in progress

Well...things are rolling right along...there are only 50 days until the BIG day...

At this point I'm not sure that I want it to come so soon and at the same time it just can't come soon enough for me. I am really enjoying the anticipation and the planning...although things are really starting to crunch now...

We are just finalizing orders at this point and making final decisions. Andrew and I have attended counseling for the past month or so. Just on Mondays. That has been really enjoyable. I would definetly recommend taking the class. Even if you are single or married already. It's great!

All of the girls have their dresses. I am going to look into alterations pretty soon here...

Mom was working on the floral arrangements the other day, we picked out music last weekend...that's still in process.

Here are some engagement pictures that are long over-due...

on February 12, 2011 i was re-reading posts and thought maybe I should actually add engagement photos.

The Kitchen

This is my favorite part of the house I think!

This is my purse hook!

Inside-Downstairs

Here are some of the inside of the house...just the downstairs though.

Living room-we are making this side like a den of sorts.  I am going to make cushions for the bay window!  yay!
We are having a print of an engagement picture printed to put in the frame...and the book case probably will not stay there, but for now it is filling up space nicely.
MMM!!!  Green bathroom!  I likey!  haha!
I ADORE this bay window!

Andrew's free leather couch.  Nice!

Kayla's mom updating her blog...

We wanted to post pics of the house. Kayla closed on the house on Friday, June 4th...just 3 months before the wedding. We moved Andrew in, did some painting, panelling, and cleaning over the weekend. The Lord provided a renter for the summer. A friend who will be leaving for college right before the wedding.

Welcome to our home!

It has been fun seeing Kayla choose colors and arrange things. What really brought me mom-joy was her priorityin purchasing plants to hang on the front post...It is fun to see her do things like me...know what I mean?

Kayla's aunt Angie said she wants to hang her umbrella on the mailbox! :D
Back door guests enter here...

Still need's to be mowed and cleaned up. The garden shed needs siding on the front...but cute isn't it?

Old garage...

I found a caribou coffee on the way to paint... =D Kayla made the arrangement from my gardens...

One more to the wedding party

Here's my flower girl!!! what a honey!!!

House Buying

so...here is the house-buying tale. andrew and i had been searching high and low for the right house for us. he wanted to move to the star prairie/new richmond area...i was opposed to that. i wanted to stay in the amery area because then at least one of us would be able to make it to work almost every day without having to worry much about vehicular situations...well...we weren't finding anything and weren't finding anything. the few houses that we did look at all turned out to be something we would never be able to get financing for or else they became unavailable the next day. i was finally like, ok, we really just need to get andrew moved out and find a place that we can both be happy with and that isn't going to cost us a lot and that both of us like. so i looked at a whole bunch of different web sites to try and find more to look at.

i found this one. it's in new richmond, wisconsin. it is a half hour from both amery and hudson-meaning a half hour drive for both of us. yuck. but it is what it is and i have to be happy with what God provides for us. so we went and looked at this house and i wouldn't say fell in love with it, but we all knew, including our realitor, that the house was for us.

at this point, i have to sign some papers and take them to our realitor. basically the house is ours because the bank has accepted our offer and now we are just working the finishing details out.

so that is where we are at right now. we basically have a house. i don't think that i have actually let myself admit it to myself because i still am not like jumping out of my skin excited about it and you would think i would be...but...that's the skinny so far. i haven't told many people yet. keep it in prayer though.

Dress Shopping

Here are the dresses that we ordered. The green is wrong, it's just a little bit darker. Maybe a little bit more olivy too. But the brown is the correct one.

I might go and buy myself the orange one for the groom's dinner! Yay! I love it!


We were all wearing them like togas...it was super fun!

And again. We have, from left to right, Abby, me, Steph, and Amber. We are just missing Samantha.
We even got the shoes and jewlery today! I would have to say it was pretty succesful weekend! I can't wait to keep the planning rolling!

