Year End Review 2011

What a year 2011 was!

I am grateful for all the amazing people in my life and all the opportunities both Brandon and I were given this year. I know I'm still a little behind, but I hope everyone had a fantastic 2011 and here's to an amazing, exciting, prosperous, life-changing 2012!

Our 2012 Highlights:
-Brandon got a new job
-Lisa got a new job
-Lisa got a new car
-We added Timmy to our family
- I ran my 2nd half marathon
-We had our first holiday with both sets of parents
-We took our first vacation together
-My best friend had a precious baby boy
-My Godson turned 1
-Girls trip to TAMU for football and fun!
-Dad turned 50! (Whoa!)
-Mom and Dad had their 30th anniversary!
-Oh - and we got engaged!!!!

Some of my favorite pictures from the year:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
 

Things I'm looking forward to in 2012:
-Buying a house
-Getting married!
-Going on my honeymoon
-Turning 7 - that's right - I have a real birthday this year!! Woo hoo!!
-Being done with wedding planning!!!!!!!!!
-Starting the rest of my life with the one I love

Resolutions:
How many of you make new year's resolutions? I don't like to call them resolutions so much as goals for the upcoming year. Some of my major goals I hope to accomplish are:
-Being a better blogger - I'm not off to the best start, but I'd like to start blogging more frequently. I really enjoy the outlet!
-Creating more! Thanks to pinterest I've been inspired and I'm proud to say that I am actually a pinner that can say: "I've made some of the things on my pinterest page!" There are so many great gift and craft ideas for the home and I'm excited about moving into our new home, so that I actually have some room to create and let my inspirations flow!
-Making healthier choices - this is really an ongoing goal. I'm always looking for easy, delicious ways to be healthier as well as finding fun, interactive ways to be more fit.
-With the last goal in mind, I've already come up with a fun way to keep active! 12-n-12! It's the year 2012 now and the past 2 years I've run a half marathon and done a couple of 5k's. My goal in 2012 is to run 12 races, with at least 1 being a half marathon! My first race of the year will be Jan. 28, which will be a 5k. Then another 5k in February - the color run...look it up! I can't wait!!!! March and April aren't scheduled just yet, because of trying to schedule my wedding showers, but I plan to get it all worked out this weekend! I'll probably also do the 10K at cowtown in Ft. Worth, the weekend before my real birthday! yay!
-Being the best I can be as a wife and a mom to our fur-babies! I'm always trying to improve myself and my home!

Make 2012 the best year yet! I think taking things back to simplicity is one of the most amazing things anyone can do! When you just stop, breathe, take in the moment and believe, the simplicity of life will overwhelm you!

Love,
Lisa

Wedding Cake Woes

   

     



Who knew that the one thing I'd wind up having a mini-breakdown over would be cakes. Really?!?!? Cakes?!?! I don't even like cake that much, so why has the decision of selecting a cake design been SOOOOO difficult?

I believe that there are too many options and unless it is completely plain or completely outlandish, I like them all! A blog with every kind of cake you can imagine: http://design-wedding-cakes-pictures.blogspot.com/2011/10/global-cake-blog.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+DesignWeddingCakesAndToppers+%28Design+Wedding+Cakes++and+Toppers%29

First of all, shapes:

You've got your round cakes, your square cakes, you hexagon cakes, your flower shaped cakes, your heart shaped cakes and/or your mismatched no rhyme or reason shaped cakes that are supposed to be "trendy". Sigh…

 

After shape comes decorating and the list here is endless. I won't waste your time or mine by going through every option, but whew – there are a lot of options. Textured, not textured, plain, ornate, piping, fondant, buttercream, blah blah BLAH! Stop the madness! Ha.

 

After "pinning" a variety of different cakes throughout the past week or so (and the above pictured don't even scratch the surface of the variety I looked at), I flipped back through yesterday and not one said "Pick Me". I enlisted the help of my mom – some things we agreed on, some we did not, but she has given me full creative lead on the cake and while, nice, I also felt it was a burden as I had only narrowed 150 million choices to about 150 thousand! So, after filtering a few more yesterday throughout the day and after flipping through some magazines at the grocery store last night (as if the millions of online options weren't enough to send me into cake insanity), I decided to ask B…

The option hadn't really occurred to me before because we know what the Groom's cake is going to look like and I figured as long as he liked the taste of the Bride's cake, he probably wouldn't give the style of it a passing thought. I was almost even a little surprised when he didn't seem defeated at the suggestion (ahem) of browsing through some cake design photos online last night! It actually really helped and we knocked a few styles out of the running rather quickly and with that we scanned through another few pages of pictures on theknot.com and "ahhhhhh" (heavenly voices singing), there it was… Ok, well maybe it wasn't quite that obvious, but after zooming in on the picture, I decided with a couple of tweeks, I do indeed think it could be all we've ever dreamed of in a cake. (I have a flare for the dramatics seeing as how I don't think I've ever dreamed of cake in my life, with the exception of the past few days, as this task has overwhelmed me…). Ta Daaaaaaaaaa!



Like I said, they'll be some changes, but this is the gist of it. Sans all the flowers! Too much for me!



The only other consuming thought in my mind right now is trying to figure out what on earth we're going to wear for round 1 of our engagement session. We're breaking it up into 2 mini sessions for scheduling purposes, which is a-ok with me (especially since it gives me more time to come up with more outfits/ideas for the next session) and the first is on Sunday morning. Wish us luck – mainly because the kiddos will be in round 1! Eek, I hope they cooperate. Correction: I hope Timmy cooperates…Chloe is perfect! :) P.S. Have I mentioned my awesome photographer? http://ellmanimages.blogspot.com/

I'll hopefully be posting again sooner than later regarding my recent DIY adventure! Pinterest is great fun and it has inspired some original ideas of my own, so I'll post pictures and a tutorial of some sort soon!

T.G.I.F.

Ahh, the good old days of TGIF on ABC. I miss those Friday nights! ;)

Instead, tonight I will be hanging out with little little sis, packing for a quick trip to Houston to visit baby Andy (yes, he's here...more details to follow) and prepping to get my craft on. Pinterest has spiked my desire to get a little more crafty, so I'll be making some gifts for upcoming events/parties and we'll see how it goes! Becca will be helping, so that's a plus since she got WAY more of the artistic gene then I did!

Have a great weekend everyone! I hope to update more soon! :) In the meantime...the wedding page is up and is still very much a work in progress, but hey...it's a start! ;) http://brandonandlisa.wedquarters.com/