Fabulous Anniversary!

Dustin and I had a great anniversary! It was so fun to reminisce on the past year. We started out the night with eating cake. This wasn't the topper of our cake though. Delicious Cakes will make you a free anniversary cake. To be honest, I wondered if I could just do this every year. They didn't ask my name to check their records or ask when our anniversary was or anything. Just my name to pick it up and what flavors I wanted. We decided to do what we had for Dustin's Groom's cake. We didn't try that one at the wedding because I couldn't figure out how to cut it.

We ate dinner at Simply Fondue. It was absolutely amazing. I hadn't been there since high school. Dustin wasn't so sure about cooking his own food. It was so good though. We stuffed ourselves full. I didn't eat again until like 2 the next day. 

Good Ol' Concert Date

When Dustin and I first started dating, we used to go to Texas Country concerts all the time. Dustin has always been a huge fan of Texas Country music. I really didn't know much about it besides the main bands that all the sorority girls listened to. Dustin had a big job ahead of him when we got together. The first few months of us dating were going to concerts. Dustin would sing along with the band, while I stood there bored out of my mind because I had no idea who the band was or what they were singing. Eventually, I came around. Dustin's music became one of my favorites and going to concerts became our thing. When he was living in Dallas and then Fort Worth, you could always find us at a concert. After getting married and moving out to the suburbs we just don't get out to concerts like we used to.

A few weeks ago, we went to dinner and Dustin started talking, yet again, about this concert he wanted to go to. He had been dying to go, but couldn't fathom staying out for it and going to work the next morning. (Seriously, how old are we?) In the end, we decided that neither of us could remember the last show we had been to, so why not? With $50 to get in the door, Randy Rogers and Wade Bowen coming on almost two hours after we thought, and an extremely crowded bar, we started to think maybe this wasn't such a good idea. Once we heard the music start up though we were all about it.

It's funny how quickly a concert could take me and Dustin back. The whole night just made me realize why I love him and why I fell in love with him. It was fun how quickly we got back into our "concert routine." The whole night I just wanted to snuggle up against my super cute husband and enjoy every second of the concert. I felt like I did 4 years ago when we first started going to concerts together.

 Not the greatest pic, but the only one we took

 Randy Roges and Wade Bowen

 Stoney LaRue was a surprise guest!

Our First Anniversary!

Today marks one year for me and Dustin. I can't believe that our wedding was a year ago. It blows me away with how quickly time has gone by. It also boggles me with how natural it has all seemed. All my friends keep asking if I can believe that I have been married for a year. Truth is that I can. It has just seemed so natural for the two of us.

Many say that the first year is the hardest. Dustin and I have somehow made it through with hardly any bumps. We have learned so much from each other. At Katie's Bachelorette Party, we all went around and told what we thought was so important in marriage. My advice was to just except that, that's the way he is sometimes. I think this is what Dustin and I have truly learned. We brought in two different living styles and just had to learn that we had our ways.

I am so incredibly blessed with everything I have learned from Dustin. I have learned more about the person that I am, as well as him. He is truly more of a husband than I could ever imagine.

Happy Anniversary Babe! I love you more than you could ever know. 1 down forever to go!

What's Cookin' Good Lookin'

When Dustin and I first got married I was so excited to cook for him. I am by no means a great cook. I don't even know if I could say I was a good cook. I can follow a recipe though. I try to make things as new and different as I can so that we don't eat the same thing over and over. Pinterest has been a life saver!

My first week of official "housewife duties" I would post pictures on Facebook of the different meals I was cooking. I got a ton of feedback. Even when we see friends and family today they will make a comment of how much they loved my pictures. So I figured why not keep it going here on the blog? I can't promise how often it will be or how creative! We could all use a few new ideas for dinner though.

 I found this Bacon Wrapped Apple BBQ Chicken  here. I was super excited because bacon and chicken are two of my favorite things. Also, anything that is done in a crock pot is the best. I put everything in the crock pot before I left, and Dustin turned it on when he left for work. The recipe calls for it to be cooked for 8 hours. It needs to be exactly 8 hours.We both ended up at work late and it cooked for 9. The edges were extremely dry, but the center was delicious. I used really thick bacon. I may try to find thinner pieces next time. The green beans were just cooked for a bit with some garlic. Super delicious. Dustin gave it an 8. 

