Merry August-Mas!!!

Yep we are that crazy couple who decorated our house for Christmas in the middle of the sweltering summer! A couple of weeks ago Jon came across a Christmas playlist on his phone (that man is obsessed with Christmas music, well Christmas anything) and said he was sad Christmas was so far away. Us poor Texans (and many across the South and even North East!) have been experiencing weeks and weeks of boiling hot temperatures making this summer totally blah. The lakes are dried up, the pool is too warm to be refreshing and we can't even take Ernie on a walk at 9pm because it is still 100 degrees! Thus, August-mas was born. 

We decided that we would have our own mini Christmas celebration this past Saturday to temporarily take us out of this heat. Here is how August-mas went down:

• We attempted to set our thermostat in the 60's but its too damn hot and the unit couldn't keep up. We normally keep our house at 72 and it stayed like that all day :-(

• I wore a green dress, red scarf and white headband to be festive. Jon wore a green Baylor shirt and red winter-y beanie (which he took off after pictures) 

• We decorated our mini Cleveland Browns tree. Our old house was too small for a full standing tree so this cutie did the job. Maybe since we decorated it the week before NFL opening games, the Browns will kick some ass! One can only hope...

• We have lots of cutesy Christmas decor but instead of spending an hour setting it all up, I put out some of my favorites

•  Our old house had beautiful wood beams in the living room and kitchen and Christmas lights looked so cool in there. We strung some colored lights on a curtain rod and hung our stockings (with care...). The stocking in the middle is an old random one I had and since this is Ernie's first Christmas with us, I will get him one to match ours (I can't bear buying Christmas items while its 108 outside, even though Hobby Lobby is fully decorated for December)

•  Yes Ernie is wearing reindeer ears. He actually has 2 Christmas outfits but it was too hot for those (I will probably be one of those nutty mom's who dresses their child for every holiday)

• We even decorated Mr. Ernie's cage with a "Naughty" sign and a mini tree (the snowmen say 'Jon' and 'Ruth'...now we need an 'Ernie' one!)

• We exchanged small gifts which was fun! I got Jon lime tortilla chips, coconut m&ms and an inappropriate Cleveland Browns shirt from HotTopic :-). Don't judge. It's funny. Oh and it is arriving tomorrow!

•  I've posted about the awesome shirts my hubby has made for me and if you haven't read the post, find it here. Jon made me two super cute shirts for August-mas. Check em out

 How cute is he?!

 It was a Browns August-mas

•  Jon also brought home a yummy cinnamon sugar candle (closest thing to Christmas at Target right now) and a kitty cat birthday card that he added some red and green Christmas-y stuff to :-)

We spent the afternoon watching The Grinch and Charlie Brown's Christmas. We had 7 movies to watch but got a little burned out after a couple hours. We ate our leftovers from the low carb dinner we had the night before (muhahaha) and watched Just Go With It <---- cheesy but kinda cute!

Count down to the real Christmas: 

135 days

Our first look

I've shared every single aspect of our wedding from the ceremony details to my wonderful wedding showers but today I wanted to share pictures of us. Me and my husband on our wedding day...

Jon and I chose to see each other before our wedding ceremony and I am so glad we did! We chose to see each other beforehand for a couple of reasons. The first is because we wanted to utilize the natural light for pictures (our wedding was at 5:30pm in the wintertime) and also get as many pictures as we could so we could enjoy our cocktail hour with our guests. I did not want Jon's groomsmen to see me before so we waited to take wedding party pictures until after the ceremony. The second and most important reason was this. I wanted the first time that I saw Jon on our wedding day to be a moment shared between us and not our entire wedding. Seeing Jon before walking down the aisle made the butterflies disappear. I was so confident and ready to marry him. I will never forget those precious moments and the look in his eyes when he saw his bride. Our photographer and videographer were the only ones present (although my bridesmaids and parents watched through the windows and I also saw a few hotel guests peeking inside their rooms).

Our photographer positioned us in the beautiful courtyard of our venue and counted to three so we could turn around at the same time...

