Snow, Super Bowl, and Valentine's Day

 Bronx and Olivine on their new dog beds.  They curl up into such small balls, we figured these little mini couches would be great for them.

 Mike and I at the Amplifi Commerce launch party in Dallas.  It was the official big switch from Razor 360 to Amplifi Launch.

 The night all the sleet, ice, and snow started coming down!  I was at lovely work when it all started of course.  This was our sector parking lot when we were about to get off work.

 Here are the pups playing in the backyard with the snow.  They absolutely love it when it snows!  They run around and play and of course eat it haha.

 Saturday night before the Super Bowl, my team was on foot patrol all night downtown.  Thank goodness for all that bad weather the whole week b/c people weren't too crazy.  We hosted the Steelers, but there were still a few Green Bay fans walking around...Go Green Bay!! 

 Mike and I in the front yard on one of the snow nights letting the dogs run around.  It was hilarious b/c there was still ice under the snow, so Bronx and Olivine definitely took a few spills or would slide across the street or driveway.

 View of some of the front yard covered in snow with it still coming down.  Last year definitely takes the cake for more snow, but there wasn't the ice.

 A view of the backyard with snow coming down.

 This is a little pond over by one of our friend's houses.  The whole pond froze over so we had to take a picture.

 Here's the road covered in ice entering into our neighborhood...someone took out the rocks earlier or maybe the night before.

 Cool picture b/c there is frozen water on top and then running water further down.

 Olivine and Bronx running around playing.

My beautiful Valentine present from Mike.  We've never really done anything big on Valentine's Day since neither of us are really big fans of it.  He left work earlier to surprise me before I went to work that night, but it took him over two hours to get home, so we did a quick exchanging of gifts, Happy Valentine Day hug and kiss, and I headed to work.
Nothing really too exciting has been going on lately.  I started subbing last month and I've had one job so far.  It was for a 3rd grade class in Joshua.  I earned the name Mrs. Bossy because the kids wouldn't listen so the not so nice cop side had to come out, which ended up straightening most of them up and letting them realize I'm not the typical push over sub.  Two of them earned detention since they decided to bully two other kids and that doesn't fly with me.  So all and all, I earned a name for myself on the first day haha.  I've gotten other calls, but it's so hard when they call the morning of to get up and go sub that whole day....especially if I don't hear my phone ring or if I went to bed late.  I check the website everyday, but the postings are usually last minute so it can make things a little difficult.  Other than that, I've applied to Burleson ISD, Joshua ISD, and Northwest ISD.  I'm also trying to start subbing in Burleson so I can gain some more opportunities.
With police work, things are going well.  I'm still on patrol midnights and it's still a good time.  I'm starting to study for the Corporal's test coming up sometime later this year.  I figure if I can't find a teaching job, I might as well promote.  If I do well on the Corporal test and make it high enough on the list and then a position opens up in either a detective's office or on patrol, then I can promote.  If that doesn't happen, then the list can expire and I won't promote.  That's happened to a few of my officer buddies, so I know it's definitely possible, which would suck.  Then again, there are some other officer buddies who did promote so yay!  Pretty much the main exciting thing that has happened at work in the past couple months is we caught some burglars breaking into a middle school.  Other than that, same ole same ole.
Mike went to a National Guard Symposium in Austin over the weekend and it got him totally ready for OCS.  He did great on his physical and is all healthy, thank goodness!  And his packet is pretty much complete.  He has his PFT this coming Friday (which is also his 29th birthday!) and then he'll be good to go.  We're also hoping he'll find out what weekends he's going to have OCS training this Friday so we can plan accordingly for some events coming up.  He's still working hard in Grad school and soo can't wait for it to be over, which I don't blame him haha.  Work is also going well for him, but the drive is still a big pain.
We hope all is going well for everyone!  We miss and love you guys!

In Recent News :)-

 Me holding our new niece, Lucia, at the POA!  She was born on Christmas Day at 0114 hrs :)

 The proud parents, Lindsey and Eric holding Lucia.  Lindsey and I work together as patrol officers.  We call each other sisters all the time and they've made me a sister from another mother Aunt :)

 Mike standing on UTA's Planetarium Scale.  He weighs 4, 966 lbs on the Sun!

 Mike at the top of the Planetarium Tower at UTA.

Mike staring off at the absolutely gorgeous day God blessed us with that day.

Lindsey and I both work on patrol, but she works the evening shift and I work midnights.  She's been off the streets for about, well, 9 months working in the Chief's office and I would go visit her and take her to lunch during the pregnancy.  Her husband, Eric, is a US Air Marshall and is stationed in Virginia.  They've been living apart for a while due to their jobs, but they're able to see each other every month.  Eric flew in the Wednesday before Christmas, which was perfect!  Lindsey went into labor at 1639 Christmas Eve and then baby Lucia made her appearance at 0114 on Christmas Day!  Her first name (Lu-Ci-a) is Spanish (Lindsey's background) and her middle name (Sorynn) is Danish/Polish (Eric's side).  She's a gorgeous baby girl :)
Mike took off work on Thursday since he had to meet with a National Guard Lt. about his OCS packet.  The appt was at 1100 and it took about an hour or so.  We then drove through a really nice park and made plans for taking the dogs there someday.  After wards, we headed to UTA so Mike could sign up for an Accounting class.  Mike then took me on a tour of the campus.  I've never really realized how cool and interesting the campus really is!  They have gorgeous water fountains, really pretty landscaping, and the buildings are awesome.  The coolest building was the planetarium.  They have a movie theater in there, the planet scale, a really cool glass hallway leading from building to building, and the outside seating area overlooking the campus.

