We are the Stewarts, I am Ann and My Husband is Mike. I work at Continental Airlines, and Mike is going to school online and stays at home with our girls. We have been married for 6 ½ years, and have three beautiful girls. The story of our marriage is not exactly typical however. In fact I think we almost gave both of our parents a heart attack everyday for a month straight.
Mike and I met while working at Maceys in Provo. I worked in the bakery and Mike was the “cute meat department boy” as I described him to my friends. I had a crush on him for two months before our first date. Our dating relationship was a whirlwind, one of the reasons that we almost gave our parents a heart attack. On our forth date, only hours after holding hands for the first time. We were watching a movie together, and the spirit whispered to me “Tell him that you love him.” My first thought was “What?...I just met the guy, no way will I say that.” For the next half an hour I was told to tell him that I loved him, and was unwilling to say it. When I realized that it really was what I was supposed to do, I had to figure out how to say it without making Mike think that I was crazy. So I finally told him “I think that I may have fallen for you” He replied with “I think that I may have fallen for you too….In fact I think my search is over.” Before I even had a chance to think about what I was saying I replied, “Well I have known since Saturday,” which was the day of our first date. Mike’s response to that was, “So… do you want to get married?” “Sure” was al I said. We sat quietly for the next few minutes. Then I asked, “So does this mean we’re engaged?” “Yeah I think so.” And that is how my husband proposed to me.
We had planned on a nice long engagement, but our wedding date kept changing. With the very sudden engagement, there was more than the usual drama associated with a wedding. We had made the decision that since we weren’t exactly the most active at the time, we would have a civil wedding then be sealed later when we were ready, which only caused more drama. We moved our wedding date from June to April, and were being told that the marriage shouldn’t happen almost on a daily basis. We were sick of it. One day as we were talking we decided that we should go and get our marriage license and that way we had to get married in the next 30 days. So we did. On our way back we were going over our schedule and thinking what day seemed logical to get married. We then decided, tonight is the only good night. So at 4:00 in the afternoon we started planning our wedding that would happen later that night. . Mike went into work, and asked if he could have the night off, just in case he happened to get married that night. We started by telling my mom and dad. My mom is a teacher and it happened to be parent teacher conference night at the school where she taught. So we went to the school and while she was waiting for the next set of parents we told her that we wanted to get married sooner. She asked when we thought sooner would be, and we said tonight after she was done would be good. You could see another almost heart attack in the works. She told us that it wouldn’t work because we had to get a marriage license and that they were closed by now. I don’t think she was too happy when we told her that we already had it. She reluctantly agreed to it. Our next step was to get my bishop to agree to marry us, and to figure out where we would get married. After talking to my sister in law and my bishop, it was agreed that we would get married at my brother’s house at 9:30 that night. Nobody was overly excited about it, except for us. But everyone who could come from our families were there. So we were married in February, one month and 7 days after our first date. Since we had essentially eloped we kept our reception date in April and were sealed in the temple on our one year anniversary. Mike also redeemed himself for his overly casual proposal, by giving me an anniversary ring. As he gave it to me, he whispered “Ann will you join me in eternity now?”
It seems that any big events in our lives happen with very short notice. Even the births of our children were not when we had planned. As it turns out my body really doesn’t like it when I am pregnant. I had morning sickness for the first 6 months of each pregnancy, and then when it finally went away I am put on bed rest for the remainder of the pregnancy with pre-eclampsia. Elizabeth, who is now 5, was born 8 weeks early, and spent her first 5 weeks in the Newborn ICU. She was our smallest at 3lbs 1oz. It’s hard to believe that our little peanut has grown so much and is about to start kindergarten this week. Grace, who is now 3, was only 4 weeks early and was able to come home with us, since she was over 5lbs. Bubbles as we called her, is by far my silliest she always wants to make you laugh. And Megan, who is 9 months, was born 7 weeks early and spent 5 weeks and two days in the NICU. My little Caboose-a-moose, since she is our final child, is the chunkiest baby we have had, and is currently getting into everything.
