It’s a BOY!

Aaron and I are announcing today that we’re expecting our first child.
Our son is due in early September and we couldn’t be more excited.
He’ll be the first grandchild on Aaron’s side of the family and the first
male grandchild on my side.

We had our first sonagram on Wednesday, and here are the first
pictures and videos of our son.

Videos of our Son

 

50 Days and Counting

The days are flying by! I cannot believe we only have 50 days left until we get married.  These days are going to be very busy. Aaron and I have been working  hard on getting all of the details worked out for our big day. The invitations are almost ready to be mailed out. The invitations were designed by my brother Craig and I could not be happier with the final product. We still have considerable work to do on the guest list, but it is coming together.

Aaron and I have not yet decided on our honeymoon destination. We are looking pretty seriously at Jamaica, oh it just looks so gorgeous. We thought we wanted to stay away from the beach but I think the all inclusive resorts are what sold us. We still have to decide on which resort though.

Last weekend we had a bridal shower in Manhattan hosted by the lovely bridesmaids. I had a great time and I hope everyone who was able to attend also had fun. In a couple of weeks we will have a couples shower in Sharon, and later that night I will have my Bachelorette party in Wichita! Aaron will not have his Bachelor party until the following weekend in Kansas City.

We are so lucky to have so many fantastic and fun people in our lives to share this exciting time. Thanks for all your help and love 🙂

Something Blue

I have been busy thinking of all of the ways to make our day truly special.  I have so great ideas and cannot wait to share them with everyone. This past weekend was very busy. We headed down to Sharon on Friday and Aaron played a show at The Plum Thickett in Kiowa.  On Saturday Aaron had another show in Medicine Lodge with the Blaine Younger Band.  Both show went well, it is always nice when he plays so close to home.

On Sunday I headed to Wichita with my Mom, Aaron’s Mom and my Grandma Ruby. We were on a mission to find fabric for the bridesmaid dresses and flower girl dresses. We were partially successful, we found all of the fabric for the flower girl dresses which will be white with blue sashes. However we only found about half of the fabric needed for the five bridesmaids’ dresses. Because my grandma is custom making all of the dresses I was able to design them exactly how I wanted. I decided to go with a v-neck cross over bodice with an a-line tea length skirt accented by a black sash. The dresses will be made of cobalt blue satin. I am so lucky to have such a talented grandma to make these dresses.

I also picked up my wedding gown a couple of weeks ago, it is perfect! I was a little nervous as I order a different color than I tried on at the store. Luckily I made the right decision and it is the right dress for me. I will have to have some minor alterations made, most of which is having the dress shortened. My sister Holly just got married in January and she offered to let me borrow her veil, which looks great with my dress. I  feel so blessed to have family who are willing to let me borrow and offer their talent and skills to make my special day even more memorable.

I have been searching for a wedding memory book and had no luck finding one I like. So I decided I am going to make my own. It is a creative memories 8×8 scrapbook that I will be able to personalize to tell the story of our engagement and marriage. I just started working on the book last night and cannot wait to get home and continue my work.

I still have a thousand things to do before we are ready, but after getting my dress I told Aaron that I was ready. It is funny how getting that dress really made me feel like it was all coming together.

Let the Planning Begin

Aaron and I have started to make some decisions on our upcoming wedding. So far we have decided that we will be getting married on September 25, 2010 in St. Boniface Catholic Church in Sharon, KS. The reception will be held in Medicine Lodge, KS  at The Heritage Center.  We have also decided on the colors we will be using: black, white and blue.

I found my gown at a little bridal store in Downs Kansas, actually the same store Megan (Aaron’s sister) and Holly (my sister) found their wedding gowns. I did have a bit of a blunder in my wedding dress shopping. I decided on one dress, bought it and took it home, but about three days after I did this I was such a mess, I had the worst case of buyer’s remorse ever! I knew this dress was not “the dress”. But not to worry the wonderful and sweet woman at the store let me come back in an choose a different dress. My mom had went with me the first time and taken pictures of me in some of the gowns. Once I saw the pictures I knew for sure which dress I wanted. I went back to the store tried it on and ordered it. My wedding gown should be in sometime this month. I cannot wait to see it. I would post a picture, but I am trying to keep Aaron from seeing the dress. I don’t know if I will be successful in this attempt to keep it a secret from Aaron, but I am going to try for now.

We recently receive the final versions of our engagement pictures, they are wonderful. We are so excited to be getting married.

Aaron and I have also decided on who will be in our wedding party.

Diane’s Ladies:

Matron of Honor
Holly VanSkike (Diane’s sister)
Bridesmaids
Megan Piester (Aaron’s sister)
Christine Poe (Diane’s sister-in-law)
Erica Traffas (Aaron’s sister)
Lindsay Poe (Diane’s sister-in-law)

Aaron’s Gentlemen:

Best Man
Kyle Dohm (Aaron’s friend)
Groomsmen
Rob Spector (Aaron’s friend)
Wayne Graham (Aaron’s cousin)
Mason Powell (Aaron’s friend)
Andrew Piester (Aaron’s brother-in-law)
Ushers
Craig Poe (Diane’s brother)
David Poe (Diane’s brother)
Josh Jacobs (Aaron’s friend)
Mark Hunter (Aaron’s friend)

The Proposal Details

October 17, 2009-San Francisco

Aaron and I rolled out of bed to go down to Ocean Beach which was only a block from where we were staying.  We had planned to do this early because we weren’t sure how much time we would have to spend at the beach on our trip to San Francisco.  Aaron and I had each seen the ocean, but this was our first time to see it while we were together.  That morning the ocean was beautiful a little foggy, but beautiful.

Aaron walked me down close to the water and gave me a hug.  He started to tell me how happy he was that we came to San Francisco and how the last 3 years of his life had been so great.  That was right about the time I started to realize what was going on.  I hugged Aaron tighter as he continued with his kind words.  Before I knew it he was down on one knee right in front of me holding a little black box containing a gorgeous 3/4ct. diamond engagement ring.  And that is when he said “Diane, will you marry me?”  I was so excited, I said “YES YES YES!”  and hugged him tightly. As Aaron slid the ring on my finger I couldn’t help but tear up.  It was perfect, the ring was beautiful and the setting on the beach was so special.  I could not have asked for anything more.

I wanted Aaron to sit down with me, I just needed to take a minute and absorb everything that had just happened, so we headed back up to a bench and that is when the phone calls began.  We called our families to let them know of our exiting news.

Palace of Fine Arts

Palace of Fine Arts

Aaron and I spent the rest of the day touring San Francisco.  We went to the Golden Gate Bridge as well as The Palace of Fine Arts.  One of my favorite places we went was “The View” a bar at the top of the Marriott in downtown San Francisco.  From “The View” we were able to get a view of the entire city and the bay, it was amazing!

Aaron had also planned for a friend to take our engagement pictures while we were in San Fran, so we will have pictures from all over the city.  I cannot wait to get those pictures.

To say the least we had a fantastic time in San Francisco!