I love looking at all of the pictures from our wedding but our first look pictures are my favorite. They are so full of love and emotion, you can see the excitement in our faces.

We had decided that we wanted to save our first kiss for the altar and you can see in our wedding video trailer Jon going in for the kill and me shaking my head :-)

He did bargain for a kiss on the cheek

I hated saying goodbye but loved the fact that the next time I saw Jon we would be standing before our friends and family becoming man and wife. 

Next week we will be celebrating 6 months of marriage! Time flies when you're in love.

Our engagement story and anniversary

One year ago today, around 8pm, Jon asked me to be his wife. We spent the next 6.5 months planning the best day of our life without ever forgetting why we were celebrating. The night of our engagement is still such a blur but will remain one of the most special days of my life and here is what went down...

Jon and I were set to celebrate our 1 year anniversary of dating on Sunday July 18th, 2010. Jon bought us tickets to the Michael Buble concert for Valentine's Day for Saturday the 17th and I had a feeling Jon would be popping the question that night but I was oh-so-wrong. The days leading up to our engagement, Jon recreated so many special and memorable events and dates we had shared together. Sunday night we went to the Cas Haley concert in Dallas, Cas was the first CD Jon made me and listening to him just brings back the feeling of butterflies. The rest of the week was spent re-living our first date (dinner at Kerbey Lane and spending hours at Town Lake), visiting our favorite Austin spots/restaurants (Mount Bonnell, the 360 lookout) and just having lots of fun together. Thursday the 15th Jon spent the whole day in Dallas doing a big presentation for work. He arrived home and I expected us to have a "chill" night but he insisted on continuing the "us week". We went to Bull Creek and threw the frisbee (which we had done multiple times early on in our relationship) and climbed up to this cliff over looking the lake where we shared one of our first deep conversations. Since there were already so many proposal perfect times earlier in the week and yet it hadn't happened, I was so calm, relaxed and enjoying the moment.

We went back to the cabin for dinner and proceeded to burn the crap out of our chicken...and I mean BURN THE CRAP. Fire alarms, smoke everywhere...it was epic (and funny!). I hopped in the shower to get the sweat and chicken smoke off of me and peeked out to see Jon on our home computer and thought he must be doing work, buying music, etc. All of the sudden Black Eyed Peas "Tonight's Gonna Be a Good Night" is blasting through the whole house and what do I do? Dance in the shower! Jon and I heard this song for the very first time together and thought it was so fitting of that night.I hopped out of the shower just as Me and Mrs. Jones came on and I thought, what a cutie, he made a playlist! He whisked me in his arms and we are dancing and giggling in the living room. Next up Jon leads me into the bedroom where he has probably 50 candles lit and I am so amazed yet still had no idea he was about to ask me to be his wife! We had decided earlier in the week to write each other love letters for our anniversary and Jon sits me on the bed and says he is too excited and wants to read his now. Me= still calm and clueless. Our favorite songs are on in the background (Lucky by Colbie Calliat, Love Burns Brighter Than Sunshine by Aqualung and God Gave Me You by Dave Barnes) and Jon is reading me this beautiful letter. One minute I am crying tears of joy and happiness and the next I am laughing my ass off as he talks about our tons of inside jokes, it is so perfect! Then, "our" song comes on, You and I by Michael Buble. The letter gets more serious, Jon is saying how he has prayed for happiness and God brought me to him. The next thing I know, Jon is on one knee and asks 

"Will you make me the most blessed man in the world, will you marry me?". 

I am in total shock! Not because it happened because duh I have been waiting my whole life to marry Jon but because I had no idea! We are immediately hugging, kissing, crying, oh and I am totally forgetting to look at the ring because I am too busy asking him if he asked my dad (which he did that Tuesday, he actually asked both of my parents which made me cry even more). I finally caught my breath, looked down at the ring then started to act like a complete maniac. I was dancing around the room, heart rate well over 200 and jumping into my fiance's arms! 

