Rachel's Raves: 2011 Edition

My RAVES this year:

Mio Water Enhancer. Takes your water bottle to delicious, calorie-free fruity heaven. Thanks Matt for the recommendation!


Michael Angelo's frozen dinners. I am a fan of FAST and yummy lunches. These things hit the SPOT! THE best Italian frozen food. My favs are the chicken parmesean and egg plant parmesean.


Milani Liquifeye Pencil eyeliner. I can only find these online, but it's worked well for me...and I have the worst luck with eyeliner that won't stay put.

GAP CLEARANCE section. Let's just say they had an addtl. 40 percent off their clearance today. Amazing. And they always have cute stuff if you're willing to dig thru the chaos.


Unity by Carlos Santana boots. I have them in both brown and black and they're super comfy and match with everything.


Ipod Shuffle. This thing is so cute and tiny, and it clips right to your shirt(I tested it out today on the treadmill, and it stayed put). I hate lugging around my phone at the gym for music, so I love the ease of this lil guy. For 40 bucks, you can't beat it.


Sony EX headphones. AMAZING sound quality, and they do NOT fall out of your ears.


MEXICO popsicles=POPSICLE CREAMY HEAVEN. You can find these at Wal-Mart. Seriously, the best things ever.


Parks and Rec. This show is HILARIOUS. Matt and I LOL at least 5 times watching it. If you've never seen it, you should watch starting at Season 2. The first season isn't so great, but Season 2 is so so funny. We both agree it's funnier than the Office.


BODY FANTASIES: Vanilla Spray. I know it sounds like a strip club, but I've used this stuff since the 6th grade! It is just heavenly and lasts all day. I get compliments all the time from it.


Secret Fresh Effects. Smells soooo great, and you will never have B.O. It is seriously magical.

Top 11 of '11

Here's our top 11 highlights of 2011...in no particular order.

What are YOUR top 11 of 2011?

Our pup, Murphie turned 3 years old!

Matt started his accounting internship at his work. As you can see, he gets a LOT done. Here's Mikey and Matt dressed up as Siamese twins for their work Halloween party.

Mikey and Cree got hitched!

Matt started his videography business. He even booked an out of state wedding in Texas his first year. Way to go!

We were fully converted to Iphones November this year. Matt has black and I have white. We will never look back.

We finallyyyy were able to head down to Draper, UT to visit my BFF Mary Fishsticks and her awesome hubby Taylor. We almost didn't make it due to the CRAZIESTTT blizzard we drove in for 3 hours. She's having a baby boy in THREE weeks. SOO happy for you guys!

While we were there, Matt got to meet his hero, Jimmer, at a BYU game.

We celebrated our THREE year anni! Time flies when you're having fun! :)))

Cooked our first kabobs on the barbi! LIFE changer.

Finished student teaching, and graduated college!

Added two new vehicles to the familia. I think we like white cars.

Upgraded from sleeping on an air mattress to a REAL bed!

Turkey Day

Jump for joy...it's Thanksgiving!

We spent the day with Matt's lovely parents and the rest of the Taylor's. I made my Grandmommy's corn casserole. Thanksgiving isn't complete without it.

This year we:

Watched the Cowboys win. Yay!

Played Quiddler and Call of Duty

Ate lots of course

I have a lot to be grateful for this year.

What comes to mind is:

-finished with college 4.ev.er

-super supportive and loving parents

-a cute pup

-tony romo did NOT choke tonight

-TWO awesome families (miss yall in Texas!)

-a hubs who's too nice for words

This is such an odd picture.

The Taylor Gang

I decided that I will make some college grad announcements to send out to friends and familia. Matt took a few pics of me for it! I'll be a teacher someday--hence the books.

Sister-in-laws!

The wind was out of control.

Finished!

Words can't describe how happy I am this day to be finished student teaching! For over 16 years I've had pretty much the same school routine, and now I don't. It's a strange but awesome feeling. My last day in the fifth grade consisted of a field trip to the Festival of Trees and a popcorn/pop party. Yay!

Quality over Quantity

BYU-Idaho isn't exactly your typical college.

And I definitely didn't have the "typical" college experience.

Example 1: There's no sports here. Only intramurals. LAME. So basically there's absolutely no school spirit.

Example 2: People are just straight up crazy here. Walking through the Gardens today, I came across the knights of the round table. Literally. They were all speaking in Olde English accents. I had to sneak a picture.

Freaky.

Example 3: I got married after my second semester of school. Not that this is a bad thing, but I didn't get to form a lot of close girl friendships that I had imagined in coming to college. But, there is 6 lovely ladies that I just love and I'm so grateful for our friendships. And most of their names all start with A's!

Anyways, I kinda feel like I'm in middle school where you make lists of your BFF's but I honestly feel like we don't tell the people we care and love what we feel enough in life! So...Ashley S., Alyssa W., Alex W., and Ally M., Amanda W., and Monica A., thanks for making my college experience so fun!

We might not get to hang out as much as we would like, but you girls are sooo sooo great and I love you!

I'll take quality over quantity any day :)

I got to have lunch with Alyssa and Ashley (and her adorable baby, Ledger) today! Alyssa teaches Zumba in Canada, and Ash and I taught her our favorite Zumba routine in the parking lot. I'm sure we looked ridiculous.

Maybe WE are the weird ones?

LOVE yall!