guest post for Southern Grade

Sharing a little bit about marriage, faith and being a new mom over here today. Stop by and enjoy!

three year anniversary!

we're taking a much needed escape to Bend,OR, our favorite place.

A little bit of our story
Engagement
Engagement Pictures
Wedding
The Details

celebrating

Brian and I have escaped for the week to celebrate our anniversary on Wednesday.
THREE years. crazy!
A few picture from our trip so far via instagram:

two years

of marriage. in bend. escaping this world to celebrate

see details from our day here & here

last year we celebrate our anniversary this way:
in Seattle, at Hotel Max, on Lake Washington, with amazing cake that our bakery gave us to enjoy 1 year later so we didn't have to eat frozen wedding cake.

first vacation of the summer!!

we decided to 

with our best friends 

for a 10 hour drive to Lake Tahoe, CA 

Source: flickr.com via paper on Pinterest

to watch our other best friends get marriedddd :)

we have hopefully made it there safe as you read this!

see ya'll on Monday, have a great weekend!!

i realllllly miss my husband.

come home now PLEASE. 

excuse me while i have a mini lonely freak out. its been 8+ days and i really don't like being apart. i really don't like sleeping in our bed alone. I really don't like not seeing and kissing his face everyday.

Friday will be a happy day picking him up from the airport

happy birthday to my HUSBAND

i loove you more than I can even comprehend

xoxo

i'm so excited for valentines day.

i love the idea of a day dedicated to showing our appreciation for one another 

the day really reminds us that we don't show our love for each other enough

i cant wait to celebrate :)

engagement

2 years ago today, I had the most wonderful man, put one knee to the ground and ask me the most important question...

 

Here is the story: Brian and I are a part of a non-profit fundraiser event Wild Canyon Games. We went out to Washington Family Ranch (formerly known as Wild Horse Canyon) on occasion for working meetings. The Ranch is a really special place for both of us. As a sophomore in high school Brian met the Lord and began a relationship with Him at Wild Horse. I spent time on work crew and summer staff at the Ranch. It is a wonderful place filled with Jesus. Young Life is also important to Brian and I as we met through it in high school and both led in college and now both lead together at Sunset.

All day Saturday Brian started asking me if I wanted to hike Communication Hill to watch the sunrise Sunday morning. I told him "no thanks..." over and over all day. I've hiked it a million times and while the view is incredible, the hike is pretty brutal... and after a long weekend working hard, waking up early on Sunday and pushing my legs on up there wasn't my frist choice.

he continued to ask and be persistent

{now... i'm not going to lie, I was getting pretty antsy about getting engaged. everyone around me was and i knew it was going to happen soon... but going into this weekend I had NO idea it was about to happen. we drove out by ourselves which was a fun 4 hour drive where Brian fell asleep and I almost hit a deer going 60mph in "downtown" antelope at midnight. No one acted weird before I left... no one was acting werid on our trip... except---}

Saturday night when other people started asking if we were going hiking in the morning and how fun it will be. This started my suspicion... as I fell asleep in my large king sized bed alone that night, I kept thinking that tomorrow, I could be getting engaged!

Sunday morning we woke up early to hike to see the sunrise, i felt like I didn't sleep one minute the night before, so excited but not nervous at all. we had a great 45 minute hike up to the top. The view is incredible the whole way and it's a super great work out. It was one of my favorite Oregon Fall days where there was a crisp feel in the air but the sun still so warm

When we arrived at the top, Brian's guitar case was there.... with his guitar in it, along with some coffee in mugs and a little mini breakfast set up. Brian sat me down and sang a song that him and I had started writing together a year before hand but never finished it. He changed some of the lyrics and the ending to fit with asking me to marry him, and talked about our special day. After he was through, we talked for a bit about our relationship and about how much he loved me-- somewhere between my tears, he got down on one knee and asked me to marry him.

 

it turned out that Brian had 2 of our great friends hike up before us and set everything up, they hid on the other side of the hill and we brought them out after the tears and smiles slowed down. They snapped a few pictures of us and then headed down the hill to leave us with some more time alone. It was amazing to be served like that that day, at our place of refuge at the Ranch, a place so spiritually and emotionally special to us. I couldn't have asked for anything better.

After we walked down, we showered and had breakfast with everyone from our implementation team. They were so happy and excited for us, I remember being so energized and joyful. We packed our stuff and headed back to Portland. We had a wonderful 4 hour drive to talk about our life and our plans and our wedding. it was the best.

We showed up to Brian's moms house to a HUGE party with all of our family and friends. It was amazing... a perfect end to the day! Brian told the story with lots of funny details and we drank champagne and had a blast.

bri telling the story

mom and sis

janice :)

ALSO: my mom had taken me the week before to get a manicure with her... but i had NO idea her intentions behind it. I love this picture of me and jill celebrating the night she got a job. you can see my "100 degrees in the shade" beautiful nail polish a few days before the engagement... she knew why, but I didnt  :) soo sneaky mom... so sneaky.

{our wedding} engagement pics

in honor of Brian and my anniversary this weekend I thought I would take a little trip back.

some of our engagement pictures:

Sacred Marriage

http://www.garythomas.com/sacred-marriage

Love this book. Just finished it and it's awesome. Gary is such a honest, tell-all type of author and let's just be honest, we all WANT the truth and benefit from the truth more than anything else. If it's sugar coated... where is the encouragement for growth or to "fall forward" as Gary talks about. Highly recommend it for anyone beginning a marriage to being 30 years in. It's never too late to learn these lessons and change our outlook on our marriage. It's not all about us, or all about me.

Stunning

I came across this picture last night and think it is so wonderful. She is glowing. It is so sad when marriages end. In my opinion it is all about how the relationship is before the wedding. Marriage can bring so much more and is a great goal at the end of hard work. It needs to be something that is earned and deserved. This can happen at any length of time or age. I believe that because of the hard work that my husband and I put in before our wedding, our marriage now is so much more smooth. I understand wanting to get married when you want to or trying to rush things because you are excited but I think that can just make things harder in the end. I am thankful for my husband and for him putting up with everything we've been through. For us, it is about a commitment. We are in love with each other for sure but without a commitment to each other, there would be no fight in us to keep our love alive. That is something we will put into practice for the rest of our lives.