To Eternity And Beyond!

Well it's official... I'M MARRIED to my best friend and I couldn't be happier! Everything about our wedding day was picture perfect! The temple was BEAUTIFUL! I love how strong the spirit is in there. It makes me want to keep going back all the time. Our sealer was amazing and made us feel special! I'm very glad that we chose Mount Timpangos as our temple. I remember sitting in the bridal room waiting to come out in my dress to see Payton and our family, and I had the biggest smile on my face knowing that I get to spend not only the rest of my life with him, but eternity! What a privilege it is that we get to have everlasting life and that family's can be together forever. It is the best feeling in the world. I loved kneeling across the alter holding Payton's hand and looking into his eyes knowing that I never have to be without him. I am so glad that I stuck through with my dream and goal of going to the temple and being sealed to the love of my life for time and all eternity. When I walked into the sealing room and saw all of our family I had to hold back the tears. I am so blessed to have them all in my life and I am so happy that I had their support! Everything about that day was perfect minus the weather! When me and Payton were taking our pictures together the wind was crazy!! It was impossible to get a good shot without my hair being in my face. But I was happy to see that the photographer was able to capture some. I was so shocked when I walked into our reception. It was decorated so beautifully! It surpassed anything I even expected! It was so fun seeing all of our family and friends and being able to talk to them. I was so sad when I found out it was time to leave. As me and Payton left we wanted to turn back and thank everyone again! I am so blessed to have everyone that I do in my life. I am so grateful for all the love and support we have had! I cannot thank everyone enough! 

Going To The Temple

Me and Payton had the opportunity to get our endowments done on Saturday August 31st. It was such a great experience having our family there supporting us. I will admit that there were some things that I didn't expect, but it was such a great experience! I have never felt the spirit so strongly! As I saw my relatives walking in the room all in white I could feel the spirit so strong and had to choke back tears several times. The temple is an amazing place to be and no one should ever give up on their dreams to be there. I cannot wait to go back this weekend to be sealed to the love of my life and feel that peace again. I am so grateful to our Heavenly Father for giving us these beautiful temples that we can come to help do the work, have our prayers answered, or just a place to feel at peace. I'm so grateful for this beautiful world that he has created for us so that we can live our lives and teach each other so that we can one day return to him. I'm so grateful for eternal families and knowing the I never have to be without them. I love this gospel so much!

Announcement Time

Well it's that time! The time to send out invites :). Everything is becoming so surreal! I cannot believe I am marrying my best friend in 23 days! Our wedding planning is so close to being finished. We have a few smaller details left and then we can relax and enjoy the day! I have 2 bridal showers next week which I am super excited for! Then on August 31st we will be getting our endowments out :). Then a week later it's the big day! I'm getting my bridals done this weekend. I can't wait to have my dress back and be in the attire i'm going to be wearing my wedding day. I couldn't be any happier than I am now. I am so blessed to have such an amazing family who goes above and beyond to help me prepare for this wedding. I am so grateful to my amazing parents for putting so much time into this. Also my aunt and cousin who have came down several times to help us out. I love you all!

Wedding Update

I have been so terrible at keeping updated with the wedding plans. I went from the last post being 121 days until the wedding, to 35 days until the wedding! Yep 35 days! So crazy how time flies when you're having fun. Well if fun is the way you want to describe it. I would use other words like; stressful, chaotic, tiring, and emotional. But all in the most positive way, if that is even possible. But really wedding planning is a lot of work! But in the end it is so worth it. Well since my last post a lot has changed! We are now getting married on September 7th, 2013 in the Mount Timpanogas temple. We switched temples because we began doing baptisms at the Timpanogas temple and it really stood out to us. We both thought to ourselves that we could totally see ourselves getting married there before we even mentioned it to each other. So the sealing will be at 1:00 pm that day and the reception will be 7-9 pm. I think doing it in one day will be much better! We decided to spend our honeymoon weekend in Park City, and then in October when we can save a little more we are going to go to Disneyland. I am super excited! I found my dress the first day that we went shopping! yeah crazy I know. I love it! It's a total princess dress and very "blinged" out! We have the wedding cake picked, floral, decor. Now we just have to figure out catering which will be Kneaders bakery. I am so happy that everything's working out great. I cannot believe that I marry the man of my dreams in 5 weeks! It's so crazy! I couldn't be any happier than I am right now. Okay I lied... I will be happier the day we get married, but still am super happy! I am very grateful for my amazing parents for helping SO much with the wedding. I don't think I can even thank them enough. I am so lucky to have such supportive parents who help me out all the time and give so much. I also am thankful for my sweet in-laws for all the support they have given us. I am just blessed in every way possible and I couldn't ask for more. I will be sure to keep better updated with the details and all the exciting things coming up in the next month! 

Our First Home

Well it's official! Me and Payton have our first official home! It's such an awesome feeling knowing that we have a place to call our own. It is located in Springville and is a newly remodeled duplex. We had the opportunity to meet our neighbors today and I was excited to hear that they were members of the church and in our ward. It will be nice knowing somebody in our ward. I'm excited because they sound like the church members like to get together and have bbqs and other fun activities. It will be a great experience for me and Payton. I am completely in love with our kitchen. It is super modern looking and has so much storage space. The whole house has so much storage space. We have 4 giant closets with shelves and half of the shed in the backyard. Payton moved in today and I will be moving in, in five weeks! I couldn't be more excited! It's going to suck leaving our home to come back to my home in the meantime. But it will be worth it at the end of the month when we get married and can begin the next chapter in our lives. I think that our home is a great first place and I cannot wait to have friends over to play games or watch movies. We are so very blessed to have the many privileges we have received in the past few months. I know without a doubt in my mind that if you live the way that God has asked he we reward us with blessings. Not that we do things just for the blessings, but I know that God will always follow through with his promises if we do as well. I am so grateful for my amazing fiance and cannot wait to start our lives together. We are going to have a great life together and beyond that!

