I'm back - with some updates!

Life has been a straight up roller coaster these past couple weeks. We had a blast celebrating our three year anniversary, we officially BECAME AN AUNT AND UNCLE (oh my word you guys, I am so completely obsessed and in love with my new baby nephew its not even funny - I haven't done a whole post on it because its not my story to tell, or my baby to brag on, just know how unbelievably excited we are to have a nephew and how proud I am of my sister Erin for bringing their sweet baby into the world!), and enjoyed some much needed free time over the long holiday weekend.

Memorial Day weekend truly was full of lots of free time, lots of doing whatever we wanted, getting some sun, hanging with family, golfing, eating like crap, and loving every second of it together!! Uninterrupted time like that doesn't come along very often, so we soaked it all in!

Since its now June (what the what?!) and I haven't consistently blogged in 2 weeks, I figured instead of recapping every detail per the usual, I'd just start fresh now that it's summer! Caleb and I shot two AMAZING weddings this past weekend. I have to say, if we're going to put ourselves through 2 long, hot back to back wedding days, I'd hope we get to work with awesome people...and boy, we really did! 

Dani and Tony's wedding was first. I shot their engagement photos in the fall and KNEW they were a great fit from the beginning. Two people who loved the Lord, have genuine kindness in their hearts, and are clearly so in love with one another! We couldn't ask for more. Typically, Caleb will drive to the guys while they get ready and Friday was no exception. I knew they hit it off when Caleb sent me a photo of he and the groom saying how awesome Tony was! They also had the yummiest fried potatoes at their dinner and oh, DID I MENTION they sat us at a real table at the reception, and had name cards for us?! That's never happened before, so we felt pretty dang special.

We slept like ROCKS that evening and Saturday morning woke up to hit the road for Jenn and Andrew's big day! I also really loved this couple. They are the ones who treated me to dinner (best mac and cheese balls ever) after I drove an hour for their engagement session in their favorite town; Oxford, OH! We woke up on Saturday and were petrified at the weather report, which was basically 50-90% showers all day, and yet somehow our prayers were answered. The rain came at the perfect time and we managed to get every single shot we needed! They were such goofballs all day, and we got lucky at the reception when a rainbow came out. How fitting that their first dance song was "Somewhere Over The Rainbow"!?!? Honestly, how beautiful is Jenn!?

Sunday we worked with the kiddos at church, they are too darn sweet! We had a bit of free time before we grabbed lunch with family, then that evening we had our summer kick off party with the youth group. I love these teens!! We played kickball and ultimate frisbee for hours. It felt so great to get outside!

I hope everyone had a great weekend. I hope to be back to my normal blogging schedule now! ;)

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.

One great weekend!

It was so nice having a free weekend. I guess its not a "free" weekend when its filled with plan after plan, BUT it was nice getting to pick my camera up to document our lives, not just someone else's. Don't get me wrong, shooting weddings is one of my favorite things in the world, but everybody needs a break!

Friday night my mom came over to help me with this giant 2016 tissue paper sign I wanted to make for my brother's family party the next day. It took us hours and hours...oh and MORE hours, but it was so worth it. It really became a focal point of the party and Brandon loved it! It was also a blast hanging out with my mom all night We ordered a pizza and blasted the Mumford and Sons pandora station until midnight. Time like that with my mom doesn't come by very often, so I savored every second. I love laughing with her!

The next morning I ran around picking up a few things for the party, and then we celebrated my bro some more! This party wasn't his "official" grad party - but since my mom was in town, and Caleb and I will be working during his big one (its a joint party with 3 of his other friends), we wanted to do something more intimate for him!

My Grandpa made these biscotti "diplomas"! How adorable?!

I also printed a ton of photos and hung them up between the beams in the building!

I actually ended up getting a pretty terrible headache that afternoon so we both took our own naps when we got home! Once we woke up, we popped in a movie to start our night and just had ourselves a blast spending some quality time together!

Sunday after church we met up with my Dad and his wife, along with our Great Grandma for lunch! The weather was amazing!! Brandon even got his first piece of Miami apparel!

We relaxed for a bit once we got home, and then had a "friendly" game of kickball with our church!

I hope everyone had a great weekend, too! Do anything fun?

Congrats, Brandon!!

Thursday night, I got to watch my baby brother graduate high school. I may or may not have shed a couple of tears, especially when I finally got to squeeze him after they threw their caps outside!

Brandon went around and hugged everyone in our family and personally thanked them for the impact they've had on his life, and we were all in tears. I'm so grateful Brandon has a heart after the Lord, who is so grateful and humble! I'm lucky to have him around! I had so many emotions watching him cross that stage. The speaker even mentioned Brandon in his speech. It's such a cool thing to hear other people talk about Brandon and how awesome he is!

