Together for the holidays!

What better way to start off Christmas break than getting married!?

We were hitched the day after finals...
Yes you can call us CrAzY!
Getting to spend a few days with just each other on our honeymoon,
Waking up to each other Christmas morning,
Sealing 2009 with a New Years Kiss,
and spending every moment of Chirstmas break with my best friend,
Christmas in 2009 was definitely: as good as it gets!

Our Cute Car :)This is pretty much our only good picture from the honeymoon :(

Our Sushi Take-Out!
A toast to us!

Our First Christmas!


New Years Eve!
We had such a fun holiday break and we felt so blessed this Christmas season!

One Fine Day 12.18.09

Our wedding day, was more than I could have imagined. It is just what I wanted. We decided to spread it out over two days. I didn't want to feel rushed and I really wanted to ENJOY my wedding day. I really wanted the temple to be first but I also wanted a wedding dinner. So, I got both! We were married on Friday, December 18th in the Salt Lake Temple at 3:00pm. We did it a little later in the day so that we could get pictures in the day and also at night with temple square!

After we took a million pictures we had our wedding dinner at the Joseph Smith Memorial Building on the 12th floor. It was beautiful! Right outside the window was the temple! It was absolutely gorgeous. The Burgess' have a tradition of having all the siblings share their favorite memory, a favorite story, an embarrassing moment or just something they love about the person getting married. It turned out so great and it was so fun to have all the siblings share a little something. I LOVED it! I am so glad we did our wedding on two days. Even though the reception was fun, my actual wedding day was incredible!

Oh So Blessed!

Words cannot begin to describe the feelings I felt on our wedding day. I have been trying to find the words that would really express what I was feeling on this perfect day and I believe the one word that sums it all up is Gratitude.

Extended Family As we walked in the sealing room I could instantly feel the love and support. Having over 50 family members there with us was such a sweet blessing. Billy and I feel extremely blessed with big families and love the close relationships we have with our extended families.
Friends Growing up you are constantly taught to surround yourself with good friends. I got so lucky that i never had to worry whether or not I was with "good" friends. My friends have brought me so much happiness and their positive influence on my life helped me become the person I am. It was so much fun to come out of the temple and have 9 of my best friends there supporting me. I was reminded how grateful I was for them that day. I am also grateful for Billy's friends. I know they had a great influence on his childhood . I love all of our friends they continue to bless our lives with so much happiness.
The Burgess Family It has been so much fun adding another family to my life. Before my mom knew Billy she just kept telling me what a great family he had, and what good people they were. She was right. They are one incredible family and I have felt so comfortable and welcome in their home. I have learned so much from them, they continually teach me and help me become a better person. They have treated me like their own daughter and I have felt right at home. Once again I am truly blessed. I am so excited to be a part of their family and feel honored to now be a Burgess.
My Siblings It has been so fun having such a large family. I was blessing with 7 brothers and sisters all of which I love and admire so much. Ever since I was young I loved to be at home and knew that the hardest part of my wedding would be leaving my family. Even though we live in the basement right now, it still feels completely different. I am so grateful that I could have a childhood with only positive memories. It was so much fun to have each of them speak at the wedding dinner. That will forever be one of my favorite memories about my wedding day. I love each of them and I am so grateful for the different relationships I have with them. I can't believe how fast the time has gone but I know that our relationships can continue to grow. They have all taught me something great about life and they all have unique qualities that make our family complete.
My Parents Words cant describe how grateful I am for my parents. I am so grateful for everything they did to make my wedding absolutely perfect. I know it was a lot of work, time and money. But, it was more than I ever dreamed! I don't know how to thank them enough; More importantly, I am so grateful they raised me the way they did. They taught me so many important lessons that I know will help me in the future and the challenges life brings. My dad taught me the value of hard work, standing up for the right, never giving up and "when the going gets tough the tough gets going." I will forever be grateful for learning those lessons as a young girl going to work at the farm. I know they will bless me throughout my life. My mom taught me great lessons about "becoming." Becoming the person I want to be, becoming a wife and becoming a mother. She taught me to always put others first, serve, don't judge, forgive, be happy and be GRATEFUL. My mom was also such a wonderful mother. She always put her kids first and was the perfect definition of "mom." She valued motherhood and because of her my greatest desire is to be a mother. She truly inspires me and I only hope I can have the same impact on my children's lives as she has on us. Even though my parents taught me incredible values, the thing that I am most grateful for is their testimonies. They both made it clear to each of us that they loved the gospel and they wanted us to feel the same.

For as long as I can remember we woke up very early before school and had family prayer and scripture study. Even though at the time I dreaded it and 90% of the time I fell asleep, it is the consistency I remember. They have always been consistent with family prayer, scripture study, Family Home Evening and church attendance. I have learned to love the gospel and I can't wait to raise my kids in the gospel.It was such a blessing to be sealed in the temple and have both of my parents there. My mom as my escort and my dad as a witness. I remember sitting in the sealing room and looking at both of them, instantly I felt so much gratitude for both of them. I was grateful that they made it a priority to have the gospel in our home so that we could all be together at that moment, in the temple on the biggest day of my life. I could go on and on about the different ways they have blessed my life but most of all I am so glad they are MY parents and we are sealed together forever.

