Christmas so far

Merry Christmas, I cannot believe how fast Christmas has gotten here, but it shouldn't be shocking at all to me since it happens like this every year! So far the holidays this year have been both exciting & fun and at the same time frustrating & stressful, but I guess that's the Christmas season for you. I knew our first Christmas together would be somewhat interesting as far as stress goes because of where, when our families celebrate Christmas and deciding what we were going to do and adding Jake's crazy work schedule into all that, it was definitely crazy there for awhile. But thankfully it has all worked out great, thanks to some very special family members we are getting to leave early on Christmas Eve and fly to Houston to spend Christmas Eve and Christmas Day with all my family and we are doing Christmas with Jake's family tonight and doing New year's eve with his family also. We are so excited for Christmas with everyone!!

As far as shopping goes, we are still currently not finished yet, we only have a little bit left so hopefully we can get that this next week before we leave on Friday for Houston. So far I'm really excited to see our families open all the gifts we got them, that is the greatest part of Christmas to me, I just LOVE IT! Otherwise it's been such a fun season so far, it's always extra special and fun when you have little kids around to enjoy it with, the girls have had so much fun so far with everything! So far we have loved Elf on the Shelf, Larry has been watching them very carefully and reporting back to Santa every night, they have actually been pretty good lately. They did the donuts with santa again this year at their house which is always such a treat to see how magical Santa/Christmas is for all the little kids, it just makes you want to be a kid again or at least it does me! Here are so precious pictures from donuts with santa, hope you enjoy!







all 3 girls with Santa, everyone loved Santa this year!

Sleigh ride picture :)

Claire Louise wearing Santa's hat

Maggie and Santa

Elizabeth loved Santa, loved her outfit!!

Just hanging out on Santa's lap

All 3 precious girls...could not get enough of their smocked Christmas outfits

sweet Claire with Santa

She loved Santa if you can't tell...

the best picture I could get with my sweet girls, granted it was at the end of the party and they had obviously had Christmas/Santa picture overload, its definitely better than nothing since I needed a recent, updated picture of me with them really bad...

Thanksgiving 2010

Thanksgiving 2010 was much different than any we had ever been accustomed to so far in our lives, but we made it & it was such a fun weekend. Since Jake had to work the day before Thanksgiving and the day after for Black Friday we decided to stay here and my parents & brother decided to stay here and spend Thanksgiving with us since we couldn't go anywhere. We were also so happy to have my sister & brother in law come up to visit us for four days. So we got the holiday weekend all started with them getting here on wednesday afternoon and going out to dinner in Buffalo Gap for a great catfish meal. Since both Jake's family & my family were both in town for the holidays we had a double Thanksgiving which beforehand was somewhat stressful, but really ended up working out for the best, which I was so relieved about. Jake & I hosted our first Thanksgiving meal here at our apartment, it was alot of work, but very delicious. We did a big turkey, macaroni & cheese, green beans, cranberry mold, mashed potatoes, stuffing, & coconut creme pie, lemon chess pies for dessert. Luckily we didn't have to make all of that ourselves, Jake did the turkey, macaroni & cheese, green beans, & stuffing and his family helped out with bringing the rest of the side dishes and desserts. We got the big day started off early with a little breakfast and hanging out watching the parade on tv. Later we all ate lunch, had dessert, looked at all the shopping ads, and just hung out until Jake & I left to go to lunch at my parents house.

Lunch with my family was very delicious also, my dad, brother, & brother in law fried a turkey, my mom made the dressing & gravy to go with the turkey, my sister made macaroni & cheese, twice baked potatoes, I made squash casserole, we also had pistachio salad, sweet potatoes, cranberry sauce, and rolls. We also had lots of wonderful pies for dessert, I made a pumpkin pie, my mom made chocolate meringue, coconut creme pie, & apple pie. We all ate lunch, watched football, talked about our christmas lists, played with all the dogs, and just had a wonderful time all being together. Unfortunately we were all too occupied to take one single picture all of the holiday weekend, which I definitely now regret.


The rest of the weekend consisted of lots of fun family time with all of us being together for once, which is pretty rare. On friday my mom, sister, & I ventured out to try and do a little bit of shopping on black friday, which in the end we were very unsuccessful, but it was fun being out shopping together. They came over to our apartment so that my sister could see it since she never had before, so I think she really liked it. Afterward we all went home and hung out, ate Thanksgiving leftovers for dinner, made some yummy Christmas cookies, my mom got out all of her old family recipes she has collected throughout the years for my sister & I to copy/scan so we could use them for our families now. On saturday we got a Christmas at my parents house, went to the ACU playoff game, which ended up being pretty disappointing, then went to dinner, and came home to decorate the Christmas tree and hang out for one last night together.


All in all it was an extremely special weekend for us all to be together and get to hang out all holiday weekend long. Now we are all getting excited to see what Christmas holds for all of us...

That is all for now, sorry for the lack in blogging over the last couple months now that the holidays are here I'm sure I will be blogging much more. Stay tuned for some Christmas blogging coming up next...

