Let's play a game of catch-up.

HUGE THANKS TO MANDY for helping me make my blog prettier! (I made my own header, believe me she does a much better job at headers than me, so please don't be deceived. Her work is awesome.) I gave her personal blog a shout out last entry, so here's to her blogs blog. ;)

We last left off in October... Wow. Things have changed!

Thanksgiving and Christmas were awesome, spent with family and friends. We had our beautiful Christmas tree again and this year, Chuck posed perfectly in front for me. Becca and Zack spent Christmas with us at our apartment. I finally had the opportunity to meet my beautiful new cousin Chavon (who married my cousin Casey a week after Colton and I) who announced to us that she was pregnant. :) Hailey got a new boyfriend, that we all love so much and have had the most amazing time with. Here are just a few images from those...

Then, I graduated!! Actually, I graduated first, then Christmas, but oh well.

Colton's new website finally opened and business has been booming. We are so blessed with the most amazing brides, couples, families, and everyone who has contributed their wisdom and knowledge. It helps to know amazing photographers who have always been there, and meet new ones along the way. Everyone in the business has been so encouraging and helpful.

Finally, the event that Colton and I have been talking about, wishing for, and saving for 11 months finally came. Our cruise. It was FANTASTIC! Words cannot describe how amazing it was. I will let pictures do most of the talking (then caption) ...




Our huge, beautiful ship.


Cozumel, Mexico.


My new favorite people ever. Seriously, these girls became such good friends of mine in just a week. I can't believe Mandy (middle) lives just 10 minutes from me. You will probably see a lot more of her in the future. ;)


Colton and me with a giant stingray in Grand Cayman.


Colton ziplining in Jamaica.


Game night: I think this sums it up.

Our wonderful waitress, Renata from Croatia and our table mates. We had the best conversations.

I may break down each day in more detail with pictures/scrapbook pages, but for now...I hope you get an idea of what we experienced.

This Christmas...

I am so disappointed. I listened to all the Christmas radio stations since Thanksgiving and NEVER once heard N'Sync's "This Christmas". I am so sad about that.

Hmmm... where to start. I guess I will start our Christmas Extravaganza on December 23. I spent the WHOLE DAY baking, cleaning, and I made colton the best meal ever (haha, not really the best ever, but it was dang good). I made BBQ grilled chicken with sauteed mushrooms and onions, w/ a hint of garlic, corn, a fresh salad and a baked potato. =) Afterwards, Sam and Jen came over and we went bowling (I wish I would have gotten a picture of the scores bc it was quite funny). Sam literally scored 100 points more than me... (I think I had like 78 and he had 179 or something). Colton had a 150 and Jen even broke 100. The next game we all did worse...except me and I think i was a couple points higher.

Colton and me (I'm wearing glasses because my contacts are old and I need new ones. haha) Me and Jen, Sam and Jen

Then, we decided to go to Adventure Landing for mini golf. It was closed. So we walked around the cool Walmart in Plano. (How fun, I know). We rented House Bunny (cute movie!) & watched it at our apartment. I definately ate a whole pint of Blue Bell *silly me*. On Christmas Eve, I woke up and bathed Chuck, showered and made the cream cheese icing for my cheesecake. (It was INCREDIBLE!) i made a red velvet cheesecake w/ chocolate cherry mice candy.

My cheesecake & red mouth after eating it

We loaded up the car with what seemed like a month's worth of stuff for just 2 days and headed to Mesquite. We stopped by my parents house so they could see Chuck(since they haven't seen him in a while) and then we went to Colton's family. We unloaded everything, set up chuck's "house" and went to church with them. It was so nice getting to see so many people we haven't seen in a while. I miss it so much. I wish that we could go there now, but it's just too far away (oh yeah, and I work on Sundays). It was a beautiful service and an awesome building (it was Colton's and mine first time to see it). We had to RUN out of the service and get home to put the ham in the oven, get food ready and pick up Colton's PawPaw.

Hailey and me, Colton and me (both taken in the car on our way to church), Landon & me after opening gifts.

