Bridal Shower and Family Time!

Hey everyone! I'm back as promised (maybe a few days late ;)) but I'm here and re-adjusting, getting back in the swing of school to finish off these last 7 weeks after a nice long spring break. I'm not gong to lie, it has been a little difficult especially since I am so close. I just want to be done. On a bright note, my cousin Hannah is finally coming back from her mission from New Jersey after 18 months tomorrow! At 11:15 tomorrow morning Hermana Becker will be getting off the airplane! I am so excited she will be back because let me tell you, she has been really missed! She was always my buddy growing up and it is especially difficult planning the wedding for almost a year without her!

So since my last post, Wednesday, we have gone to the midnight Allegiant, celebrated my mom's birthday, accomplished some wedding planning tasks, and had my first bridal shower ever!!!

On Thursday morning I had my wedding hair and makeup trials. I finally found the perfect place and person to do my hair and makeup for the big day! Grow salon is really neat! We were there for 2 1/2 hours and to say the least I am VERY pleased! It was so surreal to see my self with my 'wedding look' and I just can't believe it is me! I feel so extremely blessed and lucky!! Sometimes I just can't fathom the most exciting time of a person's life is here and I get to experience it! With the best guy! After the appointment, mom and I headed to finish the details of the invitations and we will be getting the proofs, ordering them, and sending them out soon! Wallace Paper Company is great!

Here is a quick image of my makeup choice! I love how natural but bold it can be at the same time! I am keeping my hair a secret for now so on the big day it can be a surprise for everyone!

Later that night was movie time! It was a lot of fun spending quality time with Morgan, having a movie night, and getting in some good girl/sister talk. With the wedding fast approaching and living in Chattanooga soon, I know these times will become less and less so I am jumping at every chance I can to spend time with her (my mom too)!

Friday morning was my mom's birthday! I woke up extra early to make chocolate chip pancakes with cute little cut up strawberries. We then headed to Ijams nature center where Morgan and I usually hike during our Fall break because it is so breathtakingly beautiful! Morgan and I usually go without mom in the Fall because mom has a different Fall break than us so it was an extra special treat this year especially since Spring break fell on my mom's birthday! Mom had never gone and LOVED it! I have a feeling this will be a new tradition.

Look at this quaint little swing on one of the hidden trails! That would make some great pictures if you were willing to get your feet wet!

The three Dyar girls rock!

How beautiful! That person must love their house and land!

This is my favorite trail of them all! There is nothing more peaceful than sitting and listening to God's world! 

My mom! This fits her radiant adventurous personality so much!

Look at how photogenic this swamp is! And it is pink!! How neat is this!

Check out these buttercups everywhere!

I hope this place can be kept up forever!!

A cute little pond/swamp inside the greenhouse!

After Ijams we headed to see Zootopia and let me say, it was really really good! The kind of good that you want to see it again right then!

We then headed to Gigi's house and she had made my mom's favorite meal, steak, potatoes, and green beans! It was one of the best home cooked meal I had ever had! Gigi can cook! Mom was really pleased! Then I made her favorite walnut brownies and we took a walk to the dock in our neighborhood. Present time was next and to top off the evening, Fuller House on Netflix! It was an awesome day especially just spending time with just us Dyar girls. I wish we could do that every week!

The birthday girl with her brownies with extra walnuts just like she likes! She doesn't look a day over 30 does she?! It is amazing! I hope I look as young and beautiful as my mom when I am her age! Wow!

Granddad, me, and Morgan, with Gigi in the back cutting the brownies!

We go all out for birthdays! 

Me and my mama! 

The whole birthday party gang!

Happy Birthday mom! I hope it was your best birthday yet! You deserve the best!

On Saturday started off with Cody picking me up at 9:30am and we headed to Maryville to meet with our DJ. We really like him, he really listened to what we wanted and had some really good suggestions. I was glad he was slightly older so our eardrums won't bust at the wedding. There is nothing worse that having music drown out your voice so you can't talk over it at all. Especially at a wedding, especially especially at my wedding! lol ;) We then had an hour and a half to kill to meet with our videographer so Cody and I headed to Firehouse subs and just sat and talked. Sometimes times like that are the best and make the best memories together! Next we added and took away a few items from our registry at Bed Bath and Beyond, had a nice dinner date at Red Robin, Yum! And had Froyo! Oh my goodness it is one of Cody and I's favorite things! We always purpose to go in and only fill our cups up less than half way. It starts off well, then come the toppings. The ice cream is only half full but with the toppings, you just can't leave anything out! It is all so good and who knows when you will go next!;) You just can't miss out! Cody and I then saw the third divergent so he could see it and he loved it! It was just as good the second time too!

Sunday we woke up early to head to church for palm Sunday! The little children were so cute! After church we headed to my Nana's house and Cody left back for Chattanooga and my bridal shower began!! Morgan hosted the shower while Nana provided her house and mom planned, and decorated. As their little team of 3, I was drop dead surprised and amazed! It looked like it came out of a magazine! See for yourself below! It makes me feel so loved and special to have had such an amazing thing put together just for me by three of my favorite people! They spent so much time and effort on it! It was definitely the best experience I had ever had! (more pictures people will be shown later when I get a hold of my mom's pictures)

I mean WOW! I was blown away!!

