"Anyone can be a Father but it takes someone special to be a Daddy."

Oh how I love my Daddy!  My parents have been such amazing examples to me throughout my entire life in every single aspect.  My momma is my best friend and my daddy is my hero.  I am a major daddy's girl and that will never ever change no matter how old I am!  Anytime there is a day set aside to celebrate someone, it is super important to us.  Father's Day was no exception and we had so much fun that day with both of our dad's.  We all went to church at Beltway that morning and then went to Abuelo's for lunch.  I decided that we should grill out that night for dinner at our house.  So, as soon as we got home from church, I began cooking our Father's Day dinner.  We had all kinds of yummy stuff!  I mixed up two pounds of hamburger meat with seasonings and Cody grilled them out on the grill. I made homemade black bean burgers for my momma because she is a vegetarian.  And for the sides I made baked french fries and corn and avocado salsa.  For dessert, I finally decided to dare to make the Pioneer Woman's Milky Cake.  Yep...that's right...the one with 11 full size Milky Way bars in it!  It also has 3 sticks of butter in it...it's definitely not a healthy cake...but it sure did taste good!  It's one of  those cakes that you make for a special occasion or when you are going to have several people over because it makes a ton!  We had dinner around 6:00 and just spent time together.  Sitting around the dinner table as a family doesn't seem to be something that goes on much anymore. So, it is always such a joy to have both sides of our family over to eat and spend an evening together.  I look forward to the next time when we can have our families over for a meal and just relax and eat as a family.  We are so blessed to both have amazing dads in our lives that have been examples to us and loved us unconditionally.  Love you so much Daddy!

Me and my daddy on Father's Day...along with all the yummy food we cooked and all the ingredients to that delicious Milky Cake!  Yummy!!!

Our Brown Eyed Girl

I mean, really?!?!  How cute is she?!?!?!?

Our sweet little Trigger turned a year old on June 18th!  I can't believe that she is already a year old...time goes by so fast!  I guess it won't be too much longer and we'll have had her in our little family for a year.  I remember when Trigger and her brother Tank were born.  Brittany, my little brother's girlfriend, called us last summer telling us that her dog (Rocky) and her step-dad's dog (Chaco) had had puppies.  They didn't even know Chaco was pregnant!  In fact, they had even taken her to the vet because they thought she might be and the vet said that she wasn't pregnant.  So, on the morning of June 18, 2010, Brittany went outside and saw two little black blobs laying in the grass.  Chaco only had two little puppies and we got Trigger and my parents and brother got Tank.  They have been so much fun and have made both of our families so much more lively.  It is hilarious to watch them play together and we have so much fun having little play dates with them!  These two little pups have so much energy, personality, and are complete attention junkies!  Michael and Brittany toted them around until they were ready to leave their momma, so they are used to having the attention of everyone in the room.  Trigger will go and get her bone as soon as we walk in the door and bring it over to you and growl with the bone in her mouth and keep doing it until you chase her through the house.  She is a big talker and will make all kinds of noises until you give her the attention she knows she deserves.  But, what's best about her loving all the attention is that she is a big time snuggler.  Sarge, our boxer doesn't really like to snuggle all that much.  He does love to get his belly rubbed and will roll over on his back and paw at our hands until we give him a belly rub.  He's a super chill dog and just goes with the flow.  And little Faithly loves to be near us, but she only snuggles when she's super tired or at night when we go to bed.  She does sleep in between us and will snuggle up on one of us throughout the night.  She's super prissy (maybe I taught her that!) and her personality is loving and playful, but calm at the same time. But, there is just something about little Trigger.  Her facial expressions and her personality continually make us laugh and the way she loves us is priceless.  All of our babies mean so much to us and each one of them makes our family complete.  They mean so much to us and keep us company when we are all together, but especially when one of us is home and the other one isn't.  We truly feel that God has placed these three doggies in our life and He perfectly picked each one of them out especially for us.  Not too long ago we went into Mardel, a Christian bookstore off of South 14th, and we found a plaque that was titled "Pet's Prayer."  It truly says exactly what we feel about our dogs and how they make our family whole.  Happy 1st Birthday little Trigger!!!  We love you to pieces!

