Highlights of 2013

So like every other year, I like to do a post on the highlights of or year. We have so much to be thankful for and I love to loo back at the past year and remember all our fun times. So here it goes...

January- Nothing too exciting to start our year off. I was over half way done with my first year at Jenks. I cannot describe to you how much I love this school.

February-We made our annual Kansas City trip, but this year wen didn't go on my birthday, we went over Valentines day. Mitch worked all week and so it was fun to get away for the weekend and celebrate.

We also made one of our first "grown up" purchase- minus the house ha. We bought all new living room furniture. It was actually Mitch that wanted to do it. He finally talked me into it and so we went and got an amazing sectional. I will have to admit, Mitch was right- Best. Purchase.Ever

March-In March we celebrated my 25th birthday. It is crazy to think in just a few months we will be celebrating my 26th birthday. Time flies! We also spent a week in TN. We spent the first half in Memphis seeing both of Mitch's grandparents and then we went and spent a few days in Jackson, TN. Mitch attended a preview day at Union University for their CRNA school. We both love TN, it fits our "personalities" so well, but we also have some other options that we really like too! But it's nice to know if thats where we end up, we will enjoy it!

April- This was one of my favorite months this year. We celebrated Mitch's 25th birthday and Bella's 2nd birthday! We also accomplished one of our goals and ran our first half marathon together! It was one of the coolest feelings doing it together and we are trying to decide if we are going to do it again. I love that I have such a supportive husband that helped and pushed me to train and run 13 miles!

May- I finished my first year and Jenks and we started one of the craziest summers of our lives. We traveled all summer and it was one of the best summers ever! Traveling is something we love and we are blessed to be able to travel so much. We started our first of 5 trips in May and went to New Orleans! I had never been and it was very different, but loved getting to see it and the culture down there! We also attended our first Thunder Playoff game. We have attend several regular season games, but this was so different and so much fun!!

June- We went on two trips in June. We first went to church camp with our old church back in Bentonville. We go every year and just love it. It is one of the best parts of our summer. This year we are super bummed because I have one of my best friends weddings the same weekend. So we are trying to decide if we are going to go for half of it, since it is in OK this year, or just skip out. If we skip out on camp, we are going to try and go on their mission trip with them. Our second trip this month was to Vail, CO. We went with my family and stayed in a condo right on the golf course. It was so much fun! We went over our 3rd anniversary and we want to make it a annual anniversary trip. This summer we have 5 weddings that we are both in, so we won't make it this year, but we are looking forward to many more trips to Colorado!

July- We continued our summer of traveling with a trip to San Francisco/Napa! I had no idea what to expect, but this trip was a blast!! I want to go back so bad! We went with Will and Michelle- we always have a good time with them. Another highlight of this month was we went to the Twister Relief Concert. This really wouldn't be that big of a highlight, but we were front row for Garth Brooks and if you know us at all- we are huge fans!

August- This was probably our busiest month of the year. We started with a last minute trip to Colorado. One day I got a calendar alert on my phone. Mitch and I share our calendars, so anything he adds, I get an alert and vice versa. Well one day I got an alert that said- Colorado trip and then the dates. I was super confused and he called and said we are going with some friends from college. I was so excited. We did a lot of hiking and also went to Pagosa Springs.
I started my second year at Jenks and we celebrated our "year anniversary" at First Baptist Tulsa. One of my best friends, Natalie got engaged and I took my first of three teaching tests.

September- the highlight of this month was I found out I passed the OGET! I can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel and I cannot wait to be a classroom teacher! We also saw Luke Bryan in concert!!

October- This is my favorite month of the year. It starts to turn cool and I love everything about fall! We went to our annual Arkansas game and two of my best friends got engaged. Tayler got engaged to Warren and Peter got engaged to Libby. I could not be happier for both of them! We also ran the Tulsa Run. Elizabeth and I run it together every year and I just love this tradition we have!

November- Not a lot went on this month, but our highlight was we went back to Shawnee for OBU homecoming. I loved being back and it was fun to catch up with old friends!