These were originally going to start as Shredded Beef Tacos. When I looked in the pantry and I had grabbed Tostada Chips instead. They ended up being stale (of course); so by the end they turned out to be more like burritos with some tortillas I found. These were super delicious. Once again another crock pot recipe. These cooked for about 8 hours. They were delicious! We added lettuce, guacamole, sour cream, and cheese. The recipe calls for 2.5lbs and I somehow ended up with 4lbs. So this is what we ate for three nights. I toasted some bread and added BBQ sauce one night. It was delicious! 

Happy Opening Day!

Baseball season is here! Dustin has been looking forward to this day for months. Especially since the Mavs haven't been looking so hot, he has been bored out of his mind. This time of year means that I am Sports Widow until about December/January. Once baseball starts Dustin is glued to that TV. Halfway through baseball starts football which means seeing him even less. Not to say I don't enjoy the Rangers with him. I like to watch the games every once in awhile. I enjoy going to them even more though. However, I can't watch them every. single. night. There are more important things on, right?

Anyways, I did not do anything for Valentine's because I knew that Opening Day was a much bigger deal! I wanted to surprise Dustin with a big Opening Day basket. I had seen one of our friends do it for her husband last year and have been keeping it in my pocket ever since. I had been gathering stuff for a few weeks, and was waiting for Dustin to fall asleep Thursday night. Problem was I feel asleep on the couch before him! He tried to wake me up and move me about 10:30, but I knew I had to wait it out or miss my chance. This meant I fell asleep AGAIN! So at 2am, I was silently moving around trying to get everything ready. Let's hope my skills at leaving presents out improve before I have children.

So it says Happy Opening Day, but the silver got blocked out with the flash. I attached this to the shirt I was leaving for Dustin. I'm a little horrified. I just realized I spelt "wear" wrong. That's what 2am will do to you.  

Dustin irons his shirt every night and leaves it up against my closet in his bathroom. (Yes, we use separate bathrooms and closets. Yes, his closet is next to my bathroom and mine is in his bathroom. Basically, I have too many clothes so need the bigger one and get up way earlier and make too much noise to get ready next to our room) But... back to the story. I switched Dustin's shirt out with the Rangers one I bought for him.

I had this sitting on all of his stuff. I was so super excited!

Car flag, koozie, coffee cup, beer, peanuts, bubble gum, and sunflower seeds. The Hotchkiss duo is ready for   some Texas Rangers baseball!

Sweet Seven!

Today marks seven wonderful months of marriage with Dustin. I know, half of you are thinking seven months gees that's nothing, and the other half not being able to wait until you are at seven. Out of nearly all of my friends I am the only married. Every time I talk to anyone I get the questions of "How's married life?" "What's it really like?" "How is it different?" I totally meant to do this post on our six month. Six months seems like such a milestone. Dustin thinks I'm crazy when I remember each month, but I feel like you get to celebrate whatever you want your first year of marriage. So, I decided to post this for our seventh month because who actually does anything special for seven months? (This has nothing to do with the fact that I was just too lazy to blog on our actual 6 months)

So here is my take on marriage in just 7 months...

• Marriage is not that different from dating. Dustin and I never lived together before we got married, but once we moved in, it just seemed like when we were dating. We were around each other a whole lot more, but it wasn't like our relationship completely changed.
• You learn a lot about each other. Sometimes it is really hard. You have a lot of moments when you think... ok, that is way different from how I do things. Dustin and I come from different cities, backgrounds, and life styles. So for awhile it was hard putting everything together. For example, Dustin is just naturally a clean person. His places have just been for the most part picked up. I am messy. I try to clean up, but I normally will just designate a day a week to get everything done. Then I just attempt to keep it up.
• Cuddling on the couch, sweet notes, etc. last for awhile, but you literally just can't keep up with that every day. You start to appreciate the little things. I feel like this is when I truly felt what love was. During holidays and summer I'm home all the time. I clean, cook, do laundry and everything else. I'm Super Wife. Need something done? I gotcha. During the school year, I'm a little lazy. During a season? Maybe I'll see you as you  brush your teeth to go to bed. We just had a two week period where I saw Dustin maybe once before 8pm. Coming into this marriage, I don't think Dustin realized how much I'm not home. After awhile, I noticed the bed was made up when I came home or all the dishes had been put away. Maybe the laundry had been folded or had even been started. He took the dog on a walk. Now I know most of you may think 'isn't that just responsibility?' To me, I just felt loved. He realized I wasn't home a lot, and it wasn't my fault. He also realized if one us didn't do it, it didn't get done. It's the little thoughts that started to make a difference.
• Added on to this, you have to once again learn lifestyles and what the other means when they say things. Dustin gets home an 1-6 hours before I do. By the time I walk in the door, he's ready to cook, clean, and hangout. For me, I'm ready to sit and be quiet for a bit. I used to get my feelings hurt because I thought Dustin was telling me I was a bad wife when he cleaned up while I sat around. It took me awhile to realize he was just trying to help.
• If you have been alone and living single for awhile, marriage can be an adjustment. Dustin and I for the most part have lived alone since we got out of college. Even when I had roommates/lived with my parents we didn't see each other. Let me tell ya, it is hard to all of a sudden come home to someone who wants to hangout and talk. We were both so used to getting in the car, shutting down, and being completely lazy when we got home. It is different when you are coming home to someone that you can't go in your own room and shut the door from.
• Get ready to make some hard conversations serious. Finances, savings, houses, etc. It is super easy to forget those conversations, but they are a MUST have.
• I'd say the hardest thing is that you will still see your friends, but your friends will think it's different once you're married. I had to stress to several of them that I am the SAME person just with a different name. Luckily, I have some fabulous friends that this was an issue for about two weeks. I think most of you know though that I don't let you not talk to me.

