Our Holiday/Maternity Photos

I was strictly against doing a full on maternity photo session. This is the heaviest I have ever been in my life so I wasn't too excited to document it in a ton of photographs. When the holidays rolled around, I had been wanting to take photos for our Christmas card. While our photographer who did our wedding wasn't available to do them in time to use for our Christmas card, he was able to do it before the holiday. We turned it into a holiday/maternity shoot.

My husband has been thrilled this entire time that we are having a baby and he was so excited to do these photos and be included.

 

I think they turned out really nice! We had gotten engaged 3 years earlier at the Capitol Christmas tree so it was very fitting that we returned for these photos. We got lucky that it wasn't raining and wasn't terribly cold considering this was in the middle of December.

The Curb Killer

 

 

It's time to face the facts. I married a curb killer. My husband, love him to death but he just can't seem to stay away from the curbs. Don't let me get too ahead of myself. Let me start at the beginning...

When we first met he use to drive a Challenger. That is no small car. It's long, it's low to the ground and it's a heavy car with bigger wheels. I personally was never a fan of that car, it was so low to the ground, you felt like you had to crawl out of it. The doors were so heavy they would always swing back and try to close on me just as my legs were swinging out and it was a major gas guzzler. It felt like you had to put gas in it twice a week just to get to and from. 

When and if he hit the curb, I'd kind of give him a pass. I figured the car was so long to the ground and front end of the car so long, he probably couldn't see the curb to even know he was hitting it. Then last summer we traded in his Challenger for a Jeep Grand Cherokee.

The SUV is higher off the ground so you can see the curbs and street pretty well. That's when I realized it, I married a curb killer. My husband can drive down the road all day long but if it's time to turn the corner, he just nails those curbs. He won't full on go up on the curb but he'll give them a little "love tap" or a "nudge". When there's room and he can pull into a parallel parking space, you just know he's going to hit the curb. I've even started referring to him as the curb killer. Thankfully he hasn't popped a tire or killed one of the rims.

Now when we drive together (which is 99.9% of the time because I hate driving), I point it out before he goes to turn. I'll make a joke of it and yell out CURB KILLER and he'll make a point to not take the turn too close to the concrete. It's actually helping some. No matter what, I'll always love my curb killer and pay the AAA bill on time....

Our First Anniversary

Today marks our first wedding anniversary! Honestly, I can't believe it's already been a year. It feels like yesterday that we were organizing, planning and executing our big day.

 

We got married in Pleasanton, California which is about an hour and a half from where we live in Sacramento. We got married on a Sunday but we went over to Pleasanton on Friday. We wanted to settle into the hotel, greet a lot of our out of town guests and get ready for our big wedding weekend. Saturday was our rehearsal and rehearsal dinner (we had it an Italian place called Strizzi's). On Sunday we woke up to a horrible rain storm. The rain was coming down and the winds were high. The winds were so high in the morning that cars were having to pull over to the side of the highway. During the rain storm, our videographer went to the wrong Marriott BUT thankfully, the rain stopped before noon.

We absolutely loved our wedding venue. The venue was perfect for the look, feel and décor theme that we were going for. They also had some great Christmas options since our wedding was taking so place to the holiday. Plus the food was melt in your mouth good. Everyone raved about how the food was amazing. Our wedding was plated and we served three courses and of course cake!

During our wedding we exchanged our own written vows, tossed the garter, threw my bouquet, cut the cake, danced our first dance, smiled, laughed and cried. We also had a first look before the ceremony. Looking back on our wedding, I didn't realize how stressed out I was leading up to our big day. Once it was all over it was like this huge weight off our shoulders. The day went by in a flash. They say it always does but they are right! The day was here and gone before I could blink. I'm so happy we have our wedding video! I literally watch our short teaser wedding video at least once a week. I love it! (here you can watch it if you'd like) It's like walking down memory lane. I haven't been through the hard drive that has about 9 hours of raw footage. One day.... I'll sit and watch it all.

So here we are... one year later. I love my husband more than on our wedding day. I didn't think that could ever be possible but I do. During our first year of marriage we went through new life experiences, good and bad challenges and many memorable moments. The constant throughout the year no matter what the circumstance was the fact that we love each other. We know that we are in this together. I can't imagine never not having him by myself. I love you boo and here's to our first year and on to the next.

Finding My Wedding Dress

You can't have a wedding without a wedding dress...

