Katelyn and Nick Wedding Day

On August 25, 2011, Katelyn and Nick were married in the Newport Beach temple, "the Pink Temple" as Alyse and Olivia called it. While we waited for them to come out of the temple, we had fun taking pictures of the cute girls. 

                                          And they were so excited to see them come out of the temple.

                                              The beginning and the end, with our Happy Daddy.

                                                Mr. and Mrs. Barnwell

                                                     The Bickmore Family.

                                               Katelyn is one of five girls, and Nick is one of four boys.

                                                Kat and Baby Kenda are so beautiful.

                                           Amberly, mom Cyndi and Grandma Millie (G-Mil)

                                            All of the girls had these fun pinwheels for the wedding day.

                                         She is such a beautiful Bride.

Congrats Katelyn and Nick, we love you! 

Girl's Night

The Night Before the wedding we had a little girls night in the Hotel, Alyse and Olivia even got to play for a bit, sorry it's blurry but Aunt Katelyn had fun jumping on the bed with the girls.  

                                  Lauren and Brianne asked Nick some questions to see how well Katelyn knew him. She did really well, but any time she got one wrong, she had to do push-ups.

                                           We even did face masks, Chocolate one's

                                       And gave Katelyn some fun presents,

                                   which kind of freaked her out, but we all had a good laugh.

Cute Kids

Our family got to come together for Katelyn and Nick's Wedding, so we started by spending time going to the Fresno Temple to be with Katelyn, and then going to spend time with our Nieces and Nephews. 

                                                    Hudson is so much fun.

                                           Alyse loves to be silly.

                                              I love how much Bret loves these girls, so much fun.

Home

I have always thought of home as a place of peace and refuge. A place that brings you comfort and joy. Our home truly brings that for us. We do live a long ways from work-it takes 25 minutes, and we're in the same town, that's a little crazy. But we chose our home, we chose the comforts in it. Like the kitchen, it's my favorite room in the house, and I am happy every time I see my red wall, and my granite countertops. I love cooking in there, and it truly makes me smile.  I think one of our favorite parts of where we live, are the amazing sunsets that we get to see each night. We are loving the fact that no one lives there yet, and we get sweet reminders of peace and comfort at the end of each day. 

                                                Isn't it amazing, come visit to see our little joys.

Lake Day

 Bret's dad Tab, and his wife Edie have a boat, and some fun toys, and so we got to go spend a day at the lake. Josh got up on the wake board for a bit.

                                      Tab loves Corn on the Cob, so we made these cute cupcakes to honor that love.

                                       The dogs loved the lake, Chloe and Elphie look a lot alike.

                                         Kobe loves the water too.

                                     I tried, I really tried, but didn't get up on the wakeboard.

                                      Tori did though, and she did awesome.

Let's Go Dodgers!

For one of Bret's presents, he got Dodgers Tickets, so we headed to see our Favorite team, with some great friends.  Kyle hadn't been to a game since he was little, he found the ticket in his binoculars case, while watching the game. 

Jen, Rylan and Carter had never been, so we were excited to have some fun with them. 

At one point they weren't doing very well, Rylan put his "rally" cap on, in hopes, but it didn't help. 

 Before the game started, the Navy Frog Jumpers had an awesome display, this was so fun. If you have a desire to go into the Military, what a fun way to do it. 

Our favorite Dodger, Matt Kemp! 

                                           They didn't end up winning, but we had a great time rooting for our team, in our great seats.

Happy 10th Anniversary!

We have a picture frame in our home that says “From long ago and far away, love led us to our wedding day”. It has pictures of us from when we were children, and then a wedding picture from ten years ago. I look at it now, and think that ten years ago, we felt so young and think from our wedding day to now, we have only made our friendship, and then marriage even better.

-Engagement Picture-

As we have shared, we have had many memories, and many heartfelt moments over the last ten years. Those moments have helped us to learn, grow, and rely on one another for trust, love and support.

We have been eternally blessed because of our choice to be married in the San Diego Temple on that windy day ten years ago. As we knelt over the alter together, and knew the covenants we were choosing to make that day, and for all eternity, we made that choice together, and haven’t regretted it for a second.

Our First Anniversary, eating the top of our wedding cake.

Our path has been windy, full of bumpy gravel, and smooth sand. Sometimes, it’s been treacherous, and full of moments of doubt; there have also been times of great peace, and beautiful sunsets that have made us be willing to cement our relationship even further.