Hark the Herald Angels Sing!

 This is the new addition to the family...Kyle's hedgehog....Mike and I got it for him for Christmas

 The family celebrating my Dad's birthday at Benihana :)

 Kyle, Mike, and my Dad at Aunt Liz's having Christmas dinner and presents with Nanny, Aunt Liz, and cousins on Christmas Eve

 Nanny, Kyle, me, and Mike at the dinner table after the fabulous meal

 My three role models :)  My mom is on my left and her twin sister, Aunt Liz, is on my right, and Nanny in front

 Here's the big Kingwood clan...Brooks, James, Aunt Liz, Nanny, Lauren, me, Mike, Kyle, Dad, and Mom

 Bronx and Olivine passed out on the couch when we got back to Burleson on Christmas Day since I had to work :(

 Celebrating with the Plano clan at Aunt Karen and Uncle Frank's...Nanny, Randy, Lauren, Aunt Liz, Uncle Frank, me, Mike, Josh, Frankie, and James

 Cousins plus Nanny :)  Randy came down from Colorado so we took a bunch of pictures...and yes I am the short one in the family :)-

 Kyle and his hedgie at our house :)

 Koda munching on his Christmas present...Bronx and Olivine went to hide in the other rooms to eat theirs.

 Olivine sniffing the hedgie....not sure if he likes it or not haha.

Hedgie running around on his wheel....Kyle said he does it every morning for an hour starting at 0500.

Christmas break was awesome!  We headed down to my parent's house in Kingwood the Wednesday before Christmas.  As soon as we got there we went to Benihana for my Dad's birthday.  When we got back we opened presents and ate some chocolate pecan pie, which was great!  We celebrated Christmas dinner and presents with the cousins, Aunt Liz, and Nanny on Christmas Eve at Aunt Liz's house.  It was a great dinner and opening presents was a blast!  We always have so much fun!  We then headed home and exchanged presents between kids and parents and Mike and I.  We all loved our gifts.  Christmas morning we woke up early and opened the gifts from Santa.  It was an absolute blast!  We then did a fashion show (which I've done since I was a kid) of the clothes we got.  Aunt Liz, Nanny, Lauren, and James then came over and we had leftovers along with my dad's big breakfast.  It was awesome!  Mike and I were stuffed on the way home.  I went to work that night and it was super slow.
Monday we went to Plano to see Randy before he headed back to Colorado.  On Tuesday (28th) I woke up early and took my Special Ed EC-12 Cert Test (I passed!) and my parents and Kyle came that afternoon.  Wednesday we headed back to Plano to celebrate the Plano family Christmas.  It was another amazing time with family!  My parents stayed here until Sunday after New Years and Kyle left on New Years Eve.  I absolutely love family time!

Here Comes Santa Clause!

 Kristin and I at the Arlington Highlands after a great dinner.

 Mike and I love this picture.  He thought we were taking a serious one and then I jumped on him so he went with it :)

 Kristin and Wes...they're so cute together.

 Our stockings hung by the chimney with care :)

 Our awesome Christmas tree!  It was so fun putting it up and decorating it all.

 One of our many attempts to take a picture of the whole family, but they didn't all turn out that great.  This one was funny since Bronx was looking to Mike to figure out what was going on.

 And here is one of Mike and I by ourselves with Mike giving me bunny ears and me having the camera set up a little to low so it cut off some of his head.

 Our lit up house!  It was soo much easier putting up the Christmas decorations this year!  We added some more lights this year as well.  We also added red and green lights as our flood and garage lights after the picture was taken.

 Mike's work Christmas party.  I actually wore pantyhose, which I swore I would never do again after my mom made me so many times when I was a kid, but it was cold!

 Mike, me, Aunt Margie, and Uncle Guy.

Mike and me at the end of the night.  It was a good time.

Here are some of the Holiday season pictures we've taken so far in the month of December.  I wanted to post some since if I posted them all together it would take up a lot of room and I figured I could get started.  We're at my parents house in Kingwood for this lovely Christmas holiday :)  We celebrated my dad's 53rd birthday last night by going to dinner at Benihana then coming home to open presents and eat some chocolate pecan pie.  It was soo good!  We can't wait until Christmas morning after Santa comes!  And of course it's Christ's birthday!  We hope everyone is having an amazing Holiday season, have a great Christmas, and an even better New Year!
In other news, Mike did great on his second semester of Graduate school and is on his Christmas break without school, but driving our to Addison to work everyday.  I passed my EC-6 test and on to take my Special Ed certification test on the 28th.  Hopefully I pass that one as well and I can start applying for teaching jobs!

