St. Valentine's Day

I know some people hate Valentine's Day.

I would agree that it's been way over-commercialized, but I've still always liked it.

When we were little I remember my mom helping my brothers and I make giant heart-shaped cards for dad.

So I've always had fun memories of it.

Thomas and I don't go crazy all-out for Valentine's Day.

But I like making him cards. (You can see last year's if you click here).
And we go on a date.

This year I made him a card and a little heart-shaped coupon book.

The coupon book had coupons for things like "Sarah does dishes for the week", because I have a practical husband.

If you know me and my loathing for doing dishes, then you know that is one significant coupon.

Thomas gets to tear the coupons out and cash them in whenever he wants.

Coupon book in the making:

Thomas brought me beautiful red roses.

We went out for dinner, and I had one of the most delicious things I have ever tasted:

Steak medallions done in a balsamic dressing, with gorgonzola & arugula alfredo.

It was heavenly.

Then we had tiramisu.
My all-time favorite dessert.

Our Valentine's loot:
Red roses for me, homemade card & coupon book for Thomas.
And candy for both of us.

Our choice of candy: chocolate-covered cashew nuts, and sour cherry candies.

The cashews are sorta heart shaped, see?

And this was sort of part of Valentine's Day, since we got it this weekend... but we've been planning on getting it for a long time. 

Thomas assembled the entertainment center/TV stand yesterday, so we have our coffee table back in its usual place.

When we came home, we watched a couple episodes of a TV show on our new screen. We were planning on playing some Kinect games... but we were wayyyy too full from dinner to move that much.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It was a lovely day :)

{weekend road trip}

We took off on Friday at 4pm for Centerton, Arkansas to visit our good friends Matt & Haley Boyd before heading to Mitch & Rachel's wedding in Tulsa, Oklahoma on Saturday evening. We pulled into the Boyd's driveway at 10:30pm, and they had both just arrived home from long and busy workdays. Our tiredness did not stop us from staying up until 2:30am chatting away. The next day we had lunch with them at PF Changs and wandered around the outdoor mall in Bentonville until we had to leave for the wedding.

It was so great to see them again!

The wedding was just beautiful... congratulations to Mitch & Rachel :)

At the wedding we saw some more J.B.U. friends, and we had a lovely time at the reception catching up with them.

The Merciez's and the Blantons watching the dancing.

I snapped a picture of them dancing later on :)

Christina hijacked our camera and took a picture of us :)

We ended up deciding to drive through the night back to Dallas, so when the reception was over at about 11:30pm we took off. Thomas drove the whole way... I have no idea how he does it. I told him to wake me up to drive if he got too tired, but he made it all the way to 5:30am when we pulled up to our apartment. We slept all morning and when I woke up I made pancakes and lattes.

Just what we needed.

What a fun weekend. It was wonderful to see some old friends, and to get to celebrate a beautiful wedding.

Anniversary date

We decided to wait until we got back to Dallas to celebrate our anniversary, since we had such a short time to be with Thomas's family in Oregon. So last night we went to the Melting Pot for our anniversary date night [we went there for our birthdays and liked it so much that we decided to go back.]

We had a great evening talking about the year to come... hopes, plans, dreams, goals. Neither of us can believe that we've been married for two whole years... it has gone by so quickly, yet at the same time so much has happened. Lots to process, and lots to look forward to :)

And, of course, the food was amazing. We had a cheese fondue, salad, main course, and a chocolate fondue.

It's the next morning now, and I'm still completely full from dinner last night. Yummmmm.

Two years ago today...

... we were getting married! It was such a beautiful, sunny South African day... and the wedding was just perfect. Close friends and family were there to celebrate with us, and the whole day was one big happy memory. It was relaxed and full of joy.

The Ceremony

Getting ready

Headed to the church

Getting out of the car...

My daddy :)

Waiting outside the church with my beautiful bridesmaids

The boys waiting inside

Walking in

Saying our vows

Candle ceremony with our mothers

The kiss!

Blessing prayer by our fathers

Laura and Mary sang "For the Beauty of the Earth"... beautifully, I might add :)

We're married!

Our two families... missing Thomas's youngest brother Paul whose passport had expired [which they only discovered at the airport] so he couldn't travel out of Kenya :(

With Laura & Mary

With Timo & Robert

The Reception

Every time someone came up and sang us a love song, we had to kiss. It was such a fun thing, and everyone got involved.

My parents

Thomas's parents

Flower arrangements

 The amazing cake that my mom made. She made my dress [which was perfect] as well. She's multi-talented :)

A few of my favorite pictures of us:

[I just think this one is hilarious]

Happy 2nd Anniversary to us! The best two years of my life thus far!

I'm excited to see what the next few years hold. It's fun to be young and feel like we have our whole lives in front of us... who knows what might be around the next corner. The unknown is exciting, and maybe a little unnerving. The greatest thing about it is that I get to take every step with my very best friend.
:)


{ If you want to see more wedding pictures click here }