Showing posts with label Traditions. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Traditions. Show all posts

Friday, November 11, 2011

Let's Catch Up

I spent October writing every day about relationships. I didn't get a chance to post about the happenings. :) We celebrated our 2nd anniversary. I loved my flowers soooo very much! Of course, he knows me so well to pick something out that's in a pumpkin! Love!
The weekend that we celebrated Finley's Birthday, we also got to meet a friends little baby and then we drove to Pop's. I'd never been there before so I was excited to finally see it. We bought a 6 pack of different sodas/pops/"cokes" (however you say it). We didn't eat, but the food smelled yummy! :) The following weekend, we got to celebrate a family wedding. It was really nice to see the family and Ken's mom came in town from Minnesota. She stayed with her family for a few days and then came to see us. Sandie's trip really was a blessing. We had a such a great time! We had some great talks and did some fun things. So thankful for the time she spent with us!

She arrived on a Monday night and I had cooked dinner for all of us. We went to the local wine bar, Zannoti's and just enjoyed each other's company!

Tuesday, we took her to Oklahoma City for the day. I suggested we try a new place to eat...and it did not disappoint! We LOVED it! Mutt's has any kind of hot dog you can think of. Its not your typical "coney island". These hot dogs are gourmet!!! You should definitely check out their menu!!! Its not in the best part of town, so its definitely a lunch place. After lunch, we took a very small driving tour of Oklahoma City University. I had several people in my high school class that went to school here before heading to NYC to pursue their broadway career. This school is definitely known for great musicians!

We headed downtown and stopped at Pinkitzel for cupcakes and truffles. :) Cupcakes are my achilles and the hubs is weak for truffles, so we just had to share this with his mom. After some good food and yummy desserts, we went to the new outlet mall. We spent the rest of the day shopping! It was wonderful!!!!!! We definitely found some great deals and were excited about ready-for-winter purchases.

Once it was dark, we left the outlet. Ken wanted to show his mom his college. We drove to Mid-America Christian University to show it off. Its a small University, but he's put in a lot of hard hours and I'm so proud of him! He graduates next month!!!!! YAY!!!!! On our way home, we stopped for dinner at Momma Roja's! This is one of our favorite go-to places. They have great food! We love their large selection of salsas!!!!

Wednesday, we were supposed to take our annual pictures, but the weather was bad. After we talked to the photographer and re-scheduled, we realized we had the entire day ahead of us. We decided to stay around town and show off campus since it was homecoming week. We took her to our favorite hamburger joint and then shopping before we went to OSU. We ended the day with $6 pizzas at Joseppi's. Our FAVORITE Wednesday night dinner spot!

On Thursday, I had to go back to work. I met them for lunch, but they enjoyed their day together. I was so suprised when I got home to find this.... I LOVE IT! I never know where to start when putting something like this together. I have been wanting to buy some mums and Sandie surprised me with this! I just love looking out my front door and seeing this every day!

Thursday night, Ken treated us to his famous ribs! He's been telling me about these since I met him!!! And, there have been a few of his friends who constantly talk about them. I was excited to try them! It was kinda fun to let him be in charge of dinner. I grabbed a glass of wine and just relaxed while he did all the work! I love cooking, but this was a nice once-in-awhile treat!

Friday morning, Sandie left as I was getting up for work. She had a LONG drive back. We had such a great week with her and thankful for her trip! We loved getting to take her all over the place to all our favorite spots. Look forward to the next visit!

When I got home from work Friday night, I changed clothes and we were out the door to celebrate OSU's Homecoming! Its AMAZING! They have incredible house decs! The sororities and fraternities work so hard and its incredible to see the finished project. The streets are crowded, there's great music, and the wonderful scent of grilled hamburgers and hot dogs is in the air. Its fun to run into people...even though we didn't have much luck since our cell phones weren't working. But, we did manage to see our favorites...The Curran's! After we chatted with our friends, we all took off to see the house decs! Theta Pond lit up and the crowds behind it! One last shot on the way to the car. The Library was lit up with ORANGE!!! GAME DAY!!!! I saw more people at the game just by change than we did with those we were actually trying to see the night before. We had a great time with my dad, my nephew, Mason, and his girlfriend, Mallory. Mason and Mallory I've always wanted to just know the homecoming queen....and this year I finally did! :) I mentor this sweet college girl, Amy and was pumped for her as she walked out on the field as a homecoming attendant. When they announced that she had won, Ken and I screamed like we were proud parents. We looked ridiculous screaming and jumping up and down and taking pictures. Ha! I'm sure we were a sight, but we were so proud of her! She is a beautiful young woman, inside and out! Her love for the Lord is the most precious thing about her. She has the most contagious smile and truly loves serving others!