Pictures of little Trigger as a tiny puppy!

Trigger when she was 3-6 months old...she is Miss Personality!

Trigger when she was between 6-9 months old...can you tell from all these pictures that she loves her brother and sister?!?!?

These pictures were all taken on her birthday...1 year old!  She is so much fun and loves to play and love on us! I bought her some cupcake doggie treats for her for her birthday...you can tell that she is very excited to get her birthday treat!  She also shared them with Faith and Sarge...they were in love with these little treats! 

Happy Birthday Trigger!!!

Sweet Baby Love!!!

Almost a month ago I went to the DFW area to go to one of my very best and very dear friend's baby shower.  I have talked about Amie before in several of my other blog posts and it is getting close to her due date!  Her baby shower was on June 11th at her house and little Gavin is due July 11th...in 6 days!  I can't believe how fast nine months has gone by.  I still remember the day that she called to tell me that she was pregnant.  And now...he's about to be here!  Her baby shower was SO much fun and she got SO much amazing and cute stuff for that little guy!  His nursery is also super adorable.  Amie is so talented when it comes to decorating and thinking to put things together that I could never possibly think of.  She wanted to do something for his nursery that was vintage, yet modern.  So, when she was looking through magazines and had gone into several stores, she finally decided to do an industrial look.  His nursery is navy and mustard yellow with gray accents.  I'll post pictures at the end of this so that you can see just how amazing it really is!  One of my favorite things that she did for his nursery was to have her dad draw several pictures of common objects that were related to their family.  It's so special because her dad did it for Gavin and he will always have them to look at. 

It was so good to spend time with Amie and all the other girls that were there at her shower.  Not only did I get to meet several of Amie's friends that she teaches with, but I also got to spend time with one of our other dear friends from college.  Jamie moved to Arkansas a little over ago and so we don't get to see her as often as we used to.  But, when she comes through Abilene or makes a trip to the DFW area, we always try to get together so that we can catch up and just be silly girls!  After Amie's shower was over, there was several of us that stayed for a few hours and just talked and laughed.  When we get together like that, it's always just like we used to do when we were in college.  It's so much fun and makes me realize how blessed I am to have such amazing and wonderful friends.  I hope that someday all of our kiddos will be as good of friends as we all are...I have a  feeling that won't be a problem though!

A few pictures from Amie's precious shower!  The top left is Amie...8 months pregnant!  She looks amazing!  The bottom left is Amie's mom, Me-Me, her sister Stephanie, and Amie.  The top middle picture is a picture of Jamie, Amie, and I before the shower got started.  The rest are just a few pictures that I took from the shower...super cute!

Gavin's AMAZING nursery!  My favorite part are the pictures above the changing table that her dad drew for his nursery.  So precious!

Summer Travels and Amazing Friends

I have to say that this has been one of the most fun summers that I've had so far!  We have been super busy...but have spent lots of time traveling to see friends out of town as well as spending time with our friends here in Abilene.  We have been to many weddings, wedding showers, and even a baby shower for one of my VERY best friends!  I would really consider the friends that we have more like family.  We share everything together and even have family dinners with our friends that live here in Abilene.  Some people have dinner parties...we have family dinners!  They are super fun and we always love getting together and laughing, telling stories, and just spending some quality time together.  In fact, we just had a family dinner at our house this past weekend and I'm already looking forward to the next one!  The girlfriends that I have are more like sisters to me.  I love each and every one of them and I know they would do anything for me just like I would do anything for them.  We turly do have AMAZING friends!!!

We have also gotten some AMAZING news from one of our closest friends.  They are pregnant!!!!  I have talked about them before, they are our friends that lived with us for a little while last summer, Brent and Bria.  They have been through so much here lately.  Bless their hearts, they have had several miscarriages and when we found out they were pregnant again, we just dropped to our knees and prayed.  They have had two sonograms and they baby has a healthy heart beat and they are all doing great!  This sweet little peanut has been prayed over and prayed for and we just look forward to the day when this little blessing arrives.  Speaking of babies...one of my besties is due in 2 weeks!  I just got back from spending our annual girls weekend full of shopping, eating, laughing, and talking together.  She just looks so precious...you can't even tell she's pregnant from behind!  Sweet little Gavin is due on July 11th and I can't wait to meet that precious little boy!  Amie and Ryan are going to be such amazing and precious parents and little Gavin is so lucky to be coming into their family.

