Crazy month of November!

I feel like November is a crazy month in our family, we have alot of birthdays that month my moms, mine and Naomi's! Getting ready for the holidays, trying to save money, work and I became an aunt again! Coralee Grace Shaw was born November 20th which adds to our November birthday month!

                        Brennen and I are excited that we get to be Aunt and Uncle to another baby girl!
                                                  We also had Namoi's 1st birthday party!

We sure have fun together, we even got to play in the leaves this fall! 

Babies babies everywhere! We even found out some awesome news this November...

WERE GOING TO BE PARENTS! JULY 2015! 

Time to catch up (Bahamas Trip)

Well, its been a long time since I have gotten on here and been able to write a new post. I guess its time to catch up a little since July oops! Where do I even begin? Brennen and I were able to go on a cruise to the Bahamas in August for our 1 year anniversary and Brennens birthday! It was a 5 day cruise and it was SO MUCH FUN!! I would love to go on another cruise it was definitely worth the money! We loaded the ship in Charleston SC and we parked our car there. We loaded the ship and within a few hours we were ready to head out into the sea! The ship was HUGE and there was so much to do we didn't even know where to begin! The first full day was on sea the whole day, free food and ice cream whenever you wanted a nice pool, music, games and a ton of chairs to soak up the warm sun! We decided to lay out on the boat all day and oh did we regret that later that evening! We got so much sun we could barley move, but hey whats a trip to the bahamas without a good sun burn!

The next day we arrived at the first island, Freeport! We got off the boat, got on a taxi and headed to the beach! We laid our towels down and continued getting more sun! The water was clear and the sand was hot! After a while we decided to go on a banana boat ride where we were able to see dolphins! 

in the taxi! 

 before our banana boat ride! 

After being in the sun all day again we were worn out! We headed back to the boat and got cleaned up for dinner. Every night they did something special one night the sung to us for our anniversary and one night they sang to Brennen for his birthday! We always had fun walking around the ship at night listening to bands play and watching so many different kinds of entertainment! 

before dinner one night! 

The next day we woke up and we were at the next island, Nassu! We are such beach babes all we wanted to do was to go find a beach to lay on! 

They stopped us to take our picture! 

After walking which felt like forever in the hot sun, we finally found the beach! 

The water was so clear it was like swimming in a pool, you could feel and see the fish swimming beside you! 

I felt like we were in the water alot more because our skin was so hot! This time we were smart enough and we rented an umbrella to lay under! 

After playing in the water and laying in the sun we decided we were starving and we went and ate at senior frogs! We got back on the boat and had another exciting night ahead with all the fun things that go on, on the boat! 

 One more day and it was time to head home! 

The last day on the boat we took it easy, we were already burnt to a crisp! 

We were sad that the trip was ending because we had so much fun! But we were excited to go home and tell everyone about all the fun we had! 

Packing up our stuff that night was sad, but this was the best trip we had ever taken! We will for sure go on another cruise again!! 

The 4th

Summer is always a busy time vacation, work, summer school and just trying to live a normal life. Can you believe that our one year anniversary of being married is coming up in 16 days? but who's counting anyways. What im really excited for is that we are going on a cruise to the Bahamas for 5 days thats in 22 days.. not that im counting down for that either! This past year of being married has been one of the best years yet and I cannot wait for the many years to come when we are able to move, buy a house of our own and start a family those will be the years that we will never forget.

 On to what we have been up to for the past few months! For the 4th of July we were about to go up to my grandparents house like we do every year for the 4th and be in the Faith Parade. Its always so neat and fun to see all the people and get to pass out candy. This year Naomi was able to be in the Parade! We were matching with our red bandannas and our Toms!

                                    Brennen and I were riding in the back of a trailer passing out candy and little american flags to everyone.

                                                      Obviously we are never ready to take pictures at the same time.

After the parade we went back to my grandparents house and ate lunch. Brennen and I went swimming and later that night we went with my parents to see the fireworks in uptown Charlotte.

