Photo Album:
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| Snow in Houston_12.10.08 |
Video:
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
Snow in Houston - 12.10.08
Most of you have probably already heard about the snow we got here in Houston a couple of weeks ago but I wanted to post some pictures. It was amazing to see how much it actually snowed! We probably had a little less than 1 inch that accumulated but for Houston, it was unbelievable. I think the coolest part of the whole thing was that it was on my birthday. Since I was very young, I have always wanted it to snow on my birthday and 26 years later, in Houston, TX, it finally happened. Here is the link to the photo album and there is a link to a video below.
Photo Album:
Video:
Photo Album:
Video:
Monday, December 22, 2008
Before and After Pictures
As promised, here are the before and after pictures of our house. We renovated the living room and both bathrooms, as well as replacing all the carpet, the front door, and did some landscaping. It has been a lot of work over the last two-and-a-half years but it has been a lot of fun.
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| House before |
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| House after |
If you know of anyone looking to move to Houston, let us know :)
Catch Up...
I am really going to try to keep this as short as possible, but I have to talk about all the cool stuff from November that I never blogged about because we have been so busy.
On Nov. 14th we hosted our Sunday school's monthly game night. We had two couples bring their Wiis and one couple bring a TV so we had three TVs and three Wiis going. We had a bowling tournament and then just played a bunch of other games, Wii Tennis, Rockband, etc. We had about 18 people show up and it was A LOT of fun. Here are some pictures:
Even though we were up pretty late playing Wii, the next day we went to the Houston Zoo with Evan's cousins Matt and Susie. They live in Pearland so we get to see them every once in awhile but not as much as we'd like. After the zoo, we met up with their parents at their restaurant Jake's for lunch. The food there is GREAT and we love to eat there. If you are ever in Pearland, you should definitely check it out. Here are some pictures from the zoo. Apparently Evan is an aspiring wildlife photographer since he took most of the pictures and a lot of them came out great.
Around this time we also finished all of the work we were doing to the house and got the house on the market. We had a very busy couple of weeks there trying to get it all done before we left to go to San Antonio for my brother's wedding and Thanksgiving. Most of the time was spent painting our front door, repainting interior doors, and putting the finishing touches on the bathroom (caulking). We got it all done and it all looks great! Later I will post a photo album with photos of the house before we did all the work and then after we did all the work. It is amazing how our house has been transformed. And yes, our house is officially up for sale!
One of the biggest things that happened last month was that my little brother, Eric, got married on Nov. 22nd! The wedding was beautiful! The days leading up to the wedding were busy but a lot of fun. The day before the wedding, there was a mass at my parent's church for Eric and Kim, then all the girls went to get out nails done (Thanks Kim!) and the boys went to play golf.
That night we had the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner. At the rehearsal, I was in charge of helping the flower girl and ring bearer practice. Eric and I's cousin, Kasia, was the flower girl and Evan and I's niece Elizabeth was the ring bearer. Kasia, who lives in Brooklyn, is not shy at all, but Elizabeth is pretty shy. Her mom, Page (Evan's sister), told Kim and Eric that there was a strong possibility that she may not walk down the aisle. Kim had the brilliant idea that they should walk down together and both sprinkle the flowers. It worked great! At the rehearsal, we practiced using the offering envelopes that were in the pews as flower petals. They both really got into it and had a great time. Another brilliant idea that Kim had was to give the girls their wedding party gifts at the beginning of the rehearsal dinner since it was late andthey were both pretty tired. In the photo album below you will see pictures of them playing with My Little Ponies, sticker books, and bunny ears, these were the gifts from Kim, Eric, and my mom thought to get them the bunny ears. Evan andI sat at the "kid" table at the rehearsal with Michael and Caitlin (my aunt and uncle, also Kasia's parents) and Page and Dave (Evan's sister andbrother-in-law, also Elizabeth and Jame's parents). It was a lot of fun :) Since Michael, Caitlin, and Kasia live in New York, we don't get to spendmuch time withthem so I had a great time catching up with them andplaying with Kasia. It was also fun to see Elizabeth really come out of her shell around Kasia. A year ago, Elizabeth would have been too shy to even talk to Kasia, let alone play with her. And we were all really proud of her and the courage she displayed walking down the aisle.
