Newlywed Happenings

So Rusty and I have probably had 2 of the busiest months in all the time we've been together... We've been married about 2 and a half months and we don't seem to have slowed down since the wedding. We've had an especially busy holiday season (Thanksgiving included!). We spent Thanksgiving at his Grandmother's house in Cuero, Tx.  Since probably none of you know where that is I'll just make it easy and say it's Southeast of Austin about 2 hours. It's the turkey capitol of Texas apparently as well. We stayed the night before to spend some time with his Grandma and then everyone else came down the next day.  It was fun to see everyone again and spend some time with them . After dinner we went out and shot handguns. I'm not the biggest fan of guns, but it's still kind of fun to shoot them at mounds of dirt.

Do I look tough or what? It was a FREAK weather day too... It was 80 degrees when we left and Rusty and I drove into the storm and watched the temperature drop on the dash from 80 to around 45 in a matter of an hour or so... it was way weird! 

The very next weekend Rusty and I took off to Arizona to spend time with some of my family out there. We found some AMAZING tickets that we couldn't pass up and Tami and Lee were awesome and let us stay with them the whole weekend. Rusty loved meeting some of my cousins and hanging out with them all. Tami and Lee kept us busy and Ginger and her family came to play every day too. 

Tami Rusty and I

Ginger and her girls

A bunch of us at Glendale Glitters

The girls doing "Pretty Face"

Melania with her bear from Grams

Eliza with her bear from Grams

Eliza and I at Tami and Lee's ward Christmas party.

Tami with her new hat!

The girls with their hats. Eliza's trademark is to wear it back...

Ginger and I

Brit and I. 

Everyone hanging out for a family dinner

Josh. He was so excited about something!

After about a week or so of just being here in town and hanging out we saw an article in a newspaper about all these houses here in town that had tons of Christmas lights. So we set out one night and drove to see them.  We followed the list mostly, but found there were a ton of other houses around that had better ones. 

This was a fun one that had the whole yard going towards this little gingerbread house.

A Hawaiian Christmas! I liked it!

This was my favorite. This whole cul-de-sac gets together and connect houses with lights and had the story of the Night Before Christmas and TONS of lights!

Rusty loved the deformed deer... He had to have a picture of it!

This is the way the houses were all connected. It was so cool.

The weekend before Christmas Rusty's family had a family reunion in San Antonio at the Marriott on the Riverwalk. Gemma and Amy were singing with their choir the first night so we went down to see them. Gemma was hanging out with her friends so we didn't see much of her, but the other kids were happy to see us...

Amy, Austin, and I

Amy, Nick, Austin and I

Nick took TONS of pictures so here's one of the barges we saw while we were waiting for the girls to come on stage.

It was FREEZING so we sat for a while and tried to stay warm.

A bunch of us sitting and waiting for the show.

Nick and his Christmas hat.

Austin and I hanging out.

Shane, the boys and Santa and Mrs. Claus

The boys with Santa and Mrs. Claus

The girls singing.

This is on the way to dinner with all of Rusty's family. It's Amber, Rusty, and his sister Cherie.

Rusty, Amber and I

Amber is excited to be on the bus and in Texas

Just an FYI. Getting a picture with the Christmas lights is a lot more work than it should be. This is one of the better ones.

Rusty and I with his parents on the Riverwalk.

Rusty and I getting ready to leave the hotel room. We were on the 30th floor so it was VERY high up... 

That night the girls sang in another concert that we stayed down for. It was a long weekend, but still very fun.

For Christmas we spent some more time at his Grandma's and then spent Christmas Eve and Day with my family. It was fun to spend some time with everyone and we are both looking forward to a little less busy time. I start school in January and will finish with an associates of business this coming summer and then we will see where life takes us. We are looking forward to the new year and hope everyone has had a great year.  We will see what 2011 has in store for us and maybe do some more traveling... just not so soon! :)

Married Life

So I'm married... It's great. We were married on October 15th in the San Antonio temple. It was amazing! We were married by President Woods, the temple president, and had tons of family and friends there with us. Our sealing was supposed to start at 5, but for some reason it started a little later I think. Because it was earlier we spent I think more time than usual in the Celestial Room together just the two of us (well and the temple worker, but she was so quiet we didn't even notice her!). We spent most of it just talking about out future and how crazy it was that it was finally here! We loved it. I will cherish that time with him forever. When we were sealed it was nice seeing everyone there to support us.

In lieu of telling you every little detail I'll post some pictures and explain what they are along the way... :)


Here's a picture of the two of us outside the temple... kissing. Typical huh?



