The Best of 2009!

January

Mary Alice took Ryan, Allison, Baxter and I to Eurkea Springs for our first annual cabin trip!

We endured the Ice Storm of 2009 for several days!

February

We started having wedding showers.

March

We went on our annual family trip with my Dad and Tracey to Colorado.

April

We bought our first house!

May

I graduated from the University of Arkansas with a Master in Art of Teaching

On May 23 we got married!

June

Celebrated that I got a job! I also cut my hair off!

Had our 8th family reunion at the lake

July

Made the adventure to the Rodeo of the Ozarks

Went to Monett for the 4th of July!

August

I started my first real job as a teacher.

I traveled to Texas for Clayton's graduation from college and to see family.

September

I started coaching cheerleading for girls k-3. We will be going to a competition in February.




October

We had our first family tailgate at our house.

We went camping in the freezing cold with my Dad and Tracey.

November

In November, there were three football games here in Fayetteville. Therefore we spent most of the month with family.

December

Had our 3rd annual date night to Hugo's and to look at the Christmas Lights on the square

Allison and Baxter got married on December 19

Congrats to Tim and Leigh

Last Saturday our friends Tim and Leigh got engaged! We couldn't be more excited for them! Monday night we went to Mellow Mushroom to celebrate! We are so excited for October 9, 2010!!!

The beautiful ring! Tim you did so good!

Leigh and Me

The four of us after dinner!

Congrats! We love you all!

Allison and Baxter's Wedding

Last Saturday Allison who is, my best friend, Ryan's sister, and my sister-in-law, got married to Baxter! We couldn't have been more excited for the two of them! After five years of dating they finally tied the knot! They had a beautiful, whimsical wedding on December 19! I didn't get to many pictures but I'm sure she will have a lot very soon she will put on her blog! Here is some of the pictures from that day.

The most beautiful bride!
The bride and me!
Lindsey, Joy, and Heather
Jill and Andrea


The table decorations for awesome! They were great!

Allison gave all the bridesmaid necklaces, house shoes, and comfy pants. We all wore our house shoes to the receptions! I think Allison wore her white ones too! :)

A and B leaving the receptions! What a great wedding!

27 Christmas Questions

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? Wrapping paper,but this year I mostly went with bags.

2. Real or artificial tree? Artificial.

3. When do you put up the tree? Way to early. Ummm around the 10th of November. BUT..we take it down before Christmas since we are in Little Rock/Benton and I don't wanna do it when I get home.

4. When do you take the tree down? So, yes it is true I took my tree down on the 21st.

5. Do you like egg nog? No

6. Favorite gift as a child? I don't remember

7. Do you have a nativity scene? No

8. Hardest person to buy for? My dad

9. Easiest person to buy for? My mom

10. Worst Christmas gift ever received? Ummm.. no idea

11. Mail or e-mail Christmas cards? Mail.

12. Favorite Christmas movie? The Santa Claus

13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? Way to early...July

14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? Maybe..:)

15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? Breakfast Casserole

16. Clear lights or colored? I like either. We have clear because I don't think Ryan would like the colored ones.

17. Favorite Christmas song? Christmas Shoes

18. Travel or stay at home for Christmas? Travel to Little Rock and Benton

19. Can you name Santa’s reindeer? Yes I can!

20. Open presents Christmas Eve or Christmas morning? We start on the night of the 23rd and go until we are done typically the night of the 25th. This year we will end on the night of the 26th.

21. Most annoying thing about this time of year? People steal for Christmas presents

22. Do you have an angel on top or a star? Neither.

23. Ugliest Christmas decoration ever invented? The inflatable lawn decorations

24. Which looks best; theme trees or homey trees? I like either but, mine is homey.

25. Gingerbread or sugar cookies? Sugar cookies!

26. Favorite kind of Christmas cookie? Choc. Chip

27. Do you like fruitcake? Nope

On the road again

I'm sad to report that Ryan and I will be spending our first Thanksgiving as man and wife apart. I drove down to Little Rock yesterday so that my mom, gran, and I could drive to Texas this morning. We left at 745 to head south on our six hour journey and well we still are not there yet and it's 330. Between the three of us it has been a slow journey. We have been to walmart, sonic, pick up gran, Bryce's cafeteria, the pop pop shop to get popcorn , sonic again, to get gas, and a bathroom stop. So needless to say we are still here in the car. I have laughed a lot. Every question I ask my mom my gran answers with her opinion. Then she is the worse backseat driver ever and gets mad when we get lost or there is construction. Anyways the plan for when we finally get there is to unload, rest, eat, and then have game night.

Ryan had to work have a day today, but is now headed to Benton to spend time with his family. Maybe, he will have some stories by the end of the week.

I hope everyone has a blessed and great Thanksgiving.


****I typed this on my phone in the car so I'm sorry for any mistakes. ***

November

Well, well, well, I've been a huge blog slacker. I thought I would get caught up since I'm sitting at Everett Maxey waiting to get Ryan's oil changed and I'm the only person under 50 or the only woman here. Please forgive my mistakes during this post, I'm typing on my phone.

Over the last few weeks we have wrapped up home razorback football games, our Sunday night bible study, We have been ready for christmas for over two weeks now and well I'm offically on thanksgiving break. I have many plans for myself over this break. We have cleaned out our garage and we orangized it , I have given our bathroom a good deep cleaning, painted our ceiling from where we had a leak from the ice storm in august, I need to finish my Christmas shopping, finish a painting for Ali and B, make sure I have everything ready for Ali's bacherlotte party , get my bridesmaid dress fitted, travel to Texas to see family , and much more.

When I get back home I'll post some pictures of the last several weeks of our lives, but other than that there isn't much to tell.