Anniversaries are cause to think back on where you’ve been, and how far you have come. It has been wonderful for me to do that this week. Ten Years, is momentous, a true time for celebration and that is exactly what we have done this week, and what we will continue to do when we visit Hawaii to celebrate ten years of loving, living, and laughing together.

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Happy Anniversary to my Best Friend, the one I truly love with all my heart. Today, Bret got Eternity cologne, as a reminder that our marriage is not only for time, but for all eternity.

The Haney's-2011

Our Tenth Year-Marriage

Marriage-It’s an interesting concept really. Two people miraculously find one another, and then decide they like one another enough to form a relationship. They date for sometimes several weeks, months or even years, and then decide to get married. They plan a life together; a life full of hopes and dreams, and mysteries and memories. They have bright eyed enthusiasm about the future, and are ready and waiting with open arms to see what life will offer them. They are aware that there may be thorns along the way of the rosy path, though hope it only stings for a second.

When Bret and I were married ten years ago, we met our future with that excitement, and the day we said “Yes” was one of the happiest days of our lives. We have had many cherished memories over the last ten years. We truly are the best of friends. We know one another, and each other’s likes and dislikes, and understand that we are each individuals, but truly love being one another’s other half.

We have made so many different memories in the last ten years, and will cherish each and every one of them, and are excited to see what next ten years, and the many years after that, hold for us as the Haney family will continue to grow. In the last ten years of our marriage, one of our struggles was the desire to have children. We have both longed to be parents, and it was our fervent belief that when the time was right, we would be blessed with the children that we have hoped and prayed for.

We believe that now, the time is right.

Our family will be growing, hopefully very soon. We have chosen to adopt, to create our forever family.

In January, we started the process to learn about the agency that we had chosen. We are working with an agency that a friend recommended, and we couldn’t be happier. We took our classes and completed A LOT of paperwork. We were fingerprinted, background checked and blood sampled, and then we had to ask for some people to say nice things about us. We were interviewed several times, and they found out we are wonderful people; we look fantastic on paper.

Once all was said and done, our home study was complete in June, and now we are waiting for that phone call to tell us they have found our children. We said we are willing to take up to three children, up to age four. We know that some might think we are crazy, but we are up for the challenge as we have been preparing to have these children for many years.

We are anxiously awaiting that phone call for our children that are being fervently prayed for by friends and family who have been amazingly supportive along our journey to become parents. The hardest part of this journey now, is the waiting. We are aware that many are awaiting the arrival of our children, just as we are to know the arrival date. At this point, we are “parents to be”, we just don’t know the due date. We will be yelling from the rooftop in jubilation when they arrive, so just listen out for shouts of happiness around our neighborhood, hopefully sometime before the end of the year. We knew on that day ten years ago when we said yes, we desperately wanted to be parents, although it may not be the way we had planned. We know that our hopes and dreams will be fulfilled all in time.

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Today, to honor the wonderful Dad that Bret will be; he is getting a bib, and some cute books-One from one of the funniest dads around.

We had to let our first baby try on the bib, again, she lets me do this.

Our Ninth Year-Love at Home

There is beauty all around, when there’s Love at Home. Love at Home…

In 2009, we decided we were tired of apartment living, well, I think we decided long before that, but in our ninth year of marriage we finally were able to achieve our dream of owning a home.

In the process of watching our home being built, it was much like building a marriage.

We started by looking, and spent time talking to others, and looking at many homes-this is much like the dating process, you like some, and then move on from some others, before you find the perfect match.

We then decided to make it official; we signed the paperwork, much like signing the marriage license, and paid a deposit. (Luckily; these days, a dowry is not required for marriage).

We then watched as a foundation was poured; any good relationship needs a solid foundation built of trust and respect.

We then watched them frame our home- just as you add frames to a marriage, to support our home, much like the support needed to make a marriage work; whether it's support emotionally, financially, or otherwise, a solid support is a must.

We then watched them pump in insulation, adding strength and courage to a marriage, and providing barriers to weather the storms of a relationship.

We continued to watch as they put in windows and doors, adding ways to enter and exit, and reminders to be open and willing to work at a relationship.

As the builders continued, they added carpet and flooring to the home, with reminders to walk softly when needed and be ready to tackle the hard things at all times.

The final step of the home building process was to add landscaping, to add beauty to the home, much like adding love to a relationship and to take the time to have special times together.

