It's a Brand New Year

So far, so good on my little adventure for the new year!  I have been taking pictures with my favorite phone app (Hipstamatic) trying to document my life experiences....as of yet, nothing too exciting, but I have had some great fun hanging out with my husband.  We are going to have a great year together and I can't wait! 

January 1 was spent at the gym...and no we didn't sent our New Year's resolution to start working out again.  My husband works out all the time, it's his life!  I have been working out with him off and on for a while.  We got pretty serious about training a few months before the wedding, but the new semester I started after the wedding changed things up a little.  I hate to say that I didn't work out at all during this past semester and it got the best of me.  But when I returned from my trip to Texas to visit my family, we started again.  I am loving every bit of it! 

January 2 was spent watching movies and learning to use my new MacBook!!!  I played all day on Pinterest organizing my projects and tutorials to use at a later date.  It was a much needed relaxing day, but I hated that I had to be at home alone without my husband.

January 3....Sleeping Beauty!  I almost forgot to take a picture.  My day was very uneventful!!!  So I grabbed my phone and snapped a shot of my love dreaming away.  I don't know about you all, but I always seem to be the last one asleep, even if I'm the first one to bed.  I don't think things will change any time soon, especially when we become parents (to a furry baby or a real child).

January 3... I put this bad boy together!  The husband and I did a little gift card shopping using what we got at the wedding and we were able to finally get some side tables.  I was so excited when we ended up getting them for almost half of the original price!!  We purchased two of them, but I only ended up putting one together.  We have been using those plastic Tupperware drawers as bedside tables and they are full of t-shirts and pj's, so I have to figure out where to relocate them!

January 4 was date night!! Or afternoon...we had an early dinner at Chili's using leftover gift cards from Christmas and then headed to see Sherlock Holmes....using gift cards!  Holla!  No money spent and a wonderful time had by both!  We even had enough gift card money to get goodies at the movie theater. 

Today (January 5) was another lovely day in the gym.  My in-laws got me an iPod Nano for Christmas, so I loaded my music and my workout was ten times better.  I am going to have to teach my husband how to take pictures because the plan is not to document my husband's life only!  Ha!  I also had to finally get my flu shot for school since class starts Monday.  Bleh! 

So far this year has been wondermus!!  I am working most of the weekend, but not for long on Saturday.  the husband has his first football game of the season and I can't wait to watch him play.  The family is getting together to watch and I'm hoping its going to be a great afternoon!

Until then...

Project Life

Last Christmas I was blessed to have one of these puppies under the tree from my parents! 

I have yet to really teach myself how to use it and I think it is about time.  The best way for me to learn is basically to just start using it!!  So a friend of mine has been talking about doing a "Project Life" scrapbook kind of thing.  I am not much of a scrapbooker, but I do love to look back at pictures.  So here's what I'm doing.  I going to attempt to take at least one picture a day for one year to document 2012!!  I am so excited and so far I have my pictures! Woop woop!! 

The second part of the project will consist of me posting those pictures to this blog to save the images and possibly print them out at the end of each year :)  That is my cheater's guide to scrapbooking!!  I hope everyone has had a wonderful holiday season and is ready to kick this new year off with a bang...I know I am! 

See you soon!

MK

Favorites

Hello all!!  Thought I would take a little moment to vent....about something other than the wedding.  As I might have mentioned before, I started a new little venture called nursing school in May.  I am currently in my second semester of four, working towards a second bachelors.  Life has been completely crazy lately, but I thought I might take some time to show you some things I'm in love with:

1.  This little man has stolen my heart...even though I've never met him!  My best friend growing up and his wife had their first baby.  Meet Mason Benjamin born on my sweet Mommy's birthday, 9.29.

2.  Fall!!  It has finally started to cool down here in Florida, and by cool down, I mean it is in the 80's during the day and 60's at night.  It is so nice and is very welcomed because I'm about fed up with the humidity!  I've already gotten my Fall/Halloween decorations and managed to find my special candles for this special time of year!  My favorite Fall things: 

3.  HIPSTAMATIC!!!  I love taking pictures and this app for my new iPhone is amazing.  You take the pictures and the app edits them right before your eyes!  It is so neat to see the different techniques used that make for amazing pictures.

Driving home from school into some pretty terrible weather.

My first 5k...it's all about the babies, baby!

My chalkboard from the wedding...now a wall hanging in my kitchen for lots of silly fun!

On my way to work...can my glasses get any bigger??

So that's all for now!  Have to get back to studying, but I'll be back soon.  In the mean time, what are a few of your Favorite Fall Things??

Wedding Showers

     Mr. K and I were lucky enough to have three showers thrown for us during our engagement to celebrate our coming marriage.  The first was in Texas with my parents and their friends...we will refer to the as The Village.  The Village got together and had a little gathering and sadly enough, I can't find the stinkin' pictures from.  I've been searching for days and I could have sworn I uploaded them to the computer, but I have three empty memory cards and no pictures on my computer.
     The party was great though!! Mr. K wasn't able to be there with me, but we received tons of gift cards, which was really nice, because I had to fly back to Florida and I don't know how well multiple gifts would have fit in my carry-on!!  The host of the party got a "gift card tree" and had it set up with everyone's gifts.  It was so sweet of all of them!  One of the best things they had were these petit fours from a local bakery....omg they were to die for!  I love cake and to have these tiny single serve bites that were so moist and flavorful...wow!!

