Aniversario

I figured since the fabulous Hope Douglass had already blogged about her anniversary, i might as well jump on the bandwagon, and crank out our little anniversary tale.

Two years goes by quick y'all. I mean like super speedy, blink and you'll miss it, hyperspeed. I can't believe that i've been married for 2 years... and at the same time, it's like I have only ever known Alex, and our life together. It's pretty great. Alex is great, and i'm so thankful that he puts up with me, and all my emotional weirdness.

I look forward to special celebrations all the time. I love birthdays, and holidays, and i love that I get to put anniversary on the list of things to go out and eat cake for. I love getting pampered, and not caring (too much) about our usually strict budgets, and just going out, to be with one another, celebrate the fact that you didn't kill each other over the past year, and make more super fun memories and traditions.

Our anniversary is March 4, and that was on a monday this year, so instead of taking off from work, we just decided to celebrate over the weekend. It was a marvelous idea, and we didn't waste one minute.

Saturday morning, we woke up after sleeping in (a foreign concept) and left for our all time favorite restaurant--Joe's Farmgrill. okay guys, if you haven't been here, you need to stop reading this post, and get in your car and drive out to Higley and Ray and order something delicious. srsly.

We enjoyed some marvelous green eggs and ham (personal fave) and some delicious huevos rancheros. We also splurged and got the apple fritters. I mean, calories don't count on special occasions. amiright?
One thing i love most about Joe's in the atmosphere. The people are friendly, the gardens are beautiful, and you can sit outside on a wooden picnic table and enjoy life, while staring at the huge citrus trees. It's simple and (in my opinion) super romantic and fun! We always love our time at Joe's, and i think that it will become an anniversary tradition to have breakfast there.

After our tasty meal, we headed out to Scottsdale. Another anniversary tradition that we have is shopping in Keirland Commons on our anniversary. We spend our wedding night at the Weston Keirland. So it only feels right to go back there every year and shop and enjoy the weather. a HUGE perk to being married in the beginning of march is that you are able to do so many things outside and actually enjoy yourself. I love all the fancy shops at KC, and always have fun imagining what i would buy if money was no object. We did buy a few things in Crate & Barrel. but thats just because Alex and I are both suckers for cool kitchen gadgets, and beautiful ceramic berry bowls ;) Some of our other favorite places to look in are Sur La Table, Z Gallerie, Anthropologie and Michael Kors. We always just feel so fancy and grown up when we shop down town scottsdale, and its something that we don't do very often to I always look forward to it.

Once our window shopping was over, we headed out to Salt River Fields to see a Spring Training Game. It is no secret that alex and I are obsessed with baseball, and so it was an easy choice to celebrate our anniversary with the Diamondbacks. We went to a spring training game for our first anniversary, so needless to say, it has become a tradition to go every year.

We are cheap, newly weds, and we hate to buy food inside the park since it is super overpriced. But you cant take in outside food. So i had the brilliant idea to sneak the snacks in under my shirt. and lucky for me these snacks just made me look pregnant, so we were able to have a pretend baby for about 5 minutes before i was able to go into the bathrooms and 'give birth' to these tasty snacks and keep them in my purse. Alex was horrified that i actually snuck snacks in under my shirt, but he forgave me when he realized how expensive the same bag of sunflower seeds are on the inside of the park. It was definitely a funny memory.

Something else that was really cool was that we were at the park early enough that we were able to go down to the field and meet a few of the players. We were able to get our diamondbacks hat signed by Ian kennedy and Dan Hudson tow of Arizonas best pitchers! Alex was loving it!

The game was great as usual, but we were kinda anxious to leave the park, because we had a reservation at The Melting Pot for dinner! We got changed out of our baseball garb, and got a little fancier. Something I love about eh melting pot, is how romantic it is. we requested a privacy booth, and so our little intimate table was behind our own little curtain, and we were free to be as lovey as we wanted without disgusting the others around us. Perfect for an anniversary dinner. ;)

We had a lovely time eating all the amazing things The Melting Pot has to offer, and reminiscing about the past year together. We had agreed to not exchange presents this year, but i lied, and i still got alex a present, and it was so fun to surprise him. I had bought him tickets to Opening Day (toldya we love baseball) Our seats were right behind Home base, and it was so fun to actually surprise Alex with something that he (and I) will really really enjoy.

