And it continues....

June 2009

The future Mr and Mrs Crall needed a vacation away from wedding planning and hot AZ weather! Andy planned a weekend up at the beautiful Grand Canyon for us. After living in Arizona for over 11 years, it was finally time to take a trip to one of the wonders of the world! It was a great time for Andy and I to reconnect and just have the two of us for a weekend! The Grand Canyon was AMAZING! I knew it would be quite the sight but WOW, there's nothing to explain it! You just have to go! I was a bit (or ALOT) freaked out by the heights and LACK of safety railings but by the end of the trip I made it out on the ledge! We also had a run in with our friend Alvin! He was a HUGE squirrel that was very entertaining as it would steal peoples food! Overall the weekend was a great success! Andy & Kim time was much needed and the setting couldn't have been better!

My parents also threw us a couple's shower to help us getting in the wedding/honeymoon spirit! Island themed with most of our closest friends to help celebrate! To top it off my maid of honor and BFF, Alison, flew in from California for the weekend! :) My parents sure know how to throw a party and add a little something my Mom helped Andy & I get a head start on our Honeymoon by having our friends contribute to the "Money Tree" full of Passport envelopes! Man that made planning our Honeymoon so much easier! Thank you AGAIN and AGAIN to all that helped us! Cancun was a BLAST but that's in a later post...keep in touch!

Next Up....August 2009 - Full of Wedding Events including Bachelorette Parties, Dress Fittings, and MY BIRTHDAY! Stay tuned!

Back to Blogs...Monthly Recap

So the past 6 months have been quite the whirlwind at the Crall household so I'm going to make a solid attempt at giving a "quick" recap (if possible)! So here we go...

April 2009

One of my besties, Blair, got married and I had the honor of standing by her side as she said "I do!". Her and her hubby are the kindest people I know and I couldn't be happier to be a part of their wedding day! Congrats Willy!

My honey also turned another year older which means festivities were needed. We had a bunch of our friends over for a BBQ, pool, the NFL draft and just a great time with great friends!

May 2009

Our little Miss Kayleigh came into town with Anne and Roger! Her stay started off a bit rocky with a stomach flu but was able to get past it in order to fully enjoy her trip to none other than DISNEYLAND! We also took a trip to the Wildlife Zoo and lots of swimming!

During April and May the wedding still seemed so far away yet were full of planning and decision. During KK's visit she also helped us make some VERY important decisions. Such as, what food we would serve and most important, she picked out her flowergirl dress. Boy did she love twirling around in all the different dresses. Kayleigh is definitely our pretty lil' princess!

Next recap:
June - Grand Canyon trip & Couple's Shower

Pictures are UP!

Okay...so no long post just yet BUT wedding pictures are up and ready for viewing!

http://pictage.com/719351

Hope you enjoy....I know we did! :)

<3 Mrs. Crall

WE'RE MARRIED!

So that means I should DEFINITELY have time for a blog update...

...stay tuned!

<3 Mrs Crall

New Posts to come...

Okay...Its official...I suck at blogging! Or should I say - making the time to blog!?

I looked down at my cute "Wedding Day Countdown Clock" (courtesy of my bridesmaid Debbie) this evening and had a mini freak out, which then turned into excitement. Why you ask? Because Andy and I will be getting married in T-minus 100 days! That means tomorrow we dropped down to double instead of triple digits until the BIG DAY! Oh the very MANY things to do still!

With that being said here's a quick recap of the longer posts I promise to write about this weekend:
*latest and greatest wedding plans
*recap of our Couple's Shower hosted by the Brito Family
*my new J-O-B in the dental field (thank you Sam!!)
*Andy's latest golf outings
*and any other news that I can think of when i'm not quite so exhausted!

Hope you have received your Save The Dates and have made your way to our wedding website:
Andy & Kim's Wedding Website

Majority of wedding details and accommodations have been posted on the site so check it out and let me know if you have any questions!!

Hope all is well with everyone and sorry if we've been MIA - the Brito-Crall household has been pretty crazy these days!

Love,
Kim

PS. Don't forget to Floss! haha work has officially made me crazy! g'night!

My little sissy is not so little anymore...

