June 14, 2014

I have kinda been procrastinating this post because I know its going to be a doozy. 

It will be long. And full of incredible detail. 

But its a day that I want to remember forever. 

Although its cheesy and cliche to say... it was the best day ever.
I slept pretty good the night before, even though I shared my bed with Ella. I was able to get some good rest and shockingly didn't have any anxiety while sleeping.
I woke up kinda early and could tell no one was really awake.
I have always liked having the house to myself so it was nice to enjoy that for a bit.
Our wedding wasn't till the afternoon so I almost didn't know what to do.
I bought all of the Dodger tickets for the honeymoon (more on that later)
and just tried to enjoy and soak up that this was my day.
The day you dream about your entire life.
It was my wedding day.

At 9:30 Brittany Espinoza-Leavitt came over to get me all ready.
She was kind enough to offer her skills to get me all pampered for the day.
She worked for two hours doing my hair and make up.
The kids kept walking by and telling me a looked funny with the curlers.
Dont blame them.

{no make up, curlers in!}

{make up done}

{wedding ready!}
As time went on and I just sat there things were getting more and more busy around the house.
And I kinda loved it.
Cause like I said, it was my wedding day, and everyone was getting ready for my wedding.

I started shouting orders to people to get my things-grab my earrings-grab my shoes-I need my temple bag-so that as soon as Brittany was done my sisters, Mom and I ran out the door to get to the temple.
We were rushing because this was the biggest day ever and I didn't want to be late to my wedding.
A normal thought, however, a thought that apparently the groom didn't have.
We got to the temple right on time at 12:30, one hour before the sealing, to only wait 30 mins for Rudy to get there.
Although I sat there hoping and waiting for my groom, It was kinda fun to watch and see friends and family come into the temple that were there for the wedding.
I went over and started saying hi to people and they were all so surprised to see me there!
When Rudy finally arrived it was only fitting for our relationship for me to be mad at him and want to punch him.
(Fight! Fight! Fight!)
Kelly had to calm me down and tell me to not be mad on my wedding day.
Everything in the temple {after that} was perfect...other than feeling rushed.

I loved walking into the sealing room and seeing it soooo filled to capacity with so, so many people that I love and care about.
I think that is one of the best things about your wedding, just everyone that is important to you is all together.
There were so many times that I would look around and catch the eye of one of my friends--someone I hadn't seen in awhile--like Heather Shumway and Whitney, Alyssa, Chanel, M'kynzi--and it would just make me want to burst into tears of happiness.
I tried really hard to pay attention to how I was feeling throughout the temple. I wanted to be aware of my feelings and to remember them forever.
And I am so glad that I did.
Because the only thing I ever felt was happiness and excitement.
Rudy and I were getting married, finally! 
During the ceremony I literally felt that my heart was about to pop out of my chest, it was just so full.
I knew the spirit was in that room and I knew that this was right.
I remember looking at Rudy and just wanting to be in that moment forever because it was so perfect.
Getting married in the temple is so special.
I am so happy and would never had wanted it any other way. 

I also tried really hard to listen and focus on the counsel that the sealer was giving us.
Of course I remember nothing.
Except for one phrase that apparently everyone else only remembered too.
"It doesn't matter who's right, it matters what's right"

After the sealing my sisters and mom helped me into my wedding dress and I was off to go find Rudy so we could make our grand exit out of the temple. 

I don't ever want to forget that moment either. Walking into the foyer and seeing Rudy stop talking to someone and just stare and smile as I walked up to him. 

We waited for a bit before going outside and I could hear everyone outside waiting for us. I heard Laura yell Lyla's name and I was so eager to get out there. 

This was another moment I had dreamed about forever. Coming out of the LA temple doors. 

I was surprised at how tiny the door was going out but then we got to be the ones to stand at the top of the stairs and celebrate our wedding. 

We took pictures with friends and family, Kimball saved the day and then Rudy and I took pictures around the temple. 

Of course, I loved all the congratulations and well wishes from strangers around the temple. 

