Recently....

We have just been keeping busy. Working and visiting with family and friends on the weekends. A couple of weekends ago we had the privilege of meeting Elder Ballard, an Apostle. It was pretty cool! He came to Columbus to speak at Fort Benning and then he was to have lunch at Bryan's parents' house since his dad is the stake president in Columbus. Bryan and I decided it was the perfect opportunity to visit :) It was wonderful to meet him and he is pretty funny.

That same weekend we also celebrated with Jenna (my little sister) as she turned a big seven years old. We got her this cute little outfit...well I hope she thought it was cute! She is growing up so fast (man, I sound like an old woman). She is soo cute and such a talker. Love her so much!

This past weekend we went to visit our friends in Athens. We went to an activity at the branch and were able to visit with a ton of our friends. We definitely miss Athens...especially me. I changed and grew so much during college and those wonderful people in Athens helped me to become a better person. Bryan and I had and still have so much fun with them.

We also just got our new callings in our new ward. I am a Young Women Laurel Advisor and Bryan is the Secretary in the High Priest group. I am excited to work with the 16 and 17 year old girls! I really wanted to work in Young Women, so this will be fun! I have a lot to learn to though since I did not go through the Young Women program myself. It will be a wonderful calling for me. Plus Mom Stewart and Aunt Billie (Mama Stewart) are Young Women Presidents...I will have to steal some ideas from them :) Bryan is excited for his calling too. He will be keeping up with all that wonderful home teaching.

Pre-K starts soon! Next week I get to set up the room and they come after Labor Day! Can't wait! Bryan has been studying for the GMAT too, so I see him less (no more LOST every night) but I am excited for him to do well on the test! He is working very hard and I know he will do well! Hopefully GA Tech of BYU will be our new school soon.

Life is good! Can't complain because we are super blessed!!!

Moving...

Packed to the brim! Good job boys!

We were excited to move but the moving process is pretty exhausting! We moved on Saturday July 30 with the help of our wonderful family! Bryan and I had packed the Uhaul with most of the boxes and "stuff." On Saturday when Dad, Dad, and Dale arrived they did the heavy lifting. We loaded it all up (or what we thought to be all) and headed to our new place. It was pretty hot as you can tell by Bryan's shirt. He worked super hard that day!

I know we are just gorgeous in our sweat and no makeup...

This is our old place, pictures of the new place to come soon! We loved this apartment but we are much closer to work now and we have a little more space. We will miss the community and our neighbor Carl. Unloading was not too bad. Wish the girls could have stayed a little longer to help me decorate but that's ok. We were all exhausted, but it was so worth it! We really like the new place :)

SKYDIVING!!

Before we made the jump...

(Bryan signing his life away)

Soo on July 23 we decided it was time to use our Groupon Skydiving coupons. We purchased skydiving passes at half price on Groupon this past February. Our friend Jenny also purchased one, so finally found a great weekend for us to go make the jump. It was something we both wanted to do so after buying the passes we had to do it! Our friend Steph heard we were going and decided to come too.

We did not tell a single member of our family except for Amanda who could keep our secret quiet. We knew they would all worry.

So on Saturday all four of us drove to Cedartown, GA to make the jump! Steph got the video and picture package which we wish we should have done but we have a few before and after pics.

We made it safely back :)

It was AMAZING!! Bryan and I said we would definitely do it again and get the video packaage next time!

4th of July

Ok so I am pretty terrible at updating my blog but here we go :)

4th of July was tons of fun! We went down to Columbus on Friday after work to visit with Mom and Dad Stewart as well as Dale, Amanda, David, and Jacob. We set off "fireworks" on Friday night! On Saturday we went out on the boat and got really sunburned but it was fun to be out on the lake. Dale and Bryan went knee boarding which they enjoyed and David loved riding in the boat. Of course I forget to take pictures at almost every occasion so sorry no pics.

Saturday night we went out to Aunt Gail's retirement party. It was at a very nice restaurant in Columbus and there were so many family members there. It was so wonderful to see and visit with everyone. We wish Aunt Gail the best in her retirement from a wonderful teaching career :)

Dale, Amanda and the kids left that night. We missed them the next couple of days. On Sunday we went to church and were able to spend time with Mom and Dad and Grandaddy.