When my mom came into town for Christmas she had two things to accomplish. The first thing was to celebrate Christmas. We opened up presents, ate some Christmas ham together and just enjoyed being in each other's company. The second thing she was in town to accomplish was helping me find my wedding dress. The first task was pretty easy to do but the second we were a little nervous about.

I had went dress shopping when I was in my hometown for Thanksgiving. It did not go well. The bridal consultant wasn't listening to what I liked. They didn't have the two main dresses that I had scoped out to try on and the dressing room was the size of a shoe box. The girl was nice but she just kept asking me to try on dresses that I would never wear. I would tell her I didn't like it and she would try to talk me into it. Um... no, honey. I am no wallflower. I won't be told what to like. Also, the shop's dresses were such small sample sizes that I could barely get them on. I am not a bigger gal so this made me feel like I was Shamu the whale. So we left that shop feeling defeated.

When I made this appointment, we knew it was going to be the only time we could go dress shopping while my mom was in town. Now I know some of you may be thinking, why in the world is she freaking out about a dress? It's only January! Her wedding isn't until December. Well kids, that's because I like a certain designer and all of her dresses take a minimum of six months to come in to the store once ordered. Then you have alterations. So searching in December we went. The store...

They opened the store for us. We were the only ones there looking at the beautiful dresses. I ran my hands along the dresses and picked more than I probably should have to try on. The sales consultant was so nice! She let me pick as many as I wanted. She even told my mom and soon to be mother in law they could take all the photos they wanted. So when I started stepping into these beauties I knew I was going to find my wedding dress there.

Now clearly this is where it gets tricky. Beezy reads my blog religiously. Every morning when it first posts he's on there looking at it. He calls it his morning read. So I won't be posting my dress until after the wedding. However, I can't leave you guys with nothing so without further ado. Here is a photo of a dress I did not select...

 

While I found this dress very pretty, it was not the one for me. The dress I actually selected was the first one I tried on. I love it. It fits me, my personality and made me feel very bridal. I can't wait to wear it. Sadly, I won't see my dress again until June when it comes in from the designer. Once we get it back, then we set up the alterations. I've got to find my shoes before then so now that hunt is on.

 

I can't wait to share my dress with all of you once the wedding has actually taken place!

 

We Have an Officiant!

Before we got engaged, we already knew who we wanted to marry us. The real question was, How were we going to ask him? Once we got engaged we knew it was only a matter of time before we were going to pop the next big question. If you've been reading for awhile then you already know that Beezy's family is very close. He has an uncle Dan who is hilarious. He's originally from New York and he's been a part of Beezy's family for over 15 years. He's smart, funny and a genuinely caring guy. He's been ordained and performed a few weddings in the past. Any time his family would hint around to us getting engaged they would ask if Dan was going to officiate? We'd play coy and not really respond and that of course made Dan always tell us his strong points for being a good fit to officiate.

Once we got engaged, we knew we would ask Dan to officiate our wedding. The next big question was, How are we going to ask him? And when are we going to ask him? We scoured the internet for cute ways to ask and we chose to ask him on a bottle of wine. Dan loves his wine. So we headed out to BevMo to find the perfect one. When we made a pit stop at World Market we found this cute little suit that goes over a wine bottle. Sold!

When we got to BevMo we found wine that you can actually write on! Sold! Beezy came up with a cute little rhyme and I wrote it on the bottle. Then we packaged it and held on to the bottle for a whole week.

When the Christmas party came we knew that would be a great time to give him the bottle. It would announce the wedding date to his family and be a great time to share the moment of asking Dan to do the honors. He didn't expect a thing until we sat down beside him to get him to open the early Christmas gift.

 Realizing what the bottle has written on it.

 

And guess what?! He said yes! We have someone to officiate! It's going to be great. Dan knows Beezy so well and he knows how to make people really laugh. He's going to do a great job on our special day.

Weekend Review- The Best One Yet

Last week was such a whirlwind. We started off last week by getting engaged. Best Monday of my life. It was perfect. When I think about Beezy getting down on one knee, I could cry all over again. It was magical and so full of love. I was also completely touched by the outpouring of love from our families, friends and all the comments and congratulations.

About one minute after getting engaged.

 

On Thursday we celebrated our anniversary. If you heard about the weather this past week in Sacramento then you heard the term, "The worst storm in a decade" being used. So what happens when torrential rain, flooding and 40+ mph wind hit town? You change your plans a little. I was surprised at work with these...

