Birthday Fun & Quality Time

January is always such a fun birthday month for us - my mom, dad and I all have January birthdays! It was fun to spend extra time together this month because of it. 

Back in November, I took a road trip to Tulsa with some dear ladies on my Essential Families essential oils team for a retreat. It was so good! One of the ladies is a talented photographer and we got back some photos we took while all dressed up 50's style. 

So fun! The photos turned out so cute. 

It was so fun to see these ladies and enjoy yoga, fancy meals, conversation, and learn more about wellness with them too during the retreat in November. These friends are such a blessing!  

We saw Brasi Bites on Shark Tank that are gluten free and I knew I had to try them. I was so excited to find them at our local Sprouts grocery store! They are very good, and I'm so thankful to be able to eat cheese again! 

This was my birthday dinner downtown a few weeks ago - my parents met us there and it was such a nice time! 

After dinner, we walked around downtown for a bit and enjoyed the sights. 

I love my guy! He does so much to make me feel special. I loved a fun night downtown!

Birthday gifts from Nick's family! They spoiled me:) My 1908 World Champs shirt is my new fave! Amber also gave me a selfie stick, used to take this photo;) she knows me so well! 

Our gifts from the Dillons (my birth mom's family) too! They are so thoughtful. The picture of all of us at Julie's funeral that says "family" on the frame is so dear to me. The Lord has blessed me with so many people I'm grateful to call my family. Coffee and coffee mugs too - they know us well! 

We also got a Red Lobster gift card from the Dillons and enjoyed it right away. I'm pretty sure I hadn't been to RL since maybe my sophomore year in college and I was so excited to enjoy it! I splurged to enjoy this deliciousness (yes, there's butter which I usually don't eat - but I made an exception this time:) Thankfully my stomach did fine!). I forgot how much work crab legs are, haha! But it was so so good, and the company was great. 

Enjoying my Scooters coffee on the go this week. So tasty! Thanks again, Alyssa, Michael & Scott!:) 

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We enjoyed a gift card to see The Revenant last night. It was good timing with our 10 year dating anniversary on Friday:) Wow - it was way more intense than I expected after just seeing the trailer, but was a very good movie. I like to see symbolism in movies and found certain things about this movie to be quite beautiful. It isn't necessarily an easy movie to sit through though! I had to take some deep breaths and do some shoulder rolls to keep my body form tensing up:). It was a fun date experience with Nick though! The theatre we went to had reclining seats with foot rests (like a la-z-boy) - the most comfy theatre experience ever! 

I hope your Sunday is a great one! 

Today's Pinspiration:

I came across this one and really like it. We've all experienced hardships that lead us to who we are today. 

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Christmas Love & Laughs - 2015

Happy new year, friends! Time to get photos up from the past few weeks! This Christmas season, we were able to get to Iowa the weekend before Christmas to see our families. We ended up splitting once we got there so Nick could spend time with his family, and I could see mine (our extended families usually do Christmas the same Saturday night each year - so we have to take turns or split like this time).

We were on the 6am flight. Which meant we had gone to bed around 10:30 - 11:00, and were up at 2:15. Cheers. Haha! That also meant we were in Minneapolis at 8am, driving to Iowa ready to (take a nap, then...) see family and enjoy the weekend. 

We got to take a quick detour to see where we made memories in Ames in our dating days. It was so fun, and felt like forever since we lived there. Seeing college kids walking around campus made me want to shout, "ENJOY THESE DAYS", because they are such good days (or were in my case) and go way too fast. The days of living with my best friends, sharing clothes and jewelry, looking forward to seeing the cute guy I was dating;), those were the days! Every part of life has its season though, and many of those days, I know I just wanted to graduate, just wanted to get married, etc.. Now, I can see so clearly how special those college days were. 

Iowa State's campus is so beautiful! 

I got to see friends while in town too. And hold babies! Emerson and his rolls are the cutest! 

My new BFF. His brother Hudson was my boyfriend when he was about this age. ;) 

I've done life with these ladies for so long! One since 4th grade:) In our 6 years of marriage (and me moving away), I don't know what us girls have ALL been together once. I've seen many individually since then, but I was SO so thankful to gather them up and eat, drink and have a merry night. I didn't want it to end! Can married mamas still have sleepovers? I love these friends with my whole heart. So thankful the Lord made friendships this sweet. How cool is it that 7 kiddos belong to the mamas in this group?!

