Our Christmas

We had a most wonderful Christmas this year. It snowed all day on Christmas Eve and it was beautiful. It made for the first white Christmas since 1926 here. I think we ended up with over 2" at our house and it certainly made the place look a lot like Christmas!

We spent the Christmas weekend with Kolby's family. Kason & Sarah came up from Houston and Kassidy was home from UT. Kolby's grandparents were also in town, so we had quite the gathering! It was a lot of fun to spend so much time together and we had a great time playing games, watching movies and eating some really good food. On Christmas day we all went to Kolby's other grandparents' house to share a delicious meal with some more family. On Saturday the boys faced the cold weather and played a round of golf and the girls went wedding dress shopping with Kassidy. The rest of the weekend we just layed low, hung out, and tried to stay out of the bad weather. It was a perfect Christmas and we loved seeing everyone together!

I still haven't mastered the art of remembering to take pictures, but here are at least a couple. This was our first Christmas to spend with Maya because we were in Australia last year and she was at boarding school the year we got married.

This was Christmas morning. Kolby got this flannel shirt from Kassidy and I don't think he's taken it off since. The boy loves flannel these days.

Maya and her cousin, Molly, chewing on the same 2" long bone toy despite the long rope right next to them. This picture is a little blurry, but here we are watching Wall-E with everyone and snuggling as a family.
We got together with my family the following week for "re-Christmas". We pretended that Tuesday was Christmas Eve and that Wednesday was Christmas Day. We went to see the Sherlock Holmes movie, played games, made cut-out cookies, got crazy with the Wii, and again ate a lot of good food. It actually snowed on re-Christmas Eve, too. Two white Christmases in one year, who would have thought?!?

Making cut-out cookies. We've done this every year since the beginning of time.
Re-Christmas Eve.
Brad & Remy got my dad coveralls for Christmas so he can stay warm while he's working on his tractor down at the ranch. I couldn't resist the photo op. Neither could Russell.
We broke out the Wii for the first time in awhile. It was a good call.
(you can click the pictures below to make them bigger)

On all accounts, it was a great Christmas and we were so fortunate to get to see everyone from both of our families. Another advantage to living close by!

Maya [heart] PETCO

If you have a dog but don't want to spend a lot of money on toys, here is an idea for you. Go to PETCO this week and buy up their leftover Christmas toys to your heart's content. We do this for Maya every January and we use the toys throughout the year. She doesn't know the difference between regular toys and Christmas toys, being a dog and all. Today I bought Maya 12 toys and 3 packages of rawhides for $20. Toys that were $6.99 and $8.99 rang up as $0.98 and $1.98. Can't beat that!

Maya's 2010 stash:

Merry Christmas!

It is Christmas Eve and it is shaping up to be our best Christmas yet!

All of the presents are wrapped and under the tree...

PLUS, it has been snowing all day long!

Since it was 75 degrees here yesterday not much of the snow has stuck to the warm ground, but our rooftop is white and it is certainly looking a lot like Christmas around here! We're headed out the door to a Christmas Eve service with Kolby's family, but I wanted to pop in and wish everyone a very merry Christmas tomorrow!

Luke 2:8-11

And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord."

Merry Christmas from our family to yours!

Happy Anniversary to Us!

Kolby and I celebrated our 2nd wedding anniversary this week. On December 15th to be exact. I love that our anniversary falls around Christmastime... it just makes this time of year even more special. We feel so blessed to have had such a wonderful start to our marriage and I can't picture what my life would be like without Kolby. I love the life that we have together and I love thinking back to our long but joyous road to get here. There are a lot of fun memories to reminisce about when you've been dating since you were 15 years old!

We continued the tradition that we started last year and hosted our parents for a fancy dinner on our anniversary day. We grilled New York strip steaks and made three cheese risotto and roasted corn soup. The food was phenomenal, if I do say so myself :). Two years ago we had the most beautiful wedding either of us could possibly have dreamed of. From the rehearsal dinner to the wedding reception, our parents bent over backwards to make everything absolutely perfect for us, and sharing our anniversary with them over a nice meal together is one very small way that we attempt to show our thankfulness and gratitude. It is always a great time and we loved having a nice warm house to invite them to this year!

