Landon's New Baby

A couple weeks ago, Landon and Troy traded horses and Landon got a baby to raise!

I'm going to stop talking about it now since I'm already at risk of sounding like I don't know anything about horses. I'm just here to take pictures, yall.

I love going to Troy's. His horses are all so friendly and he sometimes has a litter of Australian Shepherd puppies along with several grown Aussies. LOVE those dogs. If you didn't already know, Troy is the one who gave us Zeb. The gift that keeps on giving. We love him.

Zeb loves chasing birds... for hours.

I love horses, they are such beautiful creatures...

Speaking of horses, we saw War Horse last weekend and loved it!

Second Anniversary

Today is Kanyon and I's second anniversary. I would say that two years ago was the best day of my life, but that might not be true. While I love how amazing the beginning of our marriage was, I'm more excited about the present and the future. I am looking forward to so much, including going home tonight to him.

He sent me this bouquet at work today!

I am so incredibly grateful to God for being married to him.

Dawson County Stock Show

Actually a better title would be "Some pictures of Al and Kasha's kids".

This was a really fun weekend. We didn't get much sleep but that was our own faults for staying up late watching movies or our latest TV series addiction. And thats the way I prefer it.

The stock show actually began on Thursday morning but I only made it out Thursday night after work and Friday at lunch. (My sinuses told me that was plenty.) I really love stock shows. The kids showing love it and everyone comes out for them. We got to see some friends that we haven't seen much since football season.

I didn't take many pictures because I was afraid I would be putting a neon sign above my head that read GREW UP IN THE SUBURBS. Gotta blend in, you know? But I did get a couple of Tac. Who's surprised?

Helping Dad with the shoots. They pull a lever to let the pigs go into the arena to be shown.

Here he is talking to the pig!

Friday night, we went to the Dawson basketball games (Dawson is the name of our county and is the name of our school in Welch). The games were at Wellman and the girls lost but the boys won! Our boys have been playing so hard this year.

Saturday morning, we headed to the Sale (auctioning off the animals that were shown that weekend) for the stock show. Someone came to visit us at our table.

While we don't have kids yet that are selling and we're not bidding on any of the animals, everyone has the opportunity to add on to the selling price. The auction is basically a fundraiser for the local kids who have put money and time into their animals. This is a way for the community to help support them monetarily. Other people can add on to the amount the kids receive. So Kanyon and I like to go and add on to the selling price.

Al and Kasha's three week old baby, Ainsley, got to come, too, and had her eyes open long enough for me to take pictures of her! She sleeps a lot so this was exciting!

Oh my goodness. I can't stand looking at this picture and not going to see her right this very second. Her and momma are coming over tonight though, so I'm counting down the hours.

That night, we had our friends and their kids over, the Fryars. Clayton is the basketball coach at Dawson and they attend church with us. Afterwards, Kanyon headed over to the other basketball coach's house to play poker with Clayton. He lost money. A whole $5 buy-in.

Sunday was business as usual - church and then lunch at our in-laws. Usual but always my favorite time of the week. That night, Kanyon's mom made a birthday dinner for Landon (his birthday is January 12th) and invited his girlfriend and her parents. Vaughn has a child's birthday every two weeks about in January and February!

Hope yall had a great weekend!

Front Porch

Love coming home!

Hope you have a great weekend! Stock show season is here again and Kanyon's been busy with leather jobs (the orders keep coming!) and farming on the weekdays and working stock shows last weekend and this weekend. I just get to show up and try to look like I belong there. 

Which is hard to do when I want to take pictures of all the animals to send to my mom. We were those suburbians who went to the Houston Livestock show every year to see the cute animals.

The Other Room

The former office is now just another bedroom since I switched the furniture with the other bedroom. So to keep it from being a storage room, we pulled out a trundle bed that we had in storage and stuck it in there. It was a little crazy-town in there for a while because December itself was crazy-town and we ended up throwing all the gift-wrapping stuff, the dresser and buffet we bought from friends, and my brother-in-law in there for most of that month... He stayed with us while the whole family was in town and spread out at his parent's house, along with Amy who lives with Kanyon's sister Jada. But she got the big bed guest bedroom. Girl's just get that privelege.

So once December was over and done with, the wrapping stuff got put away and the furniture got moved around. Its now a clean and organized room that doesn't give me hives. (Disorganization does that to me.)

The aforementioned dresser we bought from my friend Lauren stayed in that room and we got an old sketch from Kanyon's mom that Kanyon hung in his college house. 

So since I'm still not wanting to paint in there since we want to make it a nursery someday, I'm trying to use what we already have in there for the time being. I'm happy with how this corner turned out. This is the view that you get walking down the hallway. Those antlers on top are two of Kanyon's bucks, one of them was his first every when he was little.

*I know that that cord from the lamp showing like that is a decor faux pas. But I don't much care, thank ya.

I also pulled out on of my Granny's quilts for the bed. I love this particular one and would love to work it into a room someday.

And yup, that corner is all I'm going to show you because the rest of the room is just a dresser, a desk, and a trunk. But its organized, and thats all that matters! For a while.

Guest Bedroom

Well, I finally took pictures and edited them of my guest bedroom. It was my favorite room of the house for a little while before I took down and rearranged all the decor in the living room! Hopefully it won't take me months to show those, too...

Of course, the reason I've been postponing showing this room is because there are two things that still need to be done. And still aren't. But oh well.

