I miss home......Brylee is turning 1 this month, and as much as I hate to say it, i missed her actual birth day and im afraid im going to miss her first birthday too.  How horrible is that :(

I'm SO excited for my parents to arrive on friday that I can hardly sit/sleep/work/zone out.....

Nara left back to Brazil yesterday, Andrew and I will miss her!

My puppies always know what im feeling, and know just the right way to place their head on my knee (or you know jump on my lap and lick my face) to cheer me up

Have I ever mentioned that I HATE doing laundry?  ( I really do)

The Texas Tech versus Texas A&M game is this weekend, and we are taking my parents!  They have never been to any sort of a college football game before so that should be a wonderful time.

It rained in Lubbock today..........this is a very rare occurrence

I broke my iphone screen......really bad......I really need to get it fixed

I am officially allergic to Lubbock,  I have started taking allergy shots weekly to help me breathe cause I pretty much cant........and I was told today that my allergist doesnt think its working?  What?  Well Im still congested but I can breathe a bit better, but every time I get a shot my arm swells up like a balloon.....he said we will have to change something.........who  knows when or what that will be, (did I mention that I now have to carry around an epi-pen......really im allergic to lubbock)

I made my very first ever homemade cheese cake this weekend for Nara's going away party.  It was WONDERFUL!  (i'll have to do that more often)

I dropped Nara off at the airport yesterday and I still have no word as to if she made it home safely!

I had indian food for lunch today for a co-workers birthday.......Its amazing, you should try it if you get the chance (very rich though......a bit mean to the tummy)

I just had to buy 2 new tires for my car, in a 7 day span I had 2 flat tires.......really?  ugh

I wish I had more time to work on my scrapbook.......it hasnt been updated since february!

Andrew and I are going to be "Danny and Sandy" for halloween! :)

I cant wait to have another pumpkin carving party......that was our very first party in lubbock last year (its gonna have to be a tradition)

Andrew and I used to have a garden,  Its pretty much been torn to shreds! :(  Remember all the wonderful pictures???  well the dogs dug a hole under the garden gate and just had a blast rolling in all the dirt.  We still have a few tomato plants, our zuchinni plant is gone, our butternut squash plant has migrated to the outside of our garden fence into the "dog free zone"  and apparently the LOVE squash.  They eat the little buds before they get big enough to do anything with.  They also have been pulling off all of our cucumbers before those get big enough too.  We have veggie loving dogs.  (at least someone gets to enjoy them)

  

I just got to take a trip to the Fort Worth area of Texas (about 4 hours east of us) and we went to a Rangers Game and to the Fort Worth Stockyards! It was so fun! Here are a few pictures:

In our boots! :)

This picture needs explanation:  Holy moly, so we left the bars in Fort Worth at 1am......and we decided to go get a little snack at a sonics.  We pull up next to this guy.....he is with another horseback cowboy.  We just died laughing and chatted it up with these fellows.  Only in Texas!

I thought these two pictures were cool.  On the property of the place that we were staying there was a deserted old old house in an open pasture.  I had fun taking pictures of it!

Engagement Photo Session!! Brittany and Justin

Well, I did it!  Ive still got bajillions to learn, but I had my first engagement photo session.  

These are my highlights from our day, and what a wonderful couple!  These are our friends Justin and Brittany. They just recently got engaged and Andrew and I are proud to be a part of their wedding party (maid of honor and best man thank you very much). We are truly excited for them.  I was so happy when they asked if I would take their engagement photos. I made sure to tell them that this would be a huge learning experience for me and for them to not be upset with me if the pictures didnt turn out very well.  

I really have a lot to work on, lighting, positioning, camera settings, and pretty much everything else!  But the main point is, I had a blast, and Im pretty sure they did too. We started in downtown Lubbock where it turns out there were a lot of awesome places to take pictures.  Then we made our way to the Cap Rock Winery......where we accidentally "had to wine taste" and we got a free tour! Walking out with a case of wine between the 4 of us (andrew came too)  we got to take some pictures at their beautiful winery.  Although, they dont have grapes there.....(silly i know).  Then we got to take a few pictures at Justin's parents house and got to use their awesome Ford!  Anyway, here are my pictures.  I sure hope Brittany and Justin like them! :)

I love this one!

Sexy Butts!

This red wall was a dream!

A little squinty eyed but still cute!

Mad that I cut off her foot, but still really like!

awwww!

