A Guest Visit

I have someone SUPER cool for you ladies to meet!!

Gentri from Gentri Lee.

She is absolutely charming and you have to get to know her. 

Plus I was lucky enough to meet her recently and I'm so glad I did!

*********

Hello Holly's lovely readers!

My name is Gentri and I blog over at Gentri Lee. :) I am so excited to be here today while Holly is off enjoying her Anniversary! Happy Anniversary Holly!

Today I am going to talk about my favorite things- Fall edition. Let's face it, Fall is pretty much anyone who's anyone's favorite Season. It has so much to offer, how could it not be?? Here are my top three:

1. The weather- It's perfection! Beautiful leaves, crisp cool air- yet there are still days that are warm, all of the yummy fruits and vegetables are perfect for picking, throw in an occasional thunder storm and I could live in a world that is always Fall.

2. Halloween- Such a fun Holiday! There are festivals left and right, things for the meek and things for the "brave" of heart, costumes, candy, and celebrations everywhere you turn!

3. The Clothes- How could this not be on the list?! It pretty much rules the list. haha! Boots (slippers), hats, sweaters, scarves, gloves, LOVE!

If you weren't convinced that Fall was the best season before, you better be now. Because that list ROCKS! haha! I hope that you are all having a wonderful Fall season and have lots of fun (and safe) holiday plans. :) I'd love for you to come and stop by my blog ANY time you like!

Thank you so much Holly for letting me help out! I hope you have a wonderful Anniversary!

Love,

Gentri

*********

Isn't she a doll?! I knew you'd like her!! 

Now head on over to visit her and show her some love.

A Guest Visit

Happy Friday everyone!

Today we have the FABULOUS TJ from Mr. Taylor and his Lady

She is absolutely beautiful and rocks red lipstick like no tomorrow.

I may or may not be a little bit jealous of that ;) 

*********

Hello there lovelies, I’m so happy to be visiting today here on Holly’s blog. I’m the one they dub TJ over on Mr. Taylor and his Lady. I blog about my life as a newlywed, style and just the everyday generic thoughts that cross my mind. I like to think I’m funny, but I’ll let you be the judge. I’m obsessed with my hubby, love my lipstick, like ice cream, and dislike cats. Sorry to all of you cat lovers out there.

But enough of that small talk, let’s cozy up and get to know each other a little bit better. And what better way then to give you a little insight into the most important thing in my life – Mr. Taylor himself.

Mr. Taylor and I met our junior year of high school in Mr. Peterson’s class. I asked him if I could sit next to him and he said yes. I then proceeded to introduce myself to him and he kindly replied, "yeah, I will never remember your name" (yes, I still give him a hard time about it). Nevertheless, we soon became good friends and then best friends. Our senior year of high school started with Mr. Taylor driving me home from school every single day. The nights would end with me driving to his work and us sitting outside the QFC talking for three hours at a time before heading back home. Needless to say we fell for each other hard but never did anything about it. 

Three years passing, college states apart, and one mission later, Mr. Taylor finally manned up (I guess you could say). 10 minutes going by of nervous silence and listening to the same song on repeat, boy kissed girl and hasn't stopped kissing her since. 

We got married three months ago to do the day. Best decision I ever made, and I feel so blessed to say that I honestly married my best friend.

Well, that’s it. The short version of my love life. But there’s a lot more to me. So pop over, say hi, become a follower, send an email, whatever your fancy! And big thanks to Ms. Holly for this opportunity to come and get to chat with all of you. 

*********

Love stories are the BEST! 

Thanks lady for sharing yours!

Now click your way on over to visit this darling lady and get to know her some more!!


AND
Tomorrow I have another incredible lady who will be visiting.
You don't want to miss out!

A Guest Visit

I am so excited to be going away to celebrate my 2 year anniversary with my love!! Vegas here we come :)

While I'm away, I have some darling ladies who will keep you company for me! 

