I can’t believe we’re ready for a new year tomorrow! This year has been anything but easy and I’m definitely ready to say goodbye to it and hello to a new one!
I set a lot of goals for myself; blog and workout 3 times a week, meal plan more.. and I can’t say I stuck with them as well as I’d like. It always starts off so strong but finishes a little slower.
I’m sharing a little snippet of our year in review so I can look back at all the highlights we experienced in years to come!
{January}
I shared a lot about our daily lives this month; from movies, outfit posts and DIY projects.
We celebrated Christmas with my family a little late!
My Mom and I visited my sister (and nieces) to celebrate my Mom’s Birthday!
{February}
Jess and I hosted our first Galentine’s Day brunch.
I shared some yummy s’mores! Seriously… go try them!!
I loved this fun Valentine’s Day shoot with my sister!
{March}
I had my first Blogiversary this month…
and celebrated my Dad’s 60th birthday!
{April}
We headed out for our first round of golf of the season!
And celebrated my BIL and (future) SIL’s engagement over Easter weekend!
We also celebrated Lara’s bridal shower virtually – such a fun concept if you can’t be with the Bride – to – be!
{May}
I “partied” hard for Katie’s Bachelorette party 🙂 and met a great new friend!
We visited Charleston this month and it was such a fun time!
And we celebrated Katie and Jed’s wedding!
{June}
My Mom visited while Logan was away at a bachelor party..
and we certainly kept busy watching movies, getting my hair did and visiting a winery!
We visited my in-laws for a weekend at the US Open!
I also did 3 winery tours with the ladies of the family – which was so fun!
We visited friends we hadn’t seen in forever – and spend some much needed time with their little one!
{July}
We held a small bridal shower/bachelorette party for my cousin’s fiance (now wife!) on my Dad’s side and it was unbelievably fun!
I shared a little bit of our life at the annual extreme animal racing – think ostriches, zebras and camels!
I started as a distributor for Lipsense! Gosh, I love this stuff and you guys have shown me you love it just as much!
Our biggest project yet – our patio!
My in-laws came to help and we spent the whole 4th of July weekend digging, sanding and laying brick to be perfect. Us girls helped quite a bit with the digging but otherwise…. the boys took care of the rest!
{August}
We celebrated Jess’ big day with a fun bachelorette party at her cabin!
We held a baby shower for my SIL and Brother for little baby Nora!
We held our annual Crawfish boil on our new patio!
My in-laws visited for our annual trip to the Minnesota State Fair!
We got our house re-sided this month due to hail damage and decided to switch up the color and add a little more for curb appeal.
{September}
This was a month of travel for us…
We headed to Madison for our first ever Badger game with my family..
before heading to Milwaukee for my cousin’s wedding!
It started off celebrating Kallie and Bryan’s wedding in Eau Claire.
Then we traveled to London…
and finally to Madeira to celebrate a fun wedding with great friends!
My sweet niece Nora was born when we got back to the States – she knew to wait for me 🙂
{October}
We spent a lot of time this month cuddling little Nora…
and baby Beckett (he was born the day we left for London but thankfully I got a quick chance to meet him!
I shared our Paris pictures and y’all LOVED them – they’re my favorite pictures of all time!!
We had two housewarming/end of summer parties to attend!
{November}
My Aunts and cousin visited us for a weekend of shopping and a little bit of relaxing 🙂
We ventured to Oshkosh for Thanksgiving weekend – filled with food, shopping…
and finding our Christmas tree!
We went to Jess and Jeff’s wedding reception and it was so much fun!!
It brought us back to Madeira with the same group of friends 🙂
My sister (and nieces) and Mom visited this month for the first time in 2 years (for my sister) and we visited with Nora while also getting some shopping time in!
{December}
I held my annual Christmas Cookie Exchange with some girlfriends!
We played some fun minute-to-win-it games and we laughed so hard!
I shared a few fun holiday guy and gal looks on the blog! This is a big deal because as you know.. Logan isn’t the happiest with getting his picture taken 🙂
We celebrated our 2nd year wedding anniversary – with Logan being in Denver – so we settled for apps and drinks the night before!
My SIL and her boyfriend visited us for a night and we walked through some fun Christmas lights!
Logan graduated college!!
We traveled this month to my Mom’s for Christmas…. (I promise I’ll recap our whole time next year 😉
then headed to celebrate a weekend with my in-laws! And guess what?! My hubby surprised me with a very nice camera for Christmas! 🙂 And it was legit, a serious surprise!
That’s it.. that’s our 2017!
Thank you for following along and being apart of it! 🙂
Kristi
But we don’t get too sad because these ones won’t ever end; such gems that we’ll have forever!
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{five}<
Anyone else love these things??
Kristi
It was absolutely freezing but the free hot cocoa helped! They had free popcorn too but my hands were too cold to eat it.. how does that happen?!?
We enjoyed a Christmas movie on the couch by the tree after 😍
We had a fun game night at Elaine and Adams house and somehow I only got a picture of this cute little elf!
Such a fun night with great appetizers!
#givemeallthered
Macy’s closed this year so we visited the Holiday House instead!
Yum!! Let me know if you want me to share the recipe; so easy and good!
Logan had a dentist appointment this week and surprised me with a PSL (yes, I’m still drinking them until they tell me they’re out! I’m dreading that every time I order one!)!
It’s the little things 😊
How it works: I send out an invite a few weeks ahead of time. Have everyone send me their recipes a week in advance and I put together a book for everyone to have a copy! This year, I did an EBook because let’s be real… I lose all things paper!
I have all the girls bring a dozen cookies per person and we have fun, sip wine, play games and enjoy cookies!
Last year we did Christmas charades and family feud. This year we did two Minute to Win It games and they were hilarious!
The first game was a candy cane competition where you had to pick up candy canes and put them in a bucket. Sounds easy right?!
Try it with only using a candy cane 🙂
I got a whopping 2……. Ashton was our winner with 9!
The next game really had us girls crying! It’s called… Bottoms Up!
How it works… tie string around your waist to make a belt. Tie a longer string to hang down and attach an ornament.
You set up empty cans and have to use your booty to get the ornaments to knock down the cans!
Then we chatted more, ate cookies and voted for our favorite!
This years favorite was Elaine’s Christmas Crack! 😍
It really is the best time! We were missing a few girls but they’ll be there next year I’m sure! 🙂 It’s been a bit of a rough year for personal reasons and I wasn’t feeling the most Christmasy.. which if you know me is very UNLIKE me!
I actually wasn’t even sure if I wanted to have this party.. but I’m so glad I did! These girls are something special 😊
I’m already looking forward to our next get together and next years Exchange!
We had 2 bunches of bananas that had to be eaten (or thrown away tomorrow) so I made some PB Banana chocolate chip energy balls and Banana Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Oatmeal cookies – say that fast 5 times!
happily ever griedls 