One Year Anniversary

We have made it! I am so blessed. I never expected to marry a man like Zac. People say that you marry who you think you deserve. However, that is not the case for me. I don't deserve Zac; he is such a good man. However, I married who I wanted, who I knew would be a good husband and a good father. I married someone who I wanted as a husband; someone who would inspire and push me to be better every. single. day. I married a man with limitless potential. I married a man who would be the rock in a sea of adversity. Someone who would be loyal and loving. Someone who understands that everyone has a story worth listening to and one whose willing to pull up a chair and listen. I married a man who understands what is important in life. I married a man who will one day be a great father. I married a man who refuses to give up. I married a man who finds importance in the little things. I married a man that loves me, for me.

I hope to see my husband the way Heavenly Father sees him, and to always push him to become more Christ-like, just as he pushes me to be. I am grateful for this past year; It was riddled with some really beautiful moments as well as tough times, but we have pulled through. People say your first year is either the hardest year or the best year, and I'm actually thankful that it was (hopefully) the hardest. I know the potential in our marriage and the strength within our love and I am excited for what the future brings. We were able to celebrate our anniversary the night before with dinner at Chef's Table in provo, where we had a beautiful dinner accompanied with the view of the temple and the city lights. Before I left on my mission, Zac promised that he would take me there when I got home. Seeing as my mission was shorter than expected, we decided to go for our one year anniversary instead. Today we celebrated by going to church, writing out our goals for this year, giving each other hand written letters, dinner, and some really old and probably stale wedding cake and some martinellis. Here's to another year! Cheers!

                                             Clearly, I am blessed.
                                        

Has it been 6 months already?!

Six whole freaking months! I know, I know, we have been off the grid in our own private newlywed bubble. Marriage is full of crazy, let me just tell you. But we love it because it’s our crazy. Marriage is hard, there are times where I tell Zac that I’ve never disliked or loved someone so much at the same time, and I'm sure he can feel the same way about me but in this weird mixed up married universe…that’s just how it is sometimes. But I wouldn't change it for the world. I love him far too much and we have learned so much from each other. I don't think I'm capable of loving another human being as much as I have grown to love him.


As for our life update, lets see… I was working at Massage Envy Spa in Orem while going to school, and although I loved the girls and working there, I found a better opportunity so now BOTH Zac and I are working at Ancestry, we love working together. It’s actually how we met! We are incredibly blessed to be working for such a great company, especially one that has such great benefits so we are really happy to both be working 40 hours a week, have awesome health coverage and access to a bunch of other great perks the company provides.


Other than that we went back to my home in Sacramento for my step grandma's funeral. It was a beautiful service and celebration of her life. It was fun to relax at home and to spend time with family. Zac and I enjoyed the sunshine, playing with the horses, exploring my hometown, swimming and just an overall good time.  We did have a bit of a health scare upon coming home though and a few people have been asking me about it so I thought I’d go ahead and share, the day after we got back I started experiencing a sharp pain in my lower left abdomen and it was making it very difficult and painful to breathe. Thankfully we had a doctors appointment set up to talk about good old birth control and so I casually brought up my side ache. My doctor thought it could be a fractured rib or a torn muscle under my rib cage but had me get blood work done just in case. After getting my blood drawn we headed home and got ready for Zac's softball game, he's really good by the way (: However we get a call from my doctor saying that my blood came back really high and that on a chart from 0-500 mine was 518…yes even to this day I have no idea what that means. She then asked if I could get to the hospital as soon as possible so I could get a CT scan. I was a bit worried because I had no clue what was going on but I knew it was potentially serious. I get the CT scan with contrast done and then Zac and I waited for my doctor to contact us. My doctor then called me and told me that they found a pulmonary embolism in my lung and I needed to be admitted into the hospital over night. At this point we didn't know how many there were or much of anything.  We got admitted into the hospital on the 7th floor, which is the Oncology floor. I later found out Zac was in a silent panic…he had been pretty quiet since we got the phone call at home because he didn't really know how to process what was happening, and in his head he was thinking "they’re telling her she has blood clots but really once were admitted they're going to tell us she has cancer." Bless his heart. I was nervous too, It was my first time ever been admitted over night in the hospital. We found out that I have 3 blood clots in my lungs, 2 in my left and 1 in my right which wasn't allowing me to get all the oxygen I needed which explains the shortness of breath. They think it was caused by our road trip but we are still looking into if it could be a sign of something else. I am so thankful we went to the doctors that day because pulmonary embolisms are obviously life threatening, apparently about one-third of people with undiagnosed and untreated pulmonary embolism don't survive. I am very blessed. For the first week I was on lovenox shotswhich are injections into the stomach. I had a really hard time with this. At first I thought I would want to do them myself because I thought I would feel more in control but after sitting there with my stomach exposed and the needle pressed up against my skin I realized I couldn't do it, so I had my sweet husband do them for me. I really didn't like these injections, as time went by my stomach got more sensitive. The medication I'm on are blood thinners so I bruise and bleed a lot easier, so I started showing bruises on my stomach and bleeding when he would inject me but honestly, the fact that he was there made the experience a whole lot easier for me. I am so grateful for Zac and that he was willing to do that for me, I really couldn't have done it without him. So now all I have to do is take blood thinners every day and get my blood taken about once a week for about 4 more months, since this happened a little over 2 months ago. 


