My year's highlights in photographs:

January: Started student teaching

February: 5 days of Valentine's Day w/ B

March: St. Patrick's Day

April: Easter

May: Graduation and engagement!!
 

June: Ben's half birthday!

July: Engagement party!

August: 2 years with B

August: Back to school & back to Chiefs season

September: Cousin's wedding!

October: Being a bridesmaid in one of my best friend's weddings

November: Thanksgiving!

December: Christmas! :)

1 thing I couldn't live without:

2 stitches in my Head:

Attention: GRAPHIC PHOTOS AHEAD

For the "2nd" day of my countdown, I'm counting two things I'm thankful for.

The two stitches in my head.

Last week I had a biopsy done on my scalp. If you couldn't tell by the picture, my hair is falling out because of my psoriasis. With that said, I'm thankful for these stitches for a few different reasons.

• First, because it gives me hope that something may be figured out about my condition
• Second, for the outpouring of love I've received from all of the people in my life

TOP 6 CHRISTMAS MOVIES ACCORDING TO KJH

Many people would say that my choices of Christmas movies are strange/not what theirs would be. I happen to think that I have wonderful taste in Christmas movies, but it is what it is. So here are my TOP 6:

                           

  

3 Hopes for 2013 -

On a serious note, I'd like to list out 3 of my most serious hopes for the year 2013.

1. I hope for world peace. In all essence of the word "peace," I want it. With the heartbreaking news of everything happening around us, I wish for people to find peace within themselves so that we can have peace within our schools, work, families, and communities.
2. I hope for all of my friends that are getting married in 2013 to have the wedding day of their dreams. For Becca & Isaac, Danielle & Tony, Jessica & David, Khea & Kris, Sam & Jarad, and potentially others - I wish you love, happiness, and for all your wedding dreams to come true.
3. I hope to find a way to manage my health. Things have changed with my condition so much over the past 3 years. From internal trauma to external devastation. Trying the best I can, I hope to find a way to live through it and be happy.

My 4 Favorite Hobbies -

1. I am an avid scrapbooker. I've been scrapbooking since I was in 6th grade and decided to join "scrapbooking club" because my brother's then girlfriend scrapbooked. Since then, I've been scrapbooking and have for every year of my life. I'm most excited about getting married to Ben and being able to start OUR scrapbooks.

2. Because I work all of the time, in the small amount of down time I have, I like watching TV. This is a lame "hobby" but it's something I like to do when I'm able to. I like Criminal Minds, XFactor, Glee, One Tree Hill (RIP), Catfish, etc.

3. I like spending time with my friends too. Now that we're older and in relationships, working, etc. our friendships have changed and we don't see or talk to each other as much, but I almost appreciate the coffee/lunch/dinner dates more than that.

4. I like spending time with my family. My mom and Ben are two of my very best friends, I love my cousins, my aunts and uncles. Spending time with my family is one of the best things in the world.

5 of My Favorite People -

1. My fiance, Benjamin 

2. My brother, Michael  

3-5. My second cousins 

6 sounds I can't stand:

1. Nails on a chalkboard
2. Screaming children (this one is awesome considering I work with kids)
3. My parents arguing
4. Ben crying
5. Cell phone ring tones (my phone is ALWAYS on silent)
6. Lip smacking

7 of My Favorite Places in the World:

1. With my beautiful friends from college.

2. Baking treats for friends and family!

3. Times Square!

4. Chicago.

5. With my wonderful friends.

6. Hanging out with these booger heads at LFE.

7. Chiefs games.

8 of My Best Memories

I've been blessed in my life to have a lot of wonderful people. All of my favorite memories have everything to do with the people that were involved in them. With that said (in no order)...



1. Spending many moments with these people (plus a few more that aren't pictured). Crying, drinking, laughing, taking pictures. In essence  my freshman year of college at Mizzou - where I met some of the most beautiful people and was lucky enough to make them my friends.

2. High school marching band. Doing crazy things, cheering on our terrible football team, competitions, hair spray, body tights - all of it. It's something that I am so unbelievably glad that I decided to do.

3. Study nights at Mizzou. I had more fun drinking coffee and pretending to do homework than I could ever begin to tell you guys about.

4. This picture is meant to represent Junior year of college, when I was able to meet to another wonderful group of people that I was lucky enough to make my friends and spend time with.

5. Getting engaged to Ben. No explanation really needed for this one, right?

6. This summer. 2009. What a great summer is what that we were all able to get along, laugh, and love each other before other things got in the way.

7. Chiefs games with all of my wonderful brothers.

8. High school choir. A place where I met some of my best friends in the whole world.

My 9 favorite Days of the Year

In no order...

1. February 14th - Valentine's Day
2. March 17th - St. Patrick's Day
3. May 18th - The date we got engaged
4. August 13th - My birthday
5. August 10th - Our dating anniversary
6. October 31st - Halloween
7. November __ - Thanksgiving
8. December 25th - Christmas
9. December 27th - Ben's birthday

10 of My Favorite Foods

1. Macaroni & Cheese
2. Raspberries
3. Strawberries
4. Mashed Potatoes
5. Ramen Noodles (no shame)
6. Apple Pie
7. Reese's Peanut Butter Cups
8. Green Grapes
9. Cheddar Biscuits
10. Roasted Brussel Sprouts

11 Places I would Travel again

1. (any city), Italy
   
2. (any city), France
   
3. New York, New York
4. Chicago, Illinois
   
5. Orlando, Floria
6. Las Vegas, Nevada
7. South Bend, Indiana
   
8. St. Louis, Missouri
9. Columbia, Missouri
   
10. Omaha, Nebraska
11. Bagley, Wisconsin
    

12 Days of Christmas count down Lists

For each of the 12 days of Christmas, I'm going to make a list of something I love, hate, want to see more of, etc.

DAY 12 - 12 MUSICAL ARTISTS THAT I LOVE
          *In no particular order

1. Jason Mraz
2. Eric Hutchinson
3. Gavin DeGraw
4. Michael Jackson
5. The Beatles
6. The Backstreet Boys
7. John Legend
8. Maroon 5
9. Beyonce
10. The Beach Boys
11. John Mayer
12. Kelly Clarkson

DIY Christmas Wrapping -

Since getting older (and having a little more money), I have really grown to love giving gifts to my friends and family during the holidays. But over the last couple years I have struggled with finding pretty, affordable holiday wrapping papers! So this year I decided to do something a little bit different - brown wrapping with personalized ribbons and addressing.

The first thing I did was obviously buy the brown wrapping paper. I got mine at Dollar Tree so it was obviously $1 a role. So a cheap option: check!

I then put the gifts in gift boxes and wrapped them in the brown paper.

I then got out markers to decorate the packages. I had metallic markers, but I used both those and regular old markers from Crayola.

The outcome is really just whatever you want it to be in terms of writing names. I used a ruler so I could add some straight lines to some, and I also used your typical Christmas ribbon and bows. I also decided to do a color scheme for each person I'm giving gifts. Obviously Ben's color was blue, but I included a picture of my mom's gifts that I did in red!

Overall, I like how the gifts came out! They're definitely more plain looking that gifts in flashy Christmas paper, but I also think it allowed me to be a little more creative with my wrapping and to personalize the gifts more too!

What do you guys think??