The next day, all the girls got to get their hair and make-up done andwe had a lot of fun doing that. I think my favorite part was seeing Elizabeth get her hair done. She was not sure about the whole thing because not only is she pretty tender headed, but by the time she went, all the rest of us were finished and so we just sat and watched her because she is so cute! She is not a fan of being at the center of everyone's attention. But when she was about five minutes into getting her hair done, I handed her a little mirror so she could see her hair, and she totally changed her facial expression. In an instant, she went from, "I am about to cry" to "Look at my beautiful hair!" Her and Kasia both did a great job getting their hair done and looked beautiful. It was so much fun to see all the bridesmaids and Kim before the wedding. Everyone was so beautiful and it was just so exciting. I also got to see my brother quite a bit that morning and each time it was really special for me.
The girls did a great job going down the aisle. The only problem is that because I told them to only take out one flower petal at a time (so that they would make it all the way down the aisle with flowers) they went really slow! It probably took them a whole 5 minutes to go down the aisle. When they got to the end, they didn't want to stop because they still had petals! It was totally cute :)
The wedding was great and I had the privilege of singing while Eric and Kim lit the unity candle. I wouldn't say that it was my best performance (because I was having to try really hard not to cry), but I hope that it was a special for them as it was for me.
The reception was a lot of fun andit was made perfect when I got to dance with Eric. We have been through a lot together andgetting to dance with him at his wedding was a memory that I will always cherish. It was also fun to see Evan dance with Kasia andElizabeth. Usually, at this type of stuff, Evan will not dance unless it is a slow dance but I cam back from talking to people and saw him breaking it down to the "Electric Slide". It was awesome, because he cannot say ANYMORE that he cannot dance because he clearly can and their were witnesses!
Here is the link to the photo album from the wedding. There are a lot of pictures but it is worth it Kim, I am so excited that you are now officially part of our family! A lot of the pictures from the wedding album were taken by a friend of Kim's family and are just as good as professional pictures. These aren't even all the pictures, because they have the ones their professional photographer took as well.
We stayed in San Antonio after the wedding to spend more time with our families and because we would just be turning around in a couple of days to come back for Thanksgiving. On Monday, Judy, Page, Elizabeth, James, Susie, Lisa, and myself all went out for breakfast. It was a real treat. On Thursday, we spent the day with my family. We had lunch and then went to the UT vs. A&M game in Austin. My parents have season tickets to the UT games and every other year, Evan and I get to go with my parents to the game in Austin. I was sick but the game was still a lot of fun. I hadn't been back to campus in over a year and it was cool to see all that has changed and all that is still the same. I hadn't seen the stadium since they finished the construction adding an upper deck to the North end-zone. It was crazy looking but really cool! UT won pretty handily but Evan was a great sport as usual. Here are some pictures:
That wraps up our busy month of November! I am almost caught up!
On Nov. 14th we hosted our Sunday school's monthly game night. We had two couples bring their Wiis and one couple bring a TV so we had three TVs and three Wiis going. We had a bowling tournament and then just played a bunch of other games, Wii Tennis, Rockband, etc. We had about 18 people show up and it was A LOT of fun. Here are some pictures:
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| November Game Night_11.14.08 |
Even though we were up pretty late playing Wii, the next day we went to the Houston Zoo with Evan's cousins Matt and Susie. They live in Pearland so we get to see them every once in awhile but not as much as we'd like. After the zoo, we met up with their parents at their restaurant Jake's for lunch. The food there is GREAT and we love to eat there. If you are ever in Pearland, you should definitely check it out. Here are some pictures from the zoo. Apparently Evan is an aspiring wildlife photographer since he took most of the pictures and a lot of them came out great.
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| Houston Zoo with Bettencourts_11.15.08 |
Around this time we also finished all of the work we were doing to the house and got the house on the market. We had a very busy couple of weeks there trying to get it all done before we left to go to San Antonio for my brother's wedding and Thanksgiving. Most of the time was spent painting our front door, repainting interior doors, and putting the finishing touches on the bathroom (caulking). We got it all done and it all looks great! Later I will post a photo album with photos of the house before we did all the work and then after we did all the work. It is amazing how our house has been transformed. And yes, our house is officially up for sale!
One of the biggest things that happened last month was that my little brother, Eric, got married on Nov. 22nd! The wedding was beautiful! The days leading up to the wedding were busy but a lot of fun. The day before the wedding, there was a mass at my parent's church for Eric and Kim, then all the girls went to get out nails done (Thanks Kim!) and the boys went to play golf.