Homecoming weekend

I know this is a little delayed...but welcome to the story of my life. Anyone that knows me knows that "late" should be my middle name. But anyways I guess 2 weeks ago was ACU Homecoming weekend, which meant quite a few family members coming to visit all of us in Abilene. It was a really fun weekend, I absolutely LOVED having family here, there is nothing greater in the world than having fun or being happy with family. It was an extra special weekend because my sweet cousin Rachel who is a senior at ACU was on homecoming court, we were all SO excited for! Although she didn't get homecoming queen, it was still such an honor, and we of course were so happy for her anyways!

We got to do lots of fun homecoming activities which was really nice. The weekend got started with the Queen's Tea on friday afternoon, which was basically just an afternoon reception to recognize all the nominees on homecoming court this year. Each nominee got to invite ten guests I believe, my mom, sister, myself, and aunt monica. My mom, sister, & I got to spend alot of time together which was really great, I miss those times so much. We all got to go to a great dinner friday night at Lytle Land & Cattle and afterward to watch the homecoming show of fireworks on the ACU campus, which were actually really really good. Saturday the rest of the family went to the early parade on ACU campus, then to homecoming chapel, and to lunch afterward. I didn't make it to the parade or chapel but met up with everyone for lunch and got to see my grandparents and aunt beth who had made it to Abilene late friday night. Saturday afternoon was the ACU homecoming football game, which was one of the best football games I have been to in a long time, both teams were undefeated and very talented, but so glad to say that ACU pulled out the win in a really good way!

The rest of the weekend consisted going out to eat with the family, hanging out with everyone, and just enjoy the weekend. Thanks to rachel and monica I have pictures from the weekend, I kinda stole these pictures off rachel's facebook haha thanks, hope you enjoy them :)

rachel & bailey at homecoming chapel

monica & rachel at homecoming chapel

brad, monica, rachel, & ashton at homecoming chapel

all the ACU 2010 homecoming nominees

christopher & rachel at homecoming chapel

rachel & ashton at homecoming chapel

brad, monica, & rachel at homecoming chapel

monica & rachel at the queen's tea

rachel, my mom, jenna, me, and monica at the queen's tea

rachel & my dad at homecoming chapel

nana, papa, & rachel at homecoming chapel

nana, papa, monica, & rachel at homecoming chapel

papa & rachel during halftime at homecoming football game

Catching Up...

What have we been up to? Well mainly nothing exciting except enjoying our new addition to the family a.k.a. Emmitt (our new Boston Terrier dog) and working ALOT! All in all it has been an enjoyable last few weeks of summer, we are now ready for some cooler weather and everything else fall related. I guess since the last time I blogged several things have happened, my little Elizabeth turned a year old...CRAZY to me, it's still hard for me to believe! She had a precious little birthday party with a friend of her who turned one a week after her. There are a few pictures of her enjoying her birthday cupcakes at her party, it was absolutely adorable watching her enjoy her cupcake and her birthday!

All the girls have gone back to school now and are loving it. Maggie started real school this year, well at least 3 days a week to Abilene Christian in Pre-K. She is acting so big lately I guess school is really turning her into a big almost 5 year old. While Claire & Elizabeth started back at their mother's day out, 2 days a week, this is Elizabeth's first time at school ever and I have to admit it was sad to see her go off to school even if it was only 2 days a week and it has taken me a little time to get used to! I know she is doing great, having fun, and I still see her most days so I really can't complain too much, it just seems like she has grown up in a flash of a second and its crazy to see.


In addition to birthdays and going back to school is two family members that have recently gotten engaged that we are SO happy for!! Jake's brother, Josh & his girlfriend, Dani recently gotten engaged on Labor day and are planning a wedding for early fall of 2011 and we are so happy for them! While my cousin Hannah and her boyfriend, Justin also recently got engaged last week and are planning an early summer 2011 wedding. Congratulations to both of them, we are so happy for ya'll!! I'm having alot of fun helping plan with them already and look forward to more wedding festivites, weddings are absolutely the best!





Claire enjoying her cupcake at Elizabeth's bday party

the birthday girl & all her frosting

Oh how she loves sweets!!

Happy Birthday Elizabeth!

sweet Claire

our newest addition

So as of today we have one little friend to introduce to our family...he is two years old & his name is Emmitt & he is a full bred Boston Terrier. Jake found him yesterday afternoon at our local animal shelter, but he wasn't ready to come home until today so I went to pick him up today and take him home with me. According the animal shelter he was found a few days ago on a rather busy road in a very nice part of town near one of our hospitals and close to a main highway here in town. So far he has been such a well behaved and sweet little dog, it has been obvious that he belonged to someone and had a real home because so far he is pretty much house broken & knows simple commands such as sit, lay, stay, etc. He loves to cuddle, kiss, and play with us already. And he is also a big napper which I can't say I mind. We can already tell how happy he is to not be caged up at the animal shelter and to have soft furniture and carpet to lay on and people to love on him & play with.


