2015 Year in Review

I can't believe another year has come and gone. Here's a look back at our 2015!

January

In January we took a few trips to Cedar Rapids and Des Moines. Dayton turned 9 months and started standing up in his crib waiting for us to get him out. Dayton also went to his first Iowa State basketball game in Ames at Hilton Colosseum.

February

In February we celebrate a lot of birthdays - my mom, Brad's mom, Brad's and Beth's. Dayton turned 10 months old and just got cuter every single day. For Valentine's Day we went down to the Quad Cities to go to the Florida Georgia Line concert with friends. Dayton also got fifth's disease, which lasted a week.

March

March was a pretty busy month! Dayton turned 11 months old. He started walking and getting into everything in the house. The Tupperware drawer ended up being a favorite...and still is. We went to South Carolina for spring break. Brad and I took a few days to go to Savannah while Dayton stayed with my parents. We visited the Easter bunny with our friends and Livi. Livi wasn't a fan, but Dayton tried to comfort her. We also went to the Jason Aldean concert at the dome!

April

This month. This month was a big one for us. Our baby turned one.

May

May held the mother's day, which we spent in the Quad Cities having a mother's day bbq. We also went to a friends wedding where Dayton danced the night away, enjoyed Memorial weekend at home with neighbors and friends, and Dayton and I started our first week of summer break!

June

Ah summer. Our favorite time of the year! Dayton and I loved being home together over the summer and we took as many opportunities as we could to make the best of it. Our summer was action packed and memory filled. Our first vacation of the summer was down to South Carolina. We spent a few days in Charleston and the rest in Greenville. My sister drove back with us so that she could spend a week with us here in Iowa. I'm really glad she was able to visit! This is also the month that Dayton got sixth disease for a week. We also had a few play dates, went to the library on Monday's for story time and .spent as much time outside as we could!

July

In July, we celebrated our  nephew, Cal's first birthday! It happens to be on the 4th of July, so we started out the morning at the Davenport parade with mom and dad Bishop. Little man continued to love driving his car, he turned 15 months old, and his love for the pool continued to grow. We also took a Bishop family trip to the Wisconsin Dells. Watching all of the cousins play together was priceless. Dayton and I also took a trip to Connecticut to see my mom's side of the family.

August

The month of August went way too fast. Dayton and I soaked up our last weeks of summer. We went down to the Quad Cities to spend the weekend with Brad's parents. While we were there, we went to the Mississippi River fair. Dayton and I had a play date at the petting zoo, which as you can see he loved! We also went to the Iowa State Fair. It was Dayton and I's first time, so we had tons of fun looking around and seeing the butter cow. The hubs and I both got new bows for hunting. Dayton and made our last day of summer extra special and spent the whole day doing our favorite things from the summer. It was pretty hard to go back to school, but we made it. Oh, and I also turned 30.
The big 3-0. The hubs and I took a weekend away and spent my 30th in Galena. It was exactly what I needed.

September

September flew by. Dayton had his last day at Miss Karyn's daycare and started at his new daycare. The hubs and I went on a marriage adventure retreat. We climbed mountains, canoed, and did a high ropes course. All while learning about God and his plan for our marriage. College football started and we broke out all of our gear. Dayton loved being outside mowing with his dada and he also learned how to feed the pups! Dayton also started Kindermusik and got his first haircut.

October

October was a gorgeous month in Iowa. We started out the month with getting our family photos done by our sister-in-law, Karen of Moxie Design. Love. We also visited a pumpkin patch outside of the Quad Cities with the Bishop family. October also started hunting season. Our little family of three met grandma and grandpa Bishop down at camp to enjoy a weekend of hunting. In mid-October my family came to visit. We had our family photos taken, visited the pumpkin patch in town, went to the John Deere museum and enjoyed every minute of their visit. The end of October is my favorite time of the year -  Halloween. Little man was the cutest little dragon I've ever seen.

