10 Year Anniversary

Louis and I celebrated our 10 year anniversary in August.  We went to Park City which is where we spent our honeymoon.  We had an awesome hotel room that was close to a lot of restaurants, we spent the day at the Park City Adventure Park riding the zip line, mountain coaster, and a scenic ski lift ride.  We got soooo sun burned, but had such a wonderful time!  One of the highlights of our anniversary for me was leaving an anonymous gift card and note on the car of some newlyweds!  It was so sweet thinking back on when that was us and being able to wish these newlyweds the best as we were celebrating our 10 year anniversary!
I am continuously grateful for Louis and our relationship.  I love spending my life with him and I love the life we have built together.

Valentine's Day

Louis and I will be in Italy visiting my parents over Valentine's Day!  So we decided to do a little celebration before we leave and celebrated last night.  I got Louis this cute little Lego set of a couple having a picnic, and I used that as my inspiration for the night!  We can't exactly go have a picnic outside with the three feet of snow that is on the ground (I'm not exaggerating with that number) so I did an indoor picnic for us instead!  I laid out a red checkered tablecloth and put some battery powered candles around it.  I prepared some lasagna, broccoli, and French bread.  I put out the Lego set for us to do together and called it good!  We enjoyed our dinner while listening to music, after we were done we heart attacked our kid's doors!  We ended the night by putting together the Lego set.

It was a simple, but really sweet night together.  There is very little that I love more than just being with Louis.  It doesn't matter what we're doing.  I am grateful for the love that we have shared these last 10 years, and I am so grateful for the eternity we have left together.

Today we did our annual candlelit pizza dinner!  I think it is one of my favorite traditions as a family.  We had a few extra people join us this year, Louis' parents and his younger sister Kami.  We had pepperoni pizza, BBQ chicken pizza, and bread sticks.  Louis even made everything so I could finish a project I was working on.  We enjoyed our dinner and we also went around the table saying what we all love about each person.  Most of the kids whined the whole time because going around the table was taking too long, but it was still a nice time as a family. 

8 Years!

Over the weekend Louis and I celebrated our 8 year anniversary!  It was such a wonderful celebration together.  A few months ago I got the idea to go camping for our anniversary this year.  If you know me, you know I do not like camping.  But I do love Louis and I knew it would be something he would love.  I brought up the idea to him and he was surprised that I was even suggesting it!  It ended up being one of our best anniversary celebrations.

Thursday night we headed up into the mountains to the camping spot Louis had set up earlier in the morning.  We finished setting up the camp and had dinner (we got pizza on the way up).  Louis made a fire and we sat there talking, roasting marshmallows and looking at the stars.  It had been a long time since I'd seen the stars like that.  It is still one of my favorite sights.  I wish I had the capability to take a picture of how wondrous it was.  When the fire was almost out we stood up and were watching the stars when a shooting star passed by!  It was such a nice night just sitting together with the sound of the stream in the background.

It was so cold that night!  We had two blankets, but I was still cold and did not sleep very well.  Louis woke up just after 6 and I woke up just before 7.  A few minutes after I woke up I heard someone ask Louis if he had jumper cables and could come help them.  Apparently this girl's friend had gotten drunk, then got scared and turned her car headlights on all night long!  

We ate breakfast and searched for deer.  Not to brag, actually yes I'm bragging, Louis spotted 0 deer and I spotted 3!  He said he's always going to take me hunting with him now.  We took a nap since it was a little warmer and we could comfortably sleep, then packed up and headed out on a little hike.  

We then headed home to shower and get ready for the temple and dinner.  We like to do sealings on our anniversary and this year was extra sweet because of the couple we ended up being with.  I'm going to share here what I already shared on Facebook.  We were in the sealing room with two other couples.  One of them was celebrating their 33rd anniversary and that day they'd done baptisms, confirmations, initiatory, an endowment session, and sealings.  They also said that they had not been to the temple together in 5 years because they have a highly special needs boy, and until recently they weren't living by family.  The other couple we were with had been married for 62 years!  It was sweet to see the love they had for each other and how the husband took care of his wife.  It was nice to share our anniversary celebration with them.

