Our Valentine Celebrations

We have been celebrating Valentine's Day for a good week around here! 

On a recent snow day, Abby and I made her Valentine's. I had some cute business card size photos made with Abby's five year pictures and tied those onto a handful of pixie sticks and baggies of gummy bears for Abby's school friends.

While I was doing that, she drew pictures for each of her friends.

I also had her write each of their names and she was GREAT at it! I was so proud of her for taking the time and not complaining! She was obviously bored being home another day and happy to have some art to do!

She did Micah's first.... "because I love him". Oh boy!

The Friday night before Valentine's Day we had date night with another couple at Jack Allen's Kitchen while Abby was at the YMCA playing. We exchanged little gifts that we had picked out for ourselves- I got a new bracelet and Marcus got a pair of bluetooth headphones. 

I joined Abby at her school party on Wednesday, just before Valentine's. They all made boxes from Kleenex boxes and here is Abby's. Super cute!

The kids exchanged simple Valentines and had an ice cream sundae party.

Abby's little Valentine survey made me laugh. I attended a talk on Monday morning about love languages for kids and I can't decide if hers is gifts or touch. Clearly, I am on the right track! :)

 On Friday afternoon, we met up with other Moms from our MOPS group and delivered Valentine cards to a local nursing home. It was a great opportunity to talk to Abby about serving others!

Finally, on Friday night we had heart shaped pizza from Papa Murphy's and we had cupcakes from Gigis. We loved them both!

Recent Date Nights

We celebrated our 14th wedding anniversary in Fort Worth last week. I was in town for work and Marcus drove up for the night. We had a wonderful dinner at Lili's Bistro on Magnolia Street. It was recommended by several people in Fort Worth and we loved it!

Fourteen- I love seeing that number. Marriage is work and celebrating another year of making it work is important!

We also enjoyed a date night with friends just before our anniversary! We had dinner with our church friends The Betzens and The Sanders. 

Both have become really good friends of ours this year and we had great fun doing pizza and ice cream with them.

If you have not been to Lick on South Lamar, go today! It is all organic, homemade ice cream with local ingredients. It is delicious! We love the funky flavors they offer and their waffle cones are the best!

Event, Snot and A Job

How is that for a crazy title? That totally describes the madness of our week.

Part of my SAHM work is planning 4 events per year for the association I once worked full time for. The second largest of those events was this weekend. Although in town, I was in a hotel working 14 hour days on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. I checked into the hotel with a sore throat and left with what felt like the flu. Chills, cough, runny nose (hotel's don't provide the softest Kleenex), and overall fatigue checked out with me. 

While running an event can provide stress and being sick can make that harder to manage, I had it pretty easy compared to Marcus this past week. He has been holding in a little secret- he was recently recruited by his biggest competitor to go to work for them. It is his dream job- working at an account he once had, working in sales, but with engineers and leading a team. Add to that a raise that provides for our family and it was a no-brainer. It felt like the place God was leading him to.

When Marcus gave notice on Friday, the unexpected happened. His company countered and while flattering  the decision suddenly became more difficult. For Marcus this weekend has been a "this is your life Marcus" speaking to six different people he has worked with and for. The decision was not easy for him. After fielding the phone calls from the current company and speaking with the new company a few more times, Marcus went for a run with a worship play list and a lot to pray about. I stayed home with Abby and prayed.

We then looked at each other and God had led us to the same conclusion- the new job. 

This might be the hardest decision we have ever made. Harder that making the decision to do IVF or buy our house. Watching my husband not sleep well for weeks and lose 5 pounds this week has been extra hard. But, I have to say, I have never respected him more. He has been a man of his word through this. He has been a professional and not spoken ill of anyone in the process. He has considered all parties and allowed them to have their say. In the end, I pray they gained respect for him, too.

So, Marcus started a new job on Monday. It is exciting and terrifying. It is a challenge and a reward. It is a blessing, but it hasn't been or will be easy. 

Valentine's Day 2013

We had a fun week celebrating LOVE and all that mushy stuff!

Abby had a little party at school and shared Lalaloopsy valentine cards and pencils with her friends. She also brought conversation hearts with scripture on them and sugary sweet candles for her teachers. ON Thursday, she was super excited to open a package from Nana with all kinds of goodies in it!

Marcus and I exchanged little gifts- I got this awesome Duck Dynasty t-shirt. I love me some Uncle Si. Abby was super excited to get new jammies and a Rapunzel Barbie.

Wednesday night, we celebrated with dinner. Since Abby was at AWANA at church for 90 minutes, we had just enough time to eat at Brio near church.

Brio recently opened in Austin, but we always eat at the San Antonio location when we visit La Cantera. My favorite dish there is cheese ravioli in a three sauce mixture (alfredo, marinara and pesto) that is baked. It is the best! Well come to find out, that dish is from a restaurant called Bravo that Brio bought and kept pieces of their menu. Lucky for me, the manager had spent time there and knew the dish. He went into the kitchen and made it for me. It caused a ruckus among the waitstaff, but was perfect. What amazing customer service!