I do have to admit that I did not want a dog at least for a long while...but Jake was a different story. I love dogs, I wouldn't say I am an animal person, but I do love dogs. Jake is definitely an animal lover, but has always wanted a dog, especially a full bred Boston Terrier. He is defiintely so happy to have him with us now. We feel so lucky that we just came upon him at our local animal shelter since full bred Bostons can usually get pretty pricey. We are certainly hoping that little Emmitt will be part of our little family for a long time to come.

Hope you enjoy the pictures...



Hi my name is Emmitt

I love my new life

My owners are really awesome :)

Andrea's Wedding Weekend

This weekend we went to Dallas for the weekend as our last getaway for the summer, since we won't be going out of town until the weekend of my birthday. We went to Dallas for our good friend Andrea's wedding on Saturday afternoon. We actually left friday morning to start the weekend...we went to one of our favorite places to eat La Madelines for lunch, then went to a few stores to do some shopping at, checked into our hotel, did some more shopping, hung out at the pool/hot tub at the hotel, then ate dinner at the restaurant in our hotel. On Saturday we did some more shopping and then went back to the hotel to start getting ready for our wedding that afternoon. It was SO hot that afternoon for the wedding, but we did survive, the wedding was very sweet and Andrea looked absolutely gorgeous, we spent sometime at the reception and then said our goodbyes to the happy couple. After we left the reception we headed back to the hotel to change out of our dress clothes and went to dinner and to hang out at Dave & Buster's for Josh's (Jake's brother's birthday celebration). On Sunday we headed back towards home and made one stop in Fort Worth at the mall and did a little bit more shopping and then went to eat a quick lunch before heading the rest of the way home.

All in all we had a great weekend, enjoyed seeing two good friends finally get married, had a much needed break from work/life in Abilene, and got alot of new stuff for our apartment and some stuff we both needed. But it was definitely good to be home :)

But here is our weekend in pictures, enjoy!




Jake & I with Jake's brother & girlfriend (Josh & Dani) at the wedding reception site

Jake & I with the happy bride & groom (Andrea & Stephen)

Me with beautiful Andrea at their wedding reception

Mr. & Mrs. Stephen Rogers being introduced at their wedding reception

the back of the chairs that looked so pretty

The happy bride & groom with their wedding party at their wedding reception

the pretty centerpieces at the reception...mirror glass tiles, white tea light votives, pink cherry blossoms inside cylinder vases filled with water, and pink rose petals on the table.

The pink chocolate fondue fountain at the wedding reception

Stephen's groom cake...He is a huge car guy, so it was definitely fitting for him

Andrea's pretty pink cake...two square levels, two round levels, with black decor & diamond rhinestones, and big "R" initail for Rogers

being introduced for the first time as Mr. & Mrs. Stephen Rogers

LOVED her dress...the bottom part below the flowers tears off so the dress becomes short to dance in at the reception.

Andrea standing there with her dad before being handed over to Stephen

The front of the church before everything got started

Aikman here right outside Cowboy Stadium

All the flags outside Cowboy Stadium

The most amazing football stadium I have ever seen in my life...love my Cowboys!!

Another view of the amazing Cowboy Stadium

Our last days of summer

Even though summer coming to a close doesn't mean all that much to me because I'm not in school anymore, things still change in one way or another. The girls are all getting ready to start school again, Maggie starts big Pre-K this year at Abilene Christian Elementary where she will be attending K-5th grade, her first day of school is tomorrow. She is so so excited and its so adorable, she will be going 3 days a week from 8-3, quite a difference from just mothers day out schedule, but I know she is going to love every minute of it. I cannot believe she is old enough to be going off to semi-real school this year, she acts and seems so old to me lately. Once again its weird to think that she was only 18 months old when I first met her and started keeping her.

Claire & Elizabeth will be at mothers day out at church this year, this is Elizabeth's first year of school, which is making me pretty sad to think about, even though I know she will have a good time. They don't start back to school for another two weeks I think, sometime after labor day. But needless to say they are all excited about getting back to school to see their friends and new teachers with all their school stuff, they are loving their new clothes, new backpacks & lunch boxes, & napmats.

Although summer is one of the greatest things ever, I could REALLY use a break from the heat disaster we have had this summer 100 + every single day is getting a little old! We are definitely ready for some fall weather around here and I do have to say that I am ready to get back into some sort of routine of things...I am REALLY looking forward to the holidays this year, going to be very different, yet exciting this year.

Anyways hope you enjoy the pictures from our last days of summer fun :)





Claire watching tv very intently

Elizabeth practicing walking around the furniture...although not interested at all in taking any real steps, she is still a crawling machine...

love her sweet smile :)

sorry about the light in these pictures...that window is really bright, but they are just too cute not to post on here

I love the back of this outfit...I swear she is the cutest thing ever

Claire posing for the camera...love these dresses

Maggie & Claire in their fun zoozoo babybug dresses, so cute!