Happy, happy birthday!

I recently got to celebrate four special people and their special birthdays! Let's go youngest to oldest, shall we?

First up - my sweet niece, Jade, turned 9 on March 29th. She is my second oldest niece, and such a sweet girl. We celebrated with a little shopping and a dinner at Marketplace complete with a chocolate mess (I taught her well).

The birthday girl!

Sisters enjoying a chocolate mess!

Sooo good!

My brother, the girls, and me

Youngest niece Chloe

Being silly :)

Next up - Kody turned 25 on April 2nd. Since he is still in Little Rock, I did not get to see him on his birthday, but I was able to send his presents/card via good ol' USPS. We celebrated birthday/our anniversary at a later date (to come in a later post!). Happy birthday, love!

Moving on up -- You'll need a little background:  When I was about 3 months old, my mom went back to work during the day, and I started staying with a woman named Dorothey. I stayed with her just about every single weekday until I started going to school, and then she would pick me up from school, and I would stay with her until my mom got off work. Even as school activities and sports started taking up more of my time, I continued to go to Dorothey's house several days a week -- all the way through high school! She lives right next to the school, and her house was the perfect place for a quick nap, a chance to catch up on homework, or to grab a homemade meal before a game or practice!

Dorothey's first husband, Huse, died before I was born. When I was about four years old, she started "courting" a man that lived in another small town close to ours. Dorothey makes the BEST homemade sourdough bread. She would have me hang the bread on the door of this man's house and we would drive away. She ended up marrying that man, and he is the one this particular birthday is actually about. L.D. turned 90 on March 20th. (Dorothey will turn 90 in August!) His family threw him a big birthday party that we were happy to attend. L.D. and Dorothey have always been just like another set of grandparents, and I love them both so much!

My Papa Ed turned 90 on March 31st. His birthday happened to fall on Easter this year, so although we had the usual family out for Easter and to celebrate his birthday on a smaller scale, we had over 70 guests at our house the following weekend to celebrate! Friends of my grandparents came all the way from Indiana just for the weekend. It was so fun to celebrate with him, our family, and their friends. My Papa is the hardest working man I've ever known - he is a carpenter and continued working well into his 80s! He'll still climb a ladder and get on a roof if no one is looking. Love my Papa Ed and Granny Lou! :)

Wasn't he so handsome? This is Papa at about 20 years old!

We always group family birthdays that are near each other all together - we use the same cake, but sing "happy birthday" to everyone separately!

 Then came the big birthday party!

Mom collected a ton of old pictures of my Granny, Papa, friends and family from over the years and made these picture boards to display. It's so fun looking at old pictures!

These sweet people are the ones who drove all the way from Indiana just to be at Papa's party...they definitely get the "traveled the farthest" award for the day!

Isn't he the cutest?

And so are they :)

From left to right, this is L.D., Dorothey, Papa, and Granny

Such special people in my life - I cherish this picture so, so much.

I'm so lucky all my 90 year olds are still healthy and with us. Love them all so much!

Happy birthday to all these special people in my life!

A Light at the End of the Tunnel

Talk about some answered prayers.

On Valentine's Day this year I got two important messages:

1. I had been pre-approved for a home loan.

2. Kody had asked to put his name on the wait list to come finish his last two years of med school at UAMS' northwest campus in Fayetteville. We would know by April 1st if there was any movement on the list -- he was number 3.

On March 14th (exactly one month later), this is what happened:

1. I found a house online I wanted to go see. I scheduled a showing for that night because I knew I would be out of town all weekend for my dear friend Erin's wedding. Kody was on his way up for the festivities, but I figured I would go see the house before he got up here. He ended up showing up earlier than I thought, so we went to see the house with my aunt and mom. (Just in case you're wondering, the house was a no!)

2. Kody and I go to dinner after house hunting, and he tells me he got a spot with UAMS in Fayetteville, he had decided to accept, and he's moving to Fayetteville this summer!

Best. News. Ever. Of course, Kody had been holding out on me for a week before he told me. He needed to make sure he was making the right decision (it is his career, after all) and then he wanted to tell me in person.

After three years of being in a long-distance relationship, there is finally a light at the end of this tunnel! I am so happy that Kody made the decision to 1. put his name on that list, 2. that he actually got a spot (we're talking 18 people out of 170ish+), and 3. that he ultimately decided to take the spot. 

Thanks to everyone who has kept us in your thoughts and prayers -- I am SO happy about this outcome, and I'm looking forward to spending more than a few weekends every now and then with my best friend :)

Just remember -- He is good, He is faithful, and He provides.

Life Lately: As told through my Iphone

I've been wanting to post something new for quite a while now, but as you can see, I haven't done so. Of course, this means lots of things have backlogged in my mind, and I wasn't even sure where to start. So I decided the easiest thing to do was take a look at my Iphone and see where it says I have been the past few weeks  months. Here's a look at my life lately, according to my Iphone records:

Sometimes, I run into quite a few interesting things on our winding, country road. One day, I came across a few horses taking a stroll in my lane. (Just last week, I encountered a cow in my lane. Thank goodness my car and these animals didn't decide to meet.)

Got my new Erin Condren planner! Love these!

Almost hit a Christmas tree that was in my lane on that country road... went back to drag it off the road, and someone beat me to it. I had to take a picture to prove it literally was a Christmas tree.

