Looking Back at 2015...

I cannot believe we're about to ring in the year 2016! I feel like it was just weeks ago I was ready to pop out a baby boy and that's now been almost 2 years ago. WOAH... not only am I a mom, but I'm a mom of a toddler. Weird! I still feel like I'm 21 at times. Anyways, this past year was a good one! 2015 brought about many awesome memories, lots of laughter, some loss, and a handful of changes for our family.

In late February, we listed our first house for sale and much to our surprise it sold within 3 days! Just a few days later we went under contract on our new house, and in late April we moved in and now call it home.

April was a busy month for us! Mac turned ONE and we celebrated with a Mickey Mouse Clubhouse party. Clete and I went on an adult only vacation with friends to Mexico. It was a fun filled time and I hope we are able to do something similar next year! We celebrated Queenie's birthday, and then on Clete's birthday we closed and moved to our new house!

We celebrated 4 years of marriage in June! And in July, took our first big family vacation with Mac. Our road trip to Seaside, FL was a blast! We're already looking forward to our next beach vacation!

We attended a few weddings in the fall, one being Clete's younger brother's. It's completely bizarre to me that Thomas is now married. He was in the 7th grade when Clete and I started dating, so it makes me feel real old.

Clete received a promotion with work, and finally was the one who got treated to a new truck. I took a new business adventure with Plexus, and am loving it! Mac dressed up as a dragon for Halloween, and loved trick or treating. We spent Thanksgiving in Tulsa at my parents, and stayed home to host Christmas at our house.

Looking back, 2015 has been a great year! We are blessed in so many ways, and so grateful to the Lord above for everything he's given us. I always love New Year's because it gives me a feeling of starting over. You have a fresh year ahead starting on January 1st and can fill it with new memories and new experiences. Happy New Year, CHEERS to 2016!!

Family Pictures

The first weekend of November one of my fellow co-workers took our annual fall family pictures. Kate did a fabulous job capturing our family, and I was very impressed with how many great shots she got of Mac. 18 months isn't the easiest age to do pictures, but she captured his personality and different faces perfectly; I couldn't be happier with how they turned out!

All photos are copy righted Kate Kelser Photography and should not be saved or used in any way without permission.  

October + November Wrap-Up.

Oh Holy Night, I cannot believe it's already December! In just a few weeks we'll be ringing in another new year and then I will have a TWO YEAR OLD! Time please slow down! Anyways... I know it's been a little quiet here on the blog lately. I apologize, but sometimes life just gets busy and this little place that I do love gets put on the back burner. I could've sworn it was just time for me to write an October post, and then I blinked and I needed to write a November one too so this time I'm just combining the two months together! Fall is always a busy time of the year for us.

We started October off with a big celebration! Clete's younger brother got married, and we spent the weekend celebrating him and his bride. We wish Thomas & Kelsey many years of happiness together!

The following weekend we purchased a new truck for Clete, it was LONG overdue! He'd been shopping around for quite a few weeks, and he finally decided on a F-150. Mac had his first experience at the car dealership too, and we think he helped get us a good deal! ;)

The 3rd weekend in October was an eventful one. The weekend started off as a normal one, but ended on a not so fun note. Our family came for the day and we went on our annual trip to the pumpkin patch. Later that evening Mac's fever spiked and we ended up spending half the night in the ER. We are so thankful all is well, and it wasn't anything too serious.

Thankfully, Mac was all well by Halloween. Our little dragon had a ball trick or treating with friends! He got lots of candy, and was so much fun to watch this year. He didn't quite have down "trick or treat" but he always said "tank you" when he got candy in his bucket.

We kicked off November by doing our annual fall family pictures. It was very difficult getting an 18 month old to cooperate and smile for them, but Kate did an awesome job and we have some great pics! There will be a post coming on those very soon.

The following weekend we had our cousin Turner's 4th birthday party at Main Event. Mac had a blast playing games, and Daddy did too!

Mac took his first trip to Seminole Children's Museum with his Queenie & Poppie. Growing up, the children's museum was somewhere I LOVED going with my Aunt Lessa and I'm so glad Mac enjoyed it too. He played his heart out, and I loved getting all the pictures from my mom of him. I know my parents enjoyed it too. I see many more trips to be made there in the future!

Clete and I went to the OU/TCU game, and my parents came and stayed with Mac. We had a fun day date in Norman, and loved cheering the Sooners on to a victory!

We put up our Christmas tree the weekend before Thanksgiving, which has always been a tradition because we're usually out of town Thanksgiving weekend. Mac loves all of the lights and "balls" so it's been interesting trying to keep him out of the tree!

Thanksgiving weekend we spent in Tulsa at my parent's house. We had a wonderful Thanksgiving, and loved all of the Queenie and Poppie time we got! We gobbled, shopped, played, cheered on the Sooners to a bedlam and Big XII victory, and relaxed. We have so much to be thankful for!

October and November were both fun filled, crazy busy months! And that's a wrap until next time...

Halloween 2015

This year we had Mac, the magic dragon on our hands for Halloween! When trying to find the perfect costume for Halloween, I went back and forth about what I wanted him to be. After talking with my mom, we decided the dragon from PB Kids was the perfect fit, and oh how we had the cutest lil' dragon Halloween night!

