1 Month till the Wedding!

On the 4th we went to the Bee's game and had amazing hotdogs and dippin dots. No one cared that the bees did terrible because we have so much fun just watching and eating and watching the fireworks after. Then, on the 5th we went boating with Ryan and Shayle and it was so fun. I felt like I was hit by a truck the next day because I fell hard a couple times. It was fun to see dal get up for the first time on the wake board. He's on the right waving lol

This was us at the Bee's game. Jake and Josie had festive outfits of course. I saw Karlie ( the new miss utah) at the game and we chatted a little. I honestly do not envy her job at all hahaha Rewarding, but hard.

My kids are so dang cute. We got a shaved ice at this place with palm trees that misted you. And they gave me the "wedding cake" flavor. It was really good! Looooved my festive nails that kid did for the 4th. We're getting farther on the house! We are done with sheetrock, and now we're almost done with mudding and sanding. Next we paint! (we were sheet rocking on the 4th, so it looks much different now)

I went to a job interview for an office assistant and-long story short- got the job and ended up turning it down. They were looking for someone permanent and I would have to quit to do my student teaching in the fall. This was before the interview. I love the lula roe skirts that Aubrey sold me. They're professional looking but still very comfortable. Perfect for when I start teaching. 

We had a bridal shower last saturday but I don't have the pictures from it yet. This was sent by my awesome miss utah hostess lea ann. She's hilarious! She's got me all set up to become a bartender! :)

Everyone has been so generous for us lately and I am so so grateful. Can't wait to get the shower pictures up in a few weeks.

Soooo....this happened. Poor kids got shaved. We're hoping it grows back a little before the wedding so they don't look so naked. The groomer said that they were both really well-behaved and she tried to keep it as long as possible. We haven't been brushing regularly so they got a little shorter cuts than we wanted.

 

 I got my wedding shoes from forever young! I also got my shoes for the shower as well. You'll see those when I get those pics up. But anyway I'm trying to decide if I should have the flowers on them or not. They're gold with a little bling, and the flowers are really light pink. (all wedding colors). Still deciding....

This is Jakey looking dapper in his brand new wedding tux! He's all ready for the big day! Josie's dress needs a few alterations, but then she'll be ready too! woohoo! (so freakin' cute, I know. My kids should be models for the dog food bags or something.)

 This is a front and back picture of the wedding ceremony programs. I am so glad I finally got that off my list of things to do. I kept going back and forth on the design, and then it would time out on my computer and I'd lose everything I typed. So now I have them ordered and me and the bridesmaids will glue sticks on the back so that they can use them as fans. (that's why there's a gap in the middle)

 

This is my awesome "Bride" hoodie that my future mother-in-law gave me! She's awesome. and I definitely wear this as much as possible hahaha

I was gone for a long time and Josie was literally hugging me hahaha it was so precious. They miss me when I am gone for longer than 4 hours or so. The fall will definitely be an adjustment for them. (Don't look at the piles behind. Since the house isn't done yet I have my stuff around stacked everywhere lol)

We got the wedding invitations! I love how they turned out! Holy cow though, this is the one part about it that completely sucks. I hate the addressing and stamping. This is the front.

 This is the back. It says our parents names and we're registered at bed bath and beyond and walmart.

This is me sending out the first bunch that we got done. It's been a long process, so I'm so happy that they're all almost sent out.

Me and my mom both got dresses shipped to us today! This is my mom's dress for the wedding. All the moms are wearing champagne. It looks really good!

This is my dress that I'm going to wear when we leave the reception at the send off. I had to hold it up because it was too big. But I like it a lot! I can reuse it for halloween and be Marilyn Monroe!

My step mom is so sweet and funny and creative. She makes everyone quilts for big life events, so she is making us one for the wedding and she made both the dogs a mini quilt that matches! With their names embroidered on them! Sooo cute!!! :) This is Jake snuggling his.

