merry (late) christmas!

Merry Christmas everyone! This post will not be accompanied by pictures because Paulie has the camera ALL the way down in Corpus. Yes Paul and I are apart. I miss you very much my dear! Even with the new fangled technology of video and/or voice chat it is just not the same. My post-season depression is already setting in but luckily I have a whole two days to keep listening to Christmas music before Paul returns and snaps me back to reality. Sigh. I could pretty much listen to it all year... and sometimes do. :) Paul and I have tons of gifts to play with! My personal favorite is my KitchenAid mixer (red of course), which I have yet to name. Any suggestions? She reminds me of a car. I have been considering Christine. Is this creepy? I kind of like the idea of her regenerating and getting jealous of me using my (also brand new) hand mixer. Ha. I might have to fire her up today and make yummy treats... because you know I haven't had enough of them. Other awesome presents: peacock apron, vintage-y tree necklace, turquoise earrings, an array of kitchen gadgets, peanuts calendar (as an adult I still struggle with the spelling of calendar. If it weren't for Google, I would still be doubting), cashmere lotion (yes imagine), snackies, and so much more! Thank you! I have celebrated about 6 different Christmases (you are right about the es Alton), and have enjoyed them all!

In case you haven't heard, which you all pretty much have, my niece has officially been named Ada! I can't wait! Everyone is growing! I was blog-stalking Asa again, and even he is standing and looking like an little old man (Courtney's primary goal). : ) Cameron is due in a couple of months, and Staishy soon after. Eee!

Plans for New Years: Austin!

baby cakes

:)

Happy Birthday Mom! I love you! I thought today an appropriate day to blog. I have missed at least two major holidays and several birthdays, but the cycle stops here. The most exciting news of all is Staishy is having a baby girl! I'm going to be an aunt! I suppose in my book I am already an aunt... although that could spring a political debate over when fetuses/babies are considered people.. and really one of the main duties of an aunt is spoilage which can be kind of hard pre-birth, but I'm sure Mom and Lynn (Sean's mom) are trying. However!! what I am doing a lot of is smiling and loving and congratulating on the timing of a future flower girl-aged child. I think flower girls are a little lame-o but not it if it is my niece! Sure, it has been fun playing Aunt to Paul's nieces and nephew, but this is so exciting! Cameron is also having a baby girl, so yes... thats right, I am in love with Asa, Parker, and Little One. I wonder if I could get them all in one room. Supervised of course. So anyway, since I'm coming off as a little obsessive and creepy I shall change the subject! Eeee!

The pictures:

1. For Paul's birthday I made his favorite- lemon cake with lemon frosting topped with lemon gumdrops! Yes, we were the jerks that picked out all the lemon from the little bin at Target. I know what you are thinking- these are the manliest cupcakes of ALL TIME!

2. When Courtney was in town we went out with the fam for some mexican food. What else do people want to eat when they come to visit? mmm! They gave her a praline with a little pepper bull on top. It was adorable. I'm talking about Asa now.

3. Twisted Root Burger Co. is yummy- sweet potato chips and buffalo burgers!

4. Baby's favorite spot has been in the hamper, and most recently in the closet now that the Christmas box and wrapping stuff have been moved out for usage. Yes, our tree has been up for almost a month and Christmas music has been playing for even longer. I am a freak. Its sad that Paul pretty much just puts Christmas music on as soon as he sits at the computer for fear of a tantrum. I love him. In case you haven't heard, our precious little poopsies fell off of our balcony and fractured her pelvis, but thankfully she didn't need surgery or doggy wheels and has healed just fine!

5. & 6. Our Halloween was pretty uneventful but we did hold our annual Pumpkin Carving Extravaganza! We had Mummy Dogs- although they just looked a little inappropriate with the choice of jumbo dogs. Their mummy bums were a little bare. Paul drew my pumpkin face with a bat mouth. He will be reading this, so I will just go ahead and say that HE would say that his bat looked a lot better but I made him change it and my carving was a little amateur, so his vision was not completely fulfilled. My pumpkin had thick walls and that is all I have to say!