We had our family and a few friends over that evening for chili and all the fixins. The plan was to take the littles trick or treating after we ate, but we ended up holding off on dinner until after we went out. It was a fun filled evening for everyone! Mac really enjoyed his first big trick or treating experience! He got tons of candy, and his favorite were the suckers. Teiler was such a good helper showing him how it's done!  He liked getting to spend this Halloween with his best girlfriends, Cameryn and Teiler. Mamma (me) has decided we might have to make this an annual tradition to host everyone and trick or treat around our neighborhood.  I say, we're putting this one in the books as a winner!

Our 2nd Annual Trip to the Pumpkin Patch!

Last weekend we had our annual family trip to the Pumpkin Patch. My parents, sister, and brother in-law came to the city for the day and we all went to the Orr Family Farm. This is an annual activity we started last year, and we plan to continue over the years as a fall tradition.

Mac wasn't feeling 100%, so it wasn't as much fun as we had anticipated. If he would've felt better, he would've had a ball! He did do a few of the activities and picked out a few pumpkins to bring home. It was a good day as we made some good memories!

September wrap-up.

Hello, October! It's no one of my favorite times of the year. This month will bring cooler temps, OU/Texas, Homecoming, scarves, boots, sweaters, pumpkin spice everything, and it also kicks off the holiday season (kind of). It's crazy to think it's already October, but before we dive deep in to this month let's wrap up last month here on the blog.

Mac and I kicked off September with a weekend at the lake with my parents. Meanwhile, Clete hosted his brother's bachelor party. We had a great time spending Labor Day weekend at the lake and closing summer with lots of sunshine and time out on the water.

We didn't really do a whole lot in September. Football season kicked off, so Mac & Daddy spent lots of time watching "hut hut" as Mac calls it. :) Clete also traveled two different weeks for work, so Mommy & Mac got lots of bonding time. Queenie came one week and stayed a couple nights with us. We really enjoyed having her here! We also had some beautiful weather, so we played outside quite a bit too. 

We wrapped up the month celebrating friends getting married. Congrats to the newlyweds, The Longs! We are blessed to have our little tribe, and are grateful for wonderful friends that are also family.

That's a wrap for September. Cheers to pumpkin spice, and everything fall! 

August wrap-up.

It's hard for me to believe we're already almost half through September. Fall is my favorite season for many reasons; football, pumpkin spice everything, boots, and sweaters just to name a few. 

August wasn't too crazy around here. It was a pretty subtle month, and was pretty low key. We kicked the month off with Clete's 10 year high school reunion. That was a fun filled weekend spent with his friends from HHS and former classmates. Mac and Honey went to my parents' place at the lake that weekend, while mommy & daddy had some adult time. 

Other highlights of the month included; Mac's second hair cut, the Campbell wedding, Mac bringing home his first artwork from school, lots of time playing outside, Mac's first school pictures, a VIP lunch at a new local restaurant's grand opening, and at the end of the month we found out Clete got a promotion at work! 

Overall, August was a good month! We're looking forward to the cooler temperatures September should be bringing. Until next time, that's a wrap.  

July Wrap-Up.

HOLY MOLY! Is it just me, or is 2015 literally FLYING BY? It's now AUGUST, which means that this year is more than half way over and we're getting closer to Christmas. ;) WOW! However, I am just about over these 100+ degree temps and I'm getting the itch for fall to get here! But enough about all of that... let's talk about what happened in July.
July was a busy and exciting month around our house. We started off the month with our first annual McGriffey family vacation. We spent a full week in Seagrove, Florida and we're all already looking forward to going back again. Lots of great memories were made, and we all had tons of fun! You can read the full details of the trip on this post.

After we got home from vacation, Mac started a new school (daycare center) closer to our house. It was a little bittersweet leaving his previous daycare, but he's now in a class with several other littles his age. The friends he's making now he could go to school with once he gets older, and we feel like it's in his best interest for the years to come. The first couple of weeks were definitely an adjustment, but he's adjusting well and really likes his new friends and teachers.

It's been HOT here in Oklahoma this summer, so we've spent a lot of time around the water this summer. Mac enjoys the water, and when it's so hot you might melt the only way to be outside is in the water.

Mac completed his first year of ISR swim classes at the end of the month. I cannot say enough good things about ISR, and would highly recommend. Our instructor, Marcy, is awesome! It was dedication and commitment for 8 weeks of lessons, 5 days a week, but I now am completely comfortable with Mac being around the water. If something were to happen and him fall in, he knows exactly what to do!

That's a wrap on how July went down around here!

McGriffey Vacation 2015

We spent the first week of July in Seagrove, FL for our first annual McGriffey Vacation. Who's McGriffey you ask? It's a collaboration of my parents', ours', and my sister & her husband's last names. I came up with the name when we first started planning the vacation as a joke, and well it just kind of stuck! This was our first family vacation since my sister and I have been married, and the previous family vacation we had was when I was in college. It was Mac's first road trip, and his first trip to the beach. My mom had been planning the vacation for close to a year, so we'd been looking forward to it. Now that it's come and gone seems almost crazy!

Our days were very chill, and mostly spent hanging out on the beach. We'd usually come in mid-afternoon for Mac to nap and then we'd shower and head out to an early dinner because if you waited too late the wait was forever. It was over all a relaxing trip. We all had a fantastic time, and so many great memories were made!