365 + 2

I could never, ever find the right words to describe how amazing this last year has been. But, I would be ungrateful if I didn't try.

Scott and I were sealed in the Jordan River Temple on February 15, 2014 and it was such an excellent day. Our wedding was perfect for us and I loved every minute of it. But, The 364 days that followed were even better than our one special day.

I've known Scott for about 8 years, and really well for almost 6. He has been one of my best friends and has stood by me through a lot. I never knew he would be my husband one day. I always hoped, but I never knew. Scott is a person I wish everyone could have. I know a lot of girls married to people like Scott. I see how happy they are and I'm grateful because I know I have that too.

After Scott and I started dating, I learned a lot more about him than I ever knew. I thought I knew him before- nope. As we spent more and more time together, I fell even more deeply in love. I've always been in love with him. He's always made my heart pound and my cheeks red. He's always given me fluttery, nervous feelings of excitement. But, when we started dating, that love turned into so much more. I started to care for him even more deeply. Everything I did was for him. Some people might think it's ridiculous to tie yourself down to one person at the age of 19, but I was happy to do it. I knew my life would never feel complete until I was sharing it with someone who wanted to be with me just as badly.

Scott and I dated for nine months before we got married. That was probably way too long, but that's what we did. By the time we moved in together, it felt like our lives were already combined. The transition into marriage was not difficult in the slightest. Sure, communication wasn't perfect, and it still isn't, but I've never, ever thought to myself "oh what have I gotten myself in to?" I really believe that the time we spent preparing to be married was precious. It was necessary. I am grateful for every single night we had to say goodbye at the door because it makes me appreciate crawling into bed with him so much more.

Marriage is about learning. I'm definitely no expert, but I can say that my husband has taught me a lot. And in turn, I've taught him how to eat vegetables and save money. We build each other up. I think it's awesome. I want someone that challenges me and continually makes me want to be better. Not just for him, but for myself.

I have loved this last year so much. I can't believe how fast the time went. I really, really don't know where I would be without Scott. I've said it before and I'll say it again, he saved my life and I could never thank him enough for it. I appreciate that he pushes me to stay in school and get my homework done. I love that he encourages me to go out and make friends. I admire that he works so hard every single day to build up our savings accounts for the future. I know I can rely on him. I can't wait to see what our second year of marriage is like.

I love you, Scotty :)

Why I Loved My Wedding

Scott and I have been married for five months TODAY. I can hardly believe it. It seems like it has flown by yet I feel like we've been here forever. I've been thinking a lot about our wedding day and the time leading up to it. I've been thinking a lot about our sealing ceremony and our reception as I have attended several of those for our friends this summer. I can't help but envy those who have beautiful flowers in their wedding pictures. We got married in February where everything was deader than dead. It wasn't even beautifully snow-covered. Just dead. I can't help but envy those who have perfect little decorations that probably took hours to make. I can't help but envy how beautiful some brides look. I wish I would have taken more time getting ready and making myself look good. But truthfully, I didn't HAVE the time. I was literally doing homework two days before our wedding. I had a huge project due Wednesday and I had to get it done before the wedding or it never would have happened.
I sometimes regret not waiting until the "normal" time of year to have a wedding. I hated having to go back to school just a few days after we were married. And then still having two months of school left. It sucked, I tell you.
But honestly, I loved our wedding. I loved loved loved it. I can't tell you one single thing that wasn't perfect about it. (Except of course...all the dead everything.) We got engaged on September 20th and we had already picked our date... February 15th. The only thing special about it is that it was President's Day weekend so we had an extra day off of school. We later realized it was also the day after Valentine's Day. Oops.
The next morning was a Saturday and we were off to Magnolia Grove to book our reception. I couldn't wait another minute. I had to have my wedding there. I mean, it's gorgeous. Scott called and booked the temple. We planned our sealing for the perfect time of 11 am. After that day I felt like nothing else mattered. We had our temple and reception center booked. Everything else were just minor details.
It wasn't super hard to plan because I already knew what I wanted for our wedding. (I'm going to be so creepishly honest right now..) I have had a crazy obsession crush on Scott for most of my life since I met him. Before he left on his mission we sort of talked about maybe one day having a life together. It was nothing serious and it was nothing that kept me from living my life. But man, I sure did mentally plan out our entire wedding for quite a while after he left. So really, I had already done all the specific planning. Turns out it wasn't such a waste of time after all ;)
I believe in formal weddings. I believe in tuxedos and veils and roses and matching bridesmaid dresses and wedding lines. These are things that are dying away and that kills me. You get ONE day in your life to be fancy. Embrace it! I'm happy people were nice and let me have what I wanted. While it was pretty simple, it was so beautiful. I loved it.
Everything ran so smoothly and our families didn't have to spend all night cleaning up after us. That is something I'm very thankful for. I'm also thankful that we were the only people having a wedding at the time. I know this may sound selfish and terrible but I loved all the attention. I loved that almost everyone we invited came. We sent out over 400 announcements and got a huge turn out. I loved feeling important and loved. It was so nice to see people I haven't seen in ages. And to meet (literally everyone) who knows and loves my husband. It was a very special day. I wouldn't trade it for anything. And I wouldn't trade my wonderful husband for anything.