Today we have the fabulous Megan from And here's to you, Mrs. Robinson visiting again. She is absolutely adorable. I recently got to meet her in person at the Utah bloggy meet up. Megan is someone you who you definitely want to get to know! :) 

*********

Hello Dayley Happening readers! I am so happy to be guest posting again on Holly's blog while her and her husband are gone. Holly is seriously the sweetest girl I have ever met and I have really enjoyed getting to know her.

Today, I wanted to share a special dream I had a while ago. At the time, I was having a really hard time being a fairly new mother and I felt like I was at my breaking point. I felt very
lost, alone & abandoned.

And then I had this dream.

This was written a while ago on my blog the day after I had my dream.
I hope you feel of our Savior's love for you as you read it.

(President Thomas S. Monson, President Gordon B. Hinckley, President James E. Faust)

Last night, I had a dream about the past First Presidency of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (before President Hinckley and President Faust passed away).

I was with Elijah getting him ready for the day when he was being a little pistol. I passed the kitchen table and saw a letter from President Monson written on a pale yellow piece of paper. It was addressed to my parents but I quickly read it where he told them that it was really good to see them and he really enjoyed their company. I put the letter away and went to go wrangle up Elijah and calm him down.

Skip ahead.

I am now holding Elijah, still pretty ornery, and we walk into a chapel where the First Presidency is sitting on the stand with their wives, all dressed in beautiful, white clothes. There are only a handful of people in the audience, just close friends and family.

I stand in the aisle holding Elijah and listening to the current speaker, Sister Faust. She is speaking on how to turn to the Lord in your trials and that He is there to answer your prayers.

She talked about being a mother and the hardships that accompanied that special calling and how she could still always feel God’s love for her.

After her talk was finished, President Hinckley, Monson and Faust and their wives got up to leave. As Sister Faust walked by me, I stopped her and thanked her for her talk and her words of inspiration to me. She gave me a hug and followed her husband out the door.

Sister Hinckley then approached me and gave me a big hug. She asked me how I was doing and talked to me as if I was her own granddaughter, as if she had known me my whole life.

While we were talking, President Monson walked by and said, “Hello Megan! Say hello to your parents for me. I hope they are doing well in the Marshall Islands. I really enjoyed visiting with them." He then continued on his way out the door.

I looked back at Sister Hinckley with a look of shock on my face. I could not understand how he knew who I was. Even if he knew my parents supposedly, how did he know me? How did he know my name or about my life?

Sister Hinckley saw the look on my face and smiled up at me and said, “It’s pretty amazing isn’t it, that he knows who you are even though you’ve never met him. He loves you and prays for you. He knows you even if you may not know him.”

In my dream, I started getting tears in my eyes. I felt the Spirit so strong as she spoke to me.

Then I woke up. And even as I woke up, I had this overwhelming peace come over me and I felt like crying.

I thought back on my dream and what was said to me by Sister Hinckley. I thought about President Monson, the current prophet, knowing who I was even though I have never met with him face-to-face. I thought that seemed pretty crazy, that he would know all my trials and hardships of being a young mother and my parents being far away from me. I don’t doubt that he prays for all of us, but I didn’t understand how he could know me personally.

Then I felt a great sense of clarity at the message.

It was Heavenly Father.

Heavenly Father knows my every need.

He knows my fears and trials. He knows how hard it is to be a young, student mother. He knows how hard it is for my for my parents to be thousands of miles away. He knows what I needed to hear to comfort and inspire me, even in my dreams.

Yesterday, I came home from a group meeting telling Adam that I wanted to curl up in a ball and die. I told him I felt completely overwhelmed with my responsibilities to school and to Elijah. I didn’t think I would get through these next couple of weeks. He reassured me that it would be okay and that we will make it work. I felt a little better but still rather stressed as we went to bed that night.

Enter, dream.

I know my Heavenly Father loves me. I know He is watching over him and helping me get through this stressful time in my life. I know I can turn to Him when times get tough and He will always be there, watching over me.

Thank you again, Holly, for letting me share this special moment with you!!
I know the Lord loves us and knows us and is there for us. Even when we feel alone.
I hope we can all remember His love for us and turn to Him in times of trial.

********
Thanks Megan for visiting and sharing this moment with us.
Now head on over to visit Megan and share some love with her!!

