Sometimes

Sometimes your man is holding your hand in the car and he goes "take a picture of our hands and say something like "I miss riding in Lyles car and holding his hand" and sometimes you realize you've created a monster (because he knows you blog about everything). Sometimes you tell your niece to put her hands on her hips to take a picture and you have to tell her about three times until she gets it. There we go!

Sometimes you and your man get approved for a really good house and you get so excited even though you have yet to find a house. AH. Sometimes you get your engagement pictures back and the ones where the photographer told you to get in a tree don't turn out as planned and sometimes your sister says they look like they could be on the cover of a harlequin romance novel...uh. Sometimes you get a zip file of your engagements and the file says Caitlin and Travis and you're really confused and you open them and sometimes its actually Caitlin and **Lyle...and sometimes your sister thinks it annoying but then funny and decides to call him that. Sometimes there are so many new great country songs and this one reminds you of your man because he's the soft sweet side in this relationship and not to mention my best side. I just hope that i'm hot enough to get rid of his tickets, like in this video ;)

Sometimes your family stops to help two turtles across the road...in one day. And sometimes you realize that's probably not normal...but you are grateful that everyone loves to help. Sometimes your fiancé sings to you until you fall asleep and his song of choice? God must have spent a little more time on you. Sometimes your man is so hard working that he wins you both a trip to Cancun and he and his team are this close to winning a trip to Pirates Cove too! Sometimes you are so proud of the man that he is. Sometimes you love being at home because you overhear conversations like this:

CJ: "miss your horse is going way to fast!"

Cass: panicking "don't sue me!!"

where she heard that word I could not tell you

or Cj says things like "I like Chinese food! I really like those graham crackers with paper in them!" also known as fortune cookies for us adults.

 

quotes: "did she just say captain crunch was a pirate...?!'

 

"no its a movie that you watch in the dark"

"well that's how I normally watch my movies..."

"oh no I meant to say its a movie where you eat dinner in the dark."

 

"juliets at the country club!"

"i just pictured two dogs walking on their hind legs with towels on their arms walking to the sauna..."

(on Juliet at the country club)

 

"we will see everyone tomorrow then Mammaw and Pappaw will come down for Aunt KKs wedding because its right around the corner and then everybody will leave and life will be sad."

Sometimes Meghan is really good at cheering up her children haha. Sometimes your man surprises you with TAYLOR SWIFT TICKETS. (insert freak-out) because if you knew just how much i love her and how bad I've wanted to see her for the past three years you'd get it. But sometimes around here she sells out so fast. Sometimes he really needs to stop sending you flowers and surprises in the mail like your every episode of your favorite show! Sometimes you really need to stop talking and praising him but you just cant. Sometimes you think you may change your mind about the whole waiting 2-3 years to have babies when your fiancé sends you pictures like this and your heart seriously melts because he will be the best daddy ever. And sometimes you want little babies just like him.

and then sometimes your niece is very confused about this picture and she doesn't know whose baby that is and when you ask her she looks at you all confused and keeps looking at your belly like she missed something. Sometimes you miss your beautiful room mates wedding in July and you check her facebook everyday for pictures because you know she just looked so beautiful! Congrats K&J! I cant wait to see your new place in three weeks! Love you both.Sometimes this is a weak sometimes post but you gotta ease back into the blogging scene.

xoxo CAIT xoxo

 

a little R & R

that has been my last week. Rest & relaxation. Everyday Lyle goes what did you do today or what are you going to do today and I respond with "nothing." Normally we will come down to Florida and go to Orlando and do city walk or all the theme parks over and over but this trip was to relax. I woke up everyday no earlier than 10 and sometimes I slept til 11...and I am not ashamed. Matter of fact, most days it was 11. The one thing I continually keep telling Lyle is I love my sleep. I used to run off 4.5-5.5 hours of sleep in high school with early morning seminary when I would get up at 5:45 every morning but I'm done with that phase of my life. Thank goodness...Even today, someone tried to wake me up for breakfast and I replied with "leave me alone." I'm not proud of it but I was half asleep so I cant be held 100% accountable for that... I guess it stands sleep > food in my book. After my excessive amount of sleep I mosey on out to the pool. I find myself there until about 4, laying out and listening to country music. This trip did have a lot more of my favorite Florida storms than normal but those are awesome. Then we'd finish the night with cards and dinner and it was great. One day we did manage to make it out to the springs but other than that I did nothing. That is something I haven't been able to say all summer and something I probably wont be able to say again until the Dominican. I did manage to take tons of pictures though! Mainly of Bray who loves pictures and if you give her your phone she is all about selfies. She was the easiest to shoot this trip because she's such a doll. I wish I could say I didn't stress about the wedding once but that's not possible but oh well! Here's some pictures for ya:

silly face

our attempt at a family photo

 

don't let bella fool you, she loves the water

mom & dad

the springs

we all have an infant picture with Pappaws hat

I bought her this outfit when she was born...for a year later because I liked it so much!

Shane also needed floaties...about 10 sizes bigger than this haha

the 1st of two turtles we stopped to help across the way. Go Shane!

