Cold! Winter! Snow!

Since Thanksgiving, we have had some cool things happen. First, Jason started working at a new job. He is now doing bigger and better things. I am SO proud of him! He is now using public transportation to get into DC everyday. My little commuter! And speaking of jobs, the organization I work for got written up as one of the best 50 places to work in Washingtonian magazine. This actually happened before the wedding but I'm just getting around to telling y'all now. My bad. Even cooler – my parents' company got written up as well!

We have also had our first snow (!!!)

and therefore our first family snow photo of the year.

We're supposed to get a ton of snow starting tonight – hooray! So we might take more pictures of that.

We got the Bells' Christmas tree a few weekends ago – the day after our first snow. Man was it MUDDY. So, going with tradition, we carried Rufus the entire time again. This was last year:

This time Jason took a turn.

He started falling asleep. Life is tough for this little guy.

The search begins.

And then Jason finds one! Here are Terry and Linda with their tree right before we cut 'er down!

Ta-da! It’s magically on the car. A dude from the tree farm chucked it up there – literally.

And now the Christmas countdown begins!

Our First Married Thanksgiving

We had a lovely Thanksgiving at the Bell's house this year. It was my first Thanksgiving away from my parents and my first with my new family! We made some pumpkin soup the night before to share with the Bells and Rufus reaped the benefits. Doggie-ball loves his pumpkin.

He loves pumpkin so much he danced for it. Literally. It was so funny to watch him that we had to shoot a video of it. He could be a circus dog!

On Thanksgiving day, Jason and I went for our annual Turkey Trot. Usually this is an outing for my family but this time it was just me and Jason so we decided to bring Rufus along too! Here are my main men as the race began.

We enjoyed our trot although it was a little sad without our family walking with us! It was super foggy but the weather was nice and the rain held out until we were done. Here we are after the trot. Our first family (non-wedding) photo!

It was a really great first Thanksgiving as a married couple - we have so much to be thankful for!!!

Aruba Ariba!

For the honeymoon it was off to Aruba for two whole weeks, though for a time we thought I might be going to Argentina while she was going to Aruba, thanks to US Airways who don't even fly to Argentina yet! Our flight was an early one and we caught a cab to Dulles at 4:15 in the morning, first thing forgotten for our trip...my wedding ring, oh man did I feel bad, and didn't hear the end of it for a few days. A hop, skip, and a jump later we arrived to Aruba right about hotel check in time. Our taxi driver went about 100 mph down back streets and main roads, swerving through signs Kaitlyn and I couldn't even begin to figure out what they meant, I guess we both need to brush up on our "International Traffic Signs." I will say though that even I thought the drivers there were a bit nuts and I tend to not be very shocked by how people drive. In very short order we arrived at the lovely Divi Village, one of the hotels in the low rise area, and also at the area called Eagle Beach. Big thanks again to Aunt Rita and Jim :)



The beach here was pretty calm and empty, not a lot of shade, at least not close to the water where we wanted to be. We decided not to do the all-inclusive for our first week as we didn't want to eat/drink everything for two weeks or risk coming back 20 lbs heavier.



The one thing Aruba is missing from other tropical islands is fresh fruit. We went to the grocery store to take care of most of our breakfast, lunch, a few dinners, and possible snack needs. Most of the fruit we bought was from America, sad but hey it's a desert island. We went into town one day to shop around and try and find gifts to bring back, however being in town you really miss all the Aruba wind that is constant everywhere else and it's pretty dang hot. We ducked out of the sun to have lunch at a little Indian restaurant that was pretty good and brought home a good helping of leftovers for another meal.



One of the nights while we were at the Divi we went to have dinner at their nicest restaurant, Window's, they were boasting that they had the best steak and fish on the island. Kaitlyn didn't think about that until after she had ordered that she should have gotten the fish, but she was more than happy with her meal, just look at how excited she was over her left overs. I had a steak which was excellent, we should have taken pictures the presentation was great. All in all it was a great dinner and a decently good view as it sat on top of the golf club and had huge window walls, however we didn't get the best view which was towards the ocean and on the other side of the restuarant. They had some pretty neat artwork, and we had to capture a picture of this chandelier as we were heading out.



The first few days of being on our honeymoon we were so exhausted from everything we both napped, which we never do, but after a few days we had more energy and decided to do a full day jeep tour to see the island. Again crazy drivers in Aruba, this time with huge pot holes all over the north side of the island where it's all just dirt roads.