The most awaited step was moving into our home, and adding our own touches to truly make it our own. This is done with decorations, and adding the comforts of a home. This is truly like a marriage, where everyone is different, and each individual relationship has its own touches that make it unique and special, and also allowing each other to be comfortable in the relationship.

We have been truly blessed to have our home, and have it be a place of peace, refuge and love. We know our home was built for us, and just like our home as we continue to add changes, we continue to add changes to our relationship, which only makes things even better.

In our ninth year of marriage, we also added a new family member, which really made our house a home, when we added our little Elphaba to the mix.

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Our home feels complete, when it’s clean, everything is in its place, and there is Double Stuf Oreos in the Cookie Jar. And to remember our Elphie, she is getting a new dog tag that makes us both laugh. It say's "If you can read this I will lick you". Elphie is a licker, it gives people fair warning.

Day Eight-Work

Hard work brings success.

When we first got married, Bret was working at Circuit City, and I was teaching preschool at Tot Town Christian Pre-School. Bret had graduated with his Bachelor's degree a month before we got married. I continued to go to school, and thankfully with Bret's help and support graduated with my Bachelor's degree in 2003. That was truly a wonderful day, I had accomplished a goal that was very important to me. In 2008, Bret graduated with his Master's Degree- and again accomplished an important goal. We are grateful for the opportunities that we have had to further our education.

These educational opportunities, have also helped us advance in our careers. In 2006, I started working at Community Action Partnership of Kern, as a Family Advocate, and then moved on 2007 to work as the Governance Coordinator. In 2009, Bret started working for the County of Kern, and then in September, he started working as a Deputy County Administrative Officer.

We know the value of hard work, as we each work hard at our respective jobs, and then work hard to accomplish our goals for our family as well.

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Bret has to wear a tie to work every day, so today a cute tie for work.

Our Seventh Year-Communication

Think of your favorite ice cream flavor, the one you liked when you were young and it was your most favorite to get, or maybe the one that you don't pick because you are worried about the calories. The best flavor, the one that you just dream about, but maybe you just don't get very often. Think of how good it tastes, how it just makes you so happy inside because of how glorious it tastes.

Ice Cream has many amazing qualities-Homemade Ice Cream for example, takes work and time to make it perfect. You can't "hurry" the process for Homemade Ice Cream. You have to be patient, and aware of what's going on in order to have the tastiness of the Ice Cream, but it's always so worth the wait. Another type of Ice Cream, is the cheap ice cream, the kind that you don't really want to buy, except for the price is just too good to pass up. You know what happens to that Ice Cream, it gets pushed to the back of the freezer, and you find it several months later covered in ice crystals, and it ends up in the garbage because it just isn't good anymore.

When you find the "perfect" ice cream flavor for you, it's like a match has been made, and you want to tell everyone you know how wonderful it is and they need to try it as well.

Communication is much like that ice cream. Communication like homemade ice cream is a process, one that can not be rushed, it needs time and patience to have good open communication in a marriage. And like that nasty frozen ice cream that get's thrown away, communication can become like that as well, if communication isn't used and nurtured in a relationship.

Communication is important in any relationship, verbal, non-verbal, written, open, closed. We hear all of these different forms of communication. The first way Bret and I talked was through written conversation, this has it’s positives and negatives. But, it’s also the way we talk all day at work as well. I love to communicate, I love to talk, hey , It’s one of the things I excel at.

In Ten Years of marriage, we have learned how important communication is to our relationship. I love to talk things out, where Bret will stew on something, and not want to share. We have had many conversations about this, and it has gotten progressively better over time.

But, our communication with one another is so very important, because it allows us to learn and grow, and to be aware of one another’s needs, and wants. Our communication styles may be different, and varied, but they work for us.

We communicate through trials, as we go through bad days together, and then we communicate through celebrations and those are a priority in our house. I’m always looking for a reason to have a party.

As I was thinking about communication, and trials and blessings, we solve both in a similar way. It has been a long standing theme in our home, any time something bad has happened, we get ice-cream, but also when we need to celebrate, we get ice cream. Sometimes, this has meant taking walks to McDonalds to get sundaes, or consoling tears in Rosemary’s ice-cream. Overall, it seems to either dull the pain, or put a spark in a celebration.

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In a spirit of remembering communication in our marriage… Dewars’s it is. For a Celebration