to: our family & friends

i usually mention in my posts about how excited i am to be married. but with the wedding only 10 days away, I AM SO SO SO EXCITED! i think before the excitement was just an emotion that i felt while going through the motions of wedding planning but now that we're a mere ten days away (!!!!!!!!!!!) i'm feeling so overwhelmed with  happiness and joy. this last month of the countdown has gone by so fast! these past few weeks have been jam packed with wedding prepping fun.

i have some pretty amazing family and friends. my sweet cousins threw me a darling shower and it was so fun to open gifts for mine and hayden's new home. i'm very grateful for all of the gifts we've received and i'm still working on sending out those thank you cards. my childhood friend, hillary, also threw me a fabulous, intimate shower. i love those girls so much. i always end up laughing a little too hard when i get together with these girls i've known almost my whole life. a camera would really come in handy so i could have taken pictures of the shower; hill is one fabulous party thrower.

i don't know if it's the birth control talking but i shed tears each time i see someone rsvp-ing to our wedding reception, a gift is sent to our door, or even mentions that they would love to help me with the itty bitty things. it's been so humbling and incredible to see the love and support hayden and i have in our friends and family. like i mentioned in the previous post, this month has been physically and emotionally draining; it's been hard to not get frustrated over things i can't control. but hayden and i have been so blessed. our families and friends have helped us in so many ways, big and small.

so here's a HOORAY to the best family and friends in the whole world. hayden and i love each and every one of you.

a lovely find

hayden and i started moving some of our stuff into our new home last night. it was so neat to see the cute gifts we've received fill up OUR space. it may not be a looker (or a smeller) right now but it has so much potential. after a few coats of paint and a little loving i think it will be the most perfect abode for me and hayden.
i've been pinning so many home decor and organization ideas and i think i'm more excited to buy house stuff than buying clothes. is this what growing up feels like? maybe i'm just addicted to buying in general.
i want to fill our walls with pictures of things we love like each other, our families, the gospel, etc. so i've been stumbling around looking for some prints and i remembered some water color prints that i saw at the bijou market a couple of years ago. i scoured the internet and found the shop and the exact prints that i wanted! hayden and i are getting married in the draper temple and it will be one of the most special days in our lives and i really want a reminder of that in our home. ashmae has the most wonderful water color prints of lds temples (and so much more) and i knew it would be perfect hanging on our wall.
everyone should head over there and order one her prints now. they are so cute and make the perfect gift!

what do you guys think?

it was the best of times, it was the worst of times.

hi guys!

the wedding is just around the corner. like 24 days away. eep! it's been so much fun lately. NOT. the past month i've contracted a nasty, horrible strep, sinus infection, pinkeye and my latest ailment, A KIDNEY STONE. a freaking. kidney. stone.

i've been in my doctor's office at least once a week for the past month and i had my first visit to the e.r. on monday. it's probably a blog-worthy story. at 3:00 AM, i woke up and felt some sharp pain. is this what a contraction feels like? i popped some ibuprofen and tried to fall back asleep. 5:30 rolls around and yep, the stone is here!! sasdflak;sldfue! <-- that's a cuss word in russian or something. it was the worst pain of my life. i could not move but i somehow managed to get in the car. i think i crawled. they checked me into the e.r. and i got to lay in a neat bed with a pretty comfortable pillow. still in so much pain. the nurses tried to get the picc line in and it was a bloody battle. but alas, the nurses won and there i was with a needle sitting in my arm. not too bad. the next thing i know, i'm shot up with some magical potion called morphine. like seriously, where has this stuff been the past week???!?!?!?!? why is it not available over the counter?!? i could not stop giggling because i felt so good. then i passed out. they gave me a ct scan and found that the abominable kidney stone was still high up. afsdljeorilkmci (more russian cuss words). they sent me home with another dose of morphine (per my request) and five other pill bottles.

so now i'm supposed to wait it out and just take the prescribed meds until this bad boy makes his appearance. what if he doesn't come out in time for the wedding?! guys, i'm a big ball of pain and stress right now. go ahead, pity me. i would never wish a kidney stone on anyone, except for terrorists. i hope all terrorists eventually have kidneys and ureters filled with HUGE kidney stones. and no morphine and pain killers for them.

