A Year in Review

Is 2012 really over?! I always have such mixed emotions on New Year's Eve.  I am sad another year is over and I am worried I might not have done all I wanted.  Then I am super excited for a clean slate and a year of possibilities ahead.  Looking back 2012 was a pretty great year!

January: Closed on our very first home.  Moved in with my parents. Celebrated my uncle's 50th birthday with the coolest show ever from this guy who was flown in from Nashville.

Glen Templeton with my mom and me :)

February: Moved in to our first home.  Celebrated Valentine's Day.

Thanks hubster :)

March: Took my cheer squad to West Coast and Nationals.  And said goodbye to coaching, for now :(

miss this :(

she is my favorite :)

April: Said goodbye to some dear friends.  Went to Stagecoach.

can't wait to visit these two in Seattle! 

May: Turned 26.  Took an unplanned roadtrip up the coast.  Said goodbye to another group of kiddos.  Flew to Colorado for my sister-in-law's high school graduation.

Pismo Beach

My class last year raised money and bought me this.  They had lemonade stands and took in recycle.  Sweetest thing ever.

She is a Delta Gamma now! Woo hoo!

June: Went to Maui!! Celebrated the marriage of our friends.  Adopted a puppy!!! My brother broke his arm and his leg.  My grandparent's celebrated 60 years of marriage!

Can we go back?!

Love these girls!

she still does this....

gimp squared

Aren't they precious?!

July: Celebrated our 2nd anniversary. Went to an Angel Game.  Visited with family.  Went to see the Brother's of the Sun Tour.

we survived two whole years of marriage!

my "cotton" anniversary gift

Amazing concert!

winning big at the races

Cadet hat night

August: Hosted our first party.  Watched the Olympics.  Started a new school year.

team usa

first bow and first olympics!

September: Celebrated a friend's birthday.  Husband won his first ever tournament.  Took a mini vacay with the family.  Went to a Charger game.  The husband turned 26.

Newport Beach 

Woo hoo!

This was almost too depressing to post....

On the rooftop in downtown

October: Went to see the best.concert.ever.  Completed most of our Fall Bucket List.  Celebrated Halloween in our first home.  Got toilet papered.

bucket list

pumpkin patch

November: Celebrated Thanksgiving and finished our fall bucket list.

we may never graduate from the kid's table

December: Celebrated Christmas and completed our Christmas Bucket List.

Our 2012 Christmas card

Welcome 2013!!!! It will be a tough act to follow, but I believe in you :)

Cara Box

A couple months ago, I stumbled upon Wifessionals.  Not only was it an awesome blog to read, but the blogger Kaitlyn has started the most awesome gift exchange ever. If you haven't heard of it, go check it out!  This month I was paired up with Brooke and she is awesome! She was in the midst of moving, taking finals and graduating, but she still took the time to put together a fantastic box.  She sent out my box pretty early, so I was able to open it during my annual "last week of school/report card meltdown" stage.

Yay! It's here!

Pink, my favorite!

How cute is all of this stuff?! 

Thanks Brooke! I also sent a box, so if you want to check it out head over to Oh My Tookies!

Christmas

I hope everyone had a great Christmas! We had a great time celebrating with our families across socal.  We spent Christmas Eve with the husband's family.  We went to see his grandparents at lunch time and the puppy loved the huge park behind their house (seriously our animals have been sleeping nonstop since Christmas Day).  Then the husband and his brothers hosted a ping-pong tournament.  Annnddd wouldn't you know who the big winner was....I swear my husband is good at anything he tries.  So annoying! Side note (to prove my point): He once won a contest at church of throwing playing cards in to a watermelon! How do you even practice something like that?!

Tired babies...

Anyways back to Christmas....so after the tournament we had a great dinner with his family and then opened presents.  Um...he has a million brothers and sisters which explains the humungous pile of presents under the tree.

After that we drove home to my parents house where we opened our traditional pj gift and listened to my dad try and read "The Night Before Christmas."  It is quite an experience, one that may have to be filmed one day....

Christmas morning we opened presents and then had the best eggs benedict everrrrrr. Like ever (can you tell I am listening to the new t-swift album?!).

Santa came!

Dunphy loved our new bbq!

Me and the hubby did the pinterest 4 gift rule....