November 

November started with throwing my best friends baby shower for her sweet baby girl. Dayton was happy about the nice weather we had in November and invited his friend Livi over for a play date. Little man also learned how to unzip his sleeper and then proceeded to do so every. single. night. Hilarious. I got a new car! The hubs and I decided on a Nissan Pathfinder. I adore it! The hubs went hunting a few more times and snagged his first bow kill. Our friends sweet baby Emma was born on Thanksgiving day and I am loving all of the baby snuggles!!

December

December was filled with lots and lots of Christmas activities. That sums that month up pretty well!

2015 was a fantastic year. I'm sure 2016 will be just as great, if not better! Happy new year y'all!

New Year's Eve '14

New Year's was quiet for us this year and we were pretty happy about that. We decided to go out to one of our favorite restaurants for dinner. Our little family of three enjoyed Tony's pizza this New Year's Eve. (Yes, our phone pictures are terrible.) After dinner, we put Dayton to bed and the hubs and I enjoyed the rest of the night in our sweatpants on the couch with a beer. We like to party.

Some of these pictures would have been so cute if they hadn't been taken on our phones!

NYE 2013

Happy New Year's!! I can't believe it's 2014 already. The end of this year went so quickly - it hardly felt like Christmas and then wham, New Year's was here.

This year we spent New Year's Eve at our friend's Amanda & Shawn's house along with our friends Sean and Ashley. I love these 2 couples and we always have so much fun together! Amanda is from NC, so we hit it off upon meeting. Love that girl. Amanda and Shawn made one of our favorite southern dishes, shrimp and grits. We also had crab dip and guacamole dip for appetizers. Later on, I brought Red Velvet Cake Better Than Sex dessert (thanks Sister Beth for the recipe!). Yum! We had a fabulous time eating, laughing, watching football, and the New Year's Eve countdown. It was a relaxed night, but it was wonderful!

 This 2013 New Year's Eve was our 4th NYE together and our last before Baby arrives!

Here's a look at our past New Year's Eves together...

2010 - dating / 2011 - engaged! / 2012 - 1st married NYE

2013 Recap

This year has flown by! Of course, I feel like I always say that when another year is drawing to a close. Last year, I wrote a post on the Top 12 of 2012. This year, my recap is slightly different. I figured a month-by-month recap of this year would help do it justice. It has been quite the year!

The Best of 2013 ~ Recap

January ~ We started the New Year off with The Band Perry and Rascal Flatts concert in Moline. The hubs and I both love country music, so this was a fun trip to see Mom and Dad as well as enjoy some good music. The pups were still learning to get along at this point. January marked month number 2 of having 2 dogs running around the house! January also held plenty of DIY projects, snow, the kick-off of our "honeymoon clean eating plan," plenty of dog shaming, and date nights.

February ~ Near the beginning of the month, we went to Brad's boss' work party at a UNI basketball game. That was first for both of us and we enjoyed seeing the UNI traditions. This month also gave us some awesome dog shaming as well as our 3rd Annual Super Bowl Party. I/We love to throw a party and being new to town did not stop us this year. February also held the "infamous" Allen Jackson concert where we made some hilarious memories and inside jokes with friends we love dearly. February is the biggest birthday month including: my mom, Brad's mom, Beth, and Brad, cousin Amy, and cousin Justin. Whew! We drove down to Fairfield for the Bishop Family Birthday Weekend at the end of the month and then the hubs and I celebrated his birthday later that week on the 27th! Lucky man, he got a brand spankin' new snow blower and a DeWalt stand for his new miter saw.

March ~ March flew by, but we welcomed it with visiting my friend Krista's new baby girl, Kamryn - precious! We also hosted a St. Patrick's Day party, I flew to Charleston for my bff's Bachelorette weekend, and we celebrated our friend Ryan's birthday at the end of the month with a huge group of friends. Never a dull moment!

April ~  April was definitely one of our favorite months of the year. April started out with a visit from my Mom and Dad. It was so nice to have them here so that 1) I could see them! and 2) so that they could see our house and our new town. April also held our friend Tami's birthday celebration...like I said, never a dull moment with that group! Our favorite part of April? our Honeymoon to HAWAII!! Amazing! We were able to see 3 different islands, pretty much do everything on our bucket list for Hawaii, and attend my bff's wedding in Maui. Best. trip. ever.

