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

I Scream, You Scream, We all Scream for Ice Cream!

Or yogurt in my case. Today was national ice cream day. Who knew?! I'm not a major sweet lover, but boy oh boy do I love me some ice cream, or frozen yogurt. You know those ideas you come across where you think "Why didn't I have that idea?!?" I think that every time I go into a do-it-yourself frozen yogurt shop. The ones where you pick your flavor and your own toppings and they charge you by weight! Oh man, I'd be rich right now! In honor of national ice cream day, we decided to splurge a little and go for some froyo at one of our favorite's: Tutti Frutti. It comes second to Yogurt Mountain in Little Rock! So delicious! I top mine like a 5 year old with sprinkles, gummy bears and nerds. B usually just puts some sort of chocolatey candy topping in his. Ew. ;) He already mixed his up before the picture, but he had reese's pieces today. It was the perfect ending to a pretty great day and weekend!

I can't believe I'm writing 2 posts in 1 day, but I have a feeling it may turn into a pretty busy week and so I figured I'd finish getting everything out that I didn't have time to write this morning. 

First order of business: Harry Potter! We said a final and bittersweet farewell! :( I cried...like 3 times. There wasn't much emphasis on the sadder parts of the story, but I just knew that each scene was a step closer to the end. I really enjoyed it though and thought it was very well done. We decided to go see it in IMAX 3-D. Welllllll...apparently people were still waiting in line 2 hours early even on this Sunday afternoon so we were stuck in the front row. By the end I had a head, neck and back ache. And even with the constant chatter of our theater neighbors, it still managed to be fun. *On Soap Box* Can I just say that I have no tolerance for rude movie-goers?!? Oh man, not much irks me more then chatters, bag rustlers and phone users during a movie. *Off Soap Box*

As promised...some pictures from last night's girls night! We really did have a lot of fun watching and even participating a bit. Karaoke is never a dull time! Neither is any time spent with Shannon, Alina and Kelsey. Heather probably thinks my friends are nuts, but they kinda are! It's why we get along so famously! :) 

Heather and Me!

Was playing with my photo editor...

No telling...

Shannon and Me

Alina, Heather and Me

We need to get out more often! ;)

Wedding Planning Update: Mom and I are going to the Dallas Bridal Fair the last weekend in July. I'm pretty excited about getting some ideas and checking out some vendors. We have a deposit on our venue, but haven't signed the contract yet. Dare we peek at some other venues while we're there? Hmmm...maybe. ;) I love our place for the reception, but it really wasn't meant for ceremonies. We definitely want a one-stop shop though with all of the out-of-towners, so we'll just have to see what happens. Colors are picked, centerpieces picked and I got my shoes for the big day. OMG - I am in love with them. :) I'll be telling all the details about the bridal party soon too, so stay tuned! 

That's all for now! Sweet dreams and I hope you all have a fantastic week! :) 

Life is Just a Bowl of Cherries

Another week has come and gone....time seems to be flying by lately and it seems like there is ALWAYS so much to do!

I'm not going to lie; it's been a bit of a stressful week! Brandon and I have been talking about making a move to Northwest Arkansas. Without getting into all the details of it, we've talked quite a bit about it and it seems as if it could be a good move for us. There are tons of jobs in the area, but turns out,  out-of-state hiring isn't ideal for most employers. It's been an interesting experience so far, but we're just scratching the surface of it. Still doing some research, checking out places we could live, etc, so we'll see what happens. Between that, work, pups, trying to maintain a social life, planning a baby shower and planning a wedding, I'm not too proud to say it's kind of kicking my butt right now. But, it's a part of life and I'm excited to see where it all leads.

Yes, I did mention a baby shower in the mix. My best friend Mary has a bun in the oven! Come October I'll be self-acclaimed, honorary Aunt Lisa to Andrew Keith Stagner, aka Andy! I hate living so far from her for this whole experience and I can't wait to see her at the shower in August! My sister and I made the invitations and they look fantastic! I'll have to post pictures of them after the event...Mary doesn't know where the shower is yet, so can't spoil the surprise! ;) It's been a nice distraction from wedding planning though and I'm really excited to see it all come together! Don't get any ideas, but baby stuff is so much fun to look at!

