My Bridal Shower

Is this not the cutest cake ever!?
Left to right: Jilena (sister), Mom, Cousin Jill (host),

me and Kara (bridesmaid)
Showing off my snazzy new camping air mattress.
Mom toasting the Kemp's
Mom giving me a very emotional gift.
Bathrobe to wear while getting ready for the big day!
Cute tank tops my sister made for both me and my bridesmaid.
One of my favorite gifts...a "Love is patient. Love is kind" sign

to hang in our house to remind us to be good to each other.
My Aunt gave me my Great Grandmother's rolling pin. Such a sweet gift.
I'm very excited about this gift...can you tell?
Left to right, Great Aunt Vera, Mom, Cousin Jill, Boss Kathy, Co-worker Rebekah, Cousin Deanna, Aunt Sally, Mom-in-law Roberta, Sis in law Sarah, Great Aunt Terri and Sis.
My favorite part of the day was at the beginning when my cousin had the guests give me a wedding wish...in this picture I'm listening to my mom's wish.

Some of my favorite wishes were:

1- Babies! That was a popular one.

2- Lots of laughter and friendship

3- That we remember to enjoy each stage of our marriage.

4- That Mike will help me with the laundry when I have lots of babies. LOL Sarah!

5- That I will have the same relationship with Mike that my parent's have now.

I'm so incredibly blessed and fortunate to have such wonderful friends and family. I'm just a lucky girl.

Fun old family pictures

My parent's wedding picture

A 3 year old version of my mom and my handsome

Grandpa holding my Uncle.
My favorite picture of my Grandma holding my mom. Grandparent's, Pregnant mom and

Dad trying to hug Uncle
My favorite picture of my Parent's.

Look at how happy they are...

A beautiful Oregon day

You will never hear me complain about the rain because once it stops raining here....this is how beautiful and green it is.

I love Oregon.

Where my kids will play...

Molly enjoying the first sun in weeks
My dad's handsome dog, Spud

Henry Cat

While sitting in the waiting room in the Animal Urgent Care Hospital, one of the other mom's was remaking on how beautiful my cat was. She told me she used to have a cat just like him and mentioned that she was a particular breed called a Bengal. Now I don't know a lot about cats so when I bought Henry from a less than reputable pet store I believed that he was just a regular old tabby cat. But I was so curious that when I got home I googled "Bengal cat" and was pretty surprised at how similar they looked to my Roo.

So while waiting for Mike to pick up me up I started to compare. Now the first two are my Henry and the next two are pictures of full bred Bengals.

They say some characteristics are as follows; long tail, very high jumping abilities, beautiful markings and a lively and intelligent nature. All I would say Henry definitely has. The only thing that doesn't mesh is that they say that Bengals are the closest cat breed to a wild cat and they tend to be a little unsociable and wild in nature. That is not my Henry. Although he was raised with a beagle and I'm pretty sure he just thinks he is a dog.

What do you think??

Highlights of my hospital stay

• Sitting in the Urgent Care waiting room with my parent's for 3 hours
• Becoming the "hard blood draw patient" and getting stuck not once but 3 times by 3 different nurses
• watching my Dad's face as they tried to get the blood draw and knowing he could have gotten it on the first try
• Busting out in tears during my CT scan because I was tired, scared and HUNGRY.
• Telling my Doc that since he was going to admit me, I was bring my dog. He said No.
• The really comfortable bed on the surgery floor.
• Asking the Doc if he was sure it wasn't just a pulled muscle
• Asking the nurses if it was just Grey's Anatomy that made me think this or were Surgeons really cool.
• My family frantically calling Mike's friends to try and locate him before I went into surgery.
• Telling my nurse that he wasn't getting my engagement ring off my finger because I had waited 7 years for it and it wasn't coming off.
• Waking up in the recovery room and asking for Mike
• Ripping off my nasal cannula and telling the nurses that I didn't need it and watching Mike laugh
• My mom sleeping on the couch next to me all night and waking up with me every two hours.
• My sister cleaning my house when I got home
• My MIL bringing me a delicious dinner and beautiful flowers
• Clingy dogs that know I am sick
• Waking up Mike in the middle of the night to clean up my puke and him not remembering it in the morning
• Really great nurses and my wonderful family that never left my side

Visit Our Wedding Website!

www.weddingwire.com/kempandperry

Newberg!

Today my Mom, Dad and I took a road trip to visit my photographer Lindsay. I had never been to Dayton before and even though there isn't much of it...it's actually a beautiful little town. It looks almost looks like old farm land that you would see on a movie. To get to Dayton we had to cross the river on a ferry. It was probably the high light of my day! Although I must confess that it did make me a little car sick:)

So after Lindsay and I had an awesome chat about my wedding pictures we went to Newberg to have lunch. Newberg is also an awesome town. I actually think I could live there. After lunch I just had to drive by the house Mike lived in as a child. I kind of wanted to ask if I could walk through it but I didn't want to come off as a creep.