Our tour guide was great and he filled us in at all the stops we made, the ride was rough, I was popping about two feet out of my seat most of the time and that was buckled in! We toured the entire island, it's not super big so it can be done pretty easily. We went to the lighthouse which is named for a wreck right off of the point of the island. We also went to the old Bushiribana Gold Mill Ruins.





We went to an ostrich farm and a natural bridge which had collapsed but there was another smaller one right near it. Here is a pretty picture of what a lot of the "wilderness" of Aruba looks like.



We went to a natural pool, which was filled with fish and snorkeled for a bit, it was basically a ring of rock with one small area that the waves actually made it over so it was protected from everything and filled with a number of fish and apparently an eel at some point but we didn't see him. We went to some bat caves and went under the windmills they are setting up. I never realized how big they were, pictures just don't do them justice.



Then we headed to baby beach which was a very nice snorkeling spot. At first when we got in the water was sooo cloudy and you could only see these silver kind of fish and all you could see was the outline of their fins and such, it was cool but kinda eerie as they would circle you. We got a bit further out and the water became crystal clear and about 100 fish greeted us. Kaitlyn screamed because they were so close she was touching them as she swam, you knew when ever a girl got to that point because you'd hear the muffled underwater scream. We stayed there for a bit and snorkeled then headed back tired and dirty from all the dust on the back roads to rest up before dinner. Here we are on the jeep.



Speaking of fish, all over the north part of the island there was stacked rocks. It started as the fishermen just marking a spot where they caught a lot, but soon tourists were doing it, and they are just hundreds of them everywhere. Nearby, we went to the Alto Vista Chapel, a small but beautiful place right off of the water.



The second week we stayed at the Occidental, which was was in the high rise hotel area of the island. Very different surroundings and beach but we still had a good time. This week was all-inclusive and we had our fill, we tried all the specialty restaurants and had a buffet for breakfast and lunch almost everyday, Kaitlyn had french toast every morning for a week lol. The beach was a good bit more crowded and we had to get up by 8 to get a spot/towels/rafts, but it was a nice time and we got a lot of relaxing in.



We didn't do a whole lot at the second place but lay on the beach, or get our rafts and lay in the water, but we both had a great time, read a good bit, and just plain relaxed which you just can't do back here and when you have to work everyday. We did a snorkeling trip the second day at the new place that was included in the package I got through Costco, Kaitlyn found a sea turtle at one of the German wrecks and swam around to watch it for most of the time. The rest of the week we spent on the beach soaking up the sun and the free drinks. I caught this cutie coming out of the water with her raft and she looked like she was having one heck of a good vacation.



Side note by Kaitlyn: Don't judge the bathing suit. I am fully aware that it's hideous and ill-fitting but it was only $12!

All in all we have a great time, neither of us wanted to come home that last day, we missed our dog a ton but at the same time we didn't want to come home and work, but who does? Heck we started planning our next trip while the second week was ending. Next stop...Alaska!

Favorite Wedding Moments

Writing this entry is a little intimidating because I feel like I can't quite capture the awesomeness that was our wedding day. It was amazing. Absolutely amazing. The love that surrounded us was like nothing I've ever experienced before.

Some of my favorite moments were the most unexpected moments that were full of such emotion and love:

Waking up in the dark before the sun came up and walking out of my hotel room to see Allison and my dad had just left their room and were coming down the hall toward me. My parents, the ones that have supported me all my life, they were right there the second I began my day to support me again. The closeness I felt to my parents that whole weekend and since then has been incredible and I couldn't be more thankful for it.

Allison putting my earrings in my ears to relive memories of her wedding. Reading the note that Jason wrote to me to read before the ceremony. Knowing that he was reading mine and learning of my last gift to him before marriage - that I had decided to take his last name. The stories and jokes that my bridesmaids and parents told me to calm my nerves right before the ceremony. Laughing while walking down the aisle with my parents. Seeing Jason waiting at the end of the aisle, beaming. Freezing during the ceremony but feeling warmth from holding Jason's hands - enough warmth to keep me from shivering. Listening to Mr. Paul speak and seeing only Jason. The wall my uncle, dad, and grandpa made around me and Jason as we lit the unity candle so that the wind would be less of an issue. My dad's toast. The Corays gathering around me to sing "K-K-K-Kaity" - a song they sang to me while growing up. The bottom of my dress at the end of the day - brown and ripped - the only way it should have been. Anything other than that and I wouldn't have felt I lived the day to the fullest.

