3 years ago today

Three years ago today John and I went on a carriage ride that stopped in Memory Grove. He knelt down on a little bridge lit only by a street lamp and asked me to marry him. It was a big surprise for me (although we dated for two and a half years so really how surprising could it have been?). That sparkly little ring sweetened the deal ;) and now we have that chubby little guy. We aren't perfect and our life together isn't perfect, but it's SO GOOD and I feel extremely grateful to be the wife of such a hard-working, genuinely great man.

A Few Late-Night Thoughts

Last night I was in the kitchen making dinner and I heard John talking to Everett. He was saying, "Are we going to be best friends when you grow up? Yes we are! We're going to be best friends!" Heart melted. Later we watched "The Secret Life of Pets" with the baby snuggled in between us and John and I pointed out which cheesy jokes Everett would be sure to laugh at when he was bigger and the whole time all I could think was, Is this real life? And honestly, what did I do to deserve a life so perfect (despite many not-so-perfect days) and full? All I know is Heavenly Father is so, so good to me.

The blessing

This weekend was one for the books. After we spent all Saturday frantically mopping/dusting/cleaning we spent Sunday listening to John give Everett his beautiful blessing, then talking and eating with family and friends. We managed to squeeze everyone into our little house and Everett didn't have any blowouts in his white suit, so I'm going to say it was a success. I'm the luckiest girl.

Oh hey Autumn

It feels like we're turning a corner around here, just in time for autumn, and I'm pretty thrilled about it. For his first few weeks of life Everett spent good chunks of each night crying and just all-around grumpy, and I would be lying if I said it wasn't exhausting. But suddenly my grouchy little guy has been replaced by this generally happy, smiling, almost laughing baby who goes to bed before midnight and wakes up mostly just to eat. It's amazing how much I love both of the men in my life (the big and the little). We're heading to the pumpkin patch soon and have a few Halloween movies on our to-do list, so I'd say fall is officially here.

What I Like About You

1) Instead of calling me honey or sweetheart or babe or any of those normal pet names . . . he prefers babycakes.
2) Spontaneous loud off-key car singing. Usually he just makes up lyrics because he doesn’t know the real ones. (Hence, the line in “Radioactive” by Imagine Dragons is now “I’m checking out all the prison boys.”)
3) He calls me on his lunch break. EVERY SINGLE DAY. And usually a couple other times just for good measure.
4) His semi-newfound sense of style (that he’s maybe always had but he worked at Nike and wore basketball shorts every day for the first two years we were together so who knows?). Apparently a girl at work told him if he wasn’t married she’d think he was gay. So proud.
5) He’s not really into the super-cheesy stuff (no romantic poetry here), but he does occasionally write me a love note and he’s the best gift-giver. A couple of years ago for Christmas he got me the prettiest Alex & Ani bracelets . . . before I had any idea that the company even existed. Always ahead of the trends. And let’s not even talk about the picture book he made for our one year anniversary of dating. I might cry just thinking about how cute it was.
6) Husband in skinny suits. Yes.
7) The fact that he buys me more clothes than I buy myself.
8) He can fix our car. Which is impressive since I’m pretty sure once upon a time I knew how to check the oil but even that has been forgotten. I can fill it up with gas . . . that counts for something right?
9) He’s the baby whisperer. Seriously. Hand a baby to me and it will cry . . . hand it back to him and instant happy!
10) His favorite church calling is primary. (And not because we get to eat candy). He even goes to the store and puts together little Christmas gifts for each kid. I’m pretty sure he’ll be the coolest dad one day.
11) Random accents. He’s convinced his English one is really good. I plead the fifth.
12) Last time I was sick he put me on the couch with a big blanket and turned Frozen on. 
13) He’s okay with chick flicks. And sometimes he even picks one of my favorites for movie night just because he knows I like them. When in Rome and Leap Year get watched pretty regularly.
14) He doesn’t like cheese but loves pizza. I still can’t figure that out but it keeps me entertained.
15) He’s cooked exactly one recipe the entire time I’ve known him . . . but it’s steak tacos and they’re pretty dang good so I can’t complain.
16) Best bedhead ever. It’s usually sticking up in 5 different directions and if I ever tell him he has a crusty in his eye he says, I’m saving it for later.
17) He hates being in pictures but still puts up with it because I like having lots of pictures of us. In the picture above he’s thinking hurry up and take the dang picture so I can cook my breadsticks (bottom left). I can’t help it. He looked so good after an interview that I needed a record of it.
18) If I ever call him Jonathan he calls me Kaylathan.
19) Is 19 a weird number to end on? All I can say is sometimes we drive each other nuts but 99.9% of the time I just can’t believe how great this guy is.

let them eat cake

Our anniversary was actually on the sixth, but we were in Guatemala and then when we got home we were busy and didn’t get around to eating any of our cake until a few weeks later. John was really skeptical about this tradition but even he admitted it tasted fine.