I am also not ashamed that this is how I have won her over...

the second turtle we saved

one with all my little nuggets. ignore my face and the red eyes...

guess we have to get a good one at the wedding :)

Now back to Maryland! Goodbye Florida.

xoxo CAIT xoxo

Chocolate Lasagna Cake

As promised! Besides wedding planning, working or Lyle I have managed to find a couple new recipes. One being this. This is hands down one of my favorite recipes ever: I made it for Lyle's birthday this year and for the missionary's and my family...everyone always asks for the recipe. It's super easy and its layered so it looks difficult but its not.

Chocolate Lasagna Cake Recipe 

 

xoxo Cait xoxo

We meet again Utah

Utah was so successful in the wedding planning process.

I have been a terrible blogger because I can barely focus on anything else except the wedding. True Life wedding planning has consumed my life. Even now I cant stop thinking about the bridesmaids sweaters that I don't have or the sparker exit and how are we going to do it and hopefully no one hits me with one...but it is a chance I am willing to take. My hair gets fried off? Oh well, I got some great pictures....and who doesn't love sparklers? Crazy people that's who. Anyway I decided to put my brain to focus on something else, such a blogging. As thrilled as both my family and Lyle are that I am not really a bridezilla it is just as bad that I am an indecisivezilla and even sometimes a cryzilla. What?? I have to listen to this guy tell me no to my ideas?  Well I will cry about it then. In Utah we got our invitations! All 500 of them...yup, 500. Only took me about 8 hours to make those bad boys beautiful. Just wait til you see them! You know what's been worse? The fact that I have emailed them back 10 times changing them...the font, the pictures, the wording. If I wasn't such a perfectionist we would be done wedding planning. But big news! Today we finalized them and we should have all the Maryland invites in the mail by Tuesday!! The Utah ones are going out a bit later since the reception is later. After getting our beautiful invites taken care of (we got them from beautifulweddingannouncements.com) they were reasonable and I won a ton of free thank you cards from them as well! I highly suggest them- they were so helpful. The next day my amazing mother in law threw me a beautiful bridal shower!

I was so grateful for all my friends who made the trek from Bountiful, South Jordan and Orem. One of my best friends & first friends I met in Utah came all the way down just for a short bit to make an appearance. I love her so much! This pretty little lady is going to be one of my bridesmaids in Utah since she cant make it out to MD- her missionary comes home like 3 days or so before my wedding!! EEK. So excited for her!! Love you K.

Lyle and I got so many great presents! Everyone was so good to us. Thank you so much to all those that helped with food or decorating, or gave up some of their Saturday afternoon to come support me. I love you all! Another success of Utah was I got my blinged out wedding shoes and earrings! Oh and the bridesmaid dresses!! Lyle flew out to Utah on Sunday so we could take our engagements Monday and Tuesday. Me being the indecisivezilla that I am picked two photographers and just couldn't decide so I thought it would be a good idea to use both. Sami Jo Photography and Ewatts photography. Both were so great to work with. I was nervous at first because I am very picky about photos and I honestly would have preferred to take our engagements myself but since that wasn't realistic I did the next best thing. I LOVE all of them! Its great because we have about 200 photos now! At least we got variety right? Even if now I have so many favorites to choose from to display. I highly recommend this. Photos are the one thing I was very adamant about doing right. Utah photographers are the way to go too- reasonably priced and I love the locations. Here's a sneak peek of a few more I loved:

Sami Jo Photography

Ewatts photography

sami jo photography

sami jo photography

 

sami jo photography

I don't feel bad about sharing these because we still have like 150 others. I was so concerned about us coordinating but not being matchy matchy that I made poor Lyle try on all his outfits before hand so I could approve but only after we went out and bought the boy some new clothes since nothing fit him anymore. Lyle was seriously perfect through this whole process and even let me see how each outfit would photograph. Honestly he didn't complain and the day of when I was changing he kept asking what outfit he should put on first and I just couldn't tell him and he was so patient and then at one point he comes into the bathroom while i'm curling my hair and I go what time is it? Lyle tells he its only 2:45 so I don't freak out and then I come out and it was really like 3:15 and we were about to be late. I am still so impressed that he did this because I would have surely had a melt down and said I was no longer curling my hair. He just does things like that. He knows exactly what to say and how to approach things and i'm always so amazed by him. I know that sounds like a little thing but it was huge to me. I love this boy.

Needless to say the wedding planning is coming along. I have my first dress fitting in New York on Thursday, I got the cake of my dreams! (with three different flavors!), the dress I love and my prince charming. We still have to figure out a few minor details (that seem major to me..). We did manage to fit in some fun and go to a rodeo- the trip was great!

xoxo CAIT xoxo

Everythings bigger in Texas

I got to spend about 10 days in the glorious state of Texas with my amazing fiancé. My first trip to Texas was a definite success. We ate at Taste of Texas, went to Kemah boardwalk and watch the fireworks and I got to try Bluebell ice cream, the best ice cream ever. Spending every night and morning before he went to work was so great. Lyle would literally run in every night, come right up to me and hug me. It was a life that I could get used to :). I got to spend my days with my Arri and some days the other wives. As absolutely terrible as this summer has been being away from him it almost makes it worth it that one moment where I see him after so long. And I say almost because it doesn't make up for it at all....but surprising him for his birthday was such a success. He was so cute about it except when I kept trying to eat my dinner and he just kept staring at me and saying "I cant believe you're here!!" His lovely boss made us stand up so Lyle could introduce me and then we all sang to him for his birthday. I woke up, made him breakfast and then took him to an Astros game and then we finished the night with Texas Roadhouse. We had celebrated our birthdays in May, complete with Tucanos and presents but I could miss his 25th birthday. I hope to visit him in a few weeks again. He is dominating at his job this summer and I am so proud of him!! Keep it up babe! 42 days

 

xoxo CAIT xoxo

say yes to the dress!

