I'm finally getting around to writing this post, it's only 19 days late, but who's counting, right? I don't want to sound cliché because I've heard 1000 people say this already, but I'm not really that sad to say goodbye to 2016. I'm not going to lie, it was probably one of the hardest years of my life (seems like it may have been for quite a few people too) and came with some struggles/sadness, but it also came with a lot of fun memories and blessings so that's what we're going to focus on in this post.
Here we go:
January
In January, we spent New Year's weekend in Tulsa with our friends at their Annual New Year's Eve Party, followed by an early morning of duck hunting with the boys.
At the end of January, I took a work trip to Orlando, Florida for a show with Matrix.
February
Our goal in February was to relax and enjoy a few free weekends and it was glorious.
I traveled to the Gaylord, Texan for a work sales conference. It was my first time to visit and I've been back twice since then, such a neat place.
Aaron and I celebrated Valentine's Day with a fun little kayaking trip on the lake, complete with a picnic lunch. It was perfect!
I painted my second door hanger...who knew that later in the year it would turn into a really fun side gig.
At the end of February, I went to Dallas on a girl's trip with my mom and sister-in-law.
March
In March, I took a short day trip to Arkansas to visit my college roommate and celebrate her precious boy's birthday!
We traveled to Tulsa to attend the Bass Master Classic with friends.
I took a road trip to Lawton to spend the weekend with my childhood friend and celebrate her daughter's birthday!
In March, this guy went in for a job interview and GOT THE JOB, which meant he left for Tulsa to start his job the following week. We were so ecstatic and giddy, but then reality hit and I realized I had to stay home by myself for two weeks and pack up the house.
Not going to lie, those two weeks were ROUGH for me...I missed Aaron, I was anxious about finding a place to live and a new job, and I was totally over moving. This made 4 moves in 3 years, YIKES!
APRIL
We celebrated my birthday at Top Golf with my family and little did we know, 5 days later we would add a new member to the family!
April was by far the best month out of the year because I became an aunt to the most precious red-headed, blue-eyed baby girl. It was the highlight of my year and she has brought us so much joy!
My favorite picture....when my brother came out of the hospital room to tell my parents that their grand-daughter was born (the gender was a surprise).
May
In May, our wonderful friends pictured below drove 4 hours to help us load all our belongings and move. They were serious life savers, don't know what we would do without them!
We became apartment dwellers for the first time since college. I wasn't looking forward to moving into an apartment, but I'm so glad we made this decision because I have actually loved living here. The location is perfect, there's less to clean, we only unpacked the minimal stuff and I've learned that less is way more and I just like our quaint little apartment.
I was lucky enough to find the perfect job and remain working for State Beauty Supply doing the same thing I was doing before, but in a different territory for different owners. The stars really aligned on this one and I'm so thankful they did, I absolutely LOVE my job!
We saw Carrie Underwood in concert!
We celebrated Mother's Day with my wonderful Mother-in-Law. These boys are lucky to have her and she has raised some great young men whom I love dearly!
We ran in the Rustic Cuff 5k and celebrated afterwards with ice cream.
I hosted my first painting party and it was such a blast.
We got some really good laughs in at our beautiful masterpieces, someone may have misspelled Boomer Sooner, not going to mention any names!
We celebrated our 10 year high school reunion and it was so much fun to see everyone and catch up.
June
We had our 5th Annual Family Reunion and it was a blast as always.
We celebrated our 3rd wedding anniversary. So lucky to call this amazing man my husband. He has always been my rock, but especially throughout the last year. Don't know what I would do without him.
July
We celebrated the 4th of July with these sweet friends at their family lake.
We drove to Dallas with our best friend's to see The Dixie Chicks in concert. Thank goodness we were with great company and had fun anyway because the concert was a BUST!
August
In August, I took a road trip to Texas with my college bestie to celebrate the wedding of our college roommate and friend. It was so fun to be reunited with them!
September
We celebrated our anniversary and Aaron's bday with a weekend getaway to Fayetteville, AR to cheer on the Hogs. It was exactly the weekend we were needing and we will for sure be back next year.
We even got to hang out with our Mammoth friends and it was the highlight of our trip.
I worked my tail off for 4 months making door hangers to sell in my booth at a craft fair. It was my first craft fair and it was a lot of fun and work, but totally worth it in the end. We sold a lot of door hangers and my booth won "Best Booth."
October
We had a blast celebrating at both of these gorgeous weddings!
November
Celebrated Thanksgiving with both of our families!
Ran my 2nd half marathon with my best gals.
December
Attended some really fun Christmas parties with all my favorite people!
I hosted my 2nd and 3rd painting parties.
Celebrated Christmas with our families and this precious girl made it oh so much fun!
And that pretty much sums up our year. I went back and read all my blog posts from the past year and I only posted 17 times....slacking! I want to really work on doing better this year so hopefully I can find more time to write.
So far 2017 has been promising. We rang in the New Year with great friends, lots of laughter, and fun. I just got back from a work trip to Las Vegas and it was a great learning experience. I'm looking forward to quite a few fun vacations in the upcoming months. Here's to 2017 and hoping that it blows 2016 out of the water!