December- Well the highlight of this month was suppose to be our annual Silver Dollar City trip! We got too much snow and ice that weekend so we were not able to go. We did have a good time snowed in at home, but we missed being in Branson. I took my second teaching test and I am waiting on my results, and Garth announced his world tour!! The downfall to this month is that we lost someone special. Janet, has been fighting ovarian cancer for 2 years and went to be with Jesus December 26th. This has been very hard on Mitch, but we are so thankful for her impact on our lives. Mitch grew up with Janet and her family. They went on multiple family trips together and their families are super close. Mitch and I are both close to her kids. I have only known her for a few years, since we started dating. But she has always been so welcoming to me and she was always trying to get me involved in the youth when we lived there. I will always remember our camp trips, thats where I felt I really got to know her.

We had a very blessed year and are so thankful for another wonderful year together! Happy New Year!! I am working on a post about our Christmas break- so check back soon!

Snow days!

I just cannot believe we received that much snow and ice. We have been out of school since last Thursday and finally went back today. It was a nice little time off, but being so close to Thanksgiving and Christmas break it really wasn't needed. Here is what we have been up to during our snow days!

Luckily, Mitch was off the whole time with me! He had taken off this past monday sine we were suppose to go out of town. Which brings me to my next point. We did not get to go to AR/Branson. This was devastating, depressing, awful... do I need to go on. I look forward to this trip every year and I especially love it because, well y'all know I love anything Christmas and well if you have been to Branson this time of year, it is incredible!!!
So since I could talk forever about how 5 plus days off- I will just show them to you in pictures.
It started with lots and lots of snow. I think we got around 5 inches.

Bella LOVED the snow!

Our backyard 

  playing in the snow

Watching Mitch shovel the driveway 

Tired puppy from all her playing in the snow :)

Not how we wanted to spend our saturday. Long story short- I have had an ear ache for about two weeks (I thought it was all this change in weather and allergies) and it got severe this weekend. We tried to go earlier in the week but bc of the bad weather everything was closed. So we went to urgent care during Bedlam... that should tell you how bad it was. I was up the past two nights, ALL night, and I had so much pressure in my ear I couldn't hear out of it and well.. it was just awful. The doctors reaction wasn't a surprise to me, but it let Mitch know how bad it was. She had to clean and drain it to even see in it. Once she did that she said both ears were extremely inflamed and I had an ear infection not only on the inside of both my ears but on the outer ear too. So 4 prescriptions later we were on our way home. 

This is super random- but one night we HAD to get out of the house. We were both craving bbq so we went to Rib Crib and I had a coupon for a free appetizer. We got the chicken and bbq nachos and yes they tasted as good as they looked. Also this could feed about 6 people! 

This is way dark, but we finally went to see Catching Fire. I am DYING to see Frozen, so we are planning on seeing that this week .

These next two pics were taken Monday and it was by far the best day of break! We were still going stir crazy, so Mitch thought it would be a good idea to just get out for the whole day. Now I'm going to try and make this story short... so we follow the dave ramsey envelope system (best decision ever) and so each month we put money into several envelopes. One of those envelopes is for me and one is for mitch- so we get so much money a month just for "our spending". So we can buy whatever want or save up with that money. So over the past several months we have been taking small amounts out of each of our "personal" envelopes to save up and pay for Branson without having to take money from anywhere else out of the budget. Well when out trip got cancelled, not only did we have it all saved up, but that trip was our christmas gift to each other. So since we weren't going to Branson, Mitch thought we should go get a christmas present we have been wanting. Also this is way out of the normal for us. But since we had been saving our own money we spent the day shopping for something we have really been wanting. Below is what we came up with! 

Mitch got his new driver he had been wanting. This is him testing out EVERY driver in the store :) He loved every minute of it. And I got a new Michael Kors purse!! Now most of y'all know purses are my thing. Like some people love shoes, makeup, etc... well mine is purses. I do have a lot of purses, but I have never had a really really nice one. I thought it was about time to invest in a "grown up" purse as I call it. Im obsessed!

And being snowed in for a week, of course we made and decorated christmas cookies! 

Overall, I had a great extra long weekend! Even though our trip was cancelled, I was so thankful Mitch was off and we got to spend lots of quality time together! I even enjoyed the snow :)

Thanksgiving 2013

Happy (late) Thanksgiving, y'all! We have so much to be thankful for! 

Sometimes I get down when Mitch has to work so much on the holidays, but then I remember how much we have to be thankful for. It's gets hard holiday after holiday when he works, for both him and I. He is so worn out this week. He has worked pretty much all week and that's a bummer when I was off all week. But good news, he got a great Christmas work schedule, so he is off for the first time- Christmas Eve and day! We are excited to have a normal time. But I guess that's what you get when you marry someone in the medical field and I better get use to it. Ha. He is going to have to work lots of holidays in the future. I am just thankful he has found something he loves!

