Memories from Summers Past!

I've been looking back at old photos a LOT lately, so I decided to bring a few old favorites back to life and reminisce on randomness from past summers.

-This is honestly one of my favorite photos of Caleb and I! He was a groomsmen in a childhood friends wedding and we drove down to Memphis for it! It was the summer right after we got married so my hair was still crazy long, and I curled it (which I never used to do). I have to say this is my new hair goal. I've loved it short, but I'm ready for a change!

-Last year for my birthday we took a trip to Indy with our best friends! It was a lot of fun. The state fair proved to be quite the attraction with so much to do, see and EAT!

-YEARS ago when our friends didn't live more than 10 minutes from us, we went to visit sweet little Nora. Many of our summer evenings were spent with them! Its hard for us to live over 30 minutes from them now. We miss you, Young family!! This photo always made me so happy. She was "hiding" from him!

-Last Summer our church shut its doors the Sunday of Labor Day weekend (which we're doing again this year!) and we went out in the community to "rise and build". Some folks needed their weeds pulled, others needed help painting, others just needed food. Its a great feeling to give back!

-Last summer we spent a LOT of time at our favorite donut shop. What's bad is since we moved last September, we could literally walk there now. Maybe I will convince Caleb we can get our steps in by walking to the donut shop? ;)

-Two years ago, when I turned 23, these cuties helped me ring it in the right way. Erin made me a personalized checklist for the evening, we made hilarious music videos and just hung out eating way too much cake and ice cream.

-The time Caleb got me Paramore tickets for my 19th birthday! I was so surprised! He still leaves me this smitten.

-Two Summers ago when I was cooking like a boss, trying new recipes. Where did that version of me go? I hope she comes back! ;) hopefully next week...I've actually meal planned my butt off! Woo!

-One wedding last summer when OSU's Brutus showed up! What the what?!

Summer will always be awesome for its warm weather but MAN I am ready for some fall breezes, bonfires and new booties!

Have a great day, friends!

2015: A Look Back

Here we are, another year to look back on. It's always one of my favorite blog posts I write, to look back at my year in reflection. It's one reason I'm insanely thankful for this blog of mine...I can always look back and read about things we've done that I would've forgotten about otherwise!

2015 was definitely a memorable year. It was the craziest, busiest, most challenging year I've ever had, but I'm better because of it, and had an amazing time! So in order, here are some of the top moments from my last year!

Caleb and I rang in the new year at one of my best friends weddings...

I set my 2015 goals, and we did a fun DIY project!
Our out of town friends came to visit and we adventured through our city!

My friends and I celebrated one of our besties at her baby shower!

Photographed our first wedding of the year, and loved it! We had 29 total!
Really learned how important "me time" is and took advantage of the time I got!

Ran 7 miles with my man in preparation for my 2nd half marathon!
Worked my butt off with an exercise challenge (and rocked it)!

Celebrated my Great Grandma Agnes' 85th birthday and Easter all in one weekend!!

Visited Becca in the hospital the night she had Norah!
Watched my brother in the Red's Opening Day parade!! Such a proud big sister moment!

Ran my 2nd half marathon with my husband and brother in law!

Enjoyed our SECOND (whaaat?!) anniversary with a trip to Pittsburgh! We ate way too much food, and had way too much fun :)

Had a blast at our summer kick-off and got SUPER burned the morning of at the "largest yard sale" ever.

Photographed one of our favorite weddings to date and met the real Buckeye BRUTUS!!!!
We paid off two loans by June and are still hitting it hard!
Shot two weddings the 4th of July weekend - and enjoyed the coolest firework show we'd ever seen!

Spent a life changing week with the teens of our youth group in Tennessee...
Finally got to white water raft!!!!!

Shared the best, easiest dessert recipe EVER...
Spent my 24th birthday with our best friends in a new city!!

Ordered my first Erin Condren planner -- yes, this tops the "big moments" of 2015.
Rediscovered my love for family photography!!

We even moved to a nearby town to save some monthly cash - and even got more square footage!

Celebrated Caleb's birthday - he turned 27!!
We went to one of the best Bengals games of our lives!

