Keystone, CO

We just got back from our trip to Keystone and it was a blast! This was the first time we have gone skiing together (well not really but we don't exactly count 8th grade FCA ski trip because we didn't even talk to each other then).  We both decided to try the snowblades this time because we had heard great things about them.  We loved them! As many of you know I am definitely not the best skier :) (I like to go slow and not turn into a snowball when I ski down a mountain!) but the snowblades made me feel more confident so I could go a little faster without falling! Dallas, on the other hand, was flying down the mountain like a pro on the first day skiing since the 8th grade.  Other than skiing some of the things pictured below: the awesome chocolate milk in a cute restaurant in downtown Denver, Dallas eating his mint oreo bark from Rocky Mt. Chocolate Factory, our friends that went on the trip with us, in front of Lake Dillon (which we tried to walk on but sunk too far in the snow before we could get there),  cool ice sculptures that were in the village and Dallas night skiing.



We loved being in beautiful Colorado and one day would love to go back!

A December to Remember

Wow....December has flown by!  It was full of fun Christmas parties, keeping our sweet niece Jency, some winning Bears basketball games, shopping, and spending time with our wonderful families over Christmas!

Jency came to stay with us at the beginning of December for a week while Misty & Frank went to New York.   We had a blast keeping her and being entertained by her jabbering.  It was also a small peek to what it would be like when we have one of our own.  Let us just say a very different lifestyle taking care of a little one! 

That Sunday our bible study all went to the Christmas Celebration production put on by our church.  We had heard it was a big deal and it turned out to be very good!  (They even had a huge elephant walk through the sanctuary and Santa flies in from the balcony.)  Here are a few pictures from after the show with some of the characters:

Well Mr. Broadstreet got plenty of goodies from his kids this year! (They all love him...I have parents of patients come into my office all the time raving about him!)   He got tons of sweets, more starbucks gift cards than he knows what to do with, money, a blanket, sweet cards, etc.! Here's some of the stuff & a very happy teacher:

This year I decided to make a few homemade gifts.  My first project was to finish the scrapbook I have been working on for Dallas' parents for 3 years! After that I painted a decorated a letter J for Jency's room and made homemade ornaments for the family.  I forgot to get a picture of all the ornaments but here is the one I made for our tree.

Speaking of Christmas decorations here is the finished picture of the Christmas lights from my last post:

Our Christmas break began with the roadtrip to Abilene.  Christmas with the Broadstreets was the morning after we arrived.  Christmas morning got moved up this year to the 23rd so we could all be together! I believe Kerr was very excited to finally see his scrapbook finished & Traca got her first digital Christmas scrapbook with last year's pictures only a year late :) (Hey...I'm cutting the time in half from Kerr's scrapbook)! Dallas & I were very excited to get the flash for our camera in our stockings....one step closer to our photography company we would like to start! Here are a few pictures from "Christmas Morning":

And if you notice, Dallas has on his elf shirt for Christmas & his parents bought him the perfect hat to go with it.  Here is the debut Elf dance video:

After a few days in Abilene we headed back to Katy to have Christmas with my side of the family.  After opening presents it was time for a dance off.  This year for entertainment everyone got a chance (or was forced :) ) to play Just Dance 2 on the Wii.  It is a game where you have to copy the person dancing on the screen and compete against each other.  It was very amusing and we had a great time laughing at each other and ourselves! 

What a December full of great memories! We hope everyone had a Merry Christmas!

Happy Barn Building!

We just got back from Thanksgiving break and we have been working for 2 days....and already we are counting down the days till Christmas break!  My family spent Thanksgiving in Abilene building a barn and hanging out at the new land where my parents are building their new house.  Here's a few pictures from the week:



Driving the forklift in his mother-in-law's pink construction hat



Sweet Jency hanging out at the land being cute

While the boys were working so hard....I got to go shop with my sisters and see Kelsey!  I went to see Kelsey's new house in Tuscola and steal some of her cute Christmas ideas.  Here is one project she came up with that I think turned out very cute:

Everything you need is at Hobby Lobby and most of the time 50% off!

Other exciting news...our championship shirts for League Tennis finally came in the mail (and the magnet that Dallas says he is going to put on the side of his truck so everyone will know)!  In honor of our first championship we had to, of course, take a picture in our new shirts:

To end the Thanksgiving update post here is what we were up to tonight:

Hanging our outdoor Christmas lights for the first time! And yes, Dallas is on the roof because we don't have a ladder tall enough to reach that part of the house.  We did not completely finish with the trees and such so I will post a picture later of all the lights around the house!

Lip syncing & Decorating

These past few weeks have been pretty busy with basketball try-outs, tennis matches, church get togethers and Christmas shopping! On this past Friday Dallas was in a pep rally at school.  The teachers join in once a year with the cheerleaders and perform skits.  The cheerleaders wanted Dallas to dress up as Justin Beiber and lip sync one of his songs. 

Here's the debut video (It was very loud so you can't really hear the song in the background but you can still see his dance moves!) :

 and Glamour Shot:

On Saturday, we decided to go ahead and decorate for Christmas because I wanted our bible study friends to see it when they come over the Wednesday after Thanksgiving break (it will be the last bible study at our house for the year). Since we will be in Abilene the whole Thanksgiving break and basketball season takes over Monday nights now....I talked Dallas into letting me decorate before Thanksgiving! We went and bought a wreath this year to add to our decorations. I decorated it with ornaments, jingle bells, etc. and put it over our fireplace...I love it! And love having our house decorated for Christmas!

