The Howard Family

Day#1 (see post below)
1. how it all began: how you met, first date, first kiss, how long did you date? first picture together.....etc.

How we met:
Nate served his mission here in good ole Mesa! The first time I saw him was when he came over with his companion Elder Walz for dinner and a family missionary message!(I was a junior in highschool) I remember right when I saw him I had a MAJOR crush! Then he started talking out of the side of his mouth and in a "California surfer" accent (he is from California, and is a surfer) and I seriously was IN LOVE!!!! Seriously Ask all the girls in my ward, I always talked about him:)
Kinda embarassing to admit, but I knew where the missionaries lived, so I would go out of my way on my way home from almost anything, to drive past their house in the hopes of catching them outside so I could admire Elder Howard!!!
And just in case anyone is wondering, NOTHING happend ever on his mission, no flirting, hardly any talking, unless he was asking me question about the gospel or asking me to invite someone to listen to the discussions and it was always in front of my family! So just to clear that up:)
But luckily my parents are into missionary work and my mom sometimes does missionaries hair, so I did get to see him quite frequently! And he was in our stake for 9 months, which is like 3-4 transfers straight! And that doesn't ever really happen! I could go on and on about little encounters but they are probably only fun to me!
One TOTALLY weird side note: that 1st night they came over, I said to my family as they shut the door to leave, "welp, I just met my future husband"! Little did I know, I really had!!!

First date:
Well it was more like a first REALLY LONG date! what happened was, well let me give you a little side preview. After 'Elder Howard' went home in February of 2007, he came back to visit in March! And luckily he came to our ward to visit! And I happened to spot him by the bishops office when I got out of Young Womens! I seriously booked it into Relief Society to grab my mom so she could tell them to come over to our house to visit! They ended up coming over that night & stayed awhile! I seriously was smitten by him! There was just something about him that I LOVED!! His whole countenance was just like, I dont even know how to describe it! But I was just totally head over heels for this guy! Anyways so they left, but he left his cell # with my mom so they could stay in touch! If you know my mom she is friends with everyone and loves to talk to people (more like talk their ear off) but it doesn't sound weird that she got his number if you knew my mom! So they talked a few times and my mom mentioned to him that if he ever came back to mesa for a visit that he should take me out (THANKS MOM!!!) So he said "well hey, my family goes to a lake house every memorial weekend! Why dont you send her out!" So he called me and asked me to come out to California to spend almost and ENTIRE week with his family at a lake house! Well it happened to be the day after I graduated that i would leave! So I spent 5 days with him and his family & I loved EVERYTHING about him and his family, and I know this sounds weird considering how long I knew him, but it was like I knew I was supposed to be there and I felt so comfortable and I seriously thought I am meant to marry this person! Well I came home from that trip telling my mom we better start planning my wedding ASAP! Cause I KNEW Nate Howard was the man I wanted and was supposed to marry!!:)

How long did you date?:
Well lets just say coming home from that trip, I didnt start planning my wedding! Basically long story short, Nate met someone a week before I went out there, and then they started dating sometime after I left. And so pretty much almost a year goes by, here I am moving on with my life without him :( and then all the sudden he calls me and tells me he is coming in town. I was sorta dating someone else at this point but it wasnt official, So i went out with him a couple times while he was down, and though I will say they were the best dates in my life, I pretty much went into it with a closed heart because I didnt want to fall madly in love with him again for him just to leave and not call me again! Well I guess this time he had the experience I had had the first time! Cause he called me 5 days after he had gone home and told me he was moving to Mesa in 2 days, and he was moving there becuase of me! So the day he got down here he took me to Tempe Town lakes and got takeout from Outback and we went and ate and sat along the lake and here is the gist of what he said to me, "I know that I am supposed to marry you, and I want to marry you, I have never felt like this in my life, and if you say yes, I will marry you tomorrow!!" Now just think, we had spent, up until this time a total of 8 dates/days together!!! Well here is what I said back to him, "Im not sure what I want, and I sort of want to date around!!" He said it was like someone kicked him in the gut! Now what I was thinking: I knew I wanted and was supposed to marry him! But I was FREAKED out! When getting married is all the sudden a reality it really scared me, and I was still a little hurt when he hadnt called me for almost an entire year after I had fallen madly in love with him! Well long story short the whole dating other people thing went like this, go out with Nate, every single night, because I couldnt stand not to, and then go out with that other guy I was dating on the side after I would come home from being with Nate! Hahah I know i was dumb! But It went on for a week and a half until I finally told the other guy I was gonna marry Nate and I told Nate I wanted to be exclusive! So we became bf/gf on a Tuesday! That weekend we went to six flags where I fell more in love with him, and now had no doubt in my mind I was supposed to marry him! So that Monday (6 days later) Me and him were sitting on my couch and we decided to get married! Basically just told each other we wanted to marry each other and thats when we started telling people we were engaged!!! So from the time he moved down there to the time we got engaged was I think 2 weeks and 5 days!!!

First Kiss:
I know people are going to think we are crazy! but our first kiss was the night we got engaged! So this is how it happened! After we decided to get married we were cuddling on the couch and we were talking about it and I said, "well now that we are getting married, we should probably kiss!!" Ya think? haha so us both being too shy we let the whole night go on getting a couple times close to kissing but didnt, so as I walked him out to his car I was like "Ok seriously we have to kiss!!" so Nate was like ok lets kiss! And we would almost kiss but then he would get all awkward and would be like "well what kind of kiss are you expecting, are you expecting just a kiss or tongue or like a peck??" So I was just like "just let whatever happen!" So he was like "ok on the count of three lets kiss!" So he held my face with his two hands and said "one, two, three!" and then leaned his head in with his lips pouched and his eyes closed! But didnt go all the way! So I laughed a little with him and his pouched lips and eyes shut, holding my face, and had to lean in the rest of the way for the kiss! And let me tell you, It was the best kiss EVER!!!!!

First picture together:
This picture was about a week after he moved down to mesa, it was General Conference and we were eating lunch between sessions!