The 5 days leading up to the wedding

We're back from New Orleans and are officially Mr. & Mrs. Adams!! 

 

The last few weeks have definitely been a whirlwind. 

This is what I consider my real life fairytale.

I have honestly, besides when my children were born have never been happier.

It was Sunday, March 25th.

It was just the two of us at home, watching the UK game.

The Cats were playing Bailor and were well on their way to the Final Four in New Orleans.

At this point, we'd been engaged a little over two months.

 We had been tossing around different ideas for our wedding. 

We knew right off that we didn't want a large traditional wedding.

We wanted something small & unique.

  A destination Wedding.

 We were still struggling on a location and a date though.

It honestly became a little frustrating.

We'd plan nights where we'd just look on the internet for ideas.

It'd get late & I'd fall asleep which just made Creag mad.

We began to joke a little here and there about running off to get married.

And that's exactly what we did.

Talk of it started on Sunday at home. 

Creag said, "If Kentucky wins this game, we should go to New Orleans to get married."

"We'll just go to the game while we're there"

I'm thinking to myself, yeah right. 

He can't be serious.

I'm thinking, Kentucky has quite the lead right now.

 I better take him up on this!

So I agreed. 

If they win, we're going!

 When he started googling New Orleans weddings I knew he was serious.

He showed me a picture of Jackson Square and I was sold.  It looked amazing.

At this point, I had my hopes up.

The score towards the end of the game was getting close and I was getting nervous.

I really, really wanted this and he did too.

I sat there on the edge of my seat, biting my nails until the buzzer sounded & Kentucky WON!

We were both giddy & over the moon excited!!

A few things I remember saying were....

"We're going to New Orleans!!"

"I have to call my parents!!"

And probably something along the lines of "we're crazy!!"

 We decided that we were going to invite our immediate family & closest friends. 

 If they could come, great.  If not, we were getting married anyway. 

We're both pretty spontaneous and our relationship has been nothing short of a roller coaster ride so this was perfect for us. 

 

I called my parents first and they said what I thought they would.  

"Of course we'll be there!" 

My brother also agreed to come. 

My best friend Amy, which was my Maid of Honor said that she wanted to be there but first had to check her work schedule.  Eventually, she worked things out & was able to say yes and that she was bringing Jacob! 

Creag's Mom & Step Dad along with his sister Mica & her husband Tyler couldn't commit right away either because they had a few things to figure out.

His Mom was the only one who was able to make it.  Dave just couldn't get off of work.

Mica, was pretty far along in her pregnancy & it just didn't seem like a great idea to travel to New Orleans.  We missed them all at the wedding, but completely understood.

  Michael was in right away.  He was the best man so he really had no choice.

After we knew who was coming with us, we decided that we'd leave on Thursday, March 29th after work. 

This gave us 5 days to prepare for our wedding!!  Oh let the madness begin.

SUNDAY:

Creag started looking for houses on Sunday night. 

An eight bedroom house to be exact. 

On Final Four weekend.

Checking in in less that a week. 

This sure wasn't going to be easy, or cheap. 

I think it took him until about Tuesday to find a place, but he did it.

Prime example of why I love him.  He knows how to get things done. 

He found us an 8 Bedroom, 4 Bathroom house right outside of the garden district. 

It was away from the city which we thought would be great considering we would have the kids with us.

After the house was taken care of, we found a minister online. 

Reverend Charles Cross. 

Pretty ironic seeing how we met online, eh. 

I'm a HUGE fan of the Internet:) 

We sent the minister an email & he agreed that he could marry us on Sunday, April 1st. 

I wasn't a husge fan of an APRIL FOOLS DAY wedding, but it grew on me.

I really had no other choice because the basketball game was on Saturday. 

Reverend Cross stated that he would take care of getting us a cake, & he knew of a photographer and offered to set that up as well. 

After we had that settled, we looked into the location. 

I had said earlier that we really liked Jackson Square, so we stuck with that.

Then, we left the house to do a little shopping.

We really did not have much time & I was antsy to buy stuff for the wedding.

We needed to find the kids something to wear for the ceremony & needed to get a few things for their Easter baskets anyway.   

We headed to Walmart & found matching dresses for the girls with white dress shoes. 

They were perfect. 

They were white & a pale yellow color. 

This led the way for me to decide on a white & yellow color scheme but thought I'd try to throw blue in there for UK. 