Don't forget to stop by tomorrow for another fabulous visitor
:) 

A Guest Visit!

Happy Friday! 

I'm very excited to have Nicole from Becoming the Robie's visiting today!! She is such a darling lady and a new friend, not to mention a brand new newly wed :)  She has a great reminder/lesson for all of us today. {I sure needed it} 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I'm so excited to be guest blogging here today! Miss Holly and I are new friends and I love her blog and am so thankful she's asked me to stop by!

I'm Nicole, and I blog over at Becoming the Robie's. I've kept a blog for about 5 years, but just recently decided to take it seriously and started a brand new one! (I love you my 3 official followers! :P) I thought it was perfect timing to start afresh as my life took a pendulum swing from single gal, eating ice cream in bed and taking as many target shopping sprees as my heart desired to married gal, budgeting, twice as much laundry and sharing the same sized bed with a big strong man instead of my 30 lb. dog. Needless to say, married life has thrown a few curve balls.

I was recently married this past August to a charismatic, stubborn satirical musician. (Although I wish I could say that we walk around with him and his guitar making a soundtrack to our life, that is not the case.) I've been married for a little over a month, and I feel like I've already learned so much about relationships, love and myself than I have the last 22 years of my life. Which leads me to something that I have been forced to realize...

I have a pride problem. I know, I'm the only one. I had written a post about my little problem a few weeks ago. Ben and I had some friends over and we were talking about how if we treated and spoke to our spouse the way we do with friends (friends that we'd like to keep as friends), married life could be revolutionary. Ben happen to be standing right in front of the target my attitude was aimed at one morning. After some coffee (caffeine? check.) and some quiet time (introspection? check.) I knew I had some apologizing to do. Right at that moment, it was like a battle inside my mind, but I wasn't fighting myself, it was...weird. I kept saying to myself,  "How hard is it to stay 'I'm sorry' Nicole? Really?" I let the opportunity pass and drove all the way to work, got out of the car and walked away from my wonderful husband, un-apologized and un-forgiven. It ruined my whole day.

I started to have a conversation with God about what the crap happened. I felt like such a horrible person and now my tail was between my legs for acting so childish and prideful.

I had this epiphany.

Marriage is the closest thing we get to participate in that resembles the wonderful relationship between the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Satan HATES that relationship and HATES marriage because of of its purpose to reflect the gospel to each other in a way that is like no other, glorifying God in a unique way. Satan wants me to stay prideful and stay childish so he can push the wedge of sin and brokenness of the world between us.

After days of allowing my pride and attitude to conquer me, I found myself, once again, looking the perfect opportunity to apologize for my behavior in the eye. Before I could think about it, I blurted out, "I'm Sorry!"
I confessed that no matter what or why I am frustrated, there is no excuse to be ugly and mean. I continued to share with Ben what had happened a few days before with my battle with the Enemy and his nasty lies.

Only a day or two after conquering this huge battle, Ben and I were arguing about something (I think it was something along the lines of, "You used every spatula in the house to make that cake!" ...or something...like that...) and I felt that nasty little problem begin to rise in me (It came in the form of high blood pressure). After a few more words shared, Ben left and I decided to jump on here and see what was going on within the community of my blogger friends. That's when I received Holly's sweet comment on my post regarding all of this, asking me if I'd like to guest post about it on hers.

Let's say it together: Foot. In. Mouth.

I was able to take a moment and give a little sarcastic laugh to myself and the dog, and I was hesitant to respond. 

God, what are you trying to do to me? If I write about this on another blog, I'll have two places my husband will remind me of when I ... "forget" about my ... problem. 

As I thought more about why I blog and the purpose to encourage, be encouraged and have a community of people to share life with, I knew I needed to surrendered my pride (once again), and there was only one answer, and that was, "Holly, I'd love too! It's unfortunately a topic, I know all too well about." Annnnnd here I am.

After a good conversation with a dear friend, I thought outloud, "What if for...1 month, I just decided that no matter what Ben did or said, I just decided to humble myself and say, "You know what. You're right. I'm sorry." What would that do for my marriage?"

