life as of 10/31/2010.

tanner's grandma and grandpa lowe on their wedding day

elder holland came as a special guest speaker in our ward yesterday and it was so incredible. 

he spoke to us so personally and lovingly about a few different topics that were absolutely perfect.

his first topic was about embracing, enjoying and loving your life as it is right now. 

there are plenty of things each of us are waiting for - such as graduating from school, getting married, finding a better job, etc etc. 

so although we are waiting for such events or life circumstances to approach, it doesn't mean we can or should ignore the life that we have right at this moment because whether we like it or not, our life is always going to happen and time will always be passing. 

i listened and honestly thought to myself, yeah - that's true but i'm already doing that. life is great right now. i love tanner, love the fact that i'm going to be married to him in 2 months, love sitting in church with him right now. life is great.

thennnn i started thinking about it and how not in the moment i'm living. everything i do outside of work is for my wedding in two months. all my thoughts are planning for future events and getting everything arranged in time so that i won't be stressed when that time comes. 

kind of funny when you think you're doing things really well and realize you're not. 

so my goal is to be more observant and give everything and everyone its time while it is/they are here.

and who knew that life could be even better living it this way?

here are a few pictures of my life in ogden last night with tanner's family:

tanner's aunt gretchen reading to us from her mom's bridal memory book

while his brother berk slept on the floor recovering from his trip to thailand.

tanner's cousin torill and uncles jeff and rocky listening and remembering their sweet grandma/mother.

noticing the little touches of blue that gretch recently added to their living room.

the incredible details written in the memory book, her beautiful dress and handwriting.

sitting and listening with my fiance, relaxing and loving every minute. 

as we left the house, my heart melted as rocky helped guide jeff down the stairs and to his car while berk carried on conversation asking jeff about his newest granddaughter and life. 

and i remembered seeing a similar scene a few months ago as we hiked the subway while berk, blake and tanner each helped guide rocky through the canyon over a 24 hour period. they did everything they could to keep him comfortable and never complained once.

needless to say - i haven't found it all that hard to find happiness in what i have at this very moment.