A Look Back On 2015

JANUARY

January was pretty uneventful, other than Alex & I going to the movie theater. Which doesn't seem like a big deal-but we never go to the movie theater. We save our money to go on trips. But we made the except three times this year. This month we saw The Boy Next Door. I recommend it!

I Found The Answer To Your Prayers

This song describes everything perfectly. 

But Mommy already knows that. 

I remember a few years ago her telling me that she was praying for me-and had been-for me to find my "knight in shining armor". 

I finally found him.

Every one that knows Alex & I as a couple knew from very early in our relationship that we were perfect for each other. 

Over four years later, he still treats me like a princess. 

He always takes care of me, helps me put my coat on, opens doors for me, never loses his patience with me-especially when I have panic attacks...he always comes to my rescue to make sure I'm all better, is just as obsessed with Christmas and the other holidays JUST as much as we do!,  we never argue-so I'm sorry to Sierra when she asks for some..gossip? Idk the word for it! haha! & he constantly reminds me how much he loves & cares about me. I could go on & on :P.

He is always amazing to me! Always.

So you know you never have to worry about me because he's always taking care of me.

And he is good, so good
He treats your little girl like a real man should
He is good, so good, he makes promises he keeps
No he's never gonna leave
So don't you worry about me

Love you, Mommy!

No Bake Sweet & Salty Peanut Butter Bars

These are some of the best things ever. I found the recipe a couple of Halloween's ago & it has been a hit every Halloween since. And they're super easy to make!!


Ingredients

10.5 oz bag of Fritos
1 cup light corn syrup
1 cup sugar
1 cup peanut butter
Candy corn

Directions

Butter a 7x11 pan.
Pour bag of fritos in large bowl & crush them.
Over medium heat, heat corn syrup & sugar to boiling, stirring occasionally.
Once boiling, take off heat & mix in peanut butter & stir until smooth.
Pour the mixture into the large bowl with the fritos & mix together.
Put the mixture in the pan & flatten out.
Crush up candy corn & sprinkle on top.

It's deeeelicious. I love anything with peanut butter!

We're Engaged!

Past Halloweens!

It is October! My favorite month out of the year. The cool, crisp air...crunchy, colorful leaves...sweaters & boots, & knowing all of the holidays are coming up! Ever since I was little-I've been obsessed with Halloween. 

Now that I'm too old to go trick-or-treating (big super sad face)...coming up with what to do on Halloween has become a bit of a challenge. I live in a neighborhood that has 0 trick-or-treaters...so handing out candy is a no go. I don't "party"....so that is out too. When I stopped going trick-or-treating...it was in 2010. That year I invited some friends & family (it was only like...5 people-including myself) to a Halloween party in our basement. I made tons of Halloween-themed food, we played games & watched the original Halloween movie. In 2011, I went with my family to a different house to hand out candy. In 2012, I actually went trick-or-treating this year! I forgot about that. Ha. In 2013...all I did was dress up with some family & carve a pumpkin. Last year, I threw a Murder Mystery Party with my family. It was a blast. I cooked a fall-y meal & tons of Halloween treats. 

This year? Well....I've decided to just throw a party for some family at my house. My family is actually hiring a tarot card reader earlier in the day on Halloween. Then they're coming to my house to eat a yummy fall-y meal...with lots of halloween goodies & candy. Play some games, Pumpkin Carving Contest, Costume Contest (for the contests, Facebook friends will be the judges), & then settle down and watch the original Halloween 1 & 2 movies. 

Let me show you some of my past Halloween costumes. I have dressed up every single year of my life. 

My first ever Halloween..I was a clown & just under 8 months old.

 My second Halloween I was an Indian.

Once Upon A Time

He grew up in a huge, beach city in Florida & I grew up in small, southern town in North Carolina. 

He moved up to North Carolina not too long before we met...maybe a year or two? At this point I was still in the same town going to college- Alex had become a lifeguard, EMT, Volunteer Fireman, & a ton of other stuff that made me feel like I haven't been doing enough in my life! 

In the beginning of October 2011, we met online. So talking was the basis of our relationship. We asked each other a ton of questions. I remember thinking...This guy sounds perfect!