So since he had to work this thanksgiving, he had one day off, Friday. So that's when we celebrated. We had lots of family over to my parents and we enjoyed a day of yummy food, family time and football (no I don't want to talk about the AR/LSU game)!  Thursday night, my parents and I went to Lights On at Utica Square and it was really fun. The weather was perfect! 

This week Mitch is off everyday but Wednesday, and we have a busy week! There are lots of activities going on at school (can you believe I have less than three weeks until break again)!?! Also this Thursday, we are headed to Stillwater again for the Jenks football game. They are in the state championship and we love to go to the games. I also get to eat at my fav restaurants and do some shopping in Stillwater. Then Friday, we are headed to Arkansas for one day then off to Branson Saturday morning! We will be there until Monday night and I cannot wait for a little getaway! There is only one thing- they are forecasting lots of "winter weather" starting Thursday. I am hoping it isn't as bad as they are saying.

Happy first week of December- this is one of my favorite months! So many fun things going on for the holidays and lots and lots of family time!! 

Meet Kate!

Well we are back from Arkansas and I only have one day of work!! I know I say it a lot but I just love having all these breaks. I feel like every time I turn around we are on another break.

My sweet kids before break! 

So we had a very fun and well...interesting time back in Bentonville. We got there and we noticed Mitch's parents finished off their fence. We didn't think anything of it and honestly thought it was for Bella. If you know them at all, they ADORE Bella! But come to find out... They got a dog!!!! We were so excited!  They had been thinking about it for about a year and finally got one. We all thought they had decided not to but they surprised us all.

Miss Kate

She is a 2 1/2 year old golden-doodle named Kate (I am partial to the name.. If we ever have a girl, I have always wanted to name her Kate, but I already have plans to incorporate it into her middle name :) Anyways, she was used for breeding one liter then they wanted to find her a good home. She so sweet and ready potty trained and all that but since she wasn't a "pet" she is not socialized at all! They treated her well at the breeder, but they never got her around other dogs or loved on her. So it is crazy to think all this is new to her. She has no idea that she is a "pet" now. She acts just like a shelter dog, she is scared and very unsure of everyone and everything. They had a tough week last week with her, but when we brought Bella this weekend, she learned so much! It's funny how dogs learn from other dogs.

She is now eating, playing with toys, taking treats, going on walks and coming to you to lay in your lap. This was all stuff she wouldn't do until this weekend. She is making progress it will just take her a few months to really trust and know her life had changed. She is one lucky pup though! They have 30 days to decide if they will keep her and I am praying hard they will. She is seriously the sweetest dog she just needs patience. I have never wanted two dogs and still really don't, but if they were to give her back it would be the easiest decision ever to take miss Kate with us! Mitch has already told me no a thousand times but we will see :) I hope she gets to stay with the Franks!!

So our weekend was filled with playing with Kate and Bella! We are planning for thanksgiving this week and are staying in tulsa since Mitch works.
Happy thanksgiving, y'all!

OBU Homecoming

Two weekends ago, we made the trip back to our Alma Mater for homecoming. We were planning on spending our whole weekend there, but we ended up using our days off to out towards our trip to Branson in a few weeks.  But we did have a lot of fun and it made me miss OBU so much.

We left early that morning and made it there to hang out and go to lunch before the football game. We went to Phoenix with Katie and Tommy and it was just as good as I remembered! My roommates and I had "Phoenix Friday" and literally did not miss a Friday all senior year. We love it! So it was fun to go back with Katie. We walked around campus, made some purchases from the book store and then went to the football game. I loved walking around campus. I forget how beautiful OBU is in the fall! And this is besides the point, but their clothes in the book store are way cuter than when I was there ha!  

The football game was...well... interesting, but actually really fun! I mean we are awful, but it was fun that they have football now. We really enjoyed it and it turned out to be the perfect day for a football game. After the game, Mitch and I went to Peter's house and hung out why him for the rest of the night. We watched football and yes, we made a dinner trip to Vans. We really cannot go to Shawnee and not eat at Vans-- I mean we sometimes just drive the hour and a half to eat there :)

We got back into Tulsa late that night and Mitch's brother Will was staying at our house because he had a bike race in Tulsa that weekend. So Sunday afar church, we went to watch him race and again, for November it was so pretty. The perfect day to be outside! 

