Camille's Wedding

Last weekend, I got to return a favor:

Almost two years ago, Camille was my bridesmaid. And last week, I got to be her's!

And I cried. A lot.

I didn't realize I would, but this wedding was one of the sweetest I've ever been to, much less been a part of. Camille and Jacob were so excited to be finally married, the whole weekend was stress-free (at least for us) and all about excitement and so emotional.

The wedding was on Sunday, so on Saturday morning at 11:00 am, Camille's grandmother and aunts gave a Bridesmaid's Luncheon for the bridesmaids. It was at the Houston Country Club and was a beautiful formal affair. I'm really glad Mom talked me out of wearing jeans... (I was going to wear heals, though!) We headed over to the venue for a quick rehearsal that afternoon.

That night, Claire (another bridesmaid and best friend from high school) and I headed downtown to the Rehearsal Dinner. It was at Pappa's BBQ. The food was excellent!

Claire and I 

The toasts after dinner went on for a while because everyone wanted to make sure and tell Camille and Jacob how proud of them they were and how much they loved them. Many tears were shed. It was such a special night.

That night, all the bridesmaids and groomsmen and bridal party (about 20 of us or more!) went over to one of the groomsmen's houses and had a lot of fun hanging out. One really fun part of this wedding was how well all of us got along, even if we didn't know each other. We all had so much fun celebrating with Camille and Jacob and each other.

Then the big day finally came! We got up to The Gallery Sunday morning. Camille looked absolutely stunning.

Camille's Maids of Honors were her two sisters, older sister Carrie and younger sister Carly.

I was such a proud bridesmaid!

I don't have a picture of the venue but this is from online:

 We were so happy to see our friend James. He lives in California now and we don't see him as much.

The wedding was definitely a huge success. It was such a fun weekend. Camille and Jacob are in Mexico this week for their honeymoon and then will be back in Dallas.

Sunrise, Sunset.

West Texas sunsets.

(This second one is horrible quality but such a gloomy beautiful sunset.)

As told through my iPhone pictures.

This week, Kanyon has been in the throws of harvest. My favorite time to come visit him is at night after the sun has gone down and ride along with him in the bowl buggie or cotton stripper (just picture a tractor if you don't know what those are). I plan on going out there soon to take pictures of this year. I haven't had much motivation though. This year's cotton is very weak because of the drought and its made harvest more of a drudgery than an exciting time.

I also want to show pictures of the shower I threw Kasha last weekend but she is working a Walk this weekend and I forgot to get the pictures from her before she left for Stanton. Oops!

I was going through my iPhone pictures this morning, though, and wanted to show you a few that represent both some recent happenings and some randoms.

Here is a picture I sent my Mom of a part of the almost finished guest bedroom. I'm not ready to show the finished product yet. But I just ordered the last couple of things I need to finish so I'm almost done!

Zeb protected me during Opening Day (hunting) weekend while Kanyon went to the deer lease. (I stayed at home to get ready for Kasha's shower). He took his job seriously, staying like this for a long time, growling quietly the whole time.

Here is a picture of the gift table as I was setting it up for the baby shower. More pictures of that soon.

After Jr. High girl's Small Group last Sunday night, Kaila (my high school sophomore co-leader) and I saw smoke from a fire and decided to go find it... Probably not the best decision. We left right after we got there so we wouldn't be in the way of the fireman. But the blaze looks so much less scary in this picture than it did in real life. I read in the paper Wednesday that its being investigated as arson. (No people or people's homes were harmed, it was an abandoned home - but the serious burn ban will probably give the arsonist a heavy penalty, I bet.)

My grandmother gave us a scare last weekend. She is 93 years old and has had dementia for several years. Her breathing was so labored on Saturday night that my aunt and uncle took her straight to the emergency room. My mom flew up immediately and they and my cousins have been by her side all week in the hospital. She's stable and back at home in the nursing home now.

I got lots of videos and pictures of her last week and this was one of them. Such a sweet sweet lady. This picture warms my heart.

Zeb has been "working" hard during harvest. He rarely got to come inside the summer because 1) he sheds like crazy when its hot and 2) he is a farm dog and gets bored immediately inside. But these long hours and the cold outside have had him wanting to come inside (and nights when it freezes, he sleeps inside). This night I was especially honored to have him voluntarily snuggle with me without any forcing prompting by me.

Last friday night home game of the season. We won this game and became District Champs! First play-off game is tonight.

Go Dragons!

Have a great weekend!

Porch and Pillows

I threw Kasha a shower on Sunday and it went great! She got so many super cute girl-y clothes and gifts. Ainsley is going to be very well dressed, for sure!

Kasha has several pictures on her camera and I will get some from her to show you.

In the week before the shower, I was doing some re-arranging (I made some big progress on the guest room, almost done and I love it!) and attempting some crafti-ness. I made this wreath! The shower's colors were pink and brown and I love these yarn wreaths. It was very easy, just took a long time. I made it during the World Series, though, so I had a good reason to sit for several hours.

Last year, I bought a wreath like this on Etsy for about $25, I think. Now that I know how easy it is, I hope to make a Christmas one! I don't regret buying the previous one though, since I like to support small businesses like that.

Also new for our porch is the wire stand I bought in Fredericksburg last weekend with Mom!

I LOVE it! Willow House and I'm sure other stores sell items like this for around $75 but I got this one for $25. Right now my pots just have fake moss in them but next spring, I will be getting some smaller planters to fit in and around it with flowers. Flowers... haven't seen those in forever...

