Scrolling any social media site, I see no one liked 2016. Everything is negative and while I do believe 2016 had some low points *ahem* election season.. for the most part, I loved 2016 and had some pretty incredible times.
I like this instagram #2016bestnine thing because it represents some pretty amazing memories! Although it only represents August-December.. I still love it!
So let's recap the year-- not for you-- for me ;) hehe, jk.. kind of. But for real I do reference this blog for things often.
January
I made a lot of door hangers, a lot. I hate the really cold winter months, they are sad and boring. So my crafting kicks in high gear. It snowed once or maybe twice in January and we celebrated Megan's 30th birthday at the horse races!
February
We dusted off the Paul Prudhomme cookbook and went crazy! Cajun all the time. We watched the Superbowl with friends in Conway and were introduced to this amazingly fun app where you can distort your face and look like a cow, it's called snapchat and I'm addicted. And in late February, I was appointed to the Arkansas Tobacco Settlement Board.
March g
Another 30th! We celebrated a super fun birthday with Lindsey in Memphis and wrapped up the month with Easter in Wynne. I think we also took a lot of naps this month.
April
I decided I was going to have a green thumb. So I bought things, planted them, watered some and quickly watched them die. Better luck next year? We visited friends and family in NWA, I pushed out a ton of door hangers and became obsessed with warping my face in to other people on snapchat. Brian also went turkey hunting for the first time and killed his first turkey within 30 minutes of arriving!
May
I turned 30!! In an act to not age, I taught myself new tricks with my jigsaw and enjoyed getting to work outside again, finally! I also fell in love with a new man, his name is Tom Collins and he is so divine. AND on the work side of life, I hosted my 4th Arkansas Rural Development Conference and it was a success.
June
We celebrated Therese for the month of June and I loved it! She had the most fun, pretty bachelorette party in Branson and a super cool wedding in Little Rock.
July
July 4th was spent in Rogers at the Lars- we had a last! But pretty much every free weekend from July to September was later spent at the lake. I tried a new breakfast recipe, avocado toast, and our lives changed forever. I also ordered our Europe supplies this month and started making trial runs-- ie. backpacks, packing cubes, everything miniature.
August
WE WENT TO EUROPE AND HAD THE TIME OF OUR LIVES AND I CAN'T PUT IN WORDS HOW MUCH I LOVED AND ENJOYED IT BUT IF YOU WANT TO READ ALL ABOUT IT, I BLOGGED IT. EVERY SINGLE DAY. Oh and my parents decided they were going to move to Batesville after 36 years in El Dorado. That's not weird.
September
We bought a house! Spent time at the lake, went to see the Dixie Chicks (it wasn't good), Showered baby Hayes Collier and his mama and daddy, I took an amazing carpentry class when I learned so much!, and we celebrated 2 years of wedded bliss.
October
Moving day! The rest of the month was basically spent shopping, decorating, missing work for disastrous comcast/att appointments, and unhealthily stalking antique stores on facebook/craigslist/world wide web/in store/basically anywhere I could find anything. I also went to the 1st State Fair since I went to that beautiful 98 degrees concert in middle school AND I got accepted to the Delta Leadership Institute and attended my first session in St. Louis.
November
The first week was spent in Charleston. I fell in love. I worked on a lot of home projects, painted SO much, took on my largest order to date-- man cave signs for a wedding party of 9!, and I was honored to take part in one of my oldest friends weddings in El Dorado. We also attended my parents going away party in El Do which was more fun than sad, Brian turned 31!!!, we started and burned our very first fire in the new house and celebrated a great Thanksgiving in Wynne. So much travel for one month! I was home less than away.
December
We hosted so many friends this month and I love that! I spent a week in Memphis for DLI, took some time off work, Brian suffered his first basketball injury and we had a million Christmases. I loved each one and I'm so thankful we have family who 1. want to hang out with us and 2. make time to get together this time of year! In less than a week we saw almost every single family member. Heart happy.
So there you go-- 2016 wasn't horrible. I left out any low part cause I'm really not for remembering those. Your up 2017-- show us what you've got!
XOXO