Last year when we first started dating, Beezy sent me a Christmas flower arrangement while I was in West Virginia visiting my mom. I love that this arrangement was also a Christmas theme. It's kind of a tradition now!

 

Once I got off work and made it home in the rain, (thankfully no major flooding on my roads), we decided to go ahead and head back out into the rain to go to our reservations for dinner. Beezy had made these reservations and wouldn't tell me where. I literally didn't have any idea where we were eating until I was getting out of the car for the valet.

We dined at Ella Dining Room and Bar. It's downtown and very nice. Beezy had the steak and I got a pork chop. Seriously the best pork chop I've ever had. It was also the size of my arm. The thing was huge! We couldn't believe how big it was.

Despite the rain we had a great anniversary. Did we exchange presents? Of course we did! Beezy made me an 11x17 photo book with all of our greatest hits in it from the past year. I bought him a suit jacket he had been wanting.

 

Saturday we hit up the Kings game vs. Detroit Pistons. This was our first game as being engaged. Since that's where it all started it was fitting to spend our first weekend engaged at the game. Love you boo!

The Kings lost the game but since their best player is out sick it wasn't too big of a surprise. We still had fun though and after the game the fun continued. We headed out to see a few Christmas lights.

Now that was a good weekend. I don't know how we'll top that one for awhile!

365 Days Away

This time next year Beezy and I will be getting married!

 

 

We've set the date.

We've booked our venue.

We've booked our videographer.

We've consulted with our most wanted florist.

We've got two DJ quotes.

We've got two lighting quotes.

We've got 9 photographer quotes.

 

The planning is in full force.

 

Mark your calendars.

12-13-15

Happy Anniversary!

Today I want to say a big Happy Anniversary to the most important man in my life.

Today a year ago we started saying that were dating. It feels like it was just yesterday. It doesn't feel like a whole year has gone by. Each day that I wake up with you beside me I know that everything is going to be ok. You make me smile and laugh and you make me happy. I have never been this happy and it's all thanks to you. I don't know what I did in life to deserve you but I thank my lucky stars that you came into my life and that we got together. I can't imagine my life without you. You are my everything. I can't wait till next year when we get married and I start calling you my husband!

 

I love you

 

Here's to all the years to come.

Best Moment of my Life

Last night the greatest thing in my life happened...

 

 

Beezy asked me to marry him! And of course I said yes!

 

Our anniversary is on Thursday and he totally fooled me by asking me on Monday. We had a 5:30 p.m. appointment and he was late to picking me up. If you know Beezy, you know he is never late picking me up for anything because he doesn't like me standing outside and definitely downtown (even though my work building is really safe). He's all about watch your surroundings. So when I called and asked him where he was and he told me he was running late I was like WHAT? He told me he had been over in Roseville shopping for Christmas and I knew he had been so that was a reasonable response. It's when he asked me to walk over to the Capitol Christmas tree that I figured he either had something sneaky going on or he really was just running late. He told me that it was faster if he picked me up over there. So I obliged and walked the two blocks.

 

When I walked up to the Capitol Christmas tree, he was out of his car and walking up beside the tree. He said he wanted to take our picture with the tree. I was still thinking this might just be a normal thing. He knew I was wanting to see the tree and for us to take a photo with it. I mean hello, I love Christmas. So we took a few photos with the tree. It was when he grabbed both of my hands and started telling me how much he loved me and how he has never been this happy that I thought, OH MY GOD THIS IS IT!

 

At this point I started crying. I noticed that he was getting teary eyed and I can't keep a dry eye when he starts to get teary. I covered my mouth because I was starting to cry because I was having that moment in your life that you've wanted for so luck and wished and hoped for and it was finally happening. He asked me if I was laughing and I was crying. He got down on one knee and said, "will you marry me?" I remember looking at the blue box and saying yes. He stood up and gave me a hug. I started saying, "Of course I'll marry you boo boo". We hugged and kissed and took a few more photos.

 

A really nice lady and her friend must have been walking by because she was like do you want me to take your photo? So she did!

 

We really had a 5:30 appointment so once we took photos we left and went to it. That's when the mania started because in the car ride over we sent texts to our family and posted it on social media. I think that was the best decision ever because for the next hour we just let our phones blow up. I am so happy. He is the perfect man for me. He is the love of my life. He completes me. Let the wedding planning begin! We have our date set!

