Year One...warning: PICTURE HEAVY!

Are you ready to ruuuumbllllleee?!

That's how I feel about today's blog post :) I'm basically putting 3 different posts into one, because I just have so much to say about my first year of marriage! It was, without a doubt, the. best. year . of my life! So i'm going to start with the good stuff: Gifts!

Did you know each anniversary year has a traditional gift that goes along with it? Did you also know that I just learned to spell Anniversary without spell-check this week?

Okay...i'm getting off topic. On your first anniversary, the traditional gift is paper. This is such a fun gift! It's so easy to get creative with, and totally knock your wifey/husband off their feet. I'll start with our paper gifts this year..

Dashboard Confessional has been one of my favorite bands since middle school. My 14 year old emotional-self could relate to all of the words, and they shot straight to my soul ;) I'm not even joking, my email address for the LONGEST time was "illbeyoursmydear@aol.com" that is true Dashboard dedication.  I walked down the aisle to an accoustic version of "Stolen" and it just so happens they're playing HERE in Arkansas TONIGHT and Jake scooped us up a pair of tickets. I could have screamed! Actually, I did. Can this work day go by quicker? I need to get my Chris Carrabba on.

"Stolen" is sort of our song. It is really emotional and meaningful to the both of us, so for Jake's "paper" gift, I had the lyrics printed on a faded wedding picture, and framed it to hang in our house. I honestly didn't think he'd care all that much, but he got tears in his eyes when he opened it! Such a softie that one ;)

Because we just couldn't help but spoil each other a little more, Jake got me this gorgeous engraved bar necklace from Dear Heart, Designs  and he ordered it only 9 days before our anniversary and she was SUCH a gem to work with. It was here in time, and Jake even made a mistake and ordered the wrong thing, and she completely fixed the order free of charge. The necklace is just stunning, and now I can keep my little man close to my heart at all times. :)

Jake's gift was a little silly to most people, but to quote him when he mowed the lawn for the first time, "that was completely life-changing!" You see, in Arkansas it rains like 500 days a year (exact number...trust me, it's science) which means in the Spring/Summer our lawn is out of control and needs to be mowed both front and back at least once a week. His previous whip was a 75 dollar push mower we bought when we first moved into our home 2 years ago, and it just wasn't cutting it (pun totally intended.) I spent months researching the mac-daddy of all mowers (do people still say mac-daddy? no? ..moving on) and finally settled on this beauty. This was like receiving a Rolls Royce to Jake so I felt like I nailed it!

More Paper Gift Ideas:

• Concert Tickets
• Framed Vows
• Gift Certificate to the Spa
• Sporting Event Tickets
• Art or a "printable" framed from Etsy
• A photo-book of your first year
• Flipbook
• A weekend getaway! (print out the hotel confirmation..boom, paper)
• A completed wedding album (i still haven't done ours. I would die if someone just made it for me so I didn't have to!)
• A day planner (for the type A!)

I'm sure you could come up with 100 more paper ideas! Make sure you comment them below so I can add them to the list, lets help our fellow married friends out!

The night before our anniversary we went out to a way-too-expensive dinner that was awful and we both decided, we're Outback steakhouse people.  We stopped on our way home for ice cream and chicken nuggets. ;)

On our actual anniversary (May 31st) we had our normal Sunday family dinner at my parents, and I had my dad snap a quick blurry picture of the 3 of us after our first year as a married family! :) Next year there will be one more little guy bouncing around our anniversary photo.

and because no anniversary post would be complete without some of my favorite pictures from the best day of my life, I wanted to include some wedding highlight photos as well.

I don't want to get too sappy, I do that enough on instagram (@absolutelyarkansas), but being married to this guy is the best adventure. He loves the biggest, and gives all of himself to make me happy. I am so privledged to be his wife. And our little guy is really lucky he gets him as a Dad :) Year One was a BLAST, bring on year two!

If you want to see more of our Wedding Photos, they're in my June 2014 archives, or you can check out this link for all things wedding-related. Thank you so much for following along with me! Sharing my life with all of you is such an honor!

Until Next Time,
xo Kylie