Goodbye 2008 Hello 2009!!

WOW...I can't believe that this year will be over tomorrow at midnight!! 2008 has just flown by and Brian and I have truly been blessed this year!! We are of course very happy to see 2009 to get here, because we are getting married in 66 days!! Here are some of the things that we have been blessed with this year:

• We were blessed to have two beautiful nieces born this year. Sophie was born to my brother Jason and Sonya on January 7th and Kenlee was born to Brian's brother and sister in law in February (my mind draws a blank to her actual birthdate)
• Our sweet and oh so adorable nephew Aaron turned 1 this year!! He definitely had a birthday fit for a prince!!
• I was blessed to pass both of my math classes this summer...pray for me as I take one more (and my last math class EVER this summer)
• God had His hand on my dad and had the right doctors at the right place at the right time when he had his emergency heart surgery.
• We saw my brother off to the Marines on November 3rd and are so excited that in just 28 days we'll be on a plane to San Diego!
• I am blessed with a fiancee that can work one heck of a deal and got me a brand new car this year!

Things that we're looking forward to most in 2009:

• OUR WEDDING...of course
• Our amazing honeymoon in Disney World
• Seeing my brother for the first time in 86 days on January 29th
• By this time next year I will officially be SHSU alumni
• Possibly buying a house
• I look forward to meeting Julie's sweet baby girl
• Watching our nieces and nephews grow up and learn more each day

Brian and I have definitely been blessed this year and are looking forward to the blessings that God has for us in 2009. I will get a post up about Christmas ASAP. Have a very happy and safe new year!!

Ice Skating

This past Friday Brian and I were able to spend time with two of my favorite people...Rhonda & Summer. We met them at the mall where Summer had just gone to Libby Lou and then had a very yummy & entertaining dinner courtesy of Summer at P.F. Changs. After we had some yummy food at P.F. Changs we went over to the ice rink and went ice skating. Well Aunt Kelly took Summer ice skating while Rhonda and Brian watched. We had a great time and even though Summer had a hard time staying up on ice skates (even taking me down with her once!) we had a great time! Thank you Rhonda and Summer for inviting us to enjoy you on a fun adventure! We love you guys and can't wait to have Summer be the flower girl in our wedding!

Brian and I are starting a new tradition and having our own Christmas tonight! We will open the gifts that we got eachother and just spend time hanging out and enjoying our last Christmas as fiancee's! We will leave tomorrow afternoon when I get off work to drive to his parent's house to enjoy Christmas with his family and then we will drive back on Christmas morning to split Christmas up between my mom and dad. We are hoping for a Christmas day phone call from my lil bubba, but it is the marines so we never know. We definitely wish that Lil Bubba was going to be there, but before we know it we'll be in San Diego with him! We are so proud of you Lil Bubba and can't wait to see you! Brian and I wish you all a very merry Christmas!

Tag You're It

TAG YOU ARE IT

8 TV shows I love to watch:
1. Grey's Anatomy
2. Private Practice
3. Two & A Half Men
4. John & Kate Plus 8
5. Army Wives
6. The Bachelor when it's on
7. Desperate Housewifes
8. Brothers & Sisters

8 favorite restaurants:
1. Olive Garden
2. Lupe Tortilla
3. Cheesecake Factory
4. TX Roadhouse
5. Chick Fil A
6. Shogun (ok so I've only eaten there like twice but still)
7. Chilis
8. Saltgrass

8 things that happened today:
1. Cleaned My Apartment
2. Went to lunch with Granny
3. Made plans with Rhonda for Friday night
4. Finished Christmas shopping for Aaron
5. Mailed Matt some pictures
6. Got most of the stuff for Brian's stocking
7. Did a load of laundry
8. Went grocery shopping

8 things I am looking forward to:
1. Christmas with my family & Brian's family
2. New Year's
3. Brian's Christmas Party
4. Watching Aaron open presents
5. Meeting Julie's baby in April
6. MY WEDDING
7. HONEYMOON IN DISNEY WORLD
8. Going to San Diego to see my lil bubba

8 things on my wishlist:
1. to go see my brother
2. to buy a house
3. for Julie to be able to come visit soon
4. Graduation
5. A phone call from my brother on Christmas day
6. for my car to get detailed
7. For Brian to get an assistant that does her job
8. for the stuff on my wedding registry (hey i registered for some cool stuff)

8 people I tag:
1.Denise
2. Michelle
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.

