Christmas Celebrations!

Merry Christmas!! I hope y'all enjoyed your Christmas and time with family! My favorite thing about this time of year is getting to be around family so much! Sorry this is so long, I like to include everything, so I can remember things later! 

So, our first Christmas celebration we had was Friday! Mitch and I always do something just the two of us and exchange gifts. We were planning on just spending Friday cooking (which we did) then that night cook dinner and maybe go ice skating and look at lights. Well that morning Mitch wanted to exchange gifts right when we woke up ha! After we made out trip to the donut shop of course ha!

I wanted to wait until that night but he insisted! So once I opened my gift, I realized why. He got me a pair of Ugg boots!!

I had been wanting this specific pair for about a year and I was so excited!! But he got my this water/stain repellant to put on before every winter and you have to wait 24 hours before you can wear them. So he knew I was going to want to wear them on Christmas eve and that's why he gave them to me that morning.
I got him new crossfit shoes and thunder tickets! 

He loves going to thunder games, so I thought we would make a little weekend trip out of it! I also snuck in a gift card to Vans! It is one of his favorite places to eat and the one he likes is only in Shawnee. So I thought when we go down for the thunder game we would make a little pit stop at Vans! He was so excited!!

We spent literally all day cooking! We made spinach dip, hot pretzels, pecan pie, chex mix and chicken spaghetti for dinner.

That evening it was way too cold to go ice skating, so we went to pinnacle to look at lights and then over to Bryan and Jenna's for game night!

Saturday we got up and went to crossfit-  they had a 12 days of Christmas workout and it was by far one of the hardest workouts I've done. But I just kept telling myself, I am probably going to eat my body weight in food this weekend so I was motivated to finish!

That evening we went over to the Franks house for a delicious dinner and presents! Will and Michelle were there and we always have a good time with everyone. Bella even got some gifts!

We got a new Macbook! Mitch has been so excited. We both have older macs and we really don't use them that much anymore, we usually us the iPad. But Mitch loves apple computers so he was so excited. 

It will be really nice to have a new computer! And plus with him getting ready to go to school he will need it! 
Late that night we headed over to Tulsa. My family does a big thing on Christmas eve, but by the time we got there everyone was already gone. So we visited with my parents and then went to bed so Santa could come ha :)


We got up and had Christmas with my family and then headed over to my grandparents for Christmas day lunch and Christmas number 3! Mitch is taking a guys trip in a few weeks to colorado to go skiing, so he got a lot of stuff for his trip. For me, this was the Christmas of boots! I got three new pair of boots for christmas and I was so excited... my mom got me my Cowboys boots I have been wanting so bad!! 

Also on a completely different note,I want to brag on my wonderful husband. Yesterday I get a voicemail from Mitch about 45 min before I had to leave work and this is what it said: I am going to need you to do me a favor. When you get off work, I need you to run by Dillards, go to the shoe dept, ask for Garth... He has something there waiting for you! Oh and when you open your wallet there will be money for you! I was shocked. I immediately opened my walled and there was money? I was so confused, but I went to Dillards and Garth brought out a big box and when I opened it it was a pair of boots I have been wanting for a long time! I called mitch and told him I wasn't going to buy them ha! It was so sweet, but he really didn't have to do that! But just knowing Mitch, that won't be the last of the boots ha! He has called all the dillards around and no one has them. I think they will turn up here sometime ha!


Back to Christmas... We spent the rest of the day at my grandmas and then on Monday, Mitch went with some guys to Shawnee while I shopped with my mom! We got back home to Bentonville monday night and we have really enjoyed spending these past few days with Will and Michelle! Last night we all went and tried this new frozen yogurt place called Kiki Berry and I am addicted. I am not a huge sweets fan, but I have been craving it all day. We may have to make a little trip back this weekend! 


This week I had the option to take off, but since Mitch was working and I only had to work a day and half I decided to go ahead and work a little. When we go up to PA in January I was only going to take off a Thursday, but I decided to take off the whole week!! So I figured since I did that I should probably work a little this week! I am really excited to have that week off. I get off on thursday the 12th and Mitch leaves friday for colorado. So I am going to make a trip to Dallas to stay with Michelle some and Elizabeth some. I am going to leave Dallas Tuesday and head to Tulsa. Mitch flies into tulsa Wednesday then we fly straight out to PA for the weekend! I am so excited and I can't wait to have a week off! 


So thats a little update on our Christmas! It was a good one and we are so blessed with amazing families! 


Also I saw this and thought it would be worth sharing! Best places to visit in 2012. Pretty neat!


Hope y'all have a safe and fun new years! 

Exciting news!

I hope y'all had a Merry Christmas! I am working on some blog posts about our Christmas celebrations, so they will be coming soon!