This is my bouquet. I found this idea on a website that sent me a daily idea email. Some of these brooches came from ebay or other stores around town, but others were from my mom, grandma, great-grandma, and great aunt. The one right up front that is in a diamond shape is my mom's favorite. I loved having this and bringing in things from family members. Thanks to my Jonathan, Jeanette, Tami, and Karris for helping put together and finish his. It was fun, but by the end of it, I was tired of making it, and was glad for the help.

 

Walking out of the temple for the first time! 

Here is everyone who was at the temple with us. Isn't it fun???

Rusty and I with my sisters. We couldn't get a serious picture of all of us. 

Dad, Mom, Me, and Rusty

Rusty and I with his parents.

Uncle Lee, Aunt Tami, Me, Rusty, Aunt Teresa, and Uncle Alan. They came all the way from Arizona to share our day with us! We were SOOOO excited to have them there!

Sisters! Tami and Mom. I love this picture!

Karren Guymon, Mom, Me and Rusty. My middle name Karen is from this wonderful woman!

All my siblings and Rusty and I. It was great having everyone there! 

The bouquet again... I really love it...

Us... :)

I didn't think about a boutonniere for Rusty until about 2 weeks before and again on the same website found the idea to have him wear a brooch. So I found this on ebay and he was a sport and wore it! It's very nice though! 

Our rings. I don't have a band since the ring has designs and diamonds on all sides, and he picked his out. It is a really pretty/handsome ring. I love how they look together!

Rusty and I with my brothers. Aren't they all handsome men???

So we broke the wedding up into 2 days. We were married on Friday and had the reception on Saturday. Can I just tell you that I would suggest this to ANYONE who is getting married. It was nice to have time to breath before the reception. It felt like everyone was more relaxed and got to spend more time with each other.  So here are some pictures from the reception on Saturday.

So I had to make this one bigger so you could see it all. This is EVERYONE! Mom and Dad, ALL the Nicholas kids with their spouses and children. There are 41 in here with Judith's fiance and his daughter. Isn't this fun?? As you can imagine, when we all get together it is a ton of fun! 

I'll have to upload more later since Blogspot is uploading my other pictures funny. I promise to get more of the reception on here soon once I figure out what is going on. (Lori, I PROMISE!) 

It's Getting Closer...

Just thought I'd tell you that it's getting closer everyday! I have 3 weeks from yesterday. It is crazy! I can't believe how fast the time has gone by. It seems like it was just May and Rusty had just proposed and we were wondering if October would EVER get here. So here we are. 3 weeks away. I'm so excited to be married to Rusty. He is my best friend. We have so much fun when we are together even if we are just sitting and talking. He makes me laugh and smile all the time. I'm not saying everything has been perfect because it hasn't, but I have never doubted that I am supposed to marry him.

I'm moving into our apartment this weekend, and we probably picked the worst weekend to move into somewhere. It's conference weekend and so there is less time for us to move stuff. LUCKILY, I'm able to move and set everything up all day everyday since I'm not working right now. How lucky am I?

So, it's getting closer and I still have A LOT to do, but Jonathan and I get a little bit done everyday.

Just when you think it's all going great...

the Lord decides to throw you a curve ball.

Rusty and I are having our first REALLY big challenge as a soon to be married couple. Everything with us is great it's just that my work decided to lay me off last week. I haven't told a lot of people, and maybe it's because I'm prideful about the whole situation, but it's pretty tough to hear that your job doesn't think they need you anymore.

So, gratefully Russ was listening and thought maybe we should look at other apartments that were cheaper and closer to certain areas, and we found one we LOVE before we signed a lease at another one. So, we are able to save money on rent as well as he can take the train to work everyday. With him driving a pick-up this is a HUGE plus.

This week I've learned some things about me though.

1. I don't do well with nothing to do. I have a need to stay busy. It really sucks having nothing to do.

2. Maybe I should have waited to plan some stuff for my wedding. Seeing as I thought I would be working until the week of the wedding I got as much finished early as possible. Now, it's a little over a month away and I don't have much to do other than invites. (Which everyone should be getting next week!)

3. I know what I want to do FINALLY and have started the process to get back to school for it. It only took me 27 years to know what I truly wanted!

4. I have an AMAZING family! I already knew this, but these last 2 weeks have truly strengthened my love for them. They have been nothing but supportive of me.

5. I am marrying someone who I know will support me through everything. Again, I knew this, but it has been reconfirmed. He is truly amazing. He has had to see me at some of my lowest points, and still stayed around.

So, in the end, I will get school started in January and finish up wedding stuff until then, and get our home set up. I will also be spending a lot of time at my mom's classroom. I'll help out with whatever she needs. It keeps me busy right?

Love y'all!