Amie and I are both teachers and so every summer we get together for a few days during the week and just have girl time.  They live in the Metroplex and so it is always fun going up there and exploring all the great things the big city has to offer!  I am always glad to get home to my family...but I terribly miss her and getting to go to all the fun places that Abilene doesn't have.  We had SO much fun though...just like we always do!  I got there on Sunday right before dinner and left yesterday a little after lunch.  We spend Sunday evening just talking, laughing, and talking about little Gavin.  Monday is our official shopping day...which we always do at the fabulous Northpark Mall in Dallas!  But first...we laid out by the pool and then went and had lunch at a fun French bistro, La Madeline, and then off to Northpark we went!  We spent most of the day just window shopping and getting a few necessities and then we decided to see what Neiman's had to offer.  I'm sort of a shoe-a-holic...so I was in for some trouble!  I did find a pair...and I definitely got them!  I got an adorable pair of Christian Louboutin's...and they were even on sale!!!  So, I had to get them!  But, we did take a lot of time to think about getting these fabulous pair of shoes!  We spent our time thinking having some ice cream, cookies, shopping a little more, and then finally deciding that I just couldn't pass up a pair of Louboutin's that were on sale!  So, now they have a nice new home in my closet until they make their debut on my feet!  When we left the mall  it was dinner time so we went and got sandwiches from Which Which and then went back to Amie and Ryan's to watch the Bachelorette.  But....we had to make brownies first!!!  After the show was over, we talked some more and then went to bed.  Then...my last day was here :-(  We got up and went to Dunkin' Donuts for coffee, came back and talked some more, and then got ready and went to lunch at another French bistro called Mimi's Cafe.  It was SO good and we had SSSOOO much fun!!!  We never run out of things to talk about and we have spent a lot of today texting each other about the weekend and about how we can't wait to see each other again!  The next time I'll see that sweet  girl she'll be a momma!!!  AHHH...I CAN'T WAIT!!!

A Little Place in the Hill Country

Our little place in Comfort, TX is such an awesome place to go visit.  It has been in our family since the late 1800's when my great-grandparents immigrated here from Germany.  My great-grandparents built the house, the cabin, and the German well-house by hand.  The rock that is on the house and the cabin are from the rock query that is on the place.  They had five children, one of them being my Grandpa.  They lived on the place and worked the farm land to provide a living for their family.  When my Grandpa went to College Station to go to school at A&M (WHOOP!), he would hitch hike from Comfort to College Station and then back home again.  When he went to A&M, it was men only and you had to be in the Corps.  Which meant that you would eventually have to go and serve your country in the war.  He graduated in 1944, so it was inevitable that he would be serving.  What is so neat about this story is that he was a German fighting on the American side against his own people.  He couldn't stand what Hitler was doing and wouldn't have had it any other way.  In fact, he received a Purple Heart in the war because he was leading a company on the front lines and got hit by shrapnel.  He passed away when I was 5, but I was close with him even though I wasn't around for very long before he passed away.  He taught me how to hold my thumb up in the air and say "Gig 'Em Aggies!"  Except, I was still so little that I  hadn't developed my pronunciations yet and it sound like, "Gid 'Em Addies!"  Hehe...we still laugh about it.  When he got really sick, I would lay in bed with him and either watch or listen to the Aggies play.  He never missed a single one of them!  Special times...I'm glad that I can still remember all of that.

It is so peaceful and relaxing down at the place.  You can't hear a thing for miles and you can truly see the beauty in what God has created when you can turn 360 degrees and just look at the wildlife, plants, trees, sky...it's amazing!  The Guadalupe River runs through it and during the summer we'll drive down to the bank, park, and walk the rest of the way down to the river to wade or fish in it.  A couple of years ago we took Hope (my parent's lab) and Faith down there with us and let them get in and go for a swim.  Talk about being in doggie heaven!  They were swimming all over the place!  And when they would get out on the bank, they would turn right around, run, and jump right back in the river.  It was the cutest thing to watch them play and swim in the river!  We also hunt Axis and white-tail deer on it.  They are such beautiful animals and it's amazing to watch them interact with one another.  Sometimes, we'll just go and sit in the blinds and just watch them.  There used to be a Peacock out there...we have no idea how it came to be at our place...but it was there!  It was so pretty and so fun to watch.  It looked so out of place though!

