This Manis Family

Ok. My amazing friends and family members have inspired me to share this. They have been sharing their courtship and wedding stories on their blogs and well darn-it I want to do the same thing. It is so much fun reliving those days. Ahh sweet NOSTALGIA... The thrill of those life changing events still gets me!

I am going to make this long though. It kind of has to be. Like said family and friends I am doing this as a type of journal and the best way to journal is with the most detail possible, right? And so it is with all the detail that I can recall that I will write this.

I Sincerely hope that if you do decide to read ALL of our story that I did not bore you to death. And I hope you enjoy what for some of you might be the first time learning some of the details or even all of the details and for some of you will be revisiting them with me.

Here I was, just moved to St. George for school, living with Shilo and Bonnie, in some apartments right across the street from campus. (Side note: I ALWAYS want to spell across with two c's and then I ALWAYS have to correct myself.) We hadn't even been there, oh maybe it had been one month, and our apartment manager asked the three of us if we would be interested in going on a blind date with some guys she knew. We were game.

I have to laugh every time I think of this date. First of all, when the three blind dates arrived to pick us up the door scene could not have been more awkward. You see we girls were ready and just hangin out in the living room and kitchen when the doorbell rang. Of course we all thought it was the blind dates. It wasn't though, and I can't remember who it was and who he was there for but the three guys we were waiting on of course came while the other guy was still standing in our door way. So there were seven, count seven, of us standing in the doorway, three in and four out. When eventually we made it out of our apartment and down to the car, the three guys all squeezed into the front seat of the car. Yes they did. I don't know if any of you think this is weird or funny like I did, but it still makes me laugh. It made me laugh then because on previous group dates in a full car, the guys always wanted to be separated by the girls. Of course now it makes much more sense to me, but then we just thought they were weird. (Yes I am laughing still.) So the three of chuckled as we got into the back seat. The guys did tell us that they were from a small town called Delta. I hadn't heard of Delta before then, well I might have heard of it but I knew nothing about it and knew no one from there. But I did think 'maybe its a small town thing, to sit next to each other.'

The date was pretty fun actually. The three guys were pretty funny and we had a great time. It was the best blind date I have ever been on. We thought they were fun so after the date we all exchanged numbers and we hung out a couple more times. Not all the same people though, one of the blind guys was leaving for his mission and didn't actually live in St. George.

So Bonnie started dating one of the blind guys, and I started dating one of his roommates, Matt. Matt and I dated for 9 months, though to be honest neither one of us was really into the relationship for a while before we actually broke it off. Not surprising for me, I know, but that's not important. It's what happened while we were dating that is so important.

That summer after my first semester in St. George, I moved in with Danielle in Cedar City. When I moved in, Matt helped take some of my stuff in his truck and his roommate and friend Cory came with him. Now, Cory was one of the original blind date guys... Its getting good isn't it?

After Cory and Matt left Danielle wanted to be introduced to Cory because she was spellbound. She thought he was "So cute!" Matt and I arranged this meeting and Cory and Danielle snowballed it. They became a thing, quite a cute thing too. One could tell that there was something there when they became a lot closer in the short few months I lived with Danielle than Matt and I were and we had been dating exclusively since the beginning of February-ish.

So Danielle, being serious with Cory began to go home with him to Delta. And even after I moved back to St. George, she invited me to go with them.

Honestly, I don't mean this to be offensive in ANY way, but I am surprised that I went. I mean I just went and hung out with my friend and her boyfriend and his family. His family was so awesome to be so hospitable and let me stay. I guess I just felt like such good friends with both Danielle and Cory that I felt like part of the family. And it wasn't long before it really felt like that. I even spent Mother's Day with Cory's family. That is a little weird. I still can't remember why I did. Believe me, I don't regret it. That Mother's Day of 2007 two of Cory's brother's were out on missions; Jarod and Devan. I had actually met Devan in St. George so the only one in the family I hadn't met was Jarod. And because of that holiday, both of them got to call home. They actually had a conference call going on so they got to talk to the whole family (and me!) and each other. Jarod was asking who was all there and his mom was naming everyone off and she said "...and Danielle's friend Carly." And Jarod asked me if I was a member. I answered that I was and that was it. That was my first time talking to Jarod.

Even before that phone call Danielle and Cory's sister Shanee had been saying, "we should set her up with Jarod when he comes home!" I wasn't sure that was a good idea. For one thing, I saw Jarod's picture and he looked so serious. I thought that for sure he wouldn't like me because I am not a super serious person! I thought he would think of me as immature. But I didn't worry too much about it because I didn't think we would really get set up.

By this time Cory and Danielle, I believe, were engaged. So I still saw quite a bit of Cory's family. Well, at least Shanee and Bonnie. And I really felt so comfortable around them.

...
To Be Continued... Ha!

Sawyer is 12 weeks old, as of Wednesday. Seriously! I cannot believe how the time goes! I don't even care how cliche that sounds, its the TRUTH!

As he grows he is getting so much personality. He loves the ceiling fan. On or off. Jarod will hold him and he will brace himself against Jarod's shoulder with his arms and hold his head up to look at the fan. He will smile at it until his neck gets tired. Then he just looks at it while he bobs his head.

Sawyer smiles SO much! He has a play mat that has an arch with toys that hang down and he loves to lay under that and talk to the toys. He can swing his arms and hit the toys, on purpose!

Sawyer also sings along with mom and dad! It is the cutest thing! Oh it makes us laugh! He doesn't do it all the time but most of the time. We will start to sing and he will start to make is "ooooo" noise repeatedly while we keep singing. Sometimes he will do that when we are just talking too.

He is now wearing size 2 daipers. They are still big on him and he still fits into the 1-2 diapers from Costco but the size 2 diapers fit him well enough that he doesn't have as many blowouts.

He is so close to laughing too. He smiles so big.

Sawyer is still waking up about 3 times a night. He has slept for 5 hours at a time once and sometimes he sleeps for 4 hours at a time. He will only have one 4 hour period per night though, after that he is up every 2-3 hours.

He is so funny, when he starts to get fussy after he has napped and eaten and he has a clean diaper he just likes to lay down and not be held. He likes to either play with the toys on his play mat or just lay down and talk back to us as we talk to him. We still haven't had him in for his check up at the doctor yet so we don't know exactly how much he weighs and what percentile he is in for all of that. I will update when we find out.