Congratulations Brendan & Ashtyn!!

On Saturday night at Tommy Bahama's restaurant Brendan asked his girlfriend to be his wife! Oh, I'm already getting chills and I just started typing. We've known for about a month that he was going to propose and it's been so hard to keep it a secret. Every time I'd see Ashtyn I wanted to tell her how much we love her and love that she's going to be a part of our family. God has truly blessed Brendan with such an amazing woman and she couldn't be a better fit for our family. Just a funny side note: The first time I met Kyle's entire (extended included) family was on Easter 6 years ago and Jan told me when she met me she knew I was the one for Kyle. The first time Ashtyn met our entire family was on Easter of this year and we knew she was the one for Brendan. Isn't it amazing how God brings people together!!

Anyway, back to my favorite new engaged couple. Brendan created his own version of the Tommy Bahama menu that had 20 pages and each page listed different activities or attributes about their relationship he loved. Each one coordinated with the number on the page. In between was each course he has selected for them to eat. When he got to 1, he got down on one knee and proposed!! She said "YES!" After dinner they went back to the beach house for home made (by Brendan) Key Lime Pie for dessert. When they showed up Ashtyn was once again surprised because her parents had come down to join Doug and Jan for the celebration. AWW! Good job B!!

Then yesterday the family was invited down to the beach house for the announcement and to continue the celebration. I loved that I got to be the photographer for such a great moment!

Making the announcement

Checking out the ring

Brendan admiring his own good taste!

Telling the family how Brendan proposed and showing off the special menu

Asking Katelyn to be a flower girl in the wedding. AW!

Love them!

The toast!

First sunset picture as a married couple

The menu...

#1....Marry me?!

The ring, or should I say bling!

Family Maternity Pictures

Friday night Kyle, Katelyn and I headed down to Corona del Mar Beach to take some family photos. I've been really bad about taking belly pictures this time around, but it was really important to me that we took maternity pictures as a family. Kyle's Mom took all the pictures and she did an amazing job! I had way too many to choose from. Here's just some of my favorites. Thanks Jan for taking pictures of us today!!! Love you!

Pumpkin Patch

Last night Kyle and I headed to Mariner's Church for their annual Pumpkin Patch. This year it was so much fun to watch Katelyn run around the patch, patting the pumpkins, trying to sit on them, roll them, and push them around. She was even enjoying pulling the hay out of the hay stack and and bringing small strands of it to Kyle and I. While we were there we ran into our friend the Caston's and Katelyn got to run around with her little friend Kylie for a little while. Can't wait for the Carnival next Friday night!

Touchdown!

Katelyn has always been a huge fan of football. When she was little she would sit and watch it for hours. She still loves to curl up with her Uncle Brendan or her Grandma to watch a little football. Yesterday we were watching the USC v. Notre Dame game and I asked Katelyn what do we do when the team scores a touchdown....

Katelyn's Halloween Costume...

I took Katelyn to JC Penny's today to have pictures taken in her Halloween costume. I think she looks adorable despite the fact that I couldn't get her to keep on the headband and hold the wand. Not going to lie, I even tried pleading with her because it took me a long time to make her costume, but never-the-less she looks cute and smiled despite the fact that she was grumpy this morning due to having 4 molars all coming in at the same time. I can't believe how big she's getting!!!

Our Babymoon Getaway

Kyle finally returned from 26 days of traveling to 13 cities and we decided it was the perfect time for a getaway before Brayden arrives. I must admit I was nervous at first about leaving Katelyn for the first time and for 3 1/2 days, but she and I both did great! I dropped Katelyn off at Kyle's parents for the weekend around dinner time on Thursday night. I then headed up to Long Beach to pick up Kyle from the airport and from there we drove to Los Angeles to watch Bidwell (the band Kyle manages) play at The Roxy with Blake Lewis. Bidwell played an AMAZING show; wish I could say the same for Blake Lewis. It was disappointing to watch after seeing him go so far on American Idol.

After the show we headed to our downtown LA hotel, the Hyatt Regency for the night. It was beautiful!! I felt so spoiled! We got to sleep in till 10am, take our time getting ready, and didn't have to rush to be anywhere. Here's a picture of our hotel room:

After our leisure morning we headed to The Grove to walk around and have some lunch. The weather was gorgeous! Although seeing all the strollers and families together did make us miss our little one just a little. But we had already called to check in and knew that she was doing well.

