On April 1st 2011, Cody and I went on our first date. We just passed April 1st 2018 (which strangely happened to be Easter AND April Fools Day) which means we have officially been together for 7 years! Wow the time has flown by! (Yes, our dateiversary has always been on April fools day funny enough, but not Easter). I found this interesting fact below:
If that is true than we are officially best friends for life now! What an exciting milestone!!😍
These past 7 years have been the best years of my life by far and I didn't realize how happy I could possibly be until I met Cody. My life has completely changed in the past 7 years and I love every second of it. We have basically grown up together knowing each other since we were 8 and a half, and we have been through every major life milestone together. I value and cherish that more than you can know! I feel very special to have had that with Cody where most couples meet in college or afterwards. With that being said we have had a special bond from the start and even now, we know each other so well. I am so happy to have had him by my side through every aspect of these past 7 years and to have that love and support always there to back me up. I have really grown as a person with Cody and we have both grown up so much from our sweet little 17 year-old selves. Marriage is so sweet and I only wish we could have been married for these entire 7 years but I know we followed God's exact plan for our relationship.
Many people say you can't know the other person fully, or you will change dating someone that young or for that long, or you will grow apart, but that is all a decision. Our relationship and marriage isn't based off of our own stupid feelings and actions, we have placed our marriage and relationship in God's hands from the start and if it is God's will for us, who are we to stop it or think selfishly. I also credit my parents and Cody's parents for raising us to be normal, intelligent, successful, God-fearing people to make the right decisions and not make some of the mistakes others might make at our age. So we did have that maturity on our side too.
We went back to the Lakeside with Nana, Gigi and Granddad to celebrate that three years ago to the day (April 18th 2015) Cody proposed to me. It was next to this very tree with the most scenic gorgeous view in the background with Cody singing Angel by Casting Crowns! It was the most perfect day I could ever imagine. The rest of our lives started right then💗.
Also, speaking of anniversaries, a year ago on April 1st I cut my hair (drastically) for the first time in my life! I donated 12 inches of my hair to Locks of Love, a foundation that makes hair pieces for children with the incurable illness called alopecia areata. This illness prevents them from ever being able to grow hair. If you are interested in donating, it takes 8-10 people to make ONE hair piece for a child. I plan on doing this for the rest of my life until God keeps my hair from growing so long anymore. So I am currently still on the other side trying to grow my hair back out so I can cut it again. I takes one month for your hair to grow 1/2 of an inch so in this year alone my hair has grown 6 inches. In actuality, my hair is only 3 inches longer than it is in this picture because around last November I cut 3 inches off of it to enjoy having it short a little longer. I had never had my hair that short and in many ways it was really nice but I DEFINITELY miss my long hair and miss it more and more each day. In a year and a half from now, I can cut my hair 12 inches again!
In the beginning of April I also took my third trip to Wisconsin for product development. It snowed more than it had on our January and February trip combined!
I didn't even need a refrigerator for my yogurt 😅
That trip went very well but was so incredibly quick! I will be going to Wisconsin a lot more the rest of the year.
Mid April rolled around and it was time for our nephew, Kaden's fourth birthday! We went over to his house and helped him put together the trampoline I had been dying to give him! I am so incredibly excited to say that he loved it!:):) How can he be 4 already!?!
The assembly crew working away!
Also a few weekends ago, Nana took me to the famous Knoxville zoo! I had an absolute blast! The zoo is where I am in my element, I love animals and I love walking around the exhibits! Nana used to have season passes for us growing up and we would go 10-20 times a year. On this trip, seeing the new monkey and tiger exhibit was the highlight of our trip! I was surprised that the weather behaved! I am so impressed with the Knoxville Zoo, so much has changed and improved from when I went at 4 years old!
Every single animal (except the prairie dogs and the otters😢) were active! I hadn't seen that in literally a decade! We chose a perfect time to go! The zoo keepers were in the middle of feeding the elephants so we were able get a close look just their monstrosity! This male in the picture was 15,000 pounds at 47 years old!
This new exhibit was so special! We were able to see the monkeys eat and interact with each other! There was even a baby monkey swinging around 😍.
The giraffe's are one of my favorite exhibits to visit. With Knoxville Zoo's new updates, there are signs explaining each animals behavior, their names, and personalities. I read that the giraffe way in the back loves looking into the elephants pen and that is exactly what she was doing!!! Haha
I of course had to take a picture of the rhino for Cody! (his favorite animal)
It was perfect seeing the bear at the end because it was as if he was saying goodbye with its foot 😂 SO precious!
This past weekend, Dad came up from Texas to visit and see the orange and white game with us! Wow we had a blast! And for the first time in a while, UT won 😑😅😉.
Fun question, who looks more like whom? I think I have just concluded that we each look like our own unique selves. I will cherish this picture for a long long time.
We had 64,000+ in attendance which I was really pleased with. Pruitt wasn't but that's ok. I snapped this really quick before the game had started and before it got really crowded. In all seriousness, orange won! We happened to all be wearing orange instead of white! :)
The whole gang!
Me and my daddy! I wish so badly he lived closer.
My honey 💘
After the game for an early father's day/birthday present we made dad Cody's healthy famous meatloaf. Dad loved it and it paired perfectly with Dad's famous mashed potatoes and Nana's famous green beans, sweet tea, and jello salad. A meal made in heaven! Cody's meatloaf is my favorite thing he makes.
When it was time to go Morgan and I ran over to the flowers to snap a quick picture in front of these gorgeous gorgeous flowers! I love this picture of us! Another one to cherish! 😇
I had so much fun talking to dad spending one-on-one quality time throughout the weekend getting work advice on projects and just advice in general, and talking about life. It is so much fun talking about the things we have so much in common. Morgan too!
That's about all that is happening as of now, spring football practice has started at Soddy Daisy and Cody is rounding on his one year mark of his two-year masters degree. I am so proud of him. We have some trips coming up down the road into the summer and I am extremely excited for that!
P.S.- Cody and I have some really really exciting news to share but need to wait a few weeks until we can share! Tune in later for the info! (no we are not pregnant, I promise!)
Love,
Kayla Raborn
4/28/18
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