Catching Up Is Hard To Do

     WOW. I knew it'd been a while (ok... more than a while), but I would never have guessed that I hadn't written in almost 2 months! That is crazy! And soooo not ok. At this point, I don't even know where to begin to catch you up. No one would read this blog if I went through everything that's happened in the past two months, so I'll summarize using photos with captions.

*Note: These pictures are not in chronological order. School has taken over the organizational part of my brain and won't let anything else in.

Not sure if this was before or after I took the "small" break from writing... But here is the picture and story anyway! A few weeks after we returned from our honeymoon, our fridge stopped "fridge-ing." This is a picture of me being overjoyed that we finally had a functioning fridge again! Oh, the joys of adulthood. 

Kyle still adores Jenna and she loves him too! I cannot believe how fast she is growing up... Ok. I have to stop thinking about it now or I'll get all emotional. 

Kate's birthday was on the 8th of August, so Ally and Emma decorated the bonus room for her and her friends to have a sleepover in! Emma was so excited she could hardly stay upright. 

Last weekend, we took a mini vacation with my family to go see Jonah at the Sight and Sound Theatre in Branson. If you haven't seen it, GO! You will not regret it! It was quite honestly one of the most amazing productions I've ever seen. Jonah loved watching the other Jonah! 

A month or so ago I started a new job, and Kyle said if I accepted another one I had to give up two of my old ones. Unfortunately, this meant saying goodbye to the Barns at Timber Creek. I loved being a wedding host there and my bosses were pretty amazing people. I am blessed to have had the experience! 

Kyle and I are still very much in love! And goofy. 

Jenna is as adorable awake as she is asleep!

While in Branson, we had several adventures! We went mini-golfing... 

...and accidentally locked our keys in our car. Whoops! We'll all laugh about it sometime. Right? 

Another one of me and Jenna because, well, she's so ADORABLE! 

I've recently begun putting more time into building my photography business. Luckily, several local photographers have started getting together to talk about anything and everything photo related. Since I'm just starting out, I'm beyond blessed to have people who are willing to give me advice and answer my endless flow of questions! 

I made chocolate cupcakes with chocolate ganache filling and peanut butter frosting for Emma's birthday on August 6th! They were a definite hit. I've never seen cupcakes disappear as fast as these! 

Kyle's pretty amazing. I try not to brag too much on social media (believe me - I feel the temptation), but sometimes he's just too great. The other night, I was feeling stuck in my hectic schedule, so he said, "Grab your camera. We're going to Chaplain." 

So, we set up a little camp and spent the evening swinging peacefully in a hammock and taking pictures. Perfect. 

On the way home from Branson, Ally, Emma, Kyle and I decided to stop by Lambert's Cafe for lunch. We ended up having to wait for over an hour, but time means nothing when you know you're about to get throw'd rolls! 

Before we saw Jonah, we got to take a backstage tour of all the scenery used in the production. It really made us appreciate all the work that went into the musical so much more! 

My husband's amazing and could totally model for a living. Who hit the jackpot of husbands? ME! 

Kyle and I backstage at Jonah while my dad makes goofy faces at us. 

Kyle has agreed to let me teach him about photography. I think it's more challenging than he originally thought it would be... But he's getting the hang of things. 

This is the tiny horny toad Kyle caught while he was working. He was SO cute! 

This picture is from another of Kyle's excursions. I had forgotten to bring my nice camera, but my phone did a pretty good job capturing this stunning view! I love Kansas. 

Along with doing promotional events for my photography business, I also updated to a new website  - click here to see it! Whoo hoo! Love it! 

Ok... I think that pretty much sums up our last 2 months besides talking about boring stuff like work and school. I'm sure I'll think of 20 different things I could have included as soon as I click "publish" but I'll just have to write about those another time! 

It's Time For Real Life

    We have now reached the "real life" part of being married. Sure, lots of it is still the honeymoon phase, but slowly and surely we are making the move towards normalcy...

     

    When we were talking about getting married, and my mom was all, "Oh, boy! You'll have a whole house to take care of!"

 I was pretty sure it wouldn't be that difficult. There's only going to be two of us - how hard could it be? 

It is HARD! 

     Even with just the two of us. We don't have a dishwasher so all the dishes are by hand - that wouldn't be bad, except I love to cook and experiment which equals lots of dirty dishes. Honestly, washing dishes is still pretty relaxing. The question is, how long will that last? 

