Baby's First Christmas

Ok so I have been a terrible blogger lately, but I plan to make up for it with a video and lots of pictures. I actually started this blog over two weeks ago and just got back to it today. So lets go back a couple of weeks. We decided to drive to Taos and surprise my family for xmas. Brody did really good in the car (did I mention it's a 12 hour drive to Taos). It was so cold in Taos, but there was tons of snow and it was very pretty. I love having a white Christmas. It wasn't only Brody's first xmas but it was his first time to see snow as well. Anyway we had a great visit. It was short but sweet, we were really glad we got to be with family for Brody's first Christmas, it was very special. Here is a video of Brody opening a present. He just loved all the gifts, he would wiggle his way over to them and rip off the bows. Of course I didn't get a video of that but this will have to do.

I might not have gotten the best video but I did get some great pictures from our visit. The first night we got there the Cowboy game was on, so Brody and Grandpa cuddled on the couch and watched the game.

Go Cowboys!

Then Brody and Grandma had some fun on the floor.

It was so pretty in Taos, I just loved it!

It was also very cold in Taos. We stayed in the casita so we had to bundle Brody up to take him to bed every night.

He just loved opening presents. He kept trying to eat the paper.

Brody and Auntie Tia.

Brody and Uncle Pete.

He just loved Christmas!

Me and my wonderful sisters, it was so good to have all three of us together!

So I promise to be a better blogger. We just got really busy the last couple of weeks and it's harder to blog when we are traveling. Ok no more excuses.

FBC

So about three years ago we started a tradition we call FBC (Friends Before Christmas). Everyone always goes away or spends the holidays with their family and we wanted to have a night where we could celebrate with all of our friends. We would do a special dinner and exchange gifts. Well we didn't think it was going to work out this year. We have had so much going on that we couldn't find a weekend where everyone was free. Well it didn't work out quite as we had planned but we definitely still got to have our FBC dinner, in fact we ended up having two. On Tuesday we went to Matt and Abbey's for dinner. It was a lot of fun, we exchanged gifts and Matt made these amazing fish tacos. I think I had four of them! We had a really great time. Matt and Abbey have a dog named Coltrane, him and Brody were completely fascinated with one another. They couldn't keep their eyes off of each other. It was really cute. At one point I was holding Brody and he spotted Coltrane and started leaning toward him, well Coltrane saw this and did the same thing. We were able to get a couple of pictures and I think it's just the cutest thing.

Towards the end of the night Abbey got her camera out and started taking some great pictures of Brody. I told her she would have to email them to be or do a guest blog. We'll have to wait and see what happens.

Then on Thursday night we had our friends Tim and Shara over for dinner. We made a yummy dinner and then watched the football game and played Left Right Center. It was a lot of fun. So maybe next year we will be able to have a big dinner and have everyone over together. But I was really glad we were able to get together with our friends before we all go our separate ways for Christmas.

Baby Talk

Brody was just being too cute this morning. He is always very chatty in the morning when he first gets up. It's so funny, he has so much to tell me. It's like he dreams all night and can't wait to tell me about it in the morning. Well I've been trying to get him talking on video and of course I reach for the camera this morning and it's completely dead. So I plugged it in and got the end of him telling me all about his night.

Christmas Shopping

We had a great time last weekend with Batman. For those of you who don't know Batman is our friend from California, his real name is Bernd but my nickname for him is Batman. He came to see our new digs and to help us finish the wine room. He got in late on Friday night and Saturday and Sunday we mostly did work around the house. He did the molding and finish work on the wine room, helped Mark fasten the bookshelf to the wall, hung our sconce in the outdoor living area, installed our water softener and did a few other little things we needed help with. It wasn't all work though, we took him out for Texas BBQ on Saturday night and then him and Mark went to a couple of bars in downtown Austin on Sunday. Overall it was a great visit, we really miss him and Thea.

So this was our first weekend in three weeks with no company. I had visions of a nice relaxing lazy weekend. Boy was I wrong. First I realized that Christmas was only about a week away and I had done no shopping. So we decided to run some quick errands on Saturday. That was quite the task and was definitely not quick. I tried to go to Target, after 20 minutes I finally found a parking spot. Then once I got inside it was so packed you could hardly even push your cart down the isle. Two hours later, feeling confident that I have everything I needed, I'm standing in line and realize I forgot to get Advil. Ugg it was so frustrating. Not to mention it was a cold and very windy day outside, I almost got blown away just trying to get back to my car. So after my wonderful adventure to Target I decided to come home and wrap the the presents I had. Mark was making cookies, which is something he likes to do for the people he works for. This reminded me I wanted to make my toffee. So Sunday I got up and ventured back out into the crazy world of Christmas shoppers. I had to go back to Target with a few returns and of course to get the Advil. Then I had to make a couple other stops which I can't talk about because it would give away some of my presents. So back to the house on Sunday, I was able to make my toffee (only 3 batches this year, last year I made 10) and more wrapping. I got a lot done so that is the good news. I hope everyone else is done shopping or planning on doing their buying online. Either way good luck. I'm definitely going to start earlier next year!

