so to honor Him.

 

"Come", they told me. "A newborn King to see"

Our finest gifts we bring to lay before the King.
So to honor Him-
When we come.

Little baby, I am a poor boy, too. 

I have no gift to bring that's fit to give our King.
Shall I play for You? 

"pa rum pa pum pum"
On my drum.

I play my drum for Him, so to honor Him.

Mary nodded. 

The ox and lamb kept time.
I played my drum for Him.

"pa rum pa pum pum"
I played my best for Him.
Then He smiled at me, me and my drum.
When we come.

the river.

Everyone is broken and in need of a savior.
So He came and was broken for the marker, for the shamed.
Still our eyes are blinded by the culture, by the lies.
We can't see that were filthy, we're fallen, and so dry.

But He invites us.
Can you hear Him say?
He invites us.
Hear Him call your name!

Welcome to the river- come drink, come away, come find your very life.
Welcome to the river of God, where your brokeness is washed away.

Everywhere is the sorrow and the pain of empty living.
You can see it, look in their eyes- all the hopelessness of the world.
But look closer-He is right there, in the midst of every fear.

Living water is the offer-Restoration is the call.
And He invites us.
Can you hear Him say?
He invites us.
Hear Him call your name!

31 days of bliss.

one month! we've been married for a WHOLE stinkin month!

where has the time gone? 

this past month has been one of the greatest of my entire life!

i thought i'd give a quick little update dedicated to our new, awesome life.

we love our little home! it is a small, one bedroom apartment that we absolutely adore.

we love the environment and the location. the temple is right across the street from us. we have gone on a few night time walks (because it's so darn hot during the day) around the temple grounds. and the MTC is located right across the road as well! unfortunately, we never ran into Taylor's (and my!) sister, Jessica- who went into the MTC just days after our wedding to prepare to serve a mission for our church, in Spokane, Washington! In her email to the family she said she walked past our apartment a few times and took some pictures of our cars! i was so bummed we weren't out there to see her! but we think about her all the time and look forward to hearing more about how's she's doing. my younger brother Quin will be entering the MTC on September 4, to prepare to serve the people of Bakersfield, California! Maybe we'll get luckier and run into him while he's there!

our church building is so conveniently close- just right down the street! our meeting time, however, is a rather early 8:30 AM. that will definitely take some getting used to...and regular Sunday naps will be a requirement.

Taylor has been really lucky to have gotten such a good job. he did so well his first few weeks there that they made him a supervisor! (something that even people who have worked there for years haven't accomplished!) he works full time and i am truly grateful for his hard work...even if he doesn't get back until late at night. i have been fortunate enough to get a lot of hours working at the RB in the Women's Gym on BYU campus as well. anything helps nowadays!

school is starting back in just a few weeks! (less than two weeks for taylor!) and we're excited to get back into a regular schedule...minus the homework :) luckily, we've been able to work out with our work and school to make our schedules as coordinating as possible- so we'll get to spend more time together! i'm looking forward to Taylor not having to work every night so then we can have dinner together!

with only a few more weeks of a free summer left, we have a lot of fun things planned and are excited to have a couple of fun dates, weekends with family and a vacation to Canada!


some things worth mention/things i have learned in our first month of marriage:
 
-when i lived in an apartment full of girls, i didn't care so much how neat and tidy everything was. now that we have our "own place" i have become a little more uptight about that. everything has its designated place and i love when our little house is clean and organized. i gave Taylor a little run through, using the spatula as my pointer stick. haha.

-we've taken a few little walks to the temple. i've never seen the back side of the Provo temple and i was shocked at how pretty it was!

-if taylor ever beats me home from work when i have a closing shift (which is rare) or if i come home from an early morning shift before he leaves for work, i love coming in the apartment and as soon as the door shuts, he runs out of our room and picks me up in a hug and says, "i missed you sooo much!"

-taylor loves loves loves his breakfast food. i'm pretty certain he would eat it for every meal for the rest of his life and be happy and content about it. so, he has made me (us) a really yummy breakfast on more than one occasion. i love that he likes to take turns cooking.

-we take turns washing/drying the dishes. we are a good team :)

- we LOVE our AC unit. it [literally] probably saved my life. haha. (*note: our apartment doesn't have AC in it, so we purchased two AC units and my loving husband installed them both while his wife, who has temperature problems, tried to help and not complain about how she was sweating.)

