Our 1st Christmas - Married!

Look how cute this ornament Justin's mom got for us is!

Technically it's our 4th Christmas together, but it's our first married one. This year our tree was red and silver. i bought a ton of new ornaments. Trumpets and snowflakes and music notes mostly. i loved the tree to pieces. Here's a few fave ornaments!

Apparently my "holiday" thing is snowmen. This is in my entryway.

And this was in my living room looking into the kitchen.

 
And here's our typical - lets take a picture in front of the tree shot - at 9PM Christmas day. lol

 We spent Christmas Eve at my in-law's house, eating finger foods, and watching Four Christmases. I'd seen it a couple times - but Justin hadn't yet and i was so excited for him to finally see it. He laughed the whole way through and now understands why i wanted him to see it so bad :)

We went back to the in-law's house Christmas morning to open presents. They live about a mile away in the same neighborhood. Here we are opening gifts.

I got a huge new curling iron that I wanted, some new hair products, a beautiful black and white diamond necklace, lots of other jewelry and giftcards, a purse, a standup black jewelry chest and other random things. We got some new bath towels and a huge george forman grill to replace the itty bitty one Justin uses so much. Justin got a mustang barstool from me, along with a few mustang shirts and an awesome hat, and his keypad for his box, and other small things. I think we came out well. Immediately after that, we hopped in the truck to drive 3 1/2 hrs to Franklin, TX to spend Christmas lunch at my great grandma's house. It was Justin's first real get together/luncheon with my family. We opened more presents, and had some reallllly good food. We took our annual family holiday photo of whoever is there that year. See:

It's one of the funnest things. We've been doing this as long as i can remember. And Uncle Charlie (far left) always sets up his tripod and uses his timer and ruuuuuns back to the group. Everyone chants for him and we're all lucky to be looking at the camera when the shutter finally clicks. haha!

Also took an individual photo of my immediate family this year at my mom's request :) One of just mom and us and one with mammaw and aunt laura

Liz and I proceed to go outside and snap a few new shots of her and I before we left.

Overall, it truly was a fabulously blessed Christmas. I hope it was for you all too!  Merry Christmas & Happy New Year Everyone!

New Hairstyle

For me anyway - it's probably not new to a single one of you.

I decided to take some fashion inspiration from my 14 yr old sister and part of what i got her for christmas...just not as extreme. She's getting some elaborate feathery headbands from Forever 21. Well, Saturday i went shopping with my bestie for a scarf, and happened to try on a headband myself. Loved it (strange!). Wasn't even considering paying that much. So went back to forever 21. I kid you not - all the cool ones were gone. Gone gone gone. Then bestie remembered there was an icing a couple stores down, so we went there, and i walked out with 4 completely different looks in headbands. I got a black sequined one that can be dressed up or down, a really shiny double row one perfect for a night out, a crazy swirled wire one that was just too cool not to get considering it was buy 1 get 1 half off, and then the one im wearing today, that basically looks like i pinned a metal flower in my hair. I think it's a cute touch for my otherwise plain work hairstyle. Check it out:  (it's actually more on the side than directly on top like this pic kinda looks like)

And if you have any other simple (keyword - SIMPLE) ideas for me...please say so. lol!

That Time of Year

I'm not sure what the point of working out is right about now.

I'm eating..and eating..and eating...

No thanks to my suppliers from work. I'm bombarded with chocolate covered popcorn, chips and salsa, cookies, cupcakes, cheese and crackers, bacon, sausage, pies, candy coated pretzels, and all sorts of other deliciousness like - daily.

Today - I've had - the granola bar i brought for breakfast, lots of mini snickerdoodle cookies, lots of chips and salsa, 3 choc. chip cookies, and two deeeeeeeeelicious vanilla cupcakes that were all cute and decorated for christmas. complete with a reindeer ring on top of one of em. plus my lunch, and some more salsa.

at least im drinking water.

MUST WORK OUT TONIGHT. like. have to. Hubs made a deal with me. i know i posted it before...i gotta get him under 190 lbs by christmas. and i get a new camera. he didnt say anything about my weight. thank goodness. i stay happy as long as im under 150. let's just work out tonight - and NOT get on the scale.

Houston Snow 2009

It snowed in Houston again y'all. Like, the earliest recorded ever. And it snowed for a good 4-6 hrs 'round here. Weather's been crazy since. hot cold moist foggy cold warm rain. it changes daily. just like that. But snow is fun, even when it's short lived, because we rarely see it here. I know if you're in Colorado or something, you're probably as sick of it, as we are the sun. But it's exciting, and about an hr into it, we had to take pictures.

Essie Ray at 90 years young

That's what her cakes said! My great grandma just turned 90! How awesome is that? To have lived for so long and seen so much...change. That's gotta be amazing. She's seen the first flight of airplanes. The first movie with sound. The invention of the car radio. The invention of the copier and the ballpoint pen! The microwave. Then all the cool video games and electronics we have today. And look at the evolution of cars. and tv. and 8-tracks to blu-ray! Her son got her a computer once. she never turned it on. She does have a dvd player. And a cd player, but her record player still works fine. She outlived her husband, all of his sisters, and all of her brothers except 1. She's been through world war 2...and granddad fought in it. They got married so so very young, and were married their entire lives. To be with someone that long, and not know any other way, i cant imagine yet. Grandad passed away in February 2003. I remember being at UIL competition for poetry & prose. I had already halfway finished competition and was sitting at the table rehearsing. I was talking to my coach/teacher about possibly changing my last poem at the last minute, because one of my classmates from our school was doing the same one. And then my phone rang. Grandad had passed away. I still had to finish competition, and i kept my original poem. I ended up placing. My teacher tried her best to get a bus to go home as soon as possible so i could get on the road and head out of town. Mammaw Ray is the strongest lady i know. She holds our family together. I dont even want to think about what's going to happen when she's no longer here. She was rushed to the ER for low low low blood pressure the night before last and now has to give herself insulin shots. The medicine for her diabetes is effecting her kidneys. She attends a super small church called White Rock Baptist Church. It's outside of Bremond, TX. It's pretty much all elderly folks, with an occasional kid or two. I think the membership count is about 12. But they're the best. Justin bought some trumpet music for us - some Christmas duets - and im hoping to go play at Mammaw Ray's church for the holidays. We always talk about it, and ive done it once before. We're also having Christmas lunch at Mammaw Ray's house this year. I think she thinks it's going to be her last one. But i dont want to think about that. Right now i want to celebrate her life. Her wonderful life. I hadnt seen alot of the pictures of her younger years on display at her party...she's a beautiful woman inside and out. Here's some pics of her 90th birthday party - which was a complete surprise to her! :)

Entrance with her oldest daughter:


Hugging her only living brother after walking in - my favorite picture of the night.

This is one of those pictures id never seen before. That's Mammaw Ray and Grandad.

That picture at the bottom right - that's Mammaw Ray's parents!

Everyone told stories :) This lady was married to one of Mammaw Ray's brothers. They call her Tiny.

That's her brother (Uncle Pete), Her daughter (Aunt Jan), and her only son and youngest, Uncle Randy

She LOVES Uncle Pete to play and sing for her

And here's all her kiddos :) Aunt Betty, Uncle Randy, My Mammaw, and Aunt Jan