Snow!!

It's snowing!! Mike and I missed the first snow up here on Christmas Eve, but we were here for the second one! Every Christmas my family celebrates Christmas down in Kingwood and then heads up to Plano to see the family up here :) This year, instead of spending both nights hanging out in Plano, Mike and I had everyone over to see our house one of the nights. It was such a great time!! We had burgers and hot dogs, beans, queso, cream puffs, eclairs, yummmmm!! It was so much fun! Mike's parents were able to make it out for a little while as well, which was nice that all of us could hang out together. Bronx, Olivine, and Koda also had a great time being outside in the snow and running around the backyard. Bronx and Olivine got to the point where they were shivering so we made them go inside even though they didn't want to haha. Koda on the other hand was a super happy dog laying in the snow in the shade and it not affecting him at all with all his fur! Crazy! All together, the holidays were absolutely awesome! Mike and I had a great first Christmas as a married couple along with a great New Year's. :)

Christmas Time is Here!!

Oh Christmas Tree!! Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire!! Hark the Harold Angels Sing!! Joy to the World!! Jingle Bell Rock!! Oh I love Christmas time!!! Christmas is my absolute favorite time of year. I love giving gifts, seeing smiles, everyone being happy, running around like crazy, all the chaos, and my absolute favorite part is the family time :) I love getting together with family and friends and spending this amazing holiday together. Christmas is an amazing day b/c our savior was born!! This is Mike and I's first Christmas together as a married couple and it's been going great so far. We've set up our Christmas lights, we've set up our Christmas tree, and a bunch of good Christmas decorations inside the house. We also have the lovely gingerbread house (previous post) set up. The pics are of our lovely Christmas tree with some presents Santa brought early, our outside lights at night time (and if you look close you can see the Christmas tree lit up inside since I left the front door open), and our stockings by the fireplace. We hope you enjoy!! We sure are :)

Good Times :)

All of these pictures describe the awesome dinner party Mike and I had with Josh, MaryPat, and Juliana!! We had a great italian dinner with some good wine and then came the fun part....we made gingerbread houses!! Mike and I had such a blast!! We decided to make a two story with a loft inside and we decorated the outside with all the candy and icing we had :) Josh and MaryPat on the other hand went in a different direction....they (well mainly Josh) built a space ship haha. It was actually pretty impressive how high it went with just being held up by chocolate. MaryPat did a great job helping Juliana build her little beach house and she was the main decorator and artist with the icing :) In the end, we all had an absolute blast making the house and getting chocolate everywhere!! We then were able to chill out on the couch and catch up on things. Mike and I then headed home so he could study and I could get in bed at a decent hour for my Arrest, Search, and Seizure class today....yay for my intermediate peace officer license!!
On another note, Mike has been making some big decisions with the Marines and I made a big decision with work. Mike officially decided he is not going to re-enlist and his contract is up next year. He's wanting to go to the officer side either in the Marines (yay!) or the Air Force. He's hoping to go to OCS over the summer and then start grad school in the Fall. He's going to be a big graduate in May!! I withdrew my application to Crime Scene due to the sergeant and I not getting along and it wasn't the best time for me to move over there. I would have only had 2 days off during the week and worked 11p-7a. Now I have 3 days off and I work 8:30p-6:30a. It works out much better with Mike's schedule and we can spend more time together. I also have more learning opportunities on patrol and I can go to different units on the department on loan if I feel like trying things out. Oh and there will be a Christmas decorations picture coming soon :)

Thanksgiving

Mike and I went to Jim and Lexi's house for Thanksgiving again this year. As you can see, we all look really full haha. I made my mom's infamous yams for the first time ever and they were a hit! It took a while for my mom to believe me though haha. We had turkey, stuffing (which was delicious), yams, mashed potatoes w/ gravy, salad, and deviled eggs. It was all great! After Mike and I went for a walk, which is a family tradition at my family's Thanksgiving so we can make room for the dessert :)- We walked around the block and definitely made some room haha. We then came back in and ate some amazing pecan pie that Lexi made. There was also some Wii playing and just good ole hanging out with family. When Mike and I got home, Olivine had once again chewed the loveseat cover so we're going to have to get that one fixed again. The pups weren't too happy we left them alone all day :( But we ended up having a great Thanksgiving all together! Yay for being thankful for amazing family and friends!

