2016: My Favorite Year Yet.

It's my 3rd favorite holiday!

First is Christmas, then Thanksgiving, and then New Year's is third! (If you're wondering, Valentine's day is fourth and July 4th is fifth.)

I love New Year's for several reasons: 1) it's just a fun time to stay up late and celebrate with friends, 2) my first date with my now-husband was on NYE, and 3) as I've mentioned before, I love new beginnings! The beginning of a new year is a great way to have a fresh start with new goals, plans and adventures. 2016 was a really big year that will be hard to top, but that certainly isn't going to stop me from trying!

I know I was MIA from the blog for most of 2016, but that's just because I was busy living in the moments instead of writing about them. And as much as I love blogging, it was really a nice break and definitely much needed. There was so much that happened this year, but now that I'm back, I think it's time for a recap of my year, going (somewhat) chronologically.

Our Wedding Day!

I am so excited to share with you the details of our wedding day! We got our pictures back last week and I'm obsessed with them. They turned out so great!

Unfortunately I can't share ALL the pictures with you (there were over 1000!), but I will share some of my favorites!

Anyway, we got married on October 28th, 2016 and it could not have been a more perfect fall day. We were concerned about the weather because we were planning to have part of our reception outside, but God provided the most beautiful 70 degree, sunny weather for our day.

I spent most of the day getting ready with my bridesmaids. We had brunch and then went for mani/pedis. I have absolutely 0 pictures from this time but please be assured we had a blast. We met up later at the chapel after we had our hair and makeup done and finished getting ready there.

You're never fully dressed without lipstick.

Deck the Halls with Lots of Turkey.

It's been awhile since I've been here. A lot has happened since my last post in May. I am now married. I have a new job. I bought a house. The Cowboys are #1 in the NFL. Just about everything has changed, and I'll get to all of that, I promise. But today, I want to talk about a highly controversial issue facing all of us that I think really needs to be addressed.

Christmas before Thanksgiving.

Even the pilgrims had an opinion.

The holidays are upon us (and, ironically, I just legally changed my name yesterday so I guess you could say my "Holiday season" just ended??), and with that comes lots of joy, food, and of course, debating about when it is acceptable to start thinking about Christmas.

He Put A Ring On It.

A lot has happened since my last post! And now that school's out, I intend to post a lot more. :) I had some other posts I was working on BUT I'm putting those on the back burner for now because I have a much more important story to tell first. (Head's up, it's LONG...but good).

3 weeks ago, on Sunday, May 15, 2016, the most handsome man got down on one knee and asked me to be his wife. And I said...well, let me start from the beginning. 

Love.

This morning, as I was finishing up a study of the book of James in the New Testament, I read the famous words that Christians are told over and over again -- "Love your neighbor as yourself."

Then, as I continued my study into 1 Peter, it came up again. "Christians need to...love one another."

According to my Google search, the command "love one another" appears in the Bible (NIV translation) 11 times. "Love each other" appears 4 times, and "love your neighbor" 10 times.

That's a whole lot of loving we're supposed to do.

Today, Christians all over the world are constantly faced with accusations of being hateful, unkind, or worse. If the Bible makes it so clear that we are to love EVERYONE (yes, even your worst enemy; see Matthew 5:44, Luke 6:27, and countless other verses), then why is this such a common belief of the world around us? 

I started thinking about this and wanted to share my thoughts and some encouragement.

A Belated New Year.

I've been wanting to write this post for days but couldn't find the motivation to start. 

Usually when I write my new year's post, I am able to link to all the posts I've written throughout the year and highlight my favorite moments, but I have really dropped the ball on blogging this year. I feel so behind and just the thought of writing this post was discouraging to me.

It's not that nothing has happened this year. SO MUCH HAS HAPPENED THIS YEAR. I guess I just got so caught up living my life I forgot to write about it. That's not really a bad thing, but I really do enjoy blogging. I just have a habit of feeling bad or like I've let people (mostly myself) down when something big happens and I don't write about it. But, I've been so bored all day and have officially run out of excuses not to do this, so I'm biting the bullet and FINALLY doing my 2015 recap (which is a good post to start back up with anyway, since I missed posting the majority of 2015).

I know it's a little late, but better late than never, right?

I'll start with my top 5 moments from 2015!