Billy What a blessing he has been! I have never been so happy in my entire life, he continues to make me happier each and every day. We fell in love fast and we continue to keep falling every day. Our wedding day was the happiest day of my life. I remember driving up to the temple and I could not believe it was actually happening! I could not believe that I was actually marrying Billy Burgess. How did I get so lucky? Billy is more than I ever dreamed. He makes me so happy and has been the biggest blessing in my life. I admire his goodness, his heart, his humility, his ability to work hard, the way he influences those around him for the good, the way he only lifts others up, his unselfishness, the way he loves and respects me. The list goes on and on. When we were dating my mom always would ask me, "so have you found anything you don't like about billy." and the answer would be the same every time. Nope! I love everything about him. I honestly believe that billy is near perfect. He is so great and I love him so much. I feel so blessed that I was the lucky girl that got to marry him and be sealed to him! It is such a blessing knowing that I will be with him forever.

I don't think there is a day that I have felt more gratitude than on my wedding day. The biggest thing I was reminded of was the importance of families, and the blessing of having eternal families. I am oh so blessed!

The Proposal 10.14.09

What I thought was just another regular day ended up being one of the best days of my life, and the one question I have been waiting for all my life was asked. Billy and I had gotten serious very fast and neither of us saw it slowing down. We had constant progression from the very beginning. We had been talking marriage for about 2 weeks and we decided we were really going to make sure it was right. The saturday before we got engaged Billy started acting like he had some doubts and we needed to date a little longer. He really was starting to scare me, here I was so in love with him and I knew he was the person I wanted to marry; and he was acting so unsure when all along he had felt it was right. I was in a panic and like most girls do I began to think of all the worst possible scenarios. Little did I know it was all part of his plan so that I would be totally surprised when he proposed.
The Following Wednesday, October 14th, was a perfect day. Fall Break had just begun and we were both very excited for a fun weekend together. We had planned to have a pumpkin carving contest with our friends over the weekend. Early that morning billy had told me he got up to practice carving so we could win the contest. Being naive I believed him but I was a little confused why he would get up at 7 in the morning to practice when the contest wasn't until the following night. I just figured his competitive nature was coming out. Later on we took his jeep up hogs hollow and looked at the beautiful fall leaves, still completely clueless that he was going to propose. We later went with some of our friends to the football game and out to dinner. Everyone played it off so well! I am pretty sure everyone in Alpine and Highland knew but me. After dinner we headed back to his house. In the car ride he was telling me, once again, how good of a job he did on his pumpkin carving but then he began telling me that it was kind of scary and I might get scared.I was just laughing and thinking; obviously I am not going to be scared of a pumpkin! He kept talking it up, so of course I agreed to see the "amazing and scary" pumpkin. We got back to his house and he told me I had to close my eyes and wait for him to light the pumpkin. He lit the pumpkin and told me to turn it around but I had to promise him one thing: I couldn't scream. I looked at him like that was the stupidest thing I had ever heard. Still completely unsuspicious, I turn the pumpkin around and carved in it was, "Will you Marry Me!!" I sat there for a moment (billy says it was 30 seconds but it was more like 5) and I turned around and said.. are you serious!?!? and he said yes!! Still completely shocked, he asked me again, so will you marry me? and I said YES!!

He did such a good job carving!

Sooooo Happy!!

Our Story

Billy and I both attended Lone Peak High School, he was a senior when I was a sophomore. We knew each other but we more "acquaintances" than "friends." He returned from serving a mission in Maceio, Brazil in November of 2008. I had been hanging out with some of his friends, so through mutual friends we got to know each other. I was attending Utah State University we talked and texted quite a bit. When I was home and he wasn't playing baseball we would casually hang out, which mainly consisted of playing with my little 3 year old sister, Lydia. They fell in love with each other from the first time they met. Billy's ability to care and love for children was so apparent and was the first thing that had me falling in love with him. It wasn't until may when I moved home that things started picking up. We started dating and never stopped. We were with each other for one week straight. We went on a date every night, the dates were not a couple hours a night but more like all day and far into the night. From the very beginning we both fell hard and fell fast for each other. After 7 days of 24/7 dating. Literally. Billy left to New York to play summer ball. We talked nearly everyday and really got to know each other through only phone calls and texting. He returned August 2nd,and we became inseparable. He told me he loved me on August 26th. One month later we started talking marriage and we were then engaged on October 14th, 2009. We were married two months later on December 18, 2009 in the Salt Lake Temple. It all happened fast but when you know its right there is no stopping it. I truly feel like the luckiest girl in the world and I continue to fall more in love with Billy each and everyday.