4 months!! Whaaat??

That's right! We're exactly 4 months away from getting married!! I didn't think time could go any faster than it was before, but these last 2 months seem like they never happened! I'm even half way through this semester already. Now with time sneaking up on us so much I feel like there is now still so much stuff left to get done!

In addition to it being 4 months until our wedding, today is also exactly 1 year since we got engaged. You can read the story here, but here are a few photos and a sequence of photos when I told my siblings.

Right after Sean popped the question. My mom was waiting by the chairs and took our picture

 

Ashley and her "bling" before she got her real "bling"

on our way down to breakfast

the night we got engaged

Ashley helped me brainstorm what to do for our countdown this month. Since March Madness is currently taking place we decided to do a "Final Four" countdown. So our 4 month countdown list is of 4 of our favorite things that have happened since we got engaged.

1. moved in together. Some people ask if I like living with Sean before we are married. But, I really do! It is much cheaper to live together and I get to see my best friend any time I want :)
2. planning our wedding. Yes, I started looking at wedding blogs, going to bridal shows, and looking at magazines before we got engaged, but now that it's the real deal it's been a lot of fun...and sometimes a bit stressful
3. Sean finished swimming, graduated, and got a job
4. we started referring to ourselves as us and we more. We even share bank accounts now. I may like this more than Sean :)

Last note: Sean texted me this morning saying "Happy 1 year engagement! I slept a lot better last night than I did one year ago!" It's probably true :)

Django and more done!

Last night my family (minus Alex) went out for dinner with some friends, Dennis and Annie, to Django in Des Moines. We met them through our dogs actually. Zoey and Callie (Dennis and Annie's dog) are sisters and they live a couple block away from us. All of us like to to joke about how our families got to know each other. But, we are so thankful that we have because they are so awesome and fun to talk to! The food was also amazing!

Me, Ashley, Abby, Dennis (dad), mom, Annie, and Dennis

And this is Abby during our frightful dinner. lol. I'm sorry Abby I had to. It was too funny :)

 Here is also my to do list with a few more things checked off!

1. paint flower pots
2. figure out something old, new, borrowed, and blue
3. book our salon for the day of the wedding
4. blog...yes I have to put it on the to-do list to make sure I do it!
5. scrapbook (not necessarily wedding-related but want to do)
6. finish invitations
7. appointments: decorator, cake, dress, tuxes, caterer, rehearsal dinner caterer, pianist
8. shopping for ties, flower girl dress, and shoes
9. make a map of the Enrichment center
10. figure our escort cards and guestbook
11. and a few other detail things that I'm going to keep secret

Finishing up designing the invitations. Sorry don't want to spoil the surprise :)

Don't forget to check back later this afternoon for the countdown! How are we already down to 4 months already??

I'm back! Now there's a lot to talk about!

Hello! long time no blog! I've been quite busy! I had 3 exams last week, I had to do a practice counsel on poison ivy, had group meetings, and of course I attended all of my classes. Yes! It was a busy week!! But, now I'm home all week for Spring Break! I have been saving basically pushing everything wedding-related back to this week!

This is my to-do list for or wedding this week...

1. paint flower pots
2. figure out something old, new, borrowed, and blue
3. book our salon for the day of the wedding
4. blog...yes I have to put it on the to-do list to make sure I do it!
5. scrapbook (not necessarily wedding-related but want to do)
6. finish invitations
7. appointments: decorator, cake, dress, tuxes, caterer, rehearsal dinner caterer
8. shopping for ties, flower girl dress, and shoes
9. make a map of the Enrichment center
10. figure our escort cards and guestbook
11. and a few other detail things that I'm going to keep secret

We have crossed a few things off the list already and I feel a little accomplished!! I still have the whole rest of the week left, too! I'm really excited about the weather this week; it's going to be gorgeous!!

So here is about our cake meeting....it was a little bit of an adventure if you wanna ask sometime :) It was my mom, Katie, Sean, and I that all went out to our cake lady's house last Saturday morning. We had a lot of fun visiting and trying her 9 DELICIOUS cakes!! I would have been pleased with any flavor she has, but we were able to narrow it down to 4 flavors. I may have spoiled by diet, but I'm not going to spoil what our cake will look like :)  I did post some pretty ones that we like in the cake post from last September.

 

Katie at Gloria's house

Sean and I

the 9 DELICIOUS cakes: (top left) almond, lemon, strawberry, marble, 2x chocolate, carrot cake, vanilla, butter cake with chocolate buttercream, and red velevet

After the cake tasting we ran a few errands then went to Bridal Connection here in Ankeny for Sean to pick out his and his guys' tuxes. He didn't really want a picture taken, but we made him. Like always :)

Later that night, Sean and I headed to Boone to hang out with his family.