Update

Well...I was scolded by my grandmother because she had to e-mail me instead of reading my blog for an update...haha! jk! My grandma doesn't scold...seeing as I'm her favorite...haha!
Anyways. As of two weeks ago we have a photographer booked. She is out of Cameron Wisconsin and I can't wait to work with her-her style is perfect for us. Andrew and I go for formal engagement pictures next Saturday at four.
Since Wednesday we have a caterer booked. (It seems that once you get one thing in place everything else just starts to fall there too.) Our photographer, Tammy, recommended a lady that has a small privately owned catering company called Judy's in the Country. As it turns out, she is from Turtle Lake which is twenty minutes from us. How convenient. Mom is going to call in our dessert list on Monday.
We also have a tent and tables and chairs lined up for us. I guess the next thing is to get poopers lined up too. Haha!
This week we are supposed to start planting pumpkins. I think Wednesday is the 120 day mark for them. We are going to get some flowers ordered as well.
Speaking of flowers, my mom and I went to the Minneapolis Mart last Monday and we ordered some things for the wedding there. We have decided to go with fake floral (it's SUPER cheap compared to real flowers) and yes, it is just as formal as real flowers, only I will be able to keep them forever, as will the girls if they are interested.
Today, my friend, and bridesmaid, is coming from Madison to go dress shopping. I had it worked out so that all of the girls but one would be able to go today and then the fourth one we had worked out to go tomorrow, but one of the other girls forgot the date and now is working today. So it will just me me and two of my girls today, me and two different girls tomorrow, and on Monday, my mom, Mrs. Nelson, Sammy Jo, myself, and possibly my fourth girl are going to get dresses...
As for a house, which is what my grandma was wondering about...well...Andrew and I put an offer on a house last Tuesday. Our realtor sent the proposal in without the pre-approval because she is really excited for us to buy a house. It turns out the bank/lender wants us to re-word the verbage on the offer, which isn't a big deal at all and it doesn't change anything. We got the pre-approval yesterday, and when I talked to Lisa, our realtor, she sounded really optimistic and made it sound like we have a house. The bank isn't turning our offer down-they just want things to sound different. In case you are wondering why I keep saying bank, the house is a forclosure so we are not working with real people so to speak, we are just working with a lender that just wants to get the house sold to people that they won't lose money from. So...at this point, we are excited to be thinking that we have an accepted offer for the most part, but we will see what unfolds. I really belive that this is the house that God has had in store for us. I don't think we would have been able to put an offer in otherwise. So keep it in prayer!
And with that...that is basically all I know...I will probably post some pictures from today later when we get home.
Thanks All!

The silly cow. another silly cow.

this is where the ceremony will be...


this is the driveway...picture the garden to the right filled with flowers.

The Engagement Story

ok all you wonderfully curious people, here is my ADORABLE story:so the week of march 29th, andrew had been PROMISING that he was going to get me a ring...well...the week came and went and nothing...no ring. so...along came friday, and still nothing. he was going to make me dinner that night because he's cute and likes to do that, and i couldn't go over to his house because i had forgotten about volunteering to help at the murder in the dark that our youth group was having...he was ticked...so we did that and the other ring that i had gotten a year ago for valentine's day was broken that night and he just shrugged it off...i was to kranky at him to think much of it.so saturday comes...i had volunteered to help at the easter egg hunt that they were having at church and andrew wanted to make me lunch. he kept calling me and i was like ANDREW I WILL CALL YOU WHEN I'M DONE...so i went over there like an hour before the hunt ended and he started to make me lunch. i was sitting in his kitchen while he was making lunch and we were just chatting...he was recalling the time that he had first kissed me and we had fought about where it was before...he was like you were right, it was down by the lake. (his parents have lake shore property) and i was like, yes...yes i was thank you very much...haha! (go figure...me right? haha!) ne wayz...so we were chatting about that and i noticed a box on the table...a box quite like the one that i had gotten my other ring in...and my necklace, but that one was longer and shorter. i picked it up and shook it and asked andrew why it was empty. he was like, isn't that your necklace box? and i was like, uh no, i have that at home and it's a different size...and he was like i don't know then. and his mom started talking to me and i didn't think anything of it.so then we were going to go shopping to buy a ring...haha! and we were going to leave and he started driving the wrong way...i assumed he was going to talk to his dad because we were headed toward the field. (his dad is a BIG dairy farmer) and he was like oh, i want to see the lake in the day...i was like UH OK...NOT RIGHT NOW I WANT TO GO GET THE STUPID RING THAT I HAVE HAD PROMISED TO ME SINCE LIKE JUNE!!!! i didn't say that, but in my mind i was sure thinking that...ne wayz. so we went to the lake and i was like ok, let's go. he's like well let's take a walk...um no thank you let's go walk at the mall...haha again, just what i was thinking, not what i said. but i protested several times before finally getting out of the car and walking to the edge of the lake with him...long walk...NOT! i rolled my eyes and was like, i knew we weren't actually going to walk...so we stood there for a while, talking about when we first started dating and then he started reaching into his pocket and he got down on one knee in a swift motion and started saying sweet things to me and then pulled out a ring and asked me to marry him...all i could say was...YOU ACTUALLY GOT ONE?! haha!and then we headed back to his house after he put the ring on the wrong finger and i had to correct him...(he was nervous)...like he had to be because technically i had already said yes. but then we were on our way back to the house and he was like did you ever give me an answer and i was like i don't think so...and then we were distracted by him mudding in his monte carlo (SWEET!) and then we got to the house and his dad talked to us for a minute and then we headed to dick's market in town to show samantha and he asked me again what my answer was and i said no. haha! and that's the last answer he's had. HAHA! i'm such a terrible person. haha!but that's my story and i love it and i wouldn't have wanted it any other way. it was perfect!

Hey There

This here is now the blog to watch the progress of the wedding planning of Kayla and Andrew...
Enjoy!