Weekend in Kingwood

Mike and I went to Kingwood to see my parents, see Kyle (my bigger baby brother who I we hadn't seen in forever), meet his girlfriend Kaci (almost been together for a year!), and go to the Renaissance Festival!! All together it was a super awesome weekend!! The picture over here on the left is of Bronx and Olivine a few minutes after we got home. While we were there, we were always doing something. Mike and I got there late Thursday night and the dogs were psyched. Friday my parents drove us to Polk County so Mike could see my MawMaw's house and the Smith family farm. We then got back and met up with Kyle and Kaci and went to Costco to get some essentials. The dogs on the other hand were at home playing and sleeping all day. Saturday was the big day for the Renaissance Festival, which is displayed below. We were absolutely exhausted when we got back, but we still played with the dogs when we got back :) On Sunday we had a big family dinner and played more and more with the dogs. After each trip to Kingwood, the dogs are always exhausted, which is funny. When they walked through the door, they ran around realizing they were at home and checked every corner then went into the bedroom and passed out....they didn't move for the rest of the night! :)

Renaissance Festival

Hello my lord and my lady! That's what Mike and I kept getting greeted with in every shop we went into at the renaissance festival. We also saw some hilarious and rather revealing costumes, which was really entertaining....we also realized most people there have absolutely no shame haha. We saw a centaur, a few conans, women in nothing but chain mail and a thong, tonz of fairies, and a lot of "kings." In all honesty, most of the women let it all hang out and show and well were not in the best shape....but it was funny. We also got to experience the "Ded Bob Show," which was really funny as well. Mike and Kyle did the bow and arrow challenge and they both hit the bullseye more than once. Kyle and Kaci rode the elephant. I got some gorgeous celtic earrings and Mike got to eat fried alligator!! The food was awesome and so was the atmosphere!! We had a great time!!

Trick or Treat!

Tick or Treat....Give me something good to eat....if you don't....I don't care....I'll pull down your underwear!! Oh the joys of Halloween!! Today was awesome!! Mike carved this amazing pumpkin this afternoon and it looked great!! Mike's parents stopped by and my parents were already here for the weekend. I also had off the weekend since I'm taking a class Mon, Tues, and Wed. We then went to Target and Walmart and my parents took us to dinner at the Hibachi grill :) When we got home it was game time. We had all the decorations ready to go and lit the fabulous pumpkin!! We also got a super scary halloween sounds CD from Walmart and had it playing outside under the bench. We had tonz of Trick or Treaters and almost ran out of candy, but we squeaked by :) A bunch of the kids were scared from the halloween sounds and the dogs barking like crazy which made them run the opposite direction, but they would come back and get their candy...we also had tonz of comments on our costumes and our decorations and Mike's pumpkin was a hit :) While we were at Walmart we also picked up our costumes....I got a witches hat and creepy hands and Mike got a Jason mask. Happy Halloween all!!

Halloween!!

I took this picture today...it was freezing and SUPER windy...as you can see from the picture. Due to all of the rain and not being able to mow the grass and then not having the equipment to put out the graveyard pieces....it took until today to put them out. So I spent a while rigging the nails together so the graveyard pieces would stick in the ground since our grass is so thick and waa-laa...A GRAVEYARD!! A mini one at least haha. There is a witch windsock, a vampire windsock, spooky and beware signs, the graveyard, skulls looking like pirates lining the sidewalk, a pumpkin in the flowerbed, another windsock with a cat in a pumpkin, and last but not least a lit up pumpkin on the bench in the walkway. We still haven't carved our pumpkin...we're going to do that closer to halloween and put that on the bench eventually. Also, the little garden flag is a B (for Bassi) that my awesome mom got Mike and I :) The wind was blowing super hard which is why not everything is clear, but you can get the point. We have a few decorations in the house and we have our halloween candy in the pantry just waiting to be eaten, I mean handed out to Trick or Treaters. I have to work that night, but my fabulous parents are coming up for the weekend so Mike will have some company while handing out candy :)