It's been a week of friends and family too. On Tuesday night I got to go to dinner with my friend Amanda and her son Landon (my Godson). It's incredible how fast he is growing up and he somehow manages to get cuter and cuter every time! I can't believe he'll be 1 soon! It was great catching up and I got to see Amanda's new cassia. OMG! Hello gorgeous house!!

My cousin is in town this weekend. We hung out with my mom and sisters on Friday night and then stayed up until 4am catching up. Just like when we were kids. Saturday we took our "neighborhood grandma" and met up with my mom's friend and her mother and went to play bingo! My mom invited us to go, so we figured, why not? Out of the 6 of us, we didn't win a penny! Got close a bunch, but no luck. It was a lot of fun though! Some of those people mean serious business! I had no idea how advanced bingo has become - they now have electronic computer tabs that more or less play for you. You only have to hit one button every time a number is called....I figure sooner or later they'll have an app you can download at the bingo hall and you can just play on your phone!

Mom and Adida

Beth and her mom,  Florence

These people seriously had like 12 machines between the 4 of them, but hey, they won 3 or 4 times!

What can I say? I'm easily impressed...

After our adventures in bingo, we went out for dinner and some karaoke with the gals. Pictures will come soon!

On a random side note, my new favorite app is Instagram! Follow me: larosso06! I'm pretty sure everyone knows about it by now, but if you don't get it! A picture I took today with my phone inspired the title of today's post! :)

Life is just a bowl of cherries! :)

Our watch dog!

This doesn't happen often...had to snap a pick!

Time to get this day going! Can't wait to see Harry Potter this afternoon...the end is going to be so bittersweet!!!! (Go ahead with the nerd jokes...I can handle it! ;) )

shopping, golfing and a little red, white and blue

First and foremost...thank you to all the men and women serving in our military. Love or hate war and the reasons/politics involved, they are all dedicated to freedom and it's a dedication that I admire!

I was also thankful for the 3-day weekend. It's always nice to have a little breather. It was a bit of a busier weekend then I had anticipated, but it was good none-the-less.

How do I know I'm getting older? I was tickled silly to babysit my Godson. No movies, dancing, socializing for me this Friday night. Just some cooing and baby talking to my sweet little Landon. He's 7 months now and it's crazy how fast they grow up. Amanda and I get together at least once a month so that I can see him and so that her and I can catch up, but it's just not enough. Their anniversary was last week so I insisted upon letting them have a date night and on her letting B and me babysit! Now - this was the most interesting part, bring Brandon along. He's always resisted any opportunity for baby holding when it comes to hanging out with my friends and the babies they all keep having, so I was very interested to see how he would be once it was just us and the baby. Well...a picture is worth a thousand words they say, so without further ado...

Boys...

In da faaaaaace.

Needless to say - they bonded!

I was really happy to see how great Brandon was with Landon. It was pretty cute. It's hard not to have fun with Landon though...I mean...he's seriously the happiest baby I've ever met. He's gonna be a heartbreaker too. Mommas of baby girls ages 0-1yr beware...he'll get 'em with these eyes...

I got to hang out with him some too though! :) 

Successful Friday night if I do say so myself!

Saturday, I left B to fend for himself and I headed to A-town to do a little shopping with momma and spend time with the fam. Dad and I went to see Fast Five. We've seen every Fast and Furious movie together (just like we see every Transformers and Batman movies together too) and as Becca put it - I'm a great son! ha. Sunday was a pretty relaxing day. We took Chloe to the dog park, relaxed around the house some and then went to Top Golf with friends. I'll have those pics later. Today we went back to A-town to hang out with the fam again - both of us this time and we had a delish dinner complete with red, white and blue cake, thanks to Becca. It was yum!

So now another week lays before us. Fortunately only 4 days of it. Lots to get done in this next week though! Need to start prepping for my nursing entrance exam, get my class schedule for next semester lined up, get some shopping and cleaning done and hopefully squeeze in some social time. It always feels as if there's something to do, but hey...better then always being bored. And we can sleep when we're dead. :)