Besides that small bump in the road we've gone on a few more road trips. We love road trips, and "clots can't stop, won't stop" me! About a month ago we drove down to San Diego to see my brother; Kevin, graduate from San Diego State University. He is the first in the entire family to graduate, with kaylyn and I shortly behind. We are so proud of him and his accomplishments, I know he will go very far in his career and life in general. It was fun to spend time in LA with Zacs grandparents and that side of the family, as well as spend time at the beach, get surprised with free tickets to Disneyland and California Adventures from his wonderful cousin and to surprise Zac with tickets to watch his favorite baseball team; the Angels. I loved watching him at that baseball game and to see his reaction when I told him I got him tickets. He seriously LOVES baseball and therefore it was adorable. It was also great to drive down to San Diego and to spend the day with my family and attend Kevin's graduation. We were constantly on the go, but I think that’s one of the reasons I loved it so much, I know we didn't waste a single second. Besides that we have celebrated both my 22nd birthday and his 25th, tried paddle boarding for the first time, celebrated future father and mothers day, spent time at Orem summerfest and eating argentine food, watching the world cup, camping, boating, game nights, learning archery and enjoying the fact that we now have a companion to share and create all these memories with. So here’s to a forever summer love! Until next time (:

Zac and my dogs at my house

my birthday breakfast

we may have rented a puppy (:

This handsome Argentine RM and his Argentine cuisine

Future Fathers Day breakfast&card

He'll be a professional archer one day.

hike to stuart falls

Twinsies

mi familia

ocean.husband. best life.

Angels game baby!

California Adventures

Disneyland!

                                                   

Picture Perfect

HELLO! I am so sorry for not creating a blog post for awhile. I've tried to stay consistent but you know, life just got a bit busy. I know people were checking this on the daily for a post wedding update and it just hasn't happened, so I'm going to do it now! (: Also I hope everyone enjoys the new blog! Last post I mentioned that I was going to make it a mr&mrs blog so I did just that! I know Zac is wanting to add his own 2 cents from time to time so I have created a mutual space. I've included links to both our Facebooks, my Instagram, my Pinterest and my Mormon.org account. So feel free to look around!

This post is all about our wedding day and I have literally tried writing a post about it at least 5 times. I am stripping it down and getting down to business. Just kidding, I only do that with my husband. Anywhooo, I figure pictures are worth a thousand words, so for the most part I will let them do the talking, but i'll give captions to some and let you know how I or Zac felt.

We got married on January 4th, 2014. I had prayed for good weather...well, as good as weather as you can get in January. It snowed all throughout the night before, which created a beautiful blanket of snow but made for freezing temperatures. I actually caught the flu the day before our wedding, and it didn't lighten up just because it was my special day. I woke up feeling like a truck ran me over, and I even slept in late because I had taken Nyquil. Not the best start to the most important day of my life, however I popped a ton of pills and hoped for the best. Kali came over and did my hair, she is wonderful, and even helped with my make up. We probably did my make up in 5 minutes flat-kid you not, we were in a time crunch. Zac and his dad came over to pick me up to head to the temple, and before we left they gave me a priesthood blessing. I couldn't have been more grateful. I think with the combination of the blessing (faith), modern medicine that everyone seemed to be passing my way, and all your prayers, I somehow survived. Anyways, we got married in the Salt Lake City temple. I have no personal ties to this temple, I had actually never been inside which I liked, I liked the idea that it was a completely new experience. We met up at the temple with my best friend Nellie who was my escort, and Kamalei; the missionary/friend who baptized me a little over three years ago who I asked to be one of our two witnesses, the other being my father in law. As Zac and I waited in the celestial room, I was able to sit and talk with Zac and enjoy the beauty of what was about to happen and to enjoy the beautiful room we were in, it was breathtaking and all my fear and doubts leading up to the moment went away. . It was so quiet and peaceful, besides my occasional extremely loud sneezing. My bad if you were that day…sorry Wes&Kristal. But in all seriousness, I think it was the only time that day I was able to process everything, to enjoy the time I had with Zac, just the two of us. 

