Mr and Mrs

looking through all our photos today.

trying to remember what I was thinking at the moments they were taken.

trying to re-live the day through the photos.

i absolutely love photos because they give you the ability to remember moments, thoughts, sounds, smells even.

and my wedding day is one day i will definitely want to remember forever.

These are the moments I will always remember. 

Spending the entire day with people I love, and who love me.

Everyone doing everything they can to make my day perfect.

Seeing the man I love on our wedding day for the first time. 

Seeing the look on his face when He sees me for the first time.

Hugging him, kissing him, cuddling him.

Knowing I will spend the rest of my life with him.

Having some of my favourite ladies by my side, rooting me on, and praying for me.

Having my family smiling all day long, so excited for Mike and I.

Walking towards him, arm linked with my daddy.

Knowing this is forever, and crying tears of joy.

Hugging my parents as they give me away, to be taken care of by my new husband.

Standing in front of him, eyes locked on each other, thinking this is the most I've ever loved anyone.

Committing my life to him, before God, family, friends, and each other.

Whispering in his ear, "we're finally married", and getting butterflies in my stomach.

Hearing Grandpa introduce us as "Mike and Courtney Bouwman".

Walking down that Isle, huge smiles on our faces. Complete Bliss.

Hearing Kelsey, Linnea, Pinto, Mom & Dad B, Mom & Dad R, and Taran say wonderful (& hilarious) things about us.

Laughing. A Lot.

Dancing to our favourite song for the first time as Man and Wife.

Dancing with my daddy. I love him.

It was the most amazing day.

and I love these pictures for capturing just a little bit of the amazingness.

ps. There are more photos on facebook if you're itching to see more! 
Click here to see them. or here for a few photos I took on our day.

a few changes.

i was looking at my blog yesterday, after i made my post... and i couldnt believe how ugly it was. 

i hated it. 

so... heres the new look!
i changed the title, which i might end up changing again, because i'm so spastic. 

but, heres the new layout. 

a bit more me. and a bit more simple.

p.s. i'm meeting with our photographer today to get our photos. be on guard... 

lots of photos are coming your way!

finally married...

wow. it sure has been a while. i guess i've been busy... understandably, right?

i did just get MARRIED!

It was the perfect day. I cant imagine it going any better than it did.

We had our window of no rain, where we could take our outdoor photos, the ceremony was exactly what i imagined and wanted (minus the outdoor factor), and of course, i married my best friend.

I am now his forever.

We havent gotten our photos back from our photographer yet, but i thought i would share some that i had taken throughout the day.

^up bright and early... ready for the day.

^my cousin Jonelle did my hair, and did a FANTASTIC job. :)

these three girls were just too cute. love them.

^and these are my two best friends... love them to pieces. 

^strawberry mimosas. a must on my wedding day morning :)

^what a beauty.

^my sister Kristy did all the girls makeup. We all looked super hot, if you ask me...

Thanks Kristy!

we had a short break between photos and the ceremony, so we went home, took a few more photos with my camera, and josh made a toast to mike and I. 

^i love my cousin :)

^i love and miss this girl...

and i miss that day... but i have to say, being married is amazing, and i'm so happy the wedding is over so we can start our lives together as man and wife. 

Q&A

I found this Q&A, and decided to give it a go. Maybe you'll learn something new about me.

1. If you could do one thing differently in your life, what would it be?

I would travel more if I could. I would take my tesol training, and go teach english for 6 months in Guatemala. I have a huge passion for that place, and I am certain I will go back one day. Maybe it will be in 2 years, maybe in 10, maybe in 25. But I really hope to go back. 

2. Where do you see yourself in 5 years?

having babies! or... baby. Watching Mike be a dad. Learning how to be a mom. I see myself being blissfully happy, with everything I've ever wanted. We'll see if that's what God wants for us too. 