We had a gift card to Chili's so we went their for dinner and afterwards got a Redbox movie to take back home.  It was such a great anniversary together, we both loved it!

I am so blessed to have Louis as my husband.

He is patient, funny, kind, strong, hard working, can figure anything out, spiritual, and so accepting of everything that I am. I'm grateful I have him for eternity.

Up to Boise With Louis

The week after Valentine's day Louis randomly suggested that we go up to Boise, just the  two of us, to visit my grandparents.  It was totally spur of the moment and Louis' Mom was so wonderful to watch our children last minute.

Louis and I started out by going to the Boise temple to do initiatory.  We weren't together in the temple and when I was done with initiatory the Sister's asked if I wanted to go to the Celestial Room.  They said that they would send a message to Louis so he would meet me there when he was done.  Well it turned out that Louis was already done so he never got the message!  He ended up waiting about an hour for me to get out!  I kept waiting in the Celestial Room "just a few more minutes" waiting for Louis to come in.  Finally I decided to leave and found Louis in the waiting area.  

He had multiple temple workers come ask if everything was okay or if he wanted them to go find his bride.  

Whoops!  I had a nice relaxing time in the Celestial Room though.

We then went and visited with my grandparents.  They've moved into a assisted living home and Louis and I had not been to visit them since they've been there.  We talked and decided to go to Marie Callenders to eat dinner.  Louis and I had never been there before and we were not disappointed.  After dinner we headed back to my grandparent's.  We had a really great time talking and learning things about my grandparents that we didn't know before.
The next day we found a church to go to in the morning then headed back to my grandparent's and had lunch with them.  Then we talked for a little bit longer and headed home.  It was a short, but wonderful mini trip together.

Wyatt Jack Brandley-Birth Story

I always like to get these out early while things are still fresh in my mind.  Our second son Wyatt was born early this morning.  Here's the story:

