the year is a date just the two of us at least 3 times a month.

Now, who wants to babysit?

10.5 months whaaa

Why am I doing a 10.5 month update you ask? It's because I just remembered I've actually been wanting to do his ten month update and just put it off for two weeks. More or less.

Here's a picture, hope you like our faces!

It's the most cliche thing ever to say about babies, but it's totally true. IT GETS SO MUCH MORE FUN THE OLDER THEY GET. I'm just gaga over this stage right now. Nash is currently:

waving
clapping
cruising along furniture
loving animals, especially his stuffed cougar (like mother like son!)
loves dancing (adorable)
loving the book little owls day (again with the animal thing)
will eat anything we give him (including tzaziki sauce, WHO IS THIS KID?)
flashes his megawatt grin at eeeevvvveryone.
will eat your purse if he can get there fast enough (and believe me, he can. Lightning McQueen over here).
loves to eat cords and break glass ("not impressed mom face emoji")
makes Christian and I laugh all day long.

Gosh. I just love this little boy of mine.

why christian is my soul mate: a true story

a little over 3 years ago when we got engaged, and the first time our families met.

If you are super close to either mine or Christian's family, you probably know this story already. BUT. In case you aren't, I just have to tell you what is easily the strangest familial circumstance I've ever heard of in my life. I'm not kidding. I will seriously pay you if you can tell me a weirder story. And with that, here we go.

Christian grew up just outside Detroit Michigan, in a city called Novi. He lived there for about 13 years.
From there, his family moved to Colorado and then to Melbourne Florida, where they were living when we got married.
At that same time, my family was living in Mesa Arizona. A few months into the summer however, my family moved down to Florida as well, about 3 hours South of the Carters. Just by total chance! It worked out amazingly though, because coincidentally Christian and I ALSO ended up in Florida the summer after we got married. One big happy family in the sunshine state, if you can believe it.

This isn't even the craziest part.
Last year, my dad was offered a job in Michigan. Total happenstance.
In which city, you ask?
Why Novi of course! 
And so last summer, my family moved to the same city that my husband grew up in. My brother goes to Christian's old high school. Swims on the same swim team. My family is in the same ward even.

And believe it or not, THIS STILL ISN'T THE CRAZIEST PART.

In January, Christian's dad accepted a new job.
Where at??
NOVI FREAKING MICHIGAN.
So now, our families live in the same town, our brothers go to the same school, hang out on the weekends. OUR MOMS ARE IN THE YOUNG WOMEN'S PRESIDENCY TOGETHER.

I mean, can you even!? It blows my mind when I think about it. It's been the strangest coincidence after coincidence, and I'm starting to believe it's not coincidence at all. In all seriousness, I think this has been a little slice of heaven on earth, demonstrating that it's a great thing Christian and I ended up together.
I mean, can you imagine if we hadn't?
AWKWARD.

a few things

I like how I was all "I'm totally blogging more from now on."
And then in all my free time I've been like "I need to clean! make food! lounge! Or maybe even SHOWER!"
To be fair to myself, I do have plenty to do while Nash is sleeping, which is why I think it's hard for me to get back in this habit. Sometimes (ALL THE TIME) showering just takes priority, you know? One post at a time I guess!
Anyways, here's some stuff:

+ When I started this full-time, stay-at-home mom gig, I was incredibly gung ho about keeping my house super clean all the time. Guys. That's just way too hard. So this is what my living room floor looks like all the live long day.

+ My all time favorite person to follow on social media is Natalie Hill Jensen (are you dying for her to re-launch her blog already?!). Anyway, she's started a 30-day Book of Mormon reading challenge for the month of March, which I've adapted for myself and I'm actually trying to just finish by general conference. I've been surprsingly on top of it and I'm loving it so far. I've really needed to make a big commitment to something spiritual like this, and I can't wait to see how I'm feeling at the end of the month! You should do it too.

+ Christian and I have gotten into a weird habit over the last few months. We usually put Nash down between 7:30 and 8 every night, which gives us about 3 hours of time together (sidenote: HEAVEN!). We've been playing a game of Quirkle almost every night, followed by a few episodes of House or Friends. It's the weirdest combination of stuff now that I think about it ha! But I totally love little rituals like that.

+ I just put together a new toy for Nash and what is he doing? Why, chewing on the remote of course. Hashtag babies am I right?!

+ Speaking of Nash, he started clapping last week!! Ah, my mom heart can't EVEN.

+ So the Bachelor! I just finished watching the season finale and I noticed something. At the beginning of every season, I make fun of it, HARD. Seriously you should probably watch it with me because I'm funny as everything. But EVERY YEAR without fail, I'm super invested by the last episode and way emotional and most likely crying at the proposal. Why is that?! It's the craziest show, and what they make those poor people go through is just terrible, when you think about it. But it's like a drug I can't quit. Along with the rest of America.

+ I'm cutting my hair on Saturday. And I mean like reeeeaaallly cutting it. No, like it will be all the way gone. It's only taken me almost a year but I CANNOT take this postpartum hair anymore. I totallly get now why so many moms have super short hair, and I'm about to be one of them. EEEK!

Well that's about it. I better stop now before my non-blogging self goes comatose from aaaaaaallll this writing.