This picture is our first picture together. It was taken on our second date at a haunted amusement park  (Scarowinds)

We live 1 + 1/5 hours apart. So our first date was about a week after we began talking. We played three or four bowling games & then we decided to go to Applebees to get dessert so we could eat & talk. Neither one of us was actually hungry, we just wanted to talk more. Our desserts ended up melting all over the plates because we were so busy talking and not eating. We talked for 2-3 hours. I remember thinking that he seemed just as perfect as he did while we were texting each other. He was so sweet & there was never an "awkward silence" between the two of us. 

It was the perfect time of year for us to meet. It was the beginning of the holidays so we did tons of holiday type stuff. Like ice skating, carving pumpkins, haunted amusement park, decorating, etc. It didn't take me long to fall in love with him. I think we had been dating three weeks when I told my mom that I was going to marry this guy.

They say "you know when you know" - which was so true for both of us. 

He's so smart, cute, funny, & is obsessed with holidays & Disney stuff just like me.

He's the perfect gentleman-he takes great care of me, looks after me, protects me, makes me laugh, & always makes sure that I'm happy. Basically, he treats me like a princess.  He couldn't be more perfect if he tried!

Thank goodness back in October 2011-both of us did something that we normally would never do. & that is how we met.

PS....all of these pictures were taken within our first 2 months of dating. 

Orlando, Florida - Disney World + Friend's Wedding

I haven't updated all summer long because it has been busy! One of the reasons...we flew down to Orlando for a friend of mine's Disney wedding! It feels like Alex & I have been traveling all over this year. Plus side is I have mastered dragging my carry-on throughout the airport. Normally it would flip & flop all over the place.

When we landed in Florida, we went to pick up our rental car. It was late & we were tired & still had a 1 1/2 hour drive to the hotel from the airport. We were surprised when the car company upgraded us to a Camaro. *thumbs up*

The next day we had completely free because the wedding wasn't until Friday. So we decided to spend the day at EPCOT. I was able to meet Winnie The Pooh & Tigger! And Belle! I was super excited. Way more excited than a normal 25 year old should be to meet them :P.

It being at the end of June...in Florida...it was extremely HOT. 104 degrees hot. I couldn't take my sunglasses off because the second I did, sweat that was trapped under my sunglasses would pour down my face. Sounds miserable, but we had such a great time! And that night we met up with the bride to be & some of her family to spend Extra Magic Hours in EPCOT. Best thing ever. No lines...no hot sun...Perfect!

Starting the day off at EPCOT we were able to use (for the first time ever) Magic Bands. We felt like the super heroes on Captain Planet-but instead of rings...it was wristbands. :D

It's Tinkerbell!!!!!!

Myrtle Beach, South Carolina

We stayed at the same hotel that we did when we visited back in the fall of 2013 because we love the place so much!

Washington D.C.

We rarely go "out". For the first time in around 2 years we went to the movie theater a couple of months ago...(for Fifty Shades of Grey...duh.) We try to save our money to go on a trip at least twice a year. Once in the Spring & then again in the Fall/Winter. 

This year we decided to go to Washington D.C. in the Spring. But our first day there, you wouldn't have known it was Spring. It was 50 degrees & windy-which just made it that much colder. The next day was better.

We saw everything we wanted to see-with the exception of Ford's Theater-& that is only because we forgot to get tickets until that morning & they were sold out.

We were only there two days & one night. In order to see everything we wanted to see we walked around 23 miles in two days. Needless to say-we are still recovering. 

We were able to visit :: 

The Capital

The White House

WWII Memorial

Reflecting Pool / Lincoln Memorial

Arlington Cemetery

Changing of The Guards at The Tomb of The Unknown Soldier

JFK's Gravesite

National Monument 

Smithsonian Museum of Natural History

Smithsonian Museum of American History (My faaavorite)

Smithsonian Air & Space 

Jefferson Memorial

Roosevelt Memorial Park (which we didn't even know was there...just happened to stumble upon it)

Korean War Memorial

If  you're going to visit there...& you want to see a ton of stuff but you're only there for a short amount of time...Just time it out. Figuring out exactly how long it would take us to walk from place to place really helped us keep track of our time. We turned out ahead of schedule on both days. 

