Catching up!

I have been really bad about keeping up on my blog, but life gets hectic and there is not much I can do about that! I am just going to briefly summarize whats happened in the past few months.

After Derek and I got back from our Honeymoon we went into summer mode, where we hung out with friends and just enjoyed each others company! We did adopt a puppy, he is a Min Pin and probably the cutest thing you will ever see! His name is Bruiser, and he is adorable. Here are a few pictures of him when he was little.

Derek and I have been looking at buying a house for awhile now. We met with our Realtor in July and started our search then, recently we started a more serious search into finding the correct house. Buying a house is such a big deal, we wanted to make sure we put a offer on a house that is something that we will love and be happy to live in. I am a very picky person, and look for certain things in a house...so it came to my surprise that there were a few houses that were in our price range that I wanted to go look at.

We found a house that was a short sale, and already had an offer on it. But we really liked it and put an offer down as well, after a week we realized that this house isn't meant for us, and we should keep looking. A week later I finally convinced Derek to come look at this beautiful house that I was completely IN LOVE with. We went and looked at it on Saturday January 14th, put an offer down on the 15th and they accepted the offer that day. Since the house is brand new and never been lived in, things have moved at a faster pace. We closed on February 23rd, and started moving in that night.

 I only have pictures that they were using online, but hopefully soon I will have better pictures to share. In the meantime here is our very first house!



There is a front yard now, but the back we will work on this summer.











The aren't the best pictures, but they will do for now.
It has been over 4 months since we have moved in and I feel like we have done nothing to decorate our house. I am hoping with in the next few months we will make some progress.

I hope everyone has a great day, and I hope to update this blog more often!

St. Maarten...

Derek and I got to travel somewhere very special on our Honeymoon, we got to go to St. Maarten!!!



After our wedding ended Derek and I left to go home and change before heading to the airport.
Yes, we did have a flight right after our wedding, and yes it was a terrible idea....BUT it was the only flight we could get on! The first plane left PDX and flew to Seattle, this flight was not to bad besides the fact that we were tired! Our second flight we flew from Seattle to Miami....it was also a Red Eye.....and we had a crying baby in front of us all night....not a fun flight! Derek and I just kept telling ourselves that we will be in paradise soon! Our third flight we flew from Miami to St. Maartin which was a pretty short flight. We were so tired by the time we landed because we had been up for abour 32 hours straight.


                                           St. Maartens!
           

Once we got to the airport in St. Maartin I had a hard time breathing...the humidity was crazy! From there we went to baggage claim, after what seemed like an eternity we finally received our luggage. We then continued to follow the signs to see where our shuttle was to the car rental place, the guy who was driving the shuttle was very nice and helpful. We asked him the do's and don'ts on the island, and what are some fun things we should do while we are here! He told us that the island is known for the night life..which Derek and I do not party so we ruled that out of our to do list. On our way to the car rental there were some locals on streetbikes weaving in and out of traffic, cutting people, off and even riding in the other lane where there is oncoming traffic. I was completly shocked, but our shuttle driver said it is very common for locals to do that and we should make sure to watch out for them. We finally got to the car rental place and got our bags into our convertible mustang, and it started raining! It was only a drizzle and didn't last long, but it was very unexpected.




Derek and I were so excited to get to our resort, so we got our GPS hooked up and started heading to the resort. Our drive there was a lot of fun because the view was gorgeous, and we got to see so much of the island. Once we got to the resort we checked in and unloaded all our bags, our room faced the ocean and it was beautiful! Our resort had its own private beach, a pool, and a couple restaurants, so we went and toured the resort before going down and lounging at the beach.


                                View from our room!


The whole week we were in St. Maartens is such a blur now. We were told that each beach in St. Maartens had different sand, so we spent a couple days traveling the island and hopping from beach to beach to find out what one we liked the best. We even collected three different sands with ocean water and took it home with us to put in our house. We spent a day going to a little island that my friends mom told us about, I believe it was called Pinel Island. It was such a fun little island that we explored and lounged out in the water. The rest of our remaining time we spent out on our favorite beach which was Maho Beach. This is the beach that the airplanes comes so low to the ground it feels like you can touch them! It was so cool seeing the airplanes come and go. The water was also the calmest compared to any other beach, and we just swam out as far as we could touch and just lounged in the water. I wish we could have spent all our time there, it was such a nice beach and I miss it like crazy!!

We were so lucky to spend our Honeymoon somewhere so exotic and beautiful, we still can't believe that we even went there. We loved the friendly locals, and amazingly clear and peaceful ocean, we hope to be lucky enough to travel to some exotic place like St. Maartens again! Untill then I will keep looking at our pictures and pretend like I am still laying out on the beach!

Here are some pictures of the different beaches we traveled to, and some of the restaurants we went too.


                                 Maho Beach...


             Derek's Artsy-ness








                                     Pinel Island






                          The sand here was so rough!












                        Just a small plane landing...

Newlyweds!

Lets try this again!

I started this blog right after Derek and I got MARRIED, but our lives have been so hectic and crazy I never really got to post a blog. I am going to briefly summarize everything leading up to the wedding, and then the wedding day. So here it goes......

Derek and I got married on June 25th, 2011. Our wedding was crazy, hectic, and so much fun! To be completely honest that day was such a blur. The months leading up to the wedding were so busy, I had 3 bridal showers that were amazing (THANK YOU to all my friends and family who threw them for me). I had a bachelorette party (went to the beach with my closest friends), and I threw my bridesmaid a luncheon to thank them for all that they did for me. The weekends that were not a wedding function we were planning the wedding, and finalizing plans!

Here are some pictures from my Bridal Showers/Bachlorette Party/Luncheon



























The day before the wedding Derek and I went to get a couples massage, and that was probably the best idea I have ever had! There was so much stress going around (just making sure everything was going to plan) that having a back massage with my soon to be husband was amazing! From there I took all my Bridesmaids out to get a pedicure, which was so much fun. After the relaxing morning that I had it was time to get ready for the rehearsal dinner. The rehearsal and the venue went great, and we did a run through of the ceremony a few times! After we got all the jitters out of our system we went off to the Old Spaghetti factory where we had our rehearsal dinner with all our family. We had to have had at least 50 people there, it was so much fun to catch up with our family and eat and relax together before the big day! Thanks Scott & Jody for making the Dinner happen!!!

Here are some pictures from getting pedicures!






WEDDING DAY!
Our day started out by waking up at 6am and traveling to our apartment to get ready in seperate rooms. My  Bridesmaids and I got ready upstairs and Derek and his Groomsmen got ready downstairs. The morning went by so quick between getting my hair and make-up done, and putting my wedding dress on. Derek and I were running late for our photography session, but were able to get some beautiful pictures with the time that we had. Thank you Mallory so much for our pictures!! The Ceremony went great it was short, sweet, and straight to the point! The Reception followed directly after the Cermony, and it was so much fun. Derek and I cut the cake, made toasts, danced our first dance as a married couple, tossed the bouquet/garter, and talked with family and friends till it was time to leave. Derek actually suprised me and sang a song to me called Honey Bee by Blake Shelton, it was the sweetest/funniest/exciting thing that he could have done on our wedding day. The day was such a blur of emotions and fun! I can not thank my parents enough for how much they did for me, along with my sister and grandma. Wedding planning is a lot of work and without there help I would have been lost! I also want to thank Scott and Jody as well, you guys were there every step of the way helping out and I am lucky to have you guys as my in-laws! 

Here are a few of my favorites!




































Our Wedding Day was such a huge moment in our lives that we are so happy we could share it with so many family and friends. I will never forget how happy I was to say "I Do" to such an amazing man!