almost our 1 year anniversary!

Jesus- it is almost our 1 year anniversary! I cannot believe how fast this past year went. I am so excited to celebrate with you in a couple days. We are going to McMennamins Grand Lodge and staying with the "frisbee golf package". It sounds like a lot of fun and includes two keepsake frisbees, $50 toward dinner, $20 toward breakfast, two 22 ales, and a stay overnight. You are so excited to enjoy the soaking pool ;)

Right now, we are both working lots. You are working some crazy hours (40-50 per week) and lots of early mornings (4-7am?!!?), but you are learning to adjust and keeping a pretty good attitude about it. You take naps most days to keep you going. I am working for your family in the office and enjoying it so far. I get to work with Mari and all 3 kiddos, so that is pretty fun.

We are still loving our little Cece. She is still super hyper and needs a walk or a trip to the dog park every day. She loves going with me to your mom's house when I work and she runs around with Figaro for hours. My parents just (yesterday) got a new bull dog puppy. She is only 9 weeks old, so we are a little nervous to introduce Cece to her. They are calling her Weezie, but her name is Louise ;) We also have 2 chickens. They are very funny! Just this morning, the gold one- Pauline- had flown the coop, so I had to lock the black one- Henrietta- in the coop and she made noises like she was dying and then chase the other one back inside. They are pretty messy- I am not enjoying having to clean the coop, but that is the only bad part. I love looking out the window at them and seeing them peck and hearing their noises. they started laying eggs about a week ago, but some of the eggs are still too tiny to eat, but we are excited to have farm fresh eggs soon!

We have a beautiful little garden. Most of our plants actually grew and they are looking huge. The peas are too big- I have to go buy some system to hold them up today. I am so excited to eat home grown veggies and cook up delicious meals with them! 

I am competing in the women's state gymnastics games on July 13th and I am kind of excited for it. I have my vault ready to go and my bars routine is decent. I have a basic beam routine figured out, but need to add some dancing and I have nothing figured out on my floor routine (except that it will be to "Mambo #5"). I hope you can get that day off work and come watch because I am not allowing anyone else to watch me!

We took the StrengthFinders2.0 yesterday. We had both taken it before, 5 years ago, so it was awesome to see a few changes. Your top 5: adaptability, maximizer, positivity, includer, ideation. Ideation was the only new one for you and we are not sure that we see it in you yet, but I am sure we will start to soon! My top 5: discipline, focus, deliberative, futuristic, significance. Both discipline and futuristic are new for me, so i am excited to see them in myself. 

We are about to start trying to get pregnant! We are planning to start on our anniversary celebration.  We are both excited and nervous for this next step. I wanted to have kids right away, and you wanted to wait, so we compromised and agreed on one year, and it is already here! Who knows how soon it will happen- it could be months or even years before the Lord decides to bless us with a baby, but we are hoping it will happen soon! 

I am so excited to see where we are now- I love you more today than I ever have before. I have learned so much about how to be your wife and how to love you.  I feel like we understand each other so much more now than we did one year ago. I think we are finally settled into marriage- I remember every "monthiversary" we hit, we would both say it still didn't feel like we were really married...but now it does! You are my FAMILY and I just love it! I feel like our life together is the most beautiful and wonderful thing about who I am and the biggest blessing that God has given me yet! I love you with all that I am, Jesus Gonzalez, and I am SO thankful to be your wife! Thank you for loving me and being my life partner. Thank you for all that you do to make me feel delighted in and cherished. Thank you for being my comfort and strength and keeping me excited about life and about our future. Jesus, as we grow together, I pray that we will fall deeper and deeper in love and look up every year and say WOW and just be overwhelmed by the blessing that our marriage is. 

Love,

Natalie