Come join us and follow our adventures!

~Hannah & Matt

Sweetheart,

With just 5 days to go **insert double fist pump and excited squeal** here are 5 reasons I love you:

1. In a world where shallow, temporary, uncommitted relationships are the norm, you have shown me what a deep, enduring, “I’m-all-in” relationship looks like. You continue to go the distance, to take the initiative, to step out in the lead every day. From the bottom of my heart: thank you.

2. When it would be so easy to take, you give – unreservedly and without conditions. This blows me away every time.

3. We laugh until we cry. Together. Of course, everyone always says, “I want to marry someone with a sense of humor,” but I hit the jack pot with you, babe

4. You care about me more than I care about myself. You don’t just want me to be safe and healthy and happy – you make sure that I am. You’re concern for me is humbling and a difficult act to follow.

5. It is becoming more and more clear to me that our society no longer understands what it means to be a true friend. I’m so thankful that you do. You know what it means to share your heart with someone, to be faithful, to love unconditionally and to keep adventure constantly alive.

I love you, Matt. God has blessed me through you in unimaginable ways. I’m looking forward to a lifetime of love!

♥

Hannah

(1.) Our guest book came…

(2.) Matt surprised me with flowers this week…

(3.) Wedding gifts are arriving…

(4.) It’s the weekend…

I don’t have a picture of this…but I think it stands just fine on it’s own

Happy Saturday!!!!!

But can you blame me?

We’re two weeks out. 14 short days. Well, I guess “short” is relative. It’s flying by and then it isn’t. Anyone who’s ever waited for anything knows what I mean.

We’re staying busy. We moved Lydia out and moved Matt’s stuff in. It was like Christmas. Everything old is new again – it’s a chance to start over and I’m loving it. There have been boxes to open and sort through, decisions on what to keep and what to throw away, sell, refurbish. Decorating and rearranging, cleaning and organizing. Anyone who knows me, knows that kind of stuff is right up my alley

It has been exciting for both of us to watch this house become our home. What a dream come true. Moving furniture, wading through piles of packing paper, finding creative ways to organize stuff and hanging pictures has never been more fun. Because now it’s ours. And no matter how many times we move in the future this will always be our first home together. Something you don’t ever forget.

Now that it’s almost here – this life together – it just seems natural. Like it was always meant to be…it just took time. More time than I thought it would and, I guess, that’s really the key. It took more time than I thought it would, but God knew.

This weekend I had my shower – a delightful evening with dear friends; it was the most wonderful time and exceeded everything I had wanted. I got my hair colored Saturday. I’ve slowly been piling things I want to pack into my big, green suitcase. I’m having fun spending gift cards

Today I listened to Christmas music at work and drank a cup of stress relief tea. Yes, it worked. Haha. Both elements were the soothing touch I needed to my afternoon as I have gradually unloaded all my thoughts and “to do’s” and things to buy and places to go onto a pad of legal paper. Sometimes it just helps me to unwind it all, write it down, pull it off the merry-go-round that is my brain right now.

Two weeks. All I can think is how grateful I am. In every way. To be standing on the threshold of this new season in life, to have a wonderful man like Matt to share my life with, to see how God has woven our hearts together and intertwined our lives long before we even had a clue.

And those are just some words I felt like typing out today. You get what you get with the wedding so close. Ha. In fact, this might be my last post on this blog. Who knows. I’ll be starting a new one for us.

And I don’t know about you, but the sound of that one word is pretty wonderful to me

An hour-long-nap-on-the-living-room floor kind of day. A chili-and-cornbread kind of day.

A carve-a-jack-o-lantern kind of day…

There isn’t much time to leisurely soak up fall. At least not for us, not between wedding prep and the wedding and everything else.  But even though there isn’t much time, I decided I wanted to squeeze fall in. It’s important enough to be celebrated, even if briefly and in small ways.

So we got two big pumpkins for the front porch and I made a fall wreath for the front door. I pulled out the wicker pumpkins for inside and bought a couple of fall scented candles. I also made these from an idea I saw on Pinterest:

We’re squeezing fall in…little by little.

Still have a few more ideas to try…perhaps when we have another cozy-just-want-to-drink-hot-cider kind of day

Seven short months ago I gave in – at the prompting of a good friend – and joined eHarmony. I took the plunge. I decided to give it three months. That was it. If nothing came of it, nothing came of it. At least I could say I gave it a shot.

So, I did. And a few weeks after I joined, I was matched with Matt. I remember viewing his profile and not being too far into it before I thought, Wow. I would talk to this guy if he asked to talk to me. I left it at that. An unspoken acknowledgement. I had made the choice before I joined not to initiate any conversations, to just see who contacted me and let the Lord work how He wanted.

One month later I opened my email to find a notification from eHarmony. Matt wanted to talk to me. I remember him. And so I replied.

And that was the beginning.

The beginning of a relationship that would affect every part of my life. In the best possible ways. God chose to use the most unexpected avenue to bring the most amazing man into my life. And I will be thankful every day I have breath.

Baby, I can’t wait to spend forever with you. I ♥ you.

♥♥♥♥

Tuesday evening we did our engagement shoot. Mom took the photos and Lydia helped me with styling. It all came together beautifully and I am so excited about our guest book and getting prints for our house.

Here are a few of our favorites…

More to come…

Friday evening we wanted to get out and enjoy the beautiful fall weather.

There is a park in our neighborhood that sits up on a hill. It’s close enough to walk, so we took a basket filled with a delicious Italian dinner, spread out a blanket and enjoyed each other’s company and the sunset.

It was perfect.

Perfect weather.

Perfect company.

Perfect food.

The perfect October Eve picnic.

It always felt like a nebulous dream. Something that was always just a little out of reach. It was difficult to even imagine what it would feel like.

But now I am.

I’m getting married in 32 days.

The thing is… I still feel like I’m dreaming It’s surreal actually. Almost as though this isn’t me going to dress fittings, looking at wedding bands and deciding on recessional music. It has to be someone else. Haha.

I don’t think it’s really hit me yet. The fact that I get to marry the most wonderful man I’ve ever met and spend the rest of my life with him.

I’m not sure how long it will take to really sink in. Maybe never. All I can say is, Thank you, Lord, for giving me someone I don’t deserve - a man who loves You and who loves me - the answer to my prayers.

I ♥  you, sweetheart And I can’t wait to be your wife!

First stop on our second road trip in two weeks. This time we drove with my family, heading to my grandpa’s wedding in Illinois.

We stayed the night downtown and our rooms had a great view of the arch. That evening, Matt and I got to go on a date We walked down to the arch and then had a fabulous dinner at Mosaic.

(bumming around the arch)

Chicago

Another place I’ve never been. These two weeks of road trips were chock full of places I’ve never been. So fun.

We parked the van and took the train, a nice, relaxing hour ride into Union Station.

It was Sunday and a game day, so the streets were pretty quiet. In a lot of ways, it was like we had the city to ourselves.

And it made shopping at H&M a tad bit easier

(taking the train downtown)

(our version of a photo booth)

(amazing pizza)

(wonderful architecture)

(at the “bean” in millennium park)

(yes, it was drizzling most of the time, but it fit the vision of Chicago
I had in my mind)

(union station)

Another fun road trip. Another batch of wonderful memories to savor for years to come.

And now we’re HOME