Walmart also had little boys Easter Suits that I liked.

They didn't have matching ones in the same color for their sizes so we decided to pass on them.

We figured we could check another store later in the week. 

We checked out & headed home with one more thing crossed off the list.

MONDAY:

Monday morning, on my way to work I called Jeri.

Jeri used to babysit the kids when we lived in Dayton & she's also a florist.

Jeri & I are pretty close.  She'd been waiting & waiting for the day Creag proposed.

I asked her if she would mind making me a boquet. 

Of course she obliged.  I had no doubt she would.

She is an amazing person to say the least.   

I told her that I wanted yellow & white flowers. 

Yellow calalilly's if she could find them. 

She did, and they were beautiful!! 

My bouquet

She not only made my boquet like I asked.

She also made flowers for Amy, Skylar & Sam, Yvonne, & my Mom.

Creag, Micael, Hank & Wyatt, & my Dad.

She really saved me on this. 

And only charged me what the flowers cost her.

Pretty amazing friend right there.



Skylar & Sammie's boquet's

Monday night after work, we also went to Jared so Creag could pick out his wedding band.

He picked out his band and then we took the kids out for pizza at Danato's.

After dinner, we dropped Skylar off at gymnastics & headed into Florence to go wedding dress shopping.  

Creag dropped me off at David's Bridal & then took the boys to find UK shirts.

I walked into David's Bridal with like 45 minutes to spare because we had to be back to get Skylar by 8:30. 

Oh my was I stressed & a little overwhelmed once I saw all of the gowns to choose from. 

I had an idea of what I wanted.  

Long, White, Simple, & Elegant. 

The girls at David's Bridal were amazing & very helpful.

I told them what I wanted, how little time that I had & they grabbed a few dresses for me to try on.

Off to the dressing room we went.

Here are my choices.

I ended up choosing dress #2.

I also chose a veil.

I really wasn't too sure about it, but in the end I'm glad I got it.

I knew that I wanted a pop of yellow in my jewelry to go with my flowers, so I picked out these shoes & had them dyed yellow.

All of this obviously took longer than expected.

I had to text Creag to ask him if he would go get Skylar from gymnastics and come back to get me. 

He said yes and it worked out great because by the time they got back, I was still being fitted for alterations and Skylar was able to see me in my dress. 

Her eyes lit up when she saw me. 

 You could tell she thought her Mama looked beautiful, and it made my heart swell to see her eyes light up like that.  

When we finally finished, I changed back into normal clothes & I paid for the dress (thank you David's Bridal financing!!) 

They told me the dress would be ready for pick-up Wednesday night at 8:30. 

 After we left there, we headed over to the Walmart in Florence to see what they had in the little boys suit department. 

We found this:))))

Is that not too friggin' cute!? 

My son is going to be such a ladies man;) 

We bought this suit for Hank, but they still didn't have one for Wyatt that matched. 

I asked the lady working if she'd call the Walmart by our house to see if they had a matching one in a 4T.  They didn't have a 4, but had a 5 so we asked them to hold it for us.

On our way home we stopped to buy the suit.  While I was there I got their dress shoes to match.

So the kids outfits were then completely taken care of. 

I surely didn't feel like mother of the year having them out at Walmart on a school night at 10:30pm but this stuff HAD to be done. 

We were so short on time it wasn't funny!!

Tuesday:

On Tuesday, we found out that we would not be able to get married at Jackson Square.
You need to apply for a permit 2 weeks in advance to have an event there, so we agreed that we would pick a location when we got to New Orleans.
After work, the girls & I went to get pedicures & manicures.
I got a french manicure on both my finger & toe nails.
Sammie chose french manicure on both fingers & toes as well. 
Skylar got a french manicure on her nails with glitter on top & yellow tootsies:)

My Weddin' Nails

I'm pretty sure the rest of Tuesday was spent at home packing & cleaning. 

I was also getting messages throughout the day/night from my Mom while she was dress shopping.

M.O.T.B.

 

She also found me this, which is exactly what I was looking for!!!

Thank God for her help!!  And Amy's! 

Amy found me this bracelet.

& these adorable flowers for the girls hair.

At this point I think jewelry was pretty much taken care of.

WEDNESDAY:

After work on Wednesday we met at home & had a quick dinner there.

 After dinner we headed out to wrap things up.

I had to pick up my dress and the boys needed haircuts. 

