Three Years of Marriage

Three years of marriage. 8.5 years together. One sassy kid and another on the way. Travels. Cross country moves. Air Force life. Late nights. The good, the bad, and the everything in between. We've been through a lot in our time together, and I wouldn't want it any other way. The bad makes us appreciate the good all the more. The occasional distance makes us not take each other for granted when we're together. This life isn't the easiest, but it's special, crazy, and fun. It's unique and beautiful, and there's no one I'd rather co-pilot with. Happy third wedding anniversary to my handsome husband!

I accidentally called Dan my wife at the end of my vows (that I wrote) in front of all of our family and friends and had the moment epically captured via photographs AND video... see below! Ha! 

We couldn't have done it without all of these amazing friends! I'm sad that the last time we were all in one place was at our wedding. 

Forever thankful to have a husband who will dance in the rain with me! 

Celebrating Two Years of Marriage

Two whole years have flown by since the most magical day of my life. Sure, the day Annabelle was born can easily be deemed my "best day ever", but it certainly wasn't as pleasant as the day we proclaimed our love to each other with our own, unique vows (of which I totally messed up and   called Dan my wife instead of husband at the very end, prompting these epic photographs... first, Dan processed what I said... then, I gathered what I had done based on his face... oops! Sorry not sorry... that was typical Janelle, and our guests STILL bring that up all the time).

All joking aside, we had a fabulous day, despite the rain, because we were finally saying "I do" gathered by all of our family and closest friends, and it was just the most perfect day. And I promise I'm not laughing or looking horrified in every single wedding photo... here are my personal favorites from our big day!

Two years married have flown by. We have gone through a lot already, such as moving across the country twice and having a precious baby girl. It hasn't been all sunshine... marriage is a real trial. Living with someone else and staying in love is a very real struggle. We are both super stubborn, strong-willed people... so it's no wonder we argue when we both want our way. But I am so happy that our love for each other wins. 

I am still so thankful to be Lieutenant Lovemuffin's co-pilot in this crazy life.

We took our annual photo holding last year's photo, where we were holding a wedding photo. How's that for complicated?! But I love it!

You can see our first anniversary photo in front of our last home in Ohio here... I like the tradition we've started with posing in front of our current home each year because we all know we'll live in so many different places over the years! 

To read more about our awesome Colorado mountain wedding, check out this post - or just watch our wedding highlight video below! :)

I can't wait to see what this next year brings! 

How Has It Been a Year Already?! (Time Flies)

One year ago yesterday, Dan graduated from the United States Air Force Academy after five long years of hard work.

One year ago tomorrow, we got married in the Pike National Forest in front of our families and friends.

The past year has included the honeymoon of our dreams, a move across the country from Colorado to Ohio (boo), graduate school for Dan and working full-time on my Etsy shop for me, attending our first "real" (outside of USAFA) ball, getting pregnant with our first baby, and lots of traveling to see friends and family.

I don't know how it's possible that it's been 365 days since the biggest, happiest week of our lives... but somehow, it has. And let me tell you all - that wait was so worth it. The week we spent with graduation and wedding festivities was exhausting but the most rewarding experience ever. From watching Dan march in his final parade as a cadet to pinning on his 2 Lt. shoulder boards to watching him shake hands with and salute Joe Biden, Vice President of the United States, to signify his completion of the Academy... those are moments we'll never get back but ones that are so ingrained in my memory that I smile and feel emotional every time I think of them.

Walking down the aisle toward Dan two days later so we could declare our love for each other and finally make things official - that, my friends, was the biggest accomplishment. We had so much fun, and as an introspective person, I have had so much fun this week watching so many friends go through these same milestones.

Cheers to one year - and here's to many more to come!

    

2014: My Year in Review

2014 has been incredible. So many things happened this year - I got to play with lion cubs, Dan found out he's going to pilot training at ENJJPT, we spent 100's Weekend in Estes Park, I trained for and ran my first full marathon, had a bridal shower and bachelorette party, attended Dan's graduation parade, commissioning, and graduation, got married, spent a month in Europe for our honeymoon, said goodbye to Colorado and moved to Ohio, road lots of roller coasters at Cedar Point, watched the Kansas City Royals go to the World Series for the first time in my life, started volunteering with 7th and 8th graders at our new church's youth group, expanded my Etsy shop and sold many items at a craft fair, hosted Thanksgiving for the first time, and traveled back to Kansas City for the holidays.

2014 is definitely a year that I will remember forever! So many memories were made... and I absolutely cannot wait to see what 2015 has in store! 

Six Months of Wedded Bliss

Yesterday (Sunday, November 30th) marked six months of marriage for my handsome husband and me.

