Main Events

We celebrated Austin's birthday in Austin this past weekend with all of our families. We had so much fun making the rounds to see everyone!

We drove down Saturday morning and stopped by Austin's, brother's house and took the family out to lunch and then on to Main Event. Our neice and newphew had a blast! We played putt putt, air hockey, all the arcade games and even did some rock climbing! It was so good to see them!

Braeden and Allison playing "Glow in the Dark" putt putt


A little air hockey with dad






On Saturday night we went out to dinner with my family to celebrate Austin and Julie's Bdays at Eddie Vs! Love this place!! Austin's cake and opening gifts



On Sunday we had lunch at Hula Hut with the Trantham/Hall families. It was so nice to have Granny and Peepaw in town and spend time with Austin's family and our little cousins! They are getting so big!






Granny is a very talented painter and it has been a tradition in the family to paint all the grandchildren eggs for Easter. She painted a little one for The Babe!


Happy Birthday to my wonderful hubby, Austin! Love you!

Our Baby Belle

Our little Belle is 9 years old this month. Belle has been so many things to us in the past 9 years. She has several names because one just isn't enough..Belly, Bellers, No Belle, Good Dog.

Some things we adore about Belle:

1) She helps Austin out in the yard and keeps him company.

2) She is my little burgular alarm any time something suspicious comes near our house.

3) She has a very big appetite for anything. Vegetables, 92 dog bones at one time, grandmoms whole loaves of banana nut bread and pound cake, her momma's pumpkin spice cookies...(we thought Peepaw ate them all), 60 caramel calcium chews, and the dog loves acorns. There is a plant that she takes a bite of every day when we walk by it -without fail. And she never misses an opportunity to stop for a snack on a walk like the time she found a hamburger burried in the leaves on the side of the street. She ate it in 2 bites. Our little hamburgular.

4) She is our alarm clock. We dont even have to set one because she is up with the chickens every morning....

5)She loves to snuggle...

6) She loves to chase rabbits and squirrels. Those poor baby bunnies!

7) I am really excited to have her around when The Babe comes so she can eat all the food he throws everywhere! Yuck!

We love her so much and hope to have her around another 9 years!

Born in Lubbock TX - 9 years ago! I bought Belle in college my sophomore year and gave her to Austin as a little present. Little did I know how much effort it would be to take care of a puppy! I went with my roommate Katy to pick her up and we drove straight to the pet store to buy all the essentials. We got her home, gave her a bath and the poor thing would not stop crying at night, which made for a very cranky college student. Needless to say, I called Austin to come pick her up and take her home. She was adorable though....

She is always into something...looking for rabbits under the deck

Belle always sits in our closet when we get dressed for work in the morning. She loves to snuggle with her "babies"

Belle will always be our first baby!! Happy Birthday old girl!

86 Never looked Better

This past weekend was so much fun! While Austin was in Chicago for a bachelor party, my mom came to visit and I took a day off work from work! Mom and I went shopping for the babe and bought some furniture and decor for the nursery. I can't wait to get the nursery set up. Our catch-all room is now turning into The Babe's room...I get a little excited every time I peek my head in and see a baby mattress leaning on the wall. (Deep Breath) It is such a reality check that a little being is going to be here pretty soon and this room that was our once catch-all room will have a new and significant meaning in our lives.

After a wonderful couple of days with mom in Dallas, we drove over to Weatherford for the rest of the weekend to celebrate Grandmom's Bday! We went out to lunch and did a little shopping and then had a fabulous dinner at the house with my Aunt, Uncle, cousin Claire and her husband, Richard! We had Uncle Ed's famous chicken, scalloped potatoes, coleslaw, green beans and Nothing Bundt Cakes for gmoms bday! Grandmom made out pretty well on all of her gifts! She is learning to embrace technology with her new notebook. I know she will catch on quick! Happy BirtHday Grandmom!!!

I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas.....

I think my whole family was dreaming of a white Christmas this year and all that dreaming brought us a blizzard!

We had such a fun time in NYC for Christmas this year. Not your tradition Christmas, but it is a trip that we will remember for a lifetime. We have so many fun memories and couldn't have dreamed up a better Christmas!

Austin and I took the adventurous route and turned New York upside within the first 3days! We enjoyed a helicopter ride overlooking the Hudson. It was Amazing. Toured Wall Street, Top of the Rock, SOHO and Nolitta. We loved eating at all the amazing places NY has to offer, Balthazar, The Plaza just to name a few. We also took in the Nutcracker, Wicked and The Rockettes.
Welcome to New York - Where dreams are made of....


Our room at the Michelanglo. It was beautiful


First Night out at Radio City and the start of the Irish Pub Tours...


We hope to complete this post sometime soon, but we just bought a MAC and are in the process of transferring everything (including pics) Will update soon though!

Giving Thanks 2x

You would think it would be easy to celebrate the holidays when your families both live in the same town, but it is a detailed and strategic plan from start to finish with no relaxing in between, but we wouldn't change it for anything. It's the best of both worlds and we are fortunate enough to be able to see both families during the holidays.

We had a lovely time at the Trantham's and the Matthys' for Thanksgiving. The food was fabulous all around, we were stuffed to maximum capacity. We enjoyed catching up with everyone and taking in a game or two or three of football!