I also wanted to find a few miscellaneous things for the trip. 

I always feel like I'm short on clothes.

Especially when we go on vacation. 

We drove separately but first stopped at Great Clips so I could let them know how to cut Hank's hair. 

Then I let Creag take it from there. 

Michael was with them & after their haircuts, they were heading over to Men's Warehouse to pick up their suits. 

I wasn't allowed to know what his suit looked like btw. 

It was to be a total surprise. 

And this terrified me just a little bit. 

The fear worsened after Creag described the suit as "fly". 

I was litterally in my head picturing the blue suits in Dumb & Dumber. 

I had a little time in between the hair cut and my appointment at Davids Bridal so I decided to stop in Dots to see what they had.

I'm really glad I did because I found all kinds of goodies. 

Amy had been looking for a yellow cover-up to wear over her dress and yellow shoes & I found them both. 

Cute right?!

Their shoes were buy one, get one half off so I had to get myself some too!!

I finally made it back to the house so it was time to start packing.

And trying things on.

 

 

 We ended Wednesday night with a few beers at the house. 

Michael stayed late& his friend Bruce came by. 

I think/know they were TRYING to get him out for a bachelor party but failed!! 

THURSDAY:

Thursday is the day that we worked all day.

Met everyone at home afterward.

Loaded up, & headed to New Orleans where I would say I do to the man of my dreams.

To be continued...............

Surprise!!

So I haven't been on this little blog 'o mine in awhile. 

I feel like I have absolutely no time to sit down & write anything. 

And honestly, before this week I had nothing really interesting to talk about.

Well folks, that has changed. 

DRAMATICALLY CHANGED!! 

I went from getting engaged in February & planning a wedding at least a year from now;

to eloping to the Big Easy this weekend!

That's right, we're getting married THIS WEEKEND!

I am so, so, beyond excited. 

I cannot believe how quickly this has happened.

I had given up hope of Creag & I even getting engaged. 

Now, in just a few short months we've gotten engaged & in 3 days I'm going to be a Mrs.!!

It is so amazing how everything just comes together, just the way it's supposed to.

I have to give credit to the man upstairs.

He has blessed my life more than I could have ever thought possible.

This year has been beyond stressful for us. 

The last two years actually.

Blending a family is not easy. 

It is one of the hardest things I think we have ever done.

There were more than a few times along the way that I think we both just wanted to throw in the towel.

And a few times we did.

I'm just so grateful, that in the end, our love for eachother was strong enough to get us through the challenges that we faced. 

For these challenges are the ones that have made us stronger than you could imagine.

The respect that I have for Creag, as a father, as a step-father & as my soon to be husband is beyond measure. 

I am so excited & honored to become his wife.

I know that our future will only continue to get better. 

We'll make more memories that I will forever cherish.

We'll continue to raise our children to be the best that they can be.

I pray that we set a good example to the kids of what love is, what love should be.

And I pray that my daughter one day finds a man that loves her & treats her the way that a woman deserves to be treated.  I'm very confident that Creag is that example for her.

I hope that my sons learn from him on how hard work pays off.

Because his hard work is what holds our family together.

  I pray that I never take him, or our life for granted.

Because this life that we have been given, is more than I ever could have wished for.

2nd Annual Seafood Boil & Engagement Reveal Part II

Mardi-Gra is kind of a big deal and we like to celebrate any chance we get so a few weekends ago, we had our ....

2nd Annual Sea-Food Boil!!

We had a few freinds over, along with some family. 

The party started around 4 o'clock when the UK game started.  Let me just add that they won, once again!!  They've only lost one game this year & that was a buzzer beater so this has been a great season for the CATS!

I made Gumbo for the first time & it made for a good snack while we watched the game.

Creag started up the broiler at about 6 P.M.

That sucker is BIG!  It will cook an amazing meal too.  All you gotta do is just throw the food in it & go about your business & we did!

The same night, Skylar had her first sleepover of this school year. 

I won't plaster her friends face all over the internet with-out permission, obviously. 

They had fun, but she did exactly what I used to do....

complained every time her brother came in her room!

Oh, the joys of having younger siblings. 

I know they bicker now, but I pray that they grow up to be very close. 

They ended up playing together the next day.  They actually all created some pretty cute videos on the I-pad.  I was surprised they figured out how to do that on their own.  It's amazing how well kids do with technology.  If you're not careful, you'll find 'em cruising you-tube. 