Yesterday was my not so little, YOUNGER sister's Sweet 16 birthday! We have a 10 1/2 year gap between us so I've been trying to transition from the "motherly sister" to just the "older sister", if that makes any sense at all!? There was a weird couple years where I couldn't help but try to make her innocent and protect her as much as possible. Now that she's getting older and I'm no longer living with her all the time I can't help but let her be her own person. But with that said it makes it easier to be more sisterly vs. always trying to take care of her, and although I wouldn't trade the past 16 years for anything, I'm excited for the years to come! She's not into sports like I was but she has a HUGE passion for music (which I think is from me taking her to concerts all the time when she was younger) and would love to get into cosmetology (bring on the free haircuts!). She is growing up so fast and turning into such a beautiful young lady and I'm so proud of her! She looked so cute yesterday at dinner in her new dress and heels - which put her a good foot taller than me since I was in flip-flops! Yes, she's taller than me anyway, but let's not talk about it okay!? Anywho - my point being that she's getting older and so am I but I feel like it's much more drastic for her. I look forward to having her stand by me as I get married and the many more years to come together as best sisser friends! :)

Happy Birthday and I love you Sisser!
Xoxo,
Your (older) Sisser

Invitations!

So my cousin Stephanie has been designing our wedding invitations and she informed me that they are in the mail as of yesterday! I am more than excited for the following reasons:

1. The proofs look AWESOME!!!!!!!!
2. So glad to have her graphic design expertise - an added family touch! Love it!
3. They're not like anything online anywhere, custom baby! Ya!

Photos to come when we get the delivery!

Thanks again Cuz! :)

Coming up - Debbie's birthday, My lil sisser turns 16!, and the Lasley-Scalise shin-dig!

Preview of Pictures

We just got an email from our photographer Mary Sandy and she has blogged about our engagement photo session! :) I'm so happy with the preview - they are amazing! Take a look for yourself:

Link to Mary's Blog

Let me know what you think!!

Engagement Pics are DONE!

Last night Andy and I went to the Desert Botanical Garden and took our engagement pictures with Mary Sandy. I will be the first to say that after looking at photography sites and thinking how easy and fun it looks - I was SO wrong! Being a model for a couple hours turned out to be much harder than it seems - it didn't help that we had a constant audience around at ALL times. With guidance from Mary we were able to loosen up a bit and get comfortable with the the camera. I'm very excited to see how they turned out! The main reason we wanted to take the pictures at the DBG is because their is a special exhibit - Chihuly: The Nature of Glass. It's something unique and hopefully made as a beautiful back drop. By the time we were walking out we had a family calling us the "married couple" because they managed to go on the same paths we did. One guy did a double take of Andy - I think he thought we were famous or something and Mary was the paparazzi! Ha!

Overall it was a great time and got us used to being photographed so come the Big Day we're ready to model and act like we're professionals! So check back in a couple weeks and we will hopefully have pics to post! :)

Happy Anniversary Grams & Gramps

Last weekend my Mom and Dad hosted a surprise 36th anniversary party for my Grandma Patti and Grandpa Dave! It's been hush-hush among all their friends out at PebbleCreek (aka the Brito-Crall wedding location) and around the family. My uncle Rick and his girlfriend Maryanne, my uncle John, and my Grandma's sister Jo Ann and her husband Howard all made the trip to surprise them. Man it turned out to be quite a night! Needless to say they were very surprised to see all their friends and even more surprised to see their family after they made their way through the crowds of people.

It was great to meet all of their friends, most of who all knew about Andy and I getting married out at PebbleCreek. Apparently, we're the take of the town out there in Goodyear! :) I can only hope someday that when Andy and I are retired we will have the pleasure of living in a place like PebbleCreek and have such a great network of friends - and make it to 36 years and beyond of course!

During the celebration there were family members talking about Grams and Gramps and funny stories about the things they got away with when they were younger and fighting over who was the favorite. I gladly claim the favorite granddaughter - mainly because I was the first grandbaby. Although my cousin, Steph (her blog) wins the first grandbaby married and first to have a great-grandbaby. Anywho - it was wonderful to get to hang out with my family and catch up and see my grandparents tack on another year.

Cheers to Grams and Gramps - here's to many more years of love and happiness!

Love always,

Your FAVORITE granddaughter ;)

Gentlemen & LADIES - Start your engines!

Andy's favorite time of year had just passed - NHRA Drag Racing at the Firebird Raceway. Last year was the first time I had gone out to the track and experienced the thrill of 2-300 MPH! I was instantly hooked! When they pass you and it rattles your entire body - it's such a RUSH! Not to mention the nitro and burning rubber - sounds crazy coming from a girl but man its fun! I also love the fact that there are girls racing side by side with the guys! Ashley Force-Hood is Andy's "other" girlfriend and man she's awesome!