That night we had the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner. At the rehearsal, I was in charge of helping the flower girl and ring bearer practice. Eric and I's cousin, Kasia, was the flower girl and Evan and I's niece Elizabeth was the ring bearer. Kasia, who lives in Brooklyn, is not shy at all, but Elizabeth is pretty shy. Her mom, Page (Evan's sister), told Kim and Eric that there was a strong possibility that she may not walk down the aisle. Kim had the brilliant idea that they should walk down together and both sprinkle the flowers. It worked great! At the rehearsal, we practiced using the offering envelopes that were in the pews as flower petals. They both really got into it and had a great time. Another brilliant idea that Kim had was to give the girls their wedding party gifts at the beginning of the rehearsal dinner since it was late andthey were both pretty tired. In the photo album below you will see pictures of them playing with My Little Ponies, sticker books, and bunny ears, these were the gifts from Kim, Eric, and my mom thought to get them the bunny ears. Evan andI sat at the "kid" table at the rehearsal with Michael and Caitlin (my aunt and uncle, also Kasia's parents) and Page and Dave (Evan's sister andbrother-in-law, also Elizabeth and Jame's parents). It was a lot of fun :) Since Michael, Caitlin, and Kasia live in New York, we don't get to spendmuch time withthem so I had a great time catching up with them andplaying with Kasia. It was also fun to see Elizabeth really come out of her shell around Kasia. A year ago, Elizabeth would have been too shy to even talk to Kasia, let alone play with her. And we were all really proud of her and the courage she displayed walking down the aisle.
The next day, all the girls got to get their hair and make-up done andwe had a lot of fun doing that. I think my favorite part was seeing Elizabeth get her hair done. She was not sure about the whole thing because not only is she pretty tender headed, but by the time she went, all the rest of us were finished and so we just sat and watched her because she is so cute! She is not a fan of being at the center of everyone's attention. But when she was about five minutes into getting her hair done, I handed her a little mirror so she could see her hair, and she totally changed her facial expression. In an instant, she went from, "I am about to cry" to "Look at my beautiful hair!" Her and Kasia both did a great job getting their hair done and looked beautiful. It was so much fun to see all the bridesmaids and Kim before the wedding. Everyone was so beautiful and it was just so exciting. I also got to see my brother quite a bit that morning and each time it was really special for me.
The girls did a great job going down the aisle. The only problem is that because I told them to only take out one flower petal at a time (so that they would make it all the way down the aisle with flowers) they went really slow! It probably took them a whole 5 minutes to go down the aisle. When they got to the end, they didn't want to stop because they still had petals! It was totally cute :)
The wedding was great and I had the privilege of singing while Eric and Kim lit the unity candle. I wouldn't say that it was my best performance (because I was having to try really hard not to cry), but I hope that it was a special for them as it was for me.
The reception was a lot of fun andit was made perfect when I got to dance with Eric. We have been through a lot together andgetting to dance with him at his wedding was a memory that I will always cherish. It was also fun to see Evan dance with Kasia andElizabeth. Usually, at this type of stuff, Evan will not dance unless it is a slow dance but I cam back from talking to people and saw him breaking it down to the "Electric Slide". It was awesome, because he cannot say ANYMORE that he cannot dance because he clearly can and their were witnesses!
Here is the link to the photo album from the wedding. There are a lot of pictures but it is worth it Kim, I am so excited that you are now officially part of our family! A lot of the pictures from the wedding album were taken by a friend of Kim's family and are just as good as professional pictures. These aren't even all the pictures, because they have the ones their professional photographer took as well.
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| Eric and Kim's Rehearsal and Dinner |
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| Kim and Eric Wedding |
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| Kim and Eric's Reception |
We stayed in San Antonio after the wedding to spend more time with our families and because we would just be turning around in a couple of days to come back for Thanksgiving. On Monday, Judy, Page, Elizabeth, James, Susie, Lisa, and myself all went out for breakfast. It was a real treat. On Thursday, we spent the day with my family. We had lunch and then went to the UT vs. A&M game in Austin. My parents have season tickets to the UT games and every other year, Evan and I get to go with my parents to the game in Austin. I was sick but the game was still a lot of fun. I hadn't been back to campus in over a year and it was cool to see all that has changed and all that is still the same. I hadn't seen the stadium since they finished the construction adding an upper deck to the North end-zone. It was crazy looking but really cool! UT won pretty handily but Evan was a great sport as usual. Here are some pictures:
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| Thanksgiving 2008 |
That wraps up our busy month of November! I am almost caught up!
