Thankful for...

...time with my family.

It's Thanksgiving again.  One of my favorite times of year.  This year has been far from easy, but I am reminding myself today that I have so many things to be thankful for.  I have a great husband, a wonderful family, a gorgeous nephew, and a dog that thinks I am the greatest person in the world!  We had a great Thanksgiving meal today, Skyped with the family back in Indiana, and talked to Dad.  Great day!

I made a green bean casserole from scratch this year...first time!  It was really good!  I also made knot rolls from scratch...again first time!  I was quite the gourmet chef this year!

Mom and Mimi liked the Turkey!

Shawn reading to Logan...of course!



Logan was all over the place...as usual!

Our little Indian :)

I also made a Berry Trifle this year...It was delicious!  Mimi has some personal size trifle dishes so we made Logan his own.  He loved it!  Of course he did, it had raspberries and strawberries in it and he would eat fruit all day if we let him!

Overall, Thanksgiving success.  Now we're just killing time before we hit the Black Friday deals at midnight :)

Happy Thanksgiving!

Christmas Cards

Shawn and I (well mostly just me) had high hopes for our Christmas Card pictures this year.  We were planning to get some while we were in Indiana, but the camera battery died.  So I thought about just using the pictures we took while we were there, but I really wanted to get the pictures for the Christmas Cards with Marcie's super cute scarf.  We had a day planned after we got back to Austin and shockingly enough, it rained.  It hardly ever rains here.  It rained all day.  Just my luck.  So we just took some inside.  Not exactly what I wanted but they'll do.  Here are some of the outtakes!  Pictures with dogs (and small children) are always an adventure!

It's really hard to get Marcie to look toward the camera!

She basically just kept looking at me :)  She loves her Momma!

I have no idea what was so funny!

At least she's in the picture...more like a picture crasher though! 

We did get a couple that will work for the Christmas Cards....they'll be arriving in the mail closer to Christmas! 



Happy Halloween

I know I'm a day early, but Shawn and I are both working long days tomorrow so we won't be able to enjoy the holiday.  Shawn finally let me buy Marcie a costume so I got her a super cute pumpkin costume.  She looks adorable...no matter what Shawn says!



I'm sure Mimi will take some pictures of Logan tomorrow...she better since I will miss it!

Happy Halloween!

Pumpkin Carving!

Shawn and I were out shopping today...enjoying a day with just about nothing important to do.   We decided to wander around Target (what else is better than that?).  We we wandering around the Halloween stuff (if you can find it through all the Christmas stuff that's out already...but that is another story) and I found something that I really wanted.  Well a few things.  Actually more than a few, but we settled on two things.  A really cool clear glass pumpkin shaped candy bowl with a lid and a pumpkin carving kit with stencils of characters from Monster's, Inc.   So cool!

So we decided to buy something pumpkins too and get the decorating going!  I bought a couple of small, decorative pumpkins to complete the centerpiece of my dining room table.

I decided to carve "Boo" in her monster costume.  It was hard!  There were a lot of details, but I think it came out pretty well!   Shawn decided to do the Green Lantern logo (probably because we bought that movie today too). 

I am totally new at the pumpkin carving thing, but I think we did pretty well!  I can't wait to do it again next year!  I also dug out some stuff I bought after Halloween last year and got Marcie in her scary "eyeball" scarf.  She was not really a fan.

She did like the bits of pumpkin she wouldn't stop eating though.  I hope they don't make her sick :( 

I love days like this...all day with my favorite guy!

St. Patrick's Day

St. Patrick's Day is one of my & Shawn's favorite days.  We always enjoy going out to Irish Pubs, drinking green beer, drinking the Kryptonite shots Shawn makes, and just having a good time. This year we decided to dedicate our fun to my Grandma Lach.  She always loved St. Patrick's Day, which is appropriate seeing as she is Irish.  So today is for Grandma.

Last night my family got together to cook out and sort through tubs and tubs of pictures that Grandma has collected through the years.  We found many many pictures of ourselves that we wish could have never been found, but we also found many pictures that we love!  Grandma kept everything...she even has an original wedding announcement from her parents wedding!  Wow!  They were married in 1921!  She has pictures that are even older!  I am looking forward to having more time to go through all those pictures.  I did find a few pictures of Grandma Lach with Mimi and I that I wanted to share.

This last picture is from Grandma's 80th Birthday Party.

The shirt Grandma is wearing is her favorite shirt...her poker shirt.  She loved this shirt so much that she wanted to wear it to my wedding!  Thank goodness Aunt Mel took her shopping, but it was her first choice.  So Aunt Kathy, Aunt Mel, and my Dad all decided that it would be appropriate for this to be the shirt she is buried in...with her bingo bag.  If you knew her then you would completely understand why this is what we're doing :)  The wake will be tomorrow evening with the funeral Friday morning.  We also will be getting together Saturday to celebrate what would have been Grandma's 86th birthday.

Christmas is officially over now :(

I have taken down all my Christmas decorations as well as my Christmas Tree.  This is always a sad day for me.  I love Christmas time and I LOVE my Christmas tree...so putting all that stuff away is kind of depressing.  On the other hand, now my apartment doesn't seem quite so cramped!  I will just have to fill that space with something else, right?!