She is so beautiful

This was hilarious, Justin is really like 6'8 and we had a difficult time squatting to make this picture work. 

I love the colors in these.  They laughed at me when I asked to take a picture like this, but turns out they really like it!

Happy Engagements Justin and Brittany!!!

a little behind.....

Well where have I been since my last post in July.........

Well, our Brazilian exchange student Nara came to live with us! She is absolutely wonderful and makes andrew and I laugh every day!  We basically share a birthday, hers is on August 1st and mine is the 5th, so we had a party together!

More birthday celebration pictures - Brittany, myself and LJ!

Then that next weekend our WONDERFUL FRIENDS Kyle and Lisa came to visit us! They went on a road trip.........san luis obispo to oregon, idaho, wyoming, colorado, Oklahoma, and then TEXAS, new mexico, arizona and then back home.  We took them to the funnest bar in town, the piano bar! It was wonderful to have them here, and I can not wait to see them again. We definitely miss our SLO family!

The city put on this hilarious event for families with dogs!  We got to go to a swimming pool with the dogs and swim with them.  They pretty much loved it.  (the pool was closing the next day for winter, so they drain it anyway, so why not drain it with a bunch of dog hair)  Anyway it was great, we pushed Tex and June off the diving board, they werent to sure about that, but they thought that running and jumping into the pool was pretty funny. 

Nara and I had one quite adventurous evening......andrew was working late on a random tuesday night, so Nara and I decided to go see a move ( crazy, stupid, love....it was pretty cute).  I forgot to tell andrew that we were going to see a movie, and realized that I forgot my phone when we got to the theater.  SO, knowing that andrew would not be happy that I didnt inform him of where we were going, I made friends with the people sitting next to me and they let me use their phone, so now andrew knew where we were.  Anyway, the movie gets over, and Nara and I walk outside to a complete DOWN POUR. (fyi if you didnt know all of texas has been in a huge drought......so it was sunny and hot when we walked in)  Our car was parked so far away, so we ran.....and go SOAKED! On my drive home, I only made it about 3 quarters of the way,  Lubbock has no drainage, so the water just sits on the road.  I was freaked out, and felt like my whole car was swimming. So i pulled over at this random restaurant and asked to use their phone, so I could call andrew. Come to find out andrew was in his truck at the movie theater looking for me cause he knew that I wouldnt be able to drive in that weather, he was happy we were ok, and turned around to come pick us up.....meanwhile he gets hit by a car (a 16 year old made a 90 degree right hand turn from the left lane into andrew who was in the right lane), It was a minor fender bender and everyone was fine but...... UG! After about an hour and a margarita, Nara and I were picked up by Andrew, and we made it home as it stopped raining.!!!!  SHEESH what a day to forget my phone! This is how soaked we got running from the car into the restaurant.

We also went on a trip to New Mexico with Brittany and Justin.  They GOT ENGAGED! We were both so excited for them, and we happy to celebrate with them. Also, Im Brittanys Maid of Honor, and Andrew is Justins Best Man! So weve got some exciting planning ahead!

We went to the horse races together! That was so fun as always!

 I got an awesome present for my birthday and have been playing and taking lovely pictures!  Here is a picture of my awesome sunflowers that I planted from seeds!

My sweet puppies!

My Tex Man!  He is so handsome!

Junie

Little doggie butts!  This picture makes me laugh!

I seriously left a whole lot out, but anyway this is  what I have so far.  Another update on my first ever engagement photo session!  How cool was that! :)

STIRNUS WEDDING!!!

What a seriously amazing wedding weekend! I was so proud to be able to be a part of it all.  Veronica and Gabe are and amazing couple, and I wish we lived closer so that we could do fun married couple things together! :)  Here are some highlights from their special wedding weekend!

The bridesmaids......including the Man of Honor. :)

Me and the Bride to be!

Loved this shot.....and the next one! :)

Wedding Day! Getting ready!

Our beautiful dresses and shoes!

Getting the party Started!

About to get dressed!

There they are.....I love Veronicas face here!

So beautiful!

Brittany and I

They are MARRIED!

My beautiful flowers!

My Family!

The whole bridal party rode the little fire truck from the ceremony cite to the reception. This was one of my favorite parts of the day!

End of the night, we all took the limo to Stout Brothers in downtown Santa Rosa, where Veronica and Gabe were given a standing ovation as they walked in. :)