Sean with Reese and Me with Avery

After church on Sunday all of us girls went shopping to look for ties, shoes, and flower girl dresses! I was extremely pleased to see all the coral in all the stores!! Well, all stores EXCEPT for men's stores for ties :( We are still on the look out for coral striped ties if any one sees some!! Here are some pictures of all the coral we saw on Sunday

update

Here's a quick and fast update about what's been going on in our lives...We completed the Catholic marriage preparation class last weekend. All we have left to do is meet with the coordinator to go over our "compatibility" surveys. Overall, we thought the meetings were beneficial and it was really nice to meet a bunch of couples and hear their stories!

Last weekend we also had our Valentine's day dinner. It was homemade gnocchi (potato noodle/dumplings) with spinach and garlic cream sauce and baked salmon with dipping sauce. For dessert, I made homemade cherry pie...even the filling!! It was all delicious :)

There is exciting news for the men's swim team this weekend! Sean and I went to the meet yesterday and their 200 free relay WON big ten's!!! It was so exciting! not to mention it was at the new pool here in Iowa City!! All the Iowa swimmers I got to watch yesterday swam awesome! Congratulations guys!!

After the meet, we headed down town for a bit with a bunch of alumni.

Now, I'm just trying to make it through my classes these next 2 weeks before spring break!! It's going to be JAM-PACKED with wedding related stuff like cake tasting, invitation decision-making and really making them, dress fitting, working on details, meeting with our decorator, and picking out music. I'm sure there will be much more, too.

February countdown

Everyone should know what today is. Whether it is the day of love for, a day to mope and eat chocolate, or a day to celebrate independence. Either way, today is of course Valentine's Day! Also, for those of you keeping track of our countdown...it is also 5 months until our wedding! And, because of the holiday today, Sean and I each wrote 5 things that we love about each other. Sorry to those of you who may think it's too mushy-mushy, but our blog is about our wedding, love, planning, and life...so you can just stop back for the next post :)

Why Sean loves Amanda:

1. thoughtful. She makes me dinner almost every night and would do anything for me.

2. Amanda is creative and thrifty

3. goofy because we like to wrestle and play around

4. Amanda knows and accepts the whole me. She knows my strengths and weaknesses and pushes me to work on myself as a person everyday

5. she calms me down and believes in me, even when I don't believe in myself

Why Amanda loves Sean:
1. Sean loves me even when I'm a suuuuuuper grump-it's not as often as Sean may tell you if you ask!
2. he acts goofy with me/I can be myself around him. Sometimes I get in moods of wanting to play/wrestle/use energy and he (usually) plays along. And, If I ever do something a little too embarrassing I tell him "lets just pretend I didn't just do that"
3. he is hot blooded, NOT warm blooded, but HOT blooded. I am usually freezing so we balance each other out; I keep him cold and he keeps me warm.
4. he gives me foot rubs on almost a daily basis and doesn't even care if my legs are hairy :)
5. Sean is protective. Quick story: he was home alone over my Christmas and Ashley came home later one evening. Sean wasn't expecting her. So when he heard the door start to open and someone go downstairs he first grabbed his gun then then snuck over to the stairs and yelled downstairs "Who's down there??" Of course I wasn't there, but I can totally see Sean doing this and then Ashley just saying "it's me" and then Sean relaxing

I thought it might be fun to look back and find a picture of us after we had been dating for 5 months...I did have much better pictures, but this one below is the only one I could find on facebook since I accidentally deleted about a years worth of photos on my computer a while back :(

here is my "duck face" and Sean acting surprise. and yes, we are at a toga party. HA

last thing. if anyone is wondering what we are doing to celebrate Valentines day, just wait until this weekend. We are going to be cooking a meal together. We can probably count on one hand how many meals we have cooked together, it's usually just me doing the cooking around here...

Sean's new niece

Sean's sister had baby girl, Reese, this past weekend. She's so precious!! But, not only did they have a new baby come home, they also had their house from Waterloo moved to Boone on Thursday. So, we spent a long weekend in Boone with Sean's now bigger family. We took turns holding the baby and helping move/organize.

invitations

invitations are the next BIG thing on our check list. We started "brainstorming" many months ago, but (again) due to my indecisiveness a final decision has not been made. I have the deadline that by the end of Spring break they need to be printed and put together....yes this does mean we are DIYing them :) so here are some (MAYBE half) of the pictures that I have been collecting. I have used some for inspiration and some I just liked.

Sorry, I don't have any sources from any of these since I just saved them into a folder. Lo siento :(