Thursday we ate in and shared yummy decorate sugar cookies for dessert. 

It was a wonderful week of celebration with the two people I love most!

Christmas Holidays

We have had a busy and wonderfully slow holiday. Marcus works one day this week and only 3 days next week, so we have enjoyed quiet time at home. I didn't leave the house from Friday afternoon until Monday late morning and that was only for an hour. I have become a home body!

Our only real busy time was Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. We had Marcus' Mom over for lunch on Christmas Eve. We ordered tamales from a local restaurant and had appetizers, dips and chips, and cake to go with it. Abby loved singing to the baby Jesus and insisted he has a candle.

After lunch, we opened presents! We had worked with Abby all week on saying thank you for gifts and she did a good job giving hugs and saying thanks! She loved her silly socks from Mimi.

Carol has always given gifts to our pets and this year she included Captain in the mix. Once Abby had the smell of bacon on her hands, Captain wanted to lick on her!

While Carol was here, we opened our 5 things from Abby. Each year we individually take Abby to Dollar Tree and let her pick out 5 things for Marcus and I. We try to give little direction and see how she views us. I know she'll get better as she gets older, but the randomness of her mind is really cute. Marcus got a toy car, puzzle, basketball towel, Green Lantern books, and the best, "Relax and Sleep" pills. She had no idea!

Mine were super sweet- headbands which I use at home to get those pesky bangs OFF.MY.FACE, candy, mouthwash (which she thought was red, my favorite color, body wash, flowers which she picks me everywhere we go, and the sweetest little bible games because "Momma loves Jesus". In those little moments, you think, maybe I am doing something right!

How could our sweet little Christmas Eve turn into these faces?

This game! We bought this for Abby and opened it early to entertain us all with Carol and we played and played and played. Marcus and Abby put on their game face!

We had a lovely Christmas Eve with Mimi!

 Carol left mid afternoon and we rested and then got ready for church. Abby did her best to rally after learning the kids area was closed for the evening. 

We have been visiting a new church, The Church at Canyon Creek, for about 6 weeks now and are impressed by many things they do. We feel led to leave our church of 9 years, but we also still feel like we are "cheating". Changing churches is a hard thing to do. We plan to look at one more church just to make sure Canyon Creek is the one. It feels right, but what do we know?

Abby loved story time on stage and went right up to the front to hear the story of the sparkle box. It was precious and all the kids were given an angel ornament at the end.

The candlelight service was beautiful; however, when the prayer ended and all were quietly taking a seat, Abby loudly proclaimed, " boy, that was a long prayer". Nice!

We came home about 7:30 and changed into our Christmas PJs. We ate leftovers for dinner and opened presents! We do all wrapped gifts on Christmas Eve and save Santa and stockings for Christmas morning.

Abby opened only 3 gifts (clothes, shoes, and a baby doll carrier) and did so well about not asking for more! I was really proud of her. She also was more excited to pass out and give gifts than to receive hers.

Christmas morning she came and got us about 6:45 and wanted to see what Santa brought. She got a basketball goal, Peter Pan, a tea set with rolling cart, Hello Kitty hat, Lalaloopsy doll, and Jake and the Neverland pirates (her favorite Disney show, the pirate she was for Halloween) goods.

Her Bucky ship was her favorite and the thing she asked for from Santa for weeks!

We bought the basketball hoop second hand from a friend to see how much interest Abby takes in playing with it. We need a taller one, but they are so expensive that we wanted to gauge her interest first. She had fun playing in her jammies on Christmas morning.

Marcus and I exchanged pretty practical gifts. His big gift was padded leather kitchen mats- he always complains his back hurts when standing on the tile too long. My big gift was photography lessons. I start next Thursday and go for 6 weeks to Austin School of Photography. I am super excited!

This is probably Marcus' favorite gift. He wanted silly socks and these are perfect for tough days of brutal meetings!

 This is my favorite! I was very specific about the type of case I wanted and the picture to use and Marcus did it! Isn't she cute?

We left our house Christmas day around 11 to meet up with my sister and family at my Dad's house for lunch, presents and general family fun. Abby got a big princess castle from my sister and Daddy had the job of getting inside to assemble. Abby LOVES her new castle. Going to bed on Christmas night, she picked a few babies to sleep inside it.

She also got more Jake gear- I swear she loves all things pirate right now!

She gives a good ARGH face!

Kyleigh came to Christmas was an iPhone and makeup. Marcus was floored- I think she looks just beautiful!

My sister, Tiffany, and Shaun both got perfume/cologne sets from Sephora from us. They had fun smelling all the little bottles before deciding on which big bottle to get. And then, they had smelled too many and the fun ended :)

We came home on Christmas night at 5:30 and Nana arrived shortly thereafter. I ate too many sweets and other bad things and ended up with a migraine. So, we did dinner, opened gifts and I went to bed! We have a couple of quiet days ahead of us with Nana here and then Friday Marcus and I are spending the day wine tasting with friends, and Saturday is Abby's official 4th birthday. I love the mix of quiet and busy we have built into our holidays this year!

