ode to 2011

2011 was quite a year.  So many changes around here!

It's amazing the difference a year can make!

I am so grateful to have this blog to look back through the year, so many things happened!

not to mention all of the wonderful people who have become part of my life this year because of it

so without further adieu... 2011 blog highlights:

We got Lulu!

I celebrated my 24th birthday

First married Valentines Day

Hubs left for boot camp

Hubby graduated from bootcamp and I finally got to see him again!

Moved to San Antonio, Texas

Celebrated our 1 year anniversary

Made new friends

Hubs got the orders he wanted and we moved back to California

Had some sad times, but got through it

Went to disneyland 3 times

Spent time with family

Went to a blogger meetup and made some awesome friends

2011 was a great year and I can't wait to see what 2012 has in store for us!

After that unplanned hiatus...

...I'm back!

Well... Not really, were still not home yet

But I am over here at Olivia's blog talking about my typical NYE so go check it out!

I will say this year wasn't much different except hubs and I went to a very nice dinner and I dressed lulu up like this:

she loved it, obviously

Happy Veteran's Day!

Obviously veterans are important to me so I just wanted to wish everyone a happy Veteran's Day!

especially the two veterans in my life:

and in addition to hubs and my daddy there is my grandpa, father-in-law, grandfather-in-law, and (we're pretty sure) great grandfather-in-law (all Navy) (I wish I had all the pics!) as well as countless friends! 

Thank you so much! Be sure to go get you're free blommin onion and krispy kreme doughnut (among other things) !!

4th of july

so 4th of july was slightly lame cause there were no fireworks :(

like zero, we weren't allowed to light any cause of the drought and we couldn't go see any of the professional ones cause the boys had to be back on base at 9

but it's cool though cause we had a few of our friends over for bbq, swimming, and guitar hero :)

enjoy!

hopefully you all had a fun fourth filled with family, friends, food

...and for your sake, hopefully some fireworks

happy 4th!

i hope you all have a happy 4th of july!!!

i'm spending the day pool side with hubby and his friends :) and since we all know how much men like to bbq=no cooking for me :)

on this memorial day

so i have to say that today is the first year i've ever really thought about what this day really means

as a kid it was a warm day off of school that consisted of bbqs and possibly swimming

i knew it had something to do with the military but most of the time i would confuse memorial day and veterans day and could never remember which was which

as i got older i just never really thought about it. i didn't know many people who had been in the military and the ones close to me who had were out of the service long before i was even born

this year it hit much closer to home

because i never want to have to spend a memorial day remembering 

my husband's best friend,

one of my best friend's boyfriend,

my sorority sister's husband,

a girl i work with's father

a girl i used to work with,

the husband's of many wonderful friends i've met through blogging, twitter, and facebook,

the friends my husband has made at boot camp,

and the many more people we will undoubtedly meet and grow close to in the coming years,

and mostly, my husband

just thinking about it makes me cry

i pray that this day will never hit closer to home then is does now, but at the same time i know that there are many people out there experiencing all of those above loses, so i pray for them too

and hope that one day no one else will have to suffer with the loss of their loved one on this day or any other

i've seen the signs a million times but i've never so perfectly understood that the freedoms we have, cherish, and often take for granted truly are not free

thank you to all those who have served and continue to serve our country, and happy memorial day!

it does seem a little strange now to say happy memorial day, but i suppose you should be happy. this day shows us that time is valuable and possibly short so we should make the most of it

and i plan on doing that by writing a long letter to my husband, snuggling with my dog far to much and spending time with family and friends...at a bbq :)

happy mother's day mommy!

i ♥ you!


AND this is the first year i have two mothers to wish happy mothers day to cause i have my mother-in-law



and she's basically the best mother-in-law ever...we don't have any crazy in-laws here on either side praise the lord!




and happy mothers day to all the other mommys out there!

easter edition

yes i realize easter was a whole week ago

yes i realize i'm a slacker

it happens, anyway even though i like to dress up more for church than a lot of people at my church do, easter i like to dress up even a bit more

what can i say? when you grow up getting a fancy easter dress each year it sticks

anyway you may (or more likely probably not) notice that this was my bridesmaids dresses

it was my sisters and was not her style, and it is totally mine cause (duh) i picked it out... anyway, score for me

and my wonderful hubby got me these shoes on our honeymoon!