Last week- I took off a few days, just to be off with Mitch and it was so nice! We spent the time putting up our christmas decor!!! I know some people say its too early, but honestly I think it is a personal decision. Everyone keeps saying "you have to celebrate thanksgiving first" or "your not being fair to Thanksgiving". When people say this is makes me laugh. It isn't like I am not celebrating Thanksgiving- trust me I don't miss out on a holiday geared around food. But I do like to get my decorations up so I can enjoy them. I put a lot of time into decorating and especially with Thanksgiving being so late this year, I want to enjoy my decorations for more than 3 weeks. And not to mention, we are SO busy these next few weeks, so that was the timing that worked best for us. So yes, our tree is up, out house is decorated and the lights are up outside! I just love this time of year!

Last weekend Mitch worked and I was able to spend it relaxing at home. It was once to have a weekend, because for the next few months we are busy every weekend! Yesterday, we had some fall pictures made and it was so fun. I haven't had a "photo shoot" since we got married and I forgot how fun it was. I have been wanting to go out and take some fall pics-some for me to have and some for our Christmas card, but I wasn't wanting to pay the price for the sitting fee and then also for the pics. I was telling my friend this at work last month and she told me she is getting into photography and is taking a few classes. She was wanting a family to practice on and so we dint have to pay for anything and she got her practice. We were out there for almost 2 hours and I think they are going to turn out great! I cannot wait to see them! I will post a few when I get them! 

This weekend we are headed back to Arkansas for the weekend and I can't wait to be back. Yes, I know, I feel like every time I blog, I talk about going back to AR. But we both love it there- it just isn't where we want to be living, but we love that we are so close where we can go back as much as we do. This is my last week and then I am on Thanksgiving break!!! Hope y'all have a good week and stay warm!! 

Halloween 2013

So I know I have been slacking on this post. This time of year, I may be the worst blogger EVER. I feel like we have so much going on that I forget to blog. I am really trying to remember, because I just love to go look back see "what we've been up to". But anyways, halloween is always super fun and this was actually our first halloween together since we've been married. Mitch has always worked or he has switched with someone so they could be with their kids. But this year we were actually able to dress up and celebrate together! I know it may seem "childish" but I still LOVE to dress up. I actually think it is more fun when you have spouse and can do couple costumes! This year we threw our costumes together last minute- but I thought they turned out great. I had like three events in the month of October to dress up for, so by the imd halloween came around I was tired of spending money on consumes. Luckily, I had to dress up for a murder mystery party and a lot of those accessories went with my halloween costume.

Murder mystery party-book club. I could not be more blessed by these girls!  

I already had a flapper costume- its like my go-to costume ha! And we thought making Mitch a gangster would be super easy. He pretty much had everything. And I thought we turned out pretty good. Its also fun when your spouse really gets into it :) Mitch loved dressing up and even had to get his own "accessories".

Bella is NOT a fan of dressing up-so she went as happy dog seeing as she didn't have to wear a costume. 

I guess I should tell y'all we had a party to go to- we didn't just dress up for fun, even though that would so be something we do! A couple from our life group hosted a halloween party and it was so fun. She made chili and had a fire in the backyard to roast s'mores. It was so fun!

They had the best costumes- also, its a lot funnier if you know their last name is Hines.

love this guy so much!

Halloween was also super fun for me this year with my kids at school. Now we are not allowed to celebrate halloween or dress up at school but this year halloween fell on red ribbon week (drug awareness week) and so each day is themed. We had pj day, wear red day, etc. So since thursday was halloween, they made that day- dress up as an inspirational community worker- nurse, army, doctor, etc. So it was kind of like they got to dress up and of course you always have the few where they do just wear their halloween costume ha!  Here are some pics of my kiddos.

Tell me he does not look like a mini Hunt from Grey's Anatomy?

this was one of my favorites!

my favorite little cowboy! 

So cute! It was a rough start to this year and we are still working on things, but I am really loving this group of students. Now I will still swear no class will EVER beat last years- I still miss them,  but this group is coming around :) And of course, my co-workers and I dressed up as well.

So that was our halloween! Last weekend, we went back to OBU for homecoming and had the best time! I will post on that soon!! Have a great week y'all and please pray this cold weather is not here to stay!!