Let me tell you one thing, marriage is AWESOME. You  come home every single day to your best friend. You spend every night with your best friend. You get to hangout every weekend with your best friend. Now that best friend may you drive you completely crazy, but at the end of the day you love them and you just can't stay mad. Dustin makes me laugh nearly every day, he brings me out of bad moods, and leaves me alone when I say I just need to be on my own, he doesn't judge me for my messiness or lack of wanting to work out, he babies me when I cry because my knees hurt so badly because I actually did work out. You get someone who just gets you. They know what to order if you run to the restroom at a restaurant, they'll make dinner when you're too tired, they even let you scream and throw things just because they know you're stressed. Marriage is everything I thought and more. Love you Dustin.

End sappy love post.... NOW!

Is the font of my posts turning up funny to anyone else? On my computer/iPad it is readable, but on Dustin's is not. It may be time to contact my dear friend Natalie at Fifth of August. My blog may need a new look!

My Sweet Valentine!

Happy Valentine's Day a whole two days late! Dustin and I have never been big on celebrating the actual holiday. I have to say I'm on both sides of the fence on this particular one. I think it is ridiculous to have a day where someone has to be reminded to tell me they love me and do something special and for me to do the same. But, how many of us have just gotten so caught up in life that we forget to mention to someone how great they are? How many times do we become so used to someone's behavior that we forget to tell them how appreciative we are of everything they do? Every day I tell Dustin we don't have to do much, and each year he does little things for me that make me feel like a million bucks!


This year we went to eat at Bob's Steakhouse in Grapevine. We went to the Fort Worth one the night we got engaged, so this brought up a ton of stories between the both of us. I don't know if we have every truly sat down and gone through each moment of everything that we were feeling/thinking. It was fun to hear how nervous and excited he was. Then I semi-tricked him to take me to see The Vow. (I'll post more about this later) Let's just say he didn't quite understand what movie he was buying tickets for. Have you all seen what AMC is doing with some of their theaters? The one near us turned half of their theaters into 18+ and 21+ only. It is fabulous! The particular theater was being rundown by middle school/high school students and was not even worth going to anymore. (because I was never one of those kids right?) The 18+ does just food and the 21+ includes a bar. Each theater has reclining chairs that you could seriously fall asleep in. We had a great time!

A Very Belated Christmas

Well, I'd say I fell off my rocker just a bit! After our 6 Christmases (is that a word?), I was exhausted and going back to school left me super tired!

We had a great first Christmas as a little Hotchkiss family. We went to Houston where I got to finally see Stefanie. I talked a little about her here. I had not seen her since the wedding because her adorable little family moved to Idaho and just moved back to Houston. I had so much fun getting to see her cute kiddos minus the fact that I couldn't speak a word to her. Now let me tell ya, that was awful! Not getting to talk to one of your best friends that you  haven't seen in almost 6 months! It was the worst. Especially, because her two year old son Easton had no idea what was going on. He just kept saying my name over and over, but didn't understand why I couldn't answer him. We had a great time with my family. I forgot my camera though and only was able to use my phone.

Our Dallas Christmas was great. We spent Christmas Eve at my parents' opening presents and went home to open presents of our own. Dustin got a new iphone, shirts, and books while I got a new camera that I was super excited about. The next day we went to church and hung out with my mom's side of the family. We had a blast playing games. At this point I gave up not talking. I went 6 days, but it was just impossible to go any longer. I was over it!