At 1:27 AM I woke up feeling some pain in my lower abdomen.  I thought I probably just had to go to the bathroom so I got up.  When I stood up there was a gush of fluid!  I thought "well I bet that was my water breaking!"  I headed to the bathroom and a bit more of my fluid came out.  I woke up Louis and told him that I thought my water had broken, but I was going to lay down and see what happened.  He pretty much just rolled over and snored!  At this point in the night we had only been asleep for about 30 minutes so I don't blame him!  I laid down and tried to sleep until some contractions started.  That only lasted about 15 minutes until the contractions started though.  Once I started getting contractions they weren't unbearable, but I knew with my record we should head to the hospital anyway.  We put the last minute things into our bag, got our shoes and  I went in and told my niece Madison that we were heading to the hospital.
We got in the car and headed out!  My favorite thing and something that helps me stay the most calm during labor is watching Louis.  He gets so excited!  On the drive he was speeding a little bit and I kept telling him we're fine.  We're really fine you don't need to speed.  I think he was just too excited though!  He also was singing a made up song about having Wyatt and going to the hospital.  We got to the hospital and stepped into the elevator at 2:15 and got checked in at 2:18.  On the way to the room I was very blunt with my nurse.  "I have very fast labors.  My last two were only 2 and 3 hours long.  I have my second 12 minutes after getting to the hospital and my third an hour after getting to the hospital.  I have never had an epidural and I want one this time so please check me right away and then call the anesthesiologist."  She was so great and told me I deserved to get an epidural this time and she was determined to make that happen!
I got into the room and changed then I was able to get checked.  I was dilated to a 5 and she left to call the anesthesiologist while a second nurse got my info put into the computer and a third nurse got my IV started so we'd be all ready when the anesthesiologist came.
At some point after this I was checked again, I'm not sure how long it was after I was checked the first and I was dilated to a 6.    Then a nurse named Cazlyn came in and let us know that the anesthesiologist was in the building!  I was so excited!  I couldn't believe he was here and I was actually going to get an epidural this time around!  I'm pretty sure I gave Cazlyn a high five and asked if she was serious and that he was really there.  Since the anesthesiologist was in the building they had me sit up on the edge of the bed to get ready for him to come in.  I sat up and they were having me scoot over and that is when I think gravity got me from the 6 I was at five minutes before to a 10 and I could feel Wyatt making his way out!  I told the nurses what was happening and laid down on my side and asked if he really was coming.  Wyatt was indeed coming!  The nurses kept telling me just breathe, don't push!  Well I ignored them and pushed anyway.  I'm sorry the on call doctor wasn't there yet, but Wyatt was coming whether they wanted to be the one to deliver him or not.  It was at this time that I started pushing that Dr. Nelson the anesthesiologist came into the room.  Louis jokingly said "You're late!"  He stayed in the room for the whole 1 or 2 minutes I was pushing.
Wyatt came into this world at 2:50 AM, delivered by the nurse Cazlyn.  He was pink and crying and it was wonderful!  Mary and Ethan were both not crying when they came out so to have a baby be born and cry right away made my heart swell!  Dr. Nelson (the anesthesiologist) came and gave me a hug and said sorry he didn't get there in time and that even if he had gotten there 15 minutes earlier I wouldn't be getting numb until after the baby was here anyway!  So it did all end up working out for the best.
Louis was able to cut the cord for the first time since Avery.  Wyatt was able to be laid on my chest which also hasn't happened since Avery!  It was perfect.  The on call doctor, Dr. Olsen, didn't show up for a long time it seemed.  I think it was 15 minutes after Wyatt was born.  He delivered the placenta and made sure I didn't tear.  Then he was out the door!
Start to finish my labor with Wyatt was 1 hour 20 minutes with only 35 minutes in the hospital before he was born.  Wyatt was 7 lbs 15 oz and 20 1/2 inches long.  He has a decent amount of brown  hair and barely has a Brandley chin dimple at all!  He has been doing well and we have enjoyed cuddling him!
I was so so excited when it seemed like I was finally going to be getting an epidural, but things turned out the way they were supposed to.  For weeks I had been praying and praying that I would be confident in my body and my abilities, that I would be able to handle the things that I would need to, and that I would be able to stay calm.  Heavenly Father answered my prayers.  Throughout the whole labor I was able to stay calm.  With each contraction I would just close my eyes, lean my head back, breathe deeply in through my nose and blow it out through my mouth until the contraction was through.
Later in the day I discovered another blessing from our Heavenly Father.  The night before Wyatt was bor my mother-in-law Annette had asked what to pray for, that the baby should come tonight or the next day etc.  I just told her I was fine with him coming whenever he came.  Later that night though I texted her saying she could pray that I would have confidence in myself and I'd be able to handle what I needed to.  Annette had left her phone in her car, but around 1:30 (aka when I was going into labor) she felt like she should go out and get her phone.  So she listened to that prompting and saw my text and prayed for me at almost the exact moment that my labor was starting.  I am grateful for a loving Heavenly Father and a wonderful mother-in-law who listens to the promptings of the Spirit.

The delivering nurse

Ethan's birth story, click here
Mary's birth story, click here
Avery's birth story, click here

Love Day

In our family for Valentine's day we do a family celebration!  For the last three years we have had a candlelit pizza dinner all together and we love it!  I've made a heart shaped pizza for this before, but this year we went with Little Caesar pizza.  We all love this tradition and it's so fun being all together!  Since Valentine's was on a Sunday we did our candlelit dinner on Saturday.

I had prepared some foam hearts with each persons name on one.  Before dinner we went through them and we all said a reason why we love each other and wrote it on their heart.  I'm happy that we have a home full of love and that we appreciate each other for what they do and who they are.  

After dinner we played pin the heart on the Valentine!  Avery's favorite game for any party is this game!  We've played many versions, pin the beard on the Louis, pin the glass slipper on Cinderella, pin the bow on Minnie, etc.  This was a surprise for Avery and she was so excited!  She set up the game and told everyone how to play and we had fun.  

When we had all had several turns of pin the heart on the Valentine we settled down on the couch and read some scriptures about love.  Our favorites, 

"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life."   John 3:16

"But charity is the pure love of Christ, and it endureth forever; and whoso is found possessed of it at the last day, it shall be well with him."  Moroni 7:47

Then is was off to bed for the kids!  