Our Dad!

We LOVED having our Great Grandma Agnes there, she was the life of the party, truly. Everyone wanted a photo with her!

Dad & Amy//Uncle Phil

a new favorite photo!

Brandon keeps saying how happy he is in life right now - and that's all I want for him! I'm just so stinkin' excited to see where life takes him! I know he'll do great things, and we couldn't be more proud of who he is! Looking forward to a fun summer before he hits the books for college in the Fall!

We spent the majority of our weekend celebrating him with lots of fun, photos, and FOOD! More to come on that later. I hope everyone had a great weekend!!

Things I'm Loving {Volume 2}

A few weeks ago I wrote this blog post about some random things I was loving. Since I love blogging for discovering lots of new things, I thought it would be a fun way to showcase the random things I've found that I'm loving every month; whether that be online, in our home, or anything in general really. Here we go!

-Dying over this Carrie Underwood video... BTW Erin, time to buy tickets?!! ;)

-Absolutely drooling over this yellow maxi skirt and am trying to convince myself that I NEEDED IT LIKE YESTERDAY.

-Spending way too long calculating how much it would be to rent a nicer camera for a few days to play around. Photography is expensive y'all! But for good reason!

-This coloring book Caleb surprised me with a few weeks ago. It's SO soothing to me! Most of the time we use kids coloring books (no shame), so this was a fun change of pace.

-This article about how to deep clean your kitchen without scrubbing too much. Umm yes please.

-If I haven't mentioned it 1,000 times before, my brother graduates high school tonight. I could NOT be more proud of him!!! It has me all nostalgic, looking back at old photos. Can't wait to see him walk across that stage!

First day of Freshman year//Last day of Senior year

-Avocado hummus?? I need!!

-Squeezing my mom today! YAY! Hoping to sneak out of work a few minutes (since I was here late last night, ew) early to start graduation celebrations w/ my fan early!

-This hilarious (but amazing) Beard Mat for men. I feel like this is a weird, but great idea!

-Our iron. Actually my husband. Let me rephrase that. Catching my husband iron every shirt he owns. It's so adorable. He spends so long ironing every small wrinkle out of every crevice of his nice button up shirts. I love when he dresses up...but I also like when he wears his favorite sweats. Basically, I just love that man.

-The quick dry feature on our dryer. YES! It gets things done in about half the time.

-Cheetos Cheddar Jalapeño Crunchy chips... OMG. We've gone through two bags since the weekend. We have to stop!!

I hope everyone has a great Thursday! Tell me about some things you're loving!!

Dear 15 year old me,

Dear 15 year old me...

I know you.
I know you think you're ugly, since you've got a few extra pounds around your waist and your ankles aren't sticks like all of your friends.

I know you think you're not worthy of a good boyfriend because of your middle part, glasses AND braces...and your first "real" boyfriend got all of his friends to call you fat as he broke up with you over AIM.

I know you stay awake at night wondering if you'll ever have "the look" that everyone else seems to have.

I remember the struggle like it was yesterday; doing almost anything for some attention.

I know you pretend to know what everything means to fit in, and that you're lying about still watching Nickelodeon.

I know that you know some of the things you've done aren't okay, but you do them anyway to fit in, or to make yourself feel like you belong, or who knows.

But, if I could tell you how wrong you are, I would. I really would! I wish you could understand how truly AWESOME you are! How unique you are! How beautiful you are! If I could only show you a glimpse of your future, you'd understand how silly it is to be treating yourself so terribly. To be doing so many selfish, silly things!

Would you believe it if I told you the guy who hurt you (and who you also hurt) countless times throughout your youth would eventually be gone and you'd actually meet a guy worthy of marrying after graduation? Or that you'd end up finally being more confident in your personality? Or that some of your wildest dreams will come true!?

Would you believe me if I said you would be able to forgive yourself for all those not-so-great decisions you made and have the confidence to truly know that God has a bigger plan for you?

I so wish that I could shake you, tell you how worthy you really are, and make you understand His love for you!!! To make you understand that all the things you're going through are all for a reason. It's all molding you into the person you were made to be.

So 15 yr old Kayla, believe me when I say things will get better. No, life will NOT always be easy. I know you can't wait to grow up, but you should know your early 20's will prove to be some of the hardest years of your young life. You'll learn a lot, and grow like crazy...spiritually, emotionally, mentally, but its all part of your story. So you'll learn to love it.

Stop wishing the time away and live each day for what it is. Stop wishing for college (because that definitely doesn't go as planned), stop wishing for a man to complete you (because only God can do that), and stop trying to be someone you're not (cause you're actually pretty great). Remember who you really are, because you're perfect that way. Flaws and all.

Love,
Your older, wiser self.