Friday, December 30, 2016

HIGHLIGHTS OF 2016

Just like everyone else, I can't believe 2016 is almost over. I would be lying if I said I was sad to see it go though. I am ready for a new year and praying for a healthy and happy 2017! I thought it would be fun to share some highlights from 2016 with you all!

We bought a house in January! I shared a home tour here and our moving weekend here.

Nashville experienced a "big" snow storm and we lounged around the whole weekend. It was perfect and I'll always remember that weekend with my sweet husband!

We celebrated Matthew's 24th birthday..together, with friends, and with family!

We hosted a lot in 2016! We are so thankful for our home and to be able to open up it up to our friends and family all throughout the year. So many special memories!! We hosted, a dinner party in April, Cinco de Mayo in May, Our first annual Summer Soiree in June, Red, White, and Blue BBQ in July, second annual Friendsgiving in November, and my mom's birthday in December!

I went on a girls trip with my best friends to Hilton Head, SC!

 We celebrated one whole year of marriage in our favorite place, Cookeville! 

I shared our anniversary pictures here!

Worked on SO many house projects and got so much marked off our house project list! We bought new furniture, painted our front door, painted our kitchen, painted our dining room, painted our living room, we painted our entryway and hallways (my dad did it!), painted our guest bathroom, and built a farmhouse table!!!!

 Announced we were adopting a puppy!!

WE BROUGHT OUR GIRL HOME! Hands down, one of the best weekend of 2016 for the both of us! And she has had us wrapped around her little paw every since!!!!
and now I want to go cry because she's not this small anymore

Celebrated Thanksgiving with our families and then spent the week after Thanksgiving on our anniversary trip, a cruise to Mexico!

Decorated for our first Christmas in our home!

Celebrated our second married Christmas with our families and Reagan's first Christmas!.

Goodbye 2016, 2017 please be good to us!!!!


2015 recap, part one and part two
2013 recap, part one and part two

Thursday, December 29, 2016

ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY TRIP | CRUISE 2016

A month later and I am finally sharing about our vacation back in November. We went on a cruise to Mexico the week after Thanksgiving and it was the best! I loved being able to get away with Matthew and having tons of one on one time without the distractions of everyday life/work. I decided not to take my camera and to just use our iPhones to take pictures. It was our first cruise so I wanted to feel everything out before I brought my nice camera. I will definitely be taking my nice camera on our next cruise!

We celebrated Thanksgiving and then the following Monday drove down to Mobile, Alabama to our port. It was about a 6 hour drive, which isn't bad at all and gave us plenty of time that day since our ship wasn't leaving until 5. We stopped for lunch at Ruby Tuesday's about an hour away from Mobile and then continued on until we were there. As soon as we got on the ship our room was ready so we went there and our luggage was already there waiting for us. We checked out our room and then quickly checked out the whole ship. One of the many things that made me extremely happy on this trip is that they decorated the ship for Christmas!! There were small Christmas trees with different themes and beautiful garland everywhere. They also played Christmas music the whole trip and it was perfect!
There was putt putt on the top deck 


Tuesday we were at sea all day, Wednesday we were in Cozumel, Thursday we were in Yucatan, and Friday we were at sea all day on the way back to Mobile. We were off the ship by around 8:30 Saturday morning and hit the road to go home and pick up Reagan! We loved the cruise and had a great time together, but we missed our sweet puppy something fierce. Reagan stayed with Matthew's parents while we were gone and they took great care of her and she loved spending the week with them! We didn't do any excursions, just because all we wanted to do on this trip was relax and take it easy. After the year we have had, that is literally all we wanted to do. And relax is what we did! We took at least one nap everyday, if not more. It was the best week and we felt completely refreshed and recharged once the week was over. Cruise's kinda force your to rest and relax...you are at sea for a couple of days and really there is only so much you can do on a ship, so whether your relaxing by the pools, up on one of the decks, in your room, our inside the ship somewhere on the comfy chairs your are bound to rest and relax. 

Our first stop was Cozumel! We got off the ship and did some shopping and then relaxed by the water until it was time to get back on the ship.
The water was so blue in Cozumel, it was beautiful!!
They were putting this tree together in Cozumel while we were there, I'm sad we didn't get to see it at night all lit up!

Thursday we were in Yucatan! Yucatan wasn't as pretty as Cozumel, and there weren't a lot of shops at the port so we really didn't stay off the boat terribly long, but it was still fun to explore the area!
 We laid out/napped and I read for a few hours
The warmest December 1st I've ever experienced and I loved it!!

We had a formal night and it was fun to get dressed up!

We went to a few shows and the comedy show just about every night, and we played bingo lol.
The Love & Marriage was the funniest show!!

Spent most evenings watching the sun go down 

Ate so, so much delicious food! And tried so many new things. The two crazy things we tried were Escargot and Alligator, and I am happy to report that I liked them both! Matthew didn't try the Escargot but liked the alligator lol. We also ordered room service some!
So pretty!!
My love!

We had a new towel animal waiting on us every night and I loved it. They actually had a towel folding class to teach you how to fold them like these animals but we accidentally slept through it and missed it!

One thing I didn't know about cruises...is that it is so WINDY. All the time!! There were a few times where they had the top deck completely closed off because it was too windy to be up there. 

Of course we had to get our girl something while we were on our trip...
 Unfortunately it was a little snug but she still looked adorable in it!!

We had the best time and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves! A huge thank you to Matthew's parents for keeping our favorite girly and taking such great care of her!!