Let me catch my breath....

Whew! This has been a CRAZY last few weeks!! Two weeks ago, I was busy taking/studying for finals that I was super stressed about! My family came down Friday, dec 7th to start celebrating my graduation from Valdosta State. We headed to thomasville for a delicious seafood dinner at Jonah's and coffee at grassroots afterwards.
Saturday morning was graduation! We ate lunch afterwards and my family headed back to Atlanta. Just in time for will and I to help prepare for Abby and Wesley's engagement! Wesley is wills younger brother who is a year younger than I am. I have been blessed with an awesome friend and future brother in law in Wesley and a future sister in Abby!

 

 

 

 

Last week was a week of working hard an trying to make some extra money before the holidays.
My mom came down Sunday afternoon and helped me organize my apartment for will to begin moving his things in!! It was a tough process of getting rid of things I really knew I no longer needed.

 

Monday morning, my mom, will, and I headed to honey lake plantation where our wedding will be held (It was also my 23rd birthday!!). We had to take care of finalizing some wedding plans as well as doing our tasting for our menu. That was such a fun experience! I loved every part of that tasting-- such delicious food!

 

 

My mom and I headed back to Atlanta after we were through with all of that and I plan on being home for a few weeks to rest/get a lot done!!!
I am in complete shock with how quickly this Christmas season is here and almost gone. I guess it has been because I have been going non stop! Mom and I tried doing some last minute Christmas shopping at the mall of Georgia today and it was madness!! Can't wait to slow down and enjoy some quiet days with my family!

Xoxo

Our Engagement

Will proposed to me on March 18th, 2012.  It was easily the best day of my life so far, but I have a feeling that our wedding day is going to top it.  That is hard to believe!

I had been in Honduras the whole week before on a mission trip during college spring break.  I had only gotten to speak to Will one time the whole week for about 4 minutes, so I was missing him terribly by the time we arrived back in the U.S. Saturday night (which he also surprised me by picking me up from the airport!!)
Before I had left for my trip, we talked about going out to his family's farm when I got back to fish, relax, and talk about my trip. So when he mentioned Sunday after church that he had a whole day planned for us I thought nothing of it.  Unfortunately, I got a parasite or something in Honduras because I was sick as a dog on Sunday.  I couldn't eat at all.  I told him I didn't want to go on our special day and we were going to have to reschedule it.  Of course, he kept pushing me to come with him so I just sucked it up and went along with it.
We drove out to the farm and I had absolutely NO idea what was about to happen.  We drove to the pond and went out onto the dock.  I bought him a journal to write down stuff from his week so he wouldn't forget to tell me if anything exciting happened.  Since I was used to talking to him everyday I was a little worried on missing out on his life for a week ( Pathetic, I know).  So he starts reading through all of his days, but tells me he is going to come back to Monday.  Once he gets through with the rest of the days, he starts on Monday.  It went something along the line of "Today I woke up very anxious but excited.  I was driving to Atlanta to ask your parents permission to marry you." Of course, I start sobbing (not the pretty kind).

One of my best friends is an amazing photography and hid in bushes to take all these candid pics :)

Then he took me over to a place where we always fish, which was really just so Caroline could get better pictures.  He read Ephesians 5:22-33 and prayed for us.

THEN, he FINALLY got down on one knee after much anticipation and asked me to be his wife!  I don't remember much of what was said but I'm assuming I said YES!!! I was so excited and a whirlwind of emotions occurred! 

One of the sweetest pictures to me.

I love him so VERY much!

After that we went back to the dock and he gave me the sweetest gift.  He knows I love Pinterest, and he came up with this idea after hacking my account. :)

After he informed me that Caroline was taking pictures the whole time. haha

We headed up to the farm house to get away from the heat and mosquitos so that I could call my family and tell them the great news! Well, I walked through the door and this was my reaction…

EXTREME shock is the only way to put those pictures! My whole family had driven all the way from Atlanta to celebrate with us.  Both of our families and some of our friends were there. JOY. Absolute joy.  And boy I am blessed to have a man in my life that would go through all the planning and effort to make this the most perfect day.

My family.

My best friend :) 

My in-laws.

It was a day I will truly never forget.  It was so special and more than I could have ever dreamt of. Tomorrow marks exactly 2 months until our wedding. I can't wait to be Mrs. Welch. :)

New blog!/thanksgiving break

I am super excited about starting this new blog. I have been wanting to start one to keep memories of this new stage in life I am going through.... Graduating from college, about to get married, becoming a wife, etc. I just want a place that I can look back and read about memories of this fun stage in life!

Well, this past week was thanksgiving break. It was such a great time to sit around, eat a lot, and hang out with my family. It was the first time Will and I have been in the same place during thanksgiving so it was fun and special!

Wednesday: we woke up and went out to eat habachi at my favorite Japanese steakhouse in snellville with my childhood best friend. We spent a lot of the day napping and waiting for my sister and brother in law to get off work to come hang out. We spent a majority of the night baking and trying some new recipes. It was fun girl time! :)
Thursday: thanksgiving!! We spent the afternoon bowling with friends and then had them over to our house for dinner.  We spent the night watching football and playing games. We spend holidays with some close family friends since we don't have any family nearby. It was a great day where we got to take time to reflect on everything were thankful for. We really need to do that more often. I am so blessed beyond belief.

One of my biggest blessings... :)

Friday: we spent the afternoon walking around downtown Clemson.

We ate at a little joint called loose change...no what we were expecting but they served will this HUGE burger!

We spent the rest of that evening at the lake house playing games and eating lots of thanksgiving leftovers!!
Saturday: we woke up and went into the small town by the lake and had lunch. Then we went home just in time to see the Georgia/GT game. I'm glad my dawgs won but I would have loved to see a more interesting game.

My view from bed at the lake... Not too bad!

Now will and I are in the car on the way back down south. We chose to leave later tonight to avoid all of the holiday traffic tomorrow! Hope everyone had a great thanksgiving holiday with loved ones!