The Countdown

Remember this?

Well, when I got home that night, I didn't know what to do with it, and I didn't want to throw it out. So I hung it up in the apartment to enjoy.

Just when it started getting sad looking, I realized that we had about 48 days left of the pregnancy. And there were 48 balloons! So naturally...it became our countdown banner. We pop a balloon a day...

39 days left!!

New Beginnings

I am over the young women ages 12-18 in my church (ward). I absolutely LOVE it and double-y love MY girls! Every year we have what is called a "New Beginnings" where we are reminded what we do in the Young Women's program as well as upcoming goals for that year.

This years the girls on the planning committee came up with the idea to do an "Up" theme. So balloons we did. We did it in the YW value colors. It was such a fun night! and turned out so cute!  And even better, was all the help for the adult leaders...many hands makes less work!!

 The "Podium". 

Each girl was responsible for introducing another girl and also for explaining and speaking about a value. They all did great!

The yummy and adorable dessert table!

Our departing gift...

Our theme was "Arise and Shine Forth", so I had the girls think about what they could do to shine. They wrote their idea on a sky lantern and then we let them off and watched them shine. It was the highlight of the night! Literally! :)

The First Anniversary

I got to cross something off my bucket list for our first anniversary.

We got a room at the Bellagio!!

I was so excited, but I really wanted a room with a lakeview.

So, I asked how to get one and someone told me to "slip the reservations guy $20 and ask".

And so I did.

And we got out room....easy peasy! Gotta love Vegas!

But I was SO nervous about it!

Josh knew how nervous I was and I'm pretty sure he was more excited about watching me ask than actually staying in a "lakeview" room.

 I was so excited!!

Here was our view that night...

It was awesome. Our TV had a channel that we turned to and it played the music that was being played at the water show! Loved it!

That night we went to Buca di Beppo

 One year later....

When  we got back to the room, we had a special delivery

a handwritten thank you note and truffles! 

I love being upgraded!!

The next morning we went to the fancy gym! We both loved it!

Ate breakfast and walked around the pools and conservatory. 

Such a great way to celebrate and absolutely amazing year together!

Without getting too mushy or personal...I'll just say that marriage is BY FAR the best thing in the world! It has FAR exceeded my expectations. And it is worth the time I had to wait and all the bad dates, lack of dates and awkward situations I had to go through. This year had renewed my testimony of trusting in Heavenly Father's plan...His vision is ALWAYS beyond description better than what I could've come up with!

Our First Home

Our first home.
We didn't want to "miss out" on any part of the newlywed adventure, so Josh and I decided to move into an apartment and rent out the house. And it saved us a lot of money, so that is always nice.
We were so excited! And it's fun to have our own little place!

The Honeymoon

We went on our honeymoon to San Antonio, Texas! The trip was a total surprise to me, Josh planned it all! I didn't know until we made it to the ticket stand and then Josh told me. He and my sis, Jill, packed for me! It was so much fun! I would've never guessed San Antonio, although I mentioned it several times that I really wanted to go there one day. It was a perfect honeymoon. There was lots to do on days we wanted things to do, but if we felt like being lazy we didn't feel like we were missing out on much.

We didn't have a clock/watch the whole time we were there and our phones were turned off, it was amazing! We caught up on some much needed sleep! Ran along the Riverwalk every morning. And ate a lot. That was pretty much our daily routine.

Here are some other highlights....

I am absolutely IN LOVE with the Riverwalk! Our hotel was right on the Riverwalk. It was so wonderful, the pictures don't do it justice, but it was so romantic and a fun energy!!

The Alamo!

It was like 5 minute walking distance from our hotel.

It's a lot bigger than what we thought, but I guess that is what they say about Texas!

Oh, Mi Tierra!

Just looking at this picture makes me hungry! We ate lunch there the first day and loved it so much we went back the last night we were there. YUM!

 But the main highlight was just being about to hang out with my Josh! After a few crazy months of wedding planning it was nice to have just the two of us! 

And NOT have to leave each other when we said good night!!

The Reception

I have absolutely NO idea where to start on this post.

We had a Picnic/Carnival Reception at the end of March in Henderson.

I had so many great people help me envision and put it all together.

It really was absolutely perfect! I LOVED it and it was just what I wanted.

I was crazy sick {they "honeymoon period" ended real quick} Josh got it first, and decided to share it with me. But I hardly even thought about it during the reception, it was just so fun and so great to see everyone enjoying themselves!

 We really wanted a relaxed fun "party". So we decided on an outdoor carnival picnic.

The decorations were a vintage feel. And of course, my sister Jill did all the flowers for me! 

The majority of the decorations and games were done by my friend's aunt Dea and my friend Melissa! They totally caught my vision! I loved it all.

"Happily Ever After Starts Here"
My friend, Melissa made these signs.
So cute!

The food was catered by my friend, Alisa. It was awesome. I wanted picnic baskets and blankets to eat on. And I wanted cookies instead of cake, so we had a tremendously lovely cookie bar!

I loved the blankets!

The games were SO.MUCH.FUN! And there were a lot to choose from:

Bean Bag Toss

BINGO!

Balloon Toss

Cake Walk

Caricatures

Go Fish--ball toss

Plinko!

Giant Word Search

Fish Pond

Ring Toss

"Lucky Duck"

Kissing Booth

We {obviously} wanted a less traditional reception. We wanted a party. Neither of us is crazy about cake (although, after my wedding cake I might be now!) So we decided that we would do a wedding cake pinata! So fun, the kids (young and old) loved it!!

We let go of over-sized balloons as our final get-away!

We really wanted to leave on vintage bikes.
We got some broken ones, it's the best we could come up with. :)

But what we wanted the most was for everyone to have fun.
I love looking at everyone's smiles!!
I think we got what we wanted!!

And of course, we owe so much to these folks. I love these pictures so much!
I really do hope our parents know how much we appreciate their love, prayers and excitement for us through the years. We appreciate they support during the wedding, but especially in raising us and making us good people. We both have great parents and families that we love so much!

So many people played such a HUGE role in putting this all together! I hope I have let them know how much I appreciate everything! I tried really hard to not be an ungrateful bride, but I still don't feel like I've expressed enough gratitude. I was overwhelmed at the amount of love and generosity that was shown to us! We are a lucky couple!
Thank you!!

The End.

All the amazing photos are a compilation of Jonathan Canlas and Jennifer Garbett.
LOVED my photos!!