Thursday, November 8, 2012

Our Wedding Pictures (Finally) and Special Thanks!

I am finally putting our wedding pictures up! Thanks to everyone who came out to share our special day with us! Please take the time to read all the special thanks at the end of the blog to everyone who made our special day so special. There are captions on each picture to explain what it is, to avoid making this post too long, I won't go into too many details about our day. Sorry some of the pictures at the end are a little blurry since we were moving too fast, and there wasn't much light. Also my blog was acting difficult so there are random pictures that aren't in order. There are more pictures taken by my sisters, cousins and friends on my facebook if you want to see more!
My daddy waiting to see me for the first time in my dress


My daddy seeing me for the first time!


My niece Lauren and nephews Jonathon and Ryan about to walk down the aisle

My niece Mimi, and nephews Corey and Russell about to walk down the aisle

My niece Katie, and nephews Daniel and Sammy about to walk down the aisle

My niece Devani, and nephews David and Robert about to walk down the aisle

My brother-in-law Ryan walking my bridesmaids Dani(sister-in-law) and Renee(Adopted sister) down the aisle

Another pic of Ryan, Dani and Renee walking down the aisle

Groomsman Derek walking my sister Savannah down the aisle

My dad and I patiently waiting our turn

Groomsman Jamin walking my sister Kelsey down the aisle

Best man/brother-in-law Ricky walking the maid of honor Sarah and my sister Rachel down the aisle

We were ready to go, but the music wasn't LOL

My daddy walking me down the aisle and both of us trying not to trip

Almost there....

My daddy giving me away

My adorable flower girl and niece Lauren with my cute little nephew Jonathon

My dad is either really happy he didn't fall, or a little too excited to get rid of me...

Bob trying to hold me up since I was shaking out of excitement and my shoes were sinking in the grass

Awe, so glad this look he gives me everyday was caught on camera, this is how I know he loves me :)

Bob and I exchanging our vows

Trying to coax our little ring bearer, Braxton, up with the rings...

He's got a little case of stage fright with all the people watching

Exchanging of the rings

The new Mr. and Mrs. Loose!

Hugging my adopted mother

I think it's safe to say my new nieces love me... good thing cause I adore them!

Hugs from my new mother-in-law

I don't know what I'm looking at, but this is a great shot of my bouquet

Hugs from my Aunt Shauna
My nephews- Robert, Daniel, Jonathon, and Russell-
 being helpful and trying to figure out what to do with the aisle runner

My awesome adopted Asian family, and their new adopted brother/son!

The sign in table and guest book

My daddy talking to my mommy's BFF Patti

Group hug from all the nieces

Bob and I with all the nieces and nephews-Sammy, Mimi, Robert, Daniel, Devani, Katie,
Russell, Braxton, Corey, Ryan, Lauren, Jonathon and David!

Trying to get everyone situated for the group shot... not as easy as it seems...

Group shot #1 (Not everyone listened to the photographer when she said not to stand in the sun,
needless to say, we can't see their faces now...)

Group shot #2- Again half of the people are washed out, but it's hard to get a group
shot with that many people anyway- Oh well!

The Loose side of the family

Another shot of the Loose side of the family

Posing with the new sister-in-law Tessa and her family

Posing with the new sister-in-law Ana and her family

Posing with my new sister-in-law Dani


Posing with my new brother-in-law Ricky and his girlfriend Cassy

Ricky and Cassy goofing off

Posing with my new Mother-in-law Marcie, Father-in-law Wayne and
Grandma Malan

Bob and I with Grandma Malan

I LOVE Grandma Malan's face in this picture! It's one of my favorite shots!

Bobby getting kisses from his two best gals!

Bobby making silly faces

Posing with all my flower girls and now nieces!

Bob and I with all our nieces and nephews

Another try at getting all the nieces and nephews looking one direction,
and smiling... They were fidgety...

Another nieces and nephews shot, except we seem to have lost Braxton...

The girls weren't fidgety at all, the were loving the camera!

And the camera loves them!

