This Month In Pictures

This month has absolutely FLOWN by! Work was crazy because of finals, i'm talking about almost 14 hour days! It was hard to find time to do anything other than work, but Taylor and I were able to have a little fun as well. We went to a couple of Tacky Christmas Sweater parties and even had a mini impromptu photo shoot with some ducks! Here are the pictures:

Smooches in front of the ducks!

Taylor and I went to the Carol of Lights on campus and it was COLD! Check out my nose :)

We also took Sadie and Coco out to get their pictures made. What's funny about this picture is when Taylor and I first met, he was very anti having an inside dog and by no means was my Coco going to set foot on his bed. What did I tell him 2 years ago? Love ME, love my DOG! Fast forward 2 years and 1 new dog later, it was TAYLOR'S idea to buy the dog's some clothes (they were 40% percent off...how could we not! haha) and he no longer has a problem with sleeping doggies on his bed at his feet!

For our first Tacky Christmas Sweater party, we went to Savers and found these tacky gems. Taylor paired his with his "sweet" green sports coat. What's funny is when we walked in, there was a girl there wearing the exact SAME sweater as Taylor! haha!

And last but definitely not least, our good friends Zane and Erica opened their home to host another tacky Christmas sweater party and we had a BLAST! Rather than buy more tacky sweaters, I asked my sweet Memaw if Taylor and I could borrow something from her closet. She was a good sport and let us pick whatever we wanted out of her closet, all the while knowing it was for a tacky party. I love my Memaw! Here are the girls in their tacky attire and my AWESOME vest was adorned with conchos, cacti, wagon wheels and cowboy Santas.....YES! :)

Hope you all have a very Merry Christmas!!! :)

Winter is Here....Sort Of

This morning it snowed here in the Hub and as of right now all the snow is gone! Lubbock weather is crazy, one day it's 70 degrees and the next we may have snow. Yes it's happened before! We are supposed to be getting more snow tonight, so we'll see what happens. The picture above is the view outside my window at work. I have a great view of the Admin building including the bell towers :)

On a tangent, yesterday Taylor did something really sweet and out of the blue. He picked me up from work and said that he had a surprise for me. He ended up driving us to Maxey Park to feed the ducks. We had fun watching all the geese flying in and land on the water and were surprised at their tenacity with each other when it came to food! Even though something so simple as feeding the ducks may not seem like such a big deal, it was definitely one of those "little things" that mean the most kind of moment. I'm a lucky girl.

Giveaway!!

My sweet friend Sarah over at Pinkstreet is giving away a free piece of jewelry! Sarah is a phenomenal jewelry designer and she makes lots of vintage inspired pieces. Head over to her blog for a chance to win this beautiful piece! And even if you don't win, you should check out her Etsy Store. With Christmas just around the corner, I'm positive you will find something for the ladies on your list as well as maybe a little something for yourself. Check it out!

Today Is The Day!

What day you ask? NEW MOON DAY! I bought 4 tickets back in September for myself, Court, Erica and Murph and we've been counting down the days. Our little group is divided, Erica and I are Jacob fans and Murph and Court are Edward fans. Remember this blog? And here I am just 7 months later and have become one of those people haha!

I even call Erica my BJFF, best Jacob friend forever. I even told her we should buy these Team Wolfpack friendship necklaces, which I was totally kidding about.....but seriously ;) hehe

Trick Or Treat....

I love my friends and I love that we all LOVE to dress up for Halloween. I met most of them (Taylor included) at a Halloween party, so every year since has been fun seeing what people will dress up as to top the year before! This year, like last year, Adam flew in from L.A. to join his old band Mr. Tonight (the greatest 80's cover band EVER) for their once a year reunion extravaganza. We had a blast and I look forward to Halloween every year because it's the one time out of the year that ALL of us are together. Here are a few pics of my 2nd favorite holiday :)

First up: The Hangover Gang!

Then Zane joined in the Hangover fun as well!Mr. Tonight decided this year that they would dress up as 80's wrestlers, Scott (the lead singer) went over the top and shaved his body from head to toe, that's dedication my friends! Here are Scott and Adam as Hulk Hogan and Rowdy Roddy Piper.Kayla and Todd drove in from Midland to spend Halloween with us, and Kayla dressed up as Lady Gaga. She looked AWESOME!And lastly, since the day after Halloween last year, I had my mind set on being Slash for Halloween this year. Taylor decided (ok well I kind of MADE him haha) to be Axl and Adam and I even taught him the Axl slide! To make his costume more authentic, Court (Jade from the Hangover up there!) used her AWESOME artistic abilities and drew Axl's tattoos on Taylor. Didn't she do a great job?Amazing I tell ya! That Court is so talented! And lastly, here's Axl AND Slash on Halloween. If you're familiar with Slash at all, he almost ALWAYS has a cigarette in his mouth, therefore so did I, but don't worry....it stayed unlit all night!

The Proposal.....mine and not the movie

The Backstory:
On our first date on October 29, 2007, (Yup, today is our 2 year anniversary) Taylor cooked dinner for me and then took me to the movies to see Darjeeling Limited. When we came back to his house after the movie we began talking about music. I pulled out my ipod and asked if he had ever heard of Wilco. He hadn't, so I proceeded to play one of my favorite songs for him, Impossible Germany. This song has an amazing guitar solo and I wanted this to be Taylor's first experience to the world of Wilco.