     We also don't have a washer or dryer yet, so we go over to my parents or his parents to do about 2 weeks worth of clothes in one run. Lately, I've started working more hours at my dad's clinic, which means I don't get home until 5, and every other weekend I host weddings so I'm gone for the majority of the weekend. That doesn't leave a whole lot of time for housework. 

     I also have to keep track of bills; when things are due and where. That's actually pretty fun... if it wasn't real money leaving our real accounts. 

     Then there are the other things like emptying the trash in the house, organizing the boxes of stuff that still don't have a place, dusting, and still feeding my husband who manages to track dirt clods all over the house and leave his hunting stuff out. 

     Don't get me wrong! I love being married. I love cooking, washing dishes, and all that comes with it. I just didn't expect it to be so... much. How in the world do all you mothers do it?! 

     All in all, this past week has not gone as smoothly as the previous weeks. We've fought over things, made up, gotten annoyed with each other, and somehow still love each other and had fun. I'm not even sure how that works, but I'm glad it does! 

    At our wedding, we had advice cards on the tables for guests to fill out. Now, a month into being married, I think it's time to look back through them. There was definitely some good (and goofy) advice we received, and I've picked out a few of my favorites to share! 

If you are going to fight, fight naked. If you can still fight it is worth fighting about! 

Do not hang wallpaper together. 

Each of you make it your goal to be a life long student of your spouse. Learn all about what makes them tick. 

Kyle should always wash his hands when he comes inside. He may have had his hand inside a catfish, or just skinned a squirrel, or roasted frog legs. 

Always make her feel beautiful! Buy her flowers (even $5 ones from Wal-mart)! Love God more than you do her. 

Give Kyle a hug every time he comes in the door. 

If you have kids, always have Kyle go change diapers and get up in the middle of the night. Lol. 

Marriage is not 50/50. It's 100/100. 

We both LOVED reading these, so thank you to all of you who filled them out! There were more categories besides advice, such as: how many kids we will have, where we will be in 25 years, what we should name our kids, etc. Some of them are HILARIOUS, so I'll have to share them too! 

Here is one last bit of advice that really hit me, especially when it comes to the "normal" view of love and marriage.  

To love is a choice. Choose it! 

The Adventures of Newlyweds

      Honestly, I wasn't too thrilled when Kyle suggested we go to Branson for our honeymoon. Branson just doesn't scream romance to me. But I also hadn't been there in years, so I agreed to go. I'm so glad I did! Colorado is great and all, but you have to drive FOREVER to get anywhere and there isn't much to do in comparison. We went shopping, cooked frozen pizza in our cabin, went fishing, shopped, ate, slept (I did LOTS of sleeping. Turns out planning a wedding really takes it out of a person).

     Anyway, here are lots (and lots and lots) of pictures from our honeymoon! 

About 45 minutes into the drive and we had to switch spots because Kyle was so tired. Aw. Poor baby. 

On the way, we stopped at Lambert's Cafe in Springfield - land of throw'd rolls! 

We finally arrived and our cabin was SO CUTE! 

After we got settled, we went to the fish hatchery and then walked around by the river. 

We ate loads of delicious food, shopped, mini-golfed, and went to a wax museum. It was a blast! 

That's Angelina Jolie and her infamous leg if you can't tell. 

Of course, you can't go to a wax museum without doing the Titanic pose. 

After that, we played more mini-golf! I'm not very good technically speaking, but I did win with a little luck once. Kyle tried to teach me, but it's way more fun to just take a whack at it. 

The shopping was probably my next favorite thing we did besides mini-golf. Kyle needed some nice shirts so we spent a long time picking out new clothes for him. It's way more fun to dress him than it is to dress me! 

Pretty much the whole trip, I was still in shock that we were actually 100% married. It's finally starting to sink in now, and it's been 2 weeks! 

After a few days in Branson, we drove down to Eureka Springs and Roaring River for a day or two. 

While we were there, it rained. So, we went to visit the glass chapel which was so stunning and peaceful. 

Then we went to Roaring River where I watched Kyle fish and caught crawdads. 

It was awesome to see rainbow trout swimming around my legs. The water is so clear there! 

Overall, our trip was fantastic and it was great to spend some time getting used to being married. I'm so blessed to have married someone who is truly my bestfriend. 

I love you, Kyle!