el dorado royale

here are a few pictures of our honeymoon destination!

let's celebrate!

justin surprised me on valentines day at work with roses! he got to come into my classroom and meet my kids...too bad it was nap time ;) that night he cooked me a delicious dinner and we had chocolate fondue for dessert. our original plans were to go to the melting pot, but we didn't want to be out on the busiest night of the year there. so we are going to go one of the upcoming weekends. this past weekend my grandpa came over to help us build some shelves and work benches in our garage for storage. he also did a bunch of little things inside too-he's such a handy man! my dad also came over and helped us paint our extra bedroom, and we began the hallway too. i can't wait to finish painting....anyways, this valentines day marked a year since we have been engaged...it's gone by so fast. we always say it feels like we've been dating for a week. i guess time really does fly by when you're having fun! :)

justin and i had a wonderful weekend working on our house. we went to home depot to purchase some closet organizational materials to clean up our chaos. it was a really fun trip...it's funny when the thought of shopping at home depot (the man mall) excites you. justin did a great job putting everything up and now everything fits into place. we also found time to see a movie and relax together. it was great. now back to reality...work!

patriots lose!

justin and i had a bet over the superbowl and of course, i won! he bet that the patriots would beat the giants by a million and if he won-i had to buy him chipotle. of course i knew the giants would win because you always root for the underdogs!! looks like we're going to chipotle for dinner honey and it's all on YOU! oh yea! :)

just breathe.

it's really hit me in the last few weeks that we are actually getting married, after so many years of talking about it, it is actually coming to life. even though we had a long engagement with still a few months to go, i am really glad we decided to wait until this summer. it allowed us to take time with our plans and really enjoy the engagement phase, which i have heard is one of the best times of your life! i think once the wedding is over i will really miss the planning phase, and justin more than me! (haha)...i have enjoyed every second of the planning process, but am starting to get nervous as the time goes on. there is so much left to do still and the weeks are flying by!

honeymooners!

we just received more honeymoon information from our travel agent so now i am in the mood to be in mexico! we are honeymooning at el dorado royale, an adults-only resort that won the four diamond award. it was voted best all-inclusive resort worldwide! they have 8 five star resteraunts, 2 of my favorites...sushi and fondue, and 12 bars...plus 24 hour room service. Besides that they have burger joints, a pizza place, italian, mexican and a healthy bar (like we are going to visit that!) my favorite is the 'chocolate affair'. each night they dedicate an entire resteraunt to every kind of chocolate dessert you can imagine. yummy. im also excited for the honeymoon candle-lit dinner on the beach. the resort looks amazing. i'll post some pictures from their website.

more updates

so many great things are happening for the two of us. i can't even begin to describe everything that is being planned for us. jenni and meghan have taken on the role of my personal planners for everything! they have planned my bachelorette party...which happens to last a whole weekend, and we'll be flying to chicago (that's all i know, because they are very, very sneaky). i'm so thankful i have friends that care that much to plan something so special. they are also planning a honeymoon shower for me in april (again, all i know...for now ;)

beyond that i have three other showers coming up. one out of town shower hosted by justin's mom, a kitchen-themed family shower, and another shower thrown by my mom's awesome friends. i'm so excited!

justin and i had a fabulous time registering...last weekend i was in chicago and registered at the 4 story crate and barrel. i could have lasted all day. it was so fun to pick out whatever we liked and find items that would match our new home. we also registered at target and macy's...but after all our showers we'll probably have to register for more!

the journey begins

hello & welcome. we decided to create a blog to entertain you with our life as it unfolds before us, so you can join us on our journey.

currently, we are settling into our brand new townhome in cottage grove, mn. we couldn't be happier in the place where God has put us at this very moment. we finally understand why there were so many obstacles, a little bit of heartache, and why everything kept falling through. we got an unbelievable deal...it's amazing what happens when you pray and place your problems in his hands.

"for I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not harm you, plan to give you hope and a future." Jeremiah 29:11.

this process has been overwhelming, exciting, scary, happy, amazing, trying, and surreal all at once...oh and should we mention...expensive! but worth every penny. to have a house to home a life we started together over 7 years ago is incredible. it has definetly presented many challenges for us. picking out paint was quite a process, and it took us awhile to find our "perfect match". justin quickly learned that there would not be a drop of blue in our home, and i learned that there would be no purple. funny how the accent wall in our master bedroom turned out plum, and our office a shade of teal ;) what we really learned is compromise. i realized that justin has an eye for decorating and coordinating that i should give him overdue credit for! we have been collecting things over the past few months and everything is slowly falling into place. soon we'll take some pictures to share with everyone.