We ate ham, mashed potatoes, corn, dressing, giblet gravy, deviled eggs, and so much more. Then we exchanged "family presents" I got a cookbook from Landon, money from the grandparents and Colton and I got a giftcard to go get a couples massage at massage envy from Hailey and Taylor!! I am VERY excited about that. We gave Hailey a giftcard to Forever 21, Taylor a giftcard to the Buckle, Landon a giftcard to Best buy... grandparents got framed family photos, and parents got giftbaskets with cool stuff inside. Oh, and colton and I exchanged our ornaments this year. It is our new tradition. He got me a beautiful snowflake that simply had "2008" on it. I got him a silver heart that said "For Love, For Life, For Real, For Keeps". We wanted to start this tradition, that each year we will get an ornament for one another, Chuck, and once we have a kid, we will pick one out for them too. But, it has to be of something memorable from that year. =) We all got to bed pretty early since Santa was coming the next day. Landon and I woke up around 6 and tried to go back to sleep. Finally at 8, we decided it was time to wake up everyone... colton, Mr. Grumpy pants in the morning was a hard nose to wake up. we waited in hailey's room for the "go" and all went downstairs to see what Santa had left us. It was my first Christmas morning with the Bradshaw family, so itw as really exciting to see all the Santa stuff. I haven't had that in so long, since my family pretty much did stockings on Christmas morning and everything else christmas eve. Santa was good to Colton and I. we got our GPS, clothes, DVDs, and lots of other stuff. After all that, we hung out at the house for most of the day and went and saw Marly and Me. There wasn't a dry eye in the theatre ( I wish I had got some "after" shots at the theatre. haha).

One of our gifts from Santa was a framed pic of Chuck when he was little bitty, Chuck with his candy cane bone, Hailey and I BEFORE the movie

Colton and I packed up and went home.

That was pretty much the extent of our Christmas...it was a great time with family.

Christmas Lights

I haven't written in a while, mainly because I haven't taken any pictures...and posts are boring without them.



I made all As in my UNT classes, a B in my online Spanish class (Boo!). Oh well.



On the 14 (last Sunday) Colton and I made it to 6 months of marriage. I can't believe it has already been that long, but it has. On the 16th (Tuesday) chuck turned 6 months old. (I do have a VERY embarassing vide that I will post tonight when I get home).



I have been trying to run/walk/exercise more frequently since I have officially gained 10 lbs in 6 months. =( It is working alright (at least I am not gaining anymore). We have Wii Fit and it is pretty much the most amazing thing ever. This week I start strength exercises and move on past cardio which means Pilates and...Carmen!! Ahhhh!! Hopefully i can get my butt in shape before school next semester.



I am officially recertified in CPR, so if any of you start to choke or something, I am now certified again. ha!



Let's see...what else? Friday night Colton and I went and saw "Yes Man!" and last night we spent Christmas with my MeMe and PawPaw and family. They are going out of town for Christmas, so we had to do it early.



Then, we went to Colton's family's house and had Hailey and taylor follow us home and e drove through Deerfield in Plano and saw Gordon lights (http://www.gordonlights.com/) Amazing!! =)



That is about all now... i will post that video later. =)

Quicky

Wow. So it has been a long time since I have written. Hopefully I will know soon about my grades. =) I think I might be pretty pleased in the long run, but we'll see.


Let's see:
Besides school being out, nothing too exciting has happened with Colton and I. Oh yeah, today is our 6month anniversary! We have officially been married 6 months today.


Last night, Jenn and I went to a Knottie/Nestie Christmas party. Only 7 of us showed up, but it was still a lot of fun to talk and get together with these girls weve been talking to for so long. We had desserts (yummy!) and a gift exchange where I got a Yankee Candle Christmas Cookie Scent!




(I may need to redo these pictures when I get home since they may be blurry from doing them at work).

I bought Chuck a cute sweater since its cold outside and we are going to go walking more.




Isn't he adorable?!
When I have more to say, I will definately do it, but for now, that is all.

Happy Thanksgiving?

Hey!! Ok, so I am in a good mood today (a lot better than a few days ago, but I will get into that).Here we go. Let's play catch up. k? Last time I left you I was catching up on ice skating and the NYLO.

Let's see, Tuesday November 25, Chuck had surgery. He had his "big boy" surgery as we refer to it here. Colton insists my way of saying "he got his wawas chopped off" is incorrect because they didn't "chop anything off" so I will ust say big boy surgery. He has been so good. He gets to wear his lampshade for 10 days (only 3 left). We only put it on him when he is in his "box" since we can't watch him. The first night, he whined a little bit, but other than that, he is fine. He is running around and jumping like nothing ever happened.

=)

Let's do a quick school catch up. Today (why i am in a good mood) I finished my 20 page paper on self-esteem. I am pretty sure writing 20 pages about self-esteem killed mine, but whatever. I took a test in the class I'm failing and I am pretty sure I bombed yet another one. Hopefully this paper will yank up my grade.