Since we got married in May, we have stepped foot in eight different countries, moved across the USA to our first home together, celebrated a few holidays, hosted our first Thanksgiving, dealt with a strange illness, joined a church and started volunteering with the youth group, had house guests, Skyped with faraway friends, tried many new recipes, set goals, celebrated the Royals going to the World Series for the first time in our lives, learned how to live together, and many more exciting things!

We are so happy to celebrate our first six months of marriage, and we can't wait for months and years to continue passing by... just as long as we're at each other's side!

Our Honeymoon Destinations {An Overview}

Wow - thank you all for the love on my big wedding highlight post from last week that includes some of our favorite professional photos and our video highlight reel! I really enjoyed reading your sweet comments (and replied to everyone who has the reply option - some of you are still no reply bloggers!)

Today's post is all about where we went for our honeymoon! I'm going to make a separate post for each of the nine places we visited, so this is just a general overview.

We were able to visit some AMAZING cities. Shown below are our favorite photos from each destination. This is just a small taste of what we saw, and it was SO difficult to choose just one photo from each place.

We really enjoyed Rome, Italy; Venice, Italy; Dubrovnik, Croatia; Athens, Greece; Kusadasi, Turkey; Split, Croatia; Paris, France; Normandy, France; and Munich, Germany!

OH! And did I mention that I didn't know we were going to Venice, Dubrovnik, Athens, Kusadasi, or Split until we arrived suddenly in Venice after we left Rome?! My sweet husband had planned a SURPRISE MEDITERRANEAN CRUISE for us! He booked it 18 months before we went on it, and he kept it a surprise all that time! I am so impressed, and we had a BLAST on the Norwegian Jade!

Since we had to wait so long to get married (because of the US Air Force Academy rules that no cadet can have dependents), we had a SUPER long time to save up for our honeymoon... which isn't such a bad thing! We were able to enjoy a full month in Europe, and even that got cut short! We were supposed to be there for six weeks, but due to a family emergency, we had to return after four weeks... but that just means we have to go back to see Prague, Czech Republic; Warsaw, Poland; Krakow, Poland; and London, England, right? I'm down for Honeymoon Part II! ;)

Wedding Highlights {Professional Photos & Video}

Slowly but surely I will catch up with this blog! I've been trying to post two or three times per week, but there's just so much to post about from this crazy summer!

I posted our wedding recap a few days after Dan and I tied the knot, but that was just with pictures that our guests took. We recently got our professional photographs back, so I wanted to share those today! We ALSO hired a videographer, and he made a wonderful highlight reel from our big day. I'll include it at the bottom of this post after the photos.

Our photographer was Callie Riesling, and our videographer was Sean Halverson. Check them out by clicking on their names - they are both stellar at what they do! :)

We were sealing the letters we wrote to each other when we were apart the night before the wedding with a bottle of wine that we made together. The point is to open it on our five year anniversary, read the letters, and drink the wine. If we have a big fight before that, though, we will open it up to read the letters and remember how amazing our love is.

Yeah, I accidentally called him my wife in the middle of my vows... and according to my friends, this is a typical "Janelle face", so that's nice. Haha.

But really... my wife?! Haha! 

We had a saber arch at our wedding, and the coolest part of it is that it was full of AMAZING friends. These three guys and three girls are just wonderful, and I'm so glad the arch was able to be so personal! 

"Kiss her! Kiss her longer! You can't go until you kiss her more!"

Best Man Aaron is tapping me on the butt with his saber... "Welcome to the Air Force, Mrs. C!" This photo shows every emotion I was feeling that day, and it is my absolute favorite!

Every bride deserves a picture like this one! :)

I *think* this is the one we'll use in our giant guest book frame! 

Garden of the Gods is beautiful in the background, but the love we felt from our friends in our wedding party that day was 100 times more beautiful. 

Yes, it's pouring down rain, but we were dancing and didn't care! :)

The cake was made by an awesome friend and {former} co-worker of mine - and it was DELICIOUS! I can't wait to eat it again on our anniversary... hopefully more gets in my mouth and less up my nose this time around! ;)

We took one class to perfect our mad dancing skills {joking... I was terrified to dance unless we took a class and could only fit one into our busy schedules}, but our first dance song was "Come Fly With Me" by Frank Sinatra... it was magical. :)

Dan's former teammates from the Air Force Academy Flying Team serenaded me with "You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'" during our rehearsal... Top Gun style! It was so much fun, and you can watch it at the very end of the video below. 

And here is the video highlight reel! We absolutely LOVE that we have not only still photos but also this video that just completely encapsulates how we were feeling that day. We also have a video of our entire ceremony, and I'm sure that will be amazing to watch for YEARS and YEARS to come! I HIGHLY recommend a videographer for all of the brides-to-be out there. :)

Wedding Rehearsal and Dinner

Continuing with graduation week, Dan and I had our rehearsal dinner the day AFTER he graduated from the Academy.