After we left The Grove we headed to our second hotel in Venice Beach called Hotel Erwin. The hotel is a throw back to the retro 70's era and we loved it! Kyle told the front desk we were celebrating our 5 year anniversary and our babymoon and they upgraded us to a King bed in an Ocean View room! We checked in just in time to watch the sunset. Check it out!!

Here's our epic hotel room!

For dinner we went to their rooftop lounge called HIGH. They also have a restaurant called HASH, but we opted for appetizers for dinner. We shared a chicken wrap and then we were treated to a S'mores dessert. Yum!! Here are the menus they give you at HIGH. Too fun!

Here's the view from our room we woke up to on Saturday morning. Kyle and I both had a rough night. We caught some sort of flu bug and so we didn't end up walking around Venice Beach as planned. We slept in, took our time getting ready, grabbed a smoothie and checked into our next hotel in Manhattan Beach so we could take a nap. Not a fun way to loose a day on our vacation, however, I'd rather be sick and be able to relax and kick it right away then have to spend the day feeling miserable and chasing Katelyn around.

Here are the epic robes that were in our room. Doesn't Kyle sport it well?! Might have to get him one for Christmas. Maybe a pink one for myself?!

Picture of the view from our hotel in Manhattan Beach. We got a nice upgrade again since we were celebrating our anniversary and babymoon. Nice! Kyle and I never get to travel and we thought it would be fun to hop the coast rather than stay at the same hotel all 3 nights. It was great fun! I love the spontaneity of Kyle's and my relationship.

After our naps Kyle and I headed to Culver City for dinner at Karen's Sushi, a little hole in the wall sushi joint, and a massage. It was yummy even though Kyle ate way more sushi than I did as I was still not feeling 100%. After dinner we headed to The Massage Garage where we got 1 hour massages for $48! It was recommended to us by a friend of Kyle's and she was spot on. I can't even begin to tell you how much better my back feels, especially since I had strained it earlier on that week. If you are ever in LA you have to hit up this place for a Tune Up. I know we will if we're ever up there again. I wish I could duplicate this place and put it down the street from me, I would frequent there for sure.

Sunday Morning we slept in till almost 11!! I didn't even think I could do that anymore! We both woke up feeling 100% better and ready to eat a yummy breakfast. Our hotel room had a pamphlet of great places to eat and so we ended up picking a local favorite from the list called CJ's Pantry in Redondo Beach. Amazing food!! It was so delicious!! I had pumpkin pancakes with cinnamon and sugar sprinkled on top and they were soooooo good! We totally recommend it. After breakfast/lunch we checked in with Kyle's mom to see how Katelyn was doing. She had just gone down for a nap so we decided to drive home by way of the coast. What a beautiful drive. On the way we stopped at a new hotel called The Terrenea and also The Donald Trump National Golf Course. Here are some of the beautiful views from Rancho Palos Verdes.

We got back to the beach house around 4:30 and Katelyn had just woken up from her nap. She was excited to see us, but we could tell she had so much fun with her Grandma, Auntie Leah, Uncle Brendan and Auntie Ashtyn over the weekend. Guess we'll have to leave her more often since we know she has tons of fun! Kyle and I feel so blessed to live close to family who can watch Katelyn and we really needed the time away together, especially after having him gone for so many days.

Thanks Gigi, Auntie Leah, & Uncle Brendan for loving our Katelyn while we were gone!

Sew, Sew, Sew

is what I've been doing while Kyle's been traveling. I'm getting ready for a Fall Boutique at Saddleback Covenant Church on November 12th. I'm so excited; it's my first boutique! Here's some of the collections I've been working on.

I just started doing something a little different with my wipes cases. I've fallen in love withe making cute posey flowers and I think that they are not only fun, but really add to the wipes case.

Check out the store to purchase new collections:

This Nursing Cover Up and Tote was an order I just finished for a friend of mine to give as a gift at an upcoming baby shower. She also ordered a matching case and a case for herself like the one in the picture above.

I wanted to do something a little more "wild" and so I went with a leopard print and black damask material. I had so much fun sewing with this material!