My nieces Lauren, Devani, Katie and Mimi

Posing with my new brother-in-law Ryan and his family


Awe.. kissing couples

Right before this shot my father-in-law Wayne said
"You want me to kiss her again?" all exasperated, it was hilarious

Posing with my side of the family that stuck around long enough to finish
all the pictures with the Loose side

My hubby and I with my parents and sisters, us girls still out number them
by quite a bit, but I think my dad is glad to have at least one more guy in the family!

My parents with me and my new hubby

Awe! My two favorite men!

My sisters are excited they FINALLY have a brother!

Posing with my little sisters!

Savannah Shiveley from next door/Adopted sister

Me with all my bridesmaids

This is what we thought the men would pose like.... We were wrong....

My bridesmaid/sister-in-law Dani! She really didn't want to wear
a dress, especially a red one, but she did just for Bob and I! We felt loved!

My baby sister Savannah! She almost looks taller than me!

You may now kiss the bride!

My new Father-in-law and Mother-in-law!

Kisses from the Savannahs!

My little blond sister Kelsey! (She definitely looks taller than me!)

My little sister Rachel! (In my defense, I'm wearing flats...)

My adopted little sister Renee!

My adopted sister/best friend of 12+ years/Maid of Honor, Sarah!

My mommy and her BFF Patti

Sneaky Sarah stole my bouquet!

Bob waiting for me to walk down the aisle

This is how the groomsmen actually posed (see bridesmaid pic above)

This is how the groomsmen thought us girls would pose, they weren't really that far off

Another attempt at posing like us girls...

The lanterns lining the walkway

The bridal party

Kissing got some mixed reviews....

The girls kick some major butt!

The groomsmen and bridesmaids

The groomsmen and bridesmaids again

The bridal party/kissing audience LOL

More kissing

Posing with our posse

My bridesmaids!

Showing off those bouquets!

Classic over the shoulder pose

My maid of honor Sarah

We have to pose by the waterfall!

No, I don't ever get sick of kissing him!

Finally husband and wife!

Awe!

I love the way he looks at me!

Our lanterns at night

The rings

This is one of my favorites! We look so happy!

Eskimo kisses!

Classic High school dance pose, but this time with a setting sun..

The newly weds!

Awe, true love!

Gazing lovingly into each others eyes... Okay I was blinded so my eyes are actually closed...

Another kiss, we just got married though, give us a break!

Love this shot!

On the soon to be dance floor!

More over the shoulder looks

Another one of my favorite shots

The dessert bar (special thanks to my cousins Amy, Rob and Tracy for helping us
order, and bake everything!)

The cake (special thanks to my brother-in-law Ryan, sister-in-law Lisa
and her parents for making our cake for us!)

Another cake shot!

Our cake topper (passed down from Ana, found and given to us by Tessa,
and bride's hair painted by me...)

About to throw the bouquet

All the single ladies

The lucky catcher of the bouquet, my niece Devani!

Bob going for the garter

Going for the garter

The couple of single guys we were able to gather for the garter toss...

Daddy daughter dance to My Little Girl by Tim McGraw

I love my daddy!

My dad's laughing at me for tearing up, I told him it was okay for him to cry too, but he didn't..

Mommy son dance

You can tell she adores him by the way she looks at him!

mommy son dance to L.O.V.E by Nat King Cole

My favorite little swimmer from my teaching/coaching days
Caelyn and Meridian!

Another adopted sister, Imi!

The nieces (and Braxton) singing and beat boxing for us

My nephew and his new crush Sarah

Braxton singing

The cutting of the cake

Mwahahaha, Bob has no idea what's in store for him!

This is when Bob asks me if I'm going to be nice, I didn't answer....

I win! Bob got a face full of cake, he tried to do the same to me, but was blinded by
frosting in the eyes so he missed and put the whole thing in my mouth!

This is me looking all pleased with myself!

The audience is a mixture of stunned and applauding LOL
My family was excited I didn't take the boring way out, Bob's family is
usually nicer to each other... but they still thought it was funny!

Being a good wife and cleaning the frosting off my husbands face
(I'm surprised he didn't even retaliate!)