Trying To Catch Up

This will be a long post and I apologize in advance. I'm just trying to catch up on what has been going on in our lives. I am happy to say that I completed the semester with all A's and hope to make the dean's list again! This semester was challenging at times, but I have learned alot and made alot of new, close friends along the way and am happy to be on the other side of this semester! I am looking forward to next semester and taking my methods classes. It will require me to cut down on the hours that I will be able to work some, but I am kind of glad for the break, but won't be glad for the cut in pay! Thankfully I have an amazing fiancee that would do anything for me, just to see me finish school.

It feels really good to be out of school and here are some things that I hope to accomplish over the break (which is shorter this year than last year)...

1. Spend Quality Time With Brian & My Family
2. See Aaron Baron as much as possible...he probably thinks his Aunt Kelly has forgotten about him these last few weeks.
3. REALLLY clean my apartment...and maybe organize it too
4. Clean the inside of my car out
5. Read a good book...if I can find one
6. Finalize the plans for our wedding rehearsal
7. Maybe if Brian's lucky I'll clean out my closet and get rid of about 30 pairs of jeans that I never wear
8. I'm sure there's more that I can add to the list but I also need to have some fun too!!

We took some pictures in the snow last week. I literally could not believe that it was snowing. I had my work Christmas party that night, so when we got home I made Brian go outside with me and we took some pictures for Matt...I could not believe that he was missing this!! Kim took Aaron out to see the snow and he wasn't really that impressed, but at least he didn't have to wait FOREVER to see snow in Texas!!

Snow on Brian's Car We wrote a message to Matt on a complete stranger's car!!We Were Cold!Another Message To Matt
Brian's SnowmanI Was FREEZING!!

We were able to go to Brian's parent's house this weekend and had a good visit with them. We will spend Christmas Eve with them and then drive back here Christmas morning to spend lunch with my mom and grandparent's and then we'll end the night at Dad & Melinda's. We will definitely be missing Matt and wishing that he was there, but we're hoping for a phone call on Christmas day!!

Speaking of Matt...he is doing really well and entered the halfway mark yesterday. Only 43 more days until we fly to San Diego to go and see him! Please keep him in your prayers (and the rest of his platoon as well) as this is the harder part of bootcamp (more physical stuff) plus they are all getting over pneumonia. Also please say an extra prayer for Matt's ankle as it is really bothering him, he says that it is okay if he has his combat boots on, but once he takes them off it really hurts and is swollen. This is a previous injury (from cross country) but he can't go to medical about it, or they will set him back. He is getting ready to do several hikes with packs that way several pounds, so he could definitely use the prayers please!

Brian and I hope that each of you and your families has a wonderful Christmas and a blessed new year. We have definitely been blessed this year and can't wait to see what next year holds for us!

We're Still Alive

Yes Brian and I are still alive...it's been a BUSY few weeks! I am happy to say though that in just two days I will be DONE for the semester! I have had a pretty good semester and am hoping that it will be another all A semester!

We spent Thanksgiving with both of our families. We drove to Brian's parent's house on Wednesday afternoon...note to self don't drive anywhere the day before a holiday! We spent Wednesday night with Brian's parent's and had lunch with his family on Thanksgiving day and then drove to Huntsville to have Thanksgiving with my family at my Nan's house. It was all in all a quiet Thanksgiving, but it was nice. We definitely missed my brother though!