3. Do you honestly want kids?

badly. Mike probably couldn't tell you the amount of times I've pathetically whined to him about how badly I want a baby. Not now obviously... but someday. Sometimes I wish it could be now though.

4. What has been the best moment of your life so far?

I can't pick a certain moment, but I can pick a certain time in my life that has outshine the rest. It is the time that I realized that I am nothing without God. Everything changed after that. Meeting Mike, and seeing his relationship with God, and how badly Mike wanted to do God's will, that just showed me how much I wanted that too. God put Mike in my life for a reason, and I'm definitely not letting Him go. 

so best moment = meeting Mike, and falling in love with Jesus.

5. What is your life theme song?

I've been loving this song lately. Seems to describe how I want to be. I want to remember all these lines in this song, and ACTUALLY remember them. 

I want Jesus' arms to be the only arms I run into.

I want Jesus' name to be the only name my heart will sing. 

6. What is one thing you have yet to accomplish that you want to do before you die?

I know this has come up already... but being a wife and a mom. Raising a family.

7. If you could choose one thing to be known for, what would it be?

Being a woman of God. Being someone who Christ would be proud to call His child.

8. If you could do anything you wanted right in this very moment (no consequences, no fear, etc), what would it be?

If I wasnt getting married in a month... lets say I was already married... I'd tell Mike to pack his bags, and we'd go work abroad for 6 months to a year. That has always been my dream.

9. What has been the most challenging moment in your life?

Realizing who I had become, when I was as far away from God as I could have possibly been. I remember thinking that this wasn't the way my life was supposed to be. But I had no idea how to change it. I'm so thankful God stepped in, and that I am now a completely different person. I hardly recognize the girl I once was. I never want to revisit that stage in life.

10. Summarize yourself in one word.

Restored.

Lately.

My life has been pretty busy lately. Obviously I haven't posted in a pretty long time, and there's a lot that has gone on since last time! 

One of these things being... My wedding is in 35 days, and there is still snow on the ground!! This was not supposed to happen... We've been racking our brains thinking of a new place we can have the ceremony if the ground is too wet/it's too cold/outside is ugly because nothing is blooming...

We had a few promising ideas, and it seemed like time after time I was being disappointed because the venue was too small, or there were worries about it being too wet. It had become really hard to trust God that He had a plan in all this. That it doesnt matter WHERE we get married, as long as we GET married. 

That's all that really counts, right?

So we've come to a conclusion on where we would have the wedding, and right now it seems like our best option. We will be getting married outside on the yard of my church. And if God decides to send us rain? We will get married IN His house, instead of right outside of it. Now it is all in His hands, and I am perfectly okay with that! In fact, I'm more than okay with that because His plan is ALWAYS better than mine.

I also had my 2nd bridal shower on Sunday! Which was awesome. My sisters and mom did an AMAZING job of planning and setting up and baking... I love those ladies so much. It made me so happy to have a party like that planned just for me. And exactly my style too. Tea cups and lace and dresses. 

Loved it. 

God is Good. He will NEVER fail us.

this boy.

All i really want to say is.... 

i love this boy.

i just saw this picture of him on my screensaver, and smiled.

thought i'd share my thought for the day :)

Thankful Thursdays

i'm linking up with a blog i just started following called Loved and Lovely. and it is a lovely blog :) every thursday she writes the things she is thankful for, and i think that is most definitely a lovely idea.

things i am thankful for...

{i'm thankful} for my friend Linnea who lives out near dauphin with her husband. 

she has always been an incredible friend to me, even though she lives 3 hours away. she helps with wedding planning, texting me random ideas when she thinks of them, she is always caught up with my life, and when i tell her i need prayer, or someone in my life needs prayer, i know she will pray. AND it's her birthday today, which is pretty cool. happy birthday bestie :)

{i'm thankful} for my wonderful fiancé, and the amazing times we have together. 

on tuesday we both had the day off, and decided to spend the entire day together. we went to winnipeg - first to ikea, where we planned out what we want to buy for our house! then to the bank to make a joined account. then to his bank to transfer his money into our joined account. then to visit his grandpa in the hospital, which was such a great visit. i loved getting to know his grandpa better. he is an amazing man, and if mike turns out to be even a little bit like him when we're old and grey, i will be happy. we then went to Ben Moss to see if we could get a wedding band to match my engagement ring. we made an appointment to see a man who custom makes jewellery. i'm excited. the whole day i was happy. we laughed and joked and just had so much fun together.

