Christmas 2007

This year was especially memorable for many reasons but here are the highlights:

1. It was the first Christmas for D and I as a married couple.
We worked it out so that we spent Thanksgiving with his side of the family in Nebraska and Christmas with my side. We gathered in Kilgore to be with my dad’s family. My uncle Barry (who helped with our wedding ceremony) and his family live there and my Grandma recently moved into an apartment that they built behind their house. I think D is finally starting to embrace my family and join in on all the silliness.



2. Christmas Day was my Grandmother’s 90th Birthday. We had a special b-day party for her on Saturday and laughed and cried as old memories were shared. My aunt found a box of party dresses that my grandmother saved over the years so we had a fashion show complete with gloves and matching shoes.

3. We also had Ryan and Dana kids around which always makes things fun.

Cole was opening a guitar and when he figured out what it was he said, “A Guitar! Thanks, I reeeaaaally needed this.” He is too cute.
And Kate just smiled and cooed the whole time and won us over with her sweetness.

And a special shout out to Jonathan who broke his collarbone while we were playing a game of touch football on Sunday afternoon. I felt sorry for him but then he started posing for the camera with his new shoulder brace so I knew that he was back to his old self.

I hope everyone had a great Christmas and here's to a Happy New Year!

Ho, Ho, Ho

So we set out to get a picture for our Christmas cards. We put some treats in the fireplace to try to get all the dogs to look up the fireplace for Santa. Reilly started out strong
Ivan and Emily looking on.

Starting to fall apart....

(No dogs were harmed in the making of this Christmas picture)
And there it goes. Emily got all 3 treats.

Thanksgiving

We traveled the state of Nebraska for Thanksgiving. Some of my favorite things:

• Playing football in the SNOW! I was more of a watcher on this one - it was cold!
• Talking to all my family via speaker phone on Thanksgiving Day.
• Trips to Walmart (anything to pass the time in small town Nebraska).

• Watching the movie Beowolf with 3-D glasses - it wasn't pretty.
• Finally getting the news that Nebraska's coach is moving on. Hope in Huskerville is renewed.
• Pecan Pie, Greenbean Casserole, Sweet Potatoes, etc.
• Reading a Nicholas Sparks book by the fire.
• Watching the Ghost Hunters marathon instead of the Thanksgiving Day parade and the Cowboys game. I'm being sarcastic on this one - I wasn't in charge of the remote and that is seriously what was on the whole day!
• Playing with all D's cute nieces and nephews.
  

Tech Beauty

I've gone crazy with scanning old pictures lately and I just couldn't resist this one. This is Shandra circa 2001 and it proves that at one time she was a proud Bulldog even in the middle of Tiger territory.
So watch out, you never know who will show up next!!!!!!

Old Photographs

These pictures of of my grandmother and grandfather on my dad's side. I'm working on a photobook for my Grandmother's 90th Birthday in December and I have had a great time looking through all the old pictures. Mom, this post is for you!

Grandma as a Flower Girl

Grandma and Grandpa at the State Fair of Texas

And here's an old picture of our family before Julie and Jonathan came into the picture. Nice hair dad!

Halloween Scrooge and Sweet Kids

So I'm sitting here waiting for trick or treaters. We haven't had anyone yet but I'm convinced it's our neighbors fault. For the second year in a row they have their sprinklers turned on! He did this last year and we really thinks he does this to keep the kids away. I think it is just mean. I understand if you don't want to celebrate Halloween but really - just don't turn your lights on and don't answer the door but you don't have to be mean about it and turn your sprinklers on!
And now on a happy note, here are some pictures of Cole and Kate.......

It's a Dog's Life

Here's Reilly trying to show her team spirit. She's a pretty easy going dog so she is dressing up like a Husker fan for Halloween.
Ivan's a little out of control...
And Emily's a little difficult too.
But we just wanted to show off all our Halloween creativeness (which is sadly lacking).

Sick Day

I haven’t been feeling well this week so I stayed home on Tuesday to rest. So I got to catch up on all the morning shows and I came across Amy Grant on the View. I started to reminisce...I remember receiving my first Amy Grant cassette tape for my birthday and playing it on my walkman during our Florida trip. I remember bugging my mom so she would repeat the words to El Shaddai over and over so I could get them down. Then I remember in 4th or 5th grade signing “Fat Baby” at our school talent show. Johanna and I made it into a duet though I don’t think we made it through the whole song without laughing. Does anyone else remember that song (I’m sitting here singing it in my head - he’s sampled solid foods once or twice but he says doctrine leaves his cool as ice – he’s just a fat, he’s just a fat little baby)

D loves it when I sing that song. He can sing all the songs by KISS and I can sing all the songs by Amy Grant. Obviously we grew up in way different worlds. But now that I think about it I'm going to have to bring the Amy Grant Collection on our road trip this weekend. He's going to be so excited!

