African Love

I  just L-O-L-ed for like 5 minutes. These were all found on my sister's pinterest "like" board! She's cooler than I thought!!

Today

2 minutes ago I looked down and my ring was covered in peanut butter. I don't understand because I only scooped one little scoop out with a knife earlier this evening. I loved the feeling I got after cleaning it up with dish soap, a tooth pick and water. It was a feeling of, "I just did that!" and it makes me put more faith in myself and doing hard things. Like cleaning a ring. haha (but you get what I mean).

Tonight it RAINED! It was such a blessing for our little plants. One of my absolute favorite things about Kansas is the rain/storms/lightning. I love it and I hope heaven has some too.

yayy photos!

future happenings.

Here's what the plan is for the near future: I'm a very visual person, I wish I had a calendar and everything mapped out for you! But you get the idea.

12june12>> THE BUYS COME!!! :)
And stay until the wedding on Saturday.

16june12>> OUR SEALING!! 11am 

in the Kansas City Temple. <3 

ahhh so excited!

>>The reception in Kansas!

17june12-22june12>>
Honeymoon to SAN DIEGO!!

22june12>> Stay in Kansas 

until july 7th and spend time with family.

07july12>> Head off to Oklahoma with
Claire and Kent (on our way tot utah) to visit
Kent's mission families!

12july12ish>> Arrive in Utah

get ready for Reception!

14july12>> Utah Reception!
Claire will be there and then the next
week she has efy in Provo.

She will leave sometime around the 26th of July. boo :(

While all the while Kent and I are staying in the basement of his parent's 

house in Eagle Mountain, UT until our apartment is ready (in Rexburg, ID)

sometime in the beginning of August.

Also! In August I have a Wedding to shoot!! I'm SO excited! The Bride

was my 12th grade Student Teacher from English class. :)
And another in September!!
I love weddings! :)

Then we start school back up in September.
At least I do - we have to try to get on the
same track once we've sealed the deal.

http://www.ldschurchtemples.com/kansascity/

exciting!!!

Memorial Day.

I had never realized it but families are built on traditions that continue and build a family stronger. As I sat in a lawn chair listening to my dad play in the Manhattan Municipal City Band on Memorial Day I realized that we do this every summer. Every Memorial Day we listen to my dad play (I was able to be in the same band with dad last summer - way cool! - but not this time because someone has to get married...) then go out to eat at Sirloin Stockade Buffet and then take my grandma to go see her husband's grave in Ft. Riley. It's a wonderful day we have to spend with family and remember the lives of those who have served for our country. I hope I can continue traditions like this for our new little family. :)

Every stinkin year for some unknown reason, claire and I usually look like we just woke up (no makeup, messy hair, etc.), throw on our 8th grade "flag" shirt and call it good. Knowing beforehand that we take about 50 pictures this day, we decided to get up EARLY and get READY.

I say we did a pretty good job.

Me and grandpa 

Grandma and a random picture of Kiva

{ps she got sprayed by a skunk saturday night and had to sleep in the garage :( poor baby}

We did not end up visiting my grandpa's grave this time because of the heat, but we did go out to eat at Sirloin. Good Family Memories :)

How did you spend your memorial day?

Earrings?

I like them and wore them for bridals, but I got some smaller, better ones for the real deal.

I spy Kent?

:)

PS I FIGURED OUT HOW TO REMOVE THAT BORDER AROUND ALL THE IMAGES! yayyyy I love tutorials online!

Also i'm trying to come up with dividers between posts:

Which one should I use?

going crazy!

This past Valentine's day we had a little celebration: here. Being the sneaky lady that I am, I managed to video tape our exchange of cute love notes and little gifts. We also happened to give each other a few kisses in the middle of the gift exchange :)

I pulled that puppy up while we were skyping this afternoon and it made us both go so crazy! ahhh I can't wait to kiss 'im! 2 weeks 6 days!

Claire and I went on a little photoshoot last night in the Kstate parking garage. Then we went to target and each bought a new bra. I love having a sister.

 

3:28 a.m.

I can't sleep. My lower back aches, my bed is way too hard and my room is 95 degrees.

While laying there in annoyance and thinking, I remembered a Mormon message that has way more meaning to me than it did here.

Now I have a totally different perspective on it. I NEED to show more love to my Kent. We are together on this forever and to make life full and enjoyable, expressions of love are necessary. 

I've been caught up in life and wedding stuff that I haven't been able to really focus when we skype or when he calls. I can barely send a text message back to him on time. It takes me forever because I'm too lazy to send one back. Well! Not anymore! I'm going to try a little harder to be a little better and we will see where it takes me.

