Celebrate

This weekend was full with a few birthday celebrations, a baby shower, and a girls night but sadly I only ended up with pictures from Jamie's surprise 30th birthday party! She was so surprised and it was a wonderful evening celebrating!

Some of the girls with the birthday girl

The fellas

Day of Love

Although we don't usually make a huge deal out of the "Hallmark holiday" of Valentines Day, we do like to take some time to be together and do something special. Again this year we opted out of the expensive Valentine's Day menus and stayed home. As in the past, Sam planned an amazing meal and we spent the day shopping for food and making an amazing dinner. The past few years Sam has done the entire meal on his own, but this year he allowed me in the kitchen to be his sous-chef. I helped him by prepping his ingredients, chopping, and washing the dishes as he went. He did the rest and did an amazing job! We had the best day together and I will cherish these times together forever. I could not ask for a better man for me. I love you so much Sam! Thanks for an amazing weekend.

Menu:

Candied pecan salad

Homemade pasta with bolognese sauce

Herbed cheese bread

Homemade tiramisu

Cupcake wine

*please notice the computer & iphone that never left his side!*

Sam followed up the next day (actual Valentine's Day) with breakfast in bed, beautiful roses, and a trip to Sprinkles!

Snow Day!!!

So like everyone else in the DFW area, I just had to post some snow day pics. Yes, I realize that there are people that have experienced more snow in their lives (including myself having grown up in the panhandle), but we made history here yesterday in the DFW area...the most snow in one day EVER. We got between 10-11"!!! That's huge for here and so random. The forecasters predicted a trace of snow to 2"; they missed that slightly!! We did not get out and play in the snow (rather opted for a warm fireplace and our living room with lots of comfort food), but I did snap some shots as I was leaving work yesterday. Mind you, it did snow for about 8 more hours after I took these!!!





"Come now, let us reason together," says the LORD. "Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool." Isaiah 1:18

Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow. Psalm 51:7

I do!

A few months ago my aunt asked me to make cookies for a bridal shower. I was very excited because I have only had the chance to make wedding cookies once before. The only hard part was that the colors the bride wanted were white with gold accents! You can't make sparkly gold incing!!! So I tried out a new technique of making an edible gold color that I could paint onto the cookies. I think they turned out pretty good for my first try!! (please excuse the pictures - old camera, at night, in my kitchen = poor quality)

Happy New Year!!!

It's a few days late, but we hope that everyone has had a great transition into 2010!!! Happy New Year!!!

Mandy, Amy, Mel

(Thanks Mel for another great New Year's party!)

Chrishtan, Steph, Amy

Anne, Amber, Emily, Mandy, Mel

Mom's-to-be: Melissa & Emily

(don't worry those drinks are baby safe!!!!)

2009 has gone and we are now on to a new year of 2010! I can't believe it is already 2010. I remember thinking that I could never imagine the 2000's and what it would be like. I guess I thought for some reason it would be completely different than the 90's just because we entered a new millennium. Well we are here and it's not so "crazy"! We had a great 2009 with many memories - our niece, Mia, was born; we each got another year closer to 30; we spent a lot of time with our families; had an amazing week long Thomas family vacation; pasted my CFP exam; experienced Vegas for the first time; I had an awesome get away with my girl friends; spent many hours with our great friends here; and ended the year with another memorable Christmas!!! What will 2010 bring??? I heard this the other day, so I decided this would be my motto for the year - Let's make 2010 all about Him!!!

Christmas has come to an end

This past week was one full week of Christmas!!! It was a bit different than usual, but that just made it last longer!!! We started out the week in Dallas with my family. This was a very special time since we were not going to get to be with Richard, Jennifer, and Mia for actual Christmas, and it was fun to see Mia enjoy her first Christmas. She may have not known what all was going on, but her face would light up when she would see a new toy!!! Here are a few pics from that weekend.

The fam

Mia loving the snow globe

Opening gifts

A new Disney movie!!!

Sam's nerdy PS3 carrying case!! (pretty nerdy, but I still love you)

We then spent the rest of the week in Amarillo with both of our families. I did a HORRIBLE job of taking pictures, but here are some fun pics of the t-shirt blankets our mom's made us. This is such a good way to use all those t-shirts that hold so many great memories. They cover our whole lives from elementary school to college!!! Pretty fun!!! Thanks mom's!!!

Cookies for Santa

Favorite Things - Christmas Style

We also had another favorite things party with the women of our church group last week. This time was all about your favorite christmas snacks and items. We had candles, towels, nail polish, cd's, ornaments, serving dishes, and JOY signs!!! It was so fun to see what everyone loves about the holidays. Since you asked, my favorite thing (one of many) was christmas scents from Bath and Body Works. I am loving the Fireside scent this year. I also love having holiday soap around my house!!! My camera ran out of batteries at the very beginning, but Amy was kind enough to share some of yer pics! Thanks Amy!!!

All the ladies

So many fun gifts!
My cookies (more to come)

Testing out the nail polish

Mel, Amy, and Lisa (our faithful leader..so blessed by her!!)

Christmas + Friends = BLESSED

This past weekend we had our small group over for a Christmas dinner. We had such a wonderful night of eating, laughing, and sharing together. Sam and I have been so blessed with amazing people in our lives here in Dallas. The Lord put these exact five couples (one not pictured) in our lives because he knew exactly what we needed. We are all so much alike and have shared so much over the past years. I love hanging out and growing in the Lord weekly with each of these people. I also love being able to pray over them and knowing that I am always prayed over.

The Ladies

(Emily, Amber, Mandy, Amy, Diana, and Audrey)

The Men

(Michael, Tim, Brandon, Sam, Trent)

How cute/weird is it that they all showed up in different colored

v-neck sweaters with white collared shirts underneath....hummmm
The Hadley's

The Maenius'

The Montoya's

US

The Snelling's

Audrey playing with the dancing Santa hat and LOVING it!!!

We ate A LOT of food!!!

Played some games...

(Michael attempting to draw a donkey!!!)

Opened some presents!!!

And shared some memories!!!

Love you guys!

(This all sounds like a Hallmark card...hahaha!!!)