Seeing everyone out and being the absolute last ones to leave the venue after the wedding. Getting in the car and hearing the quiet of just the two of us together, alone. Recalling the day, our wedding day, in awe. Watching the sunset together as we drove away to the bed and breakfast we stayed at that night.

Laughing and smiling instead of crying the entire day.

Thank you to all of our friends and family. The love and support that surrounded us made our day so special to us. It means the world to us.

P.S. Jason and I (well, let's be serious, mostly me) will continue to write in this blog. I'm not letting it die now that the wedding is over! Next up: a honeymoon entry!

3 days and counting!

Hello, people! We are 3 days out! I kept meaning to write again but things have been CRAZY!

Some highlights:

Jason and I celebrated our five year anniversary on October 14. Because it's our anniversary of dating, it's really the last year we can celebrate it! Next year we'll have a whole new anniversary date and a new milestone to celebrate!

We went to the lake and were all by ourselves over Columbus Day weekend - just like when we got engaged. We even ate some smores! It was a great time to get a little relaxation because the craziness started right when we got back. I'm so glad we had that weekend to ourselves!

We both had parties that our offices threw for us - and we both got to attend both of them which was really nice. It was so sweet.

I saw Hanson twice this week. One of the times I was 4 feet in front of them with nothing but air between us for an hour and a half. Talk about a really great week - it started with Hanson and it'll end with marriage!

We got our ketubah yesterday. It's beautiful... but they spelled my middle name wrong. Go figure! Apparently another one should be here tomorrow! Fingers crossed!

The guys are getting their tuxes fitted today - hopefully that'll all go well because the tux place has been a little... unreliable. Hopefully they'll wow us and everything will be perfect today!

Things are pretty darn crazy. There is still a lot to do but slowly my list is getting smaller. Maitha came into town on Monday. She was a huge help yesterday driving me all around while Jason was at work for his last day. Erin is coming in today and the rest will follow tomorrow!

Just a reminder to everyone to use the directions listed in the email below. You can use MapQuest and GPS's to get you to the major highways, but once you turn off you'll need the directions in the links below. Please use them!

See you all at 12 noon on Sunday! We can't wait!

The Utahn Family

We had a nice trip to Utah a couple of weeks ago. It was great spending time with Grandma, Grandpa, and Uncle Steve. There was lots of visiting in the form of game-playing, ice cream eating (we made 2 batches of homemade ice cream, fresh peach and raspberry pineapple), bowling, and drives. My grandma and her sisters threw us a shower so we also got to see some extended family. Because Jason had never been to Utah we made sure we did at least a little bit of site-seeing and took a drive up to Snow Basin with my Grandpa. Grandpa was a great person to ride with he told us about the history of the places we were in and even a little bit of family history!

One of my favorite parts of the trip was going through a book of my family genealogy with my grandpa and learning more about his family. Grandma was right there with us while we looked at it and even she asked some questions! My dads cousin Bobbie gave it to me as a wedding gift because last year she got me very interested in her genealogy finds. She even added pictures to it it is seriously so cool. I love learning about my family history and love going through old pictures even more!

Family means an awful lot to both of us. Its one of the reasons we work well together - our families are super important to us. We're excited to join our families together we have such awesome relatives and we cant wait for them all to meet each other. It is so special that by marrying someone you are able to join many, many people together into a family. Were making our own new, huge family. That is so cool. Plus, I don't know where we'd be without our families - especially our parents - we owe everything to them!

Here's a little more from Jason (!!!):

It was wonderful getting out to see the mountains again, it's been quite a while since I was last out west. I've always been a beach baby but I'm also very at home in the mountains, torn between my favorite to be honest. The visit was awesome, Utah is a beautiful place. Kaitlyn and I took daily walks, at both morning and evening if possible just to soak up the area. All of the family I met were great people, Steve got me to feed lines to his Aunts and a cousin. I look forward to bringing our families together because we sure are lucky people to have both sides full of great people. So many people have been a huge help in this monumental event in our lives and it would take forever to thank everyone individually for everything for small ideas, listening to every little detail, coming along with us to see places and vendors, and even imparting wisdom morning, noon, or middle of the night. We're very grateful to have such wonderful families willing to help us in anything we possibly need. The big day is fast approaching and I look forward to it more and more each moment, to combine two families near and dear to both of us and to marry the woman who completes me.

Like father like son waiting at the airport & Jake at our favorite "Jake's Over the Top" milkshake place. Yum.