We took a little long taking pictures and ended up leaving late to get to our own reception. And hit traffic making it all a little worse. 

We took this picture heading out of the temple, first time hanging out as husband and wife! 

And I was obsessed with my bouquet and just wanted more pictures of it. 

This is all getting a little bit too detailed even for me. But the reception was great, perfect, a blast, everything I wanted it to be. 

Highlights from the reception and pictures to follow:

-Mom yelling at me in the bathroom to have Brittany hurry up with my hair

-Watching Drew and Chase carry all of the presents

-being so excited every time I saw someone walking up to the main doors to greet us

-being starving from not eating lunch

-being so happy that it was my wedding day

-sitting at a table with some of my closest friends

-being the first to eat and having waiters carry our plates back to our table

-dancing our first dance and feeling a little awkward that everyone was staring at us and that we were boring them

-watching Miguel sing our all time song, "Just The Way You Are"

-waltzing with my dad 

-having the best dance party ever at a wedding

-dancing, dancing, dancing

-getting down in my wedding dress

-dancing with my nieces and nephews

-witnessing Laura and Kelly rap some 90's song. never want to forget that moment

-dancing with my NR friends

-dancing, can you tell how much I loved our dance party??

-eating my one lemon bar cause I forgot about the desserts that I stressed months over about having at the wedding, thanks to Allie for bringing it to me!

-throwing the bouquet to Aubry

-hanging around after the dance party cause I didn't want to leave all of my friends

-walking down to the car and being a little mad it was all decorated but loving it cause it was our wedding

-having someone honk at us cause of our wedding car

 {this picture makes me mad since I didn't get to try any of this!}

Of course there were things now I would have done different, luckily nothing too big but in all it was the best day ever. I want to put it on repeat cause I loved every second of it. 

Growing up I always thought I would be married when I was like 20. And especially these last few years I have been tough on myself for being so "old" and single. And now that I finally got married I can understand more fully that everything happens for a reason and I wouldn't trade anything just so that I could feel better about myself for getting married younger. I wasn't ready when I was younger, I wanted to be on my own and experience all of the amazing things that I ended up getting to do--London, DC, my LA life--and frankly I just wanted to have dance parties, have roommates and be social. And now that I have had that I am ready to have my husband come home to me every day and just be with me every night and make him a cherry pie. 

I couldn't have thought of a better time in my life to be a wife. 

{I would LOVE to hear anyone else's fun moments at the wedding in the comments! Thank you to everyone who came to celebrate our wedding with us, especially my friends and family who traveled far distances to be there! We had people from New York, DC, Texas, Arizona, and Northern California travel out to the wedding. It meant the world to have you there.}

im gonna get married

For documentary purposes, lets talk about the days leading up the wedding. 

And leave the wedding day for a long and glorious post all on its on. 

Rudy and I were to get married on June 14th. 

I work at a school where it is incredibly difficult to take days off. 

The last day of school was June 13th. 

I didn't even ask for the days off, I just basically told everyone I wasn't going to be there and luckily they understood and were ok with it. 

My last day of school was our field day.

I was in charge of planning it and I procrastinated it for week. Finally Brad helped me and we came up with a pretty awesome obstacle course. 

The teachers had to demonstrate for the students and we did a boys vs. girls race and obviously the girls won. It was really fun. 

Every year we plan a way to trick the kids and getting them wet. Last year we had a surprise water balloon fight. 

This year we backed them agains the gym and told them we were taking a class photo. 

They didn't know teachers had climbed on the roof.... 

It was awesome and the kids freaked out. 

That night Rudy and I were up late packing for our drive to California in the morning. It was really surreal knowing that we were packing for our wedding that weekend. 

We got in early start in the morning, on the road just after 5 AM. 

The good thing about being in the car for a long is that I fall asleep really easily. Anyone thats been in the car with me  for longer than 30 mins can probably attest to that. So I feel asleep really fast. 

The bad thing about being in the car for a long time is that I can get slightly annoyed with Rudy. HA

Ive almost made a no car rule with him. 