Thursday of that week was surreal. Dan had accomplished all of his hopes and dreams by making it through USAFA. We were one day away from tying the knot (finally!), and we were both pretty anxious.

Our wedding party was AMAZING and helped us set up our reception venue by decorating and carrying in all of the drinks we had purchased. It was hectic, and it took a little longer than we expected, but it worked out and was beautiful.

That evening, we gathered everyone who was participating in our wedding and did a short run-through at Boulder Park in Colorado Springs. We chose that location because it was across the street from the house I was living in and also close to the restaurant we chose for dinner.

And of course, it rained. Go figure.

But we made it through and set off to Bambino's Italian Eatery, which was amazing as always. We had a big buffet with salads, two different kinds of pastas and sauces, garlic bread, and of course, a cake from the Safeway bakery.

The food was good, but being surrounded by most of our best friends and family members was great. They decided to tell embarrassing stories about Dan and me from our childhoods, and that was a hoot. It's always exciting learning more about the person you love, but it's FANTASTIC when it's an embarrassing story from 15 years ago. ;)

AND people kept bringing me glasses of wine. You can't go wrong there. It was weird how so many people wanted to do things for me, though, and I appreciated it SO much. I think six people offered me wine BEFORE dinner alone (don't worry - I didn't accept ALL of them, as tempting as it was).

We didn't get too many pictures, but Dan's uncle took some, so those are what I'm using here!

Any guesses on what my next post will be about? ;)

It's About Freakin' Time! {We Tied the Knot}

On Friday, May 30th, 2014, I finally married my handsome love. While he was a cadet at the Air Force Academy, he wasn't allowed to have any dependents... and since he graduated on May 28th, we didn't waste much time!

I'll post all about his graduation parade, commissioning, and actual graduation later, but I wanted to show off some of the pictures people took from their phones during our ceremony and reception on Friday.

We won't get our official photos back until the end of the summer, but that's okay because we're leaving for a six week honeymoon VERY soon anyway! :)

The weather was NOT as nice as it had been all week, and that was kind of a bummer... but Mother Nature did her best to take care of us, and it didn't start raining until the ceremony was complete! We were able to dodge the weather for pictures as well, and everything fell into place.

Our guest book! We will add a photo from our wedding when we get them back and hang it in our house each time we move. It'll be a nice piece of stability wherever we go. It's BIG! 

My little brother walking me down the aisle... he looks so proud!

Our ceremony was a blast! We had so much to laugh about, and I was SO giggly! 

Seriously. Our officiant (and friend) made us laugh several times.

I had an AMAZING time during our ceremony!

We sealed up a bottle of wine that we made together along with love letters that we wrote to each other from separate places the night before our wedding. The plan is to open it on our five year anniversary, but if we have a big fight before then and need to remember why we got married, the box will always be there! 

I felt 100% triumphant as I slid that ring onto his finger!

You may now kiss your bride! (and he did... a few times!)

Feeling on top of the world as we walk away!

Happiest we've ever been!

I love this one because it's so candid. His tongue is out, and I'm smiling ear to ear!

Of course we had a saber arch! I can't wait to see the real photos from this moment! We had six AMAZING friends do this for us, and we couldn't be more thankful that they all agreed to. 

One of my coworkers and friends made all of these cupcakes for our guests... and a cake to cut on top for us! (And you can KIND OF see the groom's cake to the left... it had a Thunderbird (Air Force jet) on it, and Dan was so surprised.

Cutting the cake with the saber - such a fun moment! 

Three amazing friends and fellow wives of USAFA grads came to watch us get married... so here we are in year order showing off our rings! Danielle is married to a 2010 grad, Ellie to a 2011 grad, Lizzie to a 2013 grad, and me to a 2014 grad!

We made 120 bottles of wine ourselves to serve at our reception. They were a BIG hit! A friend of a friend designed the labels for us, and they are ADORABLE! I can't wait to share a better picture when we get them. 

This is the "Fab Five" from high school... the five of us ALWAYS hung out together and had a lot of fun eating Chinese food and making prank phone calls... and they came out from Washington, Kansas, Florida, and Missouri for my big day! Love them!

I sat on the Best Man's knee while my groom fished out my garter with his teeth... awkward but so much fun!

Dan called up the entire Air Force Academy Flying Team (the team he was a part of until he graduated), and they serenaded me Top Gun style with "You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling"... and it was SO MUCH FUN! A friend posted video of it already, and it's great. I'm so glad those guys (and gals) were able to make it! 

I feel AMAZING right now. Our wedding day was definitely the best day of my life, and I can't get over being called "wife", "bride", and "Mrs." - so fun!