We have some exciting news to share! Mitch has been really starting to look at schools. Over the past 6 months, we have looked at different ones, but just over the past couple months he has started to get really serious about it. There are a few schools that don't require the GRE, so he thought for those he will go ahead and send in the application. For the others that do require it he can't apply for a few more months. So for fun, he thought he would send in the ones that don't require it and just see what happens. It was still a lot of work. Those applications are 10+pages, plus multiple essays, etc! So he has spend a lot of time getting it all together.

He sent his first one off about 1 week before the deadline for this school. So honestly, I didn't even think he would hear anything. This school started accepting students and doing interviews in September, so we honestly didn't think anything of it.

About two weeks ago, he got a call back and they wanted to bring him in for an interview!! We are both really excited and I am so proud of him. He has worked really hard. Getting into CRNA school your first round is almost impossible, but none the less we are excited and this will be such good practice for him. They really want you to have over two years of ICU experience and he only has one, so he will most likely  be up against people that have a lot more experience than him. We have heard the interview process and testing he has to go do is intense, so even if nothing comes from it, he will now know what to expect when he starts interviewing for other schools.

So we know its a long shot, but if his application got there 1 day before the deadline and they still called him for an interview, at least that means they still have space, so thats a plus!

So in January, we will be flying to Pennsylvania to check out this school! We are leaving on a Thursday and his interview is on Friday! He goes in at 1:30 and has his interview and testing... they said it should take about 3-4 hours. Then we will tour the campus! Even though the stats are against us, we are excited to start this process!

So please keep us in your prayers! We are excited and nervous all at the same time. We would love for him to get in first try, and not have to stress anymore, but also living 19 hours away will be a little bit of an adjustment!

3 days 'til Christmas!

Christmas is only 3 days away! Can you believe it? I feel like it just snuck up on me. I only have to work tomorrow and then my office is all going out to dinner! 

We had a wonderful time last weekend! Our last day of work for both of us was Thursday and then that evening we headed over to the Buettemeyers. Jenna made stuffed shells and salad for dinner! Yum!
Friday, mitch and I were both off! Finally! We have been on opposite schedules for about the past month. I got up Friday and got a massage(which was amazing) I will be getting lots more in the future ha!
I came home and we literally laid in bed watching movies all day! We never do that and it was so nice not to have anything to do. We just took the day and relaxed at home!
That night we went back to the Buettemeyers and we played monopoly and Jenna and I made Oreo balls!
Sorry in advance for no pics- I am usually pretty good about taking pictures but I have slacked this week.

And guess what we did Saturday... Yep the same thing ha! We actually got up, went to crossfit and then out to a late breakfast. But after that... back home to relax.

Sunday after church we went to crossfit and after they had a nutritional class, so we decided to stay for it. Crossfit promotes paleo and so I wanted to see what they said about it. Well 3 1/2 hours later we were finally out of there!

This week, we are just trying to make it to Thursday and then were off! I did start my tennis league this past Monday and I am really excited about it. I am playing on a women's team and we had our first practice Monday night! I really enjoyed getting back out and playing. I am having to adjust a little from college tennis, which I love ha! I am not use to just going out and playing for fun. I am use to playing only to win and if you don't, your run sprints haha! So this is a nice change. I didn't realize how much I really missed it until I got back out on the court Monday... I guess thats what happens when you've played a sport since you were 5. All the ladies on my team are super nice and I am going to really enjoy it! 

Today, I got off at 12 and went and got my nails done! It's so nice have Wednesday afternoons off! It's a nice break and I always get a lot done! It's also nice to think I only have one day left of the work week!

Mitch and I always like to have our own little Christmas and exchange gifts, so we are doing that Friday! We are going to dinner, maybe ice skating on the square and then back home for dessert and presents.

Hope everyone has a Merry Christmas and safe travels!

Tis' the Season

Who doesn’t love celebrating Christmas throughout the whole month of December? I am defiantly not going to complain.

This past week, we were so blessed to spend some time with Mitch’s grandparents. They were in town all week, but we got to celebrate Christmas with them Saturday night. Will and Michelle were also in town. I just love when everyone is all together!

Friday night, Mitch and I went to crossfit, had dinner and come home wrapped more Christmas presents. Mitch even helped!

I feel like that is a never-ending job. But we finally are getting some presents under the tree!

Now I have to work on wrapping my side of the families presents.

Saturday, I got up and hung out with Bella! Late that morning we went and picked Michelle up from her hair appt and went to Olive Garden for lunch! After lunch, we headed to Crystal Bridges. We have been wanting to go, but we are either always so busy or when we do have some time, we want to just sit back and relax. That is something that doesn’t happen much, so we take it when we can.

It opened back in November and has just been super busy since then. We really enjoyed it and unfortunately Mitch had to work Saturday, so he didn’t get to go with us. I am hoping to go with him soon.