May ~ After being in Hawaii, it's a little hard to come back to Iowa and watch it SNOW on May 5th. Yes, snow. It still blows my mind. Have no fear, this was again a busy month! I started out being interviewed and photographed at school by the Courier for the ESL program. A few days later, Beth and Gene came up to CF to run in the Furry 5K with us and all 4 pups! May also held Mother's Day, Prom (from our Dance Classes), my friend Tami and I ran a Mud Run, and at the end of the month we took a trip to Nashville with our friends Kate and Ryan! Now that was an awesome trip! Last but not least, we celebrated Matt's birthday at the end of May. My sister's birthday is also in May, but unfortunately I had to tell her Happy Birthday over the phone. Such is life.

June ~ June slowed down, just a smidge. I worked (for the first time in about 4 years) during the summer at the Grassley Group with my sis-in-law. This actually turned out okay because Beth and I ended up talking (chatting) non-stop just about all day every day from February when I started until my last day in July. Good thing I love my sis-in-law so much! June also brought us some more classic dog shaming - thanks pups, as well as our 3 day trip to Country Fest with our friends Kate & Ryan and Jeff & Tami. It's been decided that this needs to be a yearly trip. So. much. fun!

July ~ We started out July by hosting another party, July 4th! Like I said, I'll use any excuse to host a party! Especially a themed party. Love it. We had a bunch of friends over to grill out, eat goodies, play bags, and have a few cold ones. The next weekend, the hubs and I took a weekend trip down to Des Moines to see the city and so that I could run in the Color Run with some friends! July also held plenty of hot date nights for us, as well as a weekend trip down to the Quad Cities to hang out with the Rents, and then the next weekend to run in the Bix-7 with Beth & Gene! I loved that race and I think I will try to run it next year as well. Baby D will be about 2 1/2 months old, so I should be good to go by then...maybe?!

August ~ August is by far my favorite month of 2013. We started out in Connecticut visiting my mom's side of the family. I love them. August also brought the start of a new school year. I started out my first year in second grade at my new school in CF and I have loved every minute of it. August 18th was our One Year Anniversary and just so happened to be the weekend that we found out that we were pregnant!! See? Best month of all. We found out we were pregnant on a Friday, left for our Anniversary weekend on Saturday, and spent the rest of the month thanking God for His wonderful gift. August is my birthday month, so that's pretty fun too! Although the news of our Baby was the best news we got, it was also really scary there for a while. My Dr. said I would be high risk for a while because I lacked body fat and hormones. So no working out and I had to take extra hormones to keep the pregnancy. Talk about worry, fear, and leaning on God as much as I could each day. 

September ~ September started slowing down a bit, but not before my cousin Jeremiah, his wife Amy, and their 2 year old son Griffin came to visit us! It was so much fun to have them here and we actually spilled the beans about out news while they were here! September also held the Rominger Family reunion, which we ended up not staying at for very long, seeing as how I was so sick I could hardly stand or sit or pretend I felt okay. September also brought Oktoberfest in CF, which we went to and I very carefully hid the fact that I was prego. Whew! September was also the month that we had our 8 week appointment and got to see our Lil' Bit for the first time!! He was so itty bitty back then. Sweet Baby. Things looked good, but we weren't out of the scary part yet. 4 weeks to go.

October ~ October was a good month for several reasons. We took our Baby Announcement photos with Stricker Photography at the beginning of the month and I absolutely love them! We also booked her immediately for her full Newborn photos package. Love! The hubs built me some awesome shoe shelves in our closet, we went to Galena with the Fam to enjoy the Craft Fair there, and we actually went to an Iowa football game (weird, I know!). October was especially fabulous because we had our 12 week appointment, were told that everything looked great, had another ultrasound with sonogram pictures, and were able to announce to our family that weekend!! Finally, our news was out!

