Thanksgiving

There is so much to be thankful for, I don't even know where to begin!

I'm thankful for salvation. For the blood of Jesus on the cross, & for the hope that is found in Him. The world today is a scary place & I find myself getting anxious over what will happen next - I'm thankful I can rest assured knowing God is in control & we're in the palm of His hand. It's much easier said than done sometimes, but I can't imagine what life would be like without the Lord. So thankful to be a child of God.

I'm thankful for my husband (!!!), which I'll never get tired of saying. Sebastian & I started dating when I was fifteen years old, & in the five & a half years following that, I thought I'd learned just about all there was to learn about him. I imagined life with him & dreamed of waking up beside him every morning. Since we got married, life has been nothing like I imagined - in the best way possible. Sebastian is loving & caring & kind & patient with me always. On his days off, he'll wake up when I do & he'll make me coffee while I get ready for work. Sometimes, I just stop & cry. How did I get so blessed? Why would God choose me to be the one Sebastian spends the rest of his life with? Surely there's someone better. I don't know the reason, but I'm so grateful to be his.

I'm thankful for my parents. Boy, am I thankful for my parents! They are my biggest supporters in my life & they're two of my very favorite people on earth. So many people don't get along with their parents & have nothing but bad things to say about them. I'm thankful the Lord gave me a mom & dad who committed to raising their children in a Christian home. Who have been the biggest example of the love of Jesus. Who are the same people on Sunday morning at church as they are every other day of the week. Who love each other (& us!) unconditionally & have always shown my brothers & I what a godly marriage should look like. Leading up to our wedding, the only thing I wasn't excited about was leaving my mama & daddy. In fact, I even pitched the idea to Sebastian to just move into the room over the garage at their house. ;) How loved I am, to feel these things. I'm so, so thankful for my parents.

Yes, that is a Finding Nemo birthday shirt. Ryder & I have matching ones. ;)

I'm thankful for my siblings. All of them! I am constantly reminded of how blessed we are to be so close. This holiday season, everyone is making plans to go out of town to see loved ones. While I seriously LOVE going out of town - everyone is already here, & that's such a huge blessing. In fact, my brothers, parents, grandparents, & I all live within a five mile radius of each other. I'm thankful we don't have to wait until Thanksgiving or Christmas & Easter to all be together - we do that atleast once a week already. :)

I'm thankful for Jesse Ryder, Carson Seth, & Rosalie Katharina. When I became an aunt three & a half years ago, I didn't realize how different life would be. I didn't know we'd come to not be able to imagine what life was like without our three, crazy, perfect kiddos running around. Ryder, Carson, & Rosie bring so much joy into our lives. I don't know how we got by without them for all those years. :) We love being their Auntie Hannah & Uncle Bash.

I'm thankful for our family. I'm blessed to have all four of my grandparents alive still, & that's something that I don't want to take for granted. I'm thankful for Sebastian's family - both immediate & all of those wonderful Thompson's, who I finally get to call family, too. I'm thankful for my aunts & uncles & cousins & all of the love between them.

I'm thankful for our friends. When we got engaged, we wanted to include all of our closest friend in our wedding. Between our bridesmaids & groomsmen & music & guest book attendant & ushers - we were able to do just that! I'm thankful for all of the selfless love that was shown to us last month (& always!). They stayed late setting up & cleaning up. They kept me calm & Sebastian, too. They made our day so prefect, & I'm so glad we went with our gut & didn't cut back any of our TEN bridesmaids & groomsmen. :) Seriously, on our way to our honeymoon, all we could talk about was how blessed we are. The Lord has given us good, godly friends who we'll be forever grateful for.