Some of the bowlers (Jason kicked all of our butts both games)


Jake and Allison bowling


Grandpa and Grandma


Jake and Uncle Steve - "When Land Sharks Attack" - Steve always makes up funny stories and this trip it was about "land sharks"... soon enough, a land shark actually got Jake - here's the video proof. I LOVE his giggle.


Snow Basin drive


Wild turkey family! Babies and a momma.


Utah, we love you.

Moved!

We’re out of the old apartment. Turned in our keys this afternoon. We worked our booties off cleaning it yesterday and even rented a steam cleaner to get the carpet looking beautiful only to learn that they have cleaners come in to clean the place and then check the apartment again. So that was all for naught. And then we learned that they somehow LOST our move-in inspection sheet which listed all of the things that were wrong with the apartment when we moved in. WHAT? The guy that did our move-out inspection said we shouldn’t be charged for anything but there were issues we moved in and if we get charged for them because they conveniently “lost” the move-in sheet I will go crazy. Absolutely crazy. I’m convinced that the woman that we signed the lease with purposely threw the sheet away. Before we signed the lease she talked about loving shelter puppies and the elderly. After we signed the lease for said apartment I realized she was lying. She was not a nice person. Not nice at all.

The good news is that we're done with that place. DONE! The negativity of the place is gone and we are in a happier place. On Saturday, we moved into the new place. Thanks to our good friends Jessica and Joel, we got moved in pretty quickly. We moved out within our 3 hour allotted period for the elevator and loading dock and got moved in even more quickly. It was an amazing experience compared to our move-in experience last year.

We’re happy with the new place. The courtyard is SO nice. It's HUGE. Like in college it generates a feeling of community because people hang out on it. The night we moved in, someone was having a BBQ in the courtyard. Jason saw someone reading underneath a tree. People garden and spend time outside their apartment. When we walk Rufus there are other dog owners walking their dogs too. We really lucked out.

It's beginning to feel real

The past week has been really productive – it's crack-down time now! We'll be pretty crazy-busy until Labor Day and then we'll have a little bit of breathing time again. I'll try to write again before then but if you don't hear from me it's because we're going crazy!

We got our rings! They're really pretty and engraved. I love them. I love them so much that I kept taking them out of their box enough that Jason informed me we would have to shine them again before the wedding. My bad! I'll try not to touch them again until October. Operative word: try.

We went tux hunting again and decided on one. Hopefully it looks good. They could dress the manikins to show us what the tuxes looked like but not the real man. What? Does that even make sense? The tie/vest colors still weren't matching the bridesmaids' dress color so we went tie shopping this weekend and came home with ties for the groomsmen and a few different options for Jason.

Speaking of apparel, tonight Allison is taking me to get my second wedding dress fitting. I'm excited because it should actually fit me now!

Our Aruba honeymoon is all booked. I can't wait! I’m very much looking forward to pina coladas on the beach and of course spending time with my new hubby.

We also got paint for our new bedroom which Eddie and I will be painting on Friday night after work. And then Jason and I are moving on the 15th!

All that and we still had time to see the musical Spring Awakening at the Kennedy Center thanks to my parents who gave us a gift certificate for Christmas last year (thank you!). It was really good… and was fun to get dressed up! I particularly enjoyed it because Duncan Sheik wrote all of the music for it. It was very much his style – I could tell without a doubt that he composed the pieces.

I can't believe how close the wedding is now… it makes me both nervous and excited. Nervous because I still have a lot of decisions to make and excited because I'm ready to marry my man!

Mr. Paul

Mr. Paul is the man that will be marrying us!

Here is a picture of him that I took from my dad's Facebook. Mr. Paul is on the far left, with my dad and a couple of other neighborhood guys - Mr. Foley and Mr. Burman.

Mr. Paul is a dear family friend and is part of one of the families that I considered my second family as a kid growing up. I have a lot of memories of him growing up. One of the coolest memories I have of him is that he was the first person I told after I found out that Allison and my dad were pregnant with Jakob. I was soooo excited to tell everyone that I was going to be a sister, and he's the first person I told. And I still remember that he guessed what was going on before we even told him (we all walked up and said, "guess what?" and he said, "you're pregnant!") and he was SO thrilled about it. Then, before Jake was born, he banded with me and agreed that if the baby was a boy he should be named Zachary. We made a pact that we would call the baby Zeke no matter what. That lasted for about a month... but it still meant a lot to me when I was 13 that he stuck with me!

