4 years!

Happy anniversary, Caleb. I cannot believe 4 years have flown by! Marriage with you has been the absolute best. Choosing you, again and again, every day, will always be my favorite thing. There is no one else I'd rather do this crazy thing called life with!

Thank you for always making me laugh (and for not judging me when I CAN'T STOP laughing)!

Thanks for that adorable way you looked at me on our wedding day. I don't know how I didn't fall into a puddle on the floor right then and there.

Thank you for just letting me vent when I need it, and for being my sounding board when I'm going crazy.

Thank you for surprising me with pizza on random weeknights. Thank you for praying for us before bed. Thank you for being my rock, every darn day.

I always have a really hard time putting into words the way you make me feel, but I'm going to try. You're the most selfless person in the world, and I'm so insanely PROUD to call you my husband. I tell people almost every single day that you're the nicest human I've ever met. You're constantly looking for ways to make me feel like the most beautiful girl in the world. There is no problem too small, and you're always willing to listen, even when you can't fix it. 

 I'm so thankful that you're a total kid at heart. I believe that is a quality that most people lose, and I'm thankful you want to hold on to that for us. You don't let anything embarrass you, and that's one of the most attractive things about you - other than your calves ;)

I just can't say thank you enough for all that you are! I'm so so so grateful to not only be your wife, but to be your best friend. I love you! Here's to a lifetime! <3

Love, K

2016: a look back, and a little peek forward.

Every year I think I say the same thing; this was the fastest year of my life! But truly, I think this was. 2016 was pretty incredible all in all. Some parts were difficult, others were rewarding, but all in all? I'm extremely happy with 2016. 

This is always one of my favorite posts to write because I get to reflect on the last year and really take at the things we went through, our memories, the things we learned (both good and bad) and to make some loose goals for the new year ahead. I always love doing that!

Here's a look back at the past year:

-We rang in the New Year with our best friends doing what we do best; playing board games!

-Took Emily Ley's Simplified Challenge and cleared up some serious house/mental clutter!

-Found out Erin and Jared were having a BOY! We love that little man to death.

-Becky came to visit me again!! I love that blogging brought us together!

-Angie and I went to visit Lyndsie in Nashville and ate WAY too much food!

-I got into my first car accident (not my fault, luckily) but ended up driving my DREAM CAR for a week, so it wasn't all terrible.

-Celebrated Easter weekend with family and brought treats to share!

-Wrote my first "things I'm loving" post which quickly turned into a favorite prompt of mine!

-Helped throw Erin her first baby shower!! That was such a blessing for me! Being Aunt Kayla is seriously one of the coolest things in the world.

-I found an old letter my Grandpa, who had passed away two years prior, wrote me.

-Ran and finished my 3rd half marathon with my husband by my side!!

-Wrote a heartfelt letter to my younger self that really opened my eyes.

-Watched my brother graduate High School in May! *cue the tears*

-Caleb and I celebrated 3 YEARS of marriage with Mexican food!

-Met our first INCREDIBLE baby nephew and snuck in as many cuddles as we could!
-Successfully photographed another week of our church's annual Sports Camp!

-Enjoyed a couple of obligation free weekends with friends/family over the Summer!

 -Got a little frustrated that we're still in debt but realized we're still making serious progress and to be proud of wherever we are in life!
-Turned 25; Caleb threw me the most quaint little surprise party ever! He's the best!

-Spent an amazing week with the teens in Cleveland, TN for CIY! Hearts were changed!
-Stepped outside of my comfort zone BIG TIME and visited my first Tuesdays Together meeting (where I knew no one) and WOW, it's made a huge impact on my life! So thankful!

-Hung out with the Bengals on field, NBD!

-Photographed one of my favorite weddings to date and made some new friends!
-Had a ladies night with two of my favorite ladies!

-FINALLY GOT A NEW CAMERA! Haven't put it down since ;)
-Celebrated Caleb's 28th with a week off of work and lots of tasty food and good movies!

-Spent Halloween handing out candy with family! No fun costumes this year, sadly!
-Enjoyed a fun paint night with the ladies!