7. Last of all: Thanksgiving! Paul, Amy, and I hosted a thanksgiving with friends, which was a success! Next year we will tell everyone to arrive about 3 hours later than planned, google "turkey carving", and start the rum slush punch drinking (yummy!) earlier in the day. It was worth it! Paul and I have had two more thanksgivings since and will be having leftovers for another week! So we will have been eating Thanksgiving feast for roughly a month by the end of it! Merry Christmas! This is my favorite time of year! Least favorite time of year: January 2-February 13. Who agrees?

birthday

Today seemed an appropriate day to update. I am 24! Ugh doesn't this seem old and NOT exciting? 25 sounds kind of cool at least, although then I would be in my mid-twenties...although better than my late twenties, and better still than my thirties. Although thirties, as I was discussing with Staishy today, seem like they should be depressing, and are possibly at first, but then get better. I asked Paul how he felt about being late twenties, and he says he doesn't feel old and is fine with it especially since he looks young and still has a full head of hair. This is true. So anyway, I have had a wonderful birthday- I started out the celebrations on Thursday with a Michael Jackson tribute burlesque show...yes such things exist. I went to the movies with Paulie last night, and mall/food with Stefan today. I have had lots of birthday wishes, and will drag out the celebrations until next weekend with the family! This month too, Paul and have been together for 3 years! So basically I use August as an excuse to be showered with love and presents. ha. not really... well yeah. Thank you everyone for such a wonderful birthday!

Our little family hasn't been up to much- we took a trip to San Marcos to visit Paul's family and float the river- a much needed vacation. Paul just came back from visiting home and bringing back his first car given to him by his parents. Thank you! This will help so much. I always thought it was ridiculous for families to have so many cars- we don't even have children, but I can see now how it will really help! I am jealous of places with awesome public transportation. Dallas actually does have more transportation options than Denton, which I hope to take advantage of in the future! Yes...I know about the bus system in Seattle! : )

So these pictures have basically been my life for the past month or so. I know it appears that I spend the majority of my time eating, hanging out with friends, and generally being in love with Paul... and this is correct.

what a hoot!

Meredith's birthday dinner was delightful! Thank you Amy for contributing this adorable bag- Meredith's favorite animal/future pet is an owl, so it was perfect! Although you didn't get to use it, its memory will live on my blog forever...or until I run out of useable space. Meredith's friend Kelly made one of Julia Child's chocolate cakes with rum icing! Great job! The real downfall of the night was being the most full I think I have ever been in my life. After good mexican food, we went out for further celebrations, which I was regrettably too full to drink... uh. celebrate. Lets forget for a second that this last picture is creepy- can you find Paul?

fortunate

Happy Birthday Cameron! I love you! I don't think she reads this, but I gave it up to the bloggy universe, so I'm sure she will somehow know. By the way, Cameron's friend/photographer put up pictures of the wedding on her facebook. Hopefully she will put them up on her blog soon! Cameron & Charlie! So last Monday I received this fortune in my cookie: ...It was actually a fortune cookie, although I would like to see if they could come up with a silicone version with a fortune they could bake into regular cookies. That would open up a whole new door of lame-o proposals. I saw one on t.v. where this guy spelled out "Will you marry me?" in pepperoni on a huge pizza. Now, I have told Paul that if he wants to ask me and THEN throw in a pizza for dinner I'd be ok with that. SO back to the fortune. "Remember three months from this date. Good things are in store for you." I sure hope so, and I'm marking my calendar! So October 5th. It can't be all bad. Staishy and Sean will be married almost 10 years, it won't be so hot, Leila can start bustin' out her doggie sweaters, I can start bustin' out my sweaters, if Paul wore sweaters he could bust them out, and it will be almost Christmas! I'm sorry but I love Christmas, so November 1st, the tree goes up. So anyway, I hope good things are in store for me, and all of you too! I have to say, this is one of the better fortunes I have had. I wanna say I received one that mentioned something about eating more veggies or something. Useful info, yes. Lame fortune, yes. So we continued with the celebration of July 4th with our usual angel food with berries and cream. Yummy! The pic of Stefan was found in the mix with Alton's choice of birthday picture. Yes Alton- you were right. Both pictures were from my graduation dinner. I thought they both looked especially goofy/adorable.

birthdays!

Happy Birthday Alton! I love you! Yes... this means that I owe you double the cupcakes now!