This is Josie with Jake's quilt. She hasn't gotten hers yet. This is the back of his, and on hers it will be pink and red (more feminine for her lol) She's jealous she doesn't have one yet hahaha

The stress has been a little high now days. I have a lot of tests and long papers and presentations for school and then the wedding and house stuff. We are working on getting a videographer still. Still training at velocity and yesterday I dropped a bar on my shin. But today I beat my 300 yard shuttle time, and I haven't done that since 2 weeks before Miss Utah! I was also proud that I still hold the record there for the "Cindy" crossfit workout. 

Anyway, I should be studying. I also have to email the DJ and photographer. 

I need to stop with the whole stress thing. I've had 3 cold sores, 1 canker sore, and 24 zits in the last week because of it. hahah not pretty. 

1 month from today I get married!!! :) The end is in sight!

-Sydney

The Happiest Times

I say this every time I post, but I really can't believe that we are getting married in only 43 days. I have this little count down on my computer and I remember when it said 175 or something like that. We had an amazing engagement party. Because we couldn't tell anyone all year and because some people haven't been as excited as we thought they'd be, it was definitely nice to see that we have support from a lot of good family and friends, and those people are happy for us. That's all that matters. It really touched me that Rachael and Randy both worked so hard to make sure that we had a good time. Caitlin and her gang came all the way out from Vernal and Cedar City, Sydney, Ben, Sarah and Brandon all came from Provo, Dallin's family came from Cedar Hills, Lindsey came even though she had to leave really fast for Miss Draper pageant. Anyway I was really touched by how willing people were to travel for us. This year I've been so spoiled by having so many amazing friends, and they've been doing a lot for me. I love everyone in my life- I got lucky in that department. Here's some pics from the engagement bbq party.

Also, we finally got all the bridal shower invitations out! Holy crap I can't believe it's in a week! I'm so excited! I already got my outfit that I'm going to wear for it! :) My Aunt Kim is hosting it at her house and her, my mom, and kaylynn have all put a lot of work into this, and again, I'm spoiled, lucky, and so grateful. This is the cute invitation.

This is a little synopsis of what we've been doing lately. For 2 weeks we've been eating crappy food and not working out (thus calling it fat fortnight). We're both in school still and I'm studying for the praxis. I take it on july 23 and this is my last semester in regular classes before student teaching! We went to the pool on sunday and it was really relaxing. And we are planning the shower next week.

 We went to the Jos A Banks tux shop in the District and Dallin ordered his official wedding tux! He had to try it on in grey because that was the right fit. They will get the actual tux in next week and he'll go in for alterations. He was excited and the guys there that helped us were so nice. I took a picture of myself sitting there because I liked how big my ring looked haha

I got the kids all decked out for the 4th of July! I'm not allowed to buy them any more clothes so I bought cheap ribbon and tied it on their collars. This is them taking a nap on a pile of clean laundry. They love doing that. They always do that and it bugs me haha but this time I let them sleep because they looked so dang cute.

I don't remember if I've put our engagement pictures up on here or not. Here are our favorites. We'll get small prints of other ones for the tables at the reception. These are what we chose for the wedding invitations though. Our photographer is amazing and the place we went was gorgeous. I love how they turned out. 

I spent some time with Kim Campa and Kid this week and it was so fun to see good friends that I haven't seen in a while and catch up. I am getting 2 new part time jobs and my friend/bridesmaid Mickie is moving back to Utah from Oregon tomorrow! These are truly the happiest days. We're having a lot of big things happen this year, and we'll probably have these memories and friendships the rest of our lives. Me and Dallin are really lucky and really happy. 

Anyway, see you next Saturday!!!

:)

-Sydney (soon to be) Graff!

It's Wedding Time!

I can't believe that Miss Utah is over. It makes me a tiny bit sad, but I'm mostly happy because that was the most stressful thing in the entire world.
This me getting my hair done before miss utah. It ended up really dark again, but it will fade to be perfect in a few months.