Our slide of cake

The outside of our getaway car, the inside is filled full of balloons, streamers, and
confetti. I was brushing confetti off my butt for weeks and had to vacuum it twice
to get all the confetti! We still find a random stray piece of confetti every now and then...

The dance floor mostly occupied by my sister, bridesmaids and flower girls.
For some reason the boys didn't want to come dance...

All the kids were loving Sarah! First Ryan, now my nieces and little swimmers!

Corrin

Jilly bean

Bob and I finally have another moment together so we can dance together!

Slow dancing to At Last by Etta James. Our first dance was to
The Way I am by Ingrid Michaelson

The sparklers being lit for our farewell walk

Ryan leading the way for us

This is when Bob first sees the car, I'm still looking where I'm walking so I don't trip over any
of the little kids

Posing with what we thought was going to be our get away car, but the car is a little
undriveable 

About to go spend our first night together as husband and wife! This was the end of a perfect night,
and the beginning of a perfect life. I know this is sappy, but I have fallen more and more in love
with my husband every single day since our wedding. I honestly didn't think I could love him
more than I already did, but I was completely wrong! I'm still discovering just how deep our love
for each other is, and I wouldn't trade our life together for anything in the world. This man is my best
friend, my lover, my partner in crime, my rock, he is the person I confide everything in, the person I go
to for advice, and the shoulder I cry on, He is my husband and I wouldn't have it any other way!

My sisters loving their sparklers

My beautiful sister Savannah
Special Thanks to: My mom for helping with all the planning, ordering the flowers, making most of the decorations, and finding the rest, for putting up with me when I was stressed out, for addressing invites, spoiling us rotten, and for making sure the day went smoothly so I could just sit back and enjoy it all! My dad for putting up with both me and my mom while we were stressed, and spending every spare moment and dollar you had into making the yard absolutely perfect in time for the wedding! My sisters for planning my bridal shower, and a special impromptu bachelorette party, for helping me and my mom put together all the decorations and special crafts, and for putting up with me and my mom while we were stressed out. My Mother-in-law and Father-in-law for putting so much work and preparation into our rehearsal dinner, addressing invitations, helping with yard work, helping with my bridal shower, and all the other little things they helped put together for our wedding! My sister-in-law Tessa for helping me find flower girl dresses and adding the sashes, for making a ring pillow, for making the grooms cake, for making all the cakes for the rehearsal dinner and the dip for my bridal shower, for finding flower girl baskets and a cake topper for me, and helping with all the yard work! My brother-in-law Ryan and sister-in-law Lisa for making our gorgeous wedding cake, for helping me shop for flower girl dresses, for video taping the wedding and for helping with all the yard work! My best friend Sarah, and my sister Renee for planning my bachelorette party and our engagement party, for picking up my flowers and for being my emotional support while I went thru the emotional roller coaster that is planning a wedding! My good friend Jeanine Ly (of Jea9 Photography) for taking all our engagement pictures, bridals, and wedding pictures, as well as doing my make up for the wedding, and Savannah's hair all for an out of this world amazing price! My friend Jesse, for acting as our minister on short notice, and for allowing me to pay him almost a month later when I was financially back on my feet! My cousins Amy, Rob and Tracy for helping us order and bake all the food, and for donating their personal chairs and tables so everyone would have a place to sit! All my nieces and nephews for agreeing to be my flower girls and ring bearers, for helping in the yard, setting up for the wedding and cleaning up! All the groomsmen and bridesmaids for agreeing to be a part of our special day and taking time out of their busy schedules to find dresses and tuxes, come to bridal showers, bachelor/bachelorette parties, rehearsal dinners and of course for being a part of our special day, and cleaning up after! My sister-in-law Ana and her family for traveling all the way from Washington to be a part of our special day and so their kids could be flower girls and ring bearers even though it meant missing the family reunion, school and work to do so! All the family and friends who traveled from all over the state and the country including from Colorado, California, Idaho and Washington! Last but not least, my wonderful husband Bob, who reminded me each and every day why I was planning this wedding and making every difficult moment worth it just to become his wife! Sorry if I missed anyone or anything, as you can tell from this list, our wedding was a group effort and a lot of people's love, talent, hard work and effort went into making this day possible!