I'm thankful for photography. It's not something I planned on making a career, it was kind of chosen by default. I've always loved taking pictures, but it wasn't until I was in a car accident & unable to do what I'd planned on doing, that I decided to take up photography. My parents bought me my first camera (& my second one, too), & I've never looked back! I'm thankful for all of the wonderful people who have allowed me to document any part of their lives. I can't wait to roll out my plans for this little business in January. :)

I'm thankful for my job. A year & a half ago, I started watching two kiddos at their house in Suffolk. When we discovered I have a cat allergy, I began watching them at my house instead, which has been a bigger blessing than I ever thought it would be. I go pick them up every day & bring them back home, where usually Ryder, Carson, and/or Rosie are there waiting for their friends. I love that Sam & Reagan have been taken in as two more grandkids (they literally call me parents 'grandma' & 'grandaddy' haha!) & are loved just the same. How crazy is that? My job includes playing with five kids that I love, while still being able to build my photography business during nap time. The thing about kids is that they grow up & go to school & don't need a babysitter anymore. I'm thankful for this time with them, & thankful for their family. They're so supportive & caring & I'm so blessed to know them.

I'm thankful for my church family. In 2012, I experienced something I never want to experience again. It resulted in my family leaving the church we'd attended all of my life, & my dad wasn't sure what the next step would be. When most of the church left with us & asked where we'd be the next Sunday, Chr1st Fellowship was born. A lot of people wonder why there is a '1' in Christ, instead of an 'i'. At our old church, there was so much division. When my dad planted our church now, he named our church with a motto - "Becoming one in Christ by keeping Christ first". I'm so thankful for the growth we've experienced these past three years. Not necessarily in numbers, but spiritually. I'm surrounded by the love of Christ & I'm so thankful for that.

There are plenty of other things I'm thankful for, too. If I wrote them all down (which I can't because there's too many!), I'd be here typing until Christmas. But a working car, food to eat, an adorable apartment to live in with my husband - the list goes on & on & on. I'm thankful for ALL of the love & support that has been given to us. & if you're wondering where your thank you card is (because some people really have asked), as soon as we get our wedding pictures back, we'll be able to order them. It will be soon - we didn't forget. We really are so appreciative & don't take your kindness for granted one bit. :)

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! I hope you have a day filled with love & fun & pumpkin pie. :) What are you thankful for?

Saving Memories

Ooh, little blog. There is so much I want to say. I have been living a busy life since I got married, & I haven't found the time to stop & write down anything. I want, so badly, to blog about the night before our wedding (quite possibly my very favorite moment with Sebastian), the ceremony, the reception, the wedding day as a whole. I want to talk about how much I absolutely LOVE & appreciate my ten bridesmaids. I have a whole long post in my mind about how I'm such a daddy's girl & all of the emotions that have come with leaving him. A post about how my mom is a rockstar wedding planner, my biggest supporter, & my number one hero. How selfless she is & how I am SO so blessed to be the daughter she prayed the Lord would give her.

Then, I want to talk about my new life with my husband. Getting our apartment set up & being married for a month without cooking one meal in our kitchen. The fun outings we did on our honeymoon, like riding ATV's through Bluff Mountain & going to Ober Gatlinburg by way of a sky trolley. I want to blog about how blessed I am to have Sebastian as my husband, & how good he is to me.

But then, when I sit down to do all of this, I think about the thank you cards that need to be written, the boxes that need to be unpacked, the Christmas Mini Sessions that I need to plan for, the gifts we need to get together & mail, and the list goes on & on & on. & all of the sudden, I put my laptop away, or I go to another page to do photography, or I start editing honeymoon pictures, or I check my email to see if our wedding photos are finished so I can order thank you cards - & I go another day without 'documenting' my life in this fun, chaotic stage.

I don't want to blog just so you all know what's going on with Sebastian & I, or so you all can get a glimpse into all of the emotions that unrolled on our wedding day. I want to blog so that I can go back & read about the night before our wedding when I felt like the luckiest girl alive (I still do, but that night was so different). I want to relive seeing my daddy for the first time on my wedding day. Aaaaallll of the tears - much like the ones running down my face right now. :)

I love pictures so so so so so so much, but I want to write how I felt when those pictures were taken. So, I'm going to work on blogging about all of this. Don't feel like you have to read it - it's really so much for me. So that I can always have this online journal to remind me of these newlywed days.

I never want to forget this incredible time in my life.

^Amanda Hedgepeth Photography^

WE'RE MARRIED!

