Austin Maternity Shoot

I always knew I wanted to take maternity pictures. I wanted to document this special time in our lives, our transition from a family of two to three, with some nice photographs. So I asked my nephew Shannon to help us out. He's not a professional photographer (he is a filmmaker), but he agreed to do it because he loves his aunt. I think we still owe him dinner.

It was an exhausting day for me--temple attendance that morning, rushing to a friend's baby shower in the early afternoon, and then getting ready and walking all over creation for this shoot--but I am as pleased as punch with how the photos turned out. I'm so glad we did it. Thank you, Shannon.

No. 4: Visit a Texas City I've Never Been to Before

Yesterday I met my mom in Warrenton, Texas for the huge Show Daily Antique Week that's held there every year. My niece Karly had a tent there for her business and invited us to go. It was so neat to search through what seemed like mile after mile of antiques, crafts, and junk.

I almost came home with this puppy, but Henry said no. I cried a little when we put her back...someday.

Laura's Lake Travis Wedding

I've been thinking about how to write this post for a day or two now, and I haven't really found a good way to organize my thoughts. We'll see what this morphs into. I want it to be part family record, part informational for those MOHs out there searching for ideas like I was.

Let's start on a sentimental note. This was my niece's wedding, and she asked me to be her matron of honor. It truly was an honor to be there by her side, so intimately involved in the planning. I've mentioned before that my family lines are kind of confusing (if you only knew the whole of it!). Here's what you need to know for this story: Laura is my oldest half-sister's daughter. She's four months older than me, so we grew up together. We spent a good portion of our childhood wearing matching outfits, scheming together, and laughing hysterically. She'd come for visits to Houston, and we'd drive up to Austin several times a year. We were baptized on the same day. We went to girls' camp together. She was my slightly taller, half-Mexican twin. Our childhoods very much intertwined. When I moved to Austin in 2003, we'd hang out, but as work and school took precedence, we didn't spend as much time together as I wish we would have. So I really appreciate the time we got to spend together as we planned her wedding. I feel like it brought back that closeness that we used to have, and I want to work harder to keep up that relationship from here on out.

I thought the wedding itself was perfect. The bishop from my sister's ward performed the ceremony, and it was short, but still special. The weather was perfect (in the 70's and sunny). Laura looked absolutely beautiful. I think we all teared up during the ceremony. The only thing that wasn't perfect was that I started getting sick the day before the wedding, but I survived and didn't feel completely terrible until the day after the wedding.

Ok, now for some of the details.

Beauty: I really spoiled myself in preparation for this wedding. I didn't do a lot of these things for my own wedding, and I kicked myself afterward. Wedding photos are forever, and even if you aren't the bride, you want to look your best. So...I think I blew my allowance for the next six months.

• I got a manicure and pedicure from Arboretum Nails and Spa. I will be a returning customer. I got to watch 13 Going on 30 while my hands and feet were worked over. My toes were painted a perfect raspberry color called Miss Bossy Pants.
• I got a spray tan from Palm Beach Tan. When I last checked, they had a coupon up for a free one at the Austin locations. Not orange, not streaky, just a nice bronzing to tone down the bright white. I do recommend two things though: pay the extra $2 for the scent and use a ton of that blending lotion on your hands and feet.
• Eyebrow threading + facial (marked it off my 101 list!) from Nahid
• Taryn of Bird's Barbershop did our hair and makeup. She made me feel really pretty, and she was super nice and affordable. Like I couldn't believe how little she charged me for a hair + eyeshadow trial plus the day-of updo and makeup. Awesome.

 Ceremony Details:

• Venue: Vintage Villas
• We walked to an instrumental version of U2's Beautiful Day
• She walked to The Section Quartet's Such Great Heights
• All of the flowers came from HEB (neither the bouquets nor the centerpieces were arranged the way she wanted, but we were able to fix it)

Dinner Details:

• Place cards were a good idea, but I wish I hadn't started them a week in advance because some people said they couldn't come/were moved to different tables at the last minute. I had to buy a new pack of cards the morning of the wedding and recycled many of the name cards.
• At first we were going to make a fancy seating chart, and then we were going to have ushers with an alphabetized list, but in the end people just kind of wandered around to find their seats. :/ It worked.
• Laura and Michael's sweetheart table with the birds and candles turned out cute.

Reception Details:

• Their first dance was to Leonard Cohen's I'm Your Man.
•  My nephew Shannon, his girlfriend Christin, and their friend Brad did an amazing job on the photobooth. Christin made those flowers and the mustaches herself. The guests were streaming through there. I can't wait to see the photos!