{i'm thankful} for a mom who is always helping me. with everything. 

especially wedding things. she's so much smarter than me when it comes to wedding planning, and always reminding me what needs to be done, and doing a lot of it herself. thanks mom! you're the best. :)

We Bought A House!!

The past week has been crazy for Mike and I, because... we bought a house. In Niverville.

My last post, I wrote about a trailer in Ile Des Chenes that seemed perfect for us, and we really wanted that to be our future home. Well, apparently God didn't feel the same way. He led us away from that place so fast. 

It all happened on Monday. We were all ready to call the owners of that trailer and make an offer on that place. And then I got an email from a real estate agent that I used to be in contact with. I was surprised that he emailed me, because I told him not to anymore. But I opened the email anyway, and there was a cute little 2 bedroom house for sale in our price range. My eyes got wide.

"Mike... There's a house for sale in Niverville... in our price range." 

Mike wasn't happy. He was excited about this trailer and was happy that I was finally on board with it. (I didn't like the idea of a trailer at first) And now I found a house in Niverville and wanted to change our plans. 

We went downstairs to my room and talked, and prayed. Mike called his dad, which always makes him feel better about making a decision. I called my uncle who is a real estate agent, and left a message. Mike told me later that he prayed to God, saying if my uncle called me back right away, he knew that God wanted us to look at this house. He called back a few minutes later. We knew we needed to see this house.

A couple hours later we were there. I fell in love with the house when I walked in. It's small, but all redone and beautiful. We saw some things that might have been issues, but God continued to give me peace about this house. I knew He led us there, and He wanted us to buy this house. 

A friend came to inspect the issues, and said we might have some problems, but after being in contact with the seller, we realized that the issues were minor, and we had nothing to worry about. 

The next day we were approved for a mortgage, and the house came off the market.

It's ours. 

Thank you God.

My favourite part of the house. The kitchen. :)

Another Weekend Post

I had a pretty sweet weekend. Despite the fact that I was hacking and blowing my nose constantly...

I really could have used some downtime... but I had more fun this way.

On Saturday morning, Mike and I made ourselves some colourful waffles for breakfast. They tasted delicious, although they didn't look delicious....

I guess we didn't use enough food colouring. Oh well!

After breakfast we quickly cleaned up and went to see Mike's niece, Mia, who is two and a half, and nephew, Chase, who just turned one!

Holy, are those kids cute. Mia showed us her new bedroom at Nana's house, and kept us busy drinking tea from her tea set and combing my hair. Chase did not stop smiling and making his Popeye face. I love spending time with those kids. 

That evening, Mike and I decided it was time for a real date. We've been spending a lot of time sitting at home, watching movies, and doing nothing. So... we went out! We went to a place called "Luxalune" which is famous for its beer. It has over 150 kinds of beer. Crazy! I tried one called Kronenbourg from France, which tasted fruity and wonderful. I'll definitely have to have that one again. We also got nachos and pizza, which was far too much for us to eat, so we took the pizza home! I would definitely recommend this place. So delicious! 

On Sunday afternoon, we decided to check out a trailer for sale in Ile Des Chenes. WE LOVE IT! We have to get a few things finalized before making an offer, but we're really hoping this is the home for us. Looking through it really got me excited to get married and to start my life with the man I love.

This is the kitchen. Beautiful, right?

All I have left to say is, I love my weekends with my fiancé. Can't wait to make him my husband!