Found out we're going to be an AUNT AND UNCLE! Coolest day ever :)

Enjoyed a bonfire, lots of birthday celebrations with family, and Thanksgiving all in November.

We spent an entire week off work together doing whatever our hearts desired - no work allowed!

We enjoyed our 3rd married Christmas together and are ready to ring in a new year once the clock hits midnight tonight. I'm so thankful to be able to look back at all of these memories! I hope you can do the same!

Bring it on, 2016!!

A hilarious blast through the past

I was looking at some old photos last night...and it really hit me how long Caleb and I have been together. This summer will be 6 years of awesomeness together ;) but our 2nd wedding anniversary is just days away and its so funny to look back on old photos. We've come so far in these few years and I'm so thankful for the husband I have. In honor of #throwbackthursday, I thought I'd share some of my favorite moments from the past 6ish years with this hunk...

The first time this cute boy came on vacation with us -- it was such a blast. I don't think I've laughed so much in my life. Pretty sure this trip with my family solidified our relationship. My little cousins fell in love with him and my aunt literally told me I was never allowed to let go of this boy ;)

When we were home from college in the summer, a ton of us would go bowling...seriously, all the time. You can tell it was summer because Caleb always had a burnt face from those long days working at the golf club... ;)

This will always be one of my favorite shots of us. He surprised me with concert tickets for my 19th birthday and whenever a man wants to actually snap a few selfies, you don't question it. He kept snapping away and caught this sweet little moment...

Dinners at our favorite restaurant in college; Fiestaaaa!

an accidental head cut off shot turned into one of my favorites. We left campus to drive an hour to a carnival and had a blast breaking curfew ;)

One of my favorite RANDOM date nights of ours at college was driving to a local apple farm and finding...wait for it, a freaking HORSE.

"Junior/Senior" at COSI will always be a favorite night of ours!

but most of my memories from college include this boy and this tiny little love seat in his apartment. We watched many movies in here, had many heart-to-hearts, and just had a blast being together. Don't you love all the old school Picnik editing on all of these pictures?! ;)

I think reflecting on our past can be so good for us, and definitely entertaining. I hope you enjoyed some of our photos today, friends! ;) its almost the weekend!

Throwback Thursday! {our mini-story}

We were babies.

Liiittle tiny babies when we first got "reconnected". I say reconnected because we met when I was in 7th grade, and he was in 9th (scandalous, I know). We met through my best friend Lyndsie, who was in youth group with Caleb. 

One of the first and only nights I hung out with the youth group, we all went to Lyndsie's and watched The Notebook. Caleb thought he was so funny (he was), and asked me to go lay in the street with him like Noah and Allie did (we totally had pictures of it, until Lyndsie's dad's computer crashed...sad story).

After that, he never made a grand gesture to hang out so I didn't think he was interested... all the while for the next few years, Lyndsie drops hints in my ear of how "Caleb thinks you're so cute, Caleb wants to see you, Caleb keeps talking about you...lalala"... and she always told him there was never a chance, and to just give up because I was already taken.

& do you think that boy gave up? I don't think so.

Flash forward to my senior year of high school.

I hadn't yet broken up with my long-time high school boyfriend, but had been waiting for the right time to do so. Those of who you break up know there is never a "right time". I had just gotten saved at my first ever church-camp experience and had plans to get baptized on my 18th birthday in a few weeks.

Call me crazy, but I had been pleading praying for God to bring me someone who would love me despite my mistakes, flaws, and to bring me someone who would bring me closer to Him, someone who would treat me with true respect and faithfulness. Someone who would understand that bad days for me means you come over and watch a chick-flick while I cry...someone to bring me ice cream when Aunt Flo comes for a visit... someone to make me laugh so hard I can't breathe, and someone who would love me for me.

& he brought me Caleb.

How, you ask?

Well, at this point of the summer after I came back from camp, Lyndsie was having her graduation party, and waddyaaa know, mister Caleb is there, too. We hadn't seen each other in years & we immediately picked up where we left off. This is the only picture we got that night... 

He obviously had his eyes on me ;) 

What is up with high school girls and peace signs? It was apparently my go-to. Regardless... I broke up with my then-boyfriend the next day and the rest is history...

