Curtains, Curtains, Curtains!

Our formal living and dining room has been without curtains since we've lived here which is over 3 years. I've just never really found anything I loved or that were reasonably priced enough for all the windows. Well, this summer, my mom & I decided to make some! We went on an extensive fabric hunt at all the fabric stores in the area & ended up finding a fabric I love at Cutting Corners. My mom has been so patient with me as she taught me along the way how to make them. Making curtains really aren't that hard, it is just very time consuming. I did all the cutting & ironing & she did all the sewing & hand stitching. Well, a month later, all 7 panels are now complete and hanging! Thanks, Mom, for all your help! :) Below are a few pictures--I only have a before pic of 1 set of windows.

Before

After

Let the weddings begin...

On Saturday, Abby & Rudy got married. They are good family friends of ours & my youngest sister, Kendall, was a bridesmaid. It was a beautiful wedding & Abby was a beautiful bride! I can't believe my little sister's friends are now getting married! This was the first of our marathon weddings for the rest of the year. We have at least one or more every month thru December--we are happy to go to them though! :) Below are a couple of pictures of family at the wedding but somehow I don't have any of the bride & groom on my camera!

My parents

My sisters (me, Kendall, Summer)

The crazy one! :)

Craft Day

Last week, I got together with a couple of my college roomies, Sarah & Katie, for craft day! Sarah had discovered an awesome craft, figured out how to make it & had us over to do it. So fun! The letters come in different sizes & you can either hang them on the wall or lay them on a shelf against the wall, which is what I did with it. It was actually really easy & inexpensive & I could totally see myself making them for wedding or baby gifts! Below are a couple of pictures of us & the final products! Thanks, Sarah, for a fun day!

The lake...

This weekend we went down to Lake Conroe to visit Steve's parents. His brother Clay & our nephew Clayton came to visit, as well, which was a treat because we don't get to see them very often! The weather held out for us in the afternoon on Saturday & we were able to spend some time on the lake jet skiing and also got some good sun at the pool. Clayton is the most adorable 3 year old & we had such a great time playing with him & getting to know his fun personality. He is so funny! On Sunday, we battled some rain, but still managed to find some time for boating. We always enjoy our visits in Conroe!

One of my best friends from college, Laura, came in town from Conneticut with her little girl, Lily, while her husband is deployed for 6 months with the Navy. Getting to play with sweet Lily was so much fun. Lily had trouble saying "Halie" so she would just call me "Ya,ya" -- too funny! We ate some good mexican food & had to go to Laura's favorite--Benningan's, since both of those don't exist in CT! Laura is currently pregnant with her 2nd baby & we're anxious to find out if its a boy or girl! Below are a couple of pictures with them. Lily would look at the camera and say "cheese!" So cute!

4th of July

We had a great 4th of July with our lifegroup & the weather ended up being perfect! The Webbs had us all over to their new house for a cookout. The guys spent most of the time out in the backyard in a tight competition of washers while us gals hung out inside so our very pregnant friend Courtney didn’t get too hot! :) Later that night, we all played a few rounds of the game “the king & the slime sucking pig” which is a fun card game for a lot of people and ended the evening with sparklers in the backyard! Thanks for hosting a wonderful 4th of July, Casey & Trichelle!

Quack, Quack

Yesterday I pulled into our driveway & noticed 2 ducks walking towards me in our alley--no pond near! I got really excited & ran & got our camera. By the time I got back, the ducks were headed up our driveway rather quickly. I snapped a couple of pictures and then I freaked out because they were waddling so fast towards me & about to come into our garage. So I hit the buttone to shut our garage and they went the other way. Whew! I didn't realize ducks would freak me out--I guess its rare they are coming towards you! :) hehe

Playa Del Carmen

A couple of weeks ago Steve & I took a vacation to Iberostar Paraiso Del Mar all-inclusive resort in Playa Del Carmen and had an wonderful time together! We did a lot of hanging out at their HUGE pool and the beach. This beach had fairly large waves that Steve spent hours body surfing on. :) In between the pool & beach time we managed to eat our little hearts out! The food was wonderful--I think our favorite was the Japanese Hibachi Restaurant but we couldn't pass up the amazing guacamole that we ate everyday! They also had a lot of activities such as bocce ball, ping pong tournaments, wind surfing, sailing, etc. We had such a fun & relaxing time together & would recommend this resort to anyone! (Unfortunately we lost our digital camera on day 2 of our trip, so we had to buy a Kodak disposable camera. Once I get the pictures put on CD or scanned, I will post them!)

New Teammates

My new 1st grade team for next year got together to go bowling & get to know each other last week. After bowling, we headed to TGI Fridays for an afternoon snack! We lost 2 teammates & are gaining 3 for next year. While we are sad to see Rhonda & Kristy go, we are really excited about Amanda, Courtney & Lanette joining us!

Field Day

Today was field day for 1st grade and it turned out to be a beautiful sunny day for it! The kids spent about 3 hours running around to different games & competing against one another. The teachers decided we would have some fun too and the kids enjoyed cheering us on! Below are a few pictures of our fun afternoon!

Babies!

Baby fever has started in our Lifegroup! Yesterday we hosted a baby shower at our house for Courtney & Dustin--the first couple to be pregnant in our Lifegroup. We had a blast cooking out, playing the dirty diaper game, opening gifts & hanging out. Many blessings to the Alban's & sweet baby Hannah!