He's also the guy that got me into hockey and the Caps. He took me and his daughter, Kelsey, out to a practice one time and I was instantly hooked. After that, he often drove Kelsey and I to the rink so that we could watch games together with his season tickets. If it wasn't for him I probably never would have learned about hockey and how awesome it is!

So fast forward to Memorial Day of this year. He asked me how the wedding planning was going and I told him pretty much everything was planned but that we still had a major hole: someone to marry us. I told him of our dilemma: we want someone we know to marry us. Our first idea was Jason's sister-in-law, Emily, and she was really flattered about it... but then we realized that if both Matt (Jason's brother and best man) and Emily were in the wedding, their daughter Esme who (will only be a year old at the time of the wedding) wouldn't have her mommy or daddy around during the ceremony and that might cause issues. Well, we certainly didn't want an unhappy little niece. So I explained to Mr. Paul that we were stuck. He jabbed me in the arm and said, "Well, I'll marry you!!!" Now, I think he was half-joking... but I as soon as he said it I said, "OKAY!"

So there you have it! Mr. Paul is marrying us! And we're both THRILLED!!!!!!

"Because... you know... we're getting married."

Recently it came to our attention that we should be looking for wedding bands because... you know... we're getting married. Well, we were lucky enough to do some one-stop shopping this weekend and we now have wedding bands in the making! And we even stuck to our (very) low budget that I made for them! Woo hoo! And, because we find it funny, it also needs to be said that Jason was the high maintenance one (and his ring cost 4x as much as mine). When he explained what he wanted, he had three rings to do it - he wanted the width of one, the milgrain (miligrain?) of another, and the finish of yet another. I found what I wanted and said, "I want this EXACT ring. Same size, same everything."

We also looked at tuxes. The vest colors kind of matched the bridesmaids dresses... I say kind of but they really didn't match at all. Can we say color clash? I'm not quite sure what we're going to do about that. So we're not done with tuxes yet. Here's my scruffy groom modeling the not-so-matching vest and dress:



We also hit up an Ikea sale this weekend to get real wood living room furniture for half price. We're replacing nearly everything we have to get matching and better quality stuff. We're in the process of selling our old stuff on craigslist which is great because we'll have less to move in August! We wound up getting 3 of the 6 things we wanted (a TV stand and two small bookcase to go next to it) because people had rushed and bought things before us. But then the strangest thing happened... while I sat there moping about how we shouldn't have eaten free breakfast before we shopped, people started returning the pieces they had just bought. So we wound up getting the desk and the bigger bookcase we wanted as well! People are crazy. Absolutely crazy. I don't get it. The only thing we didn't walk away with that we wanted was a china-like cabinet - which we'll eventually buy anyway (at full price - boo-hiss) because my aunt is giving me my grandmother's beautiful china when we get married. Next to re-do: our bedroom furniture. But that will wait until after we're married.

I also got my first fitting for my dress last weekend and will have my second fitting in 2 weeks!

Did I mention we're under the 100 day mark now? 97 days and counting!

Visiting the Lake

We went to the lake last weekend to see Matt, Emily, and little Esme... and wound up seeing quite a few other friends and family! It was a great time and we even managed to get a few pictures!

Emily and Esme (in the cute little outfit we got for her)

Bill and Aunt Diane

Little Ru

Matt and Esme

Ella and Esme with Grandma

Us with Esme - she is too darn cute!

Happy 4th of July, everyone! We're headed to Iwo Jima to see the fireworks tonight. Should be a fun night!

Banana Pancakes, Part 3

This weekend we drove up to Frederick to meet with a DJ (hired) and a hairdresser (hired). I think we're done hiring vendors which I thought would be a load off my back. Well, now I'm getting bogged down in logistics which is 10 times as stressful. I'm thinking that this is the part that everyone talks about as being stressful. I looked at Allison while I was making four lists at once and asked, "It's only going to get worse, isn't it? This isn't even going to be close to all that I have to worry about, is it? I'm only going to get more stressed out, aren't I?" And she confirmed what I feared. Well, at least I have her. I don't know what I'd do without her.

We also celebrated Father's Day with both of our families which was really nice. Jason and I originally planned to have a Father's Day brunch at our apartment with both of our parents but when I went to invite my parents, Allison offered their house (and kitchen). We took her up on that offer so that we could have a bigger cooking and serving space. We made a ton of food - but the main event was our famous banana pancakes (with and without chocolate chips) that I made for Jason on Valentine's Day and he made for me on my birthday.  We also had turkey bacon, eggs, berries, and mimosas. It was delicious. I intended to take pictures but after cooking pancakes for an hour and a half (there were a LOT of them) I was pretty exhausted and I didn't even think about pictures. Oops! Both sets of parents agreed that it should be the start of a tradition so I'll try to remember to take pictures in 2010!

