Be Real

BE REAL

Snap out of the fantasy that the world gets to choose who you get to be. Quit living your life for the approval of man. It's going to leave you broken and empty in the end. You're so confined by how others perceive you, admit it. Acceptance becomes addicting. It's like a drug, you have to quit it. Sounds like a real problem, but there is a solution. Embrace who you are and reject the pollution that invades your mind like an unwelcome guest. Telling you lies that you're inferior to the rest. Your natural beauty is not enough but you can make up for it by buying stuff. A new car, longer hair, a smaller waist will get you there. To that place your heart longs to be where you can be relieved of your misery. But the cold hard truth is that there Is no relief. You won't find it in the things you buy while you're trying to appease the rest of the world and their expectations. You'll be trapped and depressed by your own limitations. If you want true freedom and ultimate purpose I suggest you look to the man who came to serve us. He humbled himself before the rest and for us he faced a brutal death. Jesus was Rejected and hated by man. He wasn't accepted and he didn't fit in. But none of that mattered because He had a bigger purpose, to bring us true freedom although we didn't deserve this. So embrace the freedom that you've been given. Ditch the lies and your disguise. Take off your mask and open your eyes to the world as Christ intended it to be. Where people are genuine, purposeful and free. Be real.

Moments Cherished

For the last four years this beautiful season has been packed with long work days, crammed study sessions, midterms and chaos. It is always such a busy time of year for me and the hardest time to truly enjoy. It isn't usually until my last final is over that I am able to squeeze in all the fun things of fall, winter and then celebrate Christmas, all within about ten days. Since being married, however, my priorities are shifting. I will gladly sacrifice a larger paycheck or a 4.0 GPA in order to spend quality time with my husband, family and friends. I have finally seen the light! The Lord is teaching me the value of time and I don't want to miss any special moments, or beautiful memories from here on out. For this reason, our fall this year has been filled with so many beautiful memories already! I've taken entire days off of studying just to bake, we spent two different nights carving pumpkins and making caramel apples with friends. Most recently erick and I took a couple days off of work to escape it all and soak up the beauty in one of the prettiest fall destinations in California, Julian! Julian is home of the world's best pie, prettiest fall leaves and most breathtaking views. So here's to more sleep and less studying! To more enjoying and less worrying. Here's to cherishing every moment, to stepping away from the rat race of life and enjoying the calm, the quiet and the beautiful.

Me and Daddy

Months before the wedding Erick began sorting through hundreds of hours of video footage from the last 22 years of my life and began putting them all onto CDs as a birthday present for my Dad! In the process, he made this incredible video of my daddy and I which we played for everyone at the wedding. My dad and I sat in the middle of the dance floor, hand in hand, bawling and laughing together that night!

Thank you Erick for all your time and energy making this for us and thank you daddy for giving me a perfect childhood. I love you more than anything!

Our love story (the short version)

I was fourteen years old the day that I met you Erick Sampson. We had just gotten home from a trip to Disneyland with our church, Fallbrook Presbyterian. You sat at one of the barstools in the lobby with a little flirtatious smirk on your face. I remember you introduced yourself to me and complained that you didn’t meet me sooner. When I left you told me how you wished we could’ve hung out all day and gotten to know eachother. I went home and told my mom how I met "the hottest guy ever" and hoped that we’d have another chance to get to know each other very soon. I couldn’t get you out of my head from that moment on. By fifteen, we were no longer acquaintances but friends. I would wait anxiously by my computer to talk to you on AIM since I didn’t have a cell phone yet but I had your number memorized anyways! ;) All my girlfriends had to endure endless stories about my high school crush, how I wished you would notice me and how much I wanted to spend more time with you. By sixteen you were practically one of the family. I would come home and you would be downstairs playing guitars with my dad without me even knowing or my mom would invite you over to dinner. You took me to prom that year and for the first time since the day I met you, you started showing just the slightest interest in me. By seventeen we were best friends. You went off to college at San Diego State but kept in touch with me. We talked on the phone, visited each other and you would come home for my mom’s special meals like gyoza and cashew chicken. After two family vacations together, a second prom, a whole lot of flirting and a few very serious conversations; our journey began. By eighteen, I fell in love with you and I have never looked back! Every year since then my love for you has grown exponentially. You held my hand through some of the most difficult times of my life, you challenged me to grow spiritually daily and and brought more JOY than I could have ever asked for! You have truly made me the person that I am today. Through countless powerful prayers, insightful conversations and belly aching laughs you transformed from my best friend to the love of my life. You became my everything! I was twenty one when you got down on one knee on January 1st, 2012 and changed my whole world forever, making every dream of mine come true at once, when you asked that one simple question…. “Kayla, will you marry me?”. The rest of our love story is unwritten but I know the absolute best is yet to come! From the moment I met you, Erick Sampson, I saw something special in you and over the last seven years I’ve watched you grow and transform in to the man of my dreams! There is not a thing I would change about you.. You are truly the best thing that has ever happened to me and I can not wait to watch the rest of our love story unfold as time passes.. I’ve got a lifetime of love for you!!

Shelter by Birdy

Skinny Love

so much to celebrate

In celebration of the commencement of Christmas break we took a trip with my parents up to Mt. Laguna to get in to the Christmas spirit and capture some christmasy pictures for our Christmas card. I was expecting a few patches of snow and when we arrived it was a complete winter wonderland with miles and miles of perfect fresh snow. Erick and I cringed as we stood there all dressed up watching the little kids sled ride! We wanted to be out there with them soooo badly.. but we are planning a second trip and next time we will dress a little warmer and take our sleds along! 

We ended the perfect day with a delicious dinner at BJ's with erick's family in celebration of erick's NEW JOB!! That's right, he is officially an ENGINEER with a real salary and benefits and all that jazz. I can't believe it! I watched him work so hard for the last four and a half years of college and now all of that incredible work has paid off. He's amazing and deserves the absolute best which is exactly what God has provided to him through this incredible job opportunity... and what better way to celebrate than eating a PAZOOKIE!? yum.