Birthday!

My 28th birthday was this past Saturday.  28?!  We just keep inching closer to 30, oh my!  The good news though is that Baby Girl will be here to celebrate 29 with us next year : )
We started the morning with a layed back breakfast.  I spent a good part of the day shopping at the Galleria (found some amazing deals!) and checking out Pottery Barn kids with Hannah before heading back to have dinner with my sweet husband, sis-in-law, brother-in-law and in-laws at Carrabba's and a little fro-yo at TCBY.  Yum!

Weekend of Birthdays

Two of my closest friends celebrated their birthdays within the past week. 
We started Carolina's birthday celebration (Carolina de Mayo) on Thursday night with dinner at El Tiempo (woohoo for getting one like 5 minutes away).  I usually do not get fried food, but I loved my Canonnball (chicken stuffed fried avocado).
Afterwards we headed to Vino Artino to paint Dogwoods in Bloom.  We had a blast and although I'm pretty sure that my painting doesn't look too much like the original, I still like it.

BTW, I have found something else to paint with chalkboard paint (love!).  Last weekend when we were at brunch after out 10k, they had a wine bottle painted with chalkboard paint with some teeny white flowers in them, so I copied : )

 

Carolina de Mayo continued!  On Friday, we headed to the Boneyard with our pups to let them play and let us chat.  The pups did not get a picture, we did not get a picture of the guys, but you better believe that we got a picture.  Obviously the first picture was simply amazing...so we decided to take another.

 

On Saturday I finished up the grad school semester with my Stats final.   After turning it in WHOOP! Cody and I headed to the outlets for a bit (amazing) before heading into town to celebrate Hannah's birthday.  Hannah is one of my sweet Baylor Zeta friends.  We both moved to Houston (sic 'em) and have been able to journey through our post grad life together.  For her bday cleebration, we had dinner at Branchwater Tavern.  I had an amazing Kobe beef burger!  Then we headed to The Fleming apt for RJ Goody's cake! Yum!

( I somehow ended up with no pictures of this night though)

We ended up having a very productive Sunday after church getting yard work done, the house cleaned and a few little projects finished.  I used a big stick to get one of the girls' toys out of a tree (weird, I know...) and then Ellie revered it as her greatest stick find ever. 

 

I am beyond thankful to be finished with my first school year of grad school and am so grateful for the next 3 weeks of a break before the summer sessions begin!

27

Y'all I just keep getting older.....and closer to the big 3-0. I still have three years though, so I'll hold onto that for now! Today was my 27th birthday. I love birthdays!
We started celebrating yesterday. I went to my friend Lauren's for a little baking with Carolina and Meagan.
Look at this adorable bundt cake Meagan brought from Nothing Bundt Cakes! So yummy!

We headed out from there to meet up with Dinah and we played some Bananagrams. There were quite a few broken rules for Bananagrams....playing in English/Spanish, making up words, stretching out words, but we all had fun!

Afterwards following Lauren's husband, Cody's suggestion, we ate at Torchy's tacos. They are originally in Austin and have just come to Houston. So good!

Today I got to relax with an easy morning run with Ellie and quick walk with Chloe before a nice mani-pedi. Cody got off work early today, so I got to spend time with him!
Here's a sweet pic of Ellie relaxing by the upstairs tree the other day. Looks like this girl loves Christmas!

The seven days of Christmas

Lots of family = lots of Christmas = lots of fun : )
On our first day of Christmas 12-22 (well it was technically my birthday)
Cody got up early and got me a Chicken Biscuit from CFA. YUM! We later went to PELI PELI for lunch. They had the most amazing house salad I've ever tasted (lots of fruit and a raspberry vinaigrette dressing). Then we decided to head on to Longview. We got home to lots of presents, yummy cupcakes and family! : )

On our second day of Christmas 12-23
we ran a few last minute errands and then got to do something that I had been looking forward to! My mom and I always make sugar cookies (this year Nana cookies) and then decorate them with cream cheese icing and sprinkles. Well this year my mom was keeping my niece Erin so she got to help decorate. Erin helped add sprinkles and at one point decided to try the icing, which resulted in her sucking the cookie dry.

That day we also experienced a tornado on the other side of Longview and then went to Shoguns for a family birthday celebration!

On our 3rd day of Christmas 12-24
I started out the day with a brunch with some of my high school friends! We ate and then played bananagrams (like scrabble but without the board, so fun!).

Tracib and I then got pedis.
We went to our Christmas eve service that night, followed by the big Sage family Christmas and then stopped by the Redd's house for a while!

On our 4th day of Christmas 12-25 (and actual Christmas day)
We celebrated Jesus' birthday with Cody's family that morning,



my parents during the day

(proof that I do cook)

and Carol's family that night. We were showered with gifts and blessed with family time!
On our 5th day of Christmas 12-26
we put a lot of miles on the Tundra. We got up bright and early and drove to Marlin for Childs' family Christmas,

then onto Waco for Brown family Christmas
and then back home (via College Station for a quick stop at Blue Baker).
On our 6th day of Christmas 12-27
Cody's family came to Houston and we went to see the Trans-Siberian Orchestra. What an entertaining show! It was different than I thought it was going to be, it was a mix of orchestra and rock, very interesting. We then tried out a restaurant that Cody and I heard about but just hadn't yet made it to, Floyd's. It was very good! We then got to use the fire pit and make smores : )
On our 7th day of Christmas 12-28
We spent a good part of our gift cards that day between good deals at the outlet mall, necessary supplies for our new camera and cammo things for hunting (for Cody of course).