A few weekends ago we went down to see my Grandma, who lives in Kerrville which is about 30 miles away from Comfort.  It was just dad, mom, Michael, and I.  Cody is having to work on the weekends with being so busy from the hail storm that hit on Easter weekend.  When we got there, we went and had lunch and just spent the rest of the day running some errands and speding time together.  That evening, we went out to dinner and then went bowling.  It was a fun, relaxing day!  The next day, we got up early and then drove out to the place.  We had a little bit of cleaning and maintaing to do and then it was off to shoot the shot guns!  The boys keep clay pigeons down there for whenever they are just hanging out in between hunting trips.  They stay down there when we go for a longer period of time and just live like rugged mountain men!  So, they have all kinds of odds and ends to keep them occupied in between hunting and in the evening when it's too dark to go out.  We got out the shot guns and threw some clay pigeons and just hung out down at the place with my Grandma.  We all had a lot of fun together!  It's always nice to get away and go out into nature and just enjoy being away from all the hustle and bustle of life!

Me and Michael shooting...dad was throwing doubles so we could shoot at the same time!

Another one of us shooting



My dad shooting and my brother throwing the clay pigeon for him.



Me, my Grandma, and my little brother :-)



Dad with his kids and Grandma with her grandkids!



Daddy with his Momma!

My parents and my Grandma



This is the house that my great-grandparents built back in the 1800's.  It's in amazing shape and is really cool on the inside!  The rock cabin is to the right of the house.  This was actually built as a TV room because my great-grandmother wouldn't allow TV inside the house when it was invented...crazy!



The house and rock cabin from a little further out.

This is an original German well house.  You don't see many of these anymore...they are traditional to German families so it's really neat that we have one in our family.



Mexican Food Cooking Extravaganza!

Happy Summer!!!  Man...it feels so good to have finally made it to summer break!  Today officially ends the first week of my summer break and I have to say that it was a very busy week!  I had tons of errands to run.  Mainly errands that I had put off for the last couple weeks of the school year because I knew that I would have more time to get stuff done when summer started.  I also completely cleaned our house from top to bottom and it felt so good to get that done!  I clean every other week...but I deep cleaned this week.  With having three dogs, their hair seems to get into the tightest spots.  During the school year, I just don't want to spend an extra couple of hours or even a day sometimes cleaning the blinds, light fixtures, doors, and baseboards.  So, I usually put it off until I know I'm going to be home for an extended period of time.  Now that that's all done, I feel like I can relax a little bit more!  I also had homework to do...of course!  But thankfully I turned in my last assignment last night so I can spend the weekend not having to worry about homework!  I also wanted to get all my homework done before the weekend because we are going to some of our very dear friend's wedding tonight in Dallas.  Adam and Erica are getting married tonight at a beautiful vineyard and it is going to be a blast!  Lots of college friends will be there and several of our best friends will be there as well.  She is going to be such a beautiful bride!

So, since it's summer time, that means that I have tons and tons of time to spend in my kitchen experimenting with new recipes!  Monday was Memorial Day and so I decided to cook a complete Mexican food dinner. I have been becoming extremely addicted to food blogs here lately and I have found some amazing recipes on all of them.  My recipe binder is about to break from all the recipes I've printed off.  Cody came home and saw me adding to it the other day and told me that I really have a recipe addiction problem!  But...at least he gets to benefit from all the yummy food that gets cooked!  So, on the menu were all new recipes that I have never tried before.  Which, can be somewhat intimidating because you don't know  how they taste or if you could alter them to make them better.  It's also scary because if all the food turns out not so good, not only have you wasted a lot of money, but you've also provided a yucky dinner to your family.  Never a fun thing to have happen!  Ok, back to the menu.  Here's what I made:

Chili Relleno Casserole (For the Love of Cooking Food Blog)
Avocado Corn Salsa (For the Love of Cooking Food Blog)
Charred Vegetable Salsa (For the Love of Cooking Food Blog)
Cheesy Chili Cornbread (Tasty Kitchen Food Blog)
Mexican Rice (From a Bag!)
Julio's Chips (The only kind of corn tortilla chips this family buys...yummy!)