Here are just a few of the pieces in the museum. If you haven’t read or heard much on you should really check it out. It is one of the top museum and people from all over the country are coming to visit it. The architecture of the whole thing is incredible. They started building on this before I even lived here and Mitch and I walk up the trails and see the progress about every month and I can’t believe it is finally done and open! I remember feeling like it was never going to open. It has so many walking/biking and hiking trails they built especially for it and they are so pretty!

It is defiantly a must see, even if you aren’t into museums!

That night we headed over to Mitchs grandparents house for snacks and presents! We had so much fun.. here are some pictures from the night!

Sunday, we went to church, I just love how pretty churches are with all their decorations!

After lunch, Michelle and I went shopping! We are always so busy when they come in town, but somehow we always seem to find time to fit in shopping! We got more Christmas presents bought, so that was helpful!

Later that day, they headed back to Texas and Mitch and I relaxed at home and watched the Green Bay game! Mitch is so excited they are still undefeated… we haven’t missed a game yet… anytime green bay is playing we have to watch!

That was our fun weekend! I just love spending time with family!

In His Steps

One of my bosses at work held a party through Sak Saum this past week. It is a ministry of In His Steps and helps with hope, healing and human trafficking in Cambodia.

She had jewelry, hair stuff, but tons of bags and purses!!! And we all know purses are my weakness ha! She left us all pick out one on her and we had so much fun!

I think most of you know I might be the most indecisive person on this planet and to top it off I was trying to decide between what PURSE to get. Needless to say, it took me awhile.

I ended up with this one. I love that is big enough for my laptop. I have been taking it to work and my events lately and always need a bag for it separate from my purse. So when I saw this I just fell in love!

 They were all very unique, but so pretty.

Women in Cambodia made all of them and then sent them over for her to sell and she sends 100% of the proceeds back to Camboida. I wanted to take them all!

So my reason for this post was that I want to host one of these parties! I mean who doesn’t love to get together with friends, enjoy yummy food and get new purses! I am thinking I know so many more people in Tulsa and with my family being there, I think we would get a better turn out. 

I am going to contact them after Christmas and try to find a date! I know everyone is so busy around the holidays and the new year, so I am going to wait until things slow down and then check into having one of these parties!  I will keep y’all posted!

Have a great Wednesday! 

Busy, Busy, Busy

That about sums up these past few weeks for us. I feel like I never have anytime to get anything done!

This week has just been chaotic! I have been trying to fit in Christmas shopping, work, wrapping presents, dinners, workouts, etc! I feel like this time if the year is just so crazy.

On Tuesday, Mitchs grandparents came into town and we are celebrating Christmas with them this weekend. We are trying to get everything ready and with me working on Friday it makes things a little more difficult!

Last night we made our favorite paleo meal- chili. We usually get our meat from our this guy in mo that sells grass fed, organic meat, but lately we have been using venison. My brother and dad love to hunt, so our freezer is always packed full of deer meat. I mean you can not even put anything else in our freezer… so my parents always sent a bunch of ground beef, steaks, breakfast and summer sausage and much more home with us. So we made our chili last night with deer meat and it was so good! We both love chili and this new recipe is our favorite!

I had a hair appt yesterday and I got lots of layers in my hair!! My hair grows so fast and I cannot believe how long it already is again. I feel like I just got it all cut off. It hasn’t even been a year since I chopped it off to above my shoulders! Since I have such thick hair, the layers help lighten it up. This is kind of funny, kind of embarrassing, but I get really bad headaches because my hair is so heavy and it pulls. I can’t wear my hair in a ponytail for more than an hour without getting a headache. So not only do I love the way the layers look, but they are so light!

I wrapped a few presents last night while Mitch was doing some application stuff for school and I had a little helper.

Bella thought she was helping, but she would grab the roll of wrapping paper and run off with it! Ha! She wasn’t too much help, it took me twice as long to wrap presents, but she made it fun.

On a completely different note, we got our first snow this week. It wasn’t much, we only got about a half of an inch, it was just enough to cause issues! 

Mitch left for work and it took him about an hour to get there. I don’t have to be at work until 9 in Tuesdays but usually go ahead and go in early. Well since I kept hearing the roads were bad, I decided to wait a while to see if it got any better. Well it didn’t It took me about an hour to get to work and the roads were so slick. We were not expecting that when we went to bed Monday night.

It just reminded me the winter has just begun! Last winter was horrible, so I am hoping it will go easy on us this year.

I am going to leave you with a picture of Bella and I. This was at my parents house cheering on the pokes during bedlam! We are both supporting our OSU gear!

Have a great weekend! 

Friends and Football

Hope everyone has had a great Monday. Work has been so up and down for me lately, I am just glad to be home for the evening!