I have a spanish final this week and one more assignment left in that class that I get to finish tonight. All my other finals are next week.

Thanksgiving!!!

For Thanksgiving, Colton and I took Chuck to the Bradshaw's and we went out to eat to Furrs with my family. There was a HUGE line that we were sure we would be waiting in for hours, but it really didn't take that long at all. It was extremely warm though.

Pics (top to bottom) Colton and I at Furrs, cousin Alison

Then, we went back to Colton's family's house and played Wii, watched TV, ate desserts, took family pictures (that I wish so bad I could share with you, but they aren't on my computer and no one will email them to me). Then we went and saw Four Christmases. WARNING: DO NOT TAKE A CHILD TO SEE THAT MOVIE IF THEY STILL BELIEVE IN SANTA. Thank you.

When we got to the house, the kitties were all spooning. It was adorable.

We were there and there were a few little kids there, and if you've seen the movie, they give away the "secret of Santa." I felt so bad for these kids, but angry with the parents for taking 5 year olds to a PG-13 movie w/o reading the reviews. Anyways, I thought it was cute. There were a lot of funny parts. Colton thought the plot was boring, but he laughed a lot, if that tells you anything.

And that was about the end of our Thanksgiving. Oh yeah, and my list of things to be Thankful for..

Colton

Chuck taylor

Family

Our apartment

Day after...

YUCK. Black Friday was TERRIBLE for me. i was getting on my computer to actually post this blog with pictures and stuff, and my power cord wouldn't plug in. The jack it plugs into sunk into my computer. So on BLACK FRIDAY we went to Best buy to take it and see if they could fix it since it was under warranty. We had to buy a $100 power cord for Colton to use since they needed mine. They said it would cost $100 to back up all the info in case they had to replace the computer or the hard drive messes up while its at the factory. I was mad. I cried a lot. We can't pay 100 dollars after I just paid that in April when my last computer crashed. This all would happen the week before finals. So please pray that they don't mess with my computer because I have A LOT of stuff on there that I would probably freak out if we lost.

Thank you.

i went to work and came home to a fire burining and all the Christmas decorations ready for us to set up. We set up the tree and stockings and stuff to Elf. Our tree is GORGEOUS. I am so happy with it. We started setting up our 4 ft tree and realized it was just way too tiny, so we took it back and got a 7 ft one. =) It is on a table so it looks amazing.

And our stockings...

Ah. I love Christmas.

Then, Saturday, colton and I babysat for the amazing KandiceRay. Her kids are the best ever. Jordan and I played ponies and dolls, Colton and Drew played Batman on the Wii. We made ginger bread cookies as a surprise for Kandice and Chad. We watched Kung Fu Panda (great kid movie). Put them to bed, and then I crashed on the couch. Oh and we got our family pictures back... =)

Jordan decorating herself, her mom and Lola. Drew decorating himself, his dad and Lola. The final project. Colton and Me. hehe

Yesterday I worked (all day). Came home and Colton and I rented Fred Claus.

So ya, that was a lot of catching up.

Ahh...Christmas

It's Halloween and I'm at work. All I can think about is Christmas.
This is seriously my favorite time of the year. Once Halloween is over, all the Christmas stuff comes forward. I am so excited. =) Not only because I love the smells of gingerbread, peppermint, chimneys, hot cocoa, and pine. Also not just because I love wearing a hoodie and driving with my windows down at night and gazing at all the decorated houses, or the decorations that fill up all the stores, or the Christmas cards. And the music...how I LOVE the music. And the movies that are only good to watch once a year, and the "Christmas specials" on TV and the abominal snowman and Rudolph and Santa.
Not only am I excited about all of that, but it is our (colton and I) first Christmas as "our family", first Christmas where we get to decorate OUR place, first "married people" Christmas. We are getting a 4 ft small tree (since we have an apartment).
Call me gothic, but we are decorating with black, white, silver and khaki ornaments, bulbs, feathers, and garland. To match our living room. My "theme" for Christmas, I have decided, with much consideration will be Snowflakes. I LOVE snow, and I want to bring it to our decor. =) So we will have many snowflakes, all shapes and sizes.
I am participating in the "Nestie" ornament exchange and tomorrow, I get my secret Santa. We have two weeks to pick out an ornament and send it to them. I think it is going to be really fun. In return, I get an ornament. =D
Seriously, I could not love a time of the year more than this. I wish I lived back in the day when carolers were more common. I went once when I was a kid and loved it. I wish that could be a tradition that was brought back.
(By the way, if anyone wants to, I am so totally in. hehe)