We had a really fun 4th of July! 

Marriage.. when do you know?

I had a friend ask me a few questions and as I was emailing her and reading it to my husband he said why don't you post that on your blog? you could help someone else out too, so hopefully whoever is reading this it might help you and answer a few questions that you might have. 

I was actually reading today this lady's blog about marriage, she also was married at the age 19 the same as when I got married. I want to share a few things with you that she said in her blog which is exactly how I felt and feel. 

I was married at the young age of 19. Yup, I know... besides possibly setting a new record... I am also "crazy." But, don't worry, you don't need to tell me that, I already know. In fact, I've heard it all:

"Didn't you just get out of high school?"

"It was just yesterday that you were in diapers!! You're just a baby!"

"Don't you think you should date more before making such a big decision?" 

"Are you sure about this? It's a lot of responsibility."

"Oh wow, engaged? Wait... Really? But you're only 19." 

"Are you even old enough to sign marriage certificate?"

"Are you pregnant or something?!"

"How do you know he's what you want? You haven't even tested the waters!" 

"You're too young to know what real love is."

And perhaps the most common statement of all: 

"Don't you think you'll regret not living up your single years?"

Followed by: 

I wish I waited a bit longer to get married and just let myself have fun. You can't take back these years, you're giving them up to get married, you can wait you know." 

To all those people who doubted my decision and told me I was "giving it up".

You were absolutely right.

I gave up my heart. The moment I said "I Do" my love was no longer my own. I gave another imperfect human being the ability to take me higher than I've ever been... But also the power too crush me to a million little pieces. 

I gave up my privacy. I went home on June 8th in someone else's car, to sleep in someone else's bed, and breath someone else's air. It would never, from that moment on, be just "me" anymore. It was now me and him, him and me. It was now our family, our home, our decisions. It's funny though, because the moment "I" became a "we" I realized what it really meant to be happy. 

I gave up my name. The name I was known for my whole life, didn't define me anymore. I would be known by his name now. I was his: to cherish, love, hold, laugh with, cry with,  provide for, and protect. 

I gave up my secrets: my weaknesses, my thoughts, my mistakes, the things I hid from the world, someone now would know. But, someone would also know exactly how to help me, love me, and comfort me. Someone would know me so well that they would know what I needed without me ever asking. I would lose all the hidden parts of me, and gain a perfect understanding and love from someone else.

I gave up my agenda. I would have to cancel plans, rearrange my schedule, work longer hours, go to the grocery store when the car was available, and cook dinner instead of taking a nap. And as the clock was ticking I would come to understand the reason I was given time in the first place.

I would give up dating different people. I no longer was available for anyone to take out. I was done meeting "new people" and "potential spouses" because I had found mine. Yes, I could have dated more, yes, there's lots of great people out there that I didn't meet, but no, there's no one else as perfect for me as my Ash. And yes, I can know that even though I dated less years than most people and yes I did know that when I picked him, which was WHY I picked him. 

I gave up awkward dinner conversations and replaced them with evenings laying in my hubby's arms, with a round belly and no make up... sporting his sweats and an oversized T-shirt I won at some jazz game, eating microwave popcorn and watching netflix and feeling more beautiful than a celebrity on the red carpet. 

I gave up my money, my time, my need to be right, my stubbornness, my life, my whole self. 

And yes I did give up YEARS of my life that I can NEVER get back or change. 

BUT the difference between me and you is I don't regret one day, minute or second of those years. 

If anything... I wish I had began this incredible journey called marriage sooner, because nothing I have ever done, or could ever do, has filled me with as much love, happiness and peace as this. Yes it can be harder than I ever imagined it would be and I am challenged every day to be a better more selfless person that I am, but my life has taken on more meaning than I knew it could and I have become more complete than I thought was possible. 