Here are just of the few pictures we took...

Snow Day

I've lived in NC for my whole life. Alex, on the other-hand, only for a few years. So I guess I shouldn't have been surprised when he told me that he had never built a snowman. So obviously, I had to show them how it was done.

We had the best time playing in the snow! We built snowmen, built a snow monster, snowball fights, snow angels, & I tackled Alex to the ground. It was such a perfect morning! I'll just let the pictures speak for themselves.

Snowed In

We were almost halfway through February & had 0 snow. I figured, well, by this point...we aren't going to get any because it will soon be Spring.

I was wrong.

Alex lives 1 & 1/2 hours north of where I live-so they usually get a bit more snow than I do. 

I happened to be here when it decided to snow. 

Unfortunately, firefighters don't get days off because of the weather. So while he was working his 24 hour shift I was just relaxing in bed looking out the window watching the snow fall. Wishing that Alex was here so we could go out in the snow. 

I was desperate for Alex to come back home I sent him this-

Being here without him only led to me eating tons of the chocolates that he got me for Valentine's Day. I mean...they were there...and I'm going to eat them all eventually. So why not eat them all at once?? Dove chocolates are da bessssst. Plus they have little happy/positive sayings underneath each chocolate. 

I also got some snuggles with a dog wearing a sweater. Her name is Zoey.

Since my texts begging Alex to come home didn't work (couldn't people just put off getting sick or setting things on fire for just one day?) I decided to relax.

I snuggled up under the blankets...with food, laptop, Gone Girl book, & The Hunger Games on tv.

It was so pretty falling, but the ice leftover is not so good. Although it is extending my time here by a few days because of the roads being ice covered. 

Valentine's & 50 Shades

Alex is not really a Valentine's Day kind of guy. It's not that he isn't romantic, he really is-he just doesn't think it should all be narrowed to one day out of the year. So this year when we got together on Valentine's Day I wasn't expecting anything. I knew I wanted to go to the movies & we planned to go later in the week to see 50 Shades of Grey.

I get to his house & he calls me in to his room & that is when I see this...

Best boyfriend or what?! I'm so lucky to have him forever. He is unbelievably good to me. He knows me oh so well. Balloons, chocolates, candy, cat things, stuffed animals, cupcakes, 2 cards, & a dozen roses. I love him so much!

& yesterday he took me to see 50 Shades of Grey. I was so happy with how the movie turned out. You always worry when they take a book & make it in to a movie. Of course the movie cannot be as good as the book-the books are hundreds of pages long. You can only cram so much in to two hours. But I think they did such a great job and getting all of the important things of the movie. Alex, of course, had no idea what to expect. He claims he went in with no expectations & the second the movie was over I looked at him and said "Well. What did you think?" He was literally left speechless. He loved the helicopter-Charlie Tango-& was quick to point out to me that the helicopter should've had its name code thingy (that's not the technical term he used) on both sides of it & it didn't. And then he went on about the airplane & gliders. He's obsessed. As for the rest of the movie, he said it was good. He says he can tell there is much more to everything than this first movie has shown. Which is so true. I can't tell him, obviously, everything that happens...but the second one only gets better! People always make a big deal about the book/movie. But they are people that have probably never read/seen all of the book/movie. Because they actually have good plots to them. 

Anyways....I love my may-un. <3

New York City : Part V The Empire State Building, Central Park, Rockefeller Center, & Radio City.

Like I said in the post before...I would never go to the top of The Empire State Building again. Don't get me wrong. It was REALLY cool. There were just lots of lines. Short lines. But still lots of lines throughout the building that you had to go through in order to get to the top. The coat I was wearing is basically a straight jacket. I was pretty much sick & tired of having to take it off (for security checks & bathroom trips). It has zippers, buttons, & a tie.

The whole place was decorated for Christmas inside & I LOVED that. There were lights hanging down-that I wish I took a video of instead of just a picture-because they were twinkling lights.