Sunday, November 4, 2012

In Rememberance...

I'm sorry this post is a few days later than normal as this post was a difficult one for me to write. Last week was a very sad one for our little family of critters when we laid to rest our little Medusa. I made the decision to let one of our snakes soak in a bath unsupervised while I cleaned her tank out like I had done a million times before with each of our snakes, and unfortunately while I was away she drowned. Bob says is was a simple accident and it's not my fault so I shouldn't blame myself, but I do. For the last week I have been so grief stricken and felt so guilty that I killed one of our most beloved pets, I constantly see her motionless body at the bottom of the bath when I close my eyes, and trying to bathe our snakes yesterday brought the tears right back to my eyes. While I know most of you reading this don't even remotely understand my love for snakes, and some of you don't even understand someone's attachment to an animal let alone a scaly legless one, I hope each of you will keep me in your thoughts as I try to forgive myself for the death of my first and favorite snake. I dedicate this weeks blog post to my lost little friend miss Medusa, may you always rest in peace. You will always carry a small peice of my heart with you and will be remembered fondly for the rest of our days.
My first time holding Medusa

Bob's first time holding Medusa

Medusa loved exploring new things, like Monkeys

She made a great bracelet

Medusa goes Metal

Her classic parascope pose


Medusa says "My guitar"

Medusa exploring

She looks good on red
Her final resting place, Thanks to all my sisters for helping me make her box

Thursday, October 25, 2012

Name Changes, Thank You Notes and Babies!


Sorry for anyone tuning in expecting pictures from our wedding or honeymoon. This last week Bob and I have been house sitting so I haven't had the DVD's with the honeymoon pictures or my laptop in order to blog those, and Jeanine is still working away at the wedding pictures (there were a lot) so I can't blog those... Luckily I have had plenty of time to work on getting other after wedding items finished. We found all our gifts that we got multiples of and returned the extras, met with Jeanine to look thru all the unedited pictures from our wedding day, we have written most of our thank you notes, my dress is at the cleaner, the tuxes are returned as is the PA system, my car is cleaned out and my new social security card finally came so I can continue the process of changing my name! There is still a lot to be done, but I'm beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel, soon Bob and I will be able to settle into a normal married routine.

For the most part Bob and I have settled back into a daily routine now that we are both back to work, however we were only home for a week or so before we temporarily took up residence in Ryan's house while they are on vacation. I'm pretty sure our pets are going to forget who I am. They still see Bob everyday since he goes home each morning and evening to feed them and make sure everything is okay (and cuddle them for hours...), but since I'm so close to my work right now, I haven't made the trip home on the weekdays and I'm really beginning to miss my snuggle buddies! I was missing them so much in fact that I had to go see my new best friend Chelsea's new baby, Benton, to get a snuggle fix! Okay, I didn't have to go, but I really wanted to see my new honarary nephew, I felt like a horrible aunt not seeing him the first week he was born! As you can see in the pictures below (sorry about the bad quality, pictures are from my phone), he is adorable, and too precious for words! I love him already! Before anyone asks, yes it tugged at my heart strings, yes it made me a little baby hungry, but Bob and I know we want to finish our schooling before starting a family so we won't be trying anytime soon, Sorry Rachel and Kelsey!

Baby Benton Rasor born 10-12-12
Holding Benton for the first time (1 week 4 days old)

Thursday, October 11, 2012

My First Post as a Wife, and as a Loose!