My dear Rachel. Oh how I wish I could spend more time together! Her creative spirit and honest heart are so good for my soul. The Lord has knit our hearts together something special. 

 Meg is the sweetest - we hadn't been able to get together in far too long and I loved our time catching up! She even brought me the sweetest cute Iowa-inspired frame I have in our living room. 

 Love you and miss you already, ladies!

Sweet Hannah had gifted us leather feather earrings she made that are so fun! I love sweet gifts from the heart that remind me of my dear ones when I wear them. The best. 

 Cousin time! This was at our family Christmas that weekend. I didn't get many pictures that night! But I hadn't been at this Christmas in a few years, and it was so good to be there together. I grew up with these cousins, aunts and uncles - we all lived in the Des Moines area and it felt like we were together every weekend. 

My dad and I enjoyed Caribou back at the Minneapolis airport as we headed home. Nick took the pic;) this was only my dad's second time flying in the past 20 or so years, we were so glad he could come with us! 

Wrapping gifts like a mad woman, making a mess, and getting ready for our TX Christmas with mom and dad. 

Wrapping gifts is maybe one of my love languages. I love making them look cute and creating pretty things. Growing up, I would wrap all of mom's gifts for her, and all of my step-dad's for his family. I love it! 

Fun with my parents and our dogs trying to get a nice Christmas photo together. 

Nick and my parents surprised me and took me to the lights display at the Texas Motor Speedway Christmas night. I thought we were driving around looking at lights on houses when we pulled in. So fun! 

(Des Moines friends, it's like Jolly Holiday Lights, where you drive through to look at the lights displays.)

Photo op at the Christmas Village at the speedway. :)

These were apparently my top 9 most liked photos on instagram in 2015. Giveaways, hair cuts, completing the whole30, dressing up, celebrating 6 years of marriage, and heartbreakingly, saying goodbye to my birth mother (for now). The silver lining about her passing has been getting to know her family better, and growing through heartbreak. I'll always wish I knew her more and had more time with her, but am thankful for what I did get with her, and to know her family. They are gems. 

 {Before we took down the tree on New Years Day}. 

As 2015 ended and 2016 began, I got out some packages to some friends who have joined me on this oils journey over the past year. I love being able to bless and encourage others! Hoping those receiving them feel the love as we being this new year together. 

Cheers to a new year, friends!

Today's Pinspiration:

I love how the new year allows us to re-evaulate progress on our goals, get a fresh plan together and get after it. Decisions we make each day can help us get there. One small step at a time is what I remind myself! 

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Christmas Party Fun

We got to enjoy a fun and fancy Christmas party Friday night, and even arranged for a dog sitter (thanks, mom & dad! ;*) to stay the night in the fancy hotel downtown. We usually try to enjoy a special date night each December as our Christmas gift to each other - this was an extra fancy one! 

I got my hair to have volume (thanks to lots of teasing and the extra hold hair spray mom let me borrow for the occasion! ha!), and had to have Nick capture this moment. (This was even at the end of the night - it held! Win!)

Night time view from our room. What a treat! 

Our "formal" photo with the photographer. :) 

Love this guy of mine! 

Trying to get in as many photos looking so nice before washing off my makeup and brushing out the hair;)

This necklace was one my mom wore to our wedding. :) I can't remember if I gave it to her?! Either way, I had asked my mom for advice to get the look I was going for, so when Nick dropped off Ranger at her place, he brought back some jewelry and her hair spray to use. :) How FUN it is to have my parents nearby! 

Daytime view from our room. 

A room with a view!

 The next day, we got to sleep in (Nick doesn't sleep in as much at home, so I loved him not having an agenda!), and enjoyed lunch together. Yes, this one is blurry, but he had offered to get my coffee for me, and was bringing it back to the table right as I tried to get a pic of the restaurant. I liked this version better!:) I like the decor in this restaurant too. 

 We had the most wonderful "deathstar" sundae with a brownie at the bottom, ice cream, hot espresso over top of the ice cream, and whipped cream. It was dairy free so I could enjoy it too! (Until we got too close to the brownie, which wasn't gluten free - then it was all Nick's!:)). 