On Monday we went on a run on the river walk! My favorite place to run in Columbus! Then we packed up to go to the Braves Game! And I have pics of this event :) It was fun! We had great seats especially since it started raining. We were underneath the terrace level. The braves won and we had awesome fireworks too! It was a great night!

Married Life

Soo we have not blogged in a while but we are doing very well! Married life is wonderful! Now that I am working different hours, we run in the morning together and carpool to work most days since we work about 5 min from each other. We come home and cook dinner together which is nice. Life is good. He makes me a better person and I love him tons! We should have a fun 4th of July weekend so more pictures then!

Puzzle...Completed

So we started this puzzle about 3 months ago before we were married. We worked hard on it for a couple of weekends but then it became this thing on our dining room table. We did not want to touch it because all that was left were the hard pieces. Finally after we got back from our honeymoon we decided it was time to finish. Bryan worked extremely hard on finishing it and I came in to help here and there. We finally finished one week ago. It was quite an accomplishment!
Bryan putting in the last piece!!! He loved it!
It is complete!! Now our dining room table is suitable to eat on once again :) It was fun! Oh and Bryan has been to the place on the puzzle!

HONEYMOON!!!

So began our honeymoon with a seven hour drive to Port Canaveral where our ship was set to leave. We left Columbus late in the afternoon so it made for a late night, not to mention when we got there it was the night before the space shuttle lift off so there where absolutely no hotel rooms to be found. We ended up staying in a cheap cheap motel for a not so cheap price...Bryan was not pleased :) And I am sorry to say we did not take a picture of "Budget Inn." We are pretty bad at remembering to take pictures but we did a much better job on the rest of the honeymoon.

So after our stay in the cheap motel we headed to the ship the next morning. We got there kind of early and thought we would be able to get on the ship, but they were finishing some repairs on the ship and we waited for several hours inside the building before we boarded. At least they had cookies for us :) Sunday and Monday were also the days my stomach took a turn for the worse and would continue throughout the honeymoon. More details to come.

We finally made it on board!! YAY! Here is our super small but lovely stateroom. We had a wonderful stateroom attendant named Ivan! He was awesome, but I am sorry to say we did not get a picture with him. I was kind of disappointed. So we went straight to our late lunch buffet!! Oh man you can get food whenever you want on the ship. The pizza shop is open until 5am! My stomach cramps did not subside though. I did try to enjoy the food though, because I love food!

We went to dinner at the fancy restaurant the first night and was lovely! Bryan got the lamb and I had garlic shrimp. It was delicious! I totally out-ordered Bryan that night. Such good food! They even gave us an extra piece of mint pie for being on our honeymoon!
After dinner we went to the show which was very fun! We saw a comedian and he was pretty funny and not too crude :)
The next day was Coco Cay!! We loved it here. This is Royal Caribbean's own private island so we were there with just the people from the ship and some locals to run the shops. I loved just laying on the beach and soaking up the sun! Bryan went snorkeling which he loved!! The water was so clear and he saw so many types of fish. I tried to go snorkeling but my water kept getting in my mask, so I just laid on the beach.
It was a beautiful place though. We took a nap in the hammocks there too! In the afternoon I was not feeling well, so we headed back to the ship.

So that afternoon I was feeling pretty terrible so we tried to find some Pepto Bismol in the general store but they did not have any. We decided to go to the medical station on the ship. HUGE MISTAKE!!! The doctor ended up seeing me and confined me to my stateroom for 24 hours!!! Can you believe it?! I was sooo upset! I was livid at first and then I just started to cry. We would miss the captain's dinner, and a lot of our day in Nassau!! The doctor gave me some immodium and deactivated my stateroom card for 24 hours!!! So Tuesday night we were in our room missing our fancy dinner, but at least we were together. Bryan went out a few times because being in that little room so long can drive you crazy :)
We were allowed to leave the ship at 1pm on Wednesday, so we headed out to Nassau. We went looking at the town shops and walked around town a little. We should have taken a tour of the island to see Atlantis and such but I was still not feeling the best and we had not planned much to do on the island beforehand. We were kind of boring that day, but at least we were together. We still had fun!
Here are the police in Nassau. I liked their uniforms so I asked for a picture with them.