I mean, I have to put up with stunts like this...

and sometimes worse. He likes to sing ridiculously and then talks in about 5 different accents and impersonations. Funny at first....

So I am slightly surprised we made it to California. 

I woke up in St. George and we did a session in the Temple. 

Rudy's mission president is on another mission in the Visitor's Center. 

We stopped by and gave them announcement for the wedding and chatted for a bit. 

We arrived that evening and I spend some time with Christina and Lillie. 

A last little friend hang out as a single lady!

Kelly and the kids arrived that night and I was so excited that they were there. 

In the morning Laura and her family came. 

It was so special for me knowing that my whole family was there for me and my wedding.

 I loved that. 

On Friday I was excited to see this pop up on my computer. 

And I loved getting this snap chat from my roommates. Love them so much!

The highlight of the day was all of the girls went to get their nails done for the big day. 

Cute little Lyla got her nails done for the first time. She was acting crazy excited when we got there and then she got a little in trouble for dropping the nail polish by a worker and she was quiet the rest of the time. 

I had the hardest time ever picking out my nail color! How do you decide what to get for the biggest day of your life! 

I can't remember exactly what else we did, but there was hanging out by the pool, and getting dinner all together. 

That night I do remember staying up a little late and watching TV with Kelly and my dad. 

My dad told me it was my last night being a Robins girl and being single. 

And although I was fine with changing my marital status, I was pretty sad at losing my name. 

Good thing its still my middle name! 

Bridal Showers

For obvious reasons I have been a little busy the last few weeks. So please pardon me as I do a bit of a catch up on all things "living the SLC life."

During my engagement I have been able to have three bridal shows/bachelorette party. 

They were all so fun and different from each other and I felt so lucky to be able to celebrate so many times. 

The first shower took place back in April in GH while I was home for Spring Break. It was hosted by long time family friend Debbie Farlow and it felt like the entire GH ward came. I love being around my GH ward family, my NR friends and of course my mom and Laura.
It was a beautiful shower and delicious food.
We didn't take any photos which I don't know what is wrong with me, but a friend took these.

{At first I thought this was so rude of Laura to be texting while helping me with gifts, but then I remembered she was recording who all the gifts were from..haha}

Annie & Monica threw me another shower at the end of May. They were the best for throwing me another shower with my friends and family here in Utah. I have known them for so long and they are some of my best friends and again--I felt so loved that they put in so much hard work for me!

We had breakfast for dinner and of course they went all out on the food.
I was so glad that Kelly was able to come and join in on festivities since a lot of pre-wedding stuff had happened in California. And she made the long trek down to SLC for me.
Monica had planned the game and of course had gotten in touch with Rudy to ask him some questions.
Side note--I went to a shower for Kim Jex a few months ago and they played that for her. That night Rudy and I talked about it and we practiced some of the questions. Ha! I told him that if that happened to me I wanted to be prepared.
So you would think with the practice and our four years of friendship/courtship would have made me ace the game.
Wrongo.
I folded under pressure. It was really embarrassing. But the questions were hard!!!

They gave me marshmallows to eat for every wrong questions and I was suppose to not eat them but I sneakily did anyway.
It was a great party with friends, co workers and family.

Later on that week Aubry hosted a Bachelorette Party.
Aubry went all out with a Fiesta Mexican theme.
Mocktails and chips and salsa galore.

Aubry went all out!! I loved out so much.

Last Halloween I convinced Aubry to buy a cardboard cut out of Peeta from the Hunger Games, it complimented her outfit of Katnis perfect, and since then Peeta has always been a 5th roommate of the house. He makes appearances at every party and we loved putting him in secret places to scare each other.
Why do I share this tidbit you might ask??
Because Peeta made an appearance at the party.
But as Rudy.

It was hilarious and so fitting for a party at my old house.
It was a pretty informative party--in true bachelorette fashion and then we were off to dancing.
It was a bit of a rough night trying to get into dancing but it was super fun.

I felt so lucky to have so many parties and they were all so fun and exciting. 

Kate is 5!

Last week I was able to make it up to Kate's 5th Birthday Party. 