{There are more fun details on how we ended up together...but I'll save those for next week}

glitter all over the room...

What am I thinking about today? Well.... if you must know.

Girl crush at its finest.

Remember that time my girl Erin got me amazing tickets to see our biggest girl crush ever Katy Perry?! Oh wait... you don't, because that is before I blogged when I was still a loser ;) so let me show you JUST how much fun we had that night. It was kiiiind of one of the best nights of my life.

My gorgeous SIL-to-be.

You know we had to rock the pink lipstick and matching WE LOVE KATY shirts. Duhhh.
We were pre-gaming it by going to the outside party the venue was holding...and guess who won a FREE t-shirt?

THIS GIRL.

Then we pretended to be Katy for a second...

So we get inside... and oh my wooorrddd. We were CLOSE.

Then she came on stage... ahhh. It was like the best concert I'd ever been too. I really will never forget this night. We may or may not have known EVERY word to every song she sang...and not only did she sound amazing, she put on a SHOW. It was pure entertainment... hilarious, sexy, and nerdy. What more can ya want?!

Brownie points if you can name this song.

She definitely looked down at us and for a moment... we became her best friends

;) promise.

We danced the entire night, lost our voices, and had the time of our lives. Literally.

She shot whipped cream from a candy cane gun...

 and then ended the night with the sweetest freaking confetti drop this worlds ever seen.

Ahhh the memories. I so want to go back. Erin and I had vowed that when she comes back to Ohio we are splurging and buying our freaking selves a meet and greet backstage pass & not thinking twice!

You ALSO know we went together to see her movie... um. Please tell me you've all seen it? Its so good... we laughed, cried, and sang along. 

Happy thursday friends... hope you enjoyed this "throwback" edition ;)

TOMORRROW IS FRIDAY!!! Where has this week gone?!

Do I say that every week??

A true throwback

So, I searched for my old Myspace a few weeks ago... and absolutely couldn't remember my password. Do you want to know what I finally figured out was my password?!

(this just proves I'm a fat girl at heart...)

"muffins09"

MUFFINS?!

Okay, so I did go through an Otis Spunkemeyer stage back in breakfast period of high school... judge me.

Anywho... lets change THAT subject! I began looking at all my pictures...ughh. I'm more motivated than ever to get that my 17 yr old body back. Caleb keeps reminding me that I wasn't "a women" yet... pffft. Now I guess I just have "more to love" (which PS- is an actual "body type" choice on Myspace!).

Basically all I could find on there were silly things from my last year of high school...and my prom dress. I only went to ONE prom all of high school... and dress shopping for it went very well for me. I saw the dress, tried it on... and knew it was "the one".

You know I needed a diva pose... you like my multi colored walls?

Since we're on the "throwback" subject....I'll take you into my past a little bit ;)

Yeah, I went through a short hair stage... a REALLY short hair stage.

I keep wondering if I should go back after the wedding? I truly don't think long hair is for me...its SO hard to keep up with, and just gets more expensive to get colored... gaaah.

Decisions.

Then there is a tiiiny album when I met Caleb... can you all believe Myspace was still around!?

There he is...forcing me to eat an entire elephant ear...okay, I took it willingly. Carnival food is my crack.

There we are being super hotttt at our first concert together...we weren't even together yet ;)

Apparently I wasn't eating enough...

Continuing to look at the profile section of my Myspace...oh lord

The first song on my Myspace playlist is; Jason Derulo "Watcha Say"... lordy.

My bio;

 I work in the mall, and eat way too much food. I have been blessed with a great boyfriend; Caleb Magness. He is amazing! I also have thee best friends ever, they are always there for me..... Photography is my passion and my lifelong goal is to own a successful Photography Business on my own. I'm a little too obsessed with strawberry cheesecake and milkshakes. If you ever need anything; get at me!

Get at me?!! Who am I?

THANK GOODNESS THAT IS OVER.

I bet in 15 years I'll look back at my Facebook and crack up at myself. But, that keeps people humble I think... learning to laugh at yourself.

Happy Thursday everybody!