Our anniversary celebration was a huge success, and I always love getting to spend one on one, romantic and fun times with my sweet husband. /rasies glass Here is to another fabulous year!! I love you Alex. Thank you for another year of amazing memories, growing opportunities, learning experiences, and countless reasons to love you more and more.

The Wedding

Guys, i'm sorry about the delay in the story. I was out living life, and things got hectic. But I won't leave you hanging, i'll finish the love story. :)

After our engagement, things got crazy. We had to chose a wedding day, wedding colors, pick a wedding dress, and get it all done within a budget. It was stressful, but at the same time, i was super laid back about the whole thing. I didn't really care too much about huge details, because in my opinion, the only part of the wedding that really mattered was the groom. and i had him, and i knew he was the right one. So it didn't matter to me what flavor cake we had, or what flowers were added to the bouquet. I was just so excited to me marrying Alex.

I loved all the parties that were thrown in our honor. Bridal showers, bachelorette parties, and open houses galore! We even went up to utah and had parties up there! It was a blast. I felt so loved and supported throughout the whole process. Its such a blessing to come from a family who cares so much about each other.

I have never really been a fan of receptions, and I knew that when i got married, i just wanted to have a small intimate dinner on the day of the actual wedding. But i didn't want anyone to feel excluded from the festivities, so we had an open house. We did it the wednesday before the wedding, and it was just perfect. I wore my dress, and we had a receiving line, and it was life a mini reception, but just a lot more low key.

My reasoning for not wanting a reception is simple. I believe that the day of your sealing in the temple, that should be your main focus. and that should be what you are looking forward to. I didn't want to feel like, "oh yeah, the sealing was nice... but lets get to the real fun-the reception". So our actual wedding day was very relaxed and intimate.

our sealing was at 3:45, so we had all morning to sleep in (which i actually did... no pre wedding sleepless night for me!), and take our time getting ready. I had a hair appointment at 11, and then alex came and picked me up at 1 to go and take our bridals at the temple.

One of my favorite memories from that morning was as we were driving to the temple, i commented on how thirsty i was. and so we decided to stop at circle k and grab some Thirst busters! Everyone at the gas station was in awe that we were in our wedding garb, and we even got our drinks for free.

The sealing was intimate and perfect. I remember feeling so much love from my Heavenly Father, and I knew he was so proud of me and Alex and our decision to be married for time and all eternity in His holy temple.

After the sealing we took more photos with friends and family who were waiting for us outside, and then we headed to dinner at Tia Rosas.

Tia rosas was the most perfect setting for our little family dinner. They have a beautiful back garden, and twinkle lights everywhere, and it was just magical. Our friends had gone by earlier to set things up, and add a few personal touches to the garden, and i couldn't have been more pleased.

The food was delicious, and we ate, and drank and we were oh so merry :) After everyone had had their fill, we played a slideshow of some baby pictures of Alex and I, which is always cute, and always embarrassing... i should find some of those old pictures of alex... haha. and then we did the traditional things, like cutting the cake, having our first dance and tossing the bouquet.

It was so simple, and lovely, and the best part is that we were of on our honeymoon by 8:30 that evening.

I couldn't have asked for a better day, and i was so happy to be starting my new life with Alex.
And what better way to start your lives together than with a super extravagant trip!!

Check in later for our honeymoon recap ;)

Ring Shopping and a Proposal

After Alex told me he loved me, it took me a while to say it back. I had been hurt before by saying "I Love You" too quickly, and i didn't want to make the same mistake again. Alex knew that I loved him back (i kinda made it super obvious) and so he made an effort to let me know that he didn't need to hear it back right away. He wanted me to be 100% comfortable when i finally told him. I really appreciated his patience too, and I have come to learn that patience is one of his most admirable qualities.

I finally did tell him, about 3 weeks after he had first told me. one night sitting in front of me parents house, in the car, staring at my feet, totally nervous. super romantic, i know. don't be jealous. luckily, Alex didn't mind my super lame declaration on love, and instead just kissed me and told me how happy he was to hear me say that.

A few more months go by, and we are just in love, and courting, and basically planning our lives together. However there has been to official talk of marriage, or rings or wedding dates. We were comfortable in the relationship we had, and saw no sense in rushing anything.