So the porch is looking cuter lately although everytime I see a picture I realize how much the crumbling cement and chipping paint sticks out. For some reason in person, it doesn't seem to near as much.

I told Kanyon I'd like to just paint it a cream to match the trim but he thinks it would make it stick out more. Maybe I should paint it a muted brown that matches the brick?

I have about twenty things in my house that I'm going to paint "someday"...

Also, I'm wanting to take down that light fixture and replace it with a non-upside down cuter one. I guess you can't really tell in that picture that its upside down though. But it is.

And last but not least, I want to show you the pillows Kanyon made for Al and Kasha. They had some axis hides and commissioned (that sounds so official) Kanyon to make pillows out of them with a leather back. I thought they turned out beautiful!

Now if I can only get him to make some for his OWN home... I think this will be a lifelong battle, Kanyon having to make time to make stuff for himself when he has a list of other people's jobs in front of him. 

Coasters! That's all I want! 

Well, thats not all I want.

Fredericksburg Mother-Daughter Weekend

Last weekend was so much fun and relaxing. Mom and I decided to meet in Fredericksburg since it was exactly 4.5 hours for each of us and there's not a whole lot of "vacation spots" between us. She chose a great bed-and-breakfast called Angels Above the Creek that was on a side street from Main Street. 

The rooms were gorgeous! At least our's was. I really should have taken these pictures with my camera but sometimes an iPhone's just too convenient.

I love the stone on the wall behind the bed. It changed the room dramatically.

Huge bathtub!

 The room was full of antiques and had a small kitchenette and huge closet. Our room was right off the beautiful pool area. There was also a few little outdoor living room areas, one with a large fireplace that would have been a lot of fun with a big group.

 Behind the pool and below is where the creek is.

Friday night, we drove into Fredericksburg about 9:30 pm and just headed to our room and hung out there while we watched the Rangers game. (So sad.)

Saturday morning, we got up when they delivered our breakfast! The food was so good. a breakfast burrito, muffin, fruit... yummy. Then we headed out to go shopping for the day!

One of my favorite things about Fredericksburg is the home decor inspiration! I took pictures of several things I loved.

Isn't that last bedroom beautiful!?

After shopping all day, we went back to the room in the afternoon for a short nap and then headed out to a vineyard where they had tastings and live music. We chose the Grape Creek Vineyards, a different one than the one Kanyon and I went to last time we were there.

The grounds were gorgeous and the wine was definitely good.

I think Kanyon could make this... this sells for $399!

That night, Mom and I headed to dinner and decided to try something other than a Main Street restaurant and we're so glad we did. We ended up going to Cabernet Grill. (terrible picture..)

THIS was the highlight of the meal. Mom got the german chocolate bread pudding. Top ten best deserts of my life. Seriously. And mine was a chocolate and white mousse cake.

I definitely recommend that restaurant. It was so good.

The next morning, we did a little more shopping but headed out around 1:00 pm to head home. It was a great weekend and much needed. Love you, Mom!

Halloween!

Mom and I had a great weekend in Fredericksburg! I have pictures to show but first, I wanted to post some Halloween pictures before it gets too far into this week.

We had a very steady stream of trick-or-treaters last night but I'm thankful we live in a small tiny town and we were done after a couple hours. I only had to tell one kid to say please after he yelled at me, "give me candy"... twice. 

Jana and Joel were one of the first ones to come by with their kids. Their son Jett was Harry Potter.. although he told me he was Hermione. I'll just assume he meant Harry since she doesn't wear glasses. Joel and I have this deep connection over Harry Potter. Sometimes we'll have complete conversation in only Harry Potter-isms. We're trying to claim Welch for Dumbledore. Slowly, but surely.

Tac was Davy Crockett! How awesome is his costume? His shin guards are real hides. Perks of Mom being a taxidermist. Definitely borrowing this costume for one of my kids later.

Here they are posing.

After Jett moved on to the next house, Nicole and her son Tripp came by, too! Tripp is such a sweetie. He hasn't learned yet that he's only supposed to kiss girls and he kept trying to greet Tac with a kiss.

 Tac: "If you must."

This kills me. Nicole says he practically came out of the womb sucking his thumb.

I wanted to get a picture of Slayde, too, but he was in a pack of about thirty kids and I was just trying to survive giving the mob candy. He was a dragon. A cute one.

One last thing. I wanted to share with you this quick "recipe" (you can't even really call it that) that I threw together last night.

My favorite thing to eat at Chili's is their Monterey Chicken and I made it last night for Kanyon since he's been eating left-overs all weekend while I was gone. 

All I did was grill the chicken breast after seasoning with season salt and covered it in barbeque sauce (I made my own using this recipe but I'm sure your favorite is fine). Then you cover it with grated cheddar (not too much because you'll be adding more) and put a few pieces of bacon on top of that. Cover with cheese again. 

Kanyon was stripping cotton last night so he got home about an hour after I made it so he just heated it up in the microwave but I think it would have been even better if it had been heated and the cheese melted under the broiler.

If I had been making this for myself, I would have added the diced tomato on top like they do at Chili's but I thought Kanyon would like it better without. From Chili's website:

So again - its just grilled chicken smothered in BBQ sauce, bacon, cheese, and tomatoes. Kanyon loved it.

Happy Tuesday!