-i have been experimenting with different dinners for us. i used our fancy crock pot and made my first roast diner! i've also made pasta, chili, corn dogs...i haven't made very many dinners so far, but our favorite is: Chicken Pillows. mmmm so good.

-we've had fun decorating our apartment and trying to make it feel homey as possible. our favorite purchase so far: our MonsterSac (knock-off of the LoveSac) It's probably the only piece of furniture we will have to buy ourselves. we got really lucky to have such loving, generous families that donated lots of things for our home! and we have had a blast going to the different stores and checking things out to use our giftcards on! (the pictures are of me trying to convince Taylor that we need a giant wrench and bolt cutter from Ace Hardware. He thought it was hilarious and wanted to document it. haha.)

-Taylor recently got Monday's off of work- my new favorite thing. on his first Monday off we went and saw DespicableMe2 and went to Iceberg for dinner, the next Monday we went to the Salt Lake temple and got In n Out, and this past Monday we went to Cheesecake Factory and came home and watched Harry Potter! (we like food, obviously) we have some fun dates planned (we take turns planning them) and i love getting more time to spend with my boy.

one month anniversary date to Cheesecake Factory!

Cheesecake Factory's "Avocado Egg rolls" will change your life.

-i'm pretty sure in the short month we have been married that Taylor has mastered the art of reading my mind. it's pretty creepy, actually. haha. we'll be talking about something and i'll have a thought in my head and then Taylor will say the exact thing i am thinking! crazy.

-Taylor is a pretty heavy sleeper. every time i have to work a morning shift (i get up at 5:10 and change and eat and drive to work to be there at 5:40 to open the gym) right before i leave, i will kiss Taylor on the cheek and he won't even flinch. haha. i think it is the funniest thing.

-our bed set is dangerous. and our room is so dark at night. the other night, taylor got out of bed to get a drink of water, and he hopped over the side of the bed and smacked his knee way hard on the footboard bed post. it bled so bad! we didn't have any bandaids, so we had to make a makeshift cover so he wouldn't get blood everywhere. haha.

-boys are messy. and mostly don't take notice to their messiness. this mostly comes to eating time. taylor is very clean otherwise. i am learning patience. :)

-taylor tells me he loves me about a million times a day. he'll grab my face and hug me and say, "i love my girl!" or "i love you so muchhhhh!" it melts my heart.

he might not be very happy at me for posting this picture, but i love my boy!

-we bought me a bike with some of the gift money we received! i'll be able to ride it to work and school and it will save a little gas here and there. it's super cute and i think taylor was even more excited than i was. he loves bikes. 

-some of our favorite advice that we got on our wedding was to have a "laugh party" every day. it's something that was started in my family. we have implemented it every day and it really works wonders. it sounds silly. but really! i laugh so hard that i cry. i think this is something that really keeps us happy and close.

-i love praying and studying the scriptures with Taylor. i think it really brings us closer to each other by bringing us closer to God. i'm so grateful to have a worthy Priesthood holder in my home at all times.

-living together has been quite the learning experience. we are getting to know each other even better and learning how to help, nurture and build one another. it's hard, but practice makes perfect!



so, the verdict is: we are having so much fun being married! i am so excited for our entire life! and i really think that it could only go up from here. we've had little bumps in the road, but it's nothing when i realize the blessings we have by being sealed to each other for all eternity.

one of my favorite things that was said to me on our wedding day was from my sweet Aunt Traci-

"dreams really do come true."

and oh, man. they do.





(stay tuned for a post about our wedding day and our honeymoon!)






just remember, the best has yet to come.

chapter one.

i've been meaning to write this post for a while, 

but needless to say, my life has been particularly busy as of late.

The best thing ever ever ever is happening in my life-

I’m in love! I’m in love! And I don’t care who knows it!

And better yet?

