2014: A Year in Review

Guys, it's 2015. This year has always been somewhat of an imaginary futuristic year that would never come...mostly because it is the year of my 10 year high school reunion. It's officially my first "Time's Marching On" moment.

Today I'm going to recap my Highs & Low of 2014. Overall it was a wonderful year, full of travel, family and friends. We made an addition to our family and lost a family pet. We marveled in how awesome God is and how lucky we are to be surrounded by some amazing people. I listed everything in order of how they went down throughout the year.

High: We got our wedding pictures back from Caroline Rentzel. Emotions were in full force as we relived all of that perfect day. Amazing.

   

High: A trip to Dallas to see Chelsea Handler do stand up and connecting with these fun friends (plus Jake, Cody & Keith)!

High: I took Lauren Essl's Calligraphy Class with my friend Taryn (I posted about it here). You've heard me gush about it before...but man I LOVE creative education!!

High: Trip to Austin for our friend Delaney's graduation. Austin is a pretty cool town, we are definitely making another trip down there. (That part of Texas is my fave....you have Gruene, Austin, floating the river, Round Top shopping is on my to do list...just so many great things!) 

High: We went on our first of two camping trips with our besties, The Jones'. 

Biggest High of the year: We became parents to our sweet and cuddly fur baby, Dixie! She is our little English bully and we are so in love. I'm doing my best not to be "that mom" and have her take over my insta feed...but sometimes you just gotta give into that lovin' feelin', ya know?

High: Our wedding was featured on Wedding Chicks!!! Super big high seeing our (my friends, family and vendors) hard work paying off in a humungo way!! I still get a little giddy thinking about it.

High: McGuire Family Vacay to Grand Lake. It was our first vacation as a family in 10 years and it was so fun! So much fun that I took ZERO pictures! It felt really nice to be unplugged and just enjoying my hilarious family! We introduced them to Cards Against Humanity, baked, relaxed, laughed, made fun of each other, swam a lot and found out how big of a chicken I was because I'm too scared to go fast on a jet ski! I stole this picture from Kortny, my SIL of my dad and Bryson steering the boat.

High: I got a promotion at work! I could put a pic of my new office up, but I'm embarrassed by how bare the walls still are!

Lowest of Lows: I lost my bestie, my flower bully, my favorite cuddle partner of 8 years and my niece dog to cancer. It was seriously the hardest and worst time ever. I'm very lucky to say that I've never lost a human I'm very close to, so I don't have anything bigger to compare it to. I am super thankful that I have some pretty awesome pics of her from our wedding! I still get really emotional thinking about her, and before we got Dixie I was actually really fearful that I wouldn't love my own dog as much as I love Zoe. Of course, that's ridiculous. 

High: In October we started an unintentional travel spree. 4 of 5 weekends we were on the road! First, to Dallas for the OU/Texas game (Boomer Sooner) 

Second, our 2nd camping trip with the Jones'

Third, we went with our friends Justin & Brandi to Eureka Springs. 

Fourth, we headed to Nashville for our anniversary trip and to see our friends Boston & Janelle! Another amazing city I have yet to blog about. But it'll come, I have to share with you all of the great places we ate! 

High: Our first wedding anniversary!! What? Our first year went by so quickly! We spent it by sleeping in, eating Bundt cake and watching Frozen and Monster's University :) We're boring...and it was perfect! 

High: I went to Pursue's Holiday workshop with my friend Brandi. Our friend Molly (one of the owner's of Pursue) taught us how to do brushstroke calligraphy and Poppy Lane Designs taught us how to put together a beautiful flower arrangement with trimmings from the yard. It was a glorious day!

Overall I'm surprised by how much we traveled, disappointed by my lack of blogging and my Sooner's football season (better luck next year, right?). And still missing Zoë. Obviously the good outweighs the bad and I had a wonderful first year of marriage with my hubby! 

Here's to higher highs in 2015! Maybe we'll buy our first home, spend more time with family, catch up on our DVR, and grow closer to friends, and Christ.

2014 Camping Trips

Taking a small break today from the Invitation Suite Series with a little update on our travel life! 

At some point in my life, I got roped in to a group of people whom I lovingly call "camping folk". It so happens those "folk" are my husband and our besties Kevin and Ashley. They were our best man and bridesmaid in our wedding and we recently threw Ash a Surprise Party!

I wouldn't necessarily call myself a girly-girl, but the outdoors offer up an enemy of mine. I go, and I end up having a blast everytime, but man do I get anxious about the amount of bugs that I'll encounter!

We've now gone twice, once to Green Leaf State Park and this most recent one at Lake Murray. 

Here are a few shots from our first trip in May to Green Leaf:

 

 

 On our last day it started raining like crazy! It delayed packing a few hours, but it erased any doubt of us buying a canopy!

These are from our Lake Murray trip (which also was Kevin and Ashley's wedding anniversary trip!)

It started off with a bang with a flat tire on the boat trailer.

 Kev & Ash are pretty obsessed with their hammocks. Jake has now got his mind on one for Christmas :)

 

      

Phin and Dixie are like the odd couple, or Twins (of the Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny DeVito variety). They played so hard and got so muddy! They were both pooped afterwards! 

 

Did you know that S'mores are a must with each meal while camping? Well, it is. And we would NEVER stray from a tradition.

Seriously, these camping trips are so fun. We are so lucky to have Kev & Ash as our besties and we look forward to spending many, many more anniversary trips together :)

Ashley's Surprise Party

Now that I've shared with you my main DIY projects of Ashley's Surprise Party, I'll share with you the rest of the details that happened that night.

First off, the invites. I decided I would give Paperless Post a go. What an awesome site! I'll warn you though...it is really easy to go haywire (the first time through I had racked up a bill of $70!) with all the different options; but they have a decent selection of free invites that are pretty nice. Here is what I sent out to everyone:

Aren't they cute? The e-vite concept has really stepped it up a notch! Forget the mass text of invites for future get togethers!

I really wanted this party to be all of her favorite things. Ashley doesn't like having to cut meat with a knife (hilarious) so Jake make kabobs...which turned out amazing. I filled the pinata with all of her favorite candies: kit kat, rolos, twix, gummy bears, swedish fish and sour patch kids. Ashley is also OBSESSED with popcorn. She has told me that there are many nights when that is her dinner! So I made a few different variations of popcorn mix. I did a Garlic Rosemary Parmesan Popcorn mix and a S'mores mix. I also made this White Chocolate Raspberry Bundt Cake.

 

This was my first time using my white calligraphy ink...I was pretty pumped :) 

We also had a few people bring some desserts as well, which were all amazing. It was a very indulgent night!

My favorite part of the night was the sno cone machine!! You read right...a sno cone machine! We had decided a few weeks prior to rent one, and guys... that is a party game changer! Seriously....best thing ever! I need a sno cone machine very badly! It was such a fun addition to our party and was a huge hit!

That, along with some fun games made the night complete and Ashley's birthday celebration was a complete success! It was such a great night and always fun when a group of friends can just relax, eat a ton, catch up and play games that you haven't played since college!