White Christmas!

Christmas this year was very exciting! Jonathan and I decided to open our stockings the Monday before Christmas then head to Jonesboro. Jonathan always gives the BEST stockings! This year we decided to not give each other candy. Instead we gave each other stuff to help us run and get ready for the Half Marathon! Jonathan gave me sport beans, GU, socks, granola bars, and EAS drinks! He also gave me lottery tickets and I won $30!!

We finally made it to Jonesboro Monday night. We stopped in Newport to see Jonathan's dad. It was great to see them! We spent several nights in Jonesboro and did Christmas with Jonathan's mom and brothers. Jonathan's mom got a new puppy! Her name is Anna Belle and she is so sweet!

We were going to head back to Newport Christmas Eve night and do Christmas with Jonathan's whole family, but Newport was flooding because of all the rain. We had to change plans. We ended up leaving Christmas Eve morning and drove to Newport to see his grandma and aunt. The roads were awful! I wish I had taken pictures! No car could have driven through what we did. Peoples homes and cars were flooded. It was horrible. Luckily Jonathan's family was ok. Well in the mean time, my parents were supposed to get snow. We were going to head to Bentonville Christmas day, but we knew we wouldn't make because of the snow. So, we decided to surprise my parents and show up Christmas Eve night! We made it back to Conway and hurried up and loaded all of our gifts and then headed to Bentonville! The drive was fine until we hit 540. It was like a blizzard came out of no where! I was terrified! Those roads were so dangerous! We drove about 25 mph all the way to Fayetteville in one lane of traffic. Once we hit Fayetteville the snow stopped coming down so hard and we had an easy drive the rest of the way. My parents were so excited we surprised them! Here are some pictures from our Christmas in Bentonville and my first white Christmas!

We were all tired when we got home! It was great Christmas!

Christmas Break!

My Christmas break is almost here!! I am done with school this week and won't have to go back until the middle of January! I am so excited to have all this time off! I will still be working but my kids will be out of school too so I won't have to work as much. Last year I worked so much during the holidays I don't feel like I really got to enjoy it. I did enjoy my job, I just had to work so much. This year I am really going to enjoy my time off. I plan on doing a lot of things I haven't been able to do lately. I plan on doing this...

And this...

And this...

And this...

And this...

I plan on doing all the things I enjoy like running, reading, knitting, drawing, and cooking. I guess I need to throw in some cleaning too. I actually enjoy cleaning too....it destresses me! I need to do a good deep cleaning! Anyways, I plan on having a great Christmas break!!

Jonathans Big Buck and Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving and the weekend were great! We ate with our friends Doug, Teresa, and Ryan. We have never eaten Thanksgiving with friends and it was fun! Doug and Teresa are from CA and weren't going back home so we decided to do Thanksgiving with them and Ryan's family was out of town so he joined us! Jonathan and the guys went hunting Thanksgiving morning and Jonathan finally killed him a deer! He has been wanting to all year and he finally did! It was 220 lbs! Here are some pics:

Here is its head in the ice chest....so gross!

I went to Teresas to help her start cooking. We cooked so much food for 5 people! We had a ton leftover. It was very yummy!

I have never done early Black Friday shopping so Teresa and I got up early and went to Best Buy at 5:00 am. We then went to Old Navy, and personally the sales weren't that great. I have seen much better sales at Old Navy! But since I got up so early I wasn't going to leave without buying something. So, I bought a pair of shoes, scarf, and a water bottle. I stood in line for an hour to check out. I was so mad, but I did it anyways. I probably won't get up early again. Shopping online is much better! After we went shopping, I headed to El Dorado to visit my family! It had been 7 months since I had been there last so I was really excited to see everyone! Here are some pics:

I went o House of Wylie which is my favorite place to eat in El Do! My mom and I met my girl cousins (plus Kayden), aunts and grandmas there for lunch! So much fun to catch up with everyone! Saturday I met my best friend Lauren for lunch. It is always fun to see her! I don't get to see her much anymore, but it is fun when I do get to see her! I then tried to sneak Benji home with me....needless to say, my parents would never let that happen!