My dress of choice for the event! I don't know if you can tell but I was really happy ;)

Check out these gorgeous peony flowers in these stunning rustic pink vases! These will be the exact thing in my wedding bouquet and pink is my favorite color! Oh and take note of the silver sequin table runner! Completely up my alley!:)

Look at these cute little dress-shaped cookies they HAND MADE and baked for me!!

Cute little pimento cheese sandwiches!

Delicious little peanut butter sandwiches created! (peanut butter is my FAVORITE!)

And look at this BEYOND AWESOME idea of pink lemonade with sugar around the rim!

My little yogurt bar with poprocks (yes that was my request ;)) it is my signature haha!

And look at these cute little Gigi's cupcakes!! They are so adorable!!!

I'm really sorry this is sideways, Cody usually helps me when I have this problem and can't get it right side up but just turn your heads for now until I can fix it. Sorry! But these were the cute little party favors for the guests to take home. 

Darn, same for this one, pretend it's not sideways! These are the little favors along with advice cards to the bride and groom and there was some really good advice!!

Darn darn! This one is sideways too! And this was one of my favorites! I need Cody asap lol!

 My friends had some really special and thoughtful gifts and it really touched my heart. I am so grateful to have them as my friends and to always have someone to turn to and someone who has my back. Each one of my friends is so special to me and I loved their fellowship and friendship at the shower. It was also cool having all engineers at the shower. It was completely coincidence! We had a mechanical, electrical, three materials science (one is a physics major but materials minor), industrial, and biomedical engineer! But with this many science-y math people in the room we were able to have a really good time with the 'what's in your purse' game! Two people had a screwdriver, one person had a tape measurer, and one person had a leveler (me);))

Since spring break is over, I am now easing back into the school mindset and realizing I am not done and have to keep pushing. But there wasn't a better way to finish out senior year than this week. I love my family so much and all of the memories we are creating! 44 days left until graduation and 73 days until the wedding!!

With Love,
Kayla Dyar (Raborn)
3/23/16

See you next time! It will probably be when school is over May 6th but that is when I really hit the ground running getting everything set for the big day! So I will have a lot to update on! See you then!!:):)

School fun and Spring Break!

Hey everyone! Wow it has been a while! So much has happened since January! I have dove in to my last semester as a senior before I graduate and have honestly been able to say, I love what I do and will be doing the rest of my life. For truly the first time, I love my classes and the material so much. It is such a nice assurance that the major you chose was the right one. I am so ready to graduate and start my next step, it is so beyond time. I am going to be one happy proud UT alumni female Materials Science Engineer! I love my UT! Let me go ahead and dive into these last few months through the best way, pictures!

So a few days after my last blog post, Morgan, Mom, and I attended the pink bridal show in Knoxville and had an absolute blast! I felt so honored to wear this badge also! (mirror image camera made the words backwards, I wan't holding it wrong)

We saw two of the offered runway shows and ate lots of samples and signed up for a lot of goody bags!

This semester has been ridden with countless hours of senior project work which really isn't fun at all but I have enjoyed being apart of an entire project run by our group. Above is a pellet presser of our ball-milled Titania, Alumina, and Potassia samples we prepared which are ready for high temperature x-ray diffraction (my specialty)! God knew what he was doing by sticking me with this group project!

Of course I went to the spring job fair and gained a lot of employment/professional people skills. Plus I look so grown up and business-like in this picture it is so cool!

Since Cody is in Chattanooga and I am here in Knoxville, we see each other most weekends and he truly makes it so special. It is hard not seeing each other more often but it is night and day difference from seeing each other one day every two and a half months for 4 years. So I don't complain in the least. It feels like Christmas all of the time and when I see him it is like opening the best present. He is so special guys, I got a keeper!

We love to explore on our date night weekends and we stumbled into Trader Joes for the first time one weekend and tried brown rice sushi! It was SOOOO good!

At then end of January Cody and I went to an open house at our reception site and got these cute little favors. If they weren't so expensive this would be a great idea!

Additional parking out back of our reception building. 

The beautiful fireplace outside!

On most weekend date nights we will eat at our new favorite resturant and rehersal dinner location, Calhouns on the River! We love when we have a wait time because we get to explore the beautiful river walk and hold hand;) Sometimes times like those are the best! I love our date night weekend adventures!

Excuse the hair on that windy night, Cody wanted to take my picture in front of the purple bridge!

Outside of the restaurant.

Other side of Calhoun's

Here is the floor plan to our little place we can call our own. 