Happy Birthday Shandra!

Jessica didn't even let us practice she just recorded the whole thing. A couple of things to look/listen for:

• Kristi's wink. This cracks me up!
• The dog bark. Ivan just wanted to wish you a happy b-day too.
• Stacy's dance.
• Who is Jen Ken hiding from?

Celebrity Look-alikes

Interesting - I look like a man - Tony Danza no less!
I copied this from Lindsey's blog but you should try it out - it's fun.

Down in the Bayou

Just wanted to post some more pictures from our trip to Lafayette. We went to Avery Island to show D some Louisiana alligators...

Here's Johnny trying to climb a tree

And then Cole had to have a try

We had so much fun playing with Cole. He's at such a fun age. Here he is working on a puzzle. Showing off his puzzle making skills...
Me, Dana and Kate
Grandpa and Kate - this is their bonding time.
And here is a video of Cole. You can hear his infectious laughter which is one of my favorite things about him.

Baby Kate

We finally got to meet Baby Kate this weekend when we traveled to Lafayette. She turned a month old and is sweet as can be.

Kate with sweet blanket by Cutesy Cloths
Kate and Daddy

Happy Fall

It's officially the start of fall as of Sunday but it doesn't feel like it if you are in Texas. I hear we are expecting some cooler weather this week but I'm not going to hold my breath. Just wanted to update even though there is not a whole lot blog worthy going on here.
The couple’s shower that we hosted this weekend went well. It was a good excuse to get some projects done around the house. For instance, our dining room, which used to be the dog’s room, was converted back to its original design with some of the furniture that my grandmother gave us.
I got a lesson in recovering the dining room chairs and it wasn’t hard except for choosing the material and measuring how much I needed. I think somewhere along the way I forgot everything I learned in school about converting inches to feet to yards. The fabric store lady and I didn't communicate very well. I told her I needed 12 inch squares but apparently that wasn't the right way to say it so I didn't end up with enough fabric the first time. On my 2nd trip the fabric was 60% off so I lucked out. Everyone at the counter was congratulating me on my great bargain hunting ability and I just smiled and said thanks but I knew in my heart that I was not worthy.
I tried to be creative and make some cookies for the shower-see below. They tasted great, but it wasn’t quite the look that I was going for. Writing with icing is a skill I have yet to master.

In entertainment news: D and I recently went to see the movie 3:10 to Yuma. While it wasn’t my first choice, I really enjoyed it. It has a father/son element that will make any half way emotional person tear up. And Russell Crowe did an excellent job at portraying the bad guy. I also recently saw Hairspray with Mandy and loved that movie too. It’s a fun musical and you have to laugh at Jon Travolta playing the mom. It was really cute.

I’m loving all the premiers on TV this week. I watched Dancing with the Stars last night and out of the girls, my favorite is Dr. Quinn the Medicine Woman. I did think that the Sports Illustrated girl was cute but I’m sure she will be voted off soon since she isn’t that great. I just loved the part when her partner said – she is deceptively unfit. I can’t wait to see the guys tonight.

And The Bachelor…always entertaining.
None of the girls really stood out to me last night so I’ll have to keep watching. I ended up falling asleep before the rose ceremony so I’m sure I missed all the drama of who was kicked off without getting any alone time. You have to check out this blog for recaps. I think someone else has linked to this blog before but wanted to provide it just in case.

Gotta go watch Dancing with the Stars!!!

Inspired

This clip from ESPN is so inspiring (it's not sports related so girls you will still like it even though it is from ESPN). You have to watch it. It's an amazing story of this college student from KY who is using his God given talents to be an inspiration to others.
You can see it here on YouTube.

Ideas Needed

Does anyone have any good ideas for games to play for a couple's wedding shower? Saturday is the shower so not anything too elaborate. I always default to the question game (ask one party questions ahead of time and then have the other party answer and see how well their questions match up) but this couple just had a couple's shower for us and we played that game so I feel like I can't reuse that one.
And any good shower dessert type recipes would be good too.
Thanks!!!