Edit: I just assumed that everyone did this, but obviously I was wrong. Ha. The tradition is that you freeze the top layer of your wedding cake, then eat a slice of it on your first anniversary. Kind of weird but definitely fun to reminisce about the first time you tried the cake.
This picture is proof I can open my mouth reeeeally wide. Who says all the pictures on your blog have to be flattering? Enjoy.

one year

Happy one year to us! Can’t imagine anything more perfect than spending forever with you.

xoxo

For the handful of readers that will see this post . . . we decided to be a little adventurous and spontaneous and we’re in Guatemala! Can’t wait to share pictures in the next couple weeks.

A Night at the Peery Hotel

I spent some time in Las Vegas visiting my grandma last week, and while I was gone John had a stressful few days. So I decided that when I got home I’d surprise him with a little staycation in downtown Salt Lake City (courtesy of a really great deal I found). We spent the night on Saturday at the Peery Hotel, which was built in 1910. It had so much character and the lobby was beautiful, but the rooms need some updating. The bathroom was pretty tiny and the heater was really loud--like loud enough to wake us both up a few times during the night. Luckily it was definitely not the worst room we’ve ever stayed in and we had a lot of fun. We love old buildings. If they could renovate just a little bit the Peery would be such a charming hotel.
The next morning we woke up and ate a continental breakfast and then headed down to Temple Square since we wouldn’t be attending our own ward. We walked around and looked at all the different displays and then spent some time sitting by the Cristus statue.
After we were finished at Temple Square, we decided to visit the spot where we got engaged. A year ago in February we went on a horse-drawn carriage ride around Temple Square and through Memory Grove. John got down on one knee on that little bridge and asked me to marry him and it was perfect. Unless you ask him, because I started crying after he asked and he was nervous that I was going to say no.
It was just a really quick trip but it was so nice to spend a little time together after the craziness of the holiday season (John works retail so things get even busier before/after Christmas). And on Wednesday we leave for Disneyland with my family. Can’t complain.

Sunday Picnic

On Sunday I convinced John to go on a picnic with me to test out the new picnic basket he bought. We took chicken salad sandwiches, watermelon, juice boxes, and of course potato chips and ate them by the lake on a blanket we got on our honeymoon. And it was great. John said we should make it a Sunday tradition while the weather lasts. Sometimes the little things are my favorite.

The Time I Forced John to Model for Me

I'm assuming everyone that might read this blog knows, but just in case you don't, I work for a start-up clothing line called Aero Outfitters. I don't really know what my title would be because I kind of handle everything except for supplying the money. So I've come up with the designs (including the graphics printed on the clothing) and I've done most of the coordinating with our factory in China. (This post, this post, and this post talk about our trip to Hong Kong/mainland China to meet with them).

We are getting close (I hope, fingers crossed) to having our second round of samples here and approving them. Once that's taken care of, we'll place our final order and then just wait for everything to arrive. In the mean time, I'm starting to focus on our social media and advertising. We needed some pictures for our instagram page, so I forced John to let me take these. He'll probably hate that I posted them here, but I think he's so handsome. He hates pictures and usually won't even take one with me unless he can make a weird face. No one tell him these are on the internet. They'll be on our instagram page anyway once I get started on that.

This is the "Tikal, Guatemala" jacket. Each of our jackets/shirts have a longitude and latitude printed somewhere on them, and each longitude and latitude belongs to a place that inspired the design. I guess technically you probably wouldn't need a jacket in Tikal, but this one looks like something you could explore in.

Each shirt will also come with a dogtag embossed with the coordinates and name of the inspiration place, and "See the World From Above the Clouds" (our unofficial logo). Since every shirt has a different tag, they're collectible. The picture isn't great because I snapped it with my iPhone, but here's an example of a dogtag:

This next shirt is really cool, but it doesn't photograph that well. The design is printed with a process called "silver screen printing." It looks like it's silver in these pictures, but it's actually sort of a clear glossy ink that's just shiny. So it's a similar color to the shirt, but the glossiness makes the design stand out.

We have a few other shirts, but the samples are all size large (John usually wears a medium). So I'll have to find a different model before I can photograph the rest of them.