To the many of you who celebrated us at our wedding, thank you for being a part of our special day! If you are feeling reminiscent, click here to watch a photo slideshow of our wedding. The music playing in the background is a David Crowder song that Kolby picked to have our friend Drew sing at the beginning of our wedding. Man, I love that song!

Here's to many more years of wedded bliss to come!

Oh Christmas Tree

Last Saturday we ventured out to some of my family's farmland in my hometown to chop down a Christmas tree. We went to a huge plot of land that my dad's grandparents once lived on and farmed. It was quite the adventure, but we had a lot of fun and got more exercise than either of us cared to get.

Here's Kolby standing in front of our tree (the middle one).

My lumberjack cutting away. Unfortunately, the perfect tree happened to be REALLY far away from the road. The arrow in the picture below is pointing to a group of big trees by the side of the road where we parked our car. The group of trees in the right side of the picture is where we thought we were going to find our tree, but they were all too big. So we tromped through the harvested, muddy land even further (twice as far, in fact) to the total opposite side of the property to find just the right tree. It was a long walk back to the car. Kolby had to carry the tree and I handled the dog, the ax and the saw. Did I mention that the soil was more than a little muddy? Strapped on and ready to go.
We used bungee cords to tie the tree to the roof but didn't think about how we wouldn't be able to open the car doors. We both had to climb through the window to get back in the car. Kolby is a pretty tall guy to be folding himself through a window of that size, but he made it. The tree started to shift back on the drive home so we had to stop on the side of the road and fix it, again climbing in and out of the windows. I'm sure it as a sight to behold for the passersby. It is definitely not your typical Christmas tree look... being a wild cedar tree and all. But the price was right ($0) and we love it and had a great time making it at home here. Here is the before picture: After (our very first Christmas tree!): It was hard to get a good picture of it, but trust me--- it looks awesome. Different, but awesome! We love it.

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This is actually our first Christmas to celebrate at home together. Our very first Christmas was spent living with Kolby's parents because we had just gotten back from our honeymoon and our apartment lease didn't start until January 1st. Then last year we were in Australia. So, since this was our first Christmas at home and our first house, we really wanted to go for it and put up Christmas lights outside. Our house is small and our roof is pretty flat, so it wasn't too hard to do. Kolby did such a great job!

Even before we were married we talked about how great it is going to be to one day have a house together and put up the old-fashioned big bulb Christmas lights. This was something we've both been looking forward to for a long time, and we are so happy with how they turned out. We went with red and white bulbs and although this picture looks terrible, the lights look fantastic. Seriously fantastic.

I used hand-me-down Christmas decorations to get the rest of the house ready for Christmas. My mom had several bins full of old decorations that she hadn't used in years, so I grabbed a bunch of stuff to make do for this year and then I'm hoping to get a few new items when everything goes on clearance in January. Here is the front of our house:

Our entry table:

Our beautiful stockings that Kolby's parents gave us for Christmas last year. Pottery Barn is my favorite store in the world but these are the only things we actually own from there! Our house doesn't have a fireplace, so we hung them over our couch. Isn't Maya's elf stocking so cute?!? This is the sideboard cabinet next to our couch. Again, all these things look much better in real life than they do in these pictures! We're ready for Christmas!

Thanksgiving Weekend

Kolby and I spent Thanksgiving with my family down at my parents' ranch. I took an extra day off of work so I had my first 4-day weekend since I started my new job back in July... it was SO NICE! Our extended family on my mom's side joined us for most of the weekend, but not everyone was able to make it so we maxed out at 16. [This is a different side of the family than who we spent Labor Day down at the ranch with, in case anyone is keeping track :)] As always, we had the best time together... I just love, love, love getting together with our family and the ranch has definitely turned out to be the perfect gathering spot that my parents hoped it would be-- maybe even better than they had hoped! Here are some highlights from the weekend.

