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Tuesday, January 29, 2013

Our 5th Engagement Anniversary

On December 30th, we celebrated the 5th anniversary of our engagement! Half a decade. It's hard to believe that it's been that long already. We sort of re-lived the night of our engagement by having dinner at Chops. It was just as good as we remembered (and is still our top favorite steakhouse in Atlanta).

12/30/2012 (my last christmas picture, i promise)



I think most of you know the story, so this post is just for fun since I don't already have it anywhere here on the blog. By the time we got engaged, we had been dating for seven and a half years. We started dating in high school, so it felt like a lifetime of waiting. We talked about marriage all the time, but Bo had told me that he was not going to propose until after we graduated college. That agreed-upon timeline took *some* of the pressure off (and of course allowed him to surprise me early).

12/31/2007


Long story short, I graduated from UF on December 15th, 2007. I moved up to Atlanta right after Christmas on December 29th. Be proposed on the 30th, we celebrated New Years, and then I started my first full-time job on January 2nd. To say that week was a {very happy, exciting} whirlwind of major life changes would be a huge understatement, but I was on cloud nine.



Long story long... :) ... Bo drove up to Atlanta to help me with the move - he had one more semester at UF and was moving up the following May. At the time, I was in full move-in mode (as in, could not possibly think about anything until I was fully settled in my new place). I had an enormous list of errands to run and things I needed to buy. I dragged him around to store after store for hours. By the time we got out of Bed Bath & Beyond, he had had enough. He told me we couldn't run anymore errands that day. I was initially, obviously furious (gotta check everything off my list!). That is, until he told me it was because he had planned to propose that night, but he had the ring made back at home and it wasn't finished in time before he came up to Atlanta. {excusemewhatdidyoujustsay?!} He had made dinner reservations at Chops, and even though he couldn't propose that night, he wanted to celebrate anyway. I am not typically a crier, but I was immediately in (happy) tears. (Of course, all I could think about was how we would probably get engaged the next time I saw him and how on earth was he going to surprise me now?!) We had an amazing meal at Chops, and afterward we came home to our new apartment for a movie and a bottle of wine - nothing out of the ordinary for us. I remember him asking if I had a good time that night, since it's not every day you *almost* get engaged. Mid-laugh, he got down on one knee, said a bunch of really nice things we will never remember, and asked me to marry him. After the whole spiel he had given me earlier that night, I was completely caught off guard, which was his goal. I sat in complete shock until it finally registered and of course I said yes!! A few minutes later he had to ask if I wanted to see the ring, and it was absolutely perfect. It was even more special to me that the diamonds are from his mom's original engagement ring, since my mom's engagement ring also has three diamonds from her mother-in-law's engagement ring. I just thought it was a fun coincidence since that is not very common.




We never did watch that movie, as I spent the rest of the evening spreading our good news. However, I am fairly certain we drank the wine ;)  The next night was New Years Eve, and I was so excited to see everyone! I even got to ask Dudley and Sarah to be my bridesmaids in person which was pretty special.




Looking back on it now, it is crazy to me that that night was over five years ago now. Almost the length of time we had been dating prior to his proposal - I guess it comes with getting older, but the time since then has absolutely flown. It is also crazy to me how young we were, but how old we thought we were back then. When Bo proposed, he was the same age that my brother Paul is now (23). Weird. We were just kids! But then again, I feel like we are still kids, just five years older.









Monday, January 21, 2013

Leslie's Bridal Shower

Back in March when my sister got engaged, I immediately started pinning ideas for her wedding, bridal shower, and bachelorette party. If you thought I was excited back then, I am even more excited now that we've started the fun celebrations for her :) So while I was down in Florida for our Christmas vacation, I threw her bridal shower! It worked out really nicely since so many of her friends, family members, and bridesmaids were in town for the holidays (and somewhat selfishly I was very glad to have a two-for-one trip!) ;)







Leslie insisted on not having a theme, and wanted to keep things simple. I somewhat accidentally ended up with a champagne-related theme, and if you know Leslie and her love of Andre, it was very fitting!





cheers to Leslie!

wine / champagne glass charms as party favors, loved these!




Special touch for the day - my mom used her grandpa's checker table and a tablecloth that her mom cross-stitched for the gift table. It was a sweet way to have them "present" at the shower :)






I'm generally not a huge fan of bridal shower games, but the ones I came up with were apparently a huge hit...that, or you girls are just a bunch of really nice liars ;)

Name that Movie - Leslie loves movie quotes!

props for the guess-who-said-what game! they even made an appearance at the bars that night :)




the bride-to-be and her ribbon bouquet! so many pretty bows from everyone



Leslie had so many family members and friends come to celebrate. Everyone was so generous and she was completely spoiled! Special thanks to everyone who came from out of town. Update: Amy and Kate tied for the farthest traveled award, coming all the way from Kathmandu and Dubai! (I'm not sure which one is further, maybe it depends which way you fly around the globe?!)