3 years of marital bliss

For one reason or another Halie and I haven't been able to have our "official anniversary dinner" until last night (over a month late). Halie was really sweet and planned a fancy dinner for us at home. She really pulled out all the stops... candlelight, wine, and we ate on our china for the first time ever! I told her that this is how I always envisioned marriage - her serving me a good hot meal in the dining room in a dress and high heels. :) Just kidding, but it really was probably the most romantic thing she has ever done for me. She also capped it off with cheesecake from The Cheesecake Factory! What a great memory!

Don't take it for granite!

It's been a while since we've posted--so sorry! A couple of weeks ago we got granite counters put in our kitchen! We have been wanting to do this for a couple of years now, but there were some other projects that came first. :) It turned out to be quite a big job from going to the granite warehouses to pick out our slabs, choosing a new backsplash, picking out a new sink & faucet--but it was all worth it! I think we have finally cleaned up all the dust that filled our kitchen and house too! Here are some before & after pictures--notice how "white" our kitchen used to be!

Picaboo.com

Yesterday I discovered this really great website www.picaboo.com. It is a website where you can use your digital photos & actually create a scrapbook with backgrouds, journaling, etc! The prices are reasonable too--only $9.99 for the small book. Its perfect for me because I always dread getting out everything you need to make a scrapbook and then having to clean it all up. This way there is no mess & you still get a great scrapbook! I love discovering new things! :)

A Snow Day!

I was awoken at 6:10 this morning by my assistant principal with the news that we didn't have school today. I was so confused b/c there were no predictions of this and she had to assure me that it was pouring snow & sleet outside. Sure enough--its was! Steve and I decided to go play in the snow & ice this morning across the street on the track & playground. We found some chunks of ice that we used for "ice hockey" on the track and there were many snowballs thrown (more like flying snow/ice--not packed snowballs). It was fun though!

Steve trying to catch the snow!

Just being silly!

Kendall graduates!

On Friday, the last sister of the bunch graduated from college! WHOOP! The family all went down to Aggieland for her graduation and we had a great time celebrating with Kendall. It was a long ceremony but it was also neat because it was A&M President Robert Gates' last ceremony before he takes on his new role as Secretary of Defense! He gave a neat speech & also handed Kendall her diploma. We couldn't leave Aggieland without some good 'ole College Station eating at Freebirds & Koppe Bridge. Yum! Congratulations, Kendall!

Christmas Party!

This year we hosted our annual Lifegroup Christmas Party. We all went to dinner together at Patrizio's and then we all headed back to our house for the rest of the party! The girls had an ornament gift exchange & the guys did a white elephant gift exchange. The party wouldn't have been complete without cider, hot chocolate & desserts! Then, we all watched the Big XII championship game between Nebraska & OU the we TiVoed earlier that evening--we've got big fans in our group! It was a great night! Below are a few highlights--more are in the pictures section!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

It's been a lot of fun decorating for Christmas this year! We got started early because we are hosting this years Christmas party for our Lifegroup and its the first weekend in December! Steve decided to tackle the big task of putting up lights around the roof of our house for the first time--lots of work, but I love it! Here are a few pictures of what we've done so far!

Party like it's 1999

Yesterday was the biggest day of the year for Aggie fans. We watched our beloved play the longhorns. It's Halie's family's turn for Thanksgiving this year and we had it on a Friday at her Grandma's house. I like to be locked in to my TV set so I wasn't too excited about that, but at least I would get to see it. Her dad is a Longhorn alum who is a very intense fan as well. It was my first time to watch the game with him as normally he wants to be by himself so he can "concentrate." He doesn't make a big deal about the longhorns winning - I think because he is used to it. Maybe a little too used to it. However this year would produce something different

We haven't beat t.u. anywhere since 1999 and we haven't beat them in Austin since 1994 (which was the last time we were pretty good). The game was mostly a defensive struggle but the Aggies popped out to an early lead. As the game wound on I didn't think we had enough points to beat them. I figured in regular longhorn fashion they would make a last second run when it really mattered. But they didn't. Halie's dad sat on the couch 2 feet away from me mostly quiet and expressionless. Anytime the Aggies would score or do something good, Halie would jump up and dance with the singing Aggie bobblehead doll that I brought. I tried to remain mostly even keeled because after 3 heartbreaking losses this season I know how quickly things can change.

When the dust had finally settled though, the score was still there 12-7 Aggies. What a sweet sweet victory. The Aggie faithful everywhere really needed this one! 365 days of pure bliss.

Faghet aboudit

I went to New Jersey last week for work. I hadn't been there since I lived there almost 15 years ago. I was excited to see that the place I was going was only an hour away from where I lived. Another thing I realized was that I was going to be about 5 minutes away from Piscataway which is where Rutgers is. Who's Rutgers you might ask? I always thought they were some obscure college team with a lousy football program, until this year and all the hype they've received. It was just a couple of weeks ago when they knocked off #3 Louisville in their biggest win ever. So like on all my trips, I try to go see the stadium where other schools play football.

Rutgers stadium wasn't all that impressive. It reminded me a lot of Colorado's stadium, although maybe a little bigger. It wasn't that tall but was sunk into the ground a bit. The Rutgers campus wasn't nearly as nice looking as I expected. Most of the buildings were fairly non-descript. I figured an old New England school would look much nicer.

After my visit to Rutgers I stopped by my old house. I snapped some pictures of it for my parents. I lived there for 3 years growing up. It was kind of weird to go back because it still looked the exact same and it brought back a lot of memories. I also took some pictures of the lake where I learned to sail and where I spent a lot of time. Check them all out in the Gallery.