Thank you.

I recently read a blog post from a newlywed on her one year anniversary. I expected to see something about how wonderful the first year was. How much she had learned. How excited she was for the future. But what I read was a thank you letter.

What she wrote was so fitting though. In this first year of marriage, where Matt and I clung so tightly to our families and friends, we grew up so much. We grew in our love for Christ. We grew in our love for others.

Last year today, as I walked down the aisle to my future, my heart was so full of emotions. I remember seeing faces on each side of the aisle, my mom in tears, my dad holding me tightly. I remember my pastor's solid and convicting words. I remember the look on Matt's face as vowed his devotion to me. And I remember the beauty of my friends beside me.

You were there in our engagement. Praying for us. Counseling us. Walking with us. You were there to tell us stories from your own marriages. To be excited with us for the unknown. To celebrate and laugh and look forward to what was coming. To throw us ridiculous bachelorette & "stag" parties.

You were there in our wedding. Supporting us. Witnessing our vows to each other and to God. You were there to join in on the party. To love on us and enjoy our new marriage with us. You were there to eat all the pies and cake. To catch the bouquet and the garter. To dance your heart away to DJ Groove.

You were there in our first year of marriage. Praying for us. Calling us. Emailing and writing us. You sent us your love through gifts and cards. You checked up on us. You shared in our joy and our sadness. You counseled us when we were as fragile as ever. You showed us how to forgive all things of each other.

You are our family. Our friends. Our confidants. You are our role models, our mentors, our support system. Thank you for caring for us so well. Thank you for seeing us through a year. Thank you for holding us accountable and pointing us to the only One who matters.

We are so thankful for you. We love you. Here's to another year!

Brody Taylor.

Brody. Brovolone. Brohemith. Broseph. Broman. Bromeister. Brozilla. Brochacho. Bro Bro. However you wanna call him...meet our little man :)

He was born on June 9, 2013. The chubbiest in the litter. The fiestiest little pup we ever did see. He loves to give kisses, but also bite hands and feet. He has a best friend monkey buddy {i.e. stuffed toy monkey} and also Matt's sock. And we fell in love with him right away :)

Some of you may be wondering, what in the world are the Taylors thinking?! They're about to go away for a week and then buy a house. And all I have to say is..yeah..I know...crazy!! But hey, we're making it work.

I never realized how puppies are actually baby dogs. And baby dogs are a lot like baby humans. They constantly need love and attention and holding and coddling and positive reinforcement and food and water and sleep and the potty.

But Brody's love is payback for all the sleepless hours we've put in this first week :)

Enjoy the photos below! He's 7 weeks today! Happy Birthday Broangelo.

House Prep

Welp. Lesson #1: Don't post things like "i have a HUGE surprise" and assume people don't automatically think "baby." Haha. My bad y'all. After receiving multiple texts asking if I was expecting, I decided to go ahead and share our news before August.

The reason I didn't want to say anything was because we haven't closed and anything could go wrong. We're pretty set on getting the house but you never know :)

We have been keeping hush about this since the beginning of May. and that's been SO hard for me! I'm so open with all my friends {which caused a handful of people to hear sooner than the blog post} so it was tough keeping a closed lid.

While we were being quiet, we've been prepping for our FIRST HOUSE. AHHH. I still can't believe we're actually buying a house. ha. We've tried to brainstorm some ideas such as wall colors, room themes, furniture to buy, and DIY projects to take on {or to not take on ever}. And so far we've gotten a few big things!

1) Matt decided it was essential for a man cave. Therefore, he bought a projector that actually cost less than most TV's yet projects up to 300"!

2) We needed a new coffee table. We are going to have two "entertainment" areas (the man cave and the living room) so we needed another table.

 3) A King mattress. YES. A King. We are so happy! Poor Matt probably needs a king just for himself, but he has to share :) Right now it's sitting in our 1 bedroom apt hallway to our bathroom haha.

4) A sectional. From our dear dear Taylor parents! We are so thankful!! Matt had to test out quite a few to get the comfiest one.

this is the one :)

5) A grill. Essential for entertaining friends :) And from our Wright parents! We have such an amazing and supportive family!

We're still working on accumulating stuff and crossing things off our list. But wanted to let y'all in on what's been going on.

Oh and we got a dog..I guess that's #6! More to come on that later :)

JULY.

As if last July wasn't big enough, Matthew and I have just entered a HUGE month in 2013. We're coming up on our first anniversary {man how time flies}. And I know many of you heard we booked a week long vacation to the Dominican to celebrate! We're so blessed and thankful to be able to travel and relax after a long hard year of work together.

We've got some big news--but we can't share all of it just yet :) Firstly, y'all saw that my big brother came home to Charlotte! We really relished our time together since we see him maybe once a year--if that.

Seconddd, Matt and I just bought a puppy!! I know some of y'all read how much I wanted one back in the Spring and we finally got one! It's a purebred border collie named Brody Corgnelius Taylor. We named his middle name after my love of corgis :) Matt refuses to ever buy a corgi, but he graciously gave into my choice of middle name. The reason we got this dog at this time is what I can't reveal just yet, but I'll be posting some huge and exciting news in August.

#3) Matt started his full time job at Cisco!! So exciting! We've been living off my income this year as an audit intern at BDO, so it's nice to have dual income...for a month...and then I go back to school ha.

FOURTH...the big ONE YEAR {as mentioned in the first paragraph}. We are definitely trying our cake. We're hauling it back to Raleigh today after we visit our Brody.

But those four things {and one secret} sum up what's been going on in our lives. I'll keep ya posted on how everything goes in the coming weeks!