Mom wins least traveled, since it was at her house :)


Megan, Jenn, Leslie & Sara - high school best friends

...and their moms! :)  Didi, Debbi, Nancy/my mom, and Kathy

Chi Omegas!

Liz, Leslie & Kate, just missing Ashley!

Leslie & Christina, former roommates!

Chi O family...love they still take these pics!

the bride's and groom's moms and grandmas :)

cousins! Katie & Leslie

Leslie & Aunt Mimi

all together!! so much love for Leslie :)

bridesmaids! we missed you, Julianne!


I've attended so many bridal showers but this was my first time throwing one, and I had so much fun planning it. Of course, it would not have been possible without my mom, Didi & Megan, and Kathy & Jenn - they were all such amazing helpers and I could not be more grateful for their assistance. A BIG thanks to them, and to everyone who attended! Less than 3 months to go until the big day :)



Tuesday, January 15, 2013

Our First Falcons Game

In the midst of all my Christmas spirit in the past few posts, I almost skipped right past the Falcons game we went to last month. For the past few years, we've been wanting to go to a game, but trying to coordinate a Sunday home game with our Gator football travel schedule was near impossible. Once we lined up the Gators' and Falcons' schedules earlier this year, there was only one home game we could attend, and it was against the Giants, so we got our tickets months in advance to make sure we actually went!



Our seats were up in the nosebleeds, but we still thought they were pretty good. We had a great view and our section was pretty entertaining - the cops were called over and a few guys got thrown out for being completely wasted obnoxious fans.




Bo has played fantasy football for as long as I can remember, but retired this year due to inexplicable reasons still unknown to me, and I usually do not follow the NFL at all until playoffs. We grew up a few hours from Miami but weren't necessarily Dolphins fans, so we have adopted the Falcons as "our team". Obviously I use that term very loosely. Generally, we just root for the Gator alums on whatever teams are playing :)







Final score, 34-0! We were pretty pumped to see a shutout for our first game. Go Falcons!!




I also just joined BlogLovin if you want to find me there! <a href="http://www.bloglovin.com/blog/4381419/?claim=cb7rvarfxxn">Follow my blog with Bloglovin</a>

Saturday, January 12, 2013

Christmas Vacation

Bo and I usually celebrate Christmas together here in Atlanta on our own before heading out of town to be with family. This year, our gift to each other was a trip to New Orleans and tickets to the Sugar Bowl. So there were no gifts under the tree, nothing to open. I'm sure some people think that is sad, but we aren't very big on gifts anyway, so it worked for us, and we were really excited!




We packed up the car and made the 8.5 hour drive to be with my family in North Palm Beach, FL.  Our first night in town, we met up with (part of) the Paty family for dinner at the Yacht Club, which is a new tradition that we started last year and everyone was really looking forward to it. Usually, the kids hang out together, the moms hang out together, and the dads are off hunting or fishing together...so it is really nice to have us ALL together. :) Such a blast with them as always!

next year I will bring my real camera and not an iphone...!
 


The next day was my sister's bridal shower! (separate post coming soon!) Preparing, partying, and cleaning up/recovering took up most of my time while we were in town (totally worth it!) - but unfortunately we didn't have much time to see many of our friends who weren't at the shower. Sorry guys - we will be back in a few months. Special shout out to Gen, thanks for stopping by to hang out!! :)  And just for kicks, here's a sneak peak of the bride-to-be at her shower...






On Christmas Eve, we went to church service at Faith Lutheran and then we were off to Grandma's house. By most people's standards, our crew of 16 family members is a massive get-together. But with the size of our family,  it was actually a very small gathering, and a pretty tame paper ball fight! We missed the rest of you. Thanks mom for most of the pictures :)














 


Christmas morning, we surprised our parents by coming out in matching pajamas. They loved it! And so did we :)


my parent's home - do you all see where I get my Christmas tree and decorating obsession from now?!

Santa came! You can also see why I still hang stocking from the entertainment center...no fireplaces in South Florida















The pups also had a good Christmas. Molly and Jessie play so well together, and we ended up with two tired, happy dogs. Win all around! Dad gave them Christmas bones, and he was their best friend after that.


iphone laser eyes


they played and played and played...

and then slept and slept and slept :)



Leslie, Paul, and I finally decided to stop exchanging gifts this year. We usually just make a list of stuff we want but can buy for ourselves anyway, so we saved ourselves the time, money, and hassle of it and just enjoyed each other's company instead. Santa's elf brought us a puzzle to work on together and we spent most of the day watching old home videos of Christmas past. It was probably my most favorite Christmas (as an adult, of course - nothing beats the magic of believing in Santa).




That evening, Grandma came over for dinner, and then we all went out on the intracoastal for our Christmas Day boat ride!






And just like that, Christmas vacation was over! We were there for almost a week, but time flew when we were in town, as it always does. We had a wonderful time with everyone. Hope you all had a very Merry Christmas!