Birthday wishes

TGIF & Happy Birthday to MY Mom! This weekend she's coming to visit & we will be celebrating.. I can't wait. She's made our lives nothing but better by being so involved & willing to be in them.

Good Lord, look at those cheeks

Beach bums

Always watching over us :)

Hope you have a great weekend!!!



Thoughtless Thursday

Here are a few quick pictures for "Thoughtless Thursday." We were needing a bulletin board something in our office (because for some reason I love hanging onto cards we recieve FOR-EV-ER) & this linen PB board caught my eye. I found it in the PB magazine, but you can also see it here.

 PB Version: $149 + shipping

.. why oh why are they so crazy expensive sometimes?!

One day I was tricked into going to at Lowe's, and found a ginormous styrofoam board very close to the size bulletin board I was looking for. We took it home and trimmed it to size. I somehow have tons of burlap laying around, so I used it instead of linen like the one above. I cut the burlap a little bigger than the styrofoam, & then staple gunned it.

And then here is the final product.. Close enough for me!

PB board: $149

My board: $10

Total Savings: $139!! Score.

Backstreet's back.. ALRIGHT!!

... and I'm back. When our lives are so uneventful like they have been here lately, I like to wait it out until I can just jam a bunch of info into one post. Quite a bit has happened around here since November. Chris decided for his birthday this year, he wanted to have a "dress up party." If you didn't already know, you could scroll through this blog & know that we LOVE any excuse to dress up (see themed super-hero Halloween party below). Chris is serious about this stuff. He wanted me to send invites with each persons costume assignment. So, in an attempt to not be the party nazi, I sent a suggestion card with some ideas just to make sure everyone was on the same page. Heaven forbid having multiple Christmas Characters at the same party. Here are a few pictures of his bday festivities:

In addition to dressing up, this man is crazy for some snickerdoodles. I found a wonderful recipe for snickerdoodle cupcakes with cream cheese icing. YUM!

Our parents decided to come as the Claus'

The girls group

And the guys..

In attendance, we had a (pregnant) Mary & Joseph, Elfs on a Shelf, a sheep & her shepherd, some Buddy the Elfs, some Cousin Eddys (from Christmas Vacation), abominable snowman, and a couple of Whos from Whoville... the list could go on. You get the idea. We had a blast. And this may just have to be an annual thing. People are so creative!

Chris & I finished up our fall classes, and left with my family for a ski trip the very next day. We went to Crested Butte for Christmas with the Harpers. This trip could be a post in itself, but I'll spare you the details until I get the videos uploaded. Never in my life have I seen so much snow. The snow totals were near 5 feet for the time we were there.

The whole fam-a-lam

For Christmas with my in-laws this year, we tried out something we like to call "The 7 days of Waugh." Each couple was responsible for 2 nights of entertainment & then on one of the nights we would pretend like it was Christmas eve, open gifts.. the whole shabang. This week has been in the works since mid-summer with funny emails being exchanged between family members. We didn't quite make it to seven pre-planned evenings together, but we got pretty close. Activities included a girls spa day, dinner & a movie, bowling, lots of football watching, etc.

Chris with our nephews, Ben & Charlie

Somehow I didn't manage to get a picture of our adorable niece, Carter, so I'm stealing this one from her mom's blog. The cutest little Christmas Diva:

If it wasn't so difficult to upload pictures on Blogger, I would go on. I promise promise I will write again soon, for those of you who like to keep up with this stuff. :)

Surprise Anniversary Trip

Well, it was kind of a surprise. I knew we were going somewhere, just didn't know where. He's quite the secret keeper and I promised not to snoop. All I knew is that wherever we were going was much colder than here. It wasn't until I recieved my boarding pass that I learned... we were going to Vail, by way of Denver. Denver was BEEE-A-UTIFUL this time of year. Here are a few of the highlights..

We stayed at the cutest place called the Sonnenalp. Here is a picture:

EVERYTHING was so cozy! The hotel, the town, etc.

This was my favorite day. He promised that we would have no agenda & just "chill." And chill we did. Our schedules have been crazy since he's working towards his MBA & I'm in my pre-req classes right now. This weekend was just what we needed as far as quality time and R&R.

