Look what Santa brought! Whoo-hoo!

Oh my goodness! I just don't know what to say (still). I came home from work and opened the front door and there was this itty bitty weenie dog in the hallway. Josh says "Merry Christmas!" and this little guy is so small that I think he is a stuffed animal. I pause to think that that is kind of a lame present but then it MOVES and I freak out. In a good way of course. Anyway, the puppy is from a friends litter and we talked about getting one when they were born 61/2 weeks ago but decided against it. Apparently that decision wasn't final...Anywhoo, the dog is precious and already knows to go on the puppy pad. The cats don't care at all probably because he poses no threat and just sleeps now anyway. Josh has a vet appointment already lined up for Monday. Any suggestions for names? We have no clue. And by the way; I've just learned that I don't really care for surprises....

Are you ready for Christmas??!!!

Last night we had date night and went to dinner and the "Trail of Lights". The trail of lights is an Austin tradition that started in 1965 in a huge park in the middle of the city. All these trees are decked out with lights and cool scenes. The paved trail is a bit over a mile with over 1 million lights. It was freezing (36F) and we each had 2 jackets on but it was AMAZING.

One of my favorite trees; put up by the Fire Department.

How do the DO that?

Josh says we are definitely doing our frontyard trees in blue next year....

The stars and arches were synchronized to music and would blink on and off.

There is a huge smile under that scarf!

It snowed here on December 9th! It was late, like a 11pm and we ran outside and played like kids!!! The snowed stayed through the am next day. Crazy...

Hope everybody is ready for Christmas. I will finish my wrapping tonight. I'm so glad my presents finally made it to Napa today but I wish we were arriving instead!! We leave for Houston on Wednesday afternoon and return on Friday. Josh's family (my family too!) is so much fun! I look forward to new traditions but will be thinking of cranberry scones and bellinis!

Finally!!

I know I've done a ridiculous job at this blogging thing! I haven't been in the mood and quite honestly, the last few months have been rough. Yes, I know, I haven't posted since August but geez. Massage school is keeping me busy but I love it. We bought a massage table for my birthday present! I'm hoping to switch to part time come January to make things a little bit easier on everyone... But anyway, lately I'm feeling a bit homesick. It's the combo of the holidays and being faraway and the loss of my pops. Regardless, I am very grateful for my family and all the love I have for them. And I like to thank my dear, sweet sister for inspiring me to put up a Christmas tree! This season really is magical and even better with decorations. Josh and I are so proud of our first Christmas tree (ever)! The ornaments are simple; just red and white. We still need to find a tree topper and skirt though.

We have 4 more strings of lights to add! Josh is already making plans for next years' lawn scheme.

The menu at "Hey Cupcake!". We went here after breakfast on my birthday

Delicious!

We stayed at the very fancy Driskill hotel. At some point this old hotel was a bank and this is the safety deposit box area.

The ceiling were so TALL in our super cool room.

A trip home is not complete without the Rutherford Grill. We all ate like pigs! I didn't notice the hook 'em horns behind my head (from Josh) until I uploaded this pic!

Josh took this one....

This was our very first appetizer from our deluxe BBQ. Thank you aunti di and UB!
This is shrimp with butter and lemon. I learned this tasty treat from Mr. Mark DeWitt.

Yumm...beef and veggie kabobs.

Graeagle!!

The back of our giant super duper cabin!! And John's signature wave.

A very intense game of Scrabble. It must have been mom's turn.

Our night time 'bat walk'. This must have been before the golf course sprinklers came on and scared our pant off!

who is that cheese couple?

Josh jumped off this rock. No joke! He obviously doesn't watch enough CSI...

We hiked to this small lake twice on our last day; first with the parents and second to go back and swim. It was so peaceful. the water wasn't that cold.

Mom took this photo and advised "Josh, get that camera thing off". So he hides it behind his armpit. Can I photoshop a strap out?

ahhhh...

Did you know when lake water is green it is not very deep?

These are giant bull-frog tad poles.

This is Mill Pond (i think). The water was chilly so they rented a paddle boat to explore the pond. Sabrina is such a trooper. Sabrina and Josh are good buds. We both agree that she is the coolest 7 year old EVER.

Josh and I had such a wonderful time with everybody! I learned two very profound things on this trip. 1) Family is the most important in the world and 2) we need to take more pictures of them. In other news, I got a trial pair of contacts today. So far, so good. I was starting to think my glasses were part of my face. Also I start massage school Sept. 4th. I should be able to get paid for rubbing people sometime in June. Josh has been gone since Sunday. He went to Las Vegas for the annual Chipotle manager conference (which I'm guessing will be somewhere else next year :) He has extended his trip onto San Diego until Friday. I miss him bunches but have been keeping busy anyways. It has been raining the last few days with highs of 87 F. Umm... that actually means pleasant in these parts. I've even opened some windows to catch a breeze or 2 between random thunderstorms.

Our 4th of July weekend!

Last Thursday night we took off on a little adventure with our friends, Mark and Angie and their 4yr old, Aiyanna. We drove 5 hrs northeast to Angie's parents house about 15 miles from the Louisiana border. The town is really called 'Uncertain' and our GPS found it!
We stayed at the Warren's house. They are the kindest people EVER! Angie's sister (middle) and her boyfriend came out from NY for the weekend too.
Aiyanna and the poor kitten she terrorized all weekend. No injuries; she was gentle and he was very tolerant.
View from the front deck to the river. It was pouring rain. Thunder and lightning for a good 30 mins. Josh and I just sat there listening to the wildlife freak out a bit. It was pretty cool.
This is a smoker that Angie's brother, Chaz, built in his high school welding class.
This is the brisket that cooked in that lovely smoker for 12+ hours. Delicious!
Before 3 hours of decorating in the hot sun for the 4th of july parade.....
And after....Chuck was a very proud captian our of Hawaiian creation.
There are 3 different types of lilly pads in this particular lake. Really.
I just think this is a pretty cool shot.

Checkout the scenery.

There were a ton of narrow water ways as well as this amazing open area.

Zach lead our boat as we headed for the panel of judges.

Aiyanna post snow cone. Angie's mom has a snow cone booth every year for this event!

I will never turn down bbq turkey leg!

After the parade we hung out at the community barbeque area. There was a great blues band, dunking booth, kids games, and of course, the Ms. Uncertain annual contest. Zach, Angie's youngest brother, tied with some other guy in drag for the first time in Uncertain history. Zach is in green shorts and a bikini top. I was thoroughly confused but laughing constantly.

The fireworks show lasted nearly an hour. The firecrackers were launched just across the water, about 60 or so feet from us. I couldn't take a decent picture to save my life.

I took this from the deck during the rainstorm on Saturday.

This was on our drive to Shreveport to gamble in LA. There were about 100 egrets in the area just hanging out. Pretty cool.

These are a few pictures in Shreveport. All the gambling is done on boats that really seem just like your usual casino. We won squat but ate at this hole in the wall and had the best gumbo and crab etouffe ever!

Aw!! Aren't we cute?! We had so much fun. It's pretty easy to have a good time with Josh, though. He is the BEST partner ever. We are really enjoying this chapter of our lives and I look forward to every bit of the future with him.