Football Loyalties

College football has taken over our lives as of late. D went this weekend to the Nebraska football game at Wake Forest so the dogs are keeping me company for the weekend.
I'm having a little trouble determining my college football loyalities. I'm married to a die hard Nebraska fan. I'm an alumni of Tech but none of their games are ever televised so it is hard to keep up with them. And then my parents have been taken over by the LSU spirit down in Baton Rouge. But I'm stating it here and now, my routing order will be:
1. Tech - who doesn't love the underdog?
2. Then comes LSU because you can't beat a night game in Tiger Stadium.
3. Then Nebraska comes third. (but I gotta say that it would be hard if LSU plays Nebraska because I know if LSU wins then D would be in a horrible mood and it would ruin the weekend.)
And the post wouldn't be complete without a picture of Kate....

Isn't she the sweetest thing!

Introducing Kate Kristen

Ryan and Dana had their baby girl, Kate Kristen, Friday, August 31st, at 7:50 am. She weighed 7lbs 10oz and was 20 3/4 ". It's hard work being so cute!

Big Brother Cole bringing the baby a present.

More pictures of the baby to come...

Sad News

My grandmother passed away in her sleep this afternoon. Please pray especially for my mom as she has been caring for her the last several weeks and is having a hard time with this. I'm headed to Baton Rouge tomorrow for the funeral on Friday.

B-day weekend!

We had the chance to go to a Ranger's game this week with Mike (D's brother). They were playing the Royals whice was D's favorite team growing up so we were cheering for opposing teams. Thankfully the Ranger's won the game the night we were there or I would have never heard the end of it (even though neither team is good this year).

We were up close and personal with Sammy Sosa.

Tonight we are going to a fancy restuarant in Ft. Worth as part of the "restuarant week" festivities. So it's the official start to my b-day weekend and I already told D I was going to milk it for all it was worth :)

Is it Friday Yet?

Beautiful Colorado Wedding

This weekend D and I traveled to Golden, CO to be a part of the wedding of Krista and Dustin. Krista and I worked on the same team at Fidelity until about a year ago when she moved to Denver to work at the Fidelity branch there. We got engaged at the same time and had fun planning our weddings together.

In between wedding activities we took some time to go to Boulder to meet up with my aunt and uncle. We had breakfast with them but then they gave us a map to follow and we visited the Pearl Street Pedestrian Mall and the Boulder Dushanbe Teahouse. This teahouse was a gift from Boulder's sister city, Dushanbe, Tajikistan. Don’t ask me where that is, I’m just proud I remembered the name. I’m not a big tea drinker but we had to order something so I got some mango concoction but believe me – there was no mango in it. It was basically just dirt water but I drank it all to prove that I was a sophisticated tea drinker in Colorado. We dodged the bicyclers to get back to our car and took a driving tour through the University of Colorado. D's main goal was to see the football stadium. Apparently if the Nebraska football team has stepped foot in a stadium then it is a place worth visiting. We then headed to the "Flat Irons" for a quick hike. We hiked uphill for about an hour and barely made it past the bottom line trees.
On Sunday we decided to drive to Breckinridge to enjoy the town a little. As we were getting closer the thermometer in the car kept going down till we were at 58 degrees! It was a little overcast and sprinkling so it was chilly even for Coloradans. We walked around Main Street and picked out our dream house. See below...
Then we ate lunch at the Breckinridge Brewery. And the day wouldn’t be complete without some exercise so we rented a tandem bike (a 2-seater bike) from a local bike shop. The plan was to ride from Breckinridge to Frisco which was about an 18 mile round trip. They told us the trip to Frisco was easy but the ride back to Breckinridge was all uphill. We made it to Frisco only a little bit wet from the rain and only one small argument between us. We stopped in the town to get some rain gear and coffee and finally got geared up for the uphill climb back to Breckinridge. We made it a couple of miles before the bike spoke bent as we were heading up a hill. A seasoned biker stopped and confirmed that the bike was not rideable so we had to call the bike shop and they sent a guy to come pick us up. He told us that they jokingly call the tandem bike – the divorce bike. It was a bit frustrating and tested our communication skills but we passed the test. I wish I had at least gotten a picture of the bike but I’m known for not having my camera at the most inopportune times. We did get half of our money refunded but I was just happy I didn’t have to ride the rest of the way uphill in the rain :)

So there are the highlights. It was a great trip and we hope to go back in the wintertime for some more skiing. But I don't know that I could handle skiing without Stacy going down the greens with me or Rachel letting me borrow her ski gear :)