Happy five months to my sweet boy.

I love him with all my heart.

DFTBA

Photo Credit

Honeymoon!

This post is probably way too long and way too boring but I wanted to be able to remember the fun things we did! It wasn't a huge fancy thing but I enjoyed it. We actually laughed about the fact that we were good enough friends that we didn't need to plan a big fancy honeymoon because spending three days alone in a hotel room would be fun enough. And it totally was. But we also had a few adventures :)

After we left our reception we had to go to the car wash to get all the oreos off the windows. I was so sad that we couldn't even enjoy our decorated car. But, it was a safety hazard and it had to go. So we drove through twice and then headed to Salt Lake. We decided months ago that we were going to stay at the Little America. Since we were in school we couldn't go anywhere super far away and we thought this would be perfect. The Little America is the most perfect adorable hotel on the planet. I love it so much! We pulled up and Scott went and checked in. He had ordered us a romance package for the first night so we came into our room to this:

And this:

It was basically perfect.

That night I woke up around 2 and could not for the life of me fall asleep again. I checked my Twitter and Facebook to see all the happy wedding wishes people had sent us. I wrote Elise (my bff who is also a missionary) and told her about the wedding. After I had completely stalked my social media sites and sent my letter, I got ultra bored. Eventually I just woke Scott up and we watched TV and ate snacks from the honeymoon basket my sister gave us. We joked about just getting up and beginning our day right there. It was about 4 am and Denny's was open! Instead we fell asleep again. Thank heavens.

We eventually got up and got ready and headed to breakfast. By the time we got our food it was noon and we were starving. We hadn't eaten an actual meal since the luncheon at 1 the day before. We enjoyed our breakfast and giggled about the fact that we were married. We decided to go to Walmart to get some more food and a DVD player so we could watch some of the movies we brought. We went back to our room and watched three movies. I napped and we were in bed all freakin day. It was marvelous. I hadn't relaxed like that in so long! It felt really nice to have nowhere to be and no one to bug us. 

We finally got up and headed to dinner at the Coffee Shop downstairs. They had remodeled it since the last time I had been there and it was super adorable. We brought the bottle of sparkling cider that they had given us and had it with dinner. We were being so fancy ;) After dinner we went to the front desk and requested to stay another night. I sure as heck didn't want to wake up and go home in the morning! 

The next day we went to Chilis for lunch and it was fantastic. Then we walked around the Grand America and went to my favorite little toy store. Thankfully Scott appreciated it as much as I wanted him to haha it was fun! Then we went to Gateway cause I needed new bras. I'm such a lucky duck in the sense that ALL of my bras broke right before I got married. And by all I mean all but one. But who wants to live life with only one bra? Not this girl. Anyway it was a huge misfortune because bras are expensive and replacing a lot of them at one time is hard ): But, Scott insisted that I get what I need and we went to Victoria's Secret (because I just won't go anywhere else). We browsed some of the other stores and then went on a hunt for a present for Scott. What's a shopping trip if you don't even get anything? Eventually we got something for him and went back to our hotel. We watched another movie and went to the pool! We chatted with a few couples at the hot tub and told everyone we could that we just got married. I totally soaked up all the congratulations. 

We went to dinner at the Coffee Shop again and brought another bottle of sparkling cider that my sister had given us. We indulged on mac n cheese and french dip sandwiches. It was absolute heaven. 

The last night was sad cause we had to get up and go home the next morning. I hated that our precious time together had ended and it was time to go back to real life. I packed up super slowly and wished that a miracle would happen and we wouldn't have to go home and move all the rest of our crap to our new house. 