I was reading a blog a while back about suggestions to some newlyweds and here were the comments I really liked:

"All I can say is...get over the dumb things, keep the gospel the focus of your marriage, and laugh lots. :)Just take in 1 moment and remember it perfectly. It will be well worth it. Be honest with each other from the beginning, Don't ever leave when you are mad at each other ALWAYS talk things out (try not to raise your voices), Make sure you are on the same page as far as your future goes, always always pay your tithing. There have been times when it was buy groceries or pay tithing then the day after we paid our tithing a check or bonus or something would come and we would have enough for all of our needs. Take LOTS of pictures, Have a date night once a week & it doesn't have to be going out to eat or a movie every time. We like picnics up the canyon, temple & ice cream, etc. The little stuff is what means the most. Pray together, every morning or night, its the best. Also NEVER forget to have fun"

Fun is just what we'll do.

Noticed

Never before have I noticed a ring. I've never had the desire to look at them on people, or look them up. Now that I have a ring of my own, that's all I look at. I love the way a ring looks on someone and "fits" their personality.

Same with cars. Never really noticed them until now. My dream car is a Honda Fit. Don't really know why, but that's what I'm drooling over as of now.

As of today, a lot of my crafts are finished for the reception. Still a ways to go, but I have finished my flags, garter, bird cage. some flowers for mother's to wear and the sign for the front of the parking lot. I'm excited for it to all come together and be over! :)

Other news...
Last week I sent an invite to Stephanie Nielson. My sister convinced me it would be cool, and so I wrote a letter along with the invitation saying how excited I am to be a mother and thanked her for her wonderful book and told her that her family is beautiful. Then I read her blog yesterday and she was listing things that she was grateful for and started thanking her siblings for all they do, and then I saw this:

Maybe it wasn't me, but it was such a cool feeling.

I am excited to go play tennis with Claire tonight at City Park!

'how-to' by parker

I love my brother and how creative and different he is. When he gets started on a project, he gets it done and it's usually for someone else. This contraption is for our Granny who wanted a Marshmallow Machine when she was little. What a marshmallow machine is, we don't really know. But here is parker's version.

a 'how-to' by anna.

Babies are so stinkin' cute. I just love babysitting - and I've been doing it a lot lately. This afternoon I decided to be active while the kids played wii. While lifting weights the older one asked, "Can you do a cartwheel?" So after about 25 of them, I ran upstairs to get my camera and shot some of myself doing them and then I saw what the little one did :) SO STINKIN CUTE! Sorry for the terrible quality - you will have to view it big to read it.

For some reason my right handed body will REFUSE to do a right handed cartwheel. I live with only knowing how to perform a left handed cartwheel.

These two pictures took forever and a day to upload I wish I had patience to upload more.

This week has been babysitting jam packed. The secret to having fun is to bring your own toys and games. The kids will love them because they are new and different and you will love them because they are cooler than reading the same book over and over again.

On Friday this little man and I COVERED his driveway with beautiful art!

haha actually I did most the covering - he only drew those faint scribbles.

Outlines are always great.

Have a great week!!

just in

I just...
>finished our wedding slideshow (pretty darn cute if you ask me) I wish I could upload it on here, but it's oober big and I guess you will just have to come to our reception and see it :)
>got paid for babysitting
>bought a skirt from gap
>bought a NEON sports bra - everyone needs at least one
>ate some chips and salsa with my mom and sister while watching "the middle"
>talked to K on the phone while he was half asleep
>smooshed a bug
>finished like 20 chapters of "heaven is here" and only cried twice (allllmost done reading it, but will start again soon)
>planted our garden with my family
>pinned 2 things
>looked at my ring - I do that all the time actually
>drew this picture:

4 weeks!! But who's counting?!
go see.

sister

Sorry for the low quality picture, but look at that to do list!!! Written and accomplished most of it in the same day! Feelin' good. I even painted my nails COMPLETELY!! 

Tonight I had a lovely conversation with my friend Julia DeBey after taking pictures of her cute pup, Kodak. She is getting married exactly one week after us! It was so fun talking for literally 2 hours after the shoot just about the wedding/our lives after! It's fun growing up. Kodak sat in the car the whole time. 

We didn't even plan to close our eyes at the same time, but we did. 

This fabulous girl has a million things going on this week and I'm so impressed she gets it all done. Wooo go Claire! Also, I follow her like a puppy when she gets home (on normal days) and the first thing she does (besides eat and go to the bathroom) is read my blog. While I stand there. It's funny and then I explain the posts in detail to her and then we talk and complain about stuff. I love my sister. 

