Happy Friday!

  1.  This weekend is the first of 3 busy, fun filled weekends for us.  Tomorrow we are heading to College Station, TX for the A&M vs Vanderbilt game.  It will be Connor's very first football game and trip to his daddy's college!  Sunday afternoon we have our Parent/Child Dedication class at church. Next Friday we are taking Connor on his first overnight trip to Dallas.  We are headed up there Friday morning for one of my husband's fraternity brother's wedding that evening.  It will also be Connor's first time with a babysitter other than my Mom.  Eeeeek!  A friend of mine that lives in Dallas and has a little boy gave me her babysitter's info and highly recommended her so I feel pretty good about that.  And she will be coming to the hotel we are staying at to watch him, and it's less than a mile from where the wedding is so we can be there fast if we need to. And the 2nd weekend in November is a very special weekend....we are having Connor dedicated at church :)  We have family coming in town from Las Vegas and Georgia so it will be a fun weekend with all of the grandparents.  Friday night is a dinner at church then Sunday morning is the actual dedication.  We are so happy to have all of Connor's grandparents (he has 7!!) here for the whole weekend.    

      2.   The 3rd book in my favorite trilogy FINALLY came out....Allegiant.  If you haven't read this trilogy, you should.  You won't be able to put them down.  I have read the first 2 twice.  The Divergent movie has already started being filmed too! Can't wait until it comes out next year :)

      3.  I also started reading another book...Your First Year of Motherhood.  There is a new devotion and short story for each day of your first year as a mom.  I didn't start it until a couple weeks ago when Connor was on his way to being 5 months but I still read thru every day of those first months and am now caught up.  It is very encouraging and uplifting!  I highly recommend it for all you new moms out there.

      4.   I am loving these 2 Fall outfits!  I am in need of a little shopping spree since last Fall I was preggo ;)   It finally feels like Fall in Houston (at least in the mornings) so it's time to break out the scarves and boots!  

      5.  And finally I leave you with a few words of encouragement and love. Have a great weekend friends! xo  

     

Labor Day Weekend Recap

Whew...what a fun and busy weekend we had!  My husband was out of town all last week so we were so excited to have him home for a long weekend.     Friday night he didn't get home until around 7 so we just ate dinner and went to sleep right after Connor did.  Hubby had a long, long week of working outside in the 100+ degree heat in north Louisiana and east Texas.  I made a Chicken Noodle Casserole recipe that I found on Pinterest.  It was good but nothing special.  

  Saturday we hung around the house and watch the Texas A&M vs Rice game, spent time with Chris's dad and wife, then we got to have a date night.  It was the last night of Houston Restaurant Weeks so we took advantage of it and had an awesome dinner at America's.  3 course's for $35 and $5 of every meal goes to the Houston Food Bank.  This happens the whole month of August every year and we always try to make sure we go out a couple times for a yummy meal and help support a good cause!  

 

    Sunday was filled with church, a hibachi lunch and spending the evening at Chris's aunt and uncle's lake house.  We joined the church I grew up in since I was in 5th grade so it was a very special Sunday morning.  =)   

 



 

We were so happy to not have any plans on Monday.  Connor slept almost the whole day, off and on.  I did laundry, cleaned up the house and went grocery shopping.  Hubby kayaked for awhile and fried catfish for us last night.  Perfect ending to a fun weekend.

 

Now he is off to East Texas again for the rest of the week.  So Connor and I are trying to get back into our normal week day routine! 

 

And I almost forgot....HAPPY SEPTEMBER!!!!!  I am hoping for some Fall like weather SOON around here (but I am not going to hold my breath... living in Houston means hot, hot weather until sometime in October probably.  This month my brother (who just came home from a long deployment), sister-n-law and nephew are coming in town so we are all really excited to see them!  Here's to another busy, but fun month!

   

What a week...

This week has been filled with excitement, stress, sadness, lack of sleep and worry. I am happy and thankful it is almost the weekend and next week is a new week...

~ Tuesday morning I found out a co-worker committed suicide by stepping in front of a train. He was young, married, a Dad and he had a great job but he was very sick with depression. I did not know him personally but had to exchange emails with him over the past 3 years. My heart broke for his family and friends and my co-workers who were close to him. RIP Denny...




