My Year in Review

2012 has been one of the best years of my life. It started out in January with my 29th birthday. My closest girlfriends spent the day with me, followed by dinner with my parents and then a party at Kyle's house. I joked that you know you are getting older when you wear a scarf to your birthday party. In February  we celebrated Kyle's 30th birthday. In March, Kyle proposed! We started planning a wedding immediately. In June, we went to Montana for my first taste of the Montana life. We celebrated Henry's 1st year of life, and enjoyed a leisurely vacation with family. In July, we watched fireworks at The Oaks with my brother, sis-in-law and the girls. August was my lovely bridal shower. Followed by a bridal shower in Sept in Pittsburgh and then a night of hilarious bachelorette fun in Dallas. We peppered in some OSU games, trips to see the nieces, friends birthdays, and me moving in with Kyle. Oh and I had that little trip to urgent care after cutting my finger. Which I ended up losing and growing a new end to my pinky finger. I call it my nubbin.

And in October Kyle and I got hitched. I had taken 7 months of my life to plan that day. Our closest friends and family bundled up (stupid weather) and watched us become husband and wife. We had the most wonderful wedding weekend and I still feel like I am on a high from that. People ask me all the time, "how is married life?" I say wonderful. There is never a dull moment with Kyle and he makes my life more exciting and complete.
On Wednesday after the wedding, I started my new wine sales job. Best career move ever. I love it.

In November we celebrated Thanksgiving at my mom and dad's house. Katie and Louie and Zach and Kristin stayed at our house and we had so much fun. Tons of food and football and laughter. Our family holidays aren't the kind where we dread spending time together. And for that, I am grateful.

December brought our first Christmas as a married couple. Kyle got to go home to Pittsburgh but I had to stay behind and sell booze to people. Kyle flew home and then we bought his dad's SUV and he drove it home. I said goodbye to my white Honda Accord on Thursday night and I am already getting used to being an SUV driver.
This weekend we went to Dallas and had Christmas with the Webb's/Lauck's. Tomorrow night we will ring in the new year with friends at our country club. We get to be all dressed up and celebrate such a wonderful year. And we will spend the first day of 2013 laying on the couch watching football all day. Just enjoying our life. Our wonderful, fun-filled, relaxing life.

Cheers to you 2012, you treated me well. And here's to you, 2013. I bet you have some fun things in store for the Gatewood's.

Best Pictures of 2012

Here are my favorite pictures of 2012. I didn't go by month this year, I just picked my overall favorite pictures. Of course, the highlight of my year was marrying my love. And sharing that wonderful day with my family and friends.

Decorating Our Home

Since moving in with Kyle, I have done my best to transform his house from bachelor pad to married home. A few of the changes include: throwing out his furniture in the den and replacing it with my couches, decorative pillows for the couches in the den and living room, adding bookcase and other various decorations to the formal living room, and new bedding in our bedroom. I have added some other decorations throughout the house but there is still so much I want to do. The problem? I get so overwhelmed with all of the cute decorations out there that I just don't buy anything. I see something cute but I don't know where to put it so I just don't buy it.

I have decided I need to take it one step (room) at a time and tackle this project. I have always wanted a home that I could decorate to my liking and now that I have it, it is time to really start. Here are the things on my to do list for the house:

Organize china cabinet
Organize top of cabinets in kitchen
Get art for kitchen
Get 4 small baskets for TV console in den
Decorative tray for TV console in den
Decorate mantle
Purchase wine cabinet for dining room
Make picture arrangement on staircase
New wall arrangement for entry hall
Art for bedroom

I have wedding pictures printed and as soon as they are delivered, I will pick frames at Hobby Lobby and start my staircase project. There are so many cute ideas on Pinterest, I just hope I can actually execute one of them successfully!

See my Creating a Home board here.

If I Won the Lottery

I bet you all have been thinking about this lately. What if I won 550 million dollars? What exactly would I do with that much money? Here are a few things I would buy:

This house in Midtown Tulsa.

Kyle a new car.

My mom and dad new cars and would remodel their house to their liking.

I would set up college funds for Lauren, Allison, Jordyn and Henry. And our future children.

A vacation house in Colorado so we can ski in the winter and a vacation house in Florida so we could beach in the summer.

Pay off my student loans.

I would take the most fabulous vacation to Paris and take all my lady family members with me.

Kyle and I would take the most ridiculously awesome honeymoon.

I would buy Erin and Bryan whatever they want. I don't know exactly what they would want.

Donate to charities. Probably some for kids and some for doggies. And the elderly.

Kyle would make me invest tons of the money so after all this, I would have to out the kibosh on spending for a while.

These are just some of the ideas of the top of my head. Of course there are plenty of other things I would do with the money.

What would you buy with $550 million?

Thanksgiving Eats

I have never really eaten anyone else's Thanksgiving food (except that one year we had to eat at Cracker Barrel) but I can tell you that my family has the best Thanksgiving food. We have had the same staples for so many years:

Turkey
Dressing
Mashed potatoes
Giblet gravy
Green bean casserole
Sweet potatoes
Cranberry sauce
Cheesecake (made by my mom, the best cheesecake maker ever)
Pecan pie

This year we are adding a few new dishes since we have so many people coming to my parents house. Here are the things I am thinking of bringing:

Jalapeno Creamed Corn

Homemade peanut butter cups

I love pinning all types of fancy drink recipes and then I never make them. I, of course, will be providing all kinds of wine this year. But the most important thing I am bringing is my new husband. His very first Thanksgiving with us. Oh and we get to see our wedding video for the first time!

A (New) Typical Day

This picture makes me smile. It is the background on my phone and I look at it at least 50 times a day. Kyle and I have been married 1 month today. We are celebrating with "deep fried night" on our weekly dinner menu. Kyle's idea, if you couldn't guess. We got a new fryer for a wedding gift and he pumped to use it. I feel like I almost have our house in order. The dining room is still a bit of a mess, but I plan on getting it all cleaned up before Thanksgiving. Our new bedding is on and looks great. Our kitchen is filled with new appliances. Our den is looking nice with new decorative pillows. And our dinners are much prettier now that they are served on new Fiesta ware! Peacock color is so pretty.

Since starting my new job, I have taken on a whole new daily routine. A routine that I like about 10 times more than my old routine. I used to be up by 6:30, showered and out the door, walking into work at 7:45. I sat at a desk all day, clocking in and out for lunch. It began to suck the life out of me. I felt like I wasn't getting to enjoy life. Add a trip to the gym on at the end of the work day and I felt like I barely had time to see Kyle in the evenings.

Now, I wake up and have a cup of coffee and then go for a run at the park down the street. Then I do a little computer work. Then I head out to call on some accounts. It is a wonderfully relaxed schedule, and the best part is that I decided where and when I want to go. There, of course, are exceptions. Some days I have a meeting at the office. At 10 (much better than 7:30). Or I have to drive a supplier around town, tasting wines at accounts. And then I get to bring those wines home and enjoy them with Kyle. While I enjoy a nice night at home, with plenty of time to watch TV, read, or do laundry.

Now, if they could only let me have Christmas Eve off :)

Alpha Dei Photography

Our professional pics are finished, and they are absolutely wonderful! I have told many people that researching photogs was time consuming and one of the harder tasks of planning a wedding. Once I met Aaron Moseley with Alpha Dei, I knew he was the right choice.

Aaron was absolutely wonderful throughout the planning and the wedding day. He had our photos ready in less than 3 weeks, which is amazing to me.

Here is the link to check out all 411 photos from the wedding:

Alpha Dei Photography

I have lots of favorites, but here are some of the best.