Baby Season

It has been that time of the year with lots of baby showers!!! I got to be apart of two very special showers for two of my closest long time friends. The first one was for Megan. We have so many memories all the way back to high school and now I have been able to watch her become a mom!!! We threw a shower for her and baby Owen! Baby Owen's room has an Owl theme, so we decided to throw that into the shower! Mr. Owen came early and just had his 2 week birthday! We have seen a lot of pictures and had some Facetime, but we can't wait to meet him in person!!!

The other baby shower was for another long time friend - Jennifer. We go way back and have shared so many memories with each other and our families! We are so excited for Jennifer and Jacob and can't wait to meet Miss Ellie!!!

Both of these friendships are so special to me, and I have been blessed by both of these women and their husbands! The relationships that we have bring us so much joy!! I just wish I lived closer than 3-5 hours so that I could see and hold these babies more often!!!

Spring

Apologies. We are officially the worst bloggers, ever.

Spring in a nutshell -

Sam

Samuel's new job at Fulbright ramped up. The international investigation I was involved in took up all of the hours in a day (and night). I know, everyone is busy these days.... There has been more normalcy since it ended, this month. So good news.
Gardening - Still an old man.
Birthday - Turned 27 years of age. I should be at my physical peak but I feel like I have been declining since the age of 22. Celebration was fun, though. Mando took me and my parents to a vineyard (old man) in Grapevine (the city). It was a fun weekend with friends and family.

Mando

Mandy has been making some pretty incredible food, lately. She's also been quite the crafty woman, as well as helping Sammy boy in the yard. She is turning into her mom (that's a good thing) :)

Random

Play time - Lots of play time with friends and family, when work has not consumed Sam. We got to see Rob, Melis, Reed and Quinci at Reed's bday party! We also just had a lot of Mia and Baby Thomas fun this past weekend. Pics to follow soon.
Here are some spring gardening pics for your viewing pleasure. None of that photoshop nonsense, either (too lazy). Went a little crazy with the tulips this year -

Catching Up

Since I am majorly behind on blogging, I thought I would post a few things from February to get caught up a bit. First off for the month of love is Valentine's Day!! Sam and I had a wonderful day together and ended the day with an amazing meal cooked by my husband: we started out with an apple walnut salad with a homemade cranberry dressing and crab cakes. We then moved to rack of lamb with garlic mashed potatoes and roasted fennel & onions. We finished the meal with smores souffles. Needless to say, we were stuffed by the end of the night!!! I also did a bit of baking to celebrate love:

Also, last month (I think) we threw a baby shower for my good friend Hillary! I think it turned out really cute and she received some great gifts!!! I am so blessed by Hillary in my life and it was so fun to be able to throw a special shower for her and baby girl Calahan.

Last, we also got to celebrate with our good friends, The Hadley's, with a baby reveal party! This was such a fun night and we are so excited to meet Miss Riley Kate!!!

Team Blue & Team Pink

It's a girl!!!!

Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, Happy Birthday!!!!

We had a wonderful Christmas at home in Amarillo with our families!!! We were there for the whole week, so we got in a lot of family time and even got to enjoy some time with some of our closets friends! We are so blessed by the people in our life and were reminded of that this Christmas season!

Merry Christmas

Richard, Jennifer, & Mia on Christmas morning

Sam in his new shades!

Mia playing with her Dora "ipod"

Mia showing Grandma Liz the new boots her

Aunt Mandy & Uncle Sam gave her

Snapping a quick pic before church

*I still owe Sessler Christmas pics*

Happy New Year's

Celebrating a beginning of 2011 with

some of the best women I know!

(post wedding - hence the reason I am over-dressed!)

Celebrating the New Year and a new marriage!!

Congrats Chelsi & Brant

Happy 30th Birthday Jennifer

Dad, Mom, Richard, and I

The beautiful birthday girl with her beautiful family

Mia and her friends at the party

Speech, Speech, Speech!!!!

Happy Birthday Jennifer!

Cookies For Santa

December is my favorite month for many reasons, but one of the biggest reasons is because I get to do a lot of baking!!! I think I must have spent the entire month of December in my kitchen if I wasn't at some type of celebration! Here's a peek at some of the christmas cookies that I made this year. I think I ended up making almost 7 dozen of these!!! It might have taken a long time to make all those cookies, but at least I have fun while doing it!!!

It's Beginning to look a lot like Christmas!!!

We have had a crazy busy, crazy fun December celebrating Christmas! What a glorious season of joy and hope as we celebrate our Lord's birth. My prayer this whole season has been that I would not loose focus on what I was celebrating. I can not say that I was always successful and didn't let the shopping, baking, cooking, wrapping, etc. get in the way, but I can say that my reflection time has been some of the most sincere and meaningful than I can remember. I pray that you all have have very Merry Christmas and take time in the next few days to really reflect on what this season means to you.

Bible Study Dinner & Gift Exchange

The Men

The Ladies
(modeling off my recent creations...I learned to sew this year, so I decided to use those new found skills to make some Christmas gifts...thanks mom for being a great teacher!)

Audrey trying to figure out what gift was for her!

PWC Christmas Party

at Neiman Marcus Downtown Sam and I sitting in Santa's Chair

(Every year Neiman does an amazing job decorating..this years Santa's theme was space. Behind us is the spaceship tree.)

The Tree (our young adult group at church)

Progressive Christmas DinnerMicheal, Sam, Trent and our faithful leader Bert

The men sporting some new mustaches!

Lady Gaga???

(This is what I ended up with at the White Elephant gift exchange, plus a whoopee cushion and Flarp.)

"An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.” Luke 2:9-12