One Year!

It's crazy to say, but last Monday was our one year anniversary! This past year has flown by. We were talking the other night thinking about all the things we've done in this year and we've stayed BUSY! From getting married, going on a honeymoon, moving to KY, Utah for my sister Jess's wedding, Louisiana for Christmas, and going on a trip to the Dominican Republic (I'll be posting about that soon), and normal life between all of that, we've had quite a year! I absolutely love being married and am so excited to spend forever with Billy! 

To celebrate our anniversary we decided to take a little trip up to Cincinnati. It's only about a two hour drive, so it's the perfect overnight getaway! Billy and I both took Friday off of work and headed out...

We made our first stop for some lunch at Cane's! I LOVE Cane's and it reminds me of home. It's funny because Billy was thinking of stopping for lunch and at first I said I wasn't hungry yet. But once he mentioned Cane's, I had to have some :) 

We made our drive and did some shopping at the Gap Clearance store. It is wonderful! I think I mentioned this store in a previous post, but it is where all the Old Navy/Gap/Banana Republic returns and damaged items get sent and are sold for CHEAP. We were probably in there for 3 hours, and could've stayed longer. You have to search and there are so many clothes, but we both found some great deals! I also got a few things for my sister Liza's baby. I probably had more fun shopping for her than I did for myself!

That night we ate at this place called Buckhead. It was right by our hotel and the large windows overlooked the river and the bright city. It was a cool view and the food was delicious!

The next day we went to the zoo. We've been wanting to go for a little while now and we loved it! We woke up that morning to some cold and wet weather. Luckily, I bought two jackets from the Gap Store the day before and they saved me!  

This picture is a shout out to my dad. He loves plants and thought he would enjoy these beauties :)

Giraffes are probably one of my favorites. I don't know why, but I love seeing them and we showed up just in time to feed them!

In the zoo there is also a 4D movie theater. The movies are only about 10 minutes, but we thought it was pretty cool. We saw Planet Earth and it was the arctic segment, so there was cold wind blowing around our feet and a little squirt of water at one point. It kept you on edge and entertained the whole time! 

We also LOVED the cougars! They would come right up to the glass and looked like they just wanted to play. Billy was giving it some lovin...

We ended to day by getting some Cincinnati chili on the way home. Cincinnati is known for this chili that has cinnamon in it and they serve it over noodles with lots of cheese. It was kind of like spaghetti. It was tasty and was a perfect warm comfort food after being outside in the cold weather all day.

#BBN

So, BBN really stands for Big Blue Nation in which the UK Wildcats just won the National Championship game, but in the Besther household it stands for Billy's Birthday Night!!! Yesterday was Billy's 26th birthday and we tried to make it somewhat a birthday weekend by opening gifts starting on Saturday. My wonderful parents sent him a fun package including "Slap Ya Momma" cooking spices, a cool New Orleans paper weight for his desk, a sweet card, and a variety of Hubig's Pies. It was so thoughtful and we loved trying all the flavors of the pies.

Then on Sunday I let him open the presents I got him. Neither one of us are good with surprises, but I'm especially bad so it didn't take long for Billy to convince me to let him open them. One of the presents was this fun indoor putting mat. Billy's been saying he really wants to get in to golfing, so I thought this would make it easier for him to practice anytime he wants! He's such a natural...

Then Monday was his actual birthday. He requested Jambalaya for his birthday dinner...one of the many reasons I love Billy :) It makes me so happy that he loves spicy cajun food! It came out great and we had a yummy salad on the side and some french bread.

For dessert we were planning on doing pazzookies, but we got distracted with this yummy chocolate cream cheese! It is seriously SO good! I got it a while back to fill strawberries with, but never made them. Then yesterday when we were cutting up the strawberries and apples for the salad, we got it out to taste test. Needless to say, after dinner we couldn't wait to have more! We planned to wait a little while and then make pazzookies later, but we were both still too full and never made them. But we decided to make this into his birthday month, so I'm sure we'll have them sometime soon. :)

We ended the night by relaxing and opening cards from some family and friends. I think overall it was a fun birthday. I couldn't ask for a better husband than Billy! I can't wait to celebrate many more birthdays together! Love you Billy!

Ohhh Mother Nature...

Well...we're alive! If any of you have watched the news lately, you've probably seen videos of the recent tornadoes that swept through Kentucky and Indiana. Well on Friday we woke up and saw it was a little gloomy outside. We didn't think much of it and since we don't have cable we are not aware of what is going on in the world outside our door. I hopped on Facebook and saw someone's status about the bad weather we were expected to have that day and then I got a call from work saying they were closing the shop and not to come in that day. I was pretty excited about that, but then started to worry. I called Billy and we decided we should probably go to his parent's house where there is a basement just in case. Well pretty much we got some rain and wind, but we were lucky! Everything was fine here in Lexington, and we are so grateful. We ended up spending the day with Billy's dad and little sister hanging out and watching episodes of White Collar. We packed out bags to stay overnight and I of course had to bring some Blue Bell :) 

That was last Friday and then on the following Monday morning we woke up to a couple of inches of snow! We haven't had very much snow at all and the winter has been pretty mild from what people tell me. I was getting really happy thinking spring was here to stay with some of the warm weather we have had lately, but Mother Nature tricked us. It is actually really pretty and luckily they are good about clearing the roads.

Other than this crazy weather we have had lately, we went on a triple date with some friends. We went bowling, which Billy is always hesitant about, but I love. I didn't get a group picture with my camera, but we went with Dan and Cari Marino and Bryan and Alex Hatton. Billy grew up with them and we had a really fun night!

After almost a year of living in Kentucky we finally filled a picture board tonight for FHE. It has a lot of random pictures and I'm sure we'll need to switch out a few every once in a while but here it is!

Post #1

I know we're almost 10 months late on this but I couldn't get motivated to get it all going until now. BUT I made a new years resolution to become a blogger and now it's finally happening. Here's a quick recap of the beginning of the year until now.

January flew by! My mom surprised me and stayed with me for a week while Billy was out of town on business. I loved having her here and Billy loved coming home to a house full of goodies! Billy's stayed busy with work but is liking it and I'm still liking my job too. I work at a cute little boutique called Baby Bundles. Can you say "Baby Hungry?" Much to Billy's dismay I'm surrounded by eager pregnant ladies and grandmas who are intent on blowing their inheritance on cute onesies. I have been promised by my husband though that for every month that I'm NOT pregnant he'll buy me a pair of shoes. I think he said it jokingly at first, but after treating myself to a few leopard print shoes I think he's realizing I took him up on the offer!

February's already on it's way too. We met up with Bob and Beth, some college friends of Billy's, in Cincinnati for a day and had a blast. We went to the ONLY Gap/Banana Republic Clearance Center which was an adventure. All of the clothes that are returned end up at this store. You can find some great deals but it's totally hit or miss as it's also a graveyard for ripped, stained, and otherwise unwearable clothes. I found a few cute tops and Billy found a couple of gems as well. 

We got lunch at a restaurant that overlooks the Ohio River called The Montgomery Inn. The BBQ was delish!

I've also made some good friends out here which I've loved! Julie, (the blond in the picture below) lives in the same condos as we do and lives 3 doors down with her husband, Scott. We're both involved with the Young Women in our ward and she's become and honorary "sissy" (sister). I love having her so close! Katie, the brunette, is also great. We just found out that night we all went to dinner that she and her hubby, Thomas, are pregnant! Ya hear that Billy!? I still miss Liza and Jess but it's been so nice to get to make some good friends out here.

That's it for Post #1. I'll try to be good about keeping up but don't hold me to it!