One day i traveled through up to Kleinfelds in New York to

SAY YES TO THE DRESS!

At 6:45a.m i woke up feeling exhausted but as the day continued my emotions took a lot of crazy turns- i dont think i have ever had so many different emotions in one day...

on the way to NYC *eek i cant wait!*

Standing outside of Kleinfelds

waiting in the lobby it looked a lot smaller than i imagined. My consultant came up to me & had me introduce myself & my "entourage." We then moved to a room where i told her kind of what i was looking for. She then took me out into the main area and had me start pulling dresses
Uh i just told you what i wanted isnt this your job?? #overwhelmed
 
I let her grab a few and take me back to the room. We started pulling the first dress on & before it got halfway up i started shaking my head & pulled it off. Introducing meltdown number 1...

Why the tears? I really had no idea. I just knew none of the dresses hanging across from me were right. She wasnt really seeing my vision. Onto the next...this one actually made it onto my body. progress?! no. My consultant insisted i show my lovely lace dress off to the rest of my family in the waiting room since my tears had delayed us a bit. Did you wanna see what the dress looked like?

this, THIS is what my dress looked like that my consultant insisted i walk out into a crowded room in. I use the bride of frankenstein because that is exactly who i told my consultant i looked like. Her face was priceless as she told me no other bride has uttered those words but i felt honesty was truly the best policy if we were gonna move forward in this appointment. Seeing a picture of her now i think i was a little off but it was lace and long sleeved and heavy, very heavy. It was then when i started to realize that lace was not what i wanted...because it looked like something someone dug out of an old chest...along with all the other dresses hanging. Anyway at this point I am stepping on a pedestal for all of Kleinfelds to look at me...and they were...and i had a face like this. No but really...

obviously not happy right? It was pretty evident. However, everyone began to tell me how good i looked...uh. My consultant told me to turn and look in the mirror but i couldnt....introducing meltdown number 2.

Except it wasnt really a huge meltdown. I just covered my face and started crying...on the pedestal...in front of everyone because i brought liars. I did not look pretty. I looked far from it. The bride of Frankenstein is not how i invisioned myself. Except in their defense they were so nice & great to bring along bc they were huge ego boosts but i knew what i looked like....(see bride of frankenstein image above..) Time to go back to the room and regroup. Mom was super helpful right about then and kinda spoke up for me and had them clear the room with all the dresses that no one in their right mind should ever choose for their wedding day and i was feeling a little better. No more lace. I dont know why the experience was so overwhelming...prob bc i had never tried on dresses before and there were far too many dresses and my consultant was picking wrong. probably bc i told her i wanted lace...so really right but now wrong. I wish i could say that the new dresses gave me hope but that in fact would be lying. Mom encouraged me to give them a shot anyone. My consultant pointed to one and insisted i try it on. I looked at the material hanging lifelessly from the hanger and decided to appease this woman. I was not gonna find my dress here. I pulled the satin material up and about died. A huge smile came across my face. Just like with my man when i knew i knew. No second guessing or looking at anything else.

I felt like a bride and looked so dang good. I guess i can say that because i only get one wedding dress and one feeling like this. And although it was only the second dress i put on it was the one. I was so excited to go out and show it off. I stood on the pedestal and could not stop looking at myself in the mirror. Vain? just a little...

This family went crazy. They loved it & so did i.

I put on a veil and headpiece and knew it was perfect. My aunt suggested i put on another to make sure it was the one since it was only the second dress so i went back & took it off....and then put it right back on. I felt stunning and had to have it on so i said yes to the dress! It was very form fitting and beautiful and based off of what i showed Lyle i knew he would love it. I actually showed an image of his favorite dress i showed him beforehand because i wanted one just like it. Then i went into the room while they took my measurements (after vainly staring at myself for 20 mins) and in walked Vera from Say Yes to the Dress. You know the old woman who comes in for all the alterations whose a little scary?

 I got all nervous thinking she was gonna insult me but she told me the dress was beautiful and my mom said you probably say that 100 times a day and she laughed and said "yes but only if i mean it" which is very accurate because ive seen her tell people otherwise. Then we paid for the maggie sottero beauty which came in under budget btw.. ;). I am one happy girl and cant wait to show off my beautiful dress come September! Heres a sneak peak- one in which i showed lyle. hehe. Guess you'll have to wait & see!

xoxo CAIT xoxo