Oh boy, oh boy. What a whirlwind these past few months have been.

I'm pretty sure the only monumental event in my life lately is that I started grad school and have only 5 weeks until finals! Umm, what? 5 weeks people. And then I only have 3 more semesters until my externship. So crazy.

I'm official!

Here is what I have been up to since we spoke last...

Sic' em :)

I have been able to embrace my inner goofball thanks to my kiddos I have this semester.  I could seriously get used to it ;)

I have also been out and about in Dallas to take a break from the stress of grad school..

Speechy friends!

In the midst of grad school, I also ran the Plano Balloon Festival Half Marathon.
Funny story--I made a rookie mistake and forgot to put my timing chip on my shoe. So the whole time I just ran "for me" and then come to find out, even though it was still on my bib, it registered my time anyways! It was a win-win...ended up having a great race without worrying about my time, and I had a blast! You couldn't beat the views...

My bff/little, Kimber, turned 24 in mid- October and her precious mom threw her a surprise bday party tea. It was so perfect! Kimber was surprised, the food was delish, and we got to shop in a giant Christmas store. I was in heaven!!

So glad I was able to spend time with this girl!

My other bff, Addie, also turned 24 (on the same day, go figure!) so we had dinner during the week and then went to Top Golf that weekend.

Love these girls!

SLP BFFS

I was not happy about doing a gig'em. But only for this girl. (Sic'em)

True love.

We had such a great time! I'm pretty sure the pictures speak for themselves!

I have to say, in the middle of the chaos of my grad school life, I am pretty proud of myself having still found time to hang out with my friends, spend time with my husband, and love on these two...

Sorry for the brief post, but unfortunately, homework beckons!
Have a great week :)

Hello friends!

I know, I know, it’s been awhile since I last posted...at this rate, I will just be writing a monthly update as a post each month.

As the summer came to a close, Eric & I finished up all our traveling, celebrated our anniversary, and I got ready to start grad school (which started last week)!

Two weekends ago, we went to Conroe to visit my parents one more time before school started.

We went down on a Thursday so that we could have plenty of time with them. My grandparents ended up joining us too, which was a lot of fun!

Snuggles at my parent's house with my pup.

Cousins!

Last weekend, we made an 8-hour drive to Lake of the Ozarks in Osage Beach, Missouri with 3 of our friends [and the 2 dogs]. We had such a great time just hanging out in the sun, eating lots of good food, and visiting with each other. It was my last big trip before grad school started, so I definitely made the most of it.

I didn’t take a ton of pictures since we were out on the water most of the time and didn’t want to put my phone at risk, so here is what I did take:

This was at 6 am, right after our 8-hour drive...

My view on one of my runs!

When we got back, my life went into overdrive. Monday, I had my SLP graduate school orientation with all 35 of my new classmates. It was a long day of introductions, policies/procedures, clinic assignments, supervisor assignments, due dates, and sitting in meetings. By the end of the day, I was exhausted. And on Tuesday, there were more meetings. Wednesday, I started classes and I have literally been going non-stop ever since. Let’s just put it this way - I slept until noon on Saturday...umm what? I even went to bed at a decent hour. No shame, I needed it.

It has finally hit me that the next 2 years of my life are going to be really intense and BUSY, but they are also going to be rewarding and I am going to learn SO MUCH about my field.

On Tuesday of this past week, smack dab in the middle of the beginning of grad school, Eric & I had our 2-year wedding anniversary. 2 years! Time has flown by. And I’m sure I will say that every year we celebrate an anniversary. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to actually celebrate that night since I had so much going on, but I did come home to this after being at the clinic all day…

We decided to celebrate this weekend, just by keeping it really low-key and spend the night in. We rented a couple of Redbox movies, made dinner, and relaxed. Definitely more our style.

We also went to a Frisco Rough Riders game this weekend with my friend, Addie. Neither of us had ever been before, and it we had such a great time!

In honor of our anniversary, I have quite the story to tell about our wedding day. I’m not sure if many people know this story, but you are about to ;)

So, on the morning of our wedding, I was doing my thing...hanging with my girls, getting ready for the big day, and watching the ceremony and reception area get set up. Eric was doing his thing, hanging with his boys, playing golf and goofing off. At that point, I had already done everything that needed to be done, as had Eric. We had prepped, delegated, and finished our to-do lists. So I wasn’t even worried about anything going wrong, even though they say something always does. Well, it did. Thankfully, I didn’t know anything about it, because if I had, I probably would have freaked.

Right before I was about to walk down the aisle, someone realized they had forgotten the wedding band Eric was going to give to me. [Honestly, I’m not even sure who it was and it doesn’t even matter because it all worked out :)]

Since, no one realized this until we were about to stand up at the altar, they improvised. My dad walked me down the aisle, passed me off to Eric, and then it got to the moment when we exchanged rings.

Adam, being the greatest brother-in-law there is, slipped off his wedding ring and discreetly gave it to Eric, without me even knowing. So when Eric put Adam’s ring on my finger, you can imagine my surprise! Initially, I freaked out in my head, and then I just started laughing. Eric leaned over and whispered in my ear, “we forgot yours, but I promise you will get it”. I just started laughing even more, and by that point everyone was laughing, whether they knew what was going on or not. 

You can kind of see Adam's ring in this picture...