She will represent OSU with dignity and style! The weekend was just crazy, but I got my few minutes with beautiful Caitlin! :) Looking forward to seeing her when the weekend isn't packed full with places to be. The most amazing surprise was seeing my best college friends! They sat RIGHT IN FRONT OF US!!!! I about died when they walked up. I couldn't believe they just happened to have those seats! It was so fun to catch up and for them to meet Ken! After the game, we had dinner with my family and then headed home. Every year the "Newfangled Nest" family spend the weekend at our home. I love it! Its fun to see their family grow and catch up and visit with them. This year, they have a new addition. Little Asa! Jenn and I get an annual picture together. :) One day it will be so fun to go back and compare all of them. Well, maybe not fun for our vanity, but it will just to see all those years of Homecoming! Our friends left on Sunday morning. We decided that we wanted to go to OCU's final production of "Little Shop of Horrors". They were doing this show for Halloween weekend and it was fantastic! The show was performed with limited props and costumes and it was just amazing! I love the creativity when there aren't so many props. We loved it! We can't wait to go back to see more of their performances.

After the performance, we met some friends for dinner at BJ's in north OKC/south Edmond.We love our time with Megan and Josh! I love that we have date nights. And, I love the nights we just hang out at their house with their sweet kids. Their friendship is truly a blessing to us!

That was October for us! We loved every minute of it! Its one of my favorite months, but I get super excited when November 1st rolls around!!!

Friday, December 31, 2010

2010: A Recap

Last year, I reviewed the year by posting the first sentence of the first blog of each month. I wanted to do that again this year. It showed me a lot about my blog and reminded me of everything that happened the past year.

2010

January: Happy New Year!!! 2010!!!! "Welcome to a new decade!!!"

February: Let's Talk Wedding: The Dress, Part 4 "I had found my dress!"

March: Renovations, Part 1 "Renovations of our home started this week!!!"

April: The Beating of a King "Tomorrow is Good Friday."

May: Let's Talk Wedding: My Hair "I knew from the beginning that I wanted something classic!"
June: 4th Annual Girls' Trip "Well, sadly, our 4th annual girls' trip came and went."

July: My Heart "Right now, God is really...I mean, REALLY....working on my heart."

August: Texas Vacation: Day One "Well, day one consisted of Ken getting off work at 10:30pm and us having dinner (yep, that's right) at 11pm."

September: Happy Birthday!!!! "Happy Birthday to my bestest friend in the whole world, Michelle!!!!!! :)"

October: Our 1st Anniversary "One year ago today I married my best friend."

November: 30 Days of Thankfulness, Day 1 "Its finally November and the holidays are just around the corner."

December: Christmas Time Is Here... "This is my most favorite time of the year!!!!"

What I love about doing this is I can see what my heart dwelled on. It was the beginning of a new decade and I can't say that this last year went the way I expected it too. There have been some hard things that we've gone through, but as I look back I can see that God took care of us and did the unexpected! I love looking back and seeing how God moved. Most of the time I'm so caught up in the moment that I don't stop to see what all God has done. I love that I celebrated my wedding and marriage this last year. I am a big procrastinator and I see that I took WAY too long to finish blogging about my wedding. So, I am commiting January 2011 to finishing that. I know all you out there in blog-land are just SUPER excited about that....but I want to get it finished. Its my way of "scrapbooking". I'm also reminded of my faith. That even when a year doesn't go the way I wanted it to or when I know I've had a year where I've struggled to find what God is doing, that I never lose sight of Him. No matter how hard it got or how mad I was on some days, He remained right there in my life! I love that about my God! He never leaves or forsakes me! I praise Him for that! I see milestones that I will look back on through out my life: my first home with my husband, our renovations to make it OURS, celebrating life, taking vacations with people I love, and celebrating my beautiful marraige as we closed the door to our first year! God has taught me this year that He is bigger than any problem I have or person in my life or cirmcumstance that could EVER come my way! He's powerful and wonderful and I'm blessed to call Him, "my own". He's shown me to be thankful in amazing ways and I can optimistically go into 2011 knowing that God will go before us!