All the veggies that went into the charred veggie salsa.  I also added garlic and cilantro after I broiled these on high for about 15 minutes.  There's nothing like homemade hot sauce!

The spread of Mexican food dishes!  Just looking at this makes me want to go right in the kitchen and make it all over again!

I had to get close up's.  On the left is the Chili Relleno Casserole and to the right is the Cheesy Chili Cornbread.

Here's the Charred Veggie Salsa and the Avocado Corn Salsa.  Delish!  I have to say that the kitchen...well really the whole house...smelled so good after the veggies had been roasting all day and after all this had cooked.

 My mom also made an enchilada casserole (a family recipe) and some pinto beans.  My little brother is one extremely picky eater and he wouldn't have eaten anything that I cooked, so mom made those things for him.  We had tons of food and everyone loved all the new recipes.  We also had lots of yummy leftovers, that are now all gone!  I will have to make all of those things again!  It was a great way to kick off the summer and spend a day with the family at home!

I also want to say a special thank you to all the men and women who serve our country and put their lives on the line each and everyday to protect us and give us our freedom.  We are so blessed by each and everyone of you!

Happy Birthday Daddy!!!

Friday, May 27th, was my precious daddy's birthday!!!  I am a HUGE daddy's girl and it is always so special to be able to celebrate his birthday with him.  One of the best things about living in the same town as your family is that you never miss a holiday, birthday, anniversary, etc.  We get to spend every single one with both sides of our family and it is truly special.  Not only do we live in the same town as our families, but we live diagonally across the street from my family!  No...it's not like Everybody Loves Raymond!  In fact, it's completely the opposite.  I would honestly have to say that it's one of the best things to live across the street from my parents.  With Cody's job, he might have to live in another town for several months at a time, and he feels good knowing that when I'm home, my parents are just right there if I would ever need anything.  It's also nice because we get to see them and my little brother all the time.  During the summers we go over there pretty often and go for a swim in the pool...that is until all five dogs jump in and take it over!  It will also be amazing when we have kids because they will just be right there if we need help or babysitters :-)  Anyways, on Friday, we got to celebrate my daddy's birthday together as a family and it was nice to start the weekend off that way.  It was also the last day of school for me, so I was home that afternoon by 1:00...so I made him a birthday cake!  I got the recipe from Pioneer Woman...if you have never made anything from her blog or her cookbook...you must do so...NOW!  She cooks like Paula Deen...so you can imagine how good everything is!  The cake that I made for him is called Texas Chocolate Sheet Cake...she calls it the best chocolate sheet cake ever!  It was definitely delicious...and I even had one little sliver.  I also found a recipe on her site called a Milky Way Cake.  I was debating whether to make this or the other cake.  The Milky Way Cake has 11 Milky Way Bars in it!  Can you imagine that?!?!?  Oh dear Lord, I can just see the sugar comas that we would all be in with just one bite of this cake!  I will be making this over the summer though...it's just too tempting not to make it...at least once!

So, since it was my daddy's birthday, we all went out to eat together at Copper Creek.  It was amazing, as always.  The only problem with Copper Creek when it comes to our family is that my mom has a hard time finding something to eat.  She's a vegetarian, and Copper Creek doesn't really have very many things other than a salad, baked potato, or some veggies to eat.  Which are all very good, but when you go out to eat, you want to eat something special.  But, we all enjoyed every last bite of our meal together and then it was on to our house for some cake!  Everyone enjoyed the cake, I think next time I'll make it without the nuts on top because my brother didn't eat any because of that.  Or, I could do half and half.  We also took some of it to Kerrville with us that next day when we went to see my Grandma.  She loves sweets and she gave this cake a thumbs up too!  I'm so thankful for my precious family and so thankful and blessed to be able to spend another birthday with my daddy!  I love you so much!!!

A few pictures of my daddy, brother and me on his birthday!  Plus...a picture of the chocolate sheet cake...which is now almost gone!!!