Lately...

Starting next week, the blog will feature "Marathon Monday" posts with a weekly video update, so yay for that!!

(Alternating phone screensavers lately)

Annie's "Stay Tuned" Advent videos have been wonderfully encouraging in this season (all focused on these verses).

I made these Pioneer Woman apple dumplings for the second time in like 3 years on Friday... yum! 

*(For the record, I used half the butter and sugar she calls for - still tasted great - and I've paced myself and given several away and not overdone it, aaaand training officially starts this coming weekend. lol)

AFD in NYC - grateful for that Instagram account for ideas for my upcoming trip, and grateful for all the ways Annie has inspired me to live a more vibrant life!!

Saturday was Pei Wei lunch with the fabulous Foster fam - fun times - Miles and Hope were both talkative and had lots of good things to share, and it was great to catch up with Jon and Kristin too!

After lunch, I picked up my new Halo Couture hair extensions (they're removable like a headband - wearing them in this photo) - they add the perfect amount of length and volume, and they match my hair color and blend really well - YAY!  Also, I love the new window display at Janelle's salon! =)

After that, I went to watch Parker Elizabeth's ballet performance!  I was picturing a much more low-key thing, but this was a massive event at Union High's theater room that holds 3000 people where I had to park like a mile away and barely made it inside on time... eek!  She was on stage for approximately 4-5 minutes, but the little mice were genuinely the cutest part of the show (which was all very well done and fun to watch).  Gigi and Grammy both brought flowers for her, and she was a fan! =)

Get OUT with the cuteness of this photoshoot!  Love her and her entire personality! ❤ #feistymouse

The wonderful Wilson fam - could not love them more!  We took some pics for their Christmas cards, then I joined them and the Weatherfords for dinner at Mission BBQ (where Parker showed me her new Chick-fil-A Christmas ornament). lol

After all of that, I drove to Rachael's house where she curled my hair (and extensions) and loaned me some cute clothes, then I tried on several options and sent tons of photo texts to her and Mom to decide what to wear for the headshot photos the next day. lol  (This = her cute front door chalkboard.)

Saturday, we met at the White Moose Studio where we all changed clothes multiple times and Amy took several photos of us from 11:30 to 1:00!  My first professional photo shoot where I wasn't in the photographer role, and it was pretty fun (and incredibly well-timed, as I mentioned in the previous post)!  Michelle, Amy, Lauren, and Joy have been my CCU roommates at the last two Residency weekends, and we've had a group text for the past couple years that's helped us all get through grad school together!  (Lauren and Joy drove down from McKinney, TX for this!)

Michelle turned on a fun playlist of '90s hits, and we took tons of individual photos and ended with a few of all of us - excited to get those back soon! ❤

We went to Cheever's Cafe in OKC for lunch - new to me, and my chicken enchiladas were great!  It was a really fun morning talking about future plans and celebrating being *almost done* with our Master's degree!!

And finally, last night was Dad's State Farm Christmas dinner at BJ's, where we had a big crowd and grabbed a family table to the side of the main staff table.  Jaceman joined us for this group photo, but sat with some other boys around his age for dinner! I feel bad that I didn’t ask for a full SF staff pic… I’ll remedy that next time!

PS how much do I love turtlenecks!?  Yes, please - classy and cozy and cute!!  I'm so happy about having some cute new shirts that fit me - a few from Rach and several that I ordered on Amazon for the photo session!

Okay, that's really all for today.  For what it's worth, I love you and believe in you, and I believe in your ability to create a life you love!

❤❤❤