Bring in the NEW YEAR!

2010: A Year In Pictures

January

We had more snow than I've ever seen in 2010!!!!! It was CRAZY! We had it up through March...and not just a few flurries, I mean crazy, blizzardy snow! It made for some great "stuck indoors" time! Ken still had to work on most of the days, but I enjoyed the time I got with him! February

Kim's birthday was the most fun I had!!!! My brother recruited my help to throw her a big surprise 40th birthday party! It was great!!!! I had so much fun party-planning and getting to be there for the fun!
March

I couldn't just pick one moment for a lot of the months...and March is the first of more than one memorable moment! One of my best friends, Emily, got married! I was so blessed to be a part of her big day!
The second, was getting to watch Ken do what he LOVES....fly!
April

Celebrating our first Easter was great! It was weird to not be with family, but Ken's work schedule just didn't allow that. The blessing??? I was able to be at my home church on Easter for the first time!
May

Celebrating weddings and anniversaries! :) It was so nice to have Ken at Nicole and Chris's wedding. I was so thankful he could be there...and excited to be a part of the wedding. Nicole sang at our wedding and I was able to return the favor. I posted this picture of Ken and I instead of a picture of the happy couple, b/c its one of the last pictures we have of Ken in uniform.
My parents celebrated their 40th wedding anniversary!!!!!! What an extraordinary example for Ken and me!!!!
June

More weddings!!!! :) Tia's wedding was a blast and started the month off with fun! Yet again, I'm thankful I was able to be a part of her wedding...and stand up there and support her!
PRAISE THE LORD we finally were able to move upstairs!!!!! The renovations took longer than we thought, but it truly was a blessing to finally move in! We still have a few touch up things left, but I have really enjoyed having a master suite upstairs!
July

A new business with Arbonne has truly brought new friendships and new adventures. And, character building! :) I have loved the people that God has brought into my life because of this! Our BIG fun in July was being able to keep Finley for a few days while her mommy and daddy were in NYC! It was so fun to have her and get to spend so much time with her! We just love love love that little girl!!!!
August

VACATION!!!!!! Ken and I looked forward to August ALL year!!!! We couldn't WAIT to get back to our favorite State.....TEXAS! The trip was so wonderful and we were able to see so many parts of Texas! The roadtrip was fun and it was definitely the highlight of the year!
September

Ken passed his financial investments/insurance test!!!!!! This was an entire year in the making!!! And, when he passed a lot of decisions were made and its been life-changing ever since.
We finished more of the house. Not more renovations, but just getting organized and put together. Pictures on the walls and making things more "homey".
FOOTBALL SEASON!!!!!! Our favorite part of September! :)
October

Happy FIRST Anniversary!!!!! We celebrated one year in October! It was a beautiful year of marriage and I love Ken more and more everyday!
We also took our first business trip! Ken turned in his two week notice and made a huge career change. Its been amazing and we love it! There have been some hard days, I'm not gonna lie, but we see blessings in this change everyday!
TL's 40th Surprise Birthday!!!!!! Ken and I said it was more fun than our wedding!!!! hahaha! It was so fun and just nice that we got to enjoy the dancing! :)
We were able to make an impromtu trip to Minnesota. Sadly, it was for a funeral....but it was fun to see family and friends!
November

Ken's mom came for a visit!!!! She was our first REAL houseguest!!!! It was fun having her and introducing her to COWBOY athletics! :)
Thanksgiving in Tulsa! My favorite tradition (which we were able to do this year b/c of Ken's career change!!!!)....Lights On at Utica Square!

Our 2nd year of picking out and cutting down our Christmas tree!
December

My First Annual Ladies Brunch!!!!! I loved this day! I was sick and just prayed God would get me through the day, but I absolutely LOVED celebrating my favorite holiday with some of my favorite women!!!! I can't wait to do it again next year!!!!
Celebrating my Saviour! This year, its been very real to me that we get to celebrate the Saviour of the WORLD!!!! I love that we have the freedom to celebrate Christ! Christmas was wonderful this year!!!!