So I really really loved this and I just had to share the whole thing because everything that she said was so true and its exactly how I felt and how I feel about my husband and about getting married. People probably thought that I was crazy or that I was jumping into something way to fast, 1 because I was young only 19 but you know what? my mother and my sister in law and many family members before me also got married at age 19. I honestly don't think that age matters when it comes to marriage, obviously at age 16 that would be a little crazy but age 19 or age 35 its when you are ready and its when you are in love and its when you know that you are supposed to be with that person for the rest of your life and I knew that, I knew that from the time that I went out to California to visit Brennen the way that I felt when I was with him, the way that I felt when I looked at him, held his hand in the car and kissed him I knew that I wanted to be with him for the rest of my life and to every other person out there who thought that I was crazy because I had just gotten out of an almost 4 year relationship with someone else they didn't know how i felt. If i could have ripped my heart out and shown everyone in this world the love that I felt for Brennen maybe then they would have understood but obviously I couldn't do that.

Being married young is hard Im not going to lie but I wouldn't change it for anything in this whole wide world because like I said married at 19 or 35 people are going to have trials in life, well because that's just how life is, its not going to be perfect and at times you are going to struggle with money but you know what I don't care about all of that I care about my husband and I care about being happy and we are happy I am the happiest I have ever been in my life. I would say its hard to know if its time to get married, or if you love someone or if you should wait and see other people but its not because when you know.. YOU WILL KNOW! 

So as a young married girl my advice to you is.. do you know? are you really in love or is it just at this time in your life others are getting married and Pinterest has amazing wedding ideas or are you just caught up in a relationship and want to hurry and get married and live happily ever after? Defiantly don't rush into anything talk about your love with each other and talk about getting married, do you feel ehh about it? or are you ready right now to drop everything and be with him for the rest of your life? Ultimately its up to the both of you if you are ready, and no one elses opinion matters because when you get married that's exactly how it is going to be, its going to be between you and your husband not your mom or your sibling or your best friend, its up to the both of you.

On to the other questions you had, when we talked about kids before we got married we never really got into deep conversations about home school or public schooling or shots or anything like that, because when the time comes that we need to decide and figure those things out, we will talk about them and the way that we feel is best for our children is what we are going to do for them. One person might have a different opinion about something but that is going to be about everything in life like what color walls you want to have in your kitchen or what kind of car you want or what to name your new dog. When the time comes to think about all of those questions and decisions we will talk about it and as a couple decide what the best thing for our family is. Because that's what marriage is about its about as a couple trying to figure out what is best for the both of you and your family. I do not think that is a make it or brake it thing at all. 

Can I just say one more time how much I love my husband and how much I love being married. 

busy busy busy

We have been so busy and have had so much fun doing different things the past few months I haven't had the time to tell you all about it! Where do I start?! I guess ill start off by showing a few pics of when we went to Lazy Five Ranch!!

It was so much fun feeding all the animals! I want to go back soon!! So that was short and sweet on to the next trip! We were able to fly out to Arkansas to visit Brennens cousin Nace for his High School Graduation all of his family was able to be there it was so much fun being able to be around them!

I

I always get the window seat :) 

1st pic of the trip!

Naces graduation took forever there were about 870 students that graduated! 

We were able to go fishing!! That was so much fun! I caught my first fish! 

After a week of fun it was time to come back home we were sad to leave everyone and all of the fun we were having but memories were made and we knew that we would see them again soon! 

After only 3 days of being home from Arkansas, we had another trip planned to go stay at the cabin in the mountains for Memorial weekend! No cell service just nature! We were able to go to a waterfall close by and walk up to Mount Mitchell. Its always nice to get away from the world. 

I will always remember coming to the cabin ever since i was a little girl and being able to come to the creek and walk across the swinging bridge. 

Hiking to the waterfall was so much fun, its so beautiful up there! 

Naomi and Sadie enjoyed the mountains too! We always hate coming home from trips, we had a great memorial weekend and cant wait to go back to the cabin soon!