Thursday, December 4, 2008
We've been tagged...
It is really hard for me to start writing again after a few weeks of going without blogging, especially when I feel like I have a lot of catching up to do. We had a crazy and awesome second half of November that I will blog about in the coming days. First, we were tagged by our friends Dash and Shae earlier this week and I thought it would be a good opportunity to get me blogging again. They have a great blog and it is especially fun to read about all their preparations for the birth of their first child in February. Here are the rules for the "tag":
So here it goes:
1. Our favorite TV show is House even though Evan hates the sight of blood and guts on TV.
2. Our favorite type of food is Mexican and our favorite restaurants are Los Barrios (Amy) and El Mirasol (Evan) which are both in San Antonio. If you are ever in San Antonio, we highly recommend that you check both restaurants out.
3. We are both really into music and love playing the "who sings this one?" or the "what's the name of this one?" game. We like just about all genres of music, from country, to rap, to r&b, to folk, to rock. We are huge Dave Matthews Band fans and have been for over 10 years now.
4. Our favorite outdoor activities are snorkeling and skiing.
5. Evan drove school buses for College Station ISD while in college. Evan has had 10 jobs since he was 16.
6. We just ordered new cell phones and I'm REALLY excited about them!!!!!!!!! (Evan wanted me to add in a few more REALLYs to REALLY show you how excited I am, but I think that's enough...I mean there are 9 exclamation points).
7. My mother-in-law, Judy, taught me how to knit over Thanksgiving and I am in the process of making a sweater for Baxter.
8. (I know I am only supposed to put 7, but....) I just told Evan I should put that we are probably two of the biggest nerds you would ever meet, and he said "I prefer the term 'geek'."
Now for the fun part....we tag:
Keating and Kassi
The Moore's
Page and Dave
The Park's
Sally
Meredith
Greg Despres
Enjoy :)
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
A little boy named Baxter...
So we came home from Bible study last Thursday night to find that "someone" had torn through the flower bed. There were two or three flowers uprooted and three or four that looked like they had been stepped on. Based on the size of the paw prints, I concluded it was Baxter! I was furious. After I calmed down later, I admitted to Evan that it was kind of surprising to me how mad I actually was. I replanted the flowers and tended to the ones who were "hurt" the next day. It also gave me a chance to plant some of the extra plants out by the entrance to our gate. I had to remove (more like pry out) some rather large rocks from the dirt by the gate but I finally got the four remaining grass-like plants (I have already forgotten what they were called) planted. I still have a few pansies that I am trying my best to keep alive in their packages just in case I need a transplant for those who will end up not surviving Thursday night's ordeal.
I love our dogs and Evan and I often talk about them like they are our children. I told Evan that I think I was so angry about the flowerbed on Thursday night because I was really just frustrated that unlike a child, there was no real way of communicating to him that what he did was wrong and that he shouldn't do it again. While I know that this can sometimes be easier said that done with children, especially really young ones, I think would stand a better chance that with Baxter. Unless I stare out the window the entire time he is outside waiting for him to get in the flowerbed again so that at that very moment I can bang on the window or run outside and spank him, I may never be able to help him realize that he does not belong in the flowerbed. I did catch him the other day when I was outside sanding some of our interior doors stepping up to get a better sniff at the flowers and I yelled "NO" but who knows if he will put it all together.
So for now, we have chicken wire covering the flowerbed. We kind of quickly laid it over the planter in a effort to protect it when we went to dinner on Saturday. I can't blame the dogs that when they are by themselves outside for an extended period of time, they are going to explore and sometimes get into trouble. Thankfully, it has seemed to work since it was undisturbed when we got back Saturday night and on Sunday afternoon after church. It doesn't look very good, but it can be removed relatively quickly if needed. Here is a picture:
I love our dogs and Evan and I often talk about them like they are our children. I told Evan that I think I was so angry about the flowerbed on Thursday night because I was really just frustrated that unlike a child, there was no real way of communicating to him that what he did was wrong and that he shouldn't do it again. While I know that this can sometimes be easier said that done with children, especially really young ones, I think would stand a better chance that with Baxter. Unless I stare out the window the entire time he is outside waiting for him to get in the flowerbed again so that at that very moment I can bang on the window or run outside and spank him, I may never be able to help him realize that he does not belong in the flowerbed. I did catch him the other day when I was outside sanding some of our interior doors stepping up to get a better sniff at the flowers and I yelled "NO" but who knows if he will put it all together.