-Photographed our first out of state wedding, in Nashville, TN!
-Caleb and I followed God's quiet whisper to start a young adult group in our church and it's been a HUGE success!

-Enjoyed an incredible Thanksgiving with all our family and then decorated for Christmas. YAY!
-Got spontaneous dinner with my bestie because she was in town and I miss her way too much!

-Successfully photographed 31 whole weddings this year. WOW! We're exhausted, but feeling SO proud!
-Tried to soak in as much of the Christmas decor as we could. Feeling so thankful for our tiny town home, even through the days of annoying maintenance, noise complaints, etc.! We're grateful, especially this time of year, to have a roof over our heads and warm feet before bed.

STARTED OUR BUSINESS!!!! Omg. Still amazed at this one!
Celebrated Christmas together!

Caleb and I have quite a few big goals and big wishes for 2017, which (hopefully) include...

getting out of debt (finally)...
beginning the process of finding/buying a home...
spending a LOT more time in prayer...
saving more money...
...truly enjoying every bit of free time that comes our way.

Next year isn't near as booked up as the last few have been, and I have to say that was pretty intentional. Caleb and I are so excited about our new business, and can't wait to book up like crazy in the next few years, but next year we're REALLY trying to enjoy the time we have together more intentionally. More unplugged date nights, more cuddles on the couch, more time with friends. I am excited to have a better workflow system in place to cut time down behind my computer screen. After all, I didn't pick up a camera in the first place to be stuck behind my computer half my life.

I hope 2017 is amazing for ALL of us! Any big moments from 2016 you want to relive? Any fun goals for the New Year you have? Tell me about them!

Our much needed staycation.

Last week was our glorious stay-cation. Since our Hilton Head Island trip got cancelled due to the hurricane, we decided to still take a few days off to enjoy time together, rather than cancel it all together. That vacation time of mine will go away by the end of the year if its left unused, and we all know that can't happen! ;) 

We worked Monday, so our staycation started that evening! But Tuesday we decided to go see The Accountant at the movies pretty early in the day. You guys, it was so so good! I was really surprised at how much I enjoyed it! After that we grabbed lunch and spent the afternoon at home relaxing. That evening Caleb decided he wanted to burn a birthday gift card so we hit the town and did a little shopping.

Wednesday was Caleb's 28th birthday! We started the day bright and early with an 8:30 AM tee-time. I honestly know next to nothing about golf, but Caleb is really good! I only did 9 holes, but Caleb went with 18. He had fun teaching me the ropes, but lets be honest, the only thing I'm good for at a golf course is driving the golf cart! ;)

Once we got back home and cleaned up, I gave him his presents and then we hit the local outlets for a few hours! After the outlets we decided to try out Miami Valley Gaming. It was a lot of fun and we actually won some money at first, so we left early and had a very high-calorie dinner and decided not to be sorry about it. We're talking spinach and artichoke dip, burgers, shrimp, chicken, garlic french fries... yeah, I'm drooling again. ;)

His birthday was much different than I had originally planned, since I obviously had an entire day planned in HILTON HEAD.  But I presented Caleb with lots of options and he chose what he wanted and we had the best time together. I love that I have a husband who is so "go with the flow" and low-key. We could've stayed at home all day celebrating, and he would've probably been just as happy. Regardless, we had the best time celebrating how awesome he is!!

Thursday was spent doing NOTHING but gorging on donuts and starting The Lord of The Rings trilogy. This was Caleb's idea, but I have to say, I really liked them. Well, we only got through the first one that day but I really enjoyed it. It was the extended edition, so we're talking over 3 hours for the first movie, ha!

Friday we stopped by the OTHER outlets in town because Caleb was less than thrilled with Nike's selection on his birthday a few days prior at the other outlets, and he scored big! I was so excited for him! He found some really nice shirts that will definitely be his new go-to's! After that, we spent our evening at Dave and Busters gaming the night away. We had way too much fun!! I feel like a kid every time I'm there, and I love it!