How about a before (with bad lighting and editing that made the green reeeally lime):

And here it is now:

(That window on the floor leaning against the wall is going to be on the wall above the bed landscape style ... its one of the things keeping the room from being finished... ahem Kanyon.)

The fabric was given to me by Mom when we first got married. She couldn't find a use for it and I figured I might. So Vaughn made me a couple of shams and that small pillow. We have plans to replace that brown throw at the end of the bed with a throw made out of this fabric. And I used the excess to make this valance.

You can't really see in the pictures but up close you can see the nail head trim on the ends.

Our "office" has now been moved to this room. It really only consists of a desk and file cabinet, which is in the closet.

Since I switched the furniture between the office (now just another bedroom) and this guest bedroom, all the walnut stained furniture is in the other bedroom.

I really love how this room turned out. It is much more the vision I had for it when I painted this room this color. And when I say "I painted" I mean I picked out the color because Mama Brown painted it for us! (How awesome is that?)

I also cleaned out both the closet in this bedroom and the other one. When we moved in, a lot got thrown in there. I donated or relocated a lot of stuff and now they are nice and organized. Organizing closets is so fun to me! (No, thats not a joke.)

I'm about to update the Our Home page to reflect all the changes. I'll be updating that page a little over the next few months (hopefully!) with some changes we have planned.

Leather Pillows

I have to share a set of pillows Kanyon made for our friends' mom to give them for Christmas! This family has three sons and she wanted to give a pillow to each son with their family's brand on it. I love how they turned out!

I think they turned out beautifully!

Christmas in Houston

Better late than never, right?

December was a crazy busy/awesome/frustrating/fun month ... we rang in the New Year in our living room by ourselves with not even an acknowledgement to midnight arriving.. We didn't realize we missed it until about 12:45. We were too busy watching our latest TV series, White Collar, and relaxing. And it was exactly what we wanted. Maybe next year we'll venture out our front door.

The week before, we spent in Houston celebrating Christmas with my family. It was SO nice spending a whole week there. We haven't had a chance to do that since before our wedding... two years ago this month by the way!

Kanyon was at the deer lease so I drove the first part by myself and picked him up in Abilene where him and his dad met me. On the way, we got a picture from Landon showing us his buck that he got that afternoon! The bucks on our deer lease are not the biggest you'll ever see so this one was an exciting one to get.

The first couple days spent in Houston was mainly spent sleeping in and relaxing! The night of the 23rd, Mom, Dad, Kanyon, and I headed to Kemah Boardwalk to eat at Laundry's. The food was so good!

A restaurant had an outdoor fire pit that we warmed up at.

 Finally Christmas day arrived! Also known as the day Cole got home for his week-long break from Patagonia! We were really excited to see him. We had to skip out on going to church because his flight was arriving at 9:30 am.

I love my mom's Christmas decorations and all the yummy food she makes! I even made "my child" pose in front of the Christmas tree. I'm slightly ashamed of this.

Lots of cooking going on! After we opened stockings and presents and ate banana bread and sausage balls (then took naps - Cole had just been traveling for about 24 hours, I think) the finishing touches on Christmas dinner was made. Dad got ready to carve the turkey...

... and give the grateful dogs the scraps...

... and pause for pictures.

Kalith sent us this picture of our home in Welch. We had a white Christmas at home!

I was pretty excited to be in the same country as this guy...

It was a great Christmas at home.

The night after Christmas, we had our annual Charades Night with the Rogers and the Jones, a couple of families who are basically family. The only picture I got is of the food... what does that say about me?

The next morning, we got up and headed home with our car packed to the brim. We were so blessed, maybe a little spoiled, by my parents. On top of already being spoiled by Kanyon's parents and grandparents. I hope someday we can shower our kids and grandkids with gifts like our family does. They are too good to us. But the truth is I remember the time spent with our families much quicker than I recall the gifts I got. 

It was a great Christmas and end of 2011!

My birthday was Monday, the 2nd, a day that I already had off from work! It was amazing to sleep in and piddle around the house that morning and then playing with my niece, Addalie, for a little. She will definitely make you feel special on your birthday!

Sena and Daniel were here for the second year in a row for my birthday, except this time was really special because they were here looking for a house and having a job interview!!! They will be moved here by the end of the month and I am pumped! I can't wait to have them so close by! 

Kanyon and I went to Lubbock that afternoon to see Sherlock Holmes and go eat at a hibachi grill. For some reason, those types of restaurants are always what I choose for my birthday. Something about having someone cook your meal right in front of you makes you feel super special. Even more special - being the only ones at the table because its almost 9:00 pm on the day after a holiday. Also a little awkward though. 

The next night (last night) Vaughn made a birthday dinner for me with both sets of Kanyon's grandparents and his parents and Sena and Daniel and their kids. She is such a great cook and the cake was so good!! I asked her if she would make me a cheesecake this year and she said she had a chocolate cheesecake recipe she hadn't tried. It was so extremely yummy. I'm craving it as I write this now. I got some great gifts and then we stayed up way too late talking and laughing. I haven't gotten my birthday present from my parents yet because of shipping so my birthday will be even more extended, which is how I like it!

So now the Christmas decor is taken down and I've been in the process of putting everything back up and rearranging. During the Christmas season, I got some new (free with my credit) Willow House items and several home decor items so I'm having a lot of fun finding new places for everything! I also still need to post pictures of our guest bedroom... Whoops!

I'm heading to Midland tonight to go see my friend Heather who is home for the holidays from Peru! I got to see my friends Daley and Jason, also. who are home from Kenya for the holidays. My friends have glamorous lives.