When Kelly told me that Kate put me as first on her invite list, I knew I had to be there!

I love coming up and being able to go to the kids birthday parties. It is so fun to celebrate with them and remember all of their parties throughout the years. 

It makes living in Utah so great to be close to the kids. 

Because Kate has so many boy friends she had a "Princess & Pirate" party. 

We may have messed up on the cupcakes, but everything else went great. 

The boys were good helps during the party too. 

I loved having Seth come sit by me at the end and the small moments that he lets me still put my arm around him or hold his hand. I don't want him to keep growing up. 

This was the most shocking moment of the day…they actually smiled. 

a busy life.

Hello blogging world!!

It has been so long. But I do have a good reason! 

Life is so busy with entering adulthood and all and balancing all of the many things going on in life. 

The first indication of my busy life is from my last post. 

Wedding planning. 

It has been really fun and I am trying to enjoy it more since its a once in a lifetime project but I finally understand why its hectic and busy. 

I've been working on engagement photos, invitations designed (Thanks Allie!!) and printed, handwriting all 230 invitations, bridal photos, Rudy's ring, suit and tie, photographer details, flowers, DJ and the list can go on and on.

We took our Bridal pictures yesterday at the Capitol and it went great. I wish I could post a sneak peak but I want to keep it a secret :)

Soccer Coaching. 

This was the second year that I coached our APA soccer team. 

Try outs begun in the beginning of March and I convinced myself that I would be able to handle coaching because the season was going until the end of April. 

With practice every day and games twice a week I figured I could handle it for two months. 

Luckily I got the help of an amazing parent volunteer and our 5th grade teacher to co-coach and they help share the burden a lot. 

But this was all before I realized that my new 7th grade players were insanely good and would get us into the Tournament. Which extended our season for two more weeks. 

We ended up losing our first tournament game and getting eliminated from playoffs (which I didn't complain too much about) 

But I was really proud of them and grew to really love them. 

One of the highlights had to be from one of our star players. One day he asked me if I was going to make it to practice after a week or so of missing because of other work obligations, when I replied with an obvious "Yes" (due to already being in work out ready clothes) he gave a little fist pump and a "yes!" and ran off. It felt great to be missed and appreciated. 

House buying. 

We are officially homeowners!!

We started looking in February/ March and its time consuming. Looking houses up on the internet and then going out to see them. The hard part too was knowing what you wanted. I have zero experience so it was hard to figure out what we liked and didn't like. But once we saw this house we knew we wanted it. After the inspections, meetings and deadlines we've been busy with packing, moving, cleaning and yard work. 

I am already overwhelmed with the thought of cleaning a whole house. Its probably more cleaning than I have done in my whole life...

End of the Year Dances. 

 My busiest time of year at work is May. For our Character Development Program we have culminating dinners and balls for the students to participate in. And its crazy busy! During one week I worked every day from 8 until at least 8pm sometimes 10 or 11. Then by Friday we had three 7th grade dances, back to back to back. On Saturday we had a 5-course meal for the 8th graders and then back to back dances again.

Last week we had our 9th grade Dinner & Ball at La Caille. Rudy was able to come with me this year and it was so fun to have him at the table with me and the students. On Saturday we had our 10th grade dance that I had to help out with as well. One more to go and then we will be done! 

Half Marathons. 

A couple of months ago Aubry bought a spot for the SLC Half Marathon.

She then decided to go out of town the week of the race so I opted to run it for her. A year ago Kelly made me sign up for the Ogden Half Marathon. These races ended up being a month apart from each and I thought that it would mean I would be SUPER prepared for them. But with everything going on that is listed above, running always took the back burner on my mind. I was lucky that I got a 7 mile run in the week before the SLC half and I was able to run twice between that and the Ogden race.

I am super happy with how well I did despite the lack of actually training. I never stopped running and during parts of the Ogden race actually felt good and was able to pick up the pace. I think I have made it in the running world as I was not sore at all after running Ogden. I love that my body is use to running long distances. I have now ran five Half Marathons, one Full Marathon and three Ragnars.