Saturday was spent in a giant pit of never ending laundry and taking our tripod/new camera out for a spin. We took over 100 and ended up with MAYBE 4 cute ones, but we had a fun time, and that's what matters!

This was honestly the "reset" week that Caleb and I needed. We did whatever we wanted, whenever we wanted. We did a lot of eating, resting, and also a whole lot of nothing. It was everything we wanted and needed it to be! Thanks for making it through the long post. It was just the best week!! I'm so thankful for that week off!

Hope everyone has a great day!

Happy birthday, hunk!

Today is this handsome guy's 28th birthday!!

Caleb, you're my absolute favorite person on the planet!! You constantly amaze me with how funny, kind and giving you are. I love the way you try to make everyone feel welcomed, how much you make me laugh, and that you never judge me (despite my weird flaws).

I'm so thankful that you're not only my husband, but my best friend. Life with you is such an adventure and I'm just thankful you're by my side through all the good and bad that life throws our way.

I wanted to thank you today, for ALL the little (and big) things you do for me! Thanks for...

...letting me steal the covers

...trying your hardest to stay awake during movies

...surprising me with random mountain dews

...doing our taxes every year

...always hugging me when I come home

...bringing me snickers ice cream

...not being mad on our wedding day when I shoved the cake in your face

...always pursuing me

...being down for ordering pizza at least once a month

...pushing me to be my best

...joining my photography dream team

...sending me sweet text messages

...being so darn handsome

...supporting my love of queso

...never taking life too seriously

...staying up way too late with me

...being so supportive
...constantly listening to my crazy thoughts
...loving me, and choosing me, every single day.

Basically, thanks for being the best husband EVER. You're my rock, and I'm so thankful you're mine! Have the best birthday ever. So thankful we get to spend today-and rest of the week-together on a last minute stay-cation! :)

My 25th rocked.

I can't quite put into words how wonderful my 25th birthday was on Tuesday. I also can't explain the overwhelming love I felt ALL. STINKIN. DAY.

I had a great day at work with lots of well wishes to keep my birthday tank full!

I beat Caleb home, so I cleaned up a bit and then changed into a more casual outfit for dinner. Once he got ready he let me open my presents - and holy cow - he nailed it. We never ever make wishlists or anything like that, but he got me exactly what I didn't even know I wanted.

This gorgeous purse, the flowers, and the most simple perfect pineapple necklace.

We left the house around 6:30 and had plans to eat IN at Donatos Pizza (its a silly thing with me, but Caleb never wants to eat in restaurants like that, and I always do, so to me this was super fun and special) then head to the movies. When we first walked in the restaurant, I was in the middle of watching the sweetest birthday video my friend Becky sent me, so I wasn't very aware of what was going on around me. Caleb kind of turned me to the side and wouldn't you know - 20 of our closest friends and family were there in the party room screaming SURPRISE!

I couldn't believe it.

The tears came and went quickly, and I just tried to hug everyone as fast as I could! Then we all dug in! Caleb pre ordered a ton of pizza, wings and snacks for everyone. We all had a blast. I kept looking around like, I'm so lucky, and also - how did I not see this coming?! I feel like I'm normally good at figuring things out, and I was totally clueless this time.

Oh hiiiii cute nephew. Baby T is the cutest.

We all hung out for a couple of hours and caught up on life, stuffing ourselves silly. It meant so much that so many people came. I know everyone has a million and a half things going on, and it really made me feel special to see everyone toss everything to the side for a night to celebrate my 25th year.

This guy, though. I can't even begin to tell you how special he's made me feel. Not only for my birthday, but the last 7 years. He's pursued my heart day in and day out constantly.

The surprise was unreal, the gifts were amazing, and the food was delicious; but I think my favorite part of it all was the letter Caleb wrote me. It's something that I'll treasure until the day I die. It was more than just a sweet paragraph in a card, and I honestly can't talk about it much without crying. That's all I'll say about that, but goodness, I love this man.

So if Tuesday was any indication of how my year of 25 will be...I'm pretty dang excited.

Thanks for all the well wishes, friends!