On Friday night Louis and I exchanged our gifts.  Louis' gift was sweet, he had printed off a bunch of Harry Potter coloring pages for me and a note that said it was to color while we had a Harry Potter marathon since I had just finished all of the books.  So that will be a fun date night in the future!  I got Louis a new brown coat as well as a cuddle kit!  I've done this for him once before.  It's everything we need for a perfect night of cuddling, a cozy blanket, a movie, and some chocolates.  So after the kids were in bed we snuggled up on the love seat, watched a movie, and ate some chocolate.
It was a really nice night together.

6 Years

6 years of marriage

2,191 days

313 weeks

52,584 hours

3,155,040 minutes

189,302,400 seconds

And an endless amount of LOVE

Since our anniversary was on a Tuesday (the same day of the week we got married!) we waited until Saturday to have a date.  On our actual anniversary we exchanged gifts and of course took our  annual anniversary picture!

As you might remember, Louis and I are doing a no spend month this month.  We knew that would mean we would need to be creative for our anniversary date.  Earlier in the year Louis and I bought a Cache Valley direct card.  It is a card that has coupons for a bunch of places here in Cache Valley.  Included with this card there are quite a few of coupons for free things.  Louis and I used some of them during our date!  We started out at The Pizza Factory and got a free bread twist, I also signed up for their e-mail list which gave us a second free bread twist!  Then we headed over to Zeppe's and got a free Italian ice, orange cream all the way!  We then headed over the The Book Table because we had a coupon to get a free scrapbook grab bag.  We sat in the parking lot, ate our bread twists and Italian ice, and talked.  It was actually quite nice as lame as it sounds!
We headed into the Book Table and got my grab bag then looked around at the hundreds of awesome toys and games they have upstairs!  They also had a table full of games that were opened to try them out so we played games for a little bit.  It was so fun!

After the Book Table we went to Chugz for a free soda.  This place is weird!  First of all, we couldn't even figure out how to get into the place!  There are like three different entrances.  You can go in through Plato's Closet, you can go in through the back, or there's a walk-up window also in the back, but set back so you can't even see it.  The red cream soda was good though!

After Chugz we went over to Fizz N' Fryz for another free soda, (we want to go back here to try their fries) then we headed over to Cafe Rio!  There aren't any coupons for Cafe Rio on our Cache Valley card, but Cafe Rio does have a punch pass and when you get 10 you get a free meal.  We had 10 punches and so we were able to get a free meal!  Which worked out perfect because we usually can only eat half of a burrito on our own so we were able to split the one between us.  

After Cafe Rio we went across the street and did some window shopping at Staples and Best Buy.  We need a new laptop.  Seriously ours is falling apart.  Our screen could detach at any moment.  So we looked at the laptops they had and a few desktops.  We're not sure if we want a desktop instead of a laptop since Louis is no longer in school and doesn't need to be taking a computer around with him.  We saw a few options and we'll see what we decide to do.

That was the end of our date we headed back home and had an epic marshmallow shooter war with Louis' sisters!  It was a fun end to our anniversary date!

Father's Day Party

With Louis' work schedule I knew that we wouldn't get to be with him all of Father's Day, so the girls and I decided to throw him a Father's Day surprise party!  It was so fun to plan and prepare for!  On Friday I convinced Louis to go take a nap (it didn't take much convincing!) and then we started getting the party ready!
The first thing we did was bake some cupcakes!  While they were cooling, the girls and I decorated the house.  We had some leftover star streamers and I updated one of our banners to say "Super Dad".  It was simple, but turned out looking really good!  After decorating I had the girls each make Louis a picture while I got the food ready.  Since it was lunch time I just made grilled cheese sandwiches and we had some fruit as well.  I had also bought some Dad's Root Beer a few days before.  The decorations were up, the food was ready, it was time to wake up Louis!