Well it's official, I'm married to the love of my life, Bob Loose! It's honestly still a little surreal since we just got home and back to normal life a few days ago, but it's wonderful! The wedding was beautiful, and perfect, and worth all the stress and money LOL. We were just happy to make it official and be surrounded by our loved ones! Cozumel was also beautiful, we were at the airport at 4 in the morning on Friday and so we were in Cozumel by 1PM. Our first day we were pretty tired so after getting unpacked, eating a quick supper and kayaking by the shore for a bit we went upstairs to take a nap. Little did we know it would be a 10 hour nap and we wouldn't wake up again until 3AM! Regardless of it being dark, and the resort being empty Bob and I thought it would be nice to explore the resort a little (maybe not such a great idea since there are crabs and mosquitos everywhere). The next day we continued our exploring and did a little snorkeling but this time with the sun out to guide us. Saturday and Sunday were both relaxing days for us at the resort, and we made a lot of new friends, Jack and Alice from Idaho, Bruce from Cali, Lauren and Austin from Oklahoma and Joy and Troy from Cali. We thoroughly enjoyed getting to know them throughout the week. Monday Bob and I took a ferry over to Playa de Carmen to do a tour of the Tulum Mayan ruins, which was fun but very very hot and humid. Luckily right after we did our exploring of the ruins we went snorkeling in a Cenote (an underground river). The water was freazing, but it was a nice break from the heat so we didn't mind! Unfortunately for me I was having a little bit of a panic attack down there, it was dark and an extremely enclosed area and before I even made it the water our tour guide said he needed to check the water for gators before we could get in (Bob says he was joking, but I'm not so sure...) After cooling off in the Cenote, Bob and I went and got harnessed up so we could zipline thru the rain forest and reppel from the reppelling tour, both of which were so much fun! After reppelling we were given a great lunch and then set free in Playa de Carmen to shop before going back to the resort. On Tuesday I ditched my new husband to go scuba diving for a few hours. Cozumel is home to some of the most beautiful reefs in the world (2nd only to the great barrier reef) so naturally I couldn't go home without diving at least once! While I was down there I saw a sea turtle, thousands of fish in every color of the rainbow, tons of huge crabs and lobsters and a big mean looking baracuda. Tuesday Bob and I also went snorkeling by our resort, still lots of fish but no baracuda's there! On Wednesday Bob and I and another couple in the resort took a cab to the local dolphin and manatee exhibit. There we were able to get in the water and swim with the dolphins and manatees which was a once in a lifetime experience! We were in absolute awe of these amazing creatures, and our hour with them went by far too quickly (Bob jokes that I should be a dolphin trainer, I'm seriously considering it...). After swimming with the dolphins we went back to the resort to relax, but there was a commotion on the beach so we went down to check it out. Turns out there was a 5-6 foot long crocodile swimming in the water directly in front of our resort! It was a little unsettling considering how many times we wandered aimlessly into the water without thinking about being eaten... Thursday Bob and I went down to the ferry to catch a catamaran and go snorkeling at the Palancar Reefs. As we boarded our boat we were told the tour we booked normally had 100-130 people, but since it was the off season and it was a little rainy it would just be us and one other couple that day! It was great, we snorkeled with our own private guide (who could somehow free dive 30-40 feet to pick up shells), we saw 4 sting rays, and lots of fish, and supposedly a shark (I didnt see it). Afterward they took us to a private beach to paddle board, eat and play in the water. It was amazing! On the catamaran ride back to town we even saw these little fish that would jump out of the water and soar over the waves 40-50 feet. We asked the captain and he said they were called flying fish and when they say the catamarans coming they look like big baracuda so they hurry and fly away, who knew? Friday Bob and I both woke up feeling a little under the weather so stayed at the resort and did some painting and relaxing, we snorkeled a little and looked for sea shells. That night all of us honeymooners took a cab into town to a nice mexican restaurant for one last hurra together, the food was delicious, the company great and the entertainment mesmerizing! It was the perfect end to a perfect honeymoon. Saturday came far too quickly so we boarded our flight and headed home. We had a nice 4 hour layover in Dallas/Fort Worth to reflect on the fun we had, the friends we made and most of all how happy we were to get home to our family, friends and of course all our animals! Now that we are back we have our work cut out for us. We have the official marriage certificate back, so I need to take it and use it to start the fun process of changing my name legally, we also have to start hammering out thank you notes, and I need to get together with my photographer to go thru all the wedding pictures so she knows which ones we want edited. Since this post is already really long, and I'm not done uploading all the honeymoon or wedding pictures I have decided not to include pictures with this post. However as soon as I finish getting the honeymoon loaded on my computer expect one big picture post, and another big picture post as soon as we get all our wedding photos back, so stay tuned! Thanks for reading
                                                                                             -Brittney Loose