Last Friday, we headed to Tulsa for the weekend. It was my dad and grandmas birthday and also, Mitch was going to Bedlam (still jealous).

Friday night we went out to Los Cabos, one of our favorite mexican restaurants with Peter, Scott and Tayler!  I loved getting to spend some time with them! After they all came back over to my parents house and we played with Bella and watched football!

Saturday, we were lazy all day! We got up and laid around the house all morning. Peter and Scott came back over and we ordered Hidaway pizza for lunch! There are those places that I feel like I always have to eat when I ma back in Tulsa, and hidaway is one of them!!

Mitch, Peter and Scott left for Stillwater and my mom and I did some shopping. I can't believe how close Christmas is and how many gifts I still have left to buy! My parents ordered a bunch of food for the game and we stayed at home for the rest of the night watching the cowboys kill the sooners!! It was such an awesome game! My whole family was going crazy!
Mitch said it was such a fun atmosphere. He went with ou fans, so they didn't have a good time, but Mitch did ha!

Sunday, my whole family came over and we ordered in bbq to celebrate my dads and grandma's birthday! I love getting together with my whole family. I grew up living right by my grandparents and now I feel like I never see them...I miss them!

Friday before we left for Tulsa, I came home that afternoon and Mitch had the whole outside of the house decorated! All out lights were up and are decorations were out! I was so excited!  I will post a picture when I get up enough courage to go out in the COLD and take a pic!

Overall- we had a pretty good weekend :)

Tonight for dinner we are having coconut chicken and sweet potatoes! I am pretty sure I have posted this recipe before.
Also, I found a good paleo recipe for banana bread and I have been craving it lately! So tonight I am going to try and make it and I will let you know how it turns out!

Off to watch the country music awards! Have a great week!

Footloose, Bella and recipes!

Yesterday we took Bella in for her surgery, she got spayed. We have heard some many different stories on how dogs react to the process, we had no idea what to expect.

So Mitch dropped her off early yesterday morning and she seemed to do fine. We called about 2 yesterday and they said she did good, and was still sleeping. 

She had to stay the night, and since I got off at noon yesterday we were excited to spend the day together. We have been on such different working schedules lately we haven't got to spend much time together. We went and had lunch and went Christmas shopping. I am usually on the ball with my christmas shopping, but with everything going on I haven't had much time.

Mitch ended up having to teach a tennis class for most of the afternoon, but we decided when he got done we would go see a movie. We went and saw Footloose, finally! I have literally been dying to see it, but we never seem to have any time.

It was so good! If you haven't seen it, it is well worth it! I have always loved the original movie, and didn't know what to expect with the remake, but it was amazing!!!  It is definatly a movie to buy when it comes out. I don't buy many movies, unlike Mitch ha, but this is one of those movies I could watch over and over! 

When we got home, I finally ordered my new Erin Condren planner!! I have always had an obsession with planners and I always have to be organized and have it with me. Mitch has always made fun of me! He jokes about how I have had an iphone since hey very first came out, but still carry my planner ha! I just love them! I have been looking at these for months now and finally decided to order one! Her stuff is so cute. Click Here for the link to her website. She has a lot more cute things besides planners, but I am addicted to planners, and hers are awesome! The more detailed they are the better :) I will post a picture when I get it in! 

I took off work today, since we weren't quite sure how Bella was going to be. Mitch had to work and we were told someone needed to watch her at all times for the first few days. She has been pretty good so far. I think she has no idea what happened, but is very uncomfortable. I think her medicine is starting to wear off.

She has been pretty lazy all day, I know she is just waiting for mitch to get home :)

Tomorrow we are headed to Tulsa! My dads birthday is next weekend, but we can't make it to Tulsa that weekend, so my mom planned his and my grandma's party for this weekend. We will just hang out tomorrow and then saturday Mitch is going to stillwater for the game!! I am so jealous... I have been talking to him all season about how more than anything I want to go to the game and he gets offered a ticket! But I will say, he was sweet about it and declined it so I wouldn't have to watch it by myself, but I made him take it. It's not everyday you get a ticket to one of the biggest games of the year! 

Then Sunday all my family is coming over to celebrate birthdays! 

In my last post, I promised I would post the mashed potato recipe we used for Thanksgiving, so here it is... Best mashed potato recipe! It makes a ton, so its not the best for just a couple people, but take it to your next get together... I promise everyone will love it! 

Also, here is the pecan pie recipe we used, super easy and delicious! Southern Pecan Pie 

Thats about all thats going on here, but I am going to leave you with a picture that I saw earlier this week. It made my day! Many of you may saw it when I posed it on twitter, but it is definitely worth sharing again :)

This was at the fayetteville mall, and every time I see it I can't help but laugh! 

Have a good weekend!