Survey

A few weeks ago Allison did this little survey so I thought I would join in and do it.

What are your middle names?

Sarah Marie and Ryan Christopher

How long have you been together?
Just over 2 and half years

How long did you know each other before you started dating?

3 and half years

Who asked whom out?
Ryan asked Sarah out

How old are each of you?
Sarah - 23
Ryan - 26

Whose siblings do/did you see the most?
Ryan and I both have a sister. We see Ryan’s sister, Allison the most.

Do you have any children together?

No, not yet!

What about pets?

We have lab named Lucy!

Did you go to the same school?

Yes, we went to the University of Arkansas! (It seems so weird to say that I went to school. I can’t believe that I have a real job.)

Who is more sensitive?

Definitely Sarah

Where do you eat out most as a couple?

We don’t have a regular place.

Where is the furthest you two have traveled together as a couple?

On our honeymoon we went to St. Lucia.

Who has the worst temper?

Sarah

Who does the cooking?

Sarah but, Ryan tries sometimes.

Who is more social?

We are about the same.

Who is the neat-freak?

Sarah

Who is more stubborn?

Sarah ( I think this survey is picking on me)

Who hogs the bed?

Sarah

Who wakes up earlier?

Sarah, I have to be at work at 7:50 and Ryan doesn’t have to be at work until 9. Unfair, I think so!

Where was your first date?

It was a weekend of first dates. Ryan came over to my apartment and I cooked dinner and we watched a movie. The next night we went to Bordino’s and rented another movie to watch.

Who has the bigger family?

Sarah

Do you get flowers often?

No, but I won’t complain.

How do you spend the holidays?
We have been switch off - Thanksgiving here, Christmas there and rotating years.

Who is more jealous?
We don't have anything to be jealous of.

How long did it take to get serious?

Just under 2 months. We got engaged after dating for 17 months and we married in our 25^th month of dating.

Who eats more?

Ryan

Who does/did the laundry?

So Ryan doesn’t get mad, I will say we share the responsibility.

Who’s better with the computer?

Ryan

Who drives when you are together?
We switch, but he drives most.

Hope you enjoyed the survey. Let me know if you do it as well.

Always Busy

On Monday, I decided I would get all my chores knocked out. So, I went to Wal-Mart at 4 along with everyone else in Fayetteville. I didn't get out of there until 5:30 and it was raining! Nothing worse! Then I got home and I cooked dinner and Tim and Leigh came over for dinner. We are still doing our weekly dinners! They are one of my favorite times of the week. Tuesday nights plans were to eat the taco soup that Mrs. Debbie sent us and clean our garage. Cleaning the garage took WAY longer than I thought. But, all said and done it looks great now. Thanks Ryan for cleaning it all!

The rest of the week is busy, busy, busy!

Wednesday -Bible study with our new small group. I love this night of the week too! I have enjoyed getting to hang out with other couples and getting close to God.
Thursday - Cheerleading. I love cheerleading. Those girls are so fun and I love teaching them how to be close to God.
Friday- Parent/Teacher Conferences, Ryan's parents will be here, and Ryan and I are supposed to have a date night.
Saturday- Football game and Papa and Tracey are coming to town.
Sunday- Church, clean house, and starting a new small group with newly weds and nearly weds. I will let you know how it goes!

Weekend Wrap Up

Over the weekend Ryan and I headed to Little Rock and Benton for 2 of Allison's showers and the Cinderella Ball. The showers were both holiday themed so it was fun to get into the holiday spirit.



I don't have any pictures from the second shower.

After the shower on Saturday I watched the game with Aunt Karen, Uncle Ty, my papa and Tracey. Since it wasn't a very exciting game I decided to take a nap. Then when I woke up Ryan was back form Benton and we got ready for the Cinderella Ball. It was fun, I like to go to charity events. My favorite is in February, the Heart Ball.

Here is Ryan and I before we left. My papa has the pictures from when we were at the ball.
Hope everyone had a great weekend!

Sunday, we slept in and then Tracey made us omelets. Then we hung out and headed back to Benton for the next shower. After the shower Ryan and I headed back to Fayetteville.

Camping in the COLD weather!

For Father's Day Ryan and I gave my dad a weekend camping. We thought we would go in August but, my father thought October would be better. It was a little chilly! After changing where we were going to camp several time between July and October we settled on Steel Creek on the Buffalo. Ryan and I headed out on Friday afternoon with directions that said an hour and a half. An hour and a half into it we figured out we missed our turn and we went going to Harrison and around which was going to take longer. We thought we found some short cuts and went back to reading our directions. They were correct but not from where we were. Needless to say Ryan and I were lost for about an hour with no cell service and it was dark and there are no sign. We finally found it! Needless to say we didn't know how pretty it was until the next morning when we got up. Thankfully, we had sent our tent with my parents earlier so they could have it pitched when we got there.

There was a ton of people there camping.
Our camp site.

Inside the mess hall. There were a lot of dogs there and Breck wanted to go out and play.
Dad and Tracey in the mess hall while it was raining and we were waiting to go hike.
Ryan and I waiting.
The view from the campsite.
Ryan starting our 6 mile hike.
When we were still on our first part of the hike. I still had a smile on my face.

There were a ton of little waterfalls
My Papa and me
a family picture
The beautiful view from the first look out.
At night we hung in the "Mess Hall" and played cards and told ghost stories. We ate very well the entire time with biscuits and gravy, eggs, sausage, hot dogs, sandwiches, lots of snacks, and of course candy! The next day we went down this 6 mile dirt road in the middle of no where to go hike to Hawksbill Crag. It was awesome and worth it!
Hawksbill Crag and the wonderful fall colors.
Ryan and I standing on Hawksbill Crag.