~ Yesterday my boss called me in his office to tell me he is leaving our company and his position is not being replaced. So, pretty much I am "boss-less" until they figure out who I will report to now. He told me my job is not going anywhere but just who I report to and some of my responsibilities will change. I cried when he told me and I am pretty sure he got a little choked up too....he hired me in October 2006 and he has been the best boss I have ever had. He has given me so many great opportunities, promoted me twice and given me raises and bonuses when he could. Him and his wife were at my wedding. I know he is my boss (or WAS my boss) but I feel like I am losing my best friend. I have been so sad since he told me the news yesterday and worried about the changes that will come. But, I still have a job so I am thankful. I know God has a plan and I am just going to trust in Him...




~ On a much happier note...today begins our moving process!! The movers are at our house as I type this and packing everything up. Tonight will be our last night in our first home and we move tomorrow. It is very bittersweet. We are so excited about our new house and being back in The Woodlands but there are so many things we are going to miss about living in Houston. Our new house will not be ready until the beginning of February so we will just stay with our parents for a few weeks. Today was my last day of having a 10 minute commute to work. Starting Monday it will be 45 minutes-1 hour. I have a full "City vs Suburb" post coming soon. Adios, Houston!


~ The TEXANS are in the playoffs for the first time in franchise history and the first game is tomorrow! GO TEXANS!!

Happy Friday!

Big Texas Hair, Aggie Wives Reunion & A "Stolen" Tahoe

What.A.Weekend... But, I will get to that in a sec!

First of all...Baby Ella arrived on Wednesday morning and she is beautiful! Chris and I got to go visit her in the hospital on Thursday and I went back alone on Friday afternoon. Her Mommy & Daddy are doing great and have been sent home from the hospital. Here are a few pictures of sweet Ella:



Isn't she beautiful?!

Now, on to the weekend... I woke up early and drove to Dallas on Saturday. Chris was heading to College Station for the A&M vs. OSU game so I had made plans to go to Dallas for my friends, Laura & Lauren's, birthday weekend. I got there about noon and we headed to the mall for a little shopping and lunch. After that we got mani's and pedi's then had appointments at Dry Bar for blow outs. I have seen these places popping up in Houston but never been before...it is literally a blow dry bar. They wash your hair and blow dry/style it and that is it. No color or cuts. They have a menu to choose what kind of style you want and everything is $35! I love love love this concept!! It is perfect if you have a wedding to go to or an event and you want to wear your hair a little different than normal, but don't want some big fancy updo. Look how cute this place is:




And here are the 3 of us are after our blow outs:


Oh, and did I mention it is bottomless mimosas?! Yes please!

So, that night we went to Sangria for dinner & drinks. Laura's fiance, Chance and Lauren's husband, Hunter both came along too. My husband was in CS, very, very angry over the loss that A&M had just suffered...
We had tapas and sangria then headed to Palamino at The Crescent to sit outside and hang out. It was such a fun night and I love spending time with my fellow Aggie Wives :)


Sunday involved me taking an unexpected road trip thru some small towns and dirt roads in the middle of nowhere Texas to try to get to College Station. I almost ran over 2 chiwawa's on a dirt road in the country...it was crazy. But, thank the Lord for my GPS, I finally got to CS. I made this unexpected trip to CS because Chris thought his Tahoe had been stolen. Long story short- we found it 5 minutes after I got there. We raced back to Houston so we could spend a couple hours together before he had to fly off to Birmingham for work for 24 hours. Whew!

It was eventful to say the least ;) I am happy that the next 2 weekends we are both in town together and during the weeks we finally have some free nights.

Happy Monday, Yall! Hope you had a great weekend!

Weekend Recap!

This weekend was Greek weekend at Texas A&M. We headed to College Station bright and early on Saturday morning for the Kappa Sigma Fraternity Alumni reunion and had so much fun! It has become a tradition for us to stop at Rudy's for breakfast taco's on the way to College Station so we did that first. Have you ever had their breakfast tacos? They are SO yummy & cheap!

When we got to CS we went to a couple book stores to do a little shopping for some new Aggie gear then headed over to the Kappa Sigma house for lunch. Tons of Chris's fraternity brothers were there and I got to spend time with my friend's Laura & JJ.


After a couple of hours there we were ready to tailgate! Laura & I are not beer drinkers so we got a couple Cherry Limeade's at Sonic and just added a little Vodka and we had ourselves a yummy cocktail for tailgating.




