our wedding day ... part II

The Reception!!!!

So after the hard part was finished (the ceremony), it was time for the party to start!!!!! I was extremely lucky with my reception hall because they were amazing! They wanted everything to be perfect for me and for me to be stress free!! And I have to stay I am so glad I didn't have anything to worry about! Once we arrived at the reception it was chaotic. James and I were getting pulled from one end of the room to another. We had to take pictures here and go visit this person here. The first two hours of the reception was absolutely crazy!!! But after all of the traditions were finished, it was time to have some fun.

First Dance as Mr. and Mrs. James Gautreaux!!!!

His Tabasco cake!!! So cute!

wedding party toast!

 When planning the wedding I was totally against shoving the cake in each others face! I thought it was so weird and I didn't want to get dirty but..... when we were about the cut the cake the photographer looked at me and said "Make it interesting" so I smushed the cake in his face!!! He was not expecting it at all and he ended up getting me in the end! I had cake shoved up my nose and all over my face but it was totally worth it and so much fun!!!

It started out okay!!!

and this is how it ended!!!

One tradition we have in Louisiana is the money dance. It is something I thought every wedding had but apparently it is just a southern thing! (Who would't want a money dance?!?) At the beginning James' line was a lot longer than mine and he was teasing me and saying more people loved him!! Well in the end I made more money than he did!! (HA-HA) It was such a fun time and we were able to thank everyone for coming and being so generous!




We spent the rest of the time dancing and having fun with our friends and family. It was such a special day and I am so grateful for everything everyone did for us to make our wedding day awesome.

The groomsmen attacked me!!!

Yep!!! That's my husband! HA-HA

one side of my family! (The Foret's)

Here are a few of the detailed pictures from our big day!!! 

May 28, 2011 was the absolute best day of my life! It was more than I could have ever imagined and I feel so blessed to have been surrounded by my friends and family and of course my HUSBAND!! 

XOXO

burrrrr.... it's cold outside

Today is the first really cold day of the season here in Louisiana!! The weather around here is so up and down, it never really stays cold for too long. So this morning when I woke up and it was 29 degrees I was soooo excited! (I know seems silly but I love wearing scarfs, hats and boots)

Good Morning from the Gautreaux's!!!!

Hope everyone has a great day!!

How cute is he in this hat?!?!

XOXO

our wedding day... part I

Almost eight months later and I am finally blogging about the best day of my life... MY WEDDING DAY!

After a year and a half of planning the day was finally here and I was so excited!
The morning of the wedding started off a little rough!! The night before the wedding, my grandfather had a huge crawfish boil for all of my family and we ended up having a few too many drinks and no getting home until around 2:30am!! Keep in mind I had to be up for 6:30am!!! It was definitely not the way I was planning  spending the night before I got married,but I am so glad we had that night! We hadn't seem some of the family in probably almost ten years, so it was fun to hang out with them! But let me tell you 6:30 came really fast and I was exhausted!! I couldn't believe I was that tired and a tad hungover on my wedding day!!!! But lucky I have the best friends/bridesmaids in the world and they showed up with burger king and a sprite!!! And within an hour I had totally forgotten about feeling sick and being tired. I was the bride and this was going to be the best day of my life.

So my girls and I spent the morning getting our hair and makeup done and just joking around! it was really nice to have that time with them because it kept me calm, cool, and collected!! But then I looked at the clock and realized we were running late!!!! That is when panic set in!!! And on top of that we had forgotten to pick up my bouquet at the florist!!! (Let's just say i was having a nervous breakdown at that point) but in the end we got to my aunts house just in time to get ready and head to the church!!!!

Once we left my aunts it really set in that this was my wedding day! In about an hour I was going to be marrying my best friend and the man I wanted to spend the rest of my life with. I sat next to my BFF and MOH and every time I would look at her I would tear up! She has been there through the good and the bad of the last 15 years and I was so happy to have her there on the best day of my life! 