Don't stay stuck.

I'm just going to say it right now...its taking Caleb and I longer to get out of debt than we thought it would. I'll be the first to admit, we haven't been AS frugal and disciplined as we should've been so far in 2016. We've definitely still paid off a LOT of debt, which is really encouraging and motivating, but we also still have a long way to go.

There are some days I get really down on us, saying "what's taking us so long?", and just kind of feeling sorry for our situation. Then Caleb quickly reminds me we'll be debt free well before either of us are 30, and that's pretty darn exciting.

So instead of feeling miserable that we're still stuck IN debt, I'm using it as motivation to continue, to tighten up our budget - oh and actually MAKE SURE we budget every month. We've done a little too much miscellaneous spending lately where we look back at our bank statement and say "what the heck did we buy there anyway?!".

It's always a good reminder that you don't have to "stay stuck" in the situation you're in. If there's something you don't like, you HAVE the power to change it! Whether that's a crappy job, drowning in debt or just wanting to shake up your exercise routine! You can do it!

Long story short, we're sick of being in debt, so we're saying goodbye to silly overspending at the grocery store and while we're out and about, and HELLO to more at-home date nights. I'm wanting to get creative and set a small cash budget for Caleb and I to go back and forth and plan themed date nights in every other weekend! I think it would be a fun way to get creative on how to stretch a dollar and still make each other feel special! I may or may not have a Lady and the Tramp theme coming on... get ready, Caleb! ;)

Happy Thursday, friends!!

Be soft.

Last night it took me an hour and a half to get home due to a huge accident that blocked two of the three lanes on the highway. I was frustrated because I had so much to do that evening that I wanted to get moving! I found myself honking at people who weren't paying attention, stopping not quite long enough at stop signs and just rushing around in general. Then I started playing one of my new favorite songs (seriously, brings me to tears nearly every time) and my focus was shifted to what really matters.

I started to realize how minimal all of this "annoying" traffic was, especially in the midst of all the tragedy going on in our world right now. I saw how blessed I was to have errands to run that evening; that my biggest problem at the moment was forgetting my shopping list on my desk at work and still being a little behind on my edits.

At the end of the day, I have a car to get me to the grocery store, money to pay for our food, and a husband to help me unload the car when I got home. My "problems" were so trivial but in the moment my usual optimistic outlook was clouded by a silly inconvenience like traffic.

Once dinner was through, I had a ton of other obligations on my "to do" list, but Caleb took my hand and we had a nice long walk to a local park and played Frisbee golf until the sweat on my nose made my glasses keep falling off.

No matter how much I worry about anything, he always brings me back to what matters. Thanks for being my rock, Caleb...and for helping me avoid the poison ivy ;)

Hope everyone has a great Tuesday. Make it count, friends!

Celebrating three years!

Tuesday (the night before our anniversary) when Caleb fell asleep, I snuck to the bathroom to write him a lipstick letter on the bathroom mirror so that would be the first thing he saw on our anniversary! I thought it was a cute idea and something he'd appreciate. One thing that hadn't crossed my mind is that it might scare him at the early hour of 5:00 am - which is exactly what happened, ha! I should've thought that one through, big red letters all over our bathroom probably wasn't the most romantic thing - we've just seen too many horror flicks! ;)

Wednesday night Caleb and I celebrated our anniversary together!

We got home from work and exchanged some gifts. The traditional gift for year 3 is leather, and although we haven't intentionally followed it in the past, I wanted to give it a try! He's been talking about getting a new basketball for weeks and, with a little help from my brother in law, Jared, we found him the perfect one! I also snagged a couple of  Golden State Warriors playoff t-shirts! Sadly in this point of the playoffs things weren't looking good, they were down 3-1. This meant they had to win the next 3 games to advance, and thankfully, that's just what they did over the course of the last few days! WOO!

Caleb made me the most amazing photo book, including the lyrics of the song he sang me on our wedding day! My other gifts came over the series of the next few days, and I must say he did an amazing job!! These gifts included an adorable pineapple print, a summer scarf and THE CUTEST YELLOW MAXI SKIRT in all of the land! He saw me oogling over this one and found one just like it and made me the happiest yellow-lovin twenty something there ever was!