We don't get these kinds of date days often, so I was thankful Nick wanted to make the most of it and enjoy our time together! It can be so easy to get caught up in the daily come and go of responsibilities and such, that it's hard to stop and have fun together sometimes. And we don't even have kids yet, ha! It is a good reminder for us though, to make time to have fun together. 

Today's Pinspiration:

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Fall {Fun}!

I can't believe I haven't blogged in almost two months! So weird. Unfortunately, my computer is no longer syncing with my phone since I ran out of space pretty much, so the photos on my computer are from September! I need to figure that out. Since I add photos in my blog posts, I just haven't blogged in a while. I thought I'd pop over here to update the ol' blog with some photos of our past couple months. ((I add a lot of these on Instagram too, so when I'm not posting on the blog as much, check over there for our happenings.))

In October, I cut my hair shorter and added bangs for the first time in many years! It's fun to change it up.

My dad came over for dinner one night in October. Nick cooked steaks for us, and I did mashed potatoes. And I think we did garlic green beans. It was SO good. I'm blessed to have my parents live near enough to come for dinner:)

We took Rangey to the vet for his ongoing digestive issues. (like churning sounds in his stomach, acting mopey, leading up to blood in his stool. on an ongoing basis that had gotten up to weekly or so. yah..). Turns out my sweet puppy boy has IBS like me. Hah! We changed his food to a prescription higher fiber food and the vet gave us steroid pills to use when he has these episodes. Thankfully, since we went in October, he's only had one episode! Hopefully we're on the right track and can keep him healthy. 

Fall colors & leaves are so fun. And we don't get quite as vibrant fall colors here in Texas as we were used to in the midwest, so I had to capture these pretty colors a few weeks back. 

We visited Nick's parents for Thanksgiving, and made a quick trip over to Des Moines to see a few family members quick. Being at the capital is always fun since we took our engagement photos there over 6 years ago. I love that the capitol will always have those memories for us. 

Visiting my step dad Joe is always great. Some of you may remember his accident back in 2013 that was very scary for all of us. It's been a long road to recovery with all of the internal healing his body needed, and I love seeing his personality come back strong and be himself again! 

Nick's dad Charlie joined us for our quick Des Moines road trip. It was very quick (like in DSM for 3 hours, lol), but so worth it. I got to see my Grammy at the hospital recovering from colon cancer surgery and my Uncle Tim who is battling the same kind of brain cancer my birth mom had during our quick trip too. I hadn't been able to see him the past few years, so it was important to visit him and hug him and let him know we're praying for him. 

Trees were covered in ice throughout Iowa & Nebraska (where we were anyway;)) which made for a pretty drive. I always enjoy being back in my home state. 

We got to see Julie (my birth mom)'s family in Nebraska too! It was the day of the big Iowa & Nebraska game, and was so good to see them. They are so funny and I love learning more about them and hearing their stories. Knowing blood relatives is just such a neat thing - hard to describe really, but I am so thankful to know them! I'll always wish I had more time with Julie, but I appreciate the time I get with her family. 

Little big sister-- I'm the oldest of Julie's kids, but the shortest. Michael is the youngest, yet the tallest! :)

I made some cowls the past few months too - I love making pretty things! And accessories. I started knitting in college, but crocheting goes so much faster! Thanks to my cousin and aunt for teaching me their ways. 

I re-decorated our bedroom and am loving it so much more already. My friend Rachel is seriously gifted at helping spaces look beautiful and in March (yes forever ago!), she gave me awesome ideas for our room and I just had not gotten around to doing it. She suggested these "hey handsome" and "hello beautiful" prints from etsy for our sides of the bed and I love them so much! 

Shopping for my dress for Nick's company Christmas party. I counted at least 23 dresses I tried on at 3 different stores, and love the dress I landed on! (I got the bottom left one). Now, to accessorize it. :)! 

Coffee and puppy snuggles. A few of my favorite things:)

I enjoyed a lovely weekend retreat in Tulsa, OK in November with my essential oils team. We got all dressed up for 50's style photos, ate wonderful food, enjoyed conversation, did some yoga, a learning session, and it was so much fun! I love girl time, and am so thankful to know those friends. 

Today's Pinspiration:

As Christmas gets closer, I just want to sit next to the Christmas tree with hot chocolate and watch Christmas movies every night. A girl can dream, right?! ;) Sending cozy Christmas vibes to each of you! 

Love,
Marissa