November ~ November flew by even though we weren't as busy. This was the month my morning sickness finally went away (at 14 weeks). I was able to fully start enjoying every part of being pregnant! I had Parent/Teacher Conferences, took a photo with all 7 of us pregos at school, and we traveled down to South Carolina to spend Thanksgiving with my Family. The best part? We found out at our 16 week appointment that we were having a Baby BOY!! *squeal*!! We had to keep it a secret that we found out early so that we could surprise my Family in person. Finally! Something that we got to share with my Family in person. Made my heart so happy.

December ~ Last, but not least, this month has been the busiest of all. Brad went hunting and shot 2 deer, we got our Christmas photos from our awesome photographer sister-in-law Karen, we celebrated our 3 year dating and 2 year engagement anniversary on the 10th, hosted a Christmas party for Brad's employees, celebrated our nephew Jackson's One Year Birthday party in the Quad Cities, and hosted our Gender Reveal party (bets party of the year!). The end of the month started out with the Bishop Family Christmas - now that was an exciting and fun day! Later that week, we were off to Fairfield to Grandma and Grandpa's house for Christmas Day. And lastly, the day after Christmas the hubs and I headed to Chicago for our first mini Babymoon! What a month!!

What. A. Year. Although this year, like every year, had it's ups and downs I wouldn't change a second if it. Our year was busy and wonderful, but was by no means perfect. We struggle with the same things that all people struggle with - married life, finances, job stress, stupid drama, etc. Worst of all, we experienced having trouble getting pregnant. At least our struggle only lasted about 6 months, but it was not easy. See...we definitely don't have a perfect life and I would never pretend that we do. However, we could not have made it through those months and our first trimester without the grace and strength of God. We give all the glory to God and thank Him every day for the blessings He has given us throughout the whole year. God is God. and God is always good. Always.

So, I have to thank our Lord and Savior for the year we've had. It's been perfect in my eyes and I have learned to trust God more than ever. I love my husband more and more each day and I can't wait for the busy and exciting events that 2014 promises!!

Happy New Year y'all! and may 2014 be filled with many more beautiful memories!

New Year's Eve! Happy 2013!

New Year's Eve has ALWAYS been a favorite of mine. I can honestly say, that my New year's Eves have been pretty tame as well, but always a good time.

So back in the day, 2007 was the first year I got a New Year's Eve kiss. It had just never worked out before then. I'm ok with that. Now 2008 NYE was a year to remember. I got the cutest black dress from the Guess, cut out back and everything, and me and my 2 best friends went out on the town. Goodness did we have a good time being single, young, and hotchachacha! Good times.My 2009 NYE was pretty normal stuff. Spent the night at my cousin's house for her "family/friends" NYE party. Good dinner, good drinks, good fun.

That brings me to 2010's NYE. Brad and I had been seeing each other for about 3 weeks. We both came back early from family holiday vacations so that we could spend NYE together. That was my favorite "looking back at" NYE. I got all dolled up, he was looking quite handsome, and we had an amazing NYE kiss that lasted a little longer than a minute ;). Now that was a night i smile about still. He was a keeper. Our 2011 NYE, we were engaged and spent the night out in downtown Greenville with some friends.

This year for NYE, we were in Iowa. New place, new friends, new downtown. We had planned to go to Cedar Rapids for NYE and spend it with a few other couples that we are friends with. Well, alas, I got sick. I spent the WHOLE day in bed...asleep. Poor Brad had to watch the Iowa State bowl game at home, alone, and with the TV turned down low. My sweet husband. By 6:00 pm I was feeling a little better, but we weren't going to make it to Cedar Rapids. So, I put my big girl panties on, showered, got dolled up, and we headed out for downtown CF. We were able to get a great table at Tony's. We ordered some light pizza, a few beers, and watched Clemson beat LSU in the Chick-fil-A bowl game. Holla!!

By the time the game was over, I wasn't feeling great and we considered going home on more than one occasion. Seeing as how we were already out, I held it together, we stayed out until 12:01, and actually made some new friends that ended up joining us at our table for the night. We must look really friendly. This has happened to us more than a few times! Overall, even though our plans changed, due to illness, we had a good time and celebrated our first MARRIED New Year's Eve together. Another night to remember.

Side note: My husband is a hottie. Look at the scruff! Rugged.

Happy New Year! Hopefully, this will be the best one yet!