8:11 November Highlights

Things I love about being off work for the holidays: 

1.) Catching up on sleep like a teen home on break after finals. 

2.) Catching up on life in general (shopping for basic life necessities, cleaning, laundry, bills, etc.)

3.) Starting to watch Gilmore Girls for the first time ever. (I'm only 4 episodes in and I'm already a big fan. What took me so long!?!)

4.) BLOGGIN' TIME! Whoooo.

Now that December's already almost over (which is straight up crazy), I better go ahead and do my 8:11 highlights from November. Here are my 11 favorite things I did last month at 8:11 pm... 

8:11- celebrating the#gloverlovers2015. ❤️❤️❤️

8:11- ✨happy birthday@_aliciana!✨ (your #yellowdreamhouse is lovely.)

8:11- FH in Orlandoooooo. 

8:11- my girls are in town and my mom made us dinner and I am so happy. :)

8:11- #BoomerSooner from the Houston OU bar! 

8:11- the hills are alive, guys. 

8:11- new friendz and flights of wine.

8:11- movie niiiight. Kicking off #Oscar season w/ @spotlightmovie.

8:11- post-feast relaxingggg. 

8:11- my parents' backyard is the best.✨

8:11- watching the game with some of my fave Sooners. #Boomer! 

Excited for the last couple weeks of 2015! Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night. 

xoxo, 

Annie. 

'Tis the Season for a 12 Days of Christmas Pub Crawl

December is without fail the craziest / busiest / most insane month of the year, and in the hustle and bustle of things, all the holiday parties can start to blur together. BUT NOT THIS ONE. Some of my super cool co-worker friends put on a 12 Days of Christmas Pub Crawl, and it was hilarious and fun and wonderful.

If you're thinking "whoa 12 bars!??! that's a lot - yowzaaa!"... that was my initial thought too, but that's not how this pub crawl worked. It gets its "12 days of Christmas" theme because there were 12 different "teams" - each one representing one of the 12 days. I was designated the "team leader" for "8 maids a-milking" so I had to recruit 7 friends to interpret this theme with me.

Here are all 12 days... 
(Photos by the super talented Ryk VanRavenswaay)

A partridge in a pear tree

2 turtle doves

3 French hens

4 calling birds

 5 golden rings

6 geese a-laying

7 swans a-swimming

8 maids a-milking

 9 ladies dancing

 10 lords a-leaping

 11 pipers piping

12 drummers drumming

WHOOOO CHRISTMAS! 

xoxo, 

Annie

The Wedding Planning Chronicles: Meet the Bridesmaids

Wedding planning has been stressful at times, but overall pretty okay so far! There are just SO MANY DETAILS and things to think about - it's a bit overwhelming at first. One of my favorite wedding planning activities so far has been selecting/inviting my bridesmaids to be part of the big day. 

I knew I didn't want a huge bridal party, so I kept the bridesmaid list pretty small. I chose 4 of my nearest/dearest friends (who just so happen to be representative of 4 very different/wonderful stages of my life)  - Mary (my lifelong best friend since literally age 2), Kayla (my best friend from college), McKenzie (my fantastic LA roommate for 3+ years), and Kaylee (my incredible new sister-in-law). 

They all pretty much knew they were going to be bridesmaids because I had more or less told them "Hey, I want you to be one of my bridesmaids" at some point or another, but I wanted to do the whole cutesy official invitation as well. 

I found these cute customizable cards, so I customized them with my name/their names. (Sidenote- I thought these were like actual cards that would have room for me to write a note in them, but they def were not, so I had to write my heartfelt notes on random Warner Bros. cards I had. Hollaaaaa former employer!). I also found some cute necklaces with keys on them that I thought would appropriate for these girls who have played such a KEY role in my life. (Get it?) Then I used to Sticky9 to print some of my favorite photos with each of them through the years. It came together pretty nicely I think! 

Let the countdown to the bachelorette party begin! 

xoxo, 

Annie.

8:11 October Highlights

Last month was my least favorite month of 2015 by far. It's been my busiest/craziest month at work, I got rear-ended (my car is still in the shop 3.5 weeks later), and my wonderful/loving/strong/amazing Papa passed away. To say I'm glad October's over is a huge understatement. (blurghhhhh.)

Despite all the horribly sad, frustrating, and stressful things that happened last month, it had some happy moments with friends, family, and Taylor Swift sprinkled in there as well. Here are my 11 favorite 8:11s from October... 

8:11- the Barcelona BBQ cooking class at Central Market is legitttt. So much fun.

8:11- movie night with madre. @theinternmovie was delightful!

8:11- @beccaboo10108cooked us din and it is deliiiiiish. 😋

8:11- happy birthday to@thechrisleroux's mom! ❤️

8:11-thanks for having us over for din, boss! (Sorry your eyes are closed in the 8:11 pic.)

8:11- WE'RE READY FOR YOU TAYLOR!!

8:11- sometimes you just need some good pizza, you know? 

8:11- long overdue catch up with @ashleymclontz over a homemade din. :) 

8:11- I really lucked out in the family department. ❤️❤️❤️

8:11- love my family. ❤️

8:11- so excited @bhaz is in town!

xoxo, 

Annie. 

Clear Eyes, Full Hearts, Can't Lose [Costume Contests]

Happy day-after-Halloween! When the stars align and Halloween actually falls on a Saturday, it's a magical thing. 

Chris and I had been planning our costume for months. Pretty early on in our relationship we started watching Friday Night Lights. Chris had never seen it before, so I was adamant about introducing him to the best TV show that has ever been on television. (Sidenote - if you haven't watch it yet, the entire series is on Netflix and you really have no excuse. Seriously, get on that). Chris loves it, as any normal / good human does, so we decided to be universally beloved Coach Taylor and Tami Taylor for Halloween.

Definitely one of my favorite costumes I've ever done. (Shout out to Mary for masterfully trimming my extremely-way-too-long wig last time she was in town). 

We wore these lovely costumes to our friend / party-planner extraordinaire Rhonda's fantastic house party. (The wig got very unruly after some time on the dance floor... I don't know how Tami Taylor does it). 

Coach Taylor, Marshmallow Man, and Shooting Star (aka Rhonda the hostess with the mostest)

Hope you had a fun Halloween too! (And that you watch Friday Night Lights as soon as physically possible). :)

Clear Eyes, Full Hearts, Can't Lose, 

Annie.