Other fun house news....our hibiscus that we thought was dead and chopped down - is back! And has its first bloom!

Happy Thanksgiving week to everyone!

Fall is Here



I finally got to decorate for fall...last year we had just moved in and I didn't even have fall decorations in mind! Pumpkins, cornucopias and a cute flower arrangement Misty let me borrow to put on my front door now decorate our cozy house!  

We had a Costume & Pumpkin Carving party at our house 2 weekends ago.  I have really enjoyed entertaining in our house and using some fun things I got from the wedding! (We also have bible study here on Wednesday nights)  Our small group from church came dressed up and ready to carve! Here are some fun pictures from that night:



We had a wide variety of costumes: Lumberjack, Flapper,

Cowgirl, Eggs, Bacon, Rainbow, Ninja, Wonderwoman & an Inmate!



Our friends from Denmark, Rune & Signe, enjoyed getting to experience an American tradition.  It was their first time to dress up for Halloween and to carve pumpkins! They did a great job at both and we have plenty of pictures to show it!

 

Halloween was that Sunday night so we sat Smiley (pictured below) on the front porch glowing with a candle and waited for the kids.  We were prepared with candy...not knowing what to expect because last year we were in a little apartment and didn't have trick or treaters!  Around 6:00 here comes the first group of trick or treaters...(Dallas literally jumped out of his chair when the doorbell rang he was so excited). Little did we know our doorbell would be ringing like crazy untill around 8:00!!  We saw all kinds of costumes and all ages come to our door...by the end of the night we were out of candy and ready to just sit and watch the Rangers game!

 

HAPPY FALL!

It's been a while...

Well I decided I would try to start blogging but first we can catch up from the past 2 years that I haven't!

First of all we got married in May 2009...

 

Then went on a wonderful honeymoon to Kauai, Hawaii!

 

 

Traveled a lot during our first summer being married...

 

 

Started new jobs....

 

 

Bought our first house in November 2009...

 



Celebrated our first Christmas together...

 

Celebrated our first birthdays & Valentine's together...

 

Celebrated our 1st Anniversary in The Woodlands...

 

 

 

Had a great second summer being married...

 

And that brings us to Fall of 2010....

 

Now that you're caught up I can begin blogging about life today...

Ring Day 2008

September 19, 2008 was a day full of fun and excitement...but let me start from the very beginning. Just before our adventures in Europe, I knew it was time to begin the process of finding a ring. I contacted a guy right before we left and told him I was wanting to set up a time when we got back to pay him a visit (his store is in the World Trade Center in Dallas). Everyone was expecting a proposal in Europe but the plans were beginning to unfold back home. After we came back, Ashlee left the next day for College Station and I knew the following week would be the last chance I got to make a trip to Dallas. Crystal, my sister, willingly hopped in the car with me and we made a day of it (she just wanted to go look at all the expensive jewelry and see where her engagement ring came from). We arrived at the World Trade Center and it was VERY overwhelming. The guy was very nice and took us up to his store (we had to be escorted) that him and his dad run. We sat down and began to look at a few rings but after seeing the third one, I could not put it down. I knew it was the one and he told me a guy came in unexpectedly the night before with it to sell it to him (that pretty much sealed the deal). After getting a lesson in diamondology and picking a winner, my sister and I headed back home pleased with what we had accomplished (it was just akward when Ashlee kept calling wanting to talk).

After a very long week for the both of us, we were both looking forward to the weekend and the arrival of our families. On Thursday (September 18) my family (Mom, Dad, Crystal, and Grandparents) came into town and along with them came the ring (I had not seen it since the last week of summer, which was probably a good thing or I would not have been able to hold off for so long). I knew this would be the perfect weekend because both of our families were able to come down and I was also getting my Aggie ring. Also on Thursday, my roomate and I drove to the park to scope out the best spot for the proposal. I bought him a blonde wig and we took a video of the dress rehersal (I am glad Ashlee turned out a lot better than he did).

I woke up on Friday (September 19) ready to get things going. My family and I passed the time touring Aggieland while Ashlee had a long stressful day at work. She was running late and I met her at her house to pick her up and take her over to campus. We got there just in time to rush in the doors and make our way to pick up my ring. It went by really fast and we were out of there in no time. After many pictures with my ring, we all went our seperate ways (they were heading back to Misty's house to await our arrival). Ashlee and I walked to my truck and I was trying not to pass out. We hopped in the truck and I asked her if it would be alright if we went and took pictures at a park close by campus with just the two of us (thankfully she agreed because I didn't have a backup plan). The ring had been tucked away in my sock and as soon as we pulled up I was ready to take it out. I pretended to want pictures of myself and my ring waiting for the time to take a picture of the both of us. I sat the camera on a bridge and told her I would set the self-timer (instead I switched it over to video to capture the proposal). I ran over to stand by her as we stood there waiting for a flash that would never come. I went back to the camera to "check and see what was wrong" and told her I had it on video and asked her if she was ready. Then I proceeded to get down on one knee and pulled the ring out of my sock. Then after a bunch of words I don't remember saying (like "bam!" when I first pulled it out... what an idiot) I asked her if she would marry me and she practically ripped the ring out of my hands. I took it back and placed it on her finger as we were both relieved the day had finally come.