My mom is in the process of putting together a photo tour of the ranch, so I'll wait and let her get that finished and then link to the website-- but I did snap a few pictures of our room and of the new pond.

All of the kids' rooms have a queen bed and then a bunk bed with a double bed on the bottom and a twin bed on the top. They are set up a little differently, but they all have a bathroom and a small front porch. We each got to decorate our own rooms, which was fun.

The property had a small pond on it that my parents decided to expand so it would be big enough to make for some good bass fishing. In the picture below, the gray dirt with all of the texture just above the water is where the old pond used to be, and the recent rains have started to fill the new pond.
I took this picture from the top of the dam, looking back towards the house, and the picture below it is a closer shot of the back side of the house.

My dad used to be a farmer. He moved on from farming when Brad and I were toddlers, but his passion and sentiment for land and all things farm-related hasn't wavered. It's a big part of why my parents built the ranch in the first place... to get away from the city life and back to their country roots and be able to pass the joys of a rural lifestyle on to their children and grandchildren. A couple of weeks ago, my dad finally pulled the trigger and bought a used tractor for the ranch. Before any extended family arrived this weekend, he called all the boys up to the barn and taught each one how to drive and operate a tractor. Once they learned, he put them to work hauling some leftover stone from the house up to the barn.

It took a few trips, and Kolby snapped this picture on their way back to the house. That's Russell driving and Brad in the bucket. So that's my dad, riding his tractor with his two sons... probably hog heaven for him.

Here is a picture of Kolby and I on the 4-wheeler and dirt bike.

My parents lease some of the land to a neighbor rancher who runs his cattle on it. It's a great deal because they keep the grass from growing too tall and we still get to ride around on it. Unfortunately, Kolby found a fresh cow patty with the dirt bike and the back wheel flipped it up all over the back of his pants. Funny, but gross.

Once the rest of the family arrived, it was non-stop eating and game playing. We play A LOT of games in our family. Mostly cards and dominoes... for hours and hours. It wasn't until college that I learned that not all families do this. We have such a great time, I wouldn't have it any other way.

Since the weather was so nice, we put together a whilffle ball game, too. Brad and Russell were team captains and chose the teams, and for some reason decided to wear helmets to designate themselves as such. And yes, that is Russell's team giving each other high fives as each person joined... we have no problem with pushing the cheesiness limits in this family. Side note: I was chosen dead last. My brothers even chose my mom and my two aunts ahead of me. Needless to say, they think really highly of my athletic ability.

This picture cracks me up. The whiffle ball got stuck in the gutter so the natural solution was to hoist Remy onto Brad's shoulders to retrieve it, even though there was a ladder 10 ft. away.

Kolby and I made blueberry and strawberry pancakes for everyone one morning.

Since the ranch was completed and my dad brought his nice telescope down there, Kolby has become obsessed with star gazing. And I mean obsessed. I don't find it that interesting, but I do enjoy taking a look when he focuses on something cool, like the moon up close or Jupiter with its moons. Last week he and my dad got an attachment that allows you to hook up a camera to the telescope, and although they're still working out the kinks and aren't able to use the high magnification lens when taking pictures, here's a shot Kolby took of the moon.

Then yesterday Kolby developed a new found obsession: wood cutting.
It was a great Thanksgiving weekend and we are so thankful to have such a great place to spend it at and a great family to spend it with!

Thanksgiving

We are always thankful for so many things, and this year is no exception.

We are thankful for God's grace and forgiveness.

This year, we are especially thankful for His guidance and provision.

We are thankful for our family.

This year, we are expecially thankful for their help in our move from Waco to here.

We are thankful for my new job.

We are especially thankful that it brought us home.

We are thankful for Maya.

We are especially thankful that she makes us a family.

We are thankful that Kolby finally has the opportunity to pursue further education in poetry.

We are especially thankful that he enjoys it so much.

We are thankful for our friends.

We are especially thankful that we now live close to many of them.

We are thankful for our house.

We are especially thankful for how perfect it is for us!

We are thankful for our time together.

This year, just like last year, we get to spend several hours every single day just hanging out together. We know our life won't always be as simple as it is right now, so we're enjoying it while we can!