When we got to the church they hid us in a little room so no one could see us. While we were in the room James had his best man bring me a letter he had written that morning and lets just say the tears where flowing at that point. I just kept thinking how amazing of a man he was and how lucky I was to have him in my life!

After all the guest had arrived we were finally able to start. I was so nervous and couldn't wait until I could walk down the aisle! It was the day I had been dreaming about since I was a little girl! Before the wedding my grandmother told me to just look around and take everything in when those doors opened and just be in the moment, I have to say that was great advice. Everything is such a blur of those few minutes of walking down the aisle and I am glad I just soaked it all up! There were so many people and I could just feel the love and happiness everyone had for us and then I looked at my groom and saw his smiling face; I will never forget that beautiful moment of pure happiness. Most of the ceremony itself is a complete blur to me. I felt like it went by so fast and all I wanted to do was stare at my soon to be husband.

           

There was moment I do remember, before the wedding I had asked my step-cousins to sing for the wedding. Well i guess I was just so excited but I really can't remember them singing until this moment. Its like my ears were shut and then they opened and I thought I was hearing angels singing. Their voices were so beautiful and I looked and James and said "That's Claire and Rachel singing and just started crying" It was such a beautiful moment and I feel so blessed to have had them be apart of my special day. 

One thing I was worried about was the veil. When picking a dress and veil, I wanted something that was just in the back. I hate when I see brides with their veils messed up in every picture because someone didn't fix it and I didn't want to worry about it. BUT little did I know my groom loves it when the bride has her veil covering her face!!!! When he said that I was in complete shock!!!! Luckily for me this was before I had bought anything, so I had to change directions and start looking for something totally different. I realized that most of this day was about what I wanted, so I decided to surprise him with the one thing he said he liked(I told him I hated the veil in front of the face, so he wasn't expecting for the doors to open and for me to be standing there with it over my face!) . But let me just say I made my grandfather practice over and over to make sure i wouldn’t look silly with a huge bulge of veil on top of my head!!!! I also gave my maid of honor permission to walk up at any point of the ceremony and fix it if she noticed!  The look on his face when those doors opened was something I will not forget. He was truly surprised at what he saw and that just made my heart melt!!! When it was just him and I in the limo after the ceremony he told me how happy he was that I had done that for him even though I didn't like it, but I have to say i ended up loving it and the way I looked on that day!

  Another thing I was worried about was the "kiss"! I know I sound silly but I have seen so many couples that just over-do it or under-do it and I wanted ours to be perfect! But let me tell you, it was more than perfect, it was magical! I am assuming it was magical for him too beings as he went in for another one right after! HA-HA

kiss #1

...

kiss #2

So as you can see my wedding day was absolutely fabulous and everything I wanted it to be!!!! I was surrounded by my family and friends and of course my HUSBAND!!!!! (still feels totally weird saying that!)

Here are a few more of my favorite pictures =)

Mr. and Mrs. James Gautreaux!!!!!

Our A-Mazing wedding party!!

such a sweet moment!!!!

My family

I couldn't stop smiling and looking at him! 

His family

my Maw-Maw
LOVE her so much!!!!

this is the school that we met at in Kindergarten

my girlies

I could probably write a million other stories about the ceremony and I definitely have a ton of other pictures, but these are a few of my favorites that I wanted to share!!!

Coming Soon...

our wedding day part II and Honeymoon!!!

XOXO

Pictures taken by:

http://amandacausey.com/

peaks, pits, and prayers 2012

I've never really been the type to have a new years resolution, mainly because I know I will never follow through with them and I am not good at failure... so why set yourself up for it has always been my outlook.

BUT... this year is different. Marriage is a very new thing for the mister and I and making it last is our top priority.

SO... Thanks to Pinterest I've come up with a couple things that we can do daily to strengthen our relationship.