The Greatest Blessing

"To the world you might just be one person,but to me you are my world"

I remember being in high school and thinking I knew exactly what love was. I thought that I was truly happy and that my life couldn't get any better. It wasn't until God sent Payton  into my life that I realized that I really was not living, I wasn't as happy as I thought I could be, and I really didn't know what love was. Payton has changed my life in so many ways and I couldn't even thank him enough for it! He has made me a better person. Not saying that I was a bad person or anything, but there was a point in my life where I felt lost. I wasn't living my life the way that I had been raised and I was making mistakes. There comes a time in our lives where things change, friends disappear  and we have to make choices for ourselves about how we want to live our lives. I had gone to church with my best friend Alyssa Wood for my whole life. I never really knew what it was like to feel uncomfortable at church because it's church! The place of peace and comfort. It wasn't until she moved that I felt this feeling and it was really hard for me to go alone. I then stopped going to my singles ward and went back to my home ward. I taught Primary and I loved it, but something was missing. I taught 4 year old's so most of the lessons were about sharing, being kind, and begging lessons about the Lord. With this being said, I wasn't receiving the lessons that I needed to help feed my spiritual needs. After a year I realized that maybe it was time for me to go back to the singles ward and have the opportunity to learn the things I needed to hear and meet people with the same values as me. So I asked to be released  from my calling and I went back. I found that it was so much harder for me to go to church. I would find excuses to sleep in or I would just straight up not go. I found myself dating people that didn't have the same standards as me and one day in December 2011 I went to Temple Square with my family. Being near the temple made me realize that I wasn't on the path to my goal which has always been being married in the temple. It made me reflect on my past as a child in Young Womens and how much I loved the gospel and how I never would do anything that would go against the church. I never swore, I never broke the laws of chastity, and I never disobeyed the words of wisdom. I felt like it was time for me to change and be a better person and get back on the path. After that I studied my scriptures and talked to my bishop. I felt happy again and I vowed never to date anyone who had different standards than me. A few months later Payton Skidmore came into my life. We talked all the time and I knew that he had different standards. He was agnostic, partied, and drank. But for some reason I saw through all of those things. I never judged him for anything he did. I never really thought that we would ever become super serious, well I guess I was just thinking in the moment and not the future. I enjoyed every second with him and our relationship grew more and more.Then he left for Alaska and I thought that would be the end of it, but surprisingly enough  the more we were apart the stronger my feelings towards him grew. To make a long story short, one day I asked him if he would like to come to church with me, I told him not to feel obligated, I told him that he always shares things he loves with me so I wanted to share something I love with him. He agreed to come, but out of obligation. After a few weeks he told me that he was enjoying going to church and liked it more and more each week. It finally got to the point that he loves church just as much as I did. As he grew in the church, I felt myself growing in the church also. I have gone every single Sunday for the past 5 months. I wake up a few hours early now just so I am not late, and I not only listen to the lessons, but really take them in. He let me know that he wants to get married in the temple which made me the happiest ever! So we began the process of repentance. We talked to the bishop every single week for a few months straight and we grew closer to the gospel together. We now go do Baptisms every single Thursday and we are getting married in the Mount Timpanogos Temple on September 7th, 2013 and I couldn't be happier! Payton truly saved my life and I cannot thank him enough! One thing I learned from my relationship with him, is to never give up on people and never judge a person by the cover, because they might just surprise you in the long run! Payton most defiantly saved me and I have never felt closer to the spirit, gospel and Lord.

I'M ENGAGED!

It's official! I'm marrying my best friend and I couldn't be happier :)! It all happened on 4/1/2013. Yep April Fools day! But this is no joke! The significance of this date is that exactly one year ago from that day me and Payton made our relationship official, so it seemed only right to make our relationship "official official". It all started out as us going on an anniversary dinner date. Weeks before I kind of had an idea of him either proposing on our anniversary or on my birthday but as the day came I decided it would be too obvious for him to propose on that day. So we went to Chili's for dinner and after we went to his house. We got to his basement and he opened the door and Hershey kisses trailed to his room. There were also Hershey kisses in the shape of hearts along the way. My heart stopped at this moment! We followed the trails and it lead to a table with flowers, candles, and the ever so yummy Welch's grape sparkling cider. I couldn't stop smiling and I was speechless. All I could do was hug Payton and tell him how sweet and cute he is. I still didn't think anything of him proposing. Then on his bed there was Hershey kisses in the shape of a heart with his hat that he always wears right in the middle. I pointed it out saying it's funny how his hat landed perfectly in the middle, not even thinking anything of it. Then he turned on our song "Lime Tree", by Trevor Hall, and asked me to dance with him. I couldn't feel the love any stronger than I did at that moment. Then the song ended and he told me  to lift up the hat and see what was under it. I did and of course it was a box! He told me to open it so I did and guess what I found!.... A Hershey kiss! April Fools! I thought in my head as I laughed and said good one! Then he said were you expecting this? I turned around and there it was in his hand, the gorgeous ring that I had been dying to see! He then got down on one knee and expressed his love towards me. And of course it lead up to the big question! Will you marry me? And my reply was.... No... But then I said April Fools of course!! I am so excited to marry him! It couldn't of been any more special than it was. I love you Payton James Skidmore forever and ever!