New York City : Part IV The Intrepid & The Concorde

Our last day in New York was a very jam-packed day. It was the first day the sun was out & shining. Perfect-because we were going to do a lot of outside things that day.

We started out the day with coffee going to see the Intrepid. This was all for Alex. This was the number one thing he wanted to do in NY. Me? I was excited to see the huge buildings, times square, the empire state building...the usual tourist attractions. Alex? He was so excited to see fire trucks in Times Square & to see the intrepid. I had never heard of it.

It was a 20 minute walk, but it was nice to see a different part of the city. It was in an area where there aren't as many tourists...mainly people that actually live there in the tiny apartments. People were walking their tiny doggies that had sweaters on.

Once we made it to the intrepid, the first thing we did was go in the museum-which was actually INSIDE the ship itself. It took me a little while to even figure that out. I was able to figure out more about this whole ship & aircrafts around it...

The Intrepid is a gigantic ship (size of three football fields huge) that was used in World War 2, Cold War, & Vietnam War. Right now it sits on the Hudson River.

I wanted to have our picture taken by the Hudson River because I'm a huge Sleepy Hollow fan & if you know the story then you know they talk about the Hudson a lot :P.

Christmas 2014

Sierra & I came up with our 1st annual family Christmas Eve game of Rudolph Monopoly!

We had such a great time!

Sierra beat me by $100! I was sad :P Hahaha!

Christmas this year was one of the best Christmases I've ever had!

Of course I am like a little kid & up before the sun to open up presents. Unfortunately some of my family doesn't feel quite the same way-well...my sister isn't a morning person. I am.

We took over 200 pictures that day. I'll post just a few & let them do the talking.

New York City : Part III 9/11 Memorial

What turned out to be my favorite part of our whole trip to NYC was our trip to the 9/11 Memorial. I didn't expect it to be so...sad? Touching? I'm not sure of the exact word.

We started out the day with our trip to Good Morning America & then had breakfast at a little random place near Times Square. It was a delicious BLT & hash brown for breakfast... It was raining a decent amount that day so our plans to go to The Empire State Building were going to be postponed till the next day.

New York City : Part II Good Morning America

The next morning we were all up super early because this morning we were going to Good Morning America.

I'm obsessed with GMA & watch it every morning with my cup (maybe 2 or 3) of coffee. So when we first decided that we were going to NYC-visiting GMA was up towards the top of my "things to do" list.

Tony Bennet, Lady Gaga, Maks from DWTS, & Reese Witherspoon were the guests the morning we were there.

I kinda made my way to the front of the barrier. People that worked with GMA would come out & tell us what to do and when to do it. I don't know what I was expecting-but all of the crew were really nice.

Tony Bennet came out at one point to sign autographs. Although he only stuck around long enough for GMA to film him out there signing stuff & then he went back inside. So I only got to see him...But he is kinda old sooo...I understood that he went back inside. It was cold.

We were all expecting Lady Gaga to come out at some point but she never did so that was disappointing.

At one point one of the crew people had some people move to a certain area because they were going to be filming a quick scene outside. So I told Alex to stay where I was to save my spot..while I ran over to where they were calling people. I was standing there waiting and they came out...it was Robin Roberts...& some lady I have no idea who she was..but she was a guest. The camera guy ran all into me...so I was trying to backup-but there was no where for me to go-because there was a decent size crowd.  After the camera guy ran back inside-Robin Roberts stayed outside & was talking to some people. I was quick to try & get her attention (she was only a few feet away) - because I knew she would be going back inside soon & this was my only chance. I hollered out her name a few times -while she was talking to someone else (I was desperate.) & she came over to me. She was SO nice. I was so excited...I gave her a hug and asked for a "selfie"-which is a word that I absolutely hate & NEVER use. But it just spewed out of my mouth. She was more than happy to take a picture with me. I told her how much of an inspiration she was after everything she had been through & that she seemed like such a good person. She held on to my arm the whole time I was talking to her. She said I was so sweet & told me to give her another hug. Then she had to go back inside-but before she did she turned around & told me my hat was "rockin'". :D