 A JOURNAL

We will be keeping a  journal of our peaks, pits, and prayers of the day. It is a small something that I think will truly make us realize how much good we have in our life and how the pits of the day are just small meaningless speed bumps in our long road of happiness.

PRAYING MORE AS A COUPLE

We both find ourselves praying individually more than as a couple and with the new year that is something we want to change. With the busy life we lead it is so easy to get sidetracked and not make time for daily prayer as a couple and it is something I personally think brings couples together and strengthens the bond between husband and wife, so this year this is a major resolution of ours.

Twenty twelve is sure to bring many changes in the Gautreaux household and we are strapped in and ready for the ride of a little thing called LIFE.



Happy New Year!!!



P.S.   I wouldn't mind loosing ten pounds and having a six pack by summer too ;)




XOXO

Christmas Craziness

We hope everyone had an amazing Christmas filled with tons of love and laughter and enjoying family and friends. Christmas is our favorite time of the year and beings as this year is our first year being married it was extra special to us! As Christmas approached I found myself stressing out way too much over the silly things... presents!!! I have a big problem with being creative with my gift giving; I would so much rather a gift card and let them get what they want! So I spent a lot of time worrying about presents and if they were creative enough, until one day James looked at me and said "Baby, this time of year is not about the presents it's about spending time with family and friends. Just calm down and enjoy it!!" and I am so glad he said that because at that point I stopped stressing and really started enjoying the holiday season! 

We had an amazing Christmas this year! We celebrated with James' family a couple of weeks ago and we spent the last couple of days visiting all of my family (four different houses)!!! It can be quite chaotic and very overwhelming but to me that's Christmas and I wouldn't have it any other way!! Since we had to be at my moms on Christmas morning at 9, James woke me up and we did our own family Christmas at 6:30am!!! We didn't give each other much but it was so nice to just have such a special moment together!!! After we opened presents we took our first Christmas morning family picture and decided it will be a new family tradition!!! 

Overall Christmas this year was a success!!! 

now bring on 2012!!!!!

XOXO

fall festivities

Sorry for the blogging delay but we have finally purchased our new computer and now I am ready to blog my little heart out!!! We have been extremely busy the past few months. But recently we have really been able to take time to spend with family and friends and most of all we got to enjoy each other and being married! 

Here is  little of life lately for the Gautreaux's

Ever since I can remember James' dad has been talking about the fact that I had never been to an aquarium and that I had never been to the state capitol! I know seems silly, but it has been an ongoing joke the whole time we have been together. So we decided to take a weekend trip to New Orleans. We had a lot of things on our list, so we woke up early Saturday morning and headed to the big easy! We spent the weekend going to the WWII museum, the Aquarium, Bourbon Street, the French Quarter, and just being a real New Orleans tourist! While we were there we even witnessed a protest, a wedding march, and a funeral procession down the French quarter (which were all firsts for me!) Overall we had an amazing weekend with the in-laws. It is so nice to have them to enjoy these fun trips with us! Next mini-trip we will be heading to Baton Rouge to visit the State Capitol!!

Here are a few of my favorite pictures from the trip!

This year we decided we would go as a family (James, Teddy, Daisy, and I) to get our pumpkins for Halloween! I know it sounds silly, but we had a really good time walking around with the puppies looking at pumpkins trying to find the perfect ones! We probably walked around them three times before I finally picked the ones I wanted! The puppies had so much fun being the center of attention while all of the little kids played with them. We eventually picked out a few of our favorites and headed to check out! As we were leaving I realized we hadn't taken a picture so I hurried and went back to take a quick family picture!

Here is the one picture I have from our family trip to the pumpkin patch!

James' grandparents invited us to spend the weekend with them about a month ago and it was an absolute blast! They live about an hour and a half away and we never really get to see them, so we were thrilled when we got the invite. We were really looking forward to spending some QT time with them and getting to know them better! During our trip we were able to go to Saint Francisville and see historical houses, eat at a few amazing restaurants, watch LSU kick some Alabama booty, and spend some time with James' sister Jenny and her husband Joel.

