life lately.

Hi all,

This blog post is coming to you from a place of peace. After what has easily been the most chaotic, awful, and heartbreaking couple of months of my life so far, I can finally say that things are looking up and the dust is finally settling. 

As most of you know, I lost my Grandma last month. This is the first time in my life that I've dealt with the loss of someone I was so close to. It shook me in a way that I wasn't prepared for (I can't imagine anyone is ever prepared for something like that) and I've had a hard time readjusting. I feel that there are moments in life that redefine who we are and losing my Grandma has been one of those moments for me.

Now that I've found some peace with everything that has happened, I've really enjoyed diving back into wedding plans and projects. It definitely keeps me busy. :) I thought I would be really stressed out at this point in the planning process but I'm not stressed out at all. Honestly, I'm just ready to say "I do" to the most amazing guy I know and be surrounded by all of our friends and family that will be there to celebrate with us. It's just going to be such a special weekend! I know that my Grandma will be right there cheering us on with the biggest smile on her face.

The hardest wedding decision for us to make so far has been choosing a song for our first dance. Just when we think we've got it figured out, we find five more songs that we like. Oy vey. I guess we are just trying to find a song that is both original and meaningful without being super cheesy. Maybe we will just rock out to Kesha for our first dance. I mean, Timber is my theme song ...

We also need to figure out where we are going on our honeymoon. We are seriously considering a California coast road trip, but since we aren't going on our honeymoon until May, we don't know for sure. If you have any recommendations, please feel free to share them with me!
 

trial run for wedding hair + makeup - both done by the amazing Colie Hall.

Anyway, thank you for sitting through this little update. :)
I hope Monday is treating you well.

Xo

a nice little collection of group photos

Hi loves.

While I was going through all of the pictures that the lovely Katie Manoun sent me from Christmas, our shower in KC, and my bachelorette weekend, I realized that she made sure to get a lot of really great group shots! Anyway, since this made me so happy, I decided it was worth sharing and have included some of my favorites! Here ya go, people. Enjoy!

hiatt familia. christmas 2013.

 all of my favorite gals being beachy on my bachelorette trip.

 a lovely shot of everyone who came to our kansas wedding shower! such a blast.

 christmas eve with the wonderful rash family. this one ^ definitely belongs in a frame. :)

with the besties in KC. love you guys!

 a group shot of some cozy feet. yes, this counts as a group photo.

   

another little groupie of my ladies in san diego!

XO

26

Hello friends.

This last weekend Joel and I headed back to San Diego to escape a little and celebrate my 26th birthday. :)

Just like every other birthday I've celebrated since being with Joel, he did an amazing job making me feel incredibly special and loved. I'm very excited about being 26, I think it's going to be my best year yet!

We spent the weekend cruising through some of our favorite San Diego neighborhoods, enjoying the beautiful/glorious/stunning sunsets at the beach, consuming a ridiculous amount of carbs, sampling a few new craft beers, and getting some much needed r&r.

Now that the holidays are over, my bachelorette weekend has come and gone, and Joel and I won't be taking another trip until May, I'm officially in wedding mode. I can't believe our big day is only two months away! I feel completely overwhelmed but ridiculously excited! Here's to hoping I get everything done ... :)

(p.s. for those of you who are invited, your invite will be arriving soon, we may have had a little mishap with the RSVP cards ... #oops)

Have a wonderful rest of your night, everyone.

Xo

my bachelorette bash!

As most of you know by now (due to the explosion of photos on both facebook and instagram) this last weekend I was in San Diego for my bachelorette party! It was easily one of the best weekends of my life and I owe it all to the amazing ladies who showed up and made me feel so incredibly special. :) I especially need to thank Mrs. Lauren Finley and Mrs. Katie Hiatt for going above and beyond to make sure everything was perfect. You girls are just the best. Thank you so so soo much!

Now for even more pictures ... :) 

The entire weekend was jam packed with an abundance of belly laughs, sick dance moves, champagne, sunshine, love, and begging every DJ we came across to play Timber (it's just so catchy!). It was so wonderful to see all of my best friends get along so well and just have so much fun together! I hate that it went by so quickly but I'm so excited to see everyone again in March for our big day!

Xo

songs for mama

via

I spent the greater part of today trying to decide on some of the music for our wedding.

Unfortunately, not many decisions were made and I just ended up dancing around to Tay Swift.

When Joel got home I asked him to put a list together of possible songs for the mother/son dance. 

This is where we are at with that so far ..

1. Boyz II Men - A Song For Mama

2. Spice Girls - Mama

3. Tupac - Dear Mama

4. Backstreet Boys - The Perfect Fan

5. Dido - Thank You

....

Clearly, we are making a lot of progress with this wedding project.

let me tell you about my weekend.

I hope everyone had a beautiful holiday weekend.

Our weekend was filled with snuggles, full bellies, thankful hearts and pie. Lots and lots of pie.

This was my sixth Thanksgiving with Joel and our fourth Thanksgiving with Monk.

Words simply cannot describe how blessed I feel having these babes in my life. 

Being the domestic little lady that I am, I decided I wanted to go out for Thanksgiving dinner.

It was delicious and I didn't have to do any dishes afterward. 

I baked/bought two pies, one cherry and one pumpkin.

I ate half of the cherry pie in about 20 minutes.

The other half was gone by the next morning.
The pumpkin was finished shortly after.
#ilovepie

Other than that we listened to Bette Midler and hosted a dinner party to celebrate a dear friend.

It was pretty perfect.

xo