Backyard Bliss

This is the time of year that I really love living in Texas.  June, July, and August (also maybe May and September) are not my favorite months here.  Simply put, they are just too hot for me.  I don't enjoy burning myself on the metal part of the seat belt, sweating my make up off AS I am putting it on, or going outside to water my plants at 10:00pm and it is still 100 degrees.

But October - April...love it here.  I love the sunny, windy days where a jacket is optional.  Now mind you, it does get down to 30 somethings here at night right now.  The other day I found myself running to my car because I was so cold and then I saw on a bank marquee that it was 52 degrees.  I guess I have acclimated.

My Backyard at Sunset:

Thanksgiving Morning it was 9 degrees!

Thanksgiving in Utah was a whirlwind of fun times, cold weather, family, food, movies, and games.  Just the way I like my holidays.
First stop the morning after we got there was Magleby's Fresh for the french toast:

          Dave and me with his 3 brothers (left to right: Jonathan, Bryan, and Layton) 

Jonathan enjoying his french toast and hot chocolate 

                            Dave's dad and mom - Matt and Pattie

The next day was Thanksgiving and we headed to Dave's grandma and grandpa's house for the meal of a lifetime.

We had a word search race...Bryan won but just so you know I was ahead most of the time.  I choked at the end on "Thankful."

Thanksgiving was delicious, thank you to all who prepared it and wouldn't let me help with the cooking or the clean up! 

Friday Pattie and I went shopping for fabric for baby quilts!  We picked out some adorable stuff and here I am intently trying to decide where to place different squares.  Very serious business.

By the way, see the "Congratulations David" sign in the background?  It's because he finished his thesis for his Masters program at the University of Colorado.  I will do another post on that later because it deserves its own!

Weekend Updates

This weekend was so much fun!  Friday night we went out to eat to celebrate Dave finishing his thesis from his master's program in Colorado.  It's nice to finally finally be done with school.  But that also means guess what's going to start coming in the mail?  Those student loan repayment bills.  Ew.  I hate those.
Saturday was amazing.  We spent the afternoon in Austin volunteering at the Celebration of Love event which is where you collect toys for families in need around the Austin area and military families.  They had all the toys separated by gender and age in this HUGE warehouse and we packaged them up for families.  It was something my school volunteered to do and the only students that showed up were a handful of my students, holla to my class since they are the best!! :)  I'm just a little proud of them.

After the event I headed over to Old Settlers Park to for a photo shoot which turned out great!  The Rencher family was adorable and their little boy Gavin smiled the entire time.  Angel child.  Photographer's dream.

Friday night, Dave surprised me with tickets to go see my favorite favorite (no for real like my favorite) band, The Weepies.  The concert was downtown Austin on 6th street and it was so much fun.  It was at a little place called Momos that only holds probably 200 people so we were super close.  I could not believe it when they walked right by me to get to the stage.  I could practically smell them. They sounded so great! Check out a few of the photos and a video clip below: