thanksgiving tradition! [well, one of the many]

every thanksgiving my parents have a game for us family peeps to play in between the visiting and eating. and eating some more. every year! they are so good with their traditions, which is a good indicator about why im so tradition in love. i think they are so good for families to have. so, games. they have one every year. and all family members always wonder what it will be. so! this year, twenty-thirteen, introduced us to a bb gun. bb gun and target practice on a crisp thanksgiving afternoon actually! my dad had set up a bunch of home made targets.  which were just too funny, walking out in our backyard and seeing a huge cardboard target, cans stacked on top of eachother, things hanging form the trees. ha, they are clever ones those parents of mine and we love them for it! so thanksgiving began, and family came. and the boys bracket and girls bracket started.i clearly did not win the girls bracket, but you know who won the boys?? well, that fiance of mine. and you could say, oh he's from the south! he does this all the time. but nope! no hunter, but a an old baseballer! so maybe some of that good pitching accuracy creeped on it! anyways, it was just a really funny surprise to me. go stone! after the games came to an end, my dad crowned the winners and gifted them with the grandest prize.  their very own, duck dynasty hats. you are welcomeeeee! until next year! 

past meeting present

the best alabama popsicle sign made by my sweet sister nineee years ago!  for my college bound 18 year old self 

over the thanksgiving holiday austin and i flew home to connecticut. and in six and a half years of relationshipness, he has not gotten to visit my family's reaaaal homey home. the one i grew up in. [but this is mainly because i myself am so rarely there!] he has been to my family's beach house a bunch of times, so there is that. but meeting the real home! well, i was really excited for this magical occasion.  it has so much character and holds so many healy mems over the past seventeen years!

and that bedroom of mine, its the one bedroom that really hasn't changed very much! with me going to college so far away, my furniture and roomy things stayed put. while my brother and sisters beds and fun things like that came with them to college in boston. sooo, when you enter my room! you sort of step back in time. pictures of middle school, high school things. and yearbooks, harry potter book collections. dawsons creek. high school graduation cap and saved junior, senior prom corsages. and then there are my journals. and my three million notes from my friends. boxes full. we really liked our notes to each other.

so stone got to meet my middle, high school self in room form. and my middle, high school room self got to meet my FIANCE. crazy! and all that just makes me think back to times when i was in that room wondering about entering high school and dances and then college! or about boys and first kisses and first heartbreaks and all the exciting and not so exciting stuff that come with growing up. and then, you sort of just blink and here we are, present day! and my fiance is in my old room from my olden days. that was pretty cool. i'm pretty sure middle school chelsea would be really excited. and happy. and definitely give her teenage blessing.

we have a wedding date!

for the past two weeks or so weeks we have been talking in absolute circles about two particular venues in Atlanta that we really loved. but we have decided! and with that, a date has been set! we will be getting married Saturday, September 27th, 2014! this actually happens to fall on an off weekend for Alabama football ;) i maybe looked at next years schedule just about as soon as we started thinking about possibly getting married in September. but!! it was just one hundred percent a coincidence and fate, that the only Saturday our venue still had available in the summer/fall months was thaaaat Saturday!

sooo! we will be saying our forever i do's outside on the historic Swan House lawn. it's so, so breathtaking this place.  austin and i visited so many times over the past couple of weeks, walking the property, seeing where our reception would be, trying to envision it all. and along with every last beautiful detail of the house, we love that it will be outside. and also. i personally really loved the idea that before i walk down the stairs to meet my groomlove, i will get to have a quiet moment inside the Swan House with my dad before he walks me down. i think that moment will be a really special one. butterflies and me, the excited and nervous ones, we go hand in hand, so he's one of the best to be there with me. he's always been so good at finding the right words and reminding us to soak up all moments, little and big and i mean, i want to do just that!

on one particular venue visit of ours, austin and i walked to the tippity top of the Swan House stairs where i then had him play my dad's role and we walk down linked arms and all. hehe. when we got closer, i had him run down and assume the groom position. i'm a visual person oookay?!  plus it was just fun. i liked that we won't be able to see each other right away. because i know him. and i sure know me. and when we do meet, oohh there will be so much smiling, and hopefully!! no happy tears on my part [but if you know me at all, that's pretty much just wishful thinking]it will be special. the whole night will be special. and i can see how this wedding planning stuff can just be a whole lot. (!!!) but its comforting to just sometimes forget all the things on our long to-do list and picture all the happy things and mostly, the real purpose behind all of this.  it just makes me love my family and friends and everyone so near and dear to our hearts so much more. their excitement has been so genuine and has made us feel so loved. it will be a perfect day that September 27th!


and also. my mother dear, she has been an absolute wedding rockstar lady with all this. helping us with venues and pricing and letting me talk in circles about things i like and maybe like and maybe don't like? mom's are good like that.

party hats in the making

it’s the simplest, this one. but when you love birthdays as much as I do, and you love celebrating the special days of the ones you love, wellllll party hats are in order! personalized ones. i especially like when i can involve my little gent of a puppy in any step of the process. he likes it too. because he likes birthdays. he also likes the treats i give him for good puppy model cooperation! everyone wins!  

so! a "tutorial"... iiiif you can call it that ;)

• enlarge a picture and print on glossy legal sized paper
• fold picture into a cone... there are templates online, but ehhh i think you should be juuust fine on your own. glue or tape to hold in place 
• tape ends of an elastic to sides of hat

aaaaand magic!! time to party. 

a biiig thanks!

we've had so much fun sharing our engagement news with everyone we love. it’s been the best. its such an amazing feeling to feel so much genuine happiness and love. and we have felt it to the very brim! thank you so much for your kind words!!

charlie is excited too!  but he also gets excited when you give him an ice cube or throw a ball. sooo, we predicated that one. 

last week was a busy one for us! my mommy actually flew into town. booked her ticket and hopped on the next plane. it just worked that way with her schedule and we were more than thankful to have her visit and help begin the wedding process! we looked at as many venues as we could in the two days that she was here. aaaand!! we found one. aaaand then another one! so really, we have two venues on hold at the moment that we really love, equally as much. so it’s a hard decision! but i mean, things could clearly be worse, so ill take it.

 ....to be continued!

on the first of november....

on the first of november my college sweetheart asked thiiiiis girl of his to marry him! and you know what? i said yes yes yes! followed by so many happy tears. actually the tears started a little bit before, riiight about when i looked into the sweetest green eyes and realized what was happening.

so, i have written down [you know, like actual pen to paper, high school diary style] just about as much as my excited memory has possibly retained so that it stays with me forever. because that moment, the words that were spoken, that feeling. geez. it was the best. i don’t ever want to forget one single thing. do you hear me memoooory?!!!

so basically! the non-diary version of our story goes a liiiitttle something like this!

austin had planned this stay-cation type of thing for us last friday night. i wasn't sure where we were going but i mean, let's do it! we arrived at the Grand Hyatt [fitting!] and up to our room we went. Stone opened the door and i was greeted by the prettiest of roses and rose petals and candles. and then with a knock on the door, champagne and chocolate covered strawberries magically arrived.  i knew we would be going to dinner that night, just not sure where, so we cheersed some wine and other delicious things like crackers and goat cheese. a little bit later is when austin asked me to dance... to my parents wedding song actually. as soon he hit play i was already a little emosh. so, we danced right there to this song from way before our time. a special song, one that i've seen my parents dance to every anniversary of theirs growing up.  so it was kind of the cutest. but mostly, i just mean him. he was the cutest. and we probably need more dancing practice, but we do have the twirls down! the song ended and "marry me" by train came on next. i would absolutely be lying if i told you i realized that then. i was so captivated by the sweet things this green-eyed boy who i have loved since i was 21, said to me. and then seeing him get down on one knee. ahhhh my heart!!!

it was perfect. it would have been perfect any other way and austin knows that. there are things, really tiny things that i love soo much that he didn't even realize. i love the fact that he thought to check in before we got there. or picturing him buying twinkly lights and hanging them. or how he made reservations at three restaurants, one inside the hotel incase it was raining.  that 'simple stuff' its always the best kind of stuff.  if he had proposed in an overgrown field, or on a ferris wheel, or while camping, it would have been just as perfect. but this was the way he wanted to do it, and that's what makes it so special to me.

so there's a million more things i could say. related stuff, like how austin had asked my daddy for permission a couple of weeks ago, or how much fun it was to tell our family and friend loves ooor how my ring makes my heart beat so fast. or you know, unrelated stuff, like how we were an hour late to din because of all the happy tears or how delish it was. mmm or how we want robes for Christmas because it was so fun wearing the hotel ones.  but ehhh you get the point. i'm happy. we're happy. this is sooo what life is all about.

camping! year three

driving budz

saturday, us people along with some of our other favorite people, camped on austin's family's pretty property in north georgia!  it’s become an October tradition of ours, one of the best actually. except this year, we went a little bit later than usual, and it was a lot a bit colder than the past years! but! I will tell you, the whole me, wearing tights under leggings under sweatpants? it was so snugly and really kept all that body heat right where i like it, in the bod.  this was charlie’s first year too!! and he loooved it so very much. especially getting to play with the two other puppies and running around leash-less! us human people loved it very much as well! we had our s'mores and hot dogs and campfire.... and wine for the lady campers and beer for the mountain men, all the necessities! 

since our camping adventure fell on the last weekend of October, we made sure to bring along little bits of costumes, but charlie was fully prepared in his pirate attire and really looked so johnny depp dashing in his puppy pirate onesie. i caaaaant handle such cuteness, its too good. and so he’s been wearing it on and off for maybe a week now.

also!! do you see that ghoulish ghost hanging right on up there?! he was one of my little ghost people i made to hang during our camping trip to set the halloweenish mood, except i forgot safety pins to help hang. boo! literally. i guess when i made my camping list, under blankets, and hats, and jackets, and scarves, safety pins somehow slipped my mind. anyways, while we were dissembling our tent to go back to civilization, i found a random safety pin just hanging out! ooo the timing!! but i was sooo very happy to at least get to hang one ghost man, and for its 30 minute life it sure looked great out there until stone took it down. :( although hanging up these ghosts in our little home was the first thing he did as we stepped in so, all is well.

so elijay! thank you for having us and keeping us safe from all the unknown that lives in your wilderness [like the rattle snake that was spotted days before while cutting the grass…….!!!!] you have become one of our best traditions yet with some of our very favorite people and we cant wait to visit next year!

year one
year two