Anyways, getting off track. 

Dinner took I think all of a half-hr.  (Love-It)

When it was ready, Creag drained it, then dumped it!

It was delish!

We had shrimp, crab legs, clams, sausage, potatos, & corn on the cob!

I had to tell Sky's friend that we don't usually dump our dinner on the counter. 

I could only imagine what she was thinking.  Probably something along the lines of .... what a bunch of weirdos!

It was a great day. 

We also got to share the news of the engagement with Creag's parents & I finally got to post it on Facebook!  That is a big deal you know!

Until next year......

Laissez les bon temps rouller

Let the good times roll:)

Engagement Reveal Part 1 & Dad & Skylar's Birthday!

As I mentioned in an earlier post, since my parents live about an hour away we decided to wait until we saw them in person to share the engagement news.  This was pretty difficult for me.  I am not too good with keeping secrets, especially one this big.  I did it though!  Pretty proud of myself for it too. 

We headed up to Dayton on Friday after work & on the way up, we were trying to figure out a fun way to tell them.  I thought about just waiting until they spotted the ring & could just imagine my Mom's face.  I thought about just saying we had news, & making my parents try to guess what the news was.  I knew though that the guess would be that I was pregnant.  Ummmm, wrong! 

 

Anyways, we got there and said our hellos.  My Brother, Grandpa, & Uncle were also there.  We were running late and everyone had already started eating dinner.  Salad, spaghetti & garlic bread.  Mmh!  It was kind of late, so there was no wasting time, we had to get the kids their plates.  They were pretty hungry & so was I.  So I made my plate after theirs.  I hid my hand as much as possible in my shirt sleeve, until after dinner. 

After everyone had finished their dinner, I just couldn't take hiding it anymore so I pulled Creag over & just told my parents that we had some news.  My Mom instantly got excited, & was like "Oh my God, what!?".  I just smiled, held out my hand to show the ring and told her that Creag & I were engaged!  

They.Were.Thrilled. 

My Dad's reaction was pretty funny.  The first thing he said was...."You didn't ask me!"  I thought that was kind of cute.  You don't really realize how important these little things are to your Dad, until someone skips that step.  Honestly it was a spur of the moment decision for Creag to ask on Valentine's Day, so I didn't expect him to ask my Dad & I know my Dad was fine with it anyway.  I just told my Dad I would've said yes anyway!  He was happy for us both.

Of course everyone congratulated us, we got hugs all around.  Were asked about wedding plans.  Which we really don't know yet.  We just told them that we were probably going to go away somewhere to get married. 

Our first picture as an engaged couple!!

Skylar was dying to open her gifts so the wedding talk kind-of ended there and we moved on to the birthday festivities....

My Dad's Birthday & Skylar's is about a week apart.  We had a seperate party planned for Skylar for a later date, but  my Grandpa & Uncle weren't going to be able to come down for it so we combined Skylar's birthday with my Dad's so we could celebrated it with them.

Posing for their birthday photo-op

Of course there was cake & candles

& presents of course

Me with my Dad, Skylar, & Wyatt

& what's a birthday party without ice cream sundaes?!

Wyatt enjoying his ice-cream with his Papaw :)

Creag & Sammie just hangin' out

I love nights just like this one.  Getting together with my family means the world to me & is very important.  I love that my kids are so close with my parents & that it's important to them to share these special occasions with us. 

I couldn't ask for a better family.  The fact that Creag & I will soon be making our family "official" just makes me feel so blessed!

I wanna spill the beans!!

I have this itsy, bitsy, tiny, little secret that I am just dying to tell my family, but I can't:(

& The.wait.is.killing.me.

  Ok, not killing me, but it's hard to keep such exciting news to yourself. The news I'm speaking of is our ENGAGEMENT!!!

We don't live really close to my family. I moved to Northern Kentucky from Dayton, OH after Creag & I had been dating a year, so it's not like I can jump in the car & be at my parents in 5 minutes to share this exciting, new tid-bit of information. Man-o-man do I wish I could! My mother is going to freak when she realizes this happened on Tuesday & she didn't find out until Friday.

I just don't really think it's as personal to find something like this out over text message or a phone call, so I'm trying to hold off on telling my parents about the engagement in person. Lemme just say it's sooooooo hard!! I've almost dialed my Mom's number more than once, & I've had a picture of my ring on my phone & ready to send over in a text.