This was right before we left to go to miss utah. I was sooooo nervous. I wore my 4 leaf clover necklace for luck. And that belt is actually a necklace that I thought looked cuter around my waist. Love that outfit. Got it for super cheap at plato's closet!

 This is the crappy sketch I sent millennial falls for our outline we want on our invitations haha I'm so bad.

 This is the amazing bouquet dallin gave me after Miss Utah was over on the final night. It is sooo beautiful and huge and it smells amazing. My tank top says Bride of course! :)

 This is the invitation for our bbq this saturday. I'm really excited to celebrate finally being engaged and being able to tell everyone! my lovely bridesmaid Rachael is throwing it for us and she is such a sweetheart for doing it because she just barely got her appendix out!

 This is my cute daughter :)

This was our view from the hotel during miss utah week. It was overcast and rainy mon-wed.

This was the staging area at show me your shoes parade. The outfits were all so cool and creative. I still think mine should've gotten an award, but oh well! ;)

This is juli she was another hostess in our group and she wanted to try on my crown. She dropped it after this picture an a jewel fell out hahaha but it popped back in easily.

This was me and kelsey's room!

This was my little station for getting ready at the capitol theater. It was so fun the first 2 nights, and the last 2 it was just getting old to sit there and get stage makeup on and do all my hair and extensions. haha but I did have a sweet setup.

This was my roommate kelsey she's miss draper. She made that week survivable! She is amazing and got me through the hard times. I will always consider her a close friend. 

I went by Millennial falls today! I am using a piece of my mom's 2 wedding dresses and shelly's to my dad to wrap around my bouquet. So I brought them that and had to approve something that's going on the cake. The flowers were all bloomed and it looks beautiful and I can't wait to get married there! (I took these through the window)

This is the site for our engagement party bbq on saturday! I am so stoked that there's a fire pit because I missed smore's so much when I was on my miss utah diet!

I made these for the bbq, bridal shower, and reception.

I love this gift I got from Anne Wilkens at Miss Utah because it reminds me that out of the 700 that competed for the local titles, I won miss orem. So even though I didn't win miss utah, I'm still a queen and I'm always going to have the 2013 title. That's a part of me that will always be there because it has influenced me and made me who I am today. It was a year I will never forget and it taught me how to work hard, be compassionate for others, and enjoy the journey.

This is me and my future hubby on the first day of miss utah week. He's rocking the Miss Orem button with my face on it! :)

This is during the show me your shoes parade. My teacher outfit was awesome. I love it. My shoes were school busses, my tights had kids on them, and i had ruler suspenders and glasses. I also had books and an apple for props. It was so freakin' cute and I am definitely going to find excuses to wear that again.

This was on the second night of prelims with my mom and tom. I love that dress. It makes me look like I actually have boobs! haha (Plus it was sponsored by bridal expressions!)

Me and my orem buds! Burna, Amy, and Emily the new teen queen on the last night of prelims. I did evening gown and on stage question that night. This is my evening gown. It's gorgeous. My question was "What do you consider your biggest accomplishment?"

On the final night I was so sick of wearing heels that I just wore my running shoes  under my dress. I stand on the back top riser so no one could see them anyway! And I was so happy to be off the diet finally! haha I ate everything in sight for 2 weeks!

We are now in the midst of planning the bbq and shower. We went straight from non-stop miss utah planning to non stop wedding planning! Luckily I am keeping up in school, and this block ends this week. I am so excited the wedding is in only 52 days! We got the honeymoon flights booked and I also got a short white dress to leave the reception in. Here's the link to it if you want to see it. It's shown in red but I got it in white. 

http://www.lightinthebox.com/A-line-Halter-Knee-length-Taffeta-Bridesmaid--Wedding-Party-Dress--HSX871-_p140267.html

I also have cute dresses for my engagement bbq and bridal shower already! They were cheap, but so cute. I will post pics of them as they come. I'm excited to see everyone saturday!

Thank you for your endless support during this crazy time! Love you all!

-Sydney