He always does such a great job on gifts. I never ask for anything in particular -neither of us ever do - yet he always does an incredible job of picking things/experiences that I'll love!

We hit the road to head to our favorite Mexican restaurant and when we got home we decided to keep it low key by relaxing on the couch. We knew we had a long weekend ahead of us where we could go out and about, so we wanted to keep our actual anni low key!

So thankful for a man who constantly pursues me, loves me, and makes me laugh! I love you, Caleb!

Hope everyone had a great weekend!

Three (amazing) years!

Today, Caleb and I celebrate our 3rd anniversary. I can hardly wrap my mind around it! It seems like just a few months ago we were at our rehearsal dinner and I was cracking up at Caleb's burnt nose from golfing with his groomsmen that day to begin our wedding weekend.

Marriage is something that Caleb and I knew we always wanted. We knew very early on in our relationship that we'd spend our lives together. As cliche as it sounds, there was something about Caleb that made me weak.

I'll be the first to tell you that marriage isn't always a walk in the park like we thought it would be, but I wouldn't trade it for ANYTHING. Not even unlimited sunshine and soft puppies and marshmallow fluff.

Excuse me while I write a quick note to my one and only;

Caleb, HAPPY ANNIVERSARY! These 3 years have been the best of my life. I absolutely love coming home to a husband who gets off the couch the second I walk in the door to hug me hello. You continue to make me feel beautiful, even when I look like a total dump truck. I love that we both get a kick out of the simplest of things, like new kitchen utensils, taco bell runs, post it notes and clean laundry.

 I secretly love that you still spell my name wrong on purpose to remind me of our first few weeks together. I pray that one day, our future children will grow to be leaders like you, with the cutest eye wrinkles and dark brown hair. You've made me into a better person. I strive daily to be more selfless and to give more, like you. I am so proud to call you my best friend and my go-to person. 

I have to thank you, though, for your never ending grace. Some days, I know I come home grumpy from work, but you deal with me anyway. Or when I lose my temper in the kitchen because a recent Pinterest find turned into a giant fail, you are quick to remind me of all the things I'm amazing at. I can't thank you enough for always leading us to Christ, and keeping Him at the center of our marriage.

I hope that you know how much I love you, today, and always! Stay awesome, you hunk!
Your thankful wife.

A glimpse of our weekend

Our weekend started promptly when we left work. I ran outside while Caleb played basketball with some neighbors. We rewarded ourselves with our favorite Mexican restaurant since it had been a while since we'd make a trip over there! I love low key Friday evenings!

Saturday we relaxed until it was time to leave for wedding #5 of the year. We didn't anticipate the day being as long as it was, but luckily Jenna and Eric were amazing and their love was insanely easy to capture. Unfortunately, the Cincinnati 50mph+ winds scratched our original plans of heading to Eden Park, but I think we found some amazing alternative locations Downtown - with little to no wind at all.

Last year I tried to share a few images from each wedding we shot, and since wedding season is just starting I thought I may as well do it again this year. For a silly "behind the scenes" photo, I like to throw myself in a mirror shot every now and then - and don't worry, we have about a hundred other shots just like this without me photo bombing ;)

I love her excitement right before the first look!

Sunday after church we had a fun afternoon with our youth group. These teens have so much energy, they definitely keep us young (and kind of make us feel old).

Sunday evening was spent doing an unreal amount of laundry and folding, pizza eating, and preparing to watch The Walking Dead. I have so many emotions, and am mostly just irritated. In my opinion (not that it matters), it was not a "finale" kind of episode. I know it accomplished the "cliff hanger" thing, but for a season finale? I felt it was drug on too long. However, I already can't wait for the show to be back on! I'll now have Sunday nights back to do other productive things - like read, or write! Yay!

We had a great weekend all in all, but I could've used an extra day of relaxation. Isn't that always how it is?! ;) hope everyone had a great one!