3 Years

Today is Brandon and my 3rd Anniversary! We spent it in the car for 10 hours on the way home to Dallas, but there's no one in this world who I'd rather go through this life with. He's so good to me, and I don't know what I'd do without him. I am so blessed to be married to such an amazing man, and I can't believe we've already been married for 3 years. How time does fly!




Love you more than anything!

White Christmas

We've had just about a nearly perfect Christmas this year. We've spent an amazing few days in Nashville with my family and it's been one of the best Christmases ever. We got to see a lot of family and we had such a great time all together. We even woke up Christmas morning to snow on the ground. Here are a bunch of pictures from our Nashville Christmas....


With our PopPop and Memommy


Sisters


The fam


Craddocks 2010


The cute little Walker familia


With their grand-dogs


Cute little Shelbs


Love my Goober bear


Bailey and Shelby played together sooo well


The boys battling their international foes on Mario Cart


Christmas Morning with my sweetie


Our view out the front door on Christmas morning


The pups LOVED the snow


Time to build a snowman!


Mom and Jonathan got a little competitive...


Our Snow-woman




Their snowman


We had sooo much fun playing in the snow


What a perfect Christmas


Mom and Daddio


Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas!!

2 days!!!

After months of counting down the days, I seems crazy that Christmas is only 2 days away! Where did the time go?!?!

Every year in about October, I start getting really excited about Christmas season. And every year I look forward to the peaceful, relaxing cold days with me wrapped up in a blanket by the fire with my hot cocoa and a good book. But that never happens. Never. First of all, it was in the 70s even this week- not cold enough for a fire. And furthermore, Christmas sneaks up on me. I always think I'll have all my shopping done wayyy in advance. Wrong again. I am inevitably stuck in long lines and horrible traffic trying to find the perfect gift.

The past couple weeks have been very busy for us. Thus the blogging hiatus. I won't even go into all the little details, but we are really excited for a break. And now that the break is in sight, I'm getting really excited about the more important things. Seeing my family and spending time with them. It's too rare these days that we slow down and just enjoy each other, but that's when our family is at it's best. And this year we have Jonathan as an addition to our family Christmas, which we are excited about.

Brandon and I are so blessed, and it's impossible not to be abundantly aware of that around the Holidays. Hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas, and maybe I'll be a better blogger after this crazy month is over. Everyone have safe travels and a very Merry Christmas!

I'm an AUNT

Yep, you guessed it! Jessi and Jonathan just got a puppy, and I am the proud aunt of Shelby, adorable 6-week old Golden-doodle. She might just be the cutest thing I've ever seen...


Proud parents on the night they brought her home


Oh I just want to snuggle her!


Look at that face!


Tired girl


Bailey can't WAIT to play with you, Shelby Welby!

Oh the Joys of Home Ownership

There was a puddle in our living room. Once I realized that Bailey hadn't peed in the house since she was like 10 weeks old, I started looking at it closer. Come to find out, we had quite the plumbing issue.


Ewwww wet floors


It was a slab leak. That means a LEAK in the CONCRETE which is UNDERNEATH our home. Our living room, specifically. Here they are with a JACK HAMMER in my LIVING ROOM where they had to dig down and repair the leak.


The guy had to keep on pulling back more and more hardwood floors because it was still wet underneath.


Finally, back to normal!!!
All I can say is thank heavens for Home Owners' Insurance:)

Oh Atlanta

Just wanted to take a second to post about our long wonderful Thanksgiving weekend. After two years, we finally got to go spend several days in Atlanta with Brandon's parents. We had a blast. Brandon's mom and I did a lot of shopping and a lot of cooking. Well, she really did the cooking ahead of time because she's organized like that. And Brandon and his dad did some little home improvements and most of all, burned some stuff. Brandon and I even got to go out for coffee one night with some of his best friends from Atlanta. It really was the perfect trip. Just wish it could have been a little longer!!! Here's a few pictures we took...

The pyro-maniacs

After church with his parents

Me and my love- so so thankful for him.

Also, today is Brandon's mom's birthday.....so

HAPPY HAPPY BIRTHDAY

to the best mother-in-law in the world! Hope you had a great day!!!

Feast

We love our friends. God blessed us with some of the most wonderful people to be our 2nd family since ours is so very far away. Tonight we all got together for a Thanksgiving FEAST. We all brought food, so there was much much much to eat. Here's a picture Brandon snapped of all of us sitting around after dinner. We had so much fun.



And now we get to go see some of that far-away family that we miss so much. Tomorrow we head for Atlanta for few days with Brandon's parents. We absolutely can't WAIT! Hope everyone has a very very Happy Thanksgiving. God is so good and we have so much to be thankful for. Despite plumbing problems, work stress, and everything else going on in our crazy lives, we know that He is in control and we are so grateful.

Goodbye Old Friend

Yes, that's right. It's the end of an era. Time to pay your respects to the car that has been with me for the past 8 wonderful years. Last weekend we said goodbye to my precious Civic. It was a difficult day, but it was the right time for us to go our separate ways. Recently, it sustained some pretty bad hail damage on our way back from Nashville. The insurance company considered it to to totaled even though they gave it back to us with a clear title ("cosmetic damage"). So we decided it was time and put it up for sale on Friday. Little did we know that it would go to the first guy to look at it on Saturday morning. I have so many good memories in that car, from Nashville to Abilene to Dallas and everywhere in between. Piling in there with lots of college friends, squeezing two carseats in the back of the two-door coupe, taking a countless number of roadtrips home and back- this car was good to me. So farewell, dear Civic. I'll never forget you.





*We did get a new car, but will wait to post on that good news until later out of respect for the Civic.

Baby Avery

Baby Avery finally arrived! Two of our best friends, Chad and Melany, had their first child early Wednesday morning after about 7 days of being overdue. We were all ready for her to get here, especially her sweet Mommy. Last night Brandon, Lacey, and I went to the hospital to visit baby Avery. She is perfect- such a beautiful baby and so alert and calm. And her parents weren't doing too bad themselves- Melany was already walking around, feeling pretty good, and Chad was already changing diapers. They are going to be such great parents. Here are some pictures of their sweet baby girl...


Can't believe you're a Mommy!


Me and Lacey with the new mommy


How cute is she!!!


Diaper duty!


Oh I just love her already!


Tired baby


Brandon with Avery


Lacey made her smile!!

Broken Bow

Last weekend we went camping with some friends in Broken Bow, Oklahoma. The Lees had their annual camping weekend, so they invited us to join them. It was so gorgeous there, but it was freeeeeezing. Like 28 degrees at night. In a tent. But luckily we brought a heating blanket- great idea, huh. Anyways we had such a fun time. Here are a few pics of the weekend...


Had to stop for some pictures while hiking


My Goober


The boys after some good ole fly fishin


Me, Lacey, and Melissa on a hayride with the pups


Katie and Bailey = BFFs


Apple Cobbler trial #2- finally a success!


Katie girl in her Halloween costume


Happy little family by our tent


We had such a fun weekend with yall!