and since i never got around to posting this before, here are my easter decorations:

and to answer your question: yes i just took this picture...these are still up and how long will they remain?  lordy only knows

oh! and my church is huge and has like 7 services normally and usually about 20 the whole week of easter so instead this year we went to arco 

aka power balance pavilion

aka where the kings (used to) play

this was during worship...it was pretty cool to see all the lights they passed out

happy easter!

find these adorable cards here

valentines day

so because

1. we dont have a lot of money right now

and

2. i think its way more fun

we stayed in for valentines day

brians valentine present to me was to do all the dishes (there were tons and we dont have a dishwasher)

and i did this for him:

made him a scrummy dinner! i hung paper hearts from the ceiling and scattered some on the table

we used our napkins from the wedding

so heres the story on the ravioli, costco had this red and white heart shaped ravioli that i wanted to make, but i kept being to busy to go and didnt go until monday and there were all out :(

so when i came home i told brian that i was very sad because i wanted to make the heart shaped ravioli and not just the stupid regular ravioli (which was delicious btw), to which he replied

"ill just pretend its heart shaped"

i love my husband

i made white chocolate dipped strawberries, a valentines tradition

oh! there was also champagne, i just forgot to pour it before i took the pictures

i wore my sisters bridesmaid dress (which she gave me, yes!), shoes that hubby bought me on our honeymoon, and a heart clip i made

lulu had a bow that matched my dress with a matching heart clipped to the center

it was a fabulous first valentines day as a married couple and im looking forward to many more to come ♥

lulu wants to wish you a...

so its new years day...

and im putting away my christmas tree...

its twinkly lights make me happy and im a little sad to see it go for the year but its time

but first a look at all my pretty packages wrapped under this tree...

i used wrapping and packing paper and ribbon and twine from the dollar tree

i also use these tags found via

my favorite gift i gave this year (and probably may favorite gift i ever gave) was to my husband

getting him presents is tricky because he doesnt really want or need anything and he doesnt want you to get him something just to get him something...i had to get creative

i saw this post a while back and thought it was super cute

but instead of rootbeer i used beer because hubbers loves beer

originally i was going to go here to get single beers but they dont have a huge selection and i wanted to get ones that he had never had

then a coworker told me about this place and they have a whole giant aisle, both sides, of make your own 6 pack!!! they probably have every beer in the world its crazy!

they also had little descriptions of each beer so i stealthily took pictures of each (thank g for camera phones) and made up a little taste chart

anyway i think hubby really liked it because he is "saving them" because they are "special" and alcohol doesnt usually last very long in this house...

2010

this has been my favorite year ever!!! this year i...

celebrated my 23 birthday, graduated college, got married, went on our honeymoon (which its been six months and ive yet to post about...), celebrated my husbands 22 birthday, joined the navy (well hubby did so by default i did too), totaled my car (again, hubby did...but i was there...and not so exciting, but memorable nonetheless), and photographed my first wedding!

things im looking forward to in 2011...

while im not looking forward to spending five months without my husband, i am looking forward to seeing him graduate from boot camp and visiting him at school in texas, moving and the adventure thats will bring, first things first: finding out where were moving, celebrating my 24th birthday, celebrated my husband's 23rd birthday, expanding my photography business, and celebrating one year of marriage!!!

merry christmas

one year ago today...

the love of my life asked me to marry him!

this is the beautiful ring he picked out for me ♥

we were watching this movie and wrapping presents and it was a total surprise!

...i actually was kind of expecting it at christmas time, but i thought it would be christmas morning

on saturday

i went with my family to see this...

we like to take pictures under the lights

going to the nutcracker has started to become a tradition (we did not intend on matching last year)

i loved my outfit especially my hair

particularly because of the giant bow

my dad came along this year which made it much more amusing

at "half-time" aka intermission we had to explain to him the whole story which he somehow missed

and earlier we were discussing the long dance that the sugar plum fairy has with her cavalier...it seriously goes on forever

anyway i inform them that its a pas de deux and thats just what they are

and when my mom inquires as to what that is exactly my dad chimes in with "so its a pot of deuh?"

and then when the dance was taking place my mom leans over and tells him "this is the pas de deux" to which he replies

"dont curse me"

bahahaha

anyway then we went to mels (which has become part of the tradition)

meatloaf: the only thing my sister orders at this place, shes a strange one

and we took scary face pictures

...what did you do this weekend?