4 years (+ 513 days)

It all started on a cool, March evening in 2005. Matt and I were driving from Reading to Potter County so I could meet his parents. To say the least, I was very nervous! I tried to talk Matt into just continuing on the drive and running away to get married. Then, we could go see his parents. My reasoning was this: Even if they didn't like me, they would have to accept me as a member of the family because we were already married. Matt said that that probably was not best. (In retrospect, I guess he was probably right. He usually is, but don't tell him I said that. :-)) Anyway, since he seemed pretty adamant about not marrying me then, I started asking him when he would marry him. "How about in 2 days? A week? A month?" Finally, I got to, "Will you marry me in 513 days?" When he said, "It's a possibility." I started counting down the days. Five hundred thirteen was just a random number I pulled off the top of my head, but as it turned out it was a Saturday in August of 2006 - August 12, 2006, in fact. From that day on, we joked about getting married on that day, but never talked seriously about it.

Some pics of us we took that day on our way from Colleen's to his parents'

5 years ago today (August 12, 2005) - I was living with Colleen and Matt in Reading for the summer, and Matt came down to visit me. In the back of my mind, I thought it would kind of be a cool day to get married just because we joked around about getting married on August 12th. As far as I knew, however, Matt hadn't talked to my dad about it yet. (He had, in fact, secretly met up with my dad the day before to talk to him). He was also giving me that standard lie that I hear just about all boys give their girlfriends, "I would like to get engaged, but there's just not money for a ring right now." Despite these things, I was still thinking it just might be a possibility. We went to a park, had a picnic, and took a walk. By this point, I was sure we were not getting engaged. I had felt his pockets - there was no ring. He got his guitar out of the car, and we sat on a bench by a stream/creek thing. Just in case he sneaked a ring into his pocket when he got the guitar, I checked again. There was no ring. We sang together for a while, and then he started playing and singing for me some sappy country love songs. He started playing a song for me that he had written. It was very sappy and sweet! (For those of you who are already ready to be sick from the sappiness, I won't put the whole song on here). At the end of the song, the guy in the song asks the girl to marry him. By this point, I was pretty sure of what was going on. After the song, the sweetest, most romantic guy in the world got down on one knee, held out a gorgeous ring (Tricky boy - he had put the ring in the guitar case), and said, "Heather Grace, I love you. Will you marry me?"

The night we got engaged

The day after we got engaged - my awesome sister made us a fabulous dinner. Steak and Lobster!!

Some other pics from that weekend

4 years ago today (August 12, 2006) - I married my best friend!!! I'm so thankful to be married to such a kind, patient, Godly, all-around incredible man. He works so hard to take care of us, and he is such an amazing leader for our family. We have so much fun together, and I can't imagine anyone I would rather be with on the crazy ride called life.

Today (August 12, 2010) - We are getting ready to move into our 4th(!) home, and expecting our second child in just about 6 weeks. And right now, we're getting ready to head out the door for a date!

The most recent pics of us - my favorite place to be is still in his arms.....

...or hiding behind something so we can make out. ;-) I love you, Matthew Martin Montgomery, and I'm looking forward to many more wonderful years with you!!

Just for fun, I thought I'd throw in the sole picture of our first date ever when one of my friends broke off my other date for me and told Matt he had to ask me to the Christmas concert instead.