Well, miracles don't always happen. We had to leave and we went to our apartment. The family we live with had given us groceries for a wedding present and I actually cried when I saw them. They had given us a week's worth of food and various staple items to last us a while. We ate some cereal and unpacked our things. We headed to our parents' houses to collect our things and packed it all up. We rushed home and put everything away and then went back to my mom and dad's to open our wedding gifts. HOLY BALLS WE GOT SO MUCH STUFF. Thankfully we still needed almost all of it and I spend the next week opening all the boxes and putting everything away. After we had everything loaded up we said goodbye and went home to spend our first night in our new house. 

We had alfredo for dinner and went to bed around 2 am. When Scott got up at 6 to go to work I wanted to cry. I hated going back to real life. I hated getting up at 7 to start my 14 hour school day. I just wanted to go back to the pretty hotel that was warm and beautiful. But, we've adjusted to life and I feel pretty good. I'm happy here. I feel like I'm living in a dream. We are both so busy and so tired but we somehow make it. We enjoy the precious time we have together and laugh a lot. :)

DFTBA

Best Friends, Forever

We spent the night before putting together a playlist for dancing and talking and laughing together.

At 11:49 we said goodbye for the last time. 

I didn't sleep much.

I got up at 7, tired as can be.

It took me 40 minutes to shower and shave.

Never before have I taken so much time on my knees.

Threw on my makeup, almost cried.

Went to my hair appointment, almost cried.

Came home and fixed my disaster of a face.

Put on my black dress and mom told me I was beautiful.

Loaded up everything and checked 4x.

Only temple in the valley open = nowhere to park.

Almost cried again.

Couldn't find mom, couldn't find Scott.

Started to panic.

Finally got everyone together.

Hugged my boy and told him he looked so good.

He did look so good. 

Put on my dress and just stared. 

Mom and grandma oohed and aahed. 

Came out and saw his face drop. 

*finally*

Said goodbye to our parents and went up the elevator.

Temple worker said the sweetest words,

"We aren't going to separate you any more."

Sat and waited with my sweetheart with the calmest, most peaceful feeling.

Almost cried again when we walked in and saw all of our family and friends.

Heard the most beautiful blessings and promises, ever.

Filled with joy.

Hugged everyone, my brother was my favorite.

Came out of the temple to so many happy faces.

Pictures, pictures, pictures.

Windy and kind of cold, 

but at least it wasn't snowing.

Had a moment of realization that we were actually finally married and screamed a little.

Drove to reception center for lunch.

Delicious food and happy family. 

Bagpipers. SO COOL.

Random advice that I don't remember.

Elise's parents taking pictures to send to her.

Being so happy every time because I knew it was like she was there. 

Setting up for reception.

Making out in the groom's room.

Getting ready for pictures.

Photo sesh with our mute photographer.

Props to her for being the ultimate trooper.

And Austin for being her voice ;)

Packed reception. Worried about brownies.

Saying hi and hugging everyone.

Felt like a princess.

I lost a bet I thought for sure I'd win.

Cake, bouquet, garter, dances. 

HE PULLED IT OFF WITH HIS TEETH AND I COULD NOT STOP LAUGHING.

Time to go change and leave.

Bubbles and goodbyes.

Oreos and balloons everywhere. 

Had to go through the car wash twice so we could see out the windows.

Good talk with Scotty, actually cried.

Little America check in.

Stayed in the tower on the 12th floor.

Rose pedals on the bed, sparkling cider on ice, and chocolates & berries.

It was adorable and so big and so beautiful and it felt like heaven.

Sister's snack basket that saved our lives.

It was the best ending to the best day.

I loved falling asleep next to Scott and not having to wake up and go home.

I loved that we were ALLOWED to be alone.

That no one was going to call us and bug us and ask where we were.

It was magical.

Being married to Scott is magical.

Our wedding day was perfect. 

I wish we could do it again.

:)

We really are best friends, forever.

photo credit

And While I'm At It

Engagements. :)

Best. Trip. To. The. Library. Ever.

Patience is Not a Virtue I Have

 I got my bridals back today.

I can't wait to show THE ENTIRE WORLD.

Here are some of the only ones that don't ruin the whole

....dress surprise thing.

Ugh. I hate waiting.

I'M PROBABLY GOING TO DIE.

Love

It's a thing.

:)