Thanksgiving 2010

Such a great Thanksgiving!!  I thought the picture I clicked on first went to the bottom and so on, which is how it used to work....apparently now it goes the other way.  The bottom picture is Bronx and Olivine in their travel crates, which fit greatly in the back of the expedition!  Unfortunately, while we were staying at Uncle Guy and Aunt Margie's, Bronx wanted to get out of his travel crate and go play with the other dogs, so he flipped the crate and nosed his way through the front screen door.  When we got home, he was wondering around the office.  So needless to say, we were not happy he broke his crate, but we ended up getting him another one that was more sturdy...a Remington Dog Crate from Academy.  The next picture is the puppies passed out the night before we headed down to Austin for Thanksgiving.  They were knocked out, which was great so Mike and I could pack a little bit without them getting too excited.  And Olivine's ear makes her look like she's about to fly away. 
It didn't take us too long to get to Austin, which was awesome!  It was a fun drive heading down and it actually got warmer and wasn't raining so we didn't need our heavy coats anymore.  We settled in a bit at Aunt Margie and Uncle Guy's with everyone.  The dogs were pretty excited, so we ended up talking the dogs for a nice walk to the golf course down the street and they had an absolute blast running around and playing fetch.  They got all sorts of pooped out, which helped them calm down back at the house.  The next picture is Aunt Margie and Uncle Guy's absolutely amazing decorating job of their garage :)  It was the coolest set up for everyone there and it was awesomeness!!  There was a food table, a water/salad/bread rolls table, and then the two tables with plenty of seating.  We each had a job to help the day go by smoother and quicker.  Mike was in charge of taking out the trash and I was in charge of handing out bread rolls.  After the super delicious dinner, we all headed back inside for dessert and more visiting.  This picture is of Cathy, Joe, Mike, and Brian.  Aren't they all just so good looking?!  :)-  The next picture is of Mike and I.  And yes we know we're good looking...haha :)-  Lastly, here we all are at Rudy's BBQ, which is one of the absolute best BBQ restaurants I've ever eaten at!!  Mike and I both shared the sausage and extra moist brisket and Mike ate a brisket sandwich.  They also had great potato salad and pure cane sugar Coke and Dr. Pepper!  We all left extra stuffed.
Mike and I headed to Target when we got back to the house and took the dogs for another walk.  That night everyone went to Uncle Chris and Aunt Donna's super gorgeous house for a great Italian appetizer and dinner.  We all left there extra stuffed and Mike, Cathy, and I headed to Brad and Sara's house to continue hanging out.  Mike and I then headed back to Uncle Guy and Aunt Margie's for some sleep.  The next day, we went to an eastern European bistro, which had Hungarian food.  I actually had borsch and I liked it.  Mike had sour cherry soup, which is a cold soup, and he liked it.  Everyone shared all their different food and it was a blast.  After that, Mike and I headed back to Burleson and I went to work that night.
I love family :)  And it's been WAY too long since it's seen mine, so I can't wait until we head down to Kingwood for Christmas!!  YAY!!

Boo-rific Halloween!

We had such a great Halloween!! I got off work late (Halloween morning) since Halloween weekend was of course crazy, but Mike and I were able to sleep in a bit. Mike got up and went outside to mow the lawn while I did some laundry. Well, when I looked outside, it wasn't Mike mowing the lawn, BUT JASON! I'm not gonna lie, I was a little scared :)- It was really funny seeing all the kids walking up and down the sidewalk staring at him wondering what was going on. Such a great way to start. Once Mike was done, he came in to carve the pumpkin and I headed to Target to get a candle for the pumpkin. Of course while I was there, I picked up a Halloween doormat that was black with Happy Halloween written in white in creepy handwriting and a big Jack-O-Lantern. The perfect last touch for all the decorations. When I got home, the pumpkin was carved and we started to get everything ready for the trick or treaters. We set out our scary CD, which always freaks out the kids and they always search around for where it's coming from since we hide it. While we were outside setting up the Jack-O-Lantern and trying to take a picture of the dogs with it, Josh and Marypat pulled up with Juliana. We visited with them for a little while and gave Juliana her Halloween candy bag we had made for her. Juliana looked awesome! Marypat made her costume, which was Jessie (the yodeling cowgirl from Toy Story). After they left, Mike and I started to make dinner (roasted lamb with mushrooms and sweet potatoes). Once we put it in the oven, the trick or treaters started arriving. It was soo much fun!! We received a bunch of compliments on all of our decorations, our costumes, and our candy. And of course, we still got a kick out of the kids creeping up to the door b/c of the scary music and trying to figure out where it was coming from. Oh and for our costumes, I was Robin and Mike was a Vietnam Vet. We went through a lot of candy, but still had some left over for us, which was fabulous. Overall, it was an absolutely amazing night and I'm really glad I took off work to celebrate with Mike. We hope all of you guys had a great Halloween too!