10. I was able to take up baking and cooking!

It may not sound like much fun to you, but I was THRILLED to be out of that dang apartment and its tiny kitchen and be able to have space to do something that I love: bake/cook. It was near impossible to make anything other than mac 'n cheese in the apartment, and it about drove Corey crazy. One of my favorite parts of our new house: the kitchen! Just how obsessed am I with our kitchen? At the end of this post is a collage dedicated to literally every detail of it. :)
<Scroll down to see my Favorite Recipes of 2011>


9. I hosted a fun weekend for the Breaking Dawn premiere
I had so much fun with the theme that went along with these movies. In this post you'll see my blood red chocolate chip cookies and blood-covered cupcakes & popcorn. Less than a year until I get to throw another party for the final movie! Woo hoo! :)

8. I started this blog

I've always loved to write, and I know my life is nothing exciting enough to write a book about or anything, but I like keeping friends and family updated on what we're up to since we're so far away from most of them. It has taken off more than I expected it to, and I have big plans for it in 2012. From changing the name to the layout & design, look for some new features and ideas to be introduced next year :)

7. We celebrated our one year wedding anniversary and six year dating anniversary

Back on tax day, 2005, my sweet husband asked me something I'm sure he has wished he could take back a few times: "Will you be my girlfriend?" Then in 2009, he asked me, "Will you be my wife?" Now he's asking me, "Will you stop asking me to do stuff while I'm watching Pawn Stars?" :)

Click here to see some wedding pics courtesy of my friend Patti Rogers :)

 6. Corey won Hitachi's Employee of the Month for June
Hubs finally got recognized for being awesome. For more proof of his awesomeness, see our dining room table, our entertainment cabinet, and our headboard. He has also built our master bed, completely redid our closet so we have more room to hang clothes (it was a little narrow), installed under-cabinet lighting, under-eve lighting and in-ceiling speakers, and made the chair rail for our dining room. And he does it all with good quality craftsmanship. Did I get lucky or what? I've already got a list started for things we need for next year. :)

5. We took a day trip to Colorado in April
We went to Breckenridge, CO in 2010 for our plan-B honeymoon and fell in love with this restaurant called "The Dredge." It doesn't sound very appetizing, but it's actually really good! The artichoke spinach dip we ate there was the best we have ever had (yes, even better than Zio's). After I ran across these super cheap flights to Denver from OKC, I thought that would be a really cool birthday gift to him and he would never see it coming. He had never flown before, and it was a fun, quick trip. :)

4. We saw Kenny Chesney in Tulsa

This was a really fun weekend. We stayed at the Hyatt in downtown Tulsa only a couple blocks away from the BOK Center and were able to walk to and from the concert. I had a BLAST, and I'm sure Hubs did too, but he'll never admit it. :) Here are some pretty dang good pics of that concert. June 9 he'll be at Cowboys Stadium and Dallas. Does anyone else think that sounds like an awesome 2nd anniversary present? :) 





3. We built a new house!
Obviously our biggest accomplishment of the year would be on this list :) I'm splitting up building the house and filling the house because they're 2 different processes, and frankly filling it has been much more fun. Throughout the process of building our house, we had to make so many decisions. We have the same taste when it comes to a lot of things, so we agreed on about 99% of the decisions. Our favorite decision in the entire process? By far, the kitchen cabinets. Originally we wanted to stain all the wood in the house a dark ebony/mahogany color, but then I went through a model home with the painted/glazed cabinets and brought the idea home to Corey, and all he heard was "painted." He hated the idea of painting over oak wood, but when he saw it in person and saw how the glaze made the grain of the wood contrast with the color of the paint, he loved it too. The kitchen cabinets were the basis of every other decision we made. The rest of it was easy. Click here to see the construction process :) 

2. We finally have a place to decorate!

I LOVE finding ideas and applying them to certain spaces, and this year, we were finally able to have a place to really make our own. In fact, just yesterday, I found so many bargains on my lunch hour I had to have Corey meet me with his truck because it all wouldn't fit in my car. We are slowly but surely filling each room with personal touches and design ideas that will set them apart. I can't wait to finally have it all finished. I'm bad about starting a new project before I finish another one, but one thing I can't wait to have completed is our master bedroom. We have a bed with a pretty awesome headboard, but that's about it. I need to go out with the old and in with the new. This will be one of our main goals for the new year.






My favorite part of 2011: Our vacation to Destin!
I know, I know. Buying a house is a huge feat, but there was absolutely nothing better than getting away for a week, waking up to those waves and having breakfast and lunch made for you every day. Having no worries for seven days was sooo relaxing. You can see pics and read about it here. Our next vaca is coming up next year with a cruise to the US Virgin Islands and the Bahamas with my sister & her husband! We are more than looking forward to that!


7 Favorite Recipes of 2011

As mentioned above, here are my seven favorite & most-used recipes of 2011. They can all be found on my Recipes page. I can't wait to find some new stuff to make in 2012!

1. Tuscan Garlic Chicken
2. Country Apple Dumplings
3. Rich Chocolate Meringue Pie with Mile High Meringue
4. Cheesy Green Bean Casserole
5. Chocolate-Drizzled Peanut Butter Fudge
6. El Chico's White Sauce
7. Cinnamon Bites

Let me know if you have tried any of these and how they turned out! The Tuscan Garlic Chicken has become a fixture at the Wall house :)

Most Popular Blog Posts of 2011

Y'all are definitely most interested in what we're up to around the house, which is great! I love sharing our projects with you and I hope you've found some inspiration from some of our ideas, especially those who may be fixing to start building a house of their own :) Here are the top 7 blog posts of the year:

1 - Tie: Operation Dining Room Table
1 - Tie: More Around the House Stuff
3 - Tie: Photos from our big day (Yes, our wedding day :) ) and more home stuff
3 - Tie: Red + Copper = New Dining Room!
5 - Wild Weekend!
6 - Tie: Am I Crazy?
6 - Tie: More Home Interiors