Anywho, we spent the whole day out at the track and got to meet up with my friend Robin and her fiancé Jim, who owns Hughes Performance and races in the sportsman’s series. Last year this time Robin had actually passed her test to get her racing license! Robin also managed to sneak us up to the starting line last year. I thought Andy was going to pass out with excitement, not to mention, Ashley Force walked by him and brushed his shoulder.

This weekend was also our one year anniversary for saying those three little (or not so little) words. I made him say it atleast three times before saying it back because I didn't know if he really meant it or if the nitro had made him fall in love with me! :) I think it was probably a little bit of both!

Here's our pictures from the races:

Virtual DJ

New addition to our blog - the Virtual DJ! (to the left, left, left --->)

We're going to be working on our playlist for the wedding soon and would love some input on those must have songs - so send in your suggestions!

Engagement Photo Shoot Location

So it's almost that time when Andy & I need to take engagement pictures! Being that we live in beautiful Arizona and there's a million scenic locations we can pick from! So I'm reaching out for opinions...here's my vision...desert scenery but with arches and columns and great architecture! Easy right?! :-) suggestions?

Wedding Update

So for those of you that are interested here's the latest and greatest:
* I got my dress (if you didn't read the previous post) - next step...Alterations
* We scheduled our engagement photo session - March 22nd :)
* Bridesmaid dresses have been selected

Next on the to-do list:
* Meet with Fabulous Linens for chair covers and table linens
* Order bridesmaid dresses
* Meet with Kellee Goodman from Garden of England Flowers to plan for flowers
* Finalize the guest list
* Plan/design save the dates and invitations with my cousin Steph (you're the best cuz!)

Ya - Good times!

Next post - NHRA Drag Races :)

Hallmark's famous holiday - Valentine's Day

Being that Andy and I are trying to save as much money as possible these days we agreed that we weren't going to get anything for each other but we were going to have a fun date night and cook dinner together. Which left the whole morning and afternoon to do needed errands.

About a month ago, I received a call from my bridal boutique where I purchased my Oh So Beautiful wedding dress telling me that IT has arrived...TWO months early!! Woohoo! Well since I was planning on not getting the dress until the end of March, I was procrastinating on picking it up:

1. I wasn't ready for IT yet! Being that I haven't even THOUGHT about any bridal diet yet...
2. It was a secret storage spot so my hubby wouldn't see it!

So I waited a couple weeks to call them back to schedule a time to try it on and pick it up. Well, when I called I found out that the store will be going out of business and that basically, I need to come get my dress NOW. So of course Momma B (my mom) was in Lake Tahoe with Papa B (my dad) this weekend so I made sure Deeb (Debbie) and Kelser (my sister, Kelsey) who are my only AZ b'maids could come with me! I must admit...I was so excited when I bought the dress that I was nervous about the real thing meeting my VERY HIGH expectations! But, I must say (and not only cause it's mine...) IT'S PERFECT!! Even more beautiful then I remembered! It fits almost perfect as is...just some help with the length (shorty here!!) And a little taking in through the top and I'm good to go! :-) I was on a high for the rest of the day as you can imagine!

We ended the day by the four of us, Debbie, Craig, Andy and I all having a great home-cooked meal, none other than steak and bacon wrapped shrimp. Andy took care of the meal/seafood and I manned the side dishes - potatoes and green beans. Good times with good friends, food and wine (or beer). I think we are all over the cheesiness that comes with Valentine's Day, but it was still a cause for celebration since it marked Debbie and Craig's 10 year (first-date) anniversary! :) Andy and I look forward to the day we can celebrate our 10 year anniversary...October 3rd, 2019 to be exact! God, it seems SO far away! I will be 37, Andy 39, Kayleigh 15! Oh dear!

With that said - Congrats Craig and Debbie and Happy Valentine's Day to all you lovely people! :)

Jamie & Craig Say "I DO"

So I'm almost two weeks late blogging about Jamie and Craig's BIG DAY but better late than never! I'm trying to be more on top of this!

Since Andy and I are planning our BIG DAY, I've always wanted to see what The Castle at Ashley Manor was all about. It seems like it appears out of nowhere but as soon as you enter the property it is beautiful! Yes, it looks like a castle and has beautiful grounds and a very elegant feel. Jamie and Craig could not have picked a more gorgeous day. Andy took the day off and spent it with all the boys golfing and hanging out with Craig. Word on the street there was some golf cart testing that took place...check out the video Craig Flores put together...

