Here's to 2018

Each year, this is one of my favorite posts.

I love intentionally taking the time to go back through the year and make note of the special/fun things that happened throughout the year. 

It makes me step back and realize that I really am very blessed and have so many good things in my life. Even in the midst of the stressful or hard times, I can look back and see how The Lord was using those times to bring me to something new, something better. 

January:

We had a beautiful snow day--and the day after a work holiday so had a super extended weekend ;)

February:

Went to my first ever Chocolate Festival

Our family dog, Oliver, lived a long life of 15 years 

Jason started on our pergola--helping make the backyard of my dreams!

March: 

Sweet little Ann Hatten was baptized by her Grando

 We went to New Orleans to see Phantom of the Opera

Which also happened to fall on our "Engagement-aversary" week and we were able to snap this picture in the same spot Jason asked me to marry him 5 years ago!

 I served as the Narrator for our Easter Cantata at church--something that my Uncle Edd always did. 

We dyed Easter eggs at my parents house--a fun tradition that Mom has kept going since we've all grown up

April:

 Easter Sunday

And a completed pergola!

An epic girls night--the first time the 5 of us had a night together in YEARS!

May:

After two years of hard work, I turned in my National Boards!

My parents celebrated  35 years of marriage 

June:

Jason and I were gifted tickets to see Sister Act at New Stage and it was so, so good. 

Going to the "I love the 90's" tour with my best friends from the 90's 

 Getting the worse and ugliest sunburn of my life--you can still see the discoloration to this day.

 Annual Father's Day trip to Ship Island

We celebrated Russell's 1st birthday!

July:

The Wolfe/Ellison Wedding Celebration

Chaperoned another RYM

The Hunter/Welch Wedding

My 10 Year High School Reunion

Our Annual Griswold Family Vacation--Ann Hatten's first time!

I turned 29 and had the most wonderful birthday brunch with the family 

 We got this awesome print drawer from Jason's Nana and redid it to go in the office

August: 

We celebrated Blair's 30th Birthday

Started my 7th and Jason's 8th year of teaching

We traveled to Auburn to celebrate my Nana's 90th Birthday!

The church hosted The Gray Haven's and they put on an amazing concert

I started school at William Carey University to pursue my Master's Degree in Emotional and Behavioral Disorders

September:

 A much-needed game night over the Labor Day weekend

 6 years since our very first date at Papito's--one of my favorite traditions

 A girl's day trip to New Orleans to see Aladdin and celebrate Melissa's birthday

October:
Since this year marked Jason's 40th birthday, we celebrated for days and days on end ;)

 Celebration 1: Dinner at Amerigo

 Celebration 2: Dinner at Surin's followed by a movie of the Birthday Man's choice

 Celebration 3: The family dinner at my parent's house. Mom went all out and it made for the perfect 40th birthday celebration!

 A Halloween Party with The Thomases

Mom & I made a day trip to Laurel to see all the places filmed in "Hometown" and some other things special to Laurel

We hosted our 6th Annual BYOP

And we ended October seeing Lauren Daigle at Thalia Mara

November:

The Snowden/Bristow Wedding

This quickly became my favorite concert of all-time. The MSU Riley Center is a beautiful venue and Ray LaMontagne is in his own category. 

 Two Thanksgivings (one in Brandon & one in Ocean Springs) with much to be thankful for

We always end November celebrating our anniversary--5 years this year!

December:

Found out I PASSED my National Boards! Long awaited and much anticipated...and relieved!

Added wooden shelves to our office as our traditional 5 year anniversary gift (wood)--which has now completed the office! 

 Had a fun little photo shoot with Grant's sister, Nicole, for our Christmas cards this year and I am in love with every picture--something we will cherish for years to come.

 

 This sweet little niece of ours turned ONE!

Ballet Magnificat brought back "The Snow Queen" and it is still one of my favorite ballet performances--such a moving story and the perfect way to get in the Christmas spirit

2nd Annual wine & ornament swap with the girls

We made the trip to Memphis to see Drew Holcomb & The Neighbor's Christmas show and it was one of my favorite events this year. We also got to spend time with family and see some friends I hadn't seen in years. 

We ended the year with our annual trip to Auburn to see (most) all of our family and it was so much fun seeing how our extended family is growing & changing--we've added more kiddos and there's more on the way. We also went to see Jason's family and got to spend New Year's Eve with them. 

This year can pretty much be summed up with words like family, friends and travel--may there be even more of this in 2019!

Thank you 2018, you were awesome.