Journals and Knitting

Well today marks the end of one journal and tomorrow will be the beginning of the new one. I am obssessed with writing in my journals! I feel it is something I have to do everyday or most days at least. It is always sad to leave one but very excitiing to start a new one! I have had my new one for several months now and I have been ready to start writing in it! I am very picky about my journals but not as picky as I am about my coffee mugs. I am really weird. It is just something that gets me through the day! I love to go back and re-read some of my old journals. I have prayers for many things and it is awesome to go back and see how God has answered all of them. I started writing about the time JOnathan and I started dating so it is really cool to read about my prayers for our dating relationship and now about our marriage! God has brought us through so much!

Ok on the knitting....I know this sounds like I am a grandma but I have found a new love for knitting! One of the little girls I work with has learned how to knit from her grandma and she was showing me what she learned. It really inspired me! I don't want to be one of those grandmas who can't teach their grandchildren how to do anything! I can't sew and before yesterday I couldn't knit! Now I have something to teach my grandchildren. I went to hobby lobby and bought my first pair of needles and yarn. I didn't get the cutest yarn because I just wanted something to practice with. At first I kept getting fed up because my fingers were getting all tangled up and the yarn just looked like a bunch of knots.

But then I decided not to give up just yet. After a couple of hours of yelling at the lady on youtube who was trying to teach me, I finally got it! And once you get it, it is real easy! I am still working on the basic knit stitch and will eventually try to make cool patterns and use different colors. Here is a pic of what I have so far. Not sure if I want to keep going and try to make a scarf or just start over since there are some mistakes. I guess I will keep going on this one for now!

Marriage.....

This morning I started thinking about how God has blessed me so much. I have the best husband, the greatest family, and the most wonderful friends. Mornings are definitely my favorite.



With two of my really good friends getting married at the end of this year, I have been to several wedding showers. I love going to showers! It is so exciting to celebrate your closest friends getting married! It makes me miss my wedding. I love to see all the neat things they registered for and how they are going to decorate their new home. I loved doing all that fun stuff with my hubby! Today is our year and a half anniversary! I can't believe that in 6 months we will have been married for two years! I just want to say, that I have married my best friend. Marriage is tough for sure, especially when both of you are very competitive and stubborn like we are! But I love going to sleep and waking up to my best friend. I love it that I always have someone to share my deepest thoughts with and someones shoulder to cry on. I love having someone I can spoil and trust me I spoil Jonathan! Here are some of our greatest times together:

Halloween, Showers, and Christmas Tree

Well I was really excited about my Halloween party and then never posted pictures. We had a lot of great food and a lot of people in our little bitty house!

Here are all the girls:

Jonathan and I:

The yummy food!

I have been to a lot of showers lately! I love going to wedding showers especially lingerie showers! Here are some pictures from the lingerie shower I hotsted for Christeena!

And lastly I was really excited about putting up my Christmas tree so I did! I have never decorated before Thanksgiving but I did this year!

Soaring Wings Half Marathon and Fall!

My race has finally come and gone! I can't believe it is over. It seems like yesterday I had just started my training but that was over 16 weeks ago! This is a great race to run. The proceeds go to a great cause, the course is tough, and they have a lot of food waiting on you when you cross the finish line! Today had the perfect weather for running. It was kind of cold but not too cold. I finished in 2 hours and 15 minutes. This is not where I want to be, but I finished! I really want to finish in under 2 hours....hopefully I can do that in March at the Little Rock Half! I ran the first 7 miles fine but then I started getting tired. Mile 11 and 12 were definitely the hardest! I am so glad I got to run a race again....there is nothing like crossing the finish line! It makes you want to do more. I was so hungry when I finished! I grabbed some fruit, pizza, and a bag of M&M's!! I didn't care what I ate at that point. Here are a couple pictures of me and Ashley finishing the race!

I love Fall so much! I wish it hadn't rained so much this year though. I drove up to Bentonville last weekend and the weather was great. The mountatins were beautifu! I remember I couldn't wait for Fall to get here and was already buying my Halloween party stuff in July! It was before I even went on vacation. And now I am already buying stuff for Christmas! I really need to slow down. I couldn't wait for Halloween to get here and now I am ready for Christmas. If the stores didn't put Christmas stuff out so soon, I wouldn't get so anxious. I have already started buying more Christmas decorations...I love decorating for Christmas! Here I go rambling on about Christmas....I need to wait until after Halloween. I am really excited about our Halloween party this weekend! I have a yummy menu planned and fun games! Here is a picture of Hershey....her first Halloween!

Tomorrow Brandy and I are going to bake pumpkin and roast the seeds! I can't wait! I will post after we do that!