Wine Room

Well it is finally finished. I finished the touch up paint last night and the wine room is officially done! It feels so good to have this project finished. We owe a HUGE thanks to my dad and Mark for doing the building of the actual structure and installation of the wine racks. Thanks to Matt and Dr. for providing the necessary tools to complete the project. And a big THANKS to Bernd for coming all the way from California to do the finish work on the trim and the molding. We are so happy with the finished project. So here are the long awaited pics of the wine room process. I'm not sure if the pictures do it justice but it looks great and we couldn't be happier with the end result. We look forward to filling it up and enjoying all the great wine it will hold!

So we built the wine room into the corner of the office. It is at 4.5 X 4.5 square room. First we had to knock holes in our brand new walls (Yikes!) and tear up the carpet.

Then we framed and insulated the structure.

Then came the dry wall.

Then we lined the room with tongue and groove pine and had to cut a hole for the air unit that regulates the temperature and humidity.

My Dad had to wire a new plug, light fixture and light switch for the room.

We tiled the floor.

I did the grout which was a first for me but kind of fun to do.

At first we were going to finish the outside with cabinetry but Mark had a great idea to have the room tape and textured. So we hired someone to tape and texture the outside walls.

The wine racks are made of redwood and the room should hold around 500 bottles of wine.

Then came the trim moulding to finish it all off. I did the stain on the door which was a pain but worth it in the end and it was Mark's idea to do the ledge at the top so we could display all of our favorite wine bottles.

As you can see we have already started to add bottles and that is the end result.

So there you have it. Our first big project in the new house (and hopefully the last). Let me know what you think. It was a lot of work but over all I think we had fun doing it and are going to cherish having it for years to come.

Christmas Time!

I LOVE Christmas time. We started decorating the day after Thanksgiving. We decided to go with a fake tree this year. It was a very hard decision for me because I have always been such a huge fan of real trees, but with a crazy cat who eats the tree and drinks the water from the tree, it was time for the artificial tree. In the end I love our tree. I do the lights on the tree every year and it's always a stressful ordeal so it was amazing having the pre-lit tree. I also had a very Martha Stewart moment with my wreath and garland. I didn't really like anything I saw in the stores and everything was so expensive, especially the wreaths. So I decided to make my own. I got out my hot clue gun and went to work and I must say I'm very pleased with the results. I took pictures of all of our decorations. I might do a few more lights outside but overall I love the way everything looks.

My hand made wreath, I'm very proud of it :o)

Judy got us these stockings from Pottery Barn, I love them. We are missing one for Shasta, that's why they look off center.

Our Christmas tree!

I did garland all the way up the stairs.

And around the banister at the top of the stairs.

And here is the outside with our pretty lights. We decided to do colored lights because we always do white outside and color inside but the pre-lit tree was clear so we switched it up.

So those are our decorations. Like I said, I love Christmas. I will be doing the Wine Room post soon. Bernd is here this weekend and we are finishing up all the trim work and then I can take pictures of the finished product and do the post.

Family Visit

Mark's family was here over the weekend. His mom, dad and brother all came out to visit. We had a really good time. They hadn't seen Brody since September so they were amazed at how much he has grown and changed. We took them out for BBQ on Friday night and then just came back to the house and had a pretty mellow night. Then on Saturday Judy and I went shopping and Judy decided to cook dinner for us. We invited Matt and Abbey to come over and Judy made this amazing crab recipe that she got from Mark's aunt. We drank way too much wine and stayed up way too late, but it was a blast. We played Cranium and Apples to Apples it was a lot of fun. Then on Sunday we went into Austin and had dinner at Flemmings Steak House. Overall it was a great weekend, we really missed all of them. Here are some pictures from their visit.

I tried this new slide show thing, which is pretty cool but after the first two pictures it moves away from the slide show. Just click the x at the top right of the slide show and it will go back to the pictures.