After dinner that night we came back to find a towel animal!!!! I was sooo excited! I had told Bryan that is one thing I was looking forward to having!!! It was AWESOME! After dinner we went to another comedic show which was good! The guy was really funny! We also went to see a newlywed game show played with couples from the ship. They had a honeymoon couple, a couple married for a few years, and a couple married for many years. We thought the older couple was so cute together!
On Thursday we had a whole day at Sea. We soaked up the sun and swam in the pool! They had a belly flop contest too which was fun to watch! That was our last night at dinner with the wonderful people we met. We met a couple from Panama City and two ladies from Georgia. They were all so sweet and fun! Gregory was our waiter and he is from Jamaica! He was a lot of fun too! We went to the final show that night as well and it was dancing and singing. It was good! My stomach was still feeling pretty bad that night as you can see below :) I probably should not have eaten all the rich food we had but it was just so good!

On Friday morning we had our buffet breakfast and then waited to get off the ship. After that we headed home where my stomach proceeded to get worse and then better a few days later. Our trip was tons of fun though!!! It was so nice to relax with each other after all the wedding build up :) I love my husband! He took great care of me on the ship and we still had tons of fun!

Backstory

So maybe you might like to know a little behind how Bryan and I fell in love. We actually met on a blind date about a year ago, May 1, 2010. He is the cousin of my best friend, so her parents (his aunt and uncle) set us up. I was living in Athens going to school at UGA and he was working in Columbus, Georgia. A three hour drive...yeah right like that will work out. We made it work though. We switched off going to see each other on the weekends and it was nice it was summer for me so I had some free time from school. In August he got a job and an apartment in Atlanta and I was finishing school in Athens. I student taught August until November and graduated in December. We kept spending our weekends together. It was nice we both had family in Lawrenceville, GA so we could crash at their houses so it would not be such a long drive back and forth from Athens to Atlanta.

Bryan proposed on October 16, 2010 while we were in Athens one weekend. I had just finished taking my test to be certified to teach, so we were "celebrating!" We had a candlelit dinner from On the Border (our first date) on the back porch of my apartment (where he first told me he loved me). He had made me a book of the "Top Ten Reasons he loves me." Number One was Our Future. He was on one knee and proposed!! It was the best and of course I said yes.

We waited to get married until May because the Atlanta Temple was reopening then after two years of renovations. We also were able to have his little brother Greg there since he just got home from his mission at the end of April. Also, since I am the only Latter Day Saint member in my family they would not be able to attend the ceremony inside the temple but before the new temple was dedicated there was an Open House. The temple was open to the public for walking tours, so my family was able to see the room I was to be sealed or married in. It was nice for them to see it.

So after year of meeting each other, traveling from Columbus to Athens, and falling deeper in love we were married. So many people have told me I am a lucky girl and I do believe it. He brightens my day and takes such good care of me. I so excited to spend eternity with him. He is the perfect person for me!!

May 13, 2011

The BEST DAY!!! We were married on May 13, 2011 in the Atlanta, Georgia Latter Day Saint Temple. There was a lot of planning and organizing as there are for most weddings but the day/weekend went so smoothly. It was truly perfect! I could not have asked for a better day. I owe so much to the people who made it go so smoothly! There were so many helping hands around. We are blessed to have such wonderful friends and family who made our day so special. Thank you!

So that Friday we were married at 3pm. I had a hair appt. at 11am and I took my two good friends with me. So I thought I liked my hair ok but looking back at some pictures... maybe not so much but oh well. What can you do about it now. I got the temple a little early so we could take some bridal shots and bridesmaid shots too. Bryan's wonderful sister Diana took all our pictures!! She did an amazing job! She worked so hard for us! Then 3pm came and I married the love of my life. Words cannot express how much he means to me and how happy I am to be with him for time and eternity.

After the ceremony we took pictures outside the temple and headed to the reception held in Lilburn, GA. We had a ring ceremony and lots of food and dancing! It was such a fun night!! Everyone decorated our car before we left too! We are so grateful for the love and support shown to us by our friends and family who attended the reception!! We had so much fun!

On Saturday, Bryan and I attended the wedding of my roommate in college that morning. We had a wonderful time seeing them. They were so happy!! Then we headed to Columbus, GA for a second reception thrown by Bryan's family. The reception was held at Bryan's gradma's house which is located on Lake Oliver. It is beautiful!! We had our very own bluegrass band, BBQ chicken and ribs to eat, and we even left the reception on a boat!! It was so fun!!!

On Sunday we went to church in Columbus and after feasting on leftover BBQ we headed down to Port Canaveral for our Bahama Cruise!!! More to come....