My brother is doing great, but please keep him in your prayers. He entered what is called Phase 2 today and they moved to Camp Pendelton on Saturday. He will be here until December 28th and then will go back to Marine Recruit Depot. Please say an extra prayer for him, because he is trying to get over pneumonia! It is going around his platoon and he really can't afford to be sick. He also could use prayer for his ankle as well. Overall we are just praying for his safety and no set backs for him. He is in better spirits, but still misses home ALOT! We definitely miss him! We paid my dad and step mom last night for our tickets and on January 28th we will get on a plane and fly to San Diego where we can't wait to see my brother on Thursday morning! He even gets to fly home with us on Sunday! Please also pray that he will get what is called Recruiter's Assistance (RA) so that he can be here for an extra 30 days after his scheduled 10 day leave...this would mean he would be here for my wedding with no problems about getting leave!

We mailed out our wedding invitations last week and my Granny and sister get the award for being the first to mail back their RSVP's. We are really excited about our wedding and can't believe that in just 89 days we'll be saying I Do!

We have our Christmas tree up and our apartment decorated. I am hoping to get some presents wrapped and under our tree this week.

I will leave you with some pictures of our Christmas tree and of Thanksgiving. I hope you are all blessed this Christmas season!

Aaron likes to look at the world upside down!

He's so cute!

Dad & His Girls!

The whole family...we wish lil bubba was here!

His cool winter hat!

There's Aunt Kelly with that camera!

Our Cute Lil Christmas Tree!

Bridal Pictures & A Wedding

This weekend was a great weekend. Friday night wasn't so great, because I had to work on a project that I thought was due tomorrow but actually turned out to be due yesterday! I had written the wrong date down in my planner, though I was able to get it done with the help of my wonderful fiancee!

Saturday was nice, well minus the part where I had to work from 7-2, but after that Brian and I went over to Humble to have my ring cleaned. The Woodlands mall definitely needs a Jared's. Then we just ran over to the mall over there and looked around and then had a nice dinner at Texas Roadhouse...one of my favorite places ever! Also we came home to find a letter from my brother in our mail!!

Sunday I had my bridal portraits done, but started out the day with the girl that does my hair coming to my house to fix it. It looked AMAZING...thank you Cyon!! Mom, Kim, and I went to get my pictures done where we will be having the ceremony and it was great. The only bad part was that I was FREEZING!! I had stopped by my dad's house to pick up some make up that I had sent there, and while I was there grabbed a jacket out of Matt's room to take with me...good thing I did! The photographer ended up taking some pictures of me in the jacket...it was Matt's letter jacket, which I think will turn out good and turn out to be funny. I know that Matt will laugh when he sees that I have a wedding dress on with his letter jacket!! We hurried home and changed clothes so that mom, Brian, and I could go to my friend Aaron's wedding. It was a great wedding in a very neat little chapel! Congrats to Aaron & Rachel!

I had better be heading off to class, but just wanted to post a quick update. Oh and before I forget I want to say a very happy birthday to my sister!! I love you and hope you have a great day!! I will work on your birthday letter tomorrow.

The Mailman Is My Best Friend

Today was a GREAT day!! Brian and I were at the mall getting a few last minute things before my bridal portraits tomorrow and my dad calls. He called to tell me that he got a letter from my lil bubba!! I was so excited to hear about Matt's letter that dad had to remind me to give him some time to get it out of the envelope..haha!! The thing that made me laugh the most is that he told my dad he gets 8 hours of sleep a night so he's not tired! HaHa! If you know my brother you know that kid doesn't know what 8 hours of sleep a night means if his life depended on it!! I called my mom to let her know my dad got a letter and she ecstatically tells me she got 2 letters!! I couldn't wait to get home and see if my mailbox had a great suprise in it for me and guess what?!...IT DID!! My brother was so greatful for all of my LONG letters!! He told me to keep them coming with lots of pictures!! He is doing well, but he says that he does miss home alot and it's hard being away from home. He also says that the airport is right by their base and he watched probably a hundred planes come and go a day and that makes it hard. He says he wishes he was on one of those planes home or that we were on one of the ones landing there. If you think about it please say a prayer for him that he would be encouraged and wouldn't be so home sick. Today was a GREAT day!!