***

We're headed down to my parents' ranch tomorrow to spend Thankgiving with our extended family. I'm taking Friday off of work so we're pretty excited about the long weekend. Plus all the food. It's going to be a good time.

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Fall

We have yet to dig ourselves out of the blanket of leaves that grace our lawn every.single.day. I honestly hadn’t given much thought to the naming of this season before now. So fitting.

Maya doesn’t have one single complaint about the piles of leaves that we allow to reside in our yard for longer than we should.The leaf piles add one more texture to her backyard line-up. She has a very specific route that she passionately and joyfully runs when she is struck with sudden bursts of energy: grass, wood deck, concrete driveway, grass, leaf piles, ivy ground cover; repeat. Suffice to say that she is definitely making the most out of finally having a yard.

We have officially finished our fence. Yes, the project that was slated to be started and finished in August has finally been completed… just in time for Thanksgiving! It still needs to be stained, but we’re strongly considering hiring someone to do that because it would cost about the same as staining it ourselves and it’ll save us from delving into yet another nightmare DIY (do-it-yourself) project. We’re about maxed out with those.

Our backyard is really coming together. We bought some patio furniture off Craig’s List last week that I’m working on sanding and painting. I think it’ll look really good once it’s finished. I’ll take some pictures of our backyard soon. Right now we’re saving for a car, but once we make that purchase here in a few weeks we’re going to start putting some money aside to do some landscaping in the spring. Not a lot, just something to add some color. We have a lot of trees and plenty of bushes/plants/ivy, but everything is green and brown. Kolby really wants to plant some climbing roses along our back fence and I want to plant some flowers around the perimeter of the house. Money seems to be flying out the window these days so that endeavor will have to wait awhile!

There are a lot of small things about having a house that I am really enjoying. This week, it has been decorating for Thanksgiving. We didn’t decorate for holidays at all when we lived in our apartment because we knew that place was temporary and we didn’t want to buy stuff just to move it less than a year later. I’ve been waiting for fall decorations to go on sale and Hobby Lobby finally came through for me with an 80% off all fall merchandise sale this week. We keep to a very tight budget so I only allowed myself to spend $20, but I feel like a little went a long way in making our house Thanksgiving-ready.

As a total aside, we have a lot of great news so share from Kolby’s family. In order of occurrence: Kolby’s brother, Kason, passed the bar exam and started working at a law firm in Houston; Kolby’s sister, Kassidy, got engaged to her longtime sweetheart, Derek; Kolby’s parents adopted a PRECIOUS little puppy (their dog, Ginger, passed away in August)… she is a tiny shih tzu-dachshund mix and they named her Muppet; and Kason and his wife, Sarah, purchased their first house! What a month! Also, the cabin that Kolby's parents are building on their land in Wimberley is coming together really quickly and is looking awesome. We are very much looking forward to celebrating all of these things together at Christmas!

Mr. Fat Hand

Kolby got stung by a bee over the weekend while we were working on our new fence. When I came home from work on Monday, he showed me this:His bony hand had been replaced with this beast, and I laughed harder than I had in awhile. Poor thing.

The concrete around the poles didn't dry in time for us to put the wood fence panels up on Sunday like we had planned, so we're having to do it a little at a time this week so we can still stain it all this weekend. I get home from work about 20 minutes before it is pitch dark outside ("daylight savings"-- yeah right!), so we have just enough time to put up one 8ft. panel each day. I'm sure our neighbors think we are so ambitious.

Fall is in full force in our backyard and Kolby finally bought a rake and tackled the blanket of leaves today. He took this picture with his phone and sent it to me at work: Leaf piles are apparently making their way to the top of Maya's top 10 list. I mentioned before that Maya typically crosses her front paws when she lays down. Ten thousand pictures of her later, I hope everyone has come to terms with the fact that I wasn't making that up.

We've had a lazy week here, and I talked Kolby into letting us have blueberry pancakes for dinner two nights in a row. PLUS chocolate milk. Life just doesn't get much better than that!