When he put it on my finger, I had to keep holding it on by squeezing my other fingers together. It was way too big! It is definitely noticeable in this picture...

After the ceremony, Eric’s uncle went back to the house to get my actual band...so nice of him!

It magically appears in pictures after this point…

So even though everything didn’t go according to plan, it all worked out, and now we have a funny story to tell everyone. We always say that I am actually married to Adam too, since his wedding band bound us in marriage. So funny!

I hope everyone has a great week (or month at the rate I’m updating my blog)! ;)

This month has brought with it many family events and trips. We have traveled quite a bit and because of that, I have been behind on my blogging. So this is going to be a long post filled with lots of pictures.

July started off with a bang...we spent the 4th of July weekend at Port Aransas at the Fernandez family reunion on Eric's side of the family. We take this trip every year, so you have probably seen a couple of my posts about it already from previous years.

I look forward to this trip every year because we always have such a fun time and I always get to visit with family that I don't get to see that often. I always say this, but I feel so lucky to have married into such a welcoming and accepting family. I truly feel like I have known them all my life and that we were meant to be family from the very beginning. I am blessed.

This year, Eric and I got down to the coast on the 4th and spent Thursday through Sunday at the coast. Awesome. Unfortunately, Eric's brother, our sister in law, and our nieces weren't able to go this year since they had just had sweet baby Avery, but we got to spend a lot of quality time with all of Eric's cousins kids, which we don't get to do that often. Those babies are so much fun to be around. And they are at such a fun age! I always wish we could see them more often.

We spent the whole weekend relaxing on the beach, playing with babies, visiting with family, eating lots of fabulous food, and laughing our butts off. As usual ;)

Celebrating the July bdays in the family.

When we got back from the coast, it was time to get ready for my birthday. My best friend from Houston, Kourtney, and my friends Kimber, Addie, and Chris all spent my birthday with me. And obviously Eric of course :)

We started the day by going to my favorite restaurant in all of DFW, Whiskey Cake, where we drank bloody Mary's and mimosas and ate too much food. [side note--if any of you Dallas folks have not eaten here yet, then it is imperative that you go this weekend. They are phenom.] They also are known for their whiskey cake, which we took home with us to use as my bday cake later.

After Whiskey Cake, we went home, changed into our swimsuits, and hit the pool. It was scorching outside, so we spent the majority of the afternoon submerged in the pool.
We also decided to dive into the Whiskey Cake mid-day...

We got super tired during the afternoon, but we managed to hit our second wind and went to dinner then Top Golf. This was my first experience at Top Golf, shocker I know, and let me tell you, it was a blast!! I cannot wait to go back. I keep asking Eric when we can go again.

All in all, it was a great birthday! And I used my bday money to buy an iPad, so I would say it was successful :)

My parents sent me this beautiful and yummy basket while they were in Germany!

The next weekend, we drove to San Antonio for our niece, Abigail's, 3rd birthday party. I cannot believe she is already 3 years old. It blows my mind. I feel like she was just born yesterday.

We went out to dinner for her actual birthday when we got into town Friday night. And then after dinner, we headed back to my brother in law and sister in laws place so she could open presents from immediate family. She decided she was "too excited for her party" to sleep, so it was hard to get her to go to bed. I don't blame her, she couldn't wait for her party the next day.

Saturday, we went over to help set up for the party early. Melissa did such a good job with the "rainbow" party for Abigail. It was adorable. And Abigail looked adorable as usual, dressed in her rainbow outfit with a blue feather bow in her hair to top it off (which I didn't get a picture of!). Too much cuteness to handle.

Since Melissa was busy doing party things, I got to steal Avery away and rock her to sleep. It was the greatest part of the day. I loved spending that quality time with her. Even though she won't remember it, I will and it was best thing ever.

Be still my heart.

After I hung out with Avery for awhile, it was time for cake and presents. Abigail tore through those presents like it was her job. All her little friends surrounded her and helped out. I think it took only 5 minutes for her to get through all the gifts.

So funny.

She was exhausted after the party, but she fought it off and kept on going. She has so much energy!!

After the party, we got to spend some time with Eric's parents, which we haven't gotten to do in awhile, so it was really nice. They are about to move into a new house, so Eric helped moved a bunch of furniture and things, and we are planning on going back down to help them officially move into the house in August.

On Sunday, we went to see the new house with everyone and then went to lunch before we left to go back to Dallas. While we were at the new house, Abigail ran over to me, I picked her up and she wrapped her arms around my neck and laid her head on my shoulder. It was the greatest feeling in the whole entire world. We stayed like that for a couple minutes and I loved every second of it. I'm sure when I have kids, it will be an even more amazing feeling, but for right now, I will soak up every minute of these moments with my nieces. I seriously love being an aunt to this sweet girl. I feel so lucky to have her in my life.

On the way back, Eric and I stopped in Waco to get Common Grounds and to let the dogs out to walk around. We decided to walk the bear trail and visit the Baylor Bears.

Aren't they cute?!

Now that we are back to Dallas, I started doing the last of my observation hours at the UNT speech clinic so that I can officially start being a grad student clinician at the clinic come September. SO EXCITING!!

 We have a lot coming up in August. We are headed to San Antonio again, to my parents house in Conroe, and to Missouri with friends before school starts. So much going on!

Once I start grad school, there will be much less of the traveling happening.

Have a wonderful week!