I went upstairs to Louis and told him to quickly get dressed and come downstairs.  While he was doing that I gathered all the kids and we waited next to the super dad banner for Louis to come downstairs.  When he was almost to the bottom of the stairs I counted to three and we all yelled SURPRISE!  Louis got a huge smile on his face!  Avery and Mary ran at Louis and gave him a hug then we opened presents.  After presents we had our lunch then Louis left to get a root canal.  Not the best end to a party!

Louis is an incredible father.  He works a crazy schedule and still summons the energy to play with the kids when he gets home.  He sacrifices so much for us and is so selfless.  He is loving, silly, strong, and kind.  We are so blessed to have him.  Happy father's day!

I almost forgot to post this last picture!  It is a memory that I definitely want to remember!  For a few weeks Avery had been saying she wanted to make Louis a kite for father's day.  So a couple of days before the party, she drew a diamond on some paper, colored it in, taped a Superman symbol in the middle, attached some ribbon and a toilet paper roll for the handle and it was done!  It was such a sweet and hilarious 4 year old version of a kite!  Avery was so excited to give it to Louis and after his dentist appointment she begged Louis to go outside and fly her kite!  Louis was so sweet and went out with her.  It was the funniest thing to watch!  Avery took off running across the yard and didn't understand why her kite wouldn't fly!  She still had a blast though and loved having her dad out their flying his kite with him!

May 6, 2009

6 year ago today Louis asked me marry him.  

Here's the story.  

A few weeks before we got engaged Louis told me he had seen in the paper that there was going to be a formal dance on the 6th.  I kept asking for more information about it (like where it was), but he was just super vague saying he'd have to look at the paper again.  The night of the 6th came and I got all dressed up and ready for the night.  My parent's knew what was going to happen that night and they hid it well.  I didn't know what was going on.  When I was finished getting ready Louis came to pick me up for the "dance"

Look at the excited smile on that boys face!

We were going to go to dinner before the dance, but instead we started heading back towards Louis' house.  I asked what we were doing and he said "We're poor college kids so we're going to eat at my house instead"  Alright, made sense!  I still didn't think anything was going on.  When we got to Louis' house and walked in the door I knew something was up.  There were white sheets covering the doors out to the deck, romantic music, a nicely set table on the deck, and lights strung all along the railings.
We went out to the deck and sat down and Louis' little sister came and brought us food and let us know she'd be our waitress that night.  She also took some pictures.  (I have never seen these pictures that were taken and would LOVE to see them if any of you Brandley's know where they are!)  We ate chicken Parmesan and spaghetti.  At some point during our dinner I was getting cold so Louis gave me his jacket.  Then he hugged me from behind and I felt him reach in the pocket of the coat to get the ring out because it was left in there!  Louis still denies that happened to this day.

I found this picture in a photo book at the Brandley's

It was while we were having our dinner

After we ate our dinner and were just talking Louis asked if I wanted to dance. Very romantic.  We danced for a while then turned to look at the full moon that had come up over the mountain.  Louis was behind me and got down on one knee and waited for me to turn around.  Confession:  I knew he was on one knee and was about to propose, but I was nervous and didn't turn around for a little bit!  I needed to breath and get myself ready!  Finally he gave a little pull on his jacket (that I was wearing) and I turned around.  Even though I already knew he was on one knee my heart jumped when I saw Louis!  Also there were 5 or 6 heads looking out at us through the glass door and a camera flashing away.  (Again, where are these pictures?)
I don't remember much about the actual proposal because I was crying and thinking, oh my goodness he's proposing to me!  A few years later I found the poem that he wrote for the proposal so now I know what he said to me that night.  After I of course said yes we danced some more and talked about when we wanted to get married.  Louis had already looked it up and thought August 18th would be a good day, it would be in between semesters and right after the temple opened back up from being cleaned.
It was sweet night, I love that Louis had everything so perfectly planned out.  I am forever grateful that I have Louis as my eternal companion.

Bonus:  I asked Louis what he remembered most about the day we got engaged and this was his answer.  Earlier in the day while Louis was getting things set up his mom walked in and asked what he was doing all this for.  Louis just simply said, "I'm proposing to Becca tonight."  He hadn't even told anyone!