Did you think I wouldn't show you the ring?

Tacori.

Wordless Wednesday

 

Green Sand Beach

I saved this post about Hawaii till the end. Visiting Green Sand Beach was probably our favorite thing we did on the big island.

When we set out that morning we had plans to make our way to the Volcanoes. Our plan was to swing by Green Sand Beach, Black Sand Beach and end our day at the volcanoes. When we started getting close to the turn off for Green Sand we realized it was going to be further out from the main road than we originally thought but since we were already that far out we decided to make the trip. Thirty minutes later we got to the end of the road but there was no beach. We could see the waves and the shore from really far away but we couldn't see a way down to it. It was still very far. We get out of the car and a girl came up to us asking us if we were trying to get to Green Sand Beach. When we told her yes she explained it to us.

To get to the actual green sand you have to go off road. That's the only way to make the 3 mile trek down to the sand besides walking. Umm... what?! That's three miles away? We could see it was far but we didn't realize it was that far. She said it would be 30.00 for both of us to be taken down to the beach. I was pretty iffy about it. It seemed a little sketchy and I hadn't seen anything about this online (I'm all about research). I could tell that Beezy really wanted to do it. So we paid her in cash and loaded up with another couple (whom we didn't know but had also forked over 30 bucks) and started making our way over the very rough terrain down to the beach.

I may be from West Virginia but I have never been on an ATV nor have I ever been off roading. So this was a new experience. Since there was 5 of us with the driver, Beezy road shot gun and I was in the back with the stranger couple. The driver told it would take about 20 minutes to get down to the beach. The road that the locals have made is deep and very steep. They've basically carved it out and if you don't have 4 wheel drive and know the terrain then more than likely you'll be asking one of them for help later in the day. After what felt like an eternity of bumpy terrain we made it to the beach. Or at least what we thought was the beach.

You see when you get delivered to Green Sand Beach you're actually being delivered to the top of the beach. To access the actual sand you have to climb down the rock face into the cove where the beach lies. This would have been a great thing to know before hand since I was wearing flip flops, carrying a purse and my expensive DSLR camera. But you know what... we came all that way. So climb down is what we did. It was totally worth it. I was pretty nervous once we started going down because it was very steep.

When we made it to the bottom we had to look back up to see the progress of climbing down! You can see other people at the top so you can get an idea of how steep the incline really is...

Of course we had to check out those green sand flecks. In my mind I thought it was going to be more green but you could definitely see the green sand inside of all of the grains.

 The waves at Green Sand are really strong. A few brave swimmers were indulging in the water but the locals were warning them that the waves are severely strong and can carry you out to sea quickly. Our guide was telling us that a young guy died here last year because he underestimated the current and strength. The guide said a lot of people use the buddy system when going into the water.

The Lava Lava Beach Club

The Lava Lava Beach Club in Waikoloa was so good it deserves it's own post. This restaurant was conveniently located right beside our hotel at another resort, the Marriott. Beezy had read hundreds of reviews before we left for the island and he really wanted to try this place out. We had heard it had not just great food but amazing views. The reviews weren't lying.

 

Our table was right on the beach. When I say we were on the beach I mean it. The sand was our floor about 10 feet away was the water. The Club had more traditional seating but obviously it was further away from the beach. The club also didn't have a dress code. We saw some people in their bathing suits for dinner while other guests were dressed nice. We had just came from touring the beaches and volcanoes so we were casually dressed and fit right in with the crowd. I was starving so we got an appetizer.

The shrimp was by far the best 16.00 shrimp I had ever had. We got really lucky and our visit coincided with the sunset. We arrived just in time to watch it. We noticed that in Hawaii the sun sets really quickly so if you aren't ready then you could miss it. I would say the sun actually set on the horizon and disappeared completely within 3 minutes. We were shocked at how fast it happened!

 You can tell it's escaping...

You can tell we were racing the sun for this photo...

Our bellies were growling with hunger so when our main courses arrived we were so excited! Beezy got a bacon burger with fries.

I got the short stack of pork ribs. I thought the meal came with fries but apparently not. I also loved their presentation on the cute plates.

The sun was gone but was still giving us some great color on the horizon. It was also about this time that the restaurant started lighting their tiki torches and setting their fire pits a blaze.

When in Hawaii... you order dessert. We went with vanilla ice cream covered with a chocolate chip cookie.

 And of course our personal fire pit...