I've contained myself, thus far, with only 2 more days to go. Luckily, we were already planning on going over to their house on Friday to celebrate my Dad's birthday. I plan on just waiting to see how long it takes her & my Dad to figure it out!  We're planning on telling Creag's family on Saturday when they're all over for our 2nd annual sea food boil for mardi-gra!  (pictures to come) 

 

He asked me WHAT???!!!!!!!!!!

So last night, was just one of our typical nights. So I thought!

Let me just tell you that Tuesday nights for us are Ca-razy!!  Creag & I both work till 5, which is no different than any other night of the week.  But, on Tuesdays, the girls both have gymnastics (at two different times) fininshing at 8PM.  They do this at a rec center, so the boys wanna swim, play basketball, play in kids quest-yadda yadda. On top of all of this madness, we have to throw dinner in the mix somewhere and Creag and I like to work out. 

See, we're members at a Family Recreation Center, which is nice & allows us to do all of this in one place.   We're actually very lucky, because If we didn't have this, we'd have to seperate to keep the boys entertained, while the girls did their gymnastics. Typical Tuesdays don't always go smoothly, but we do what we gotta do!   By the end of the night, after getting the kids showers at the rec center (if they've swam), rushing to get out of there to get home to do homework & get to bed at a decent time, we're ready to pull our hair out to say the least.

Last night I was at this point.

See, on top of our crazy Tuesday it was also Valentines Day. This was our 3rd Valentines Day together as a couple.  I'm not gonna act like I'm not a hopeless romantic, so these days are important to me.  Each V-Day that we've spent together has been special in it's own way. (homeade dinners that Creag's prepared for me & flowers at work - to almost setting the house on fire last year). They've all been amazing & unforgettable!  Yesterday though, was a little different.  I don't like to admit that I'm spoiled, but it all honesty my amazing boyfriend spoils the bejeezus out of me.  I like to think that I deserve it:)  & will be the first to admit that I'm a very lucky lady! 

So, like I've said, the past two years he's sent flowers to my work. I think the first year it was a dozen, & the second was two-dozen.  Both times, beautiful-red roses.   Well yesterday, I didn't get any!  Say wha?  This kind of threw me off, but I was COMPLETELY fine with it.  I had just started a new job, maybe he was unsure of sending them there?  But another thing that was strange to me was no lunch invite, no texting throughout the day....nothing.  By the time I met him at the Rec Center, for gymnastics I was getting pretty bummed.  Why was he treating this like just a normal day?  IT'S VALENTINES DAY!!  He knows this right?!  So I'm trying not to give him the cold shoulder, but he's totally getting it.  We're working out together, I'm ignoring him. He asks me why I'm grumpy, I shrug it off & act like I'm not.  It pretty much just got worse until we got home.

After we were home, I had all of the kids in bed, & walked downstairs to start cleaning up the kitchen which was a mess!  Keep in mind this is about 10PM.  I was doing my thing, cleaning, eating candy, cleaning some more.  All of the sudden all 4 kids (two of which I already had in bed) came marching down the stairs, with Creag behind them. 

They're all grinning ear to ear.  I'm thinking ok, he didn't forget.  He has a card that he gave them to give to me?  That's cute!  Well I notice Creag is white as a ghost & has this very weird grin/deer in the headlights look on his face. What is going on?!  Voice trembling, he asks me "Are you ready for this?" & I notice this white box in his hand.  At this point I'm in complete shock. I'm thinking to myself, is he going to do what I think he's going to do?!! 

At this point, my eyes are locked w/ his. My hand is covering my mouth w/ complete anticipation of what's to come. Then, all of the sudden what I've been dreaming of, for the last year happens! 

That handsome man of mine gets down on one knee & says...

(with his voice trembling, & the kids jumping up & down with excitement)

"Will you marry me?" 

OMG!!!!!!!!!! 

I think I just looked at him for what seemed like forever & said "YES"!!!!!  I hugged him & kissed him & he was sooooo clammy & sooooo nervous I had to ask him if he was gonna be ok?!  The kids were screaming in the background at this point & so happy & it's exactly what they deserve, what we all deserve. We are in every way a family. This will just make our little-I mean big-family complete.

I cannot wait to spend the rest of my life with him. He is in every way the love of my life & my best friend. This is by far the best Valentines Day EVER & one of the best days of my life. Thanks baby, for making it so special. 

I love you!!