The Compromise

John has been begging me since we got married to let him get a puppy. Here's the thing. I like puppies. In fact, I really really like puppies. But I don't like the idea of a puppy in a third-floor apartment (no yard, no elevator) with owners who work full-time and would only be there at night. Plus can you imagine taking one out in January down three flights of stairs and waiting while it does its business? And what if it ruined the carpet or something and we lost our deposit?

But John just kept begging. And finally I said that I still didn't want a puppy, but we could get a different kind of pet. So he did a little research, found a breeder, and went and picked out a twelve-week-old handfed baby conure.

(Sorry for the blurry picture. Our apartment didn't get a lot of light this day and she kept moving).

He named her Maya and we like her a lot. She's super playful and crazy, really uncoordinated, pretty much only wants to sit on my head (I don't want her there because birds + hair = no good), and LOVES John. She gets so excited when he comes home and her favorite place to sit is right on his neck behind his head so she can rub her face against him and play with his hair. I try not to get offended by her love for him and toleration of me. On Sunday she was sitting on my shoulder and he was next to me. When he walked away, she jumped down onto the floor and ran after him. Rude.

We took her to the pet store yesterday to pick up some stuff and she was so well behaved. She even let all the little kids pet her. John is hoping to teach her a few tricks. We'll see how that goes.

Our Wedding Video

Last week was busy. John started having serious back and stomach pain and I finally took him to the ER, where they told us he probably has ulcers and acid reflux (they can't diagnose it for sure unless they do a scope, which they didn't want to do because it's invasive). So for now, he's on some painkillers and antacids and we need to schedule an appointment with a gastrointestinal specialist. The day after he went to the ER, we headed up to Idaho for the annual Coles Family Reunion. I have TONS of pictures, but I haven't organized them yet. So for now, I'm posting the wedding video my brother made for us (super impressive considering he's never really filmed anything like this before). I love it.  

John And Kaylee Coles Wedding Video HD from Jared Andersen on Vimeo.

The Wedding

Since I have so many pictures from our wedding day, I'm splitting them into a couple separate posts.

Before I got married and I'd hear people say their wedding day was the best day of their life, I was skeptical. But honestly, my wedding day was the best day of my life. We had so many people we love come to support us and our reception was so much fun and exactly what I wanted (I don't have pictures from it yet so I'll post about the reception later).

I slept terrible the night before the wedding (as in I probably got 2 hours of sleep). Then I woke up at 5:00 and went to the salon to get my hair and makeup done, thanks to my amazing stylist that came to work so early to help me. After that, we headed down to the temple. I was pretty nervous, but as soon as we got inside, I felt much more calm.

There were lots of other couples getting married the same day as us and I'd heard that the Salt Lake Temple rushes you through, but I never felt rushed. We were able to sit together in a corner of the Celestial Room and pray that our future children could be in attendance during our sealing (thank you to my bishop, who suggested we do so - without going into great detail since it's such a special memory for me, I can definitely say we both felt the results of that request).

We believe that not only do we have the opportunity to be married in this life, but our marriage will continue forever and we'll remain together after we die. This special marriage ceremony performed in LDS temples is referred to as a "sealing". Our sealing was perfect, very simple and beautiful, and looking at the person you love as you make promises to one another surrounded by family and friends is an incredible experience. (Also . . . you're stuck with me forever, John! Hope you thought that one through). 

I love this because my husband, the man who prefer not to crack a smile in pictures, looks just a little bit happy here. ;)

There are lots more family pictures (especially with extended family), but I don't have them back yet.

 After we got pictures with the family, everyone left (except for my parents and siblings) and John and I had our pictures taken around the temple. I don't know what it was--maybe just a combination of not sleeping, being hungry, big tight/heavy dress, and hot weather, but I was feeling pretty sick by the end of the temple pictures. I actually told John after we finished that if my mom wasn't waiting in the dressing room to help me change, he was going to have to unlace me in the car because I COULD NOT wear that dress for even 5 more minutes. Sounds a bit scandalous now that I type it but it resulted from sheer desperation.

Luckily my mom had actually waited for him and after a not-so-brief twenty-minute long tussle with my dress, a tiny changing room, and a key that was pinned somewhere in the billion layers of tulle under my skirt we emerged sans wedding dress and made our way to our luncheon. John's family planned it and it involved Olive Garden soups and breadsticks, which was sort of like eating manna straight from heaven after two hours of taking pictures in the June sun.

We had a few hours to relax between the luncheon and the reception and we spent most of that time packing John's bag for our honeymoon (because why pack ahead of time when you can pack last minute? That's what John always says). Since I'm not sure it's legal to post two thousand pictures in one blog post, the reception post will follow!

Thank you to everyone that made our special day so perfect. We love you.