Craig & Debbie's SUPER BOWL XLIII Party

Craig & Debbie's SUPER BOWL XLIII Party

Arizona Cardinals vs. Pittsburg Steelers
This is my second annual visit to Craig and Debbie's Super Bowl party and man do they know how to throw a good party! They have the decorations, the door surveys, the football toss, squares, and each year they come up with something new. This year was everyone's own "Press Pass" with picture ID. They don't mess around! This year the new commercial thing was 3D movie preview and commericals so C&D got everyone a pair of good looking 3D glasses!

We all wish the outcome was different but what can we do? There's always next year! Maybe it was because Andy had to finally give back Scott's jersey that he took ownership of all year...
...and instead we wears an ASU shirt that sadly resembles the Steelers gold!
Other than a game that was nail biting until the very end, we had some great cheerleaders rooting for the Cards!
Ms. Chloe Jones - pretty sure that football is as big as she is!
Ms. Alyssa Miller
and Ms. Shelby Hennessy!

Lastly - DAD OF THE YEAR:
Shawn Hennessy

Debbie and Craig - thanks again for another amazing Super Bowl party! Can't wait for next year and I can only imagine the kind of footage will be on next year's post-game video montage! :)

Upcoming - Jamie and Craig take the plung!
02-06-09 The Flores-Paris Wedding

3rd Annual FBR Open Brunch @ Casa de Brito-Crall

Every year the FBR Open golf tournament comes to town and I started the tradition a few years ago, of hosting a brunch before a long day of watching golf (ok not really) and drinking with friends! Everyone brings their mimosas, bloody marys and favorite breakfast foods and participates in some good ol' cornhole (aka bean bags).... ...and an always intense boys vs girls flip cup tournament...

...I'm sad to say...the boys dominated...we'll get you next year!!
The annual brunch wouldn't be complete without the annual girls' pictureI had to get all the Crall Brother photo-opts I could!! :)Looking forward to doing it all again next year...and Happy Anniversary to US!! :D This weekend marks the first time I threw Andy to the "dogs" aka all my friends! :) Glad you made it to another year my love!

Welcome Brother!!

It's been over a year since Andy and I have been dating and finally I get to meet BROTHER! Brian (Andy's twin bro) came out to visit over Super Bowl weekend and man was it a GREAT time! We kicked off the weekend on Thursday night at the Bird's Nest to see my favorite band, O.A.R.! Mama and Papa Brito were in attendance, along with many good friends! There wasn't a better way to start a packed weekend!
More exciting happenings to follow...

Pics of my BLING!

After spending too much time on my friend Katie's Blog (The Savvy Event) I came across a post of her's that was on how to take better pictures of your engagement rings. So here's what I came up with!!

Holiday Update

So Christmas has come and gone and we're almost a month into 2009! Time flies! I'm still trying to get the hang of the "blogging" world and I'm clearly terrible at posting within a normal time frame! With that said...Figure I would recap the holidays and post some fun pictures! :)

Andy and I had a great Christmas, or should I say we had a wonderful FIRST Christmas together! One of my bridesmaids, Debbie, actually gave us our first "First Christmas" ornament for the tree, so cute! Being that it's just Andy and I we decorated as much as possible, filling up our little condo with some holiday cheer. Andy did lights outside and I put up the stockings and decorated our 4 foot tree...and that's about all we could fit! :) Andy's parents were in town again for Christmas so this time we went to my parent's for Christmas Eve dinner, then on Christmas Day we went and had steak and crab legs at Andy's Aunt and Uncle's. It was the first year I had Christmas Day without my parents but I must say steak and crab and Andy's family's secret Santa exchange sure made for a great new tradition. (Next year I have the perfect gift for Bob – I don't think he wanted to trade me!) Yes, that's a little joke for those of us that were there but I'll give you a hint…Victoria's Secret! Haha!

After Christmas was over, Andy's been determined to buy a shotgun. I am definitely NOT into guns but after spending half a day out in the desert with some friends shooting I got more comfortable with the idea. Plus, the fact that it breaks down into 3 pieces which makes me happy! Feeling the power of the gun(s) is nuts and really gets your adrenaline pumping! I tried to shoot at the clays which was highly comical! I could barely hold the gun, let alone aim and shoot at a tiny disk flying through the air. Andy on the other hand, is quite the natural…go figure!

Next event on the crazy calendar of Andy and Kim was New Years Eve. Since 2009 is going to be such a fabulous year for Andy and me, we were determined to ring it in right! We got off work, got dressed up, and headed down to our new favorite restaurant called the Rokerij. We had some amazing food and drinks then headed over to our friend's Eric & Amanda's house for a '09 fiesta! I can't believe it's been a year! Andy and I started dating around this time of year last year and so much has happened and yet there's so much to look forward to.