I'M GETTING MARRIED!

i'll tell the proposal story first.

on May 10 i had a wedding reception to go to and Taylor was working till later in the evening like usual. when i got home from the reception, i changed and got a text from him that said, "come outside by the grass by the library." i walked outside down to the sidewalk where i saw him sitting in the grass with a puppy! i love puppies. haha. i got super excited and could hardly focus on anything else. in provo, there is a business that "rents" out puppies by the hour for college students to play with, and i had told Taylor a few times that i wanted to do it. so he was sitting by the sidewalk where our "spot" was. (sidenote: our "spot" is right outside the apartment where i live on this little sidewalk we would walk on. there is a part in the sidewalk where the concrete is all broken up and cracked- one day, we were walking down this sidewalk and he stopped me in this broken up spot and told me that he loved me for the first time. so after that, every time we would walk there- he would tell me he loved me- and thus, it became our spot.) we played with the puppy for a little bit and then my roommate hillary and good friend tessa came down and had my nice camera with them. they said they just wanted to take pictures of us with the puppy. i thought that was kinda weird. she had us walk across the street to "better lighting" and i was getting confused at what was going on. taylor then redirected us back to our spot and left hillary where she was. on the walk back, he was telling me all the things that he loved and appreciated about me. (i wish i could remember everything he said) and then as we got to our spot, he stopped me. he then got down on one knee and pulled out the ring box and said something (probably my name or something, haha. i was clearly not focusing because i was so excited) and then before he could even finish asking me to marry him i blurted out- YES YES! hillary and tess then came over and took pictures as i nearly exploded from happiness. we then returned the puppy and went to In 'N Out to celebrate! best night ever. :)

(pictures are kinda rough cause no one told me to dress cute. but that's okay. memories, right?)

 

ENGAGED!

 now.

 Let’s take a trip down memory lane, shall we?

(this isn't our whole story, but the main points and my favorite parts.)

Flashback to five years ago. 

16 year old Kara met 16 year old Taylor at EFY (a camp for youth ages 14-18 for our church) one summer. i had a cute little crush on this cute little boy, and little did i know- so did he.

we kept in touch over the phone. i still remember my heart skipping a beat whenever i would see his name pop up on my phone.

It still does.

a long time goes by.

i finally move out to Utah for college and our paths cross again. we were great friends. we always had fun and i always felt comfortable with him. the beginning of the following year brought a lot of change. a mission to Japan for him, a cancer mission for me. we didn't correspond while he was gone for his two year mission serving our church. 

2013 rolls around, and i had a feeling that this year was going to be different.

Taylor returned from his mission at the first of January, right around his birthday. we got in contact again over facebook. he got my number again and we started talking more. i saw him once or twice when he was on his way through Provo. on february 2, he invited me to go to Logan- where he was attending school. (two hours away) this was the night that changed our relationship. we got to talking about how we really felt and had felt the entire time we'd known each other. 

my heart was (and still is) bursting at the seams.

we decided to take things slow and really get to know each other- become better friends. if it hadn't had been for the distance, we would have started dating a lot sooner I think. but we took things slower. we did the long distance thing- which was way hard. every saturday was "our day" either i would drive to Logan or he would come to Provo. this little tradition continued every week.

we didn't miss one weekend together. 
these were the funnest times! i got to meet his friends, see where he went to school and lived, meet his family and he got to do the same with me.

we never had a problem with talking about things and communicating. i knew from the very beginning that he was someone i couldn't let go. i did everything i could to make sure that wouldn't happen. i have been so blessed in this relationship. we get along so well and have so much fun together. he is my absolute best friend. He has seen every single weird, crazy, surprising side of me and I love the playful and fun relationship we have. we have tiny disagreements occasionally- but we don't fight. that is something that is so important for me. but what is more important to me is the love that we share. loving Taylor was the easiest thing i've ever done. (and also the scariest!) it's so scary to make yourself vulnerable, but i knew in my heart that it was something that would bless my life.
And it has!

we started talking about the idea of our future together in late march and it just made sense. there was a lot to work out. but after much talking, praying, and serious consideration- we decided it was God’s plan for us. and better yet, we both felt like July was when it needed to happen! we have been so blessed with such supportive and loving parents and families that are excited for this day with us. i cannot wait to be a part of his family and have him become a permanent member of mine.

i love him with my whole entire heart and more.

so here we are-

in 16 days, 0 hours and 18 minutes we will be sealed for time and all eternity in the Draper LDS Temple.

i have thought about this day over and over in my head for the longest time and i know that the real thing will surpass my expectations one hundred fold.

I am overjoyed and overwhelmed by the love I feel and the many great and exciting possibilities for our future.

i have learned to love more than i ever thought possible and i am anxious and excited for the future and to learn how to love and be loved more each day.

our love story is my favorite.

i cannot wait until he is mine forever.

just remember, the best is yet to come.