New Baby Cousin Ryan

This weekend in Elk Grove was not only super productive in terms of wedding stuff, but really fun!

I got to visit with my cousin Kelly and meet her new baby Ryan!

He is absolutely adorable and makes the cutest noises when he sleeps!

I'm sure Kelly was exhausted after only 10 days with a new baby, but took some time out of her day to catch up with Krista and I, and give us the tour of her new home and baby's room.

So hats off to Kelly who looks great, and doing well as a new mom to a beautiful baby boy!

An Amazing Man!

I flew home on Friday....by myself, to surprise my mom on Mother's Day. Ben had a baseball game on Saturday and wasn't able to come up with me. It's only been a couple of days, but I miss him like crazy!

He knew I was a little bummed to leave him and the babies (Lola, Deuce, and DUI). I was unpacking my suitcase when I got to the house, and inside was a present from Ben. A cute bracelet from one of my favorite jewelry companies.

Ben always does sweet things like this, and I feel so lucky to have such a wonderful man in my life!

Mother's Day!!

It's hard when you live so far from your mom......luckily we still get to see each other often. My mom was asking us to come up from San Diego for Mother's Day. I didn't know if I could swing it after all the things that have been happening in the last few weeks, with the dance show, Disneyland performances, taking college classes, and planning for the wedding.

Needless to say, I didn't want to miss a Mother's Day with my mom...or grandmothers. Krista surprised my mom by flying in on Thursday night, and I surprised her by flying in on Friday night. It was fun keeping it a secret, even though she was giving us a bad time about not coming.

We had a BBQ with the Zehnder family on Saturday night, and then today we did our 2nd annual Mother's Day wine tasting in Plymouth with my parents and Grandma Marie and Grandpa Wayne.

I love our new tradition and can't wait for many more years with all of the new family coming into our lives with 2 new marriages in the next year. It's awesome to have such a wonderful family and a mom who has been there for me through every hard time and happy moment!

Happy Mother's Day!

Dancing About Love!!

The dance show is finally over, and it was better than I could have expected. Over 100 kids took the stage at 7pm on April 29th, and will remember it for the rest of their lives. This dance show was memorable for me as well. This year I choreographed a dance for my seniors who were the dancers who helped me build the dance company and were just little sophomores in my beginning dance class, my first year of teaching. I also choreographed a dance for my husband-to-be.

The dance I choreographed for Ben, turned out awesome! I danced with nine of my dancers in all white costumes to the Plain White T's "1, 2, 3, 4". It was a dance with a underlying marriage theme. It was perfect! Ben sat in a reserved seat right in the middle of the theater, and even though I couldn't see him in the darkness, I knew he was there.

He says it was his favorite dance in the whole show.....as it should be. But it was something of a lasting gift. The next day he sent me a text that he'd heard "his song" on the radio and got a little choked up thinking about me up there on the stage, dancing for him.

Overall it was an extraordinary night! Every year I say I'm going to spend less time preparing for the show (4 months this year), but it almost always seems worth it in the end.

The Dress

I'm starting to have a minor freak-out moment. I tried on and purchased my dress over 4 months ago. I can't even remember what it feels like on. I know that I really liked it then....but it has been sooo long. When will they call to tell me my dress is in?

The wedding is only 3 months away.......3 months!!! I can't believe how time has flown.........but I want to see my dress!!

Did/does anyone else have dress anxiety?

The Best Bridal Party Ever!!

I have always known how lucky I was to have such great family and friends, but my bachelorette cruise just reinforced this for me! I just had one of the best weekends ever!!

Your bachelorette party is supposed to be all about you.....but my weekend far exceeded this. I was excited to just have a weekend without worries, or things to do, or meals to cook, to spend time with my mom, 2 sisters, and 2 best friends. Instead, my weekend started and then continued with gifts and gifts and more gifts.

We started the weekend in the cutest shirts ever.....designed by my bridal party. Each person had their own personalized shirt on the back, and a front that says "Last Fling Before the Ring". The funniest thing was that everyone kept asking who the bride was....they didn't seem to get that I was the only one in white, or that it said "bride" really big across the back.

Once we were on board, I received more gifts and lunch....which included a bride-to-be pin.......which I happily sported all weekend, and flower lei, a "Last Fling Before the Ring" tote bag, some inappropriate shot glasses, a veil, and a cute lingerie set in hot pink.

The generosity and thoughtfulness didn't stop there. At dinner there were more gifts! I got a super cute glittery "bachelorette" tiara (yes, I rocked it on the last night!). I also got an awesome pair of boy shorts with "property of coach gravenkamp" written on the butt, and another adorable lingerie set.

I have to say it again......I have the best bridal party ever! It isn't about the gifts...it meant so much more that they thought of me and wanted to make this such a special time for me. They made this an unforgettable experience. I can't wait for the many more years of love and friendship with these girls! What a great send off to my life as a single woman!

Maybe.....

Maybe Ben is right.....have I taken on too much?

If my blog is any indication, you can see I've been incredibly busy and have not blogged in over a month. I am so blessed with all the wonderful things in my life, but it's possible I have taken on one too many things this year. I just finished choreographing and co-directing our spring musical (which sold out the little theater at the California Center for the Arts), which was a huge undertaking.

I am now getting ready to put on our Spring Dance Concert, which is bigger than you could ever imagine. I have over 100 dancers performing in over 23 dances. Not only am I the Director, but choreographer, costume designer, producer, publicity director, show shirt screen printer (yes, I took a class so I could do it all), and back-stage manager. This isn't your usual high school dance concert. We perform on a professional stage (same as Alvin Ailey Company when they come to town), and have had an audience of almost 1500 patrons. We now have a retirement community taking a trip to see our show. This year's show is going to be bigger and better than before.

This weekend I'll be heading out of town...for an amazing weekend with the girls. We are going on my bachelorette cruise to Mexico and I can't wait. It will be a nice escape from all this dance show stuff!

There is so little time left in this school year, it's scary. I have a bridal shower in Elk Grove in May. (I just got the invite and they are absolutely adorable....Aunt Chelle and the girls did a great job!) When school ends, Ben will go right in to teaching summer school and near the end of June I'll have another bridal shower, this time in SD. We will only have one week left during June to come in to town to do wedding stuff.

The first week in July we are going to New York for a week. It is going to be fantastic. For Ben's Birthday, I surprised him with airline tickets to the East Coast, and tickets to see the Met's (Ben's team) play the Phillies on the Fourth of July, and then we take the train over to New York to see the Met's play the Dodgers (We saw Met's play at Dodger Stadium on our third date) in the new Met's stadium. For my Birthday, Ben got us tickets to a Broadway play, and a gift certificate for me to take a couple dance classes at the Alvin Ailey Dance studio. The crazy thing is that we arrive back in San Diego, with only three weeks before the wedding.

Yes....it's official. I'm insane....but at least I'm organized and I think I've got it all under control.
But we'll see come August 1st!