Ben and I aren't perfect (duh) and we surely will argue again and my pride hasn't disappeared out of thin air, but I'm truly seeking my strength to be a wife of noble character and a wife where my husband can receive rest, not only in our home, but in my spirit from Jesus. We agreed that whenever we feel that nudge from the Holy Spirit to apologize to each other that we would do our best to say it out loud right away and together, we'll work to keep that wedge of brokenness and sin far away from our newly wed lives.

And now, you get to hold me accountable too. :)

Thanks for letting me visit today! Hope you'll stop by my blog and let me know what you think and how you've been encouraged or what you've learned through marriage and your spouse.

-------------------------------------------------

Isn't she fabulous?! And what a great reminder to apologize. I know that I am frequently guilty of not apologizing when I should. We should ALL make the goal to apologize more frequently and promptly :)

Now head on over to Nicole's and give her some love! 

A guest visit!!

I have a special visitor to share with all you darling readers today!! I am so excited to have Megan as my {first} guest writer ever :) She is super darling and I'm pretty sure you'll adore her as much as I soon enough! Take it away Megan.

-------------------------------------------------

hello Our Dayley Happenings readers!! i'm soexcited to be over here sharing Holly's corner of the blogosphere. Isn't shethe cutest!?! and i LOVE her puppies. makes me jealous! but I guess having onetoddler is pretty much the same thing :) kidding!

i guess i should introduce myself before i startthe inappropriate jokes. my name is Megan Robinson and a wife, mommy, randomdance party-er, joker and wannabe yoga master! i blog over at {and here'sto you, Mrs. Robinson} and love it! i havehad my little bloggity-blog for a while but just recently started developing areal passion for it. i like to talk about everything from my family, marriage,my chubby boy, and my every day struggles that we can all relate to.

i just recently got hired by StrongerMarriage.org to be their official Stronger Marriageblogger!! i love it so much and it really is my dream job! sincei spend a lot of time researching and writing about marriage, it's on my mind alot. so i thought it would be fun to talk about something i learned over heretoday!

on the anniversary of 9/11, me and my husbandwere mad at each other. like, pretty contentious mad. Feelings werehurt, we were annoyed with each other, and there was just a hugeproblemwith communication the whole day. and to make the situation worse, hewas leaving to go out of town for an interview the next day.

i am not proud of this day.

at one point, after we both kind of snapped, ilaid in bed reading and looking at websites on my phone because i couldn'tsleep. i knew i should apologize, i knew iwas being petty, i knew a lot the argumentwas my fault, but i have a really big problem with PRIDE.

{and i really hate caving in.}

while i was perusing facebook, i started readingall the different statuses people posted about remember 9/11 and honoring thosewho died. i then remember reading one in particular (i don't remember whoexactly) saying that the biggest lesson they learned from the 9/11 attacks wasto hold your loved ones close & to cherish them.

i'm sure you can guess what happened next....
i.felt.so.GUILTY!

i realized what a huge jerk i was being and thati really wasn't cherishing my husband at all!

i immediately got up, swallowed my pride,and went to my husband to ask for forgiveness.

at that point, it didn't matter whose fault itwas or who was meaner to who
what mattered is that we loved each other & caredfor each other
{we just lost sight of what we have for a second}

so my question to you isthis:

how often do we all lose sight of what reallymatters?
how often do we all forget to truly cherish our loved ones in our every dayactions through life?

how often do we say i love you?

or give hugs?

or give kisses?

i know i have a lot to work on!

i'm definitely not perfect.

but i know that if i try hard to keep thateternal perspective of what life & marriage & family is all about, iwill be able to more fully cherish& love those close to me!!

how are some ways you try to keep your lovedones close and cherish them often??

i would love to hear your thoughts!!

thank you again,Holly for letting me share my thoughts with your readers! i loved writingover here today and i'm excited to meet lots of new people! hope you comeover and visit me soon! :)

---------------------------------------

Thanks Megan for gracing us with your wonderful self! And what a great reminder to cherish the ones we love and are close to us.

Isn't she wonderful!?!! Now you should head on over to her little corner in the bloggy world and get to know her some more :)