Goodbye 2014, Hello 2015!

I cannot believe how fast this year has gone by!! It feels like just yesterday that we were ringing in 2014! Like everyone else I have been thinking about some things to work on for 2015, so here are some of my resolutions for this year:

  1. Lose some lbs. and eat healthier. I am sure this is on about 95% of people’s list. I have gained a little of my weight back since the wedding, and with me being diagnosed PCOS in March it is very important that I keep my weight and eating habits in check.
  2. Be organized. I tend for the most part to be somewhat organized, but I have a long way to go to be as organized as I truly want to be. I want to pick up some really good habits that are achievable to incorporate into my daily life whether it is at home or school.
  3. Travel. We try to do a lot of that already, but with kids moving closer on her horizon I will want to make the most of our travel adventures in 2015.
  4. Spend more time together. This kinda goes with the one before, and we already do a lot together, but I just want to make sure to make time for each other. When we get into the thick of spring semester things get really busy, and there are times where we hardly see each other, so during those times I want to make sure we are still taking some time for us.
  5. Blog MORE. So in July is when I decided to start the blog, and since then I have not been as faithful to this blog as I had imagined I would be. So, I plan to continue the blog, and hopefully get a little faster and frequent about posting.

Here are some pictures from this past year!

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Loren ran the Disney Marathon in January!

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Strawberry Picking over Spring Break

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Running in May

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Loren’s parent’s 30th anniversary!

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College World Series in June

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4th of July from the valley!

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Beautiful Wedding

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Girl’s weekend in Vegas

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Texas State Homecoming game!

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My wonderful co- workers gender reveal.

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Thanksgiving in McAllen

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Loren started the year off with a marathon, and he ended the year with one.

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Zoo light with the family

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Our Christmas Trip to Alabama

This year has been more than I could’ve ever imagine. I am so thankful that I have had wonderful friends and family that have surrounded both Loren and I with continued love and support. I am looking forward to seeing what 2015 has in store for our little family. Wishing you and your family the happiest New Year!

Love always,

Amie

Bobcats, Band, Babies, and Boo

So I have blinked and magically it is Oct… scratch that, DECEMBER!! I cannot even believe that is coming out of my mouth, where has the time gone?? Things in the Gray household are trucking along, we are two weeks out from Christmas, and it cannot come soon enough. I am not going to lie Thanksgiving was great, but the bad thing about Thanksgiving break is that you get a little taste of what is to come with winter break, and it is so hard to get back into the swing things. The other exciting thing that has happened is that Loren and I have celebrated our ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY!!!! It was definitely a very exciting time for us! We are took a quick little trip to start our break, and the traveled down to McAllen to spend Thanksgiving with his family. All of which I will post about in a later post. Now to get you caught up for the month of October (and eventually November). I promise not to keep you all waiting this long ever again!!

We started out the beginning of the month with a trip to San Marcos for the Homecoming football game. As you may or may not know, both Loren and I went to Texas State, and we often love to visit the area to see football games and catch up with old friends. It was an absolutely beautiful weekend with our first taste of fall weather. Being from Texas, we really don’t experience the seasons of fall or spring, we just kinda go in between summer and winter. We had an awesome weekend and were able to see our friends and former teachers.

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Loren and I at the game.

After we got back from our wonderful weekend, it was back to work. Loren is a band director at an intermediate school, and every other year the intermediates get together at the district stadium, and watch the high schools march their competition show. At the end the intermediates and high schools perform a couple of songs together, it is super cute and I enjoy seeing all the kids. It is also a great way for the kids to see what is in store if they continue band into high school. Here are a few pictures from the night.

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All the students in band in CCISD

Now we move onto the babies, are you keeping up? 🙂 My wonderful co- worker bestie is expecting a beautiful baby in March. We both started teaching the same year, and it was wonderful having her as we made it through our first year. Mid October is when she found out the gender of her baby. During one of our morning phone conversations (yes, we have conversations in the morning on the way to work), I asked her if she was going to do anything special for her gender reveal, and she was like “well I was just going to invite my family over for dinner and tell them then.” The party planner in my died a little, I am a person that will through a party for a premier of a T.V. show, so I told her that I would take care of helping her get a few things together. My philosophy is that a few special touches can go a long way for the important things in your life. Plus, it is her first baby and she needs to go all out! So I wanted to share a few pictures from that night.

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Cookies in the shape of onesies that my aunt made, she gave them out as favors.

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How precious is the table? Here is the cake that she cut into to reveal the gender, and the cuts we used to take a group picture to see what team everyone was on.

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This is the entry table. As you came in, we had the guests tally their vote of whether it was a boy or girl, and then they grabbed a clothespin (which we painted the tips of using a paint pen) and pinned it on their shirt so we could see what their vote was.

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The beautiful star of the show with her Old Wives Tales chalkboard sign (you cannot even tell she is preggers).

To top all of it off, she is also pregnant with her sister, which I think is the most exciting thing. They are both having boys, so after the reveal they were able to take some really cute pictures.

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How cute? Such a special thing to be able to share with a sister!

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Haha the hubbies had to show off their bellies too!

It was such an absolute honor to be a part of their wonderful night. I was so happy to be able to help plan to make the night special. I cannot wait to meet this precious baby boy come March.

Now we close the month of October with Halloween, which is a personal favorite because it is the start of fall; a season I have grown to love very much. At school, we had to dress up as a team based off of book characters. We choose the book “The Day the Crayons Quit.” If you have not read this book you definitely should. It is super cute!

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How cute do we look?

Later that night we went with some friends to the Museum of Natural Science for Spirits and Skeletons. It was definitely a lot of fun, but for what we paid it would not be an event we attend every year. I would definitely recommend it if you haven’t been.

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Loren and I, we went for the 1920s theme this year.

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A picture of the group, we had such a wonderful time!

All in all, it has been a great fall semester for Loren and I. We are definitely looking forward to Winter break and spending time with family. Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Love Always,

Amie