(if you don't know what a kidney stone looks like scroll down. or don't if you're easily repulsed. i almost threw up looking at it but luckily they prescribed me some zofran)

this. this is what my ureter is housing and it refuses to leave!!!!!

el ragnar.

one of my new year's resolution was to be the fittest i have ever been. two boxes of cheez-its and two visits to tucano's later, i have become serious about getting healthy. (it might be because i bought a wedding dress one size too small...) i started going to gym classes at ungodly hours and eating salad. SALAD! i liked what i saw after a month of buckling down. but spin class and power pump started to get old and i knew that i should probably pick up another type of workout. i hated it. i knew i had to at some point. my fiance is a marathoner but me? i'm more of a jog-walker. i hated running. hated. hated. hated.

i have an amazing cousin, cindy, who runs all the time. she runs half-marathons, marathons, and ragnars. her short run is like five miles. WHAT?! she is seriously so dedicated to running and we've chatted about me running a big race with her one day. haha. as if, i can barely run two miles. but she mentioned the ragnar and my interest was piqued. a few hours later, i'm signed up to run the wasatch back. i printed myself a little training schedule and i'm off on a treadmill running for 15 minutes. it was hard, guys. brutal is a better word. oh and did i mention i was running in my 5 year old volleyball shoes? it was also a painful run. so after buying some new shoes (still mourning for that money) and 5 weeks of consistent training, i am feeling so good.

guess what?

superbowl craft sunday

 super bowl, shmuper bowl. i was less than interest in sunday's football festivities. zero joy was found in the unoriginal commercials this year and that blackout...come on. but beyonce, daaaaaaaayum. that was a moment of bliss for me this weekend.

instead of being enthralled by the game, my cousin elisha and i whipped out our uninspired ikea photo boxes. the boxes were full of potential so we snatched them up. 2 boxes for $4.00!!! look at the hardware on those puppies. swoon. martha stewart, you have a great eye for colors but you couldn't come up with a better color name than cloud? i digress. it took us about 5 hours to construct the boxes then paint 3 coats of paint on them. 5 HOURS. they were well worth the time though. i can't wait to put these in my bookshelf and fill them up with sweet pictures and mementos.

i also finally started working on wedding decorations. it was brutal. i have ordered a total of 300 sheets of tissue papers to make pom poms and i'm nowhere near done. i clearly underestimated myself. here's an idea of what the reception is hopefully going to look like:

baby steps...

a little something white

it seems like all i ever blog (because i just blog soooo much) about is the upcoming nuptials. weddings are so exciting so how could i not talk about it? well, my dress is here. i finally have THE dress. this dress and i go waaaaay back. we met online when pinterest made its debut in 2010 and it was love at first sight. i knew that if i ever got married that i would only wear THAT dress. i kept finding more and more pictures of it but never really had an idea of where i could buy it (also, i was very single at the time so it would have been incredibly weird if i had bought a dress before having a beau). then i met hayden and yada yada yada yada. this post isn't about him, so move aside (just kidding)!
a month after we were engaged, my mom and i went dress shopping. we perused a cute little boutique and i gave the nice lady the specifics of the dress i was looking for: "pleats, pockets, pink". she pulled several dresses and i liked them all but i noticed the last one i would try on was tucked behind the other four dresses. IT HAD PLEATS, POCKETS, AAAAAAND IT WAS PINK!  i found the dream dress!!!! it was serendipitous. meant to be. lucky. blessed. after months of shopping around, it was mine (in ivory). hooray! here's a little sneak peak, lovelies!

POCKETS AND PLEATS. that's all you're getting.