Zac: I've been fortunate enough to attend more than one sealing for friends and family and it was overwhelming to actually be that guy, the groom, half (actually a third) of the reason why everyone was there.  A lot of the experience was pretty standard and nothing unexpected really happened. Even so, it was thrilling to see so many relatives and friends who were able to attend this once-in-an-existence event where I was being sealed to my eternal companion.  I remember being there in front of my bride and trying to process all of the emotions and thoughts that were racing through my mind, I tried to listen to the sealer but I was very much lost in my own thoughts for a lot of the experience (which I am very prone to do, you can ask anyone, especially Karlie). I remember looking at Karlie though and she smiled at me and mouthed 'I love you.' I remember feeling so comforted and happy because of that. The main thing I remember from what the sealer said was that this woman was my 'everything', despite my busy thoughts I was struck by that thought and I remember fighting back some tears as I turned from him to her after he used that word. I would say one of the greatest blessings of having Karlie in my life is her ability to help me feel life more. This might sound a little odd but I would say that Karlie makes me more 'emotional', and I love it.  I have been craving that kind of influence my whole life. Even though it can be hard for me to turn off my thoughts, I find that I am more in tune with the present and more in tune with myself when I am around her and I think that moment reflected that aspect of our relationship for me quite well. I am very lucky to have someone that has that kind of influence on me and I can honestly say that I have never met anyone so capable of plugging me in to life as Karlie. I feel alive because of her, I feel passion and emotion and to someone like me, that is a valuable gift. Odd as it is, the fact that we are as opposite as a man and a woman can be, our differences are probably one of the most important reasons why I love Karlie.  

We exited the temple as the new Mr&Mrs. Baxter to our friends and family cheering and it felt so surreal, we were overwhelmed by the love we felt that day. Thanks to everyone who braced the cold with us (:

heres some things you wouldn't know:

• I almost passed out while getting ready in the morning from being so sick, but it was right when Zac walked in the room so he caught me before I fell. Trust fall anyone? 
• I tripped and almost fell on my own wedding dress while in the temple, and then proceeded to giggle like a little girl while my best friend laughed at me.
• Before going into the sealing room both Zac and I had to use the restroom and apparently the restrooms were right across from our sealing room, a good amount of friends and family got a peek of us attempting to be stealth bathroom users. awkward?
• As we were waiting to meet with our sealer, Elder Quentin L Cook introduced himself to the couple before us. As great as our sealer was, lets be honest and agree it sure would've been neat to be sealed by an apostle. 

The ring ceremony and our luncheon was held at a church in Alpine. We really wanted to have a ring ceremony because we wanted to involve my family as much as we could. The most important elements to me were that my dad was able to escort me and my best friend (twin sister) was by my side. The groomsmen walked in first and then my bridesmaids to the song marry me by jason derulo. My dad then escorted me in while everyone stood up, which was really touching to me. I always dreamt and imagined of walking down an aisle and having my dad by my side and everyone standing. But after I knew that we are able to have eternal families by being sealed in the temple and not just "till death do we part", the normal wedding just didn't hold the same significance. However its how I grew up, its what I pictured since I was a little girl and it was still a part of me. But most of all, my family is the most important thing to me and I wanted them to be a part of it. After the ring ceremony we ate some delicious food and Zac's brother and sister sang a song called "oh darling"which was a lot of fun. Then Kaylyn got up and congratulated us and said some sweet words towards Zac and how much she enjoys him and is grateful for the type of person that he is. That means a lot coming from her because we are obviously very protective of each other, and she generally doesn't like the guys I date, but she's excited and happy to have welcomed Zac in the family and she did a great job expressing that. 

My WHOLE family (:

Zac and I built these s'more bars and we were so happy with how they turned out, I kept getting compliments on it, and probably the most common was how "Bad-A" they looked. Thanks guys.