And after we visited Mike's house, we walked through Old Town which is super cute and has the best pet store I have ever been to. They have huge turtles just rooming around the store. I thought they were fake at first!

So to sum it up, we had a super great time, laughed a lot and I got to know Lindsay and am really glad I chose to her to my photographer! Yay!

Mother's Day

My Mother's Day gift to my Mom was a morning of horse back riding on our property. I had Jesse and Justin bring Jesse's two tamest horses up to the house and just the two of us wandered around the country side until our bum's got too sore and we had to quit. My mom always had horses when she was young and up until she had kids and didn't have time for them. I had actually never rode by myself before. I was surprisingly comfortable. Mike told me that I was not allowed to like them because he didn't want to have to buy one for me.

I did love it, but I definitely don't want one all of my own. The two toned one that I am riding is named Sarge and the huge one that my mom was on is named Homer. Homer was a tad difficult so it's a good thing my mom is an experienced rider. Sarge was pretty great but I did learn to duck fast because he had a tendency of walking right into tree branches.

We rode all over the back acres of our property and my mom told me stories about her childhood that I had never heard before.

It is something I will never forget. It was a perfect day.

My soon to be mother-in-law made me a CD of all my Mike's childhood pictures and they were so cute that I felt the need to share. I had to start with the most recent picture of Mike though. I took this yesterday. And yes, him and Jesse are wearing matching pearl snap shirts. And yep, they meant to match.

BBQ & Bowling

Last night we hung out with some old friends, new friends and best friends. It kind of felt like old times. Everyone at our house, eating, shoving way too many people in my car and listening to Blink 182 way too loud. And Mike of course having to get up at the crack of dawn to go fishing. Actually I don't think he ever went to bed...haha

(Mike getting ready to bowl. Nice suspenders, right?)

My New Favorite Picture.

I took this on the morning Mike proposed. It is a rare glimpse of the Mike that I only know. Sweet and wonderful and emotional.

Molly taking a look at the nice juicy chicks she would love to eat.

High School Days

I found this picture on Facebook. It's my best friend from high school dressed up in the suit my dad got married in. And then I'm in the back ground in my mom's disco outfit. I think we were giving a report on the 70's or something. So Funny!

Such good times.

Seven Years

(16 year old Mike)
I'm reminiscing today about my very first date with Mike. He was a sophomore and I was a senior in high school. He had asked me out about a dozen times but given our age difference I always just said no. I finally relented one day and said I would go see a movie with him.

We made it a double date because I was too chicken to go alone. So we took his friend Kelly and my friend Haannah. He picked us up at her house in his hot little black GTI (I totally have a thing for VW's) and he had hand picked flowers tied with a ribbon for me. They were stolen out of someones yard but that just made me laugh so he still scored points. They were red tulips and daffodils, which are my favorite. I still have them in a memory box I keep on our bedroom wall.

I still remember thinking that this 16 year old was crazy for thinking we were actually going to be an item and when we got to the movie theater I tried to make a point by sitting with my friend instead of sitting by him. I don't know why but about 30 minutes into the movie I changed my mind. I moved over to the chair next to him and we were so engulfed in conversation that I couldn't even tell you what the rest of the movie was about. I remember thinking he was kind and funny and more mature than any of the guys my age. Then he drove me home and I gave him a kiss on the cheek and he was incredibly happy with just that.

The more we dated and the more I learned about him, the more I loved. He was and still is the only boy who was romantic enough to ask me out on a proper date with flowers and everything. Now it's 7 years later and we're planning our wedding. We own a home, have a family of dogs together and he is still kind, makes me laugh and is still more mature than any guy I know.

Lambs and Babies

Even though I am quite aware that lambs and children are quite different...I feel that lately I've been learning valuable lessons about what it takes to raise a family. They have literally become our children. When we talk through out our work days one of the first things Mike will ask is how the babies are and how well they are eating. When we get home from work it's a rush to get their bottles warmed up to the perfect temperature and a struggle to feed them both at the same time because if you don't the other gets all worked up.

I supervise play time out in the back yard even though there are many other things that I could be doing but I feel the need to make sure they are safe. And the weird thing is that I love to see them discover new things and love to watch them be silly. The thing I love the most is how Mike and I have become such a team. It just sort of happened over night and it gives me a glimpse of our future. I know, I know...they are just lambs to most but we are literally responsible for their lives and I take that seriously. I always knew Mike was going to be an amazing dad but now I know we will make great parents together.

Mike and Molly

Margaret, Louise and Toby

The three most recent additions to the Kemp family. Mike brought Louise and Margaret home on my birthday. And then there's Toby, the lamb that lives in our garage. Yes I said our garage...

The mini donkey's live at my parent's hose right now.

So that brings our total up to 46 animals. 40 sheep, 1 cow, 2 donkeys, 2 dogs and 1 cat.

The funnies part of it all is that we don't even live in the country yet. I can only imagine the things he will bring home when we do.