•  Loved the cake bar. She got three cakes from 620 Bakery and two cakes from Kerbey Lane Bakery.

 Yum. I'm totally having that lemon chiffon cake with strawberry filling and candied lemon zest as my 26th birthday cake.

Is this now the longest post ever? Feels like it.

Congratulations, Laura and Michael!

Snow Day 2011

There was a lot of hype this week about the possibility of snow in central Texas. It was supposed to arrive late Thursday night. One to two inches, the weatherman said. I know that is nothing to people in other parts of the country, and we realize that's not a lot of snow here too, BUT Texas is totally unprepared for any snowy/icy weather. It's okay if you make fun of us; we like to poke fun at ourselves too. 

Sure enough, around 10 PM a little snow began to dust the ground. Henry and I went outside to check things out and witnessed our funny maintenance man doing donuts in the parking lot in his golf cart. We had a good chuckle about that.

We went to bed Thursday night hopeful for a late start for work the next morning, but I didn't think we'd realistically get one. May I mention that many of the area school districts announced that they'd have delayed starts early Thursday evening while mine did not make a decision until 5 am Friday. Boo...but yay because at 5:30 the next morning, Henry woke me up to tell me that we both got a snow day! An entire day off from work. A three-day weekend. So greatly appreciated.

5:30 AM

Early that morning, when the sun was still hidden, we went out for a walk. We were outside for about 45 minutes, and I really couldn't feel my fingers by the end of our adventure (I really hope you clicked that link above).

Henry throwing a snowball at me

It was perfect. The snow was fluffy and blanketed the ground throughout our neighborhood, but it started melting away early in the afternoon. By one o'clock, we were heading out for lunch at Mighty Fine Burgers and running some wedding related shopping errands. Fun. Then yesterday it was 60 degrees and sunny. Today it was 70 degrees and sunny. Can life get better? I submit that it cannot!

Possum Kingdom

If you would've asked me what it was a few short months ago, I would've said a Toadies' song. But that's not all, my friends. It's also a lake and a state park. Actually, the lake provides the setting for the song, I'm pretty sure.

I saw a spread on it in one of my dad's issues of Texas Parks and Wildlife toward the end of summer, and I decided it'd be the perfect getaway for Labor Day weekend.  Traveling all around Colorado this summer inspired me to visit more of my home state.

The park wasn't exactly what I was expecting. One of the main draws for me was seeing Hell's Gate, but once we got there we were told that we wouldn't be able to access it without a motorboat. I was pretty disappointed.

So we didn't see any of the really big cliffs, but we had fun anyway. We went canoeing and we swam a little bit too. There were bees everywhere, so Henry got to see me freak out when they'd fly ever so close to my face.

After several hours at the lake, we decided to head on to our hotel in a small town called Mineral Wells. We took a scenic route, and on the way we came across this really picturesque spot near a pretty bridge.

I'm a Mormon

Have you seen the new videos on mormon.org?

I think they're great. They're professionally done, and I think they do a good job of breaking certain stereotypes. They show that members of the Church are individuals who come from all walks of life.

My favorite video (so far) is this one of Rochelle.

#1 She's a Texan.
#2 She has a schnauzer! I'm kind of obsessed. If you could see into my office right now, where I am currently typing, there is a miniature schnauzer calendar hanging on the wall in front of me. Owning one is high on my list of adult life goals.
#3 She talks about her kids with disabilities.
#4 I want her sunglasses.

My second favorite video is this one of Aaron and Emily.

#1 They seem like such fun people.
#2 They have amazing jobs.
#3 Their video just makes me happy.

So what would your video say?

P.S. Don't you think it'd be great if some of our favorite LDS bloggers (Design Mom, CJane, Rockstar Diaries) made videos? When I saw these I just imagined what theirs would be like--awesome.

God Bless Texas

"You might give some serious thought to thanking your lucky stars you're in Texas."

So I entered the Smartypants-Texas contest on Pioneer Woman. To be a contestant you had to answer twelve questions about Texas. I got all excited on Saturday morning because I actually thought I had a shot at being the first or second person to correctly respond. Um, no. I was commenter number 201 even though I commented within twenty minutes of the first respondent.

Oh well. It was fun to do, and it made me remember how much I love the great state of Texas.

It just so happens, we visited the Texas State History Museum this weekend too.



Here are a few things I love about Texas:
-It's bigger than France.
-Diversity: We've got a little something for everyone.
-The weather (most of the time).
-The football
-Whataburger
-Bluebell ice cream
-HEB
-Bluebonnets in spring
-Texas pride
-The slogan "Don't Mess with Texas"
-It's home.