(thank you for the crappy pictures BlackBerry)

Unfortunately we didn't snap any pictures the night of A. because I totally forgot and B. I looked like a wet horse. I was so excited when Jon told me my parents had no idea it was happening tonight so we raced over to their house, walked in and of course I start crying! On the way over we called my sister and a few friends. The night was so perfect, filled with so much joy and so "us". I am pretty sure I slept about 30 minutes the whole night. I was too darn excited to tell the world I was marrying the greatest man in the world! 

Friday mornings at my old job started before 7am with non stop conference calls until 10am and I was itching to make it Facebook official!! I remember being on a call at work, thinking I had the phone on mute and when a coworker walked in, I screamed "I'm engaged!!". Well it turns out, our entire sales team heard, how embarrassing. I was greeted with this fun shirt from my girlfriend Mary (who I also used to work with), I was on top of the world! Not to mention Facebook can make you feel like a total celebrity!

We went out that night with friends to celebrate our engagement and a girlfriend's birthday. My parents threw us an awesome engagement party a couple weeks later fit with family, friends, beer and corn hole. Check out the custom corn hole boards that Mary and Ross gave us...they are hilarious!

How cute is this shirt my big sis (and matron of honor) got me? 

(future Mrs. Hart)

I am so lucky to have found Jon and I love every second of being married to him. I cannot wait to celebrate a million more anniversaries with you Jon!

For more recaps on our wedding, be sure to visit the Wedding page! 

My best friend's wedding

I know I promised to share pics from one of our best friend's wedding back in May and the time has come! My Sony Cybershot couldn't compete with her photographer's professional photos and I just had to wait to share! 

Justin and Leah were both in our wedding in February and we were so honored to be a part of theirs. Jon was a groomsmen and I read a beautiful poem during the ceremony. It was so much fun to go through the wedding planning process with Leah, sharing ideas, making lists and just having someone there who understood the whole wedding planning thing. This was the first wedding we've been to since our own and I must say, I loved being able to drink, relax, dance, etc because there is just so much going on when it is your own! It was so much fun, pictures do NOT do the night justice. Amazing food, open bar and awesome music were just the beginning of a fabulous night. Each of their families were so much fun and you could feel the love in the room. I am sad that it is over! Check out this couple...yeah...insanely gorgeous!

How cool is this groomsmen pic?

 

Would it surprise you if I said I cried during my reading? Between looking at the bride and groom to looking at my own hubby, I was a royal mess and I loved every minute of it. 

The bride with some girlfriends. 

Me and the stunning bride, before the ceremony on the left and at the reception on the right.

Sic em Bears! Justin just finished his MBA at Baylor University which is Jon's alma mater. I swear those boys "sic em" about 25 times every time they are together. Oh and they have the exact same Tungsten wedding band. 

McGarrys and Harts! 

I just HAD to post this picture. Justin and Leah incorporated some Jewish traditions into their wedding and Justin was absolutely loving The Hora...

Jon and I were on the dance floor 99.9% of the night and the only time we missed songs was when we were in the photo booth. Check out our photo booth pics here. 

Jon in the center of the dancefloor...

The bride and groom gettin' it on the dance floor

It was such a fun and unforgettable night. I now have the honor of being matron of honor at my best friend Alyssa's wedding in January. I can't wait! 

P.S. Today I am linking up with Emily at Anderson Crew. Be sure to check out her blog and see who else is embracing the camera

(professional pics taken by Stacy Cross)

Photo booth fun!

If you've read my wedding reception recap, you know how much fun we had with the photo booth at our wedding! I originally fell in love with this idea when my company had one at our annual holiday party and I knew I had to have one when I got married! 

Our best friends, Justin and Leah, got married Memorial Day weekend and we had an absolute blast in the photo booth. There were dozens of props which made things verrrry interesting (check out the creepy mask the girls traded off in the bottom pic). I was so pumped a mustache was in the mix of props because I forgot the fake mustaches in the car (I wanted to surprise the bridegroom with a few pics with the staches!).

I think I was in there about 15 times the entire night so with strips from our wedding and from this one, our fridge is COVERED in photo booth pics! If you are getting married anytime soon....a photo booth is a must. It is pretty much the only way you are going to get pictures of all of your guests. Oh and it is fun. Duh.