Tomorrow night I go to her choir concert! Every time I visit my high school I am reminded how much I love not being there.

Oh, I almost forgot...

Only ONE MONTH until we become

SO EXCITED!!!!!!

together.

Dreams are such an incredible thing. Our mind has the capacity to create a story while our bodies are at rest. Last night was one of the coolest dreams I've ever experienced!

///Kent and I were in a dance competition (I'm guessing in Rexburg where we go to school) in a ballroom and had our fellow members of our team. I was on the sidelines video taping for 2 girls that were dancing at the moment. I didn't do so well at it because Kent leaned over and gave me a kiss, and I got distracted. :)

Flashforward to a different scene. Kent and I are on a couch looking out of our open window at the town from our new apartment. The air was cold and different as we watched buildings start to fall. There was an earthquake happening and I remember thinking about my natural disasters class and how we had learned to get out of a building if there is an earthquake. As Kent was leaving out the door, I stop to think of what I needed to grab. All I remember from the pile of things was an unfinished letter, scriptures, and I was in the process of finding my backpack to take my computer because it had all the pictures on it. At that moment the wall of our apartment came down and crushed me.

I woke up (still in my dream) to my friend Cortney sitting on the other side of the room in her bed. I was confused because she looked different and something huge had just happened but I couldn't remember what it was. I asked, "Was there an earthquake?" She replied, "No, silly!" I got to my feet and tried to figure out what was going on. Outside the building I was in was a big town meeting and everyone was in line to fill out a paper guessing what year it was. No one knew what year it was or what was going on. I grabbed my piece of paper and it came to me so I wrote in all caps, "THERE WAS AN EARTHQUAKE AND IT IS 2012". I told the man, and he did not believe me. I was still in Rexburg and the town was exactly how it had been destroyed.

I proved him wrong by walking by myself over to our apartment where everything was exactly how it was destroyed. Even the people were there. I saw myself lying on the ground under the wall that had collapsed. It hit me that I didn't know where Kent was (now) as I saw him (there) lying on top of me trying to protect me from the wall.

I walked back with the evidence and so scared and alone because I didn't know where Kent was.///

There are so many lessons I learned after waking up and thinking about what I had just dreamed about. I realized the importance of love and a relationship and how sacrifice for the other is necessary. I realized how material "things" are fleeting and short-lived because you cannot take them when you leave this life. I realized that I cannot live without Kent and that I miss him too much.

Kind of a weird dream, but I never want to take this guy for granted.

Please watch this uplifting video now:

blackmail.

I just couldn't resist // love the couch

I made a promise to myself that tomorrow I am going to get up, shower and make myself look good because for the past week there has been a lack of that. Yay for a new start to a new day!

Today I went over to an awesome friend of mine who let me use her scanner. I literally scanned this baby (kent) up! He's adorbz and I love him. I have like 50 pictures of kent from childhood. It's going to be hard to resist posting them all over the internet. Yay for baby slideshows at wedding receptions!

Tonight I babysat some cute kids and then talked to the mom for like an hour and a half just talking about life and wedding and stuff. Yay for growing up and having grown up conversations!

Yay for LIFE!

(GOOD NEWS - THE RING IS PAID OFF - YAYYYYYYY!)

new groove.

Okay. Go to 5:20 and listen to what Kronk suggests that they have with the dessert. 

AND coffee?

or ED coffee?

Seriously ever since I've seen the movie (12 years ago) I thought he said ED coffee. 

Claire told me it was AND. 

No it's not.

I CAN'T HANDLE IT!!!

complete?

I can't ever seem to complete the set. I get distracted or loose focus and start a new project.

hmmm.

lately.

My mom just introduced me to list plan it. Which is awesome/not because I LOVE lists and I think I'll be spending 3 straight days just printing off lists. She became a member a year ago next month and so I have one month to print off as may things as I can before her membership expires! Here are some examples of what I will be printing:

• Budgeting
• Cleaning/Organization
• Time Management
• Goals
• Etc. 

Also, this past weekend has been the CULTURAL CELEBRATION for the KANSAS CITY TEMPLE! :) That means the prophet comes and watches the youth perform dances from their culture.

We saw him wave goodbye in his car:

 We also went to the Temple Dedication. It was a wonderful experience!

Lately I've been:

• Reading her new book
• Being grossed out with the amount of flies in our house
• Listening to the birds sing - there are SO many birds here!
• Staying up until 2 and sleeping in until 12 (I'm such a night owl. It's BAD.)
• Watching Arturo
• Not putting make-up on
• Trying to throw/give stuff away and start a new life as a married lady with no junk yo
• Procrastinating some things to plan for the reception...
• Painting my toes Red Velvet Red
• Talking to my sister at night until my mom has to come in and tell me to leave so that she can get to bed. I wish she didn't have school :(

phone notes.