 I have Wasatch Back Ragnar in about a month. There is still hope that I can run a few times before then. 

THE Assembly.

Ok, here we go. The story! 

A few weeks ago we had our Staff Appreciation Week at work. Which ever since last year, I have been dying for this week! We get treated so well at work and it includes the best and biggest assembly of the year. The Builder of the Year Assembly. Which I love!

Our school's theme is "being a builder" by being kind, gracious, helpful, and serving others. We have an assembly where the school awards a student from each grade, as well as, an elementary teacher, aide, jr. high teacher and support staff {I like to compare it to the Student/Teacher of the Year award, but builder is just APA lingo.} The awards for the students are voted on by the staff and the staff awards are awarded by the other staff members. The best part of the awards is that it is kept a complete secret from the recipient students and staff members. It makes the assembly so thrilling to see the expressions and excitement of the students and staff members. 

Now, the morning of the Assembly.
 I was so excited because its such a great assembly. My role at the assembly was to meet and greet the winners afterwards to congratulate them. That being said, I wanted to look nice! My plan was to get there early but I had MAJOR outfit problems which made me super late for work and in a real bad mood about it. 

I got to work and immediately was given orders by Brad {the Principal}. I was given strict instructions to not let anyone in the gym until the students were. To make sure all the students are in before I go in. To sit in the back corner section of the gym to chaperone those students, even though there were already like four teachers sitting there. All things I wasn't worried about leading up the assembly--I mean, its the biggest assembly of the year! So stress is high and listening to directions was ok. 

We start the assembly with student awards and making the way up to staff awards. 

We got to the Support Staff category {which I am under} and just got a bit nervous. I saw Brad make eye contact with me but really figured it was going to be our secretary. I spotted her in the audience to watch her reaction and low and behold...they announce my name.
I was the Builder of the Year.

I was in shock. 

I made my way to the front of the gym and felt nervous with the whole school, parents and the administration in the room. I also felt a like anxious as I knew none of my family was in attendance. 

They always have spouses, family or even roommates there to congratulate the winner. 

I never spotted my sister and it never even dawned on me that Rudy would be there, so I figured I would stand at the front with no one there to hug me. 

As soon as I get to the podium, I turn and I see Rudy walking towards me. 

And I was floored. 

I was so happy that he was there. That he could enjoy that moment with me and be by my side.

Brad presents me with my award and then continues to read it to me. 

Again, I was so surprised. It contained the nicest and sweetest comments, something I never would have imagined. I feel so humbled by receiving this award and appreciate it so much that my co-workers think so well of me. If the day had ended on that note, I would have still been so happy, but I had no idea it was about to get any better or exciting! 

Brad finished my award by saying "Leigh, you really are amazing, but I am not the only one who thinks that. Rudy, I will let you take it from here."

WHAT!?

It was that moment.
Finally that moment you have though about, wished for and waited for.
 And it was finally happening.
In front of 600 people at school. 

I was in such shock. 

And if that wasn't enough, Rudy took the mic and said, "I know how much Ms. Robins loves this school and loves the students and so I've asked the students to help me with something"

He points...

and four students stand with signs…

It was shock, after shock, after shock. 

And so incredibly exciting!

He got down on one knee, I didn't really say anything until Brad forced the mic in my face to answer. 

He put the ring on and I felt like the crowd went crazy.

After the assembly, I had so many parents tell me they were crying and how excited they were!

The students made me feel like a celebrity! They rushed me afterwards and I am pretty sure every girl told they cried. 

I had elementary students all day gawk at me and tell me "You are the one that got married!" 

haha. not exactly kiddo. 

That night I even had two 5th grader girls email me a slide show with congratulations on it and slides telling me I was going to be a princess. 

It was the sweetest and so kind and just made me feel even more happy.
The next day, the congratulations continued and it was all the talk. The Drama students even recreated the whole thing for me and acted it out. Signs and all! I was almost more happy in that moment, then the real thing!
We are really happy and really excited.
Mark your calendar…June 14th!!