Here are a few pictures of us with Papa and Nana at Rosedawn Plantation 

After months of putting it off James finally got his wisdom teeth taken out in November. It was an interesting situation... to say the least! I barely remember getting mine taken out so I really wasn't sure what to expect from him. Especially since we all know men whine WAY more than women, so I had mentally prepared myself to spend my weekend with him being a total baby. Well much to my surprise he was a trooper. Surgery always makes me super nervous, so the whole time he was in surgery I was a mess! I have this bad habit of always thinking about all of the bad things that can happen, which then makes me freak out and think something is the matter the whole time I am waiting!!!! But of course everything was fine and after they brought him to recovery I was able to go see his goofy drugged up self! It was a sight to see! He was acting so silly and flirting with all of the nurses!!! He spent the next few days being very sore, but by Monday all was fine and he returned back to work!!! All in all, it was not nearly as bad as I thought it would be and I am so glad we have that behind us!!!!

Here is a Before and after pic of the silly goose!

Can you tell he only got two on one side out?!?!

Most of all this season we have focused on our relationship as a married couple! On October 1st we celebrated our 6th date-anniversary and on November 28th we celebrated 6 months of being married. We live such a busy life and sometimes it is easy to forget about spending one on one time together focusing on each other. Most of the time we have weeknights off together but after dinner we always seem to be distracted by homework or night class and we rarely just get to sit and relax together. Lately we have really tried to just enjoy each other. We have been renting a lot of movies and cuddling up on the couch together to watch them. We both love movies so much and it is a way for us to just relax. Another thing we have recently started doing is having coffee together every morning. James has to be at work at 7am, so he wakes up at 5:30 and showers and gets dressed then at 6:00 he wakes me up with a cup of coffee. At first I wasn't really a fan of the idea because I am not really a morning person! I love to sleep and hate waking up early, but honestly now it is my favorite part of the day. It is the one time in our day there are no distractions we just sit in bed and drink our coffee and talk for thirty minutes. I have come to truly cherish our mornings together and look forward to it everyday. 

So this is a little of what we have been up to lately. It has been so much fun and we are really looking forward to Christmas and the New Year!

xoxo

Pasta Problems

Hello everyone!
Well I would love to be blogging more than I am now but unfortunately our computer is on the fritz and we are being forced to use my grandfathers mini-computer and let’s just say it is not working so well, but I feel like I have so much to say I am just going to suck it up and continue blogging!

A couple months ago I decided to cook spaghetti, which is a regular in our house, so I went to the store and got all of the ingredients and when I returned I immediately began cooking. After getting my sauce started I put the water boiling for the noodles. When the water began boiling I went to pour the noodles in and they spilled out of box and before I even realized what was happening half of the box had fallen into the burner!! I started screaming and trying to get them out, but they were burning and burning FAST. Not long after that the smoke detector started going off! I didn't know what to do. James started waving a towel to make the smoke go away and I opened the patio door to try to get all of the smoke out of our apartment but nothing was working. Ten minutes later it was still going off and I was started to choke on the smoke so I walked outside and two of our neighbors were standing outside trying to figure out what was going on. Can you say EMBARRASSING?!?!?! I told them our apartment wasn’t burning down, I had just dropped noodle into the burner. I was so frazzled and apologetic but they just looked at me like I was stupid. I felt like such an idiot. It wasn't until I walked back inside that we realized we could unplug the detector to make it stop going off!!!!! All we could do was laugh at how silly we were and how stupid we must have seemed to our neighbors. Needless to say the spaghetti came out amazing and we spent the whole night laughing and joking about it. It ended up being a great night and such a learning experience. We now know to unplug the detector every time we cook just in case another incident would happen. We want to save ourselves from the embarrassment!!! By the way... our apartment smelled burnt for at least a week!!!
Hope everyone gets a good laugh reading this!!!!

XOXO