I have spent all week trying to write a post, but there is just so much to share that I never could finish a thought. But right now, as I sit in our bed with our windows open, overlooking this little lake, I felt like it's a perfect time.

Our wedding was two weeks ago & it was the best day of my life! There was suppose to be a major hurricane, so we ended up moving the reception to another location the DAY BEFORE the wedding - streeeesssful! We had the perfect outdoor reception planned with lots of lawn games, but the Lord opened a door at another church for us to use their gym, & with the help of family, friends, & our fantastic wedding party, our reception was beautiful!

Our ceremony was my absolute favorite part of the day. There are so many good things about it, I want to wait until we have our pictures to tell you all of it! But it was seriously more than I ever could of dreamed of.

Our honeymoon was so fun. We went to Gatlinburg, Tennessee & had the best time driving through the mountains, looking for one of the 49,283 pancake houses they have, eating at all of the most disgusting restaurants around, shopping, & being husband & wife. I have a whole other post with pictures of that, but it was such a good start to our marriage!

Now, we're back home & adjusting to everyday life as husband & wife. It's taken some time for me to get used to not living at my parent's house, but I haven't cried in two days, & that's really huge for me. ;)

I love, love, LOVE being married to Sebastian! He usually gets off of work before me & it's been so fun coming home to him. So far, our washer is broken & we don't have pots & pans & nothing is unpacked, so we've spent most evenings at my parents house eating & washing clothes, but then we get to come back home & go to sleep together. Which is in my top three things I love most about being married. :)

Today, Sebastian is working while I start to unpack & put things where they need to be, which, I have a feeling, means a few Target trips, too. If you feel like coming over, lemme know. ;)

I can't wait to share details with you once we get our wedding photos! I'm waiting SO patiently to see our blog post on Amanda Hedgepeth's page, but once it's posted, you'll know, too. :)

Home

Yesterday, Sebastian & I signed the lease on our first apartment. It's so perfect!

When we were apartment hunting a few months ago, this complex was the one we liked most. It's close to everything, had almost no crime stats, is spacious, & had great reviews from people we personally knew who had rented there before. Plus, there's only one main intersection between my parents house & ours. ;) 

At the time, the lady told us that one bedroom & three bedroom units are hard to come by & have a pretty long wait list, but two bedroom units are always available. There is something like thirty-two of the one & three bedrooms, & one hundred & twenty-seven of the two bedrooms. So instead of applying for the apartment then, we decided we'd wait until the beginning of September & do it all at once.

At the end of August, Sebastian had me call to make sure there wasn't any one bedrooms available, & they said they only thing they had coming available was ONE two bedroom unit on September 16th. So we left & went to do our application right away, got approved, & paid our deposit all in one day. 

The way their complex is, all first floor apartments have a patio, & all second & third floor apartments have a balcony. Most of the buildings, though, are in a "U" shape, so everyone's balcony's are just facing their neighbor's balcony! When we went that day to do our application, we talked about how we would atleast like a unit that faced the pool or playground, rather than our neighbors, but since there was only one available, we obviously weren't going to get to choose which one we got. 

Let me tell you, the Lord saved this apartment JUST for us, & it is seriously the BEST one they have! Before we left, I asked the lady if she could tell us which apartment we were getting, & she gave us the number & told us how to get there. We're in the very back overlooking the LAKE! It's the quietest  & has the most visitor parking, which has already come in handy when we had people over yesterday. :) 

We have a third floor unit which is even better than the model we saw on the second floor. The living room is bigger & dining room is smaller, which is just how we'd rather it be! The closets are huge, plus we have a storage unit on the side of our building, too! 

We had big plans to paint the whole thing yesterday since it was our only day off together before the wedding (NEXT WEEK!), but I've picked up some kind of stomach bug that totally ruined all of those plans! We had our parents over to see the apartment & we started taping off the trim, but we never even opened the first can of paint. Now, I'm home sick from work laying in bed, so tonight isn't looking too bright either. But I know we will get it done! 