Leukemia and Lymphoma Society's Annual Gala

Last night, Jason and I went to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society's annual gala where they announce the Man and Woman of the Year. It was so great to go - Allison is amazing and it is so great to see her doing such good and making such a difference in the world. I'm sad I wasn't around when she ran for Woman of the Year (I was in Australia), but I'm glad she's still involved in such a great cause and that I can still support her now. She did a lot of announcing last night and she did a great job! She looked super pretty too. The candidates this year raised over $900,000!!! That is INCREDIBLE considering the economy this year. It made my heart swell to know that no matter the economy, amazing people still dedicate time, energy, and money into good causes. The world isn't so bad after all.

It was fun to go because it was a fancy event and we got to get all dressed up - I love getting dressed up every once in a while! Here we are before leaving our apartment.



And then again at my parents' house before cabbing it to DC.  Now you can see what we're wearing!



Here we are with my parents at the gala.



Here we are with our friends who joined us, Jessica and Joel.



In other news, we saw my little cousin Emma's ballet recital this morning (she's one of the flower girls) and it was just about the cutest thing I've ever seen. She did so great! Unfortunately, it went a little longer than expected so we couldn't go out and celebrate with the ballerina herself, but she sure was amazing!

Jason and I looked at a different apartment this morning and decided to apply for it and get rid of the deposit on the other place. We can save a lot of money if we get this place so our fingers are crossed! Plus it's really close to my work which is nice - I'll have a nice bike path to get to it which will be really great!

This coming weekend we're trekking it out to Frederick to do more wedding-related planning - we're meeting with a DJ and a hair stylist. We'll see if they can tame my mane! It takes lots and lots of bobbypins to get my hair all up... enough to make airport metal detectors go off! That literally happened to me once... can you imagine? Craziness.

It's June? Seriously?

Life certainly hasn’t been slow! Allison says I’m still in “calm bride mode” and I plan to stay that way! Sorry for the lack of updates... This will be a big post!

Last weekend I helped Jakob make a cake for his elementary school's spring fair's cake decorating contest. And he won the blue ribbon!!! He was SO EXCITED and we were all so proud of him! Coincidentally, my dad's birthday was also around that time so we celebrated it with the cake!



My dad, me, and Jake (Jason was there too - he took the picture).



Jason and I spent the Memorial Day weekend at the lake - this year was a much better drive - we didn't hit any traffic! There were tons of people there - probably around 50 or so - and it was a blast! We got the jet skiis and boats out and even got into the water to swim! During an outdoor break, some of the ladies (Ali, Morgan, Linda, and Diane) took some time to look at old lake pictures while Terry looked on.



The view from the house.



We drove back early on Monday morning to make it to the block party on my parents' street to see all of my old neighbors... one of which even offered to marry us!

The Friday before Memorial Day weekend, my friend (and bridesmaid!) Ali came to DC for her brother's wedding so I got to see her for a nice little coffee break from work! I hadn't seen her in years, so it was sooooo good to see her! Please note: she works outside everyday and I am a cube monkey with no windows!



Jason and I have been looking around for an apartment for about 2 months now, hoping that we would find a place now so that we wouldn’t have to stress out about it later (our lease is up at the end of August). We ended up putting a deposit down on a place that is a little bigger than our current place and is only about a mile away (meaning we can still get to the dog park easily which is a major selling point). But... we weren't told to actually sign the lease so we're not exactly locked in (we don't think). So we're still on the lookout for a cheaper place but have the stability and peace of mind knowing that we have a place if we don't find anything better. We are NOT looking forward to moving. Again. It's not enjoyable to move each year, especially at the end of August when it is HOT out. We're obviously on the wrong cycle. Thankfully, this year we have moving helpers (thanks Eddie, Jessica, and Joel!!!). We’re hoping that with three extra heads and six extra hands things will be faster, more fun, and less nightmarish than last year’s moving experience!

My Uncle Steve sold me his old D-SLR for dirt cheap ohhh over a year ago now and I finally got lenses for it! I LOVE how beautiful the pictures are. A good camera and good lenses make ALL the difference. Here's my favorite subject:



I can't believe the wedding is now less than half a year away. I really only have four months left to plan everything which is a little crazy... but we're getting there! I just want October to be here already!