On my awesome phone I have a "notebook" where I can type information and save it like I would on a notepad or post it note or something.

These past semesters I have been keeping notes and I want to post them because they are kinda funny and I want to get rid of them off my phone.

Tuesday Oct 4. 8:31 pm
"Today I looked in the mirror and thought to myself, wow I look like a true college student. What would classify this would be my sweatshirt, poofy ponytail, jeans, cute shoes, and dangley earrings. As a young girl I remember seeing these "college girls" and looking up to them. Can I be looked up to now?"
Basically I wrote that novel in the bathroom after looking in the mirror. Kent was waiting outside for me and I came out and told him I just blogged in the bathroom. haha

Wednesday Oct 19 10:08 am
"It's easy to do the I love you sign now. I'm doing it to you over the phone." -Kentelope told me that over a phone call right after he had a bandage put on his 2 middle broken fingers.

Tuesday Dec 6 1:00 pm
"The only way to get through all of this is to go forward and be happy. I am struggling so much to balance my life and how it needs to work together. I hope to be a good mom someday."

I also have little notes on there of things to remember (hair cut info), and a baby name list :)

I also love listening to this song:

Can't wait to be married to a man who is so optimistic.

-also-

I blogged (about nothing, really) on our wedding day last year. I thought it was a fun quinkiedink.

soon.

OUR PHOTOS CAME IN!!!!!!!!!!!

We have the coolest photog: http://jtaylorphotography.com/

Things are coming together and it's looking pretty cool in my head!

:)

He is awesome.

I stumbled upon pictures of their wedding a couple months ago, and this morning I found their video. Such a beautiful story and it has inspired me!

I am also reading her new book.


**highly recommend it**

I just want to be a better mom now, and I'm not even a mom yet!
Marriage is going to be the best if we work together and always love each other in simple ways.

Also, on her blog today I saw this.
Which led me to this:



I am amazed at how wonderful life can be with the right perspective and a true love for and desire to live the gospel.

updated.

change.

Did you know you can change the names of your contacts on skype? I changed 'Kent Buys' to 'Kentypoo'

One Month and 6 days until I see my sweetheart!

Spending this last time with my family as a single lady has been good.

I also changed my phone contact 'Kent Buys' to 'Kent my Future Husband' and he changed mine to 'Anna mi espousa futura:)' or something like that.

The Kansas City temple has been dedicated! The wonderful ceremony was today and it was such an amazing experience. I am so excited to make covenants there!! Oh, and President Monson is just darling.

I am slowly being okay with our reception location. Claire and I are going to try to make it AWESOME!!

I FOUND CHEAP LEMONADE THINGS!!

K and I call each other "goober" and "dingle fritz"

Kent put drywall up in his basement so that we will have a place to live until our apartmento is available. yayy

We sang diarrhea sayings back and forth tonight (gross).

I just discovered etsy. uh-oh...

I LOVE YOU ALL!

giggling about diarrhea sayings

stress has hit.

This is exciting and all, but I just want it to be over with. I'm starting to not care how it will look or where it will be located. A reception is just a reception. My decision is SO hard to make because this is what I've always dreamed about - a temple wedding and a beautiful reception in something other than a church building. The new Wamego building fell through and after searching and searching around town for another *cheaper* option, everything is already booked for the 16th at night. I feel like there is no hope to make the Marlatt building look good. Or the institute. This shouldn't really matter, but it does to me. I see all the beautiful pictures of a gorgeous reception and I want some pictures just like it. I've thought and cried long and hard about it, but in 20 years and when we are old, it's not going to matter at all. Heck, we might forget where we had it. Through this struggle I have learned that I am going to be with the one I love forever, and that's all I really ever need. It's weird how personal things are when you realize that they are situations just for you that Heavenly Father helps you through because he knows us personally. This has been quite the post (I don't ever talk to you guys this much), but it is helping me let go to having my reception in a fancy ballroom with natural light. Which means I'll need some ideas for a church gym.

a couple creations

stalker.

 

Kent likes to take pictures of me while we skype, and then he sends some to me.

1. Looking at something online and not paying attention to Kent

2. Writing something down

3. Looking through pictures that he has sent me

4. Praying over our lunch together - proof he opened his eyes

5. Showing him my guns for .02 seconds - I have no idea how he got that picture

6. Laughing at how many pictures he has taken

So many fun times ahead.