Around 5 we headed in to Kyle Field for the A&M vs. Idaho game. A&M KILLED Idaho...37 to 7! WHOHOO! I had one happy hubby :) After the game we headed to Northgate to meet up with everyone. We got a great area on the rooftop at The Corner and hung out there for a few hours then we were all starving so we stopped by Antonio's Pizza for some Pizza before heading back to our hotels! Sunday morning we slept in until 8:30 (that is late for us!) then headed home! Of course we stopped at Rudy's AGAIN on the way out of town. Can you tell we love their breakfast tacos?!

Once we got home it was cleaning, cooking and laundry time. I wanted to try a new crockpot recipe for pork chops that I found so I got that cooking, baked some brownies, made some egg salad for the week and Chris went grocery shopping for us.
It was such a fun weekend and nice to spend time with our Dallas Aggie friends :)

Happy Monday!

Friday Randoms!

Cheers to the weekend! 37 mini conference calls, 2 reports, 1 very sad fatality at work and 2 completed projects...WHEW, Friday could not come fast enough! CRAAAZY week!!

Now, for a totally random post.....

-I was supposed to be going to LA on Monday but I had to cancel my trip because of how busy I was here. I was so excited to go but I am very glad to cancel it...way too much going on at my office in Houston right now. So, it will be postponed until sometime later in the year or early next Spring.

-Tomorrow morning we are heading to College Station for the weekend. It is hubby's fraternity's (Kappa Sigma) alumni weekend. We will spend the day tailgating then go to the A&M vs. Idaho game tomorrow night. I can't wait to spend time with some of our favorite people that we don't get to see very often because they live in Dallas!

Aggie Wives Club! We have one pregnant, 2 newly married and one engaged. Love these girls!! =)





-I got to spend time with one of my best friends, Jen from www.downwiththedearmores.blogspot.com, and her hubby, Josh, last night at their new house. They moved out to the suburbs a few months and now they are expecting their first baby, Ella Victoria, anytime between now and next Sunday!! Their new house is beautiful, Josh cooked a DELICIOUS dinner for us and I got to feel Ella roll & kick inside her Mommy's belly. When I was leaving their house I just kept thinking back to 15 years ago when Jen and I used to live in the same neighborhood in The Woodlands and we would walk to Randall's together and Jen was always so worried we were going to get kidnapped or murdered on the bike trails...and now here we are, still alive, married & starting families :) Here is Mrs Jen (aka CUTEST PREGNANT PERSON EVER). Can I please look like this when I am pregnant one day?!


-I am so ready to start baking all the yummy looking Pumpkin recipes I have found on Pinterest! Last year I found this super easy, 3 ingredient Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffin recipe (will post next week) and I swear I made it 30 times throughout the Fall & Holiday season. Now I have a whole new slew of recipes to try. God Bless Pinterest!

PUMPKIN PIE DIP


PUMPKIN COOKIES WITH CREAM CHEESE FROSTING


CHOCOLATE CHIP PUMPKIN BROWNIES

Happy Friday!

Weekend Recap- Best Friends, A Baby Shower and a Texans Win!

Hello from Salt Lake City, everyone! I know I am a little late but here is a recap of this past weekend...

Saturday was one of my best friend's baby shower so Friday night I got to spend time with 2 of my best friends and the sister in law of the mommy to be (we were hosting the shower). We went to dinner at BRC in Houston then the 4 of us spent hours decorating my house for the baby shower. A little history- There are 4 of us and we have been best friends since we were in 5th grade or so. Holly, Jennifer, Sarah and me! Here is a picture of us at our senior prom 10 years ago-

After high school we all went our separate ways...I moved to West Palm Beach, FL for college, Holly went to Baylor, Sarah went to Oklahoma State and Jenn went to Hardin Simmons then Texas Tech. 10 years has past and we are still best friends. 3 of us are back in the Houston area so we get to see each other pretty regularly and one is still in OK but we are constantly working on getting her and her little family to move back to Houston :) So, now, Jenn is pregnant with her first baby...Miss Ella Victoria will be here sometime in the next month we are hoping!
The shower on Saturday turned out to be so much fun...Jenn got a lot of great gifts and we had a great turn out. Here are just a few of the pictures from the shower-






Saturday night was the Texans 2nd pre-season game against the Saints! Hubby and I went with our friends Kim & Chris and had a great time. The Texans won!! Whohoo! It is looking like it is going to be a great season :)




I flew to Salt Lake City yesterday and will be here until Friday. This is a beautiful city. Now I can't wait for my hubby to get here Thursday night so we can spend the weekend in Park City!