So for now, we have chicken wire covering the flowerbed. We kind of quickly laid it over the planter in a effort to protect it when we went to dinner on Saturday. I can't blame the dogs that when they are by themselves outside for an extended period of time, they are going to explore and sometimes get into trouble. Thankfully, it has seemed to work since it was undisturbed when we got back Saturday night and on Sunday afternoon after church. It doesn't look very good, but it can be removed relatively quickly if needed. Here is a picture:
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
Plant flowers...check!
Since I really needed to mow on Monday, I decided to just spend the whole day outside and also plant all the cool plants Judy had gotten us for the new planter. It was a beautiful day outside so I didn't mind "having" to be outside all day. I also put some weed and feed on the lawn and got caught watering it all in in the dark because I had already forgotten that it got dark so much earlier. Evan was a sweetie and made dinner for us and it was waiting for me when I came inside from all the yard work. It was a very productive day!
As you can kind of see in the picture, I ended up with a few extra plants and I think I am going to plant them right by the entrance to our gate. Hopefully, I can do that this week sometime.
Evan took this picture of me with my new gardening gloves. I think he was just jealous :)
The finished planter...all cleaned up and new plants! Thanks again John and Judy for all your help!
As you can kind of see in the picture, I ended up with a few extra plants and I think I am going to plant them right by the entrance to our gate. Hopefully, I can do that this week sometime.
Great weekend!
This past weekend we were blessed with a visit from Evan's parents to come help us with the work we have left to do on the house. The main objective was to finish a planter we had started building the last time they came to visit. Whatever else we were able to got done was going to be a bonus. We were very successful because not only did we finish the planter but we finished repairing our back fence (from Ike), repaired a gutter, repaired a piece of siding that was no longer holding up a different piece of gutter, filled in all the holes in the back yard that our dogs had dug over the last couple of years, bought plants for the planter, cleaned our a big part of the garage, and installed some baseboards in the bathroom. We got all of this accomplished on Saturday. I made dinner for everyone that evening as a way to attempt to say thank you for all they had helped us with and so we could stay home and watch the UT vs. Tech game. Well the dinner went great but as many of you know, the game was not so great. While I was the only UT fan (Evan and his parents are big Aggies), we all could agree to root against Tech. Oh well! At least we got a lot accomplished during the day :) Here are some pictures:
The next day we had a picnic with our Sunday school class for lunch. It was a lot of fun and Evan and I were really glad that we got to go, especially since we were not able to go to the last one they had in the spring. We ate, played games, and just hung out. The new missions/outreach pastor, Greg Despres, at our church also came to the picnic with his wife and kids. It was a lot of fun to hang out with the kids and get to know both Greg and Allison a little better. Here are some pictures:
After the picnic, we came home and both fell asleep. We had a great weekend but it was a little exhausting. I had originally thought that I would be able to plant the flowers we bought on Saturday when we got home from the picnic, but that didn't happen. By the time I woke up from our nap, it was dark outside...thank you daylight savings time :)
This is what the planter looked like when we started this weekend. As you can see, we go a good amount done on it the last time but it was not quite finished.
Judy and I pulled up all the weeds while Evan and John worked to add the last row of wood.
Evan and John putting in the drain pipe we connected to the gutter and then buried.
The finished planter! Well, almost....flowers to come soon.
The next day we had a picnic with our Sunday school class for lunch. It was a lot of fun and Evan and I were really glad that we got to go, especially since we were not able to go to the last one they had in the spring. We ate, played games, and just hung out. The new missions/outreach pastor, Greg Despres, at our church also came to the picnic with his wife and kids. It was a lot of fun to hang out with the kids and get to know both Greg and Allison a little better. Here are some pictures:
Claire, Jordan, and Carissa hanging out.
The boys playing a game of bean bag toss.
More bean bag toss.
The rest of us enjoying watching the bean bag toss.
Evan riding the mini bike. He was going too fast to get a good picture!
My new friend Sawyer. He is the son of our Missions/Outreach pastor. He and his sister Sophie shared Doritos and fruit snacks with me (since we brought too much food!) and we got to go feed the fish in the pond together. He is SO cute. All of the Despres kids were great fun!
After the picnic, we came home and both fell asleep. We had a great weekend but it was a little exhausting. I had originally thought that I would be able to plant the flowers we bought on Saturday when we got home from the picnic, but that didn't happen. By the time I woke up from our nap, it was dark outside...thank you daylight savings time :)
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