There are still some people we want to show in person before they see it on Facebook, so I'm not going to share too many pictures of the apartment itself yet, but I did, of course, take a million pictures yesterday. :) 

We're so excited to begin our life together in our first home.

It is almost impossible for my dad to take a serious pictures. I'm hoping he's just saving them all up for the wedding. ;)

Dress Shopping & My First Fitting

The Tuesday after Sebastian & I got engaged, my mom & I headed out to search for a wedding dress. We went to David's Bridal where I tried on a handful of pretty dresses, but none of them were what either of us were looking for. It was fun to have the first dress shopping experience with my mom. We both cried when I came out in the first one, not because we loved the dress, but because the time had come for me to actually be in a wedding dress.

A few weeks later, I had an appointment scheduled at Maya Couture to do more dress shopping. This time, I brought my mom, Sebastian's mom, my Grama, both of my sisters, Stacey & Lydia, & my best friend, Katie. We had free reign of the store to pull whatever dresses I wanted to try on, & everyone went to different racks choosing their favorites. 

I loved getting to share that time with the ladies closest to me. When you bring six people with you to pick out a wedding dress, you'd think there would be some strong opinions & one or two of them hating the dress you love. I mean, atleast that's how it goes on Say Yes to the Dress. ;) But this group was perfect! 

I can't say much about the dress, but when I tried it on, everyone knew it was the one. I just want to tell you all about it! People cried & Stacey prayed & my mom went right up to get it ordered. 

When they called to tell us the estimated ship date of something like September 17th, we panicked a little & ended up picking out a back-up dress off of the rack just incase something happened & the dress didn't get here in time. Talk about stressful! ;)

Since the Lord is GOOD, my dress came in August 28th - way sooner than expected! I had my first fitting yesterday & I love it even more than I remember. 

My mom & I went Wednesday & I can't wait to go back on the 23rd to bring that pretty dress home with me! Only three weeks, y'all!

First Bridal Shower

Back in July, my mom threw me a bridal shower with our family & friends who don't also attend our church. She spent weeks buying all of the cutest decorations, hours building her own gorgeous bouquets, & days cooking the yummiest food. The Lord has blessed us with the best people in our lives who are so giving & selfless, & they all rallied around my mom to help make this shower absolutely perfect.

One of my favorite things about this shower was getting to see people that I hadn't seen in years. I had a few of my friends from high school, the lady I used to work for, & some family I usually only get a chance to see on holidays - all there to celebrate with us. I really meant so much to me that all of these people came - even the ones I see all the time. :)

My maid of honor & best friend, Katie, was in charge of the games & she chose some winners! They were all pretty low-key, which was good considering how much time was spent just talking. You know how ladies are. ;)

The first game was a "Who Am I?" game where everyone had a sticker on their back with something wedding related. They had to go around & ask different people 'yes' or 'no' questions until they figured out what was on their sticker, then they'd go get another one & start over. It was the perfect ice-breaker & a great way to get everyone mingling.

The next game was an on-going story. Throughout the shower, there was a paper passed around with a story on it. The first person wrote two sentences & passed it to the next person. They then read those two sentences, then came up with their own two sentences, covered up the first person's two sentences, & passed it on to the next person. That continued until everyone had added to the story, then it was read out loud at the end. It's funny how well the story actually flowed - considering each person could only read the two sentences above theirs. Does any of that even make sense!?

The last game was actually my favorite. Each person got a string, & they had to go around & each say how they knew me & give advice if they wanted, but they had to talk while they wrapped the string around their finger. Once they were done wrapping, they could stop talking. Some people wrapped really really fast, while some wrapped nice & slow, then still wasn't finished talking when their string ran out. ;)

Cake was after that, & my grandparents made me my favorite cheesecake with strawberry topping. We opened gifts next & I was blown away by the generosity of each of these kind ladies. After it was over & I showed Sebastian all that we had gotten, we were both just speechless & feeling extra blessed.

I'm so thankful for everyone who made this shower what it was. I'm thankful for Lydia who spent the whole time taking pictures that I'll cherish forever. & I'm especially thankful for my mama. I don't think she could be anymore selfless if she tried.