 Aiden playing with his toys

 Easton was completely into the trains

 Dad playing with my cousins Nate and Gwen

 Our first Christmas

 My brothers, Jared and Josh

 Two of my cousins Celine and Jocelyn. Aren't they gorgeous?

 Playing Catch Phrase. I wasn't allowed to yell so became the photographer/score keeper

 My family's favorite game! Mexican Train dominos. If you haven't played you totally should

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Belated Thanksgiving to everyone! I hope you all had a great holiday. We spent our first holiday as a married couple in Abilene. I have to say that I was so sad not to be with my family. It wasn't that I was upset to be in Abilene with my in-laws. It was just I didn't want something big to happen that I was going to miss. We had a great time though. On Wednesday after sitting through some ridiculous traffic on I-20, Mendy, Brent, Baby Morgan, Dustin, and I finally made it! We hung out with the family and just caught up. Thursday we woke up and went over to Dustin's aunt and uncle's house. It was a lot of fun. I think in my head I had this whole "What if their family does it differently than mine?" question rolling around. It was pretty much the same and I loved it. The guys watched football all day, and I got to know Dustin's aunts and cousins a little bit more. Thursday night-Saturday morning we hung out at Dustin's parent's house. I loved getting to just hangout with the family. It was just so overwhelming how easily we just slid into this family routine.They have been a family themselves without me for awhile obviously. I just didn't know how it would work with someone new in. It seemed like I had been spending holidays with them for forever. Saturday Dustin and I drove back to Dallas and did Thanksgiving at my Aunt's house. I was so excited to get some family time on my side for a little bit. Even though my parents are right down the highway we still somehow only see each other once or twice a month. During football season, especially, it seems like we are just so busy with our season tickets and my parent's to the A&M games we don't get time together. My brother Jared, brother Josh's girlfriend Alexa, and both my  brother's friend Jared were in town for the holiday. Jared #2 and Alexa are so much part of the family that it felt like everyone was there.

The best part of our trip to Abilene... getting to spend time with Baby Morgan! Normally when Dustin and I see her it is for a few hours or just a day. We got about 2 1/2 days with her and I loved it! She is the sweetest baby and has the cutest laugh. Dustin and I have yet to get her to laugh, but I tell Dustin she is on strike until she gets cousins. Hint, hint. haha. No worries, no cousins for awhile. I somehow walked away with only pictures of Morgan, but she is so cute it didn't matter. Here are a few.

I love this picture of Morgan looking up at Dustin. She loves to look at him and touch his goatee. 

Short Enough to Read Babe? Newlywed Life.

I asked Dustin last night if he ever read my blog. His response, "They are just too long. I don't read that much." So... my bad. I'll be working on the length. If you have ever had even somewhat of a conversation with me, you know that I'm a talker. I don't mean to be. So I apologize and will be working on making these shorter.

Newlywed life has been amazing. It is so much fun to just live with my best friend and enjoy him every moment that I can. I keep trying to remember every little bit that is making me happy. I know that there will be times when it gets tough, and I just want to remember back on this time and all the other memories we are making. I have finally gotten our apartment finished! Minus curtains which we will hopefully have in the next few weeks. I think I have really just enjoyed getting to know how Dustin is all the time. I have already learned he isn't much of a talker when he gets home. He needs some time to unwind from the day. I think we have also already figured out that we don't have to be in the same room together at all moments of the day. I like to watch my shows and he likes to watch his. I normally watch TV in the bedroom and him on the couch. During commerical breaks we run back and forth from room to room to give a quick hug or kiss or sit with each other for a bit. That's not to say we are in separate rooms all the time. Just when I can't take another Rangers game for the 4th night in a row. I love the Rangers, but I seriously cannot watch a game every night. We are learning to help each other too. Last week, I tried to do everything all the time, but when he offered to help and I actually let him I realized that it is such a way for us to spend time together. He helps me with dinner or will sit in the kitchen and talk to me while I do. He does the dishes after. Sometimes we split meals. On Saturday morning, he did the eggs while I did the pancakes. I just love spending every moment that I can with him. I can't remember a time that I have ever been this happy. Just knowing that I'm with the love of my life and can be with him anytime I want. I can't get over it. He is mine, and I love being a happy little family with him.

Biggest thing I have to learn... is to get some sleep! Every night when we get in bed, it is like a slumber party I feel like. You know when you used to have slumber parties with your friends and you just felt the need to stay up. I feel like that. At night I just want to talk and goof off. I think we do most our laughing before we go to sleep. I love that about us. However, I'm getting tired. I have a feeling I won't have trouble going to sleep after going back to school though.

Short enough post for ya babe?