Chesney had the best first Christmas! She still has presents that aren't opened....spoiled!

My parents gave my baby brother an old phone instead of a new cell phone....they are so mean!

And the hubby surprised me with one more special gift :)  

It was a great Christmas! Thank you God for sending your Son! We love to celebrate the best gift any of us could ever receive! And thank you Christmas vacation for giving us another 11 days off! Although we are already getting cabin fever....the hubby is currently creating an electronic movie storage system (or something like that...) We need to get out :)

The End of an Era

Today I finally finished the Harry Potter series.  I know I am really behind.... My brothers and friends all read this series about twenty years ago.  I have been pressured to read them for years and I even read the first book a few years ago.  I really enjoyed it, but I just never got around to the second.  Then I felt like so much time had passed that I needed to read the first one again.  Well my 2012 resolution was to read one book a month, so after I finished the Hunger Games, I started the Potter Series.  I even got the husband hooked.  Although he is a slightly slower reader and is a few books behind, love you hubby :)  Anyways, I promised him once I finished the books we could start watching the movies (we seriously have been living under a rock....).  I can't wait! The books were amazing and I am glad I finished before Christmas, because I get sad whenever I finish books (not to mention series!) and that combined with post-Christmas depression would have been quite a combination.  Speaking of Christmas, we are officially off to do our rounds of visiting our families.  Merry Christmas everyone!

Yay!

Yay for Christmas vacation and sweet students!

Double the parent conferences, double the report cards, but at the end of the day it is double the sweet love from my kiddos :)

Best gift a teacher could ever get. Love my job!

Yay for Tate!

Yay for Saturday's songs Link-Up!

This is seriously my favorite Christmas song of all time.  And he wrote this song when he was 13! How amazing and sweet is that!



And a belated yay for my dad's birthday!

Game Show Addict

I am a total game show/reality tv addict!  I love watching game shows and I have even been on two!  A little over a year ago, the husband and I flew to New York to be on the Newlywed Game.  We totally lost....like we were destroyed.  I think we answered one question correctly. Anyways, a few of our friends caught the airing this week and made sure to make fun of us and post pictures.

In 2007, me, my mom, my hubby and friend Krystal (who is ironically the Krystal in the above picture) camped out on the streets of Hollywood (literally I slept next to a trash can/bus stop) to see one of Bob Barker's last shows for the Price is Right.  I actually got called up and won! 

As much as I love game shows, I have never been into the singing American Idol type shows.  Well then my little neighbor tried out for the X-factor so of course I had to watch him.  And then he was kicked off, but the husband and I were hooked.  

I like to think he got his talent from me when I used to babysit him....

So now we will be watching with all of America to see who wins tonight! I can't believe how talented all the contestants have been.  I have to go for my country boy Tate, but I know one day I will buy every album put out by the top five.  Seriously amazing! And Britney Spears is a hot mess who I can't help but love.  Annnndd woohooo for all my report cards being done!

Baby It's Cold Outside

Brrrrr! It is so cold! Well California cold.  I am sure anyone east of this place is probably laughing at us all bundled up, but it is freezing! Our house was 52 degrees when we woke up this morning....someone was supposed to turn on the heater when he woke up, but "forgot".  And it was 34 degrees when I was driving to school today.  Yes people it is THAT cold :)

Bundled up for our walk! We sometimes take the kitty along so he doesn't feel left out :)

I am finally all caught up on my days of giving:

Day 6:  Donate canned goods to the local food bank.

Day 7:  Buy someone's Starbucks.  I don't actually drink coffee, but I was planning to just give my gift card to the cashier.  I will admit the line was a little long, and I was a bit impatient.  Instead I asked the lady in front of me if she was getting a coffee.  She said she was so I handed her my gift card.  She was so sweet, very surprised and for some reason started telling me her full drink order.  It was cute!

Day 8:  Donate supplies to the local animal shelter.  I had to buy multiple bags of cat food because someone does not understand the whole giving and not receiving thing (Dunphy kitty!).  Luckily the shelter was willing to take all half-eaten bags :)  By the way, you should never go to the animal shelter unless your husband agrees to a new family member.  I wanted all those little guys :(

Two more days until Christmas Break!!!!!! Freedom :)