The Proposal:
During the summer of '09 I received an email alert that Wilco was coming to Dallas on October 9, 2009. I immediately snatched up 2 tickets and made plans for Taylor and I to attend the show. Little did I know that this was when Taylor planned to propose. Taylor, knowing just how much I love Wilco, contacted their management to see if Jeff Tweedy himself would call us up on stage for the proposal. Unfortunately (fortunate for me though I might have passed out because of sheer happiness!) the management company sent Taylor a very kind email stating that it would break up the artistic flow of the concert. Taylor was just surprised he even got a response at all!

On the night of the concert, it was a bit chilly and when we were getting out of the car to go to the concert, Taylor said, "I think I may change, let me see if I packed some socks." I told him that he was fine in what he was wearing but he went into his bag anyway and said, "Yeah I did bring socks." This was when he grabbed the ring and unbeknownst to me put it in his pocket.
Taylor and I weasled our way to the front row and several songs in, Wilco started to play Impossible Germany. Right when Nels Cline began his guitar solo, Taylor tapped me on the shoulder and whispered in my ear and asked if I wanted to marry him. When I turned around there he was with the ring in hand! And here's a picture of the socks Taylor was "looking" for that I'm very glad he did in fact bring because my footsies were cold on the way home! :)

(This is a video I found on YouTube, it's not from the concert we went to, but if you fast forward to about 1:20, this is when Taylor asked me to marry him!)

Pretty Mama

On September 29, 2009, my dear friend Jenny gave birth to a beautiful baby girl and she and her hubs Spencer named her Caroline Anne! She was also welcomed by big sister Madison. I absolutely love their little family. Our friend Heather, who is also a WONDERFUL photographer, took some precious pics that you can view on her blog. While you're there, check out her other photos. (She's amazing btw!)

Back in 2001, Jenny and I were student assistants at Tech and Spencer was one of my close friends. I set them up and they were married 2 years later! Our friendship has grown leaps and bounds over the years and I am so lucky to call these two my friends! Here's some pictures through the years!

This picture was taken at my very first apartment in Lubbock, during the endless Summer of '01! We were just bebes!

This is when they became Mr. & Mrs. on December 20, 2003. Isn't this picture adorable, to this day it is still one of my absolute favorites!

Playing kissy face!

Celebrating my big 2-5 birthday at my extravaganza!

Floating the river in New Braunfels, still on of my most FAVORITE memories with my Jenny!

One summer our group created the Super Sunday Slip N' Slide Society. On Sundays, we'd go to Jenny and Spencer's, set up the Slip N' Slide, turn on some tunes...loudly I might add, and just hung out all day. And here are Jenny and I on the night back in Aug. of '06 when she told me she was pregnant with baby #1 Madison. We went to Spencer's lab (he's in Med School) and decided to model some goggles!

Here I am holding Madison for the first time on May 2, 2007!

And here I am with little Caroline on September 29, 2009. And lastly, here is a picture of their adorable little family.....oh how I love them so!

An Adventure in North Carolina!

Last month Taylor and I ventured to North Carolina for my dear friend Suleika's wedding. Neither of us had ever been to Charlotte, and my goodness was it GORGEOUS! Suleika and her hubby John moved out there in February of this year and Suleika landed the most PERFECT job that absolutely suits her. After being in broadcasting for several years, Suleika has become the spokesperson for Heels.com If you haven't checked out the site already, what are you waiting for!

We ventured out to Charlotte on September 24 and didn't waste any time once we got there. Taylor and I went to the Charlotte Nature Museum and even though it's meant for children, Taylor and I had a blast! Here we are looking super fly! haha

They also had this picture op of a lifesize bug that you could place your head on, the caption painted on the wall says, "The cutest bug at the Charlotte Nature Museum" I personally think my version is way cuter than Taylor's obviously because I'm carrying a purse!

We then went to the Carolina Raptor Center and saw lots of amazing birds. Taylor and I fell in love with some of the owls there. They had so many different kinds of owls, but this little one was our favorite. Isn't she adorable? When Taylor and I looked at her, she seriously looked like some kind of animatronic bird :)

We then ventured one day to the North Carolina White Water Center where US athletes train for the olympics in kayaking and rafting. We didn't actually get to kayak or white water raft, but we did get to zipline over the water! Cameras weren't allowed, so I don't have any pictures of us in our gear, but trust me, we looked pretty hilarious in our harnesses and helmets!

Taylor and I also visited the Charlotte History Museum and it was our lucky day because they had a colonial reinactment and people were dressed in colonial gear. There were antique cannons, women cooking food, drummers and flute players and all kinds of other interesting things. Here's Taylor grinding some corn!

And lastly, here are pictures of the beautiful couple. The first was taken at their DELICIOUS bbq rehearsal dinner. Aren't John and Suleika gorgeous? The second is at their wedding which was held in the penthouse of the Pink Building in downtown Charlotte. The penthouse was beautiful as was the view! The penthouse had 3 different views of downtown, one of the balconies overlooked the Carolina Panther Stadium!

Taylor and I had a wonderful time and like I mentioned earlier, Charlotte was beautiful! The scenery was absolutely amazing and we can't wait to visit again!