I love these photos of our decorations and our venue. I drew inspiration from Pinterest and even a dream I had. I had always pictured that I would have a summer wedding, my least favorite season is winter so I never imagined I would get married smack dab in the middle of it. However, i absolutely LOVE how everything turned out. Our venue was so off the grid and I really loved that, at first I wanted Wadley Farms because it had that barn look and i loved the balcony but with the ridiculous price and how small it was, it just didn't seem worth it.  I started to get flustered because I was having a hard time finding a venue that fit my theme, everything was too modern, too expensive, or so not me. Zac and I literally picked a day to find a venue and we started the day off in prayer, praying to hope to find a venue that day. We had driven past this barn multiple times and had mentioned it would be the cutest venue, but from what we knew it was being used as a shop. We drove past it and I told Zac to pull in, I was about to be bold and tell this shop owner that I was willing to move everything out of their shop and back so I could have this venue for one night…ambitious right? So we pull up and we peek in the window and it is completely bare. I was so excited! We talk to the owner and for the best price ever, we booked the venue and from what we knew, it had only been used once as a wedding reception venue and it was for the owners daughter. It was perfect, it was a barn on the outside but a perfect venue on the inside, it even had a balcony. I was in love with the place. It had windows all around it so it felt open and it was covered in wood which made it felt comforting and close. The light fixtures were so neat already that we didn't have to spend time trying to find lighting for the place and there were even old unhinged doors that were there that we ended up using for the reception to string pictures across. Honestly I can't say enough good things about this place. As for our colors and decorations…our colors were plum purple, gold, and a burlap brown. Not your typical combination of wedding colors, but I liked that too. All I knew I wanted was a barn feel with a vintage look, I was adamant about having baby breath balls hanging from the ceiling and twinkling lights and old books and burlap. Almost all of our decorations we borrowed or made and adorned with beautiful flower masterpieces created by Danielle aka "deeds", one of emily's good friends whose a bundle of fun and energy. I loved her enthusiasm. Honestly, I couldn't have been happier with how everything turned out and looked. To me, it was absolutely beautiful and perfect. Thank you to all the ladies who put the time to make it look amazing or let us borrow some of your decor, I really appreciate it. Most of all, the biggest thanks ever goes to Emily, we really couldn't have done this without you. You were and are, magic. 

Zac opened the wedding festivities by playing the guitar and singing our song "wanted" by Hunter Hayes. On our first date he sang to me and at first I was honestly a little creeped out by it because in my head I was thinking that he probably does this to impress every girl he likes. BUT now I love when he picks up the guitar and sings to me. I remember before going to Salt Lake one day he came over with his guitar, pushed past me, told me to sit on my bed all while he played his guitar and sang this song to me. It was really sweet, and I was grinning from ear to ear, his Sid the Sloth voice also helped with that (:

 My roommate actually thought it was my radio playing when he sang, just goes to show how talented he is. Ive been trying to get him to audition for The Voice (: 

Two things I love so much was my wedding dress and his wedding suit. His suit is from Joseph A Bank for half off the original price and after getting it fitted, it looked sooo good! We got his shoes online and I bought his tie from J. Crew. I loved that it was tweed and totally fit the theme. However everyone was giving me a hard time saying that a brown tie doesn't go with a gray suit…well I think the above picture proves that wrong, so take note male fashionistos! My dress was originally strapless and made for someone much taller than I. My seamstress Nancy was amazing and added sleeves, customized the bodice and everything. I loved how my dress turned out and wish the day wouldn't have been so cold so I wouldn't have had to cover it up with the cloak. My dress still remains as one of my favorite parts of our wedding day.

                           

My dad means the world to me and I wanted to pick a song that let him know how much I love him and how ill always be his little girl

My husband and I had our first dance to "Never Stop" by Safetysuit.  At first we had a list of about 5 songs we thought of picking but ending up choosing "I won't give up" by Jason Mraz. Then when we were painting our condo and listening to my pandora station, the song "never stop" came on. We both looked at each other and decided that was our song. It was beautiful and perfect, and most of all it was unique. 

                                                                                 

We exited our reception to about an hour and a half of crazy dancing and rows of family and friends holding sparklers above our heads. There was no cherubs or violins but tt was the perfect ending to a beautiful day. I love knowing that I am his forever and he's forever mine, I am so lucky to have found him.

P.S.
If you would like to contact any of the people that helped with our special day heres how! Let them know I sent you (:
Kali (hair and makeup)- https://www.facebook.com/pages/Kali-Chris-Hair-Makeup/178691215562093
Ashley (Photography)-http://www.ashleymorganphotography.com
Melina(Cake)-http://mymixingmemories.blogspot.com