Merry Christmas!

Merkel Trip: 20 Year Reunion

We went to Marcus' hometown of Merkel, Texas last weekend for his 20th high school reunion! It was a fun and quick trip. We drove straight into town in time for the homecoming parade running through downtown.

I learned while walking downtown that Merkel was originally named Windmill Town before a German settler came and renamed it after him. 

Overall, downtown is pretty sad these days. Lots of closed up shops and boarded windows. But, it also has brick lined streets, a cute little pharmacy, and a community that loves it. I would love to blink my eyes and go back in time 40 years when it was a popular place to be and see the old cars, well dressed women, and lively businesses in the town.

Back to the parade... Marcus didn't ride in his 20 year float and opted to see the parade from the curb with me. We honestly had to work to get a good spot! School was out early and the parents were all there with little families in purple and gold to cheer on their Badgers.

The parade had cheerleaders, football players, civic groups, fire trucks, horses and motorcycles. There was candy thrown, music played, and horses pooping. What more could a parade have?

Afterward, we drove by Marcus' childhood home. It hasn't changed much since his Mom moved out 4 months ago. It looks like the new tenants were busy clearing some brush. 

We had a few minutes to spare and stocked up on Texas Tech gear before changing clothes for dinner and the football game. The lovely staff at the Hilton Garden Inn snapped our photos for us!

I did some online searching and we had dinner at a cute little restaurant in downtown Abilene, The Beehive. It was so good! We were seriously impressed. We knew that the town had to have a couple of quality restaurants- it does have 3 colleges, 2 hospitals and an Air Force base. There is a population to support cute little restaurants. Our dessert- homemade smores! It was a house made brownie with a toasted marshmallow cream top, and graham cracker ice cream. Delish!

We arrived about 30 minutes into the football game. The scoreboard was out and we spent most of our time near the concession stand chatting with the Class of 1992. We did visit with a couple of people in the stands. I love a HS football game- it is the same where ever (in Texas at least!) you go. There is always a passionate Dad mad at the officials, little girls pretending to be cheerleaders, high schools kids at the game catching up  since they saw each other when school was out two hours earlier, and a drum line entertaining us all! 

I loved that Merkel is still small and conservative enough to have scripture on their football shirts. Love it!

After the game, we joined other alumni in the cafetorium for tea and cookies. We tried to hit up Dairy Queen afterward, but it was closed. It was after 11 PM in a small town after all!

Anniversary Trip to Fredericksburg

 I have been to Fredericksburg numerous times since I have family in the area, but I've never done the full Fredericksburg experience of visiting the wineries and staying in a bed & breakfast. This year for our anniversary, we decided to be tourists in Fredericksburg!

We celebrated our 13th anniversary with our friends James and Andrea who celebrated 14 years the following day. Andrea and I have been friends for 5 years since we worked together and Marcus and James had met casually at parties for the kids. We now declare them good friends and hope to travel with them again. Two of the funniest people I've ever met!

Here is our B&B, named Maria's. It was built in the mid 1800's and showed it's age! Marcus and I arrived about an hour before they did and had a funny text conversation going with Andrea. The place smelled like my grandmother's house and the doorways were no where near James' height of 6'3". 

But, we loved it! It was quaint, the 18" thick walls kept the place really cool, the bed was comfy and the creaking floors were fun to navigate in the middle of the night. I could have read in the cool morning on the front porch for hours. The place was just what you'd want and expect from an old cottage!

We had loose plans for our trip- shop, tour the wineries, and eat good food. All was accomplished! We didn't do much shopping- a few hours on Wednesday morning. It was enough to make the loop and I found a few treasures I couldn't live without, like my new turquoise dough bowl.

On Tuesday night, we ate at Silver Creek. We wanted a lively atmosphere with Olympic coverage. The food was better that expected- I loved the pepper gravy on my chicken fried steak. Delish!

Wednesday at lunch we discovered Sugar and Smoke and talked about this brisket for the remainder of the trip. I can not recommend this place enough.... we all loved it. We asked for the manager and told her how great it was and even asked them about opening up an Austin location. I love the mix of bar-be-que and sweets. It was modern and had feminine touches. Lunch was served on these small cookie sheets and dessert came on a plate with a pig on it :) There was no traditional potato salad or cole slaw. It was sweet potato fries and homemade jalapeno tortilla chips. I had read the owner was on a TV cooking show and lost the contest because of her cole slaw! ha!

Since lunch was to die for, we came back for breakfast the next day! Brisket jalapeno hollandaise.... brisket and bacon breakfast tacos.... peach scones.... we loved it all!

Most of our time on vacation was spent visiting five different wineries. Both Andrea and Marcus like wine, and since their spouses don't, it made sense to do the tours together. Nobody wants to drink alone! I'll share wineries on Your Little Birdie next week. They were beautiful and we had lots of fun pretending to understand wine-talk.

 We had a lovely time getting away and look forward to going back to Fredericksburg again!