Here we are on our actual anniversary night after dinner..

This is what we drove home in. We both would have been perfectly fine being snowed in and staying a few more days if we absolutely HAD to. :)

And that's it for now!

Happiest Year of My Life

One year and two days ago...

I married this man.

I knew early on that he was a keeper. And vice versa.

Our relationship was easy, and fun.

We were equally yoked.

After a year plus some, we tied the knot.

And today, one year and two days later he has me rapped around his little finger.

And he gets me.

He's so good with me.

He has learned to live with my blonde moments and has somehow learned to find humor in them.

He is my favorite person.

To say he is a hard worker is a major understatement.

He takes his job as our protector, preacher and provider very seriously.

I want nothing more than to be with him endlessly.

He let's me dream and ramble, but also keeps me grounded.

I love his unselfishness..

His willingness to go above and beyond to help anyone.

I love his discipline.

He challenges me to be better than what I am.

I love the way he perceives me.

He valued me first as his friend, and then as his bride.

I love the way he pushes me closer to Christ.

He knows that he will never be enough to fulfill me, but trusts that God will.

I love his smile.

Better yet, I love making him smile.

He is awesome.

And he is mine.

Thank you, God!

I am smitten.

BARGAIN!!!

Happy Monday, everyone! I can't wait to blab about our anniversary weekend, but until I get pictures uploaded.. this is all you get.

For all of you bloggers, go here http://bit.ly/sfly2010 and get 50 FREE Christmas cards! I used shutterfly last year for our cards and just loved them. Woohoo! Just in time too... My sister @ http://amycophotography.blogspot.com/ is taking our Christmas card pictures this weekend. I haven't quite decided on which card we'll choose, but here are a few of my favorites:

You're welcome. :)

More to come soon.

October in Review

Happy November! Here is a brief recap of our October:

I mentioned last post that I resigned from my job. My co-workers organized an "Emancipation Party" with an evite and all! They took me to one of my favorite restaurants, In the Raw.

My parents have season tickets to the OSU football games and between working UCO games, Chris' landscaping schedule, etc. we hadn't been to a single game all season. For the OSU Homecoming game, my sister got an all access pass to take pictures of the game from the sidelines! Huge honor. How cute is this:

That was some serious equipment she was lugging around all day.

Here is a family picture of us tailgating.. (& freezing our patooties off)

Chris is STILL not wearing orange to games. He is making baby steps though. When OSU scored, I caught him participating in the "waving wheat" celebration. That's more of a giant leap than a baby step for an OU fan, I guess.

In the world of baby news... I'm not sure if' I've mentioned this or not, but BOTH of my sisters-in-law are pregnant. Ashlee is due in February with a little GIRL. Maggie is due in May. Last week she called with a fun little "project" for Ashlee and I to work on. Unannounced to everyone, they found out the sex of the little baby Belden. She asked us to get the appropriate color balloons to give to her parents (my in-laws) to tell them the exciting news. this is how it went...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TlhyFVbc8kQ

Such a fun thing to get to share with the family. We're so excited to meet this little guy in May. This was the card attached to the balloons..

Every Halloween, we go over to Scott & Ashlee's to hand out candy and let the guys watch football. This year was Superhero themed.

Batgirl, Robin & a pregnant Wonder Woman

My sister (aka Cat Woman)

The cutest "Night hawk" I've ever seen. HA.

And last but not least... this weekend is our 1 year anniversary!!! I CANNOT believe it has already been one year. This will have to be a post in itself, because my sweet husband has planned a secret/surprise "getaway" for the weekend. He's had it planned for quite some time now and I am always impressed with how well he is able to keep secrets. Everyone that we know, knows the plan and I have not heard one peep. Impressive. Chris is so sweet and thoughtful and I can't wait to see what he has up his sleeve. :) He did tell me earlier this week that we are flying out of OKC really really early Friday (tomorrow) morning. Really really early as in 4:45 in the morning! I also know that wherever we are going is really cold, so I am supposed to pack accordingly. More to come on this "Destination Unknown" later. :)

Have a great weekend! I know I will. :)

Gena