Top 10 Moments of 2013

I know I did this in and out of your life thing in 2013, not to the painfulness of 2012, but still not my best showing. The new year is going to be better, I promise!  Instead of filling you with a whole list of resolutions, I thought I would recap 2013 with my Top 10 moments of the past year.   A few will be things I have shared before, a few will be new, and one will be over the top!

Here we go!

1. WE GOT ENGAGED!!

Yup, this is the total over the top one! And to lead with this one might stop you from reading the rest. But I hope you don’ stop here.

The Boy as of October, officially upgraded himself to The Fiancé!

It was the best day I could have asked for. We had a nice Fall walk, lunch at a new restaurant, a walk through the park and then onto the Softball field we met on.  Although it took him a few minutes to work up the courage to begin his rehearsed speech, he got there eventually with a very sweet and from the heart proposal 🙂 🙂

2. I bought a house: The biggest purchase of my life! More in love with our house the longer we are in it. Really enjoying all the extra space we have, being able to host and sprawl out in our own space. We really didn’t know how much we needed a yard until we had one, we love being out there on warm days grill and relaxing, and Dewey loves the “his” space!

3. I catered my first event: Both fun and tough! Cooking 10 appetizers to feed 40 people was an under taking. And I am no girl who buys too much pre-made. See those soft pretzels below? 4 dozen homemade, freshly rolled that morning, pretzels. Fresh and homemade is always the best! 

4. Dewey turned 1 & Celebrated 1 year with us: My love Bug! Best year ever having this little guy in our lives! You already read my love professing post on all the things that make him so cute, and the post on how I made him his very own Birthday Cake. He is my furry baby, and I can’t wait to celebrate his 2nd birthday in a few weeks! 

5. We took trips to NYC, Florida & San Francisco:  We were all over in the country in the last year. For my Birthday, the then Boy, took me to NYC. I had never been, and him having lived there 5 years after college, he  was really excited to show me the city he loved. During our weekend in the city we did all the tourist spots and had some great food.  

Then in May we flew to Florida to watch our friends Nikki & Billy, get married. Remember when I made their engagement party cake? It feels like yesterday I made that cake, and now they have been married for over 6 months. We had a great time on our mini vacation, both at the wedding and sun bathing on the beach.

The last trip of the year was to San Francisco to see The Fiancé’s 96-year-old grandfather. During the trip we were up and down the bay doing small little touristy trips, and spending a majority of our time with grandpa.  The trip was refreshing, relaxing and great quality time.

6. I celebrated 2 years of blogging: 2 whole years of putting my words out there for you all to read.  It was an exciting milestone, but also a milestone that reminds me that I need to rededicate myself. I have been trying, and will continue to try, as this blog really does bring me a lot of enjoyment and excitement. I will keep working at the regular posts and updates.  They say if you really want to put something into your schedule you need to make a plan. My fitness coach says “not planning is planning to fail”.  Looks like I will be working on my blogging plan 🙂

7. My Dad Married Lisa & I made the wedding cake! My dad the eternal bachelor, finally tied the knot this fall. It was one of those days me (and everyone) thought would never come, but finally did! I am excited to officially have Lisa apart of the Kohout family.

My contribution to the day was the wedding cakes, both the display cake and the sheet cakes. Again, more of an undertaking that I would have ever though. My little kitchen, oven and hot tamale  really aren’t equipped to deal with that volume of cake, but it was really fun. I even made fondant and covered my first cakes with it!

8. I ran my First & Second 5K:  I signed up for both of these 5Ks in February thinking I would spend the months leading up to July training. ::Hahahaha::  The training didn’t happen, but the runs still did, and within 5 days of each other. I really didn’t plan that one too well, but I survived them both.  The most fun was The Color Run I did with my Aunts.  We made tutus and wore white to help absorb the colors pelted at us during the run.  I think we will be doing this one again this summer!

The second race was with The Fiance, and on a 95 degree evening through downtown Minneapolis. Lets just chalk that one up to me surviving, just barely….

9. I took my first Business trip to Asia:  Having studied abroad in China during college, I was excited to go back.  During my 10 day trip I was in Shanghai, China, Indonesia, Vietnam, and Seoul, Korea.  The trip was quick, but really exciting. I was able to visit 3 new countries and 1 new city in China during that the short trip.  There is so much more Asia travel I want to do, and so many places I want The Fiance to go with me! I normally don’t go into detail on my “bill paying job” on the blog, but lets say I love my job for these travel opportunities!

10.  Added Godmother to my title:  I was upgraded from Auntie status to Godmother status for my nephew Remington.  He is the cutest, and happiest little boy. He did well through the whole church service, but napped through his whole party.  I love being his Auntie and Godmother!

 I  even made his cake for the post- church party, (that he slept through).

What were your exciting moments of  2013?