Christmas, Wedding, Two Fiestas, Honeymoon, Move-in, and a new family

I'm really nervous about blogging because I really don't enjoy having people read my writing. Nathan is going to have to post sometimes. I am so happy though that I have the pressure from fellow Jensen women to blog because otherwise I would have no written record of my life. There's a lot to start off with in the first blog, it's very overwhelming. Nathan and I feel so happy and blessed at this point in our lives. I look back at our friendship and I'm so grateful it developed as it did and I am just in awe of "the big picture." Heavenly Father really has been so helpful, loving, and gracious to me my whole life and I really am speechless seeing daily that His will and plan is so much better than anything I could have imagined. On December 27th 2008 in the San Diego temple I married my best friend and the one who makes me laugh most. I married my example and helper in the path that brings me closer to the Lord. I found the one person whose unconditional love for me and patience with me is only matched by the Lord. Thank you Nathan for being so much more than I could have asked for.
We spent a fun child filled Christmas at the Harper household with all of Sally's siblings and Randy's family. I haven't had a magical Christmas like that ever, it really is different with little children around. Nate was right, and I loved it. Thank you Randy & Christy for letting us be a part of the family.
We had our San Diego reception on Saturday December 27th at Scott & Brooke Shields' beautiful backyard after a long cold day of being married and taking pictures with the photographer. (We'll post them as soon as we get them.) Scott and Brooke went way out of their way to help us out and constructed a dream contraption for me to be able to have the banners I wanted and Brooke had special lights and decorations put up just for the reception. The Shields men and Jensen guys were my little fragle rock doozers who hammered and built the night away. Thank you guys. I had only finished maybe 1/3 of what I wanted to get done the night before the big day, and had to finally just let go and be done when I left for the temple Saturday morning. When Nathan and I got to the Shields house on Saturday night, my little wedding fairies had blown my mind. My sweet friends and family had done such a great job of setting things up for me without me there. Thank you so much Sal, Lez, Tara, Amy. Thank you so much for helping with a smile, even while simultaneously taking care of your kids.

Honeymoon....We went to Cabo San Lucas for four days. No one knew, but our trip kicked off with a bang when we missed our 6am flight out of San Diego the day after our reception. Luckily, we had no problem catching the next available flights, and we arrived to Mexico only 2 hours later than planned. We loved our hotel "Hacienda Del Mar." The hotel was on the beach and 15 min away from the town. We spent our days drinking virgin pina coladas on the beach or at the ocean view pool, and one day touring the town and kayaking. Kayaking was a little nuts, but I had so much fun just walking around the marina with Nathan. Really, it was too too great.

Glen and Laurel had a beautiful open house (and party for Glen) for us at their home in AZ when we came back from our Honeymoon. (We don't have pictures :( see Janae's blog) Once again, the family and friends troops rallied hard and produced an army of donuts and set up another beautiful setting for a second fiesta. Susan, with a newborn in the other room, amazingly hosted quite the workshop of donut makers at her home. The stellar Ostler sisterhood blew me away. Laurel, Janis, and Becky really made me think of the song "Whistle While You Work." They cooked and cleaned all day long with a smile and a cheerful disposition for our second celebration, when two of them had spent only hours with me up to that point. I love you all and am so lucky to have you all as family. Thank you to all of my new family for everything you did for us for all of our celebrations.
We're back in Provo trying to settle into our new life. My grandma came up and helped us move in. I got a job! Thanks to some help from a kind friend, I'll start working for City Deals at 8:30 am on Monday morning. City Deals is a website that sells discounted gift cards and is a place where you can find any deal going on in Utah Valley. I'm just so grateful and amazed that I was able to find a job in these cut-back times. Nathan is back in school and works in advertising for the Daily Universe at BYU. I love seeing him work, I am so impressed with his innate skill to make people feel comfortable with him. He talks to people as he would talk to me and it reminds me that he really does love all people and treats everyone with kindness and respect.
We're excited for what's ahead. We hope that we'll both get better at taking pictures so we can have some kind of memory of our life. I hope that my blog posts aren't as long as this first one. By the way, I love the condo. This should not be what sets the bar for a newlywed apartment. Never in my life have I lived in a place that had an ice and water dispensing refrigerator and a jacuzzi tub. I'm pretty sure we're the only newlywed couple in provo with a garage for both of our cars. We feel very lucky.