Between dodging Christmas trees, cows, and horses, I get to see pretty sunrises/sunsets as well :)

Got a beautiful delivery of flowers at work from my mom to celebrate a new job/office. My business cards happened to come the same day!

Added a little chrome to the Terrain thanks to the boyfriend.. gotta have my sparkle :)

Helped host a bridal shower for my sweet friend Erin -- two weeks from today, she'll be waking up a married woman!

I have woken up to quite a few beautiful mornings. I may not like living so far from town all the time, but it sure can be beautiful to have this as your front yard.

Got this sweet picture from my love. This particular Dove wrapper has hung on his bulletin board since we were in college -- always a nice reminder :)

Drove many mornings to work in the snow. At least it was pretty! (Don't tell anyone how many pics I take while driving this road, please.)

Got a Valentine's Day surprise in the mail from the boyfriend.

And some beautiful flowers!

Celebrated the opening of the new Harp's in my hometown. This probably isn't a big deal to anyone who doesn't live here, but trust me, it's kind of a big deal.

Started decorating my new office. Still a long way to go, but at least we got a few things in there!

There's no place like Northwest Arkansas. Such a lovely place to live.

Celebrated Mom's birthday weekend in Branson shopping.

Where we each splurged and got a new Coach purse!

Woke up to yet another beautiful snowy day, and spent it working in Reynolds Razorback Stadium

But it was clear the next day!

FINALLY decided on and purchased new Asics running shoes.

And most recently, spent a fun weekend celebrating Erin and her girls' weekend at the horse races in Hot Springs! Such a fun experience -- can't wait to go back again soon!

That's life lately -- I'm really going to try to stay on top of this blogging thing again!
Happy Sunday!

 

Happy New Year!

I can't believe it's already 2013! (Side note: I realize January is now almost over, but this post has been sitting in my drafts for about a month now -- 2013 has been crazy busy already --so, read or skip this, I don't care, I wasn't prepared to just delete it :)

 Here's a look back at some of the highlights of my 2012...

In January, I made my first big, big girl purchase when I bought a car for myself. It was a 2008 Lincoln MKx, and I loved it!

Kody and I also got to go see the Razorbacks play KState in the 2012 Cotton Bowl. It was our second time to go to a bowl game together, and it was fun to celebrate a win! (Side note, KState fans are the nicest -- so glad they had such a good season this year!)

February wasn't too exciting as far as I remember, but it did bring me an Erin Condren planner for Valentine's Day. Thanks, boyfriend :) I received my new one for this year already--I love them!

March brought my last spring break as a student. Our fun "Emily, Party of Six" group (inside joke) planned a last minute vacation to Gulf Shores. I always have a great time with this group, and I look forward to many more vacations with them :)

In April, Kody and I celebrated his 24th birthday and our 4th anniversary together. I gave him a bow that I had kept secret (along with a lot of help from our friends/family) for over four months! I also made these tasty golf cupcakes that turned out pretty well.

Kody and I also attended his "Cadaver Ball" at UAMS in April. Despite the name of the event, it was a good time. 

In May, I started this blog. I celebrated getting my Master's degree in Higher Education from the University of Arkansas, and we spent a fun weekend on the lake for Memorial Day with great friends!

June was FULL of weddings and wedding showers. You can check those out here, here, and here. It was also spent getting ready for July...

July was BY FAR the best month of 2012! We spent the entire month in Paris (and about a week in London by the time we left). We had the most amazing time, saw so many awesome things, ate great food, shopped, learned a lot, and immersed ourselves in the Parisian lifestyle. I celebrated my 24th birthday in London complete with a trip to Harry Potter Studios (best. day. ever.) Just check out all of my July (and some of August) posts to see all of the awesomeness. I'm ready for another trip! As an added bonus, Kody got me my very first pair of diamond earrings for my birthday :)

August brought two more weddings that were both beautiful for beautiful friends!

I also got to make a trip to St. Louis with my dear friend/college roomie, Heather, to see our other college roomie/friend, Monica. I miss seeing these two so much!

September was pretty quiet, but we did spend another fun Labor Day weekend on the lake with wonderful friends! Also, my trusty first car finally went out on us, so my mom purchased a new car! (New car #2 for us in 2012.) Mom was entered in a drawing and won Razorback tickets that we used later that month which was a lot of fun (despite the loss). Kody, Kent and I also had a fun weekend in Little Rock watching the Hogs play! We all love football season!

October was full of fun! The two main events were UAFS' Alumni Weekend and Madeline and Maxx's beautiful wedding. Both events were a lot of fun, and it was great to catch up with old friends and make new ones on both occasions.

I also got to enjoy spending time with these sweet girls - love my lovely nieces so much :)

November started out pretty rough. On the seventh, I was in my very first car accident. Don't want to rehash it, but here's my pretty car afterwards :(

Three days after this wreck, I helped host a baby shower for my dear friend, Hannah.

After a lot of stressful car shopping (not fun), I finally decided on this brand new car. My very first brand new car, and our family's third car purchase of the year (and hopefully last for a very long time).

December was spent being thankful, spending lots of time with family and friends, and oh yeah, starting a new job! Hence, this post has been sitting unpublished for almost a month.

It was a crazy and fun, sometimes crazy fun, 2012, and I'm excited to see what 2013 has in store!