a farewell to 2012

These posts are actually the looooongest posts to put together. But! It was so much fun for us to sit down & look through pictures from 2011 that it seemed worth it to bid a formal blog adieu to 2012, too. Click the "read more" below that lovely wildflower to see all of them! (You can also check out our farewell to 2011 here.)

 

january:

• I spent a lot of this entire year getting to know the new camera Jared & my parents so lovingly got me for Christmas last year. What can I say. We fell in love in 2012, me & that camera.
• I got real serious about beating the winter blues, & I can honestly say that I SUCCEEDED. Time to revisit...
• We spent more time with nieces & nephews...
• & initiated a very short-lived attempt at a weekly date on Sundays. Which was awesome. & fun. & I miss it. STUPID EVENT SEASON. justkiddingiloveit.

 february:

•  We kicked off February with an adventure in Richmond for Andrew's birthday SLASH Superbowl extravaganza.
• Then there was Valentine's Day, in which Jared sent flowers to my work (which is the best, am I right, ladies?) & my dad gave me heart-shaped cookie cutters. & I was apparently still figuring out the take-more-photos part of my 2012 resolutions.
• We took our first "official" Sunday Best pictures on what may have been the rainiest day that month, & I am as embarrassed of them now as I knew I would be then. YEAAAH!

march:

•  We celebrated my guy's 24th birthday, during which I mostly took video instead of pictures, & debuted my first iMovie masterpiece *WINK*
• I started sitting on a ball at work. & it's awesome.
• & WE started our Financial Peace University class & our lives kinda changed.
• Then... my friends dragged me along to see Hunger Games & I lost two weeks of my life to reading the entire trilogy.

april:

• Lovely Easter family! We work pretty hard at our subtle coordination on Easter Sunday, but not nearly as hard as we worked on our Easter egg dyeing.
• We visited the beach quite frequently because sweet, wonderful spring graced us with its presence early.
• Things changed a lot for us in April, just in the sense of where we thought we were going next as far as school, jobs, etc. It kinda felt like a dead end, but it, in the cheesiest of ways, was also such a grand beginning.
• & then. Jared came home one day, after I had HURLED my awful, evil not-iPhone-phone across the room for the third time in one day... & the skies parted & the angels sang & suddenly? We had iPhones. Okay, I'll stop sounding shallow. But our old phones were really awful.

may:

• In the midst of regular-day-job-events, I got to do what I love best, & coordinated the sweetest wedding for a country girl & her marine. You can take a peek at their darling blog here, because they're all cute & married now.
• I self-bleached my hair & didn't burn a hole through my head, or the counter, or the rug or ANYTHING.
• Then, SUDDENLY! We took a leap of faith & Jared started work with a brand, spankin' new company called Fruitive. & it's been nothin' but good things to us. We kinda love it.
• & to finish off a big month, we made our biggest purchase ever together & bought a new-to-us car. Yeah, May was fun.

june:

• June picked up real fast at work, so we started working extra hard to go on dates. Hold hands. Share a drink. Stare into each other's eyes. Ooey gooey love stuff.
• OH, & I RESCUED BABY DUCKS. They were so cute.
• Then we went to the beach again.

july:

 

• I kicked off July with a trip to visit my best friend in Indiana, where I had lived for my most glamourous middle school/junior high years. The bonus was that I got to meet her fiance, Trent. The extra bonus was that we spent the majority of our trip at her family's lake house. Then I made a video about it.
• Shortly after I got home, we had the pleasure of meeting our sweet, newest niece, Mia. I took some pictures of her & her mama, who are two of the biggest beauties in my life. Love them.
• The rest of July was spent laying in hammocks. Just kidding, it was mostly spent at work. But we did enjoy our days off in the sun, since it was sort of our last month of downtime before...

 august:

• An absolute highlight to August was seeing Ingrid Michaelson in concert for the third time. SHE JUST GETS ME.
• & suddenly, it was time to pack up the green apartment & move to another (close by) city. It was hard to say goodbye to our first married home & all of it's modern day conveniences, but after a lot of searching, we found the perfect new home in a historic neighborhood in Norfolk, & that smoothed over a lot of the sadness.
• It took us about ohhhhhhhhhhh, sayyyyyyyy, a month? to really unpack & get settled in the middle of the busy seasons at both of our jobs, but little by little, we made our new place a home.

september:

•  In September, we finally had unpacked enough of the house that we ungrounded ourselves & took a trip up to Richmond to "help" Amelia & Andrew break in their new house. As usual, good food & good fun was had.
• BUT ALSO. Amelia & I participated in Richmond's "Color Run," which I would highly recommend if you, like me, don't really run so much as you just love skipping & high five-ing. It was a little bit of a bucket list thing for me to do. 5k: CHECK.
• At the end of September, I was invited to guest lecture at my alma mater, which was completely nerve-wracking but SO fulfilling. It felt pretty full circle, even if I only graduated two years prior. It was a pretty amazing opportunity.

 october:

•  In October, I turned 24 & decided to switch things up. So, with Jared's enouragement, I dyed my hair back to its natural color & pierced my nose. I was feeling simultaneously over & underwhelmed with life, & that seemed to make me feel better.
• We celebrated our TWO YEAR anniversary with a quiet dinner at home, promising to one another that we'd remain sane until my giant event at work had passed & we could run away on our November vacation.
• ... Then Hurricane Sandy came & ruined the giant event at work, therefore pushing it to the following weekend, therefore elongating my stress. But we got to enjoy a lot of golden doodle cuddles, yummy food & Psych at my parents house while we waited for the storm to pass. Silver lining, people.

 november:

• November arrived & we finally got to adventure to the southern coasts of North Carolina for a week of r&r. It was BLISS. Plus, baby Mia & her parents joined us, so it was CUTE bliss.
• Surpriiiiise! More time in Richmond with our best friends!
• At the end of the month, I shared about how I wanted to start writing on this old blog more often, & received nothing but encouragement. Thank you for that.
• & of course, Thanksgiving.

december:

 

• It's hard to write highlights about December because I still have details that I want to share here on the blog. So expect some time traveling, soon.
• Obviously, the Tacky Lights Tour was a perfect kick off to the holiday season.
• & then Amelia & I met Sherry & John of Young House Love at a book signing & she complimented our oufits. So, we kinda swooned & started babbling about them being our heroes as they signed our book. fangurlzzzz!
• We made a weekend double date out of the Dave Matthews concert in Charlottesville on Saturday... (I DIED LIKE 8 TIMES. OH, & THE LUMINEES OPENED FOR THEM. MAKE THAT 13 TIMES.)
• & then Christmastown in Williamsburg on Sunday. Year 2! Yay for traditions with friends!
• We then spent Christmas with Jared's family at a beach house, & got every single soul under one roof for a picture. It just keeps getting bigger... & look! Jared & I had a bouquet!
• To end the year, my sister's baby showed up early to her own party by arriving 2 days before her due date. Welcome, Baby Cat!

2012 kinda seemed like it went on forever. & ever & ever & ever. Having survived it, however, we can already see the pieces that God was moving around. We are so humbled & blessed by all we have, by what every year brings us. So bring it on, 2013. You're lookin' mighty bright, already.