The day before alex's first day of college, we headed up to Payson for a little day trip. We packed a picnic lunch, played frisbee in the park, went antique shopping and just enjoyed the cooler weather. We had an absolute blast, and everything just seemed to click. We were planning staying up in Payson for a few more hours, but I remember Alex just looked at me, and said, "I've made a really big decision..." but wouldn't say anything more about the subject. But he just suggested that we head back to Mesa to catch some dinner and maybe go to a movie. That sounded like a great plan to me, so we loaded up the car and drove out to Superstition Mall.

Alex was acting kinda strange, and i knew why once we reached the mall and walking inside and he said we should to into Kay Jewelers "just for fun". I was freaking out, and couldn't believe that we were about to look at really shiny diamonds for the first time together. It was an awesome experience and I remember that the very first ring i tried on, was so special. Other rings were lovely, but there was something about this ring in particular that just felt to right. Obviously, we didn't buy anything that day, but it was so fun to look, and to feel like we were moving in the direction of marriage.

Now, just to give you a little bit of a time frame for this whole thing. We looked at the first ring in August. like august 9th or something ridiculous. So i mean clearly i'm expecting a proposal, because at this point we are constantly talking about 'the wedding' and 'our life together' and 'where we want to live' and 'wedding colors' and 'honeymoons' and lots of other things that would suggest that we would be getting engaged.

Well, august comes and goes. no ring.

September comes, and there are a few dates that i thought could be the proposal day. They weren't.

October is here, and we still have no ring and my gash darn finger. and at this point i am dropping hints like crazy and i am basically on the verge of yelling "PROPOSE ALREADY GOSH DANG IT".

i didn't. but it was close.

Then finally, it's november. and we were coming up on our 6 month anniversary. And alex honestly isn't really the planning type. but when we called me and told me not to worry about planning anything because he had it under control, i began to become suspicious and totally excited beyond belief.

{side story} So, we were engaged on november 2. and I went to lunch at the Cheesecake Factory with my mom and my moms best friends. We were right by the ring store where i had seen the Ring of my Dreams. and so i suggested that we go and see it. So we go into the store, and i tell the salesman what ring i'm looking for, and he says, "Oh, a nice young man actually just came in a bought that from us a few days ago. We wont have another one in for a few days." And me, being the naive person that I am, I didn't even consider that alex would be the one who bought the ring. Hahahaha... little did i know...

okay, back to the story. So November 2nd rolls around, and Alex comes and picks me up for our date. He says that we are going to Fountain Hills for a picnic and a movie. This was so special because Fountain Hills is where Alex first told me he loved me (while i was awake :) I was so excited. We drove to out to the park and set up a lovely picnic area. We ate our chipotle and drank dr. pepper and reminisced about the last 6 months. It was so great. But, it was also freezing. November, in the park, by a lake, in the mountains... awesome. So i was freezing and kindly asked if instead of watching the movie he had brought if we could just go home and watch instead. He seemed kinda annoyed that I would ask, but obliged. We drove home and he was super quiet the whole ride. We were just about to my house, when he bursts out, "nope, i have something i need to do."

So we turned the corner and went to the little park in my family's neighborhood and he jumps out and takes me to the gazebo, and turns on our song (Para Ti by Camila) and he asks me to dance. We are dancing under the stars, while he is singing to me in spanish. I was melting. It was so romantic and perfect. Then after the song was over he looks at me and says, "Allora, will you do me a favor?"

I just look at him with tears in my eyes, as he gets down on one knee and says, "will you be my wife?"

I barely got the words out, but i just kept repeating "yes, yes, yes! Of course! Oh my gosh!"

He stood up and gave me the biggest kiss ever, and we were both crying, just so happy. And in all the commotion, i didn't even look at the ring! HA! So after a second, alex says, "Do you want this?" holing up a little velvet box with the most perfect ring inside. it was MY ring. the first one we had looked at way back in august! And Alex was in fact the nice young man who the jeweler was talking about. He had bought the ring just the day before I went and tried to show my mom! So funny!

I was so excited to be engaged, and we quickly ran to our families houses to share the exciting news.

I was engaged to the best man, he proposed in the best way, and I couldn't wait to start planning for the best day of our lives.

Our Wedding Day.