     The next shower was in KY where I'm originally from.  I went in for a friend's wedding and one of the bridesmaids for my wedding had a small shower for me at her house!  It was great to have all my closest friends and family in on location!  We did manage to capture a few pictures that evening.

 

Ms. Lauren B! 

 

 

 

     Our last shower was in FL where we live.  Mr. J's family wanted to do something special for us, so I suggested doing a Jack and Jill gathering type thing so Mr. J could invited more of his family and friends.  I wanted to try and get him involved as much as possible.  We had a great evening!!  My mom made her way back in and came to the shower.  Things are always better when momma is around.  We played some games, opened some gifts, and drank some sangria :)  All-in-all, the evening was perfect and very special!

 

       For everyone that was there to celebrate our future together, thank you!  We appreciate all you do and have done for us and all the support and love.  You are all such huge blessings and we couldn't do it without you!  Love you all!!

Engagement shoot...

Mr. K and I decided we wanted to do a little session for engagement pictures.  It wasn't anything elaborate, but just something to capture the moments before we were man and wife.  We passed through the unique streets of Winter Park, walking down Park Avenue admiring the old buildings and bright colors and the fact that there were way too many sweet shops on one stretch of road.  I think we counted 3 candy stores and 2 ice cream shops in a two block radius!!  But it was so much fun!  I am always the girl behind the camera doing make-up for shoots, but this time I got to be front and center with the man I love!!

Mr. K and I gallivanting through the old train stop...

Jokes make for the best pictures!

Enjoying the weather and each other

A dress to make the princess...

     So let me tell you this...I'm not the kind of girl that gets all caught up in the dress.  I really wasn't too worried about it...I was actually more concerned with making the "whole picture" beautiful and by whole picture, I mean I love the decorations!  So when my dad said I needed to get on finding a dress, I was a little la-zay-BLAH about it....the only thing I was happy about was the fact that my mom was in town.
     We headed out to David's Bridal to get an idea of dress shapes I might like.  I had it stuck in my mind that I would have some type of empire waste, fluffy gown that made me look oh-so-princess like.  I was obsessed with pockets and in love with Amsale.  The dress from 27 Dresses was going to be mine!!!

    
     The escapade was lackluster to say the least.  You know how you expect to have this moment...this little emotional moment when you find THE dress???  Well I didn't have it.  I was more frustrated than anything.  I didn't see anything I liked, I looked like a cow in the Amsale knock-off, and my mom didn't even shed a tear.  The day was a bust.
     The days went by, my mom headed back home, and I was left on my own to hit the battlefield.  I put on my big girl panties and off I went.  I decided I would hit up one more store and I would find a dress there or I was getting married in my birthday suit!
     After consulting with my favorite computer software, ahem... google, I found a little shop downtown called Minerva's.  That was it.  That was my store, my new best friend.  So I hopped in the car with my mapquest directions and was on my way.
      The store was in the middle of nowhere...What had I gotten myself into and where in the heck was I?!?  I didn't want to have made the trip for nothing, so I parked, took a deep breath and headed for the door. 
     It was a sea of white and tulle...holy moly!  And guess what...I DOVE RIGHT IN!!  I was up to my elbows in bling and sequins, but there she was...my trusty steed!!  I had found the one!  Of course I tried on everything I touched, but I saved the best for last.  And this folks is my wedding dress...

    
     This isn't the best picture and the front makes the whole dress....but I want to wait to show you the rest of the dress when I'm in it!!  It is so true when everyone says you end up with the dress that you least expected.  I would have never thought I would be walking down the isle in an little mermaid number.  But it looked oh so good and I just knew that Mr. K would love it!!  Woop woop!!
     This is my little Maggie Sottero...Guys this is Destiny.  Say hi, Destiny!!  Don't you think she might need some cowboy boots to go with??!!! 

It's been a while...

     Hello my lovelies!! How have you been? Life has been completely turned upside down for a while now...hence my absence...but I'm on this little organizational frenzy and writing in my blog is part of that! I feel so guilty that I started this blog to document my wedding planning process and the start of my new life, and I made it a whole 3 posts....that's pitiful! I need to step it up and work on my commitments!
     So here we go...I'm going to be filling you in on the wedding along with stories of everyday life and hopefully you stick around :)
     I've got a little song playing in my head via Kelly Clarkson...SINCE YOU'VE BEEN GONE....Let me start from the beginning. The first two weeks after being engaged, I was on the fast track. I started searching out dress shops and venues and dates, oh my!! I had yet to hear from the college I applied to on whether or not I'd gotten into nursing school, but by golly, I was going to plan around it just incase. So class started May 16, so planning a wedding in less than three months was out of the question. The other options were 2 weeks in August, a month in December, two weeks in May (all three being in between semesters) or waiting until after graduation....so guess which one we picked...!!!
     August it was, and we had to get things rolling because I figured I wouldn't have much time to plan during school....man was that an understatement. We wanted to make sure we had time to go on a honeymoon and that I wasn't overwhelmed with finals, so Mr. K and I chose August 13, 2011. Did you add that one up??? February 21, 2011 to August, 13, 2011....that's 5 months and 23 days to plan a wedding...BAH HAHA!!!
     So it was on like donkey kong...Mr. J and I started looking at venues and I went out looking for dresses. Both were found in the beginning of March...something else equally as important happened in that time frame..... I actually got into nursing school!! So all my planning was worth it. Thank goodness.
     So, I'm sitting in class now, and I should be paying attention...so I am off for now, but I will leave you with this....

     We had a quick engagement shoot that turned out pretty awesome!!  I'll share the rest soon!  Love you all!!