Austin did the honors of carving the turkey.


We got to see the new puppies for the first time, Juno and Dottie. They are presh!


Cousin Claire and Richard


We are so fortunate and blessed to be able to spend this time with family. We are thankful for each and every member of our families and love yall so much!

Surprise!

Since I have become a "widow-on-the-weekends" for the next month or two with Austin at the lease, it has given me some much needed time to spend doing the things I like to do..mostly shopping, hanging out with friends and visiting family.

I surprised my Grandmom this past Saturday morning with a trip to Fort Worth to have brunch at our fav, Neimans, and do a little Christmas shopping. We have gone to brunch at Neimans at least once a year for the past 25 years. It is one of our favorite things to do together. But who can resist the popovers and strawberry butter? She loves to get her shopping done early. We picked up a few "last minute" items on her list. She definitely helped get me into the Christmas spirit and start my Christmas shopping.

Grandmom and her Bluebells. It was so good to see Grandmom! Can't wait for next time!

S'NANGELO

We had such a wonderful time visiting Granny and Peepaw in San Angelo this past weekend. Austin was born in San Angelo and lived there for a few months before moving to Austin so it was so nice to see his old stompin grounds and look at pictures from his past.
Lauren and Colby made the road trip with us and we had a blast learning facts about San Angelo and having a few laughs along the way! We arrived late Friday evening (just before Peepaw's bed time) and just in time to grab a bite at Zentner's Daughter. Boy did we have some leftovers....

We enjoyed catching up with everyone and had a great time sharing old memories and stories from the past. The next morning, the boys had an early morning with a 7:30 tee time and the girls prepped for our fabulous lunch and got ready for an afternoon of shopping. Loved the antique shopping and we made a stop by the Sassy Fox. How fun! Uncle Jeff had his high school reunion the same weekend so we got to babysit the triplets (So fun!) while he and Tricia were getting their party on! Playing on the swing and getting ready for bed. We probably watched Frosty the Snowman and VeggieTales atleast 3 times! It never got old!


I love Granny's garden! She has been busy cleaning it out and planting bulbs and seeds to get ready for Spring.


We had a wonderful time and hope to visit again soon!

Girls Weekend vs. Boys Weekend

I have definitely enjoyed my mom's visits to Dallas since she retired. I thought it would be fun to have mom and grandmom come to Dallas for a girls weekend while the boys went hunting. We had a great time visitng and getting out in Dallas. We lunched at Village Burger Bar, went to see The Town, which was pretty decent, watched the game, shopped and shopped and brunched at Breadwinners.

Meanwhile....

Austin went hunting and fishing with my dad, brother-in-law and dad's buddies.
Dad and Austin getting ready for dinner

They fished for bass with their new fly rods; fried and ate the fish they caught.

They shot their firearms, went dove hunting and made several attempts to shoot hogs but the hogs were MIA.




Miss Belle missed Austin, but she was a good dog while he was away.


Overall, we all had a great weekend! Boys will be boys!

13 Fourths

The Fourth of July is a holiday very dear to our hearts as we have spent every 4th together since 1998. It doesn't matter what we do for the Fourth as long as we spend it together.

We drove to Austin late on Friday night and couldn't wait to go to sleep. Does this mean we are getting old???

I couldn't wait for Saturday! To Austin, it was just another day, for me it was like Christmas! I had a whole morning/afternoon planned with my mom and sister. I am a tad bit obsessed with Twilight. Now I wouldnt say I am a Twihard or whatever they are called, but I could be pretty close to that point. If I didn't have the old 9-5, I probably would have gone to the midnight showing of Eclipse on a Tuesday night and waited in line for 2-3 hours....but I need my sleep.

One of my good friends suggested I read The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner before seeing Eclipse. It recently debuted in the Twilight series and gives some perspective and background story on the "Newborns". Of course, my sister and I downloaded it to the Kindles ASAP and were glad we did! In the middle of working, Junior League volunteering and a house remodel project, I was able to finish in time...

We thought we would have to get to the theatre an hour before the movie started...hahaha we were so wrong!



Mom and I did some serious shopping at the Domain and lunched at Daily Grill. It was such a relaxing time with the girls.

We had to hurry home and get ready for Trae and Cyndi's wedding! Austin and I had a wonderful time! It was lovely and very chic. LC Rocks took it to the next level and it got pretty crazy out on the dance floor!



Some how I always make it on stage, and oddly enough...I had stage fright this time until someone twisted my arm.



It was a great night and we are definitey hanging on to those rockin sun glasses!



Congrats Cyndi and Trae! We had so much fun and it was an amazing wedding!



While trying to recover on the 4th, we spent the day with our families. It was nice to be able to spend time with everyone while we were in Austin and not have a jam packed schedule.

Happy Fourth and looking forward to NO. 14!

She's Done!!

We went down to Austin to celebrate my mom's retirement! After 26 years of teaching at North Oaks (now known as Caraway Elementary), she's finally done! I got the camera out (post Dom/celebrating)so there arent too many pics.....







Now that she's retired she plans to travel, learn Spanish, take yoga classes and come to Dallas to visit often! Way to Go Mom!