2008: Year in Review

JANUARY

We brought in the new year as a newly married couple.

I was sick most of the month with mono and my stomach. Raymond was so good to me the whole time!

FEBRUARY
We celebrated Raymond's and my dad's birthday at Pop's.

MARCH
Since I couldn't go anywhere for Spring Break, Raymond took me to a Bed & Breakfast.

We also had a blast celebrating Easter.

APRIL

This was the month of weddings! Jamie came home for Danielle's wedding. My college friend Robin was married as well.

MAY
Ray's birthday gift was to the Kenny Chesney concert.

Ray's youngest sister, Catherine, graduated from high school.I reeled in my first fish while fishing with the Harris family at Canton Lake. (That's as close as I got to the fish.)
We celebrated a year since our engagement downtown at The Melting Pot.

We celebrated Memorial Day by breaking in our ice cream maker. This became common all throughout the summer.
JUNE

I went to see Jamie in Phoenix.

We fixed up our flower bed (this was right after it was planted...it grew to be much more beautiful).
And I painted the dining room. My perfectionism came out with the small brush.

JULY

We met our nephew, Harrison, for the 1st time.

Jamie came home again!

AUGUST

We got our first puppy...precious Harley!

Thanks to Bridget's parents, we went to an OU game.
SEPTEMBER

For Labor Day we took Harley to Moore to meet her dog cousins.

OCTOBER
This month was pretty uneventful except for being consumed with Harley. We loved to take her to the lake.

NOVEMBER
Our sweet dog passed away.We stayed in a cute Bed & Breakfast in Eureka Springs for our 1st anniversary.

Jamie came home again for yet another wedding!

Happy Thanksgiving!

DECEMBER

Day 11- Go Pokes!!

Today was all things OSU! We drove to Stillwater to eat lunch at Eskimo Joe's. Yummy cheese fries and a free cup. You can't get much better than that! (Although Raymond taking the day off to go with us made the day pretty great!)

My mom said he couldn't wear anything OU today, so I was impressed he dressed in orange!

We then drove all around the campus as my parents shared where they lived, had classes, etc. It was fun to hear and made me think about taking my kids to OBU someday.

I had 5 coupons for a free Jr. Frosty from Wendy's that expired tomorrow. We couldn't pass up something free, so we all walked into Wendy's to get our free ice cream...except my mom. She was too embarrassed if we weren't going to buy anything.

Then everyone came over to our house to watch OSU play in their bowl game. Good thing we had cable and of course yummy food.

Jamie and I bought the Eskimo Joe bowl shirt half-price today so we had to take a picture.

Too bad they lost, but they still had a great season and I'm still a big fan!

Day 10

Since Jamie was home we had my cousin, her little boy and my aunt over for lunch. Thomas thought it would be fun to bury Jamie with the couch pillows, and Jamie thought it would be fun to come out of them! It was pretty cute.

That night we got tickets to the Thunder game. Oddly enough you aren't able to buy more than 4 tickets at a time, so my parents had to sit in another section at first. At half-time they were able to come sit by us.

It was a pretty good game and of course we had a good time. Jamie always keeps us entertained! :)

Day 9

For Christmas we got tickets to see the Rockettes. My mom says that everyone needs to see the Rockettes at least once.

What a fun show! It was so clever and creative. We loved every minute of it.

Then we met my family and aunt and uncle for our annual trip downtown. Each time we always eat at Toby Kieth's.

We then ventured to Bass Pro Shop. We always have fun in this store.

We then decided to go to McDonald's to get some ice cream. It worked out that they had couches where we could sit. Tomorrow is my aunts birthday so we sang to her.

Then we went to the Myriad Gardens and Crystal Bridge. During the month of December it is free on Sunday nights. Lots of people took advantage of this with us! But we still enjoyed seeing all the lights! I hadn't been since my aunt and uncle were married there my senior year in high school. We had fun remembering as we walked through despite the crowd!

I love hanging out with my family!

Day 8

Raymond and I went over to Danielle and Craig's to eat pizza and play games. They introduced us to Yahtzee and really like it! It was a great relaxing time with much laughing. I can't wait to do it again!

Day 7

Thank goodness my parents let me use their camera! Friday was such a fun and busy day!

I woke up early and met my parents to go to Target. We always go after Christmas to stock up on the half-off deals.

We celebrated Christmas with my family today. We squeezed in our Christmas Eve and Christmas Day traditions into one day. One tradition is to have green waffles on Christmas morning. Day-after-Christmas morning works just as well!

My mom's waffles are perfectly homemade and my favorite!

Jamie wouldn't let me get a picture of her. So we joked about her being like Mr. Wilson from Home Improvement.

We then played a new game Jamie brought called Bananagrams. It is like a fast-paced Scrabble. We played two games. Jamie won them both...I know shocking!

She took this picture to show that she won 2 games.

Then I had to go back to my house to let the Cox guy in. We FINALLY got cable!

I was tired of hearing about not being able to see certain football games. The last thing I heard was how we would only get to see 2 bowl games on regular TV, and how he would have to go watch them somewhere. So now we are paying to spend more time together. :) It was a surprise for Raymond, so it was so fun when we came home for him to see it! You all know that I'm super excited about it, and it has been a major distraction already.

I then headed back to my parent's house. Another tradition is to decorate sugar cookies. Jamie and I have always taken a different approach to this.

The finished product!

Another tradition is to eat appetizers for Christmas Eve dinner. Our yummy spread! Of course she had to pop in the picture! :)

I love our stockings and I love that my mom made one for Raymond that matches ours. The detail is so neat!

There were some fun surprises! The face after this shot was priceless!

It was a great Christmas with my family. We still have some fun days planned!