2011, you were awesome.

2011 has easily been the best year of my life thus far, and even though I can't see how any year will ever be better, I think that 2012 is going to come pretty close if its anything like I'm imagining it will be. I say this because there are some HUGE changes coming in our life and we are super excited about that. I wanted to end this year with some highlights from 2011 and some of the things we are looking forward to in 2012.

Some (of the many) highlights from 2011:
1. Our wedding and marriage..which we wouldn't trade for the world. Marriage is awesome!!
2. Cory got into PA school, and we decided where we would be going!
3. We bought our dog Riley, who has brought so much joy to our lives. She makes us laugh all the time.
4. Cory got to spend 2 weeks at a hospital in Bolivia, which further confirmed God's calling on his (and our) life.
5. We finally got to explore our nation's capital! It was on my bucket list for many years.
6. We graduated from UF.

Looking forward to in 2012:
1. I will be taking boards and officially become licensed as a nurse.
2. I will be getting a job.
3. We're moving to Dallas as soon as I get a job.
4. Cory will start PA school in May.
5. Getting settled in Dallas and starting our new life there together.
6. House hunting. This may seem silly, but I'm a little obsessed with the show House Hunters and will get to do it in real life! Though, we'll be renting and not buying...but it will still be fun!
7. Seeing where God is going to lead us as far as a new church, new friends, and the ministries that we will get to be involved in out there.

Please be praying for us as 2012 is going to be a big year for both of us!

Have a wonderful New Year's Eve and New Year's Day! See you all next year!!

Christmas in Pensacola

December 26 is one of my least favorite days of the year--only because it means that Christmas is a year away. I absolutely love the Christmas season and hate for it to be over already! Although I'm sad its over,  I'm thankful that we had such a great time for our first Christmas as a married couple.

As mentioned before, we spent Christmas in Pensacola with Cory's side of the family. It was my first time away from my family on Christmas, and although we definitely wish our families lived closer so we could see them both-or that we could be in two places at once-we had a wonderful time in Pensacola.

On Christmas eve, we went to church then had a Christmas party at Cory's grandparent's house with his dad's side of the family. They go all out on Christmas, even putting on a family play (complete with costumes!) to act out Luke 2. Afterward, presents are passed out and it is crazy mass chaos until all presents are opened. It was super fun to watch the little ones get so excited and rip open all of their presents! Hilarious event of the night: while the presents were getting passed out, someone went to check on the dogs in the backyard and one of them ran into the house. Now, normally, this would not be a big deal...but this dog (a fox terrier) is literally the fastest dog I have ever seen in my life. She got loose and was sprinting around the living room, narrowly escaping the grip of every adult in the room. It looked like the scene from National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation where the squirrel was loose in the house! Absolutely hilarious. I'm so sad that I didn't get my camera out in time but its definitely something I will remember..it was so funny!

Pictures from Christmas eve:

All of the actors/actresses during the play

Our family on our first Christmas eve together :)

Then, on Christmas we went to church with Cory's grandmother (mom's side) and then went back to her house to celebrate with that side of the family. We had a yummy lunch then watched everyone open their gifts! This time was different in that one of the kids plays "Santa", passing out the gifts one at a time, and everyone watches them open it! It was fun and there were a lot of funny moments. In the afternoon, we watched A Christmas Story (one of my Christmas traditions), took naps, played games, and set up my iPad (Side note: I absolutely love my iPad-I can already tell its going to be used for everything!). It was a super relaxing afternoon and we were so thankful for that.

Pictures from Christmas day:

Lunch with the family

Opening gifts

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and got to spend time with family. More than that, I hope that you didn't let this Christmas pass by without remembering that its more than just about family and presents. I hope that you took the opportunity to thank God for sending his Son to earth to die for us, so that you and I could have the opportunity for a relationship with Him. THAT is what truly makes Christmas so special and awesome.

Last, but not least, I wanted to leave you with a picture of a tradition that Cory and I have had for the past 3 years-building a gingerbread house! Here is ours from this year:

We did it!

Its hard to believe, but its true-last week we made our decision final. It was one of the hardest decisions we've ever had to make because each school was great in its own way...but after a few days of hardcore prayer and discussions, we realized that it was becoming pretty clear that one school was standing out among the rest. Thats when we made the decision that we are going to TEXAS! We truly can't wait! We are going to move out there as soon as I get a job, but no later than mid-April (even if I don't have a job) since Cory starts school mid-May and we don't want to be getting there right before he has to start school!

In other news, Cory and I graduated this past weekend! I had my pinning ceremony for nursing school on Friday and then our actual graduations were on Saturday. It was a lot of fun because both of our families came in town so we got to spend time with them, which we hadn't done in a while.  Its a weird feeling to be done with school (at least for a while)..but I can't wait to be working and doing what I love!  Here are a couple pictures of Cory and I from this past weekend:

Right before my pinning ceremony

We'll definitely miss home games in the Swamp!

We also made it into our local newspaper! You can read it here: Graduation article

Prayer that we need now:

1) For me to get my test date for the NCLEX soon and to pass on the first time!

2) For the job search to be a quick, easy process and for God to open doors

3) That we will stay focused on things here in Gainesville, and not get carried away with our excitement about this next step in our life

We are heading to Pensacola on Thursday to spend Christmas with family so I will try to post while up there! Have a great Tuesday! :)

Decisions, Decisions.

Well, Cory got an e-mail from Duke a few days ago....and.......HE'S IN!! We were SO excited to hear that and were very thankful for the good news! Even though I totally knew he was in (who wouldn't want such an awesome guy?! :) ), it was still great getting that confirmation e-mail from them! NOW comes the hard part though-we have to actually decide where to go. We've been able to put it off until now but we can't do that anymore, we have to officially decide by next week. AHHHH. Its so exciting yet scary to think that we will know by next week where we will be spending the next few years (at least).

As we keep saying, we are so thankful that this decision is not ours to make. It would be a lot more scary if that were the case...but we know that God is completely in this and we are praying for it to be very clear. We don't feel as though there is a "bad" decision, since each school is great and has its own positive and negatives. Its just a matter of finding where we know that God wants us to be for a little while. We're just thankful that we even have the opportunity to have this decision, that is a blessing in itself! I can't wait to share with you where we will be living soon.

In other news, I am officially done with school so now we are just waiting for Cory to be done! He has a few more things that need to be done but then he will be done and we can start our break!! We've been waiting for this for a long time-we got thrown right back into "real life" the day we got back from our honeymoon and never got a chance to slow down...so we're very ready to relax and hang out together without the looming stress of school, life, etc that happens while the semester is in session.

We'll keep you updated on the school situation and other happenings in life, but until then, have a great week!