J&S - Forever

Jayze and I are both from a small town in Arizona called Snowflake. Yes, it does snow there.

We grew up in the same town, went to the same schools, worked at the same grocery store, marched in the same band, sang/played in the same jazz band, and participated in one same play, but we didn't take notice of each other until we were on the same cross country team.  

Maybe it was because I was the only girl on the team.  Maybe it was because I thought he was just super handsome and confident.  Maybe it was because we just started looking each other's way and didn't stop...

He was a senior.

I was a junior.

At one of my best friend's birthday party

After the cross country season was over, I asked him to Winter Formal (a girl-ask-guy dance), and he accepted! After that, we went on a few more dates and knew we liked each other, but we never officially steady dated in high school.

He got called on a mission to Boise, ID - Spanish Speaking, and I finished up my senior year of high school. I wrote him during my senior year, and I admit it - I had a major crush.

Jayze with his younger brother Noah at the MTC - Jayze coming home, Noah going out

I finally graduated high school and headed to BYU-Idaho. As soon as I got there, I knew it was the perfect place for me.

I still wrote him during my first year at college, but slowly stopped as my second year rolled around. He was focusing on his mission, and I was focusing on figuring out what I wanted to do with my life.

By the time my third semester hit, I had stopped writing him completely and was okay with it.  He was okay with it, too. Besides, I had started dating more and went through a couple of relationships...  

Then Jayze came home.

When I went home for the two-week Christmas break, we met up at church (and he took me on a couple of dates) and we decided we still liked each other. 

 Long story short, Jayze came up to BYU-Idaho too, we dated for about five and a half months. 

On May 11, 2012, Jayze got down on one knee and asked me to be his forever.

YES!

We were engaged for the longest two and a half months of my life.

 

Then on July 31, 2012, we were married for time and all eternity in the Snowflake, AZ Temple.

Forever and ever, babe.

We've been married for eight years now, and have been through SO much. The loss of a baby, the recent loss of my dad, feeling unfulfilled in a job, problem-solving with finances, multiple moves (two across a few states), five kids in eight years, changing careers, starting law school, and so many more things that would take a book to write about. But we both love this quote by Dieter F. Uchtdorf:

"...those who save their marriages understand that this pursuit takes time, patience, and, above all, the blessings of the Atonement of Jesus Christ. It requires you to be kind, envy not, seek not your own, not be easily provoked, think no evil, and rejoice in the truth. In other words, it requires charity, the pure love of Christ.

All this won’t just happen in an instant. Great marriages are built brick by brick, day after day, over a lifetime.

And that is good news.

Because no matter how flat your relationship may be at the present, if you keep adding pebbles of kindness, compassion, listening, sacrifice, understanding, and selflessness, eventually a mighty pyramid will begin to grow.

If it appears to take forever, remember: happy marriages are meant to last forever! So “be not weary in well-doing, for ye are laying the foundation of a great [marriage]. And out of small things proceedeth that which is great.”

This quote by F. Burton Howard is also one of our favorites: "If you want something to last forever, you treat it differently...It becomes special because you have made it so."

We've been through SO many good things too. Life is up and down for sure, but I'm so grateful we've stuck it out, and I'm so grateful we keep choosing each other and God through it all.