Catching Up

Good grief it's been a long time since I've been on here! Oops. I'm going to do a very abbreviated version (well...as abbreviated as possible) of catching up, and then once that's done, I will try my best to update this more regularly. Maybe once I get to that point, I won't have to wait until I have absolutely nothing else to do but catch up on six+ months of our lives! :) Ok, here goes.

I ended our last post with us getting our CHL. Finished the course, but still have yet to send in our paperwork to actually GET our licenses. One day, hopefully soon, we'll finally sit down, fill it all out, write the check, and just mail it in. Sounds easy enough.

Rest of December:

Traveled to Houston for Jeff and Annie Gruetzmacher's wedding. It was beautiful! Loved all her decorations.

Went to the ICE! exhibit at the Gaylord Texan in Grapevine w/Levi and Lindsey. Definitely a fun time! I love hanging out with them so much...they're such a fun and friendly couple. :)

While we were in Texarkana for the Christmas holiday, we took Nellie in to finally get spayed. Her appointment was first thing in the morning on the 26th, and we were able to pick her up that night. She's a very tough girl, but the surgery and medication just made her wildly uncomfortable. It was hard to see her in pain and hear her whining through the evening. She eventually got tired and passed out, but I think the picture below explains quite a bit how that finally came about. I could not stop looking at them - it was just way too cute.

I had to take a picture of 'dad' comforting his baby girl :) So sweet!

The stitches eventually just absorbed up into her...weird, but it works!

Here's a picture of our Christmas tree this year. I love the glow of the lights and the reflections from the ornaments so much. This is probably why we usually leave our tree up until sometime in early February..? Yep.

I just love our tree, more and more every year.

And here's our wonderful collection of Christmas cards from loved ones!

Just for fun, here's what our Christmas cards looked like this year. I'm sure if you're reading this, it's VERY possible that you received one of these! :)

2011 Christmas Card - Happy Holidays!! :)

January:

New Year's was fun this year. Dinner @ Gordon Biersch (including a delicious dessert, wooo!), house party where we witnessed an engagement (who cares that we didn't even know them..), then board games with two of our faves, Kyle & Kristen. In true style, I still managed to get a little careless with my alcohol consumption (my love of champagne just gets a little out of hand on NY, I can't help it), but at least it was in the comfort of a friend's home! :)

With Kyle, Kristen, Sam, and Stephanie after dinner in Frisco - good company!

Did I feel like crap the next morning..? You betcha! Happy New Year!

Breakfast New Year's morning at The Original Pancake House in Addison

My good friend and old roommate Tim came into town and we met up with him for brunch at Cafe Brazil. Delicious food, including a S'mores latte (yep), and good company! I love Sunday brunch outings.

Before the start of the new year, I found this Photo of the Day album at Urban Outfitters. I thought about gifting it out for Christmas but decided to keep it (so sue me). I figured with the start of the new year coming up, I'd love to challenge myself with "a photo a day". It has indeed been challenging, but FUN. I am now completely aware that I take photos of the most random things, most of which I think are just too funny to leave alone, and anyone else who looks at the album will probably experience a combination of feelings of boredom and confusion. Whatevs!

I finally got around to having a Housewarming Party and some of my favorite girls came over! I combined the housewarming party with a Premier Jewelry Party since my cousin Elissa (who sells the jewelry) would be in town for a jewelry convention. My mom was in town for the party and just to visit, and she helped me out a TON getting stuff ready. We cooked up some mean apps and had some delicious stuff going on! All in all it was a good, happy gathering. :)

Some of the girls who were there toward the end of the night - love them!

One very important event this month was getting my ring back! I think I went over the details of the drama involving my damaged wedding ring set, so I will not go into it again, but after a very long wait, here it is, back to normal! Talk about a happy girl, to finally get my ring back and know it's no longer "destroyed" - woohoooo!

One night we had dinner at our casa with friends Bryan and Audra Mayberry, fellow Ags who we know through church. They are such great company and we love spending time with them! Also need to have them over again soon. :)

Bryan being entertained by Nellie

Traveled to The Woodlands for James and Lauren Mulvey's wedding. Road trip with Kristen & Kyle was fun! They were crashing the wedding, and we ended up not being on the seating chart for some reason. Think it's the shortest wedding we've ever been to, but we saw some very friendly faces in the brief time we were there! Ended up having Cheesecake Factory for lunch instead of reception food. Oh, and that night we went to Mi Cocina for dinner. Blake has been very strict with his Paleo diet lately (more on that later, when I have WAY too much time to spare..), so he decided to order a "specialty" Nor-Cal margarita (100% agave tequila, lime juice, and club soda). Well, it ended up just being two shots of Patron with the soda and lime juice thrown in, and came to $23. I always thought if one of us was going to order something ridiculously priced like that, it'd be me! That was more than an entree...sheesh. Lesson learned!

January was also the month we found out that Garrett & Elizabeth Latham are expecting! Elizabeth sent me this picture about a week or two after they called us with the news...so exciting!

February:

We traveled to New Braunfels to participate in our first Murder Mystery Party, which was Pirate-themed. Blake and I thought it would be pretty cheesy, but we actually had a really good time! Everyone was dressed in great costumes (ourselves included) and played their parts well. It was a fun learning experience. :)

My favorite part of February was spending the weekend in Fort Worth (well, half of the weekend at least) for the Dracula Ballet! Blake and I had been wanting to go to a professional ballet since we saw Holland in the Nutcracker, and Dracula just seemed so cool! And it was. We stayed in downtown Fort Worth at the Omni and had Joe T.'s for lunch the next day before heading back to Dallas. The best part was that it wasn't even a special occasion...it was just because. Why don't we do things like this more often???

Dinner at the hotel before heading to the theater

I was so pumped to have an excuse to wear this dress again - I just love it!

Ghostly brides!

Joe T.'s marg + tortilla soup + fajitas = :)

Although Blake and I don't celebrate Valentine's Day, we had a Valentine's WOD at the gym - tall socks and all! I love our group, such fun peeps!

Finally busted out the dehydrator, which was a Christmas gift to me from my momma. Beef jerky was at the top of the list for "dehydrator projects", and I'll just say that yes...it turned out awesome.

Mid-February was when I met my "little" for Big Brothers Big Sisters. I am sad to report that this did NOT work out well, and we are no longer matched together. Without going into too much detail, it became a matter of my safety, so Blake was adamant about canceling the arrangement. Here's one picture from our one outing...getting her nails done:

A group of us from Crossfit participated in the Metro Dash. It was COLD! And raining that morning, but thankfully not while we were going.

Before...

And After :)

That night after the Metro Dash we had a President's Day Balls Ball at Jill's house! People dressed up in "ball" attire, and the potluck-style food was all in ball form! It was definitely a fun and neat party, and the food was all so good!

February was also the first time I was introduced to the Honey Badger video. I laughed so hard the first time I saw it, and still do every time I watch it again.

Ok, I only made it through two months but I am super tired. And it's a pretty lengthy post. I will continue with part two of "Catching Up" tomorrow!