So about a week and a half ago Cody calls me up and asks if we could close on the deal for the next 15 monnths of our favorite apartments in Chattanooga. He found this great deal and wanted to jump at the opportunity.  We always planned for Cody to buy our place in March and move in in May which is exactly what we have done. (Everything is turned off until May 1st when Cody officially moves in) Let me tell you what it was quite a surprise when I realized I really would live in Chattanooga to start off. I would have sworn it would have been Knoxville. We even had our apartment of choice picked out there too. But it is amazing to see God's plans because he knew all along that this would be where we would end up. Cody has a really good job opportunity here in Chattanooga and I don't so we have to go where we are guaranteed an income first off and don't get me wrong, I am a little sad (maybe a lot) that we won't be in Knoxville but I will learn to love this opportunity and will be fine since I have Cody. I have really grown to love it. But I trust God's plans and I hope to be back in Knoxville some day. Also officially declaring residency in Chattanooga narrows my job search down significantly and does in fact make me a little nervous. I just have to walk by faith and not sight for that one. 

One of the first things I did was bring down my 'R' rug to make it ours. And I am really proud of my new last name initial.

Welcome to the tour of our place. I will do this again once we have it furnished. 

The two pictures above are our kitchen. It is so open and spacious with updated appliances and nice cabinets. This is my favorite part of the place especially since Cody and I are big cooks! 

Here is our spacious pantry which is actually rare to have at all in most apartments we have found. 

We have a laundry room! Can you believe it! Furnished with the washer and dryer too!

Here is our little nook by the door. 

This is our den/living room. 

Our very very first piece of decoration. A picture of us from two Christmas' ago. I love pictures and you bet we will have them everywhere. 

Here is our nice porch which we will hopefully have two rocking chairs to put out there. (Cody loves rocking chairs so much)

Here is the guest bedroom which is going to be our office. (guests sleep on the couch, sorry)

Along with our guest bathroom. 

And guest closet. 

Here is the master bedroom!

Master closet! 

And master bathroom (yes the guest bathroom is strangely nicer)

Cody bought and assembled three bar stools since we have an island instead of a table. He did an amazing job building them! And hey they swivel! Cody is awesome, everything we bought we got for a super great deal and it has saved us a bunch of money! It's kind of fun saving money! I can't wait to eat pizza every night! (no i'm serious, I have this unexplainable love for pizza. Nothing can to Pizza huts new cheezy stuffed garlic knots pizza!)

The very first piece of furniture! The most cloud-like couch I have ever felt! Thank you Jamie!

Oh and the back story on the blanket and pillow, I found them 3 years ago and bought them in dreaming of our first place together and have saved them ever since! Now for the occasion of just purchasing our first bed (king sized bed!) they will go right on top! We will be getting our bed delivered on good Friday!!

As you can see and imagine, we are excited out of our minds and Cody is so proud of himself as I am so proud of him! He has done so much research into finding the perfect apartment for us in the right city and has taken so much personal initiative into making sure everything on my checklist was met. 

Please excuse the billion of pictures of the family that I have taken. Cody and I were very excited to show them the place for the first time so a selfie stick was in order. 

(Oh and they loved it!!)

My family <3 <3

(Cody didn't want to take this picture but he was a good sport and smiled)

I cannot believe how God has blessed us. I am so happy! I can't believe we will be embarking on our first year of marriage in this 'home'. I don't know about the statistics but I believe that this first year of marriage will be nothing short of perfect because I have my Cody!

This is the delicious protein filled yogurt I have chosen for my bridal shower coming up! Morgan is throwing it for me and I am SO excited! It will be my first bridal shower!!

The other day when Cody visited me we toured the VOL shop at UT and I found this handing on the wall and let me tell you what, the second my graduation is over this sucker is going on my car, front and back. I will be one proud alum for all of the hard work sweat and tears these last 5 years have caused me. 

.

As far as wedding planning goes, this week, spring break, has been a week of massive planing. First of all, each day I have been working on designing my wedding invitations. Tomorrow I am going for another wedding hair and make up trial and hopefully this place is the one! I have been shopping for honeymoon/beach clothes with a little luck. There are so many cute bathing suits out that I just want them all haha! I have picked up my last few items at David's Bridal so I am set there and ready for my first fitting in a few weeks. I HAVE FINALLY FOUND MY WEDDING SHOES! I am so thrilled I finally found the absolute perfect ones! They are flats so my bridesmaids must wear flats too because I am rather short and don't want to be completely over-towered.

From this point on in my spring break, this weekend Cody and I will be meeting with our DJ (we have made our long song list and I hope everyone likes the choices!). We will be meeting with our videographer, and Sunday, ending the last day of spring break, will be my shower! The color scheme is silver and pink! Right up my alley!

Also to mention, on Thrusday  Morgan and I will be seeing the midnight showing of Allegiant and Friday is our mom's birthday! She is so amazing and deserves so much on this big birthday! We have so many surprises up our sleeves for her! We will start off with chocolate chip pancakes made by me! Followed by a long picnic hike at Ijams nature center! (Morgan and I branched out to make our tradition including mom) and then we will see Zootopia (mom's choice) it looks so cute! And to finish off Gigi is making moms favorite, steak and potatoes with mom's favorite green beans along with multiple other surprises for her throughout the day;). This spring break so far has been awesome and I can't wait to post more about how the rest of the week went shortly!

Love,
Kayla Dyar (Raborn)

79 more days until the wedding and 50 until the end of the semester!!!!

And here's a little funny to make your day a little better. But seriously! This happens every. single. time