*wheezing* WE DID IT *wheezing*

Yesterday, (December 14th, 2008) My mom, Aunt Kathy, Amber and I all completed the 1/2 marathon and my Aunt Jana completed the FULL 26.2 miles!!! WHEW! AND we did so with out any major injuries. Of course we were sore as all get out but we all were able to trot accross that GLORIOUS finish line and be awarded our pretty little medals, tshirts and have our photos taken. Ryan was there for our cheering section and also got some great ACTION photos of each of us closing in on the finish line.

Before the race~
ryan takin our photos~

amber was having lots of fun! :)

how we felt post-race

momma and aunt kathy~

aunt jana!! 26 miles and still smiling!

all finishers get a medal, how nice!

we were done and jana still had 2 more hours of running....

it's snowing! it's snowing! it's snowing!

Yes ladies and gents we had a WHOLE DAY of SNOW yesterday in the little town of College Station, Tejas. It was glorious! Hahaha! And this was the real deal! It started out as sleet but turned into a 3 hour snowfall. All in all, we got about an inch or so of big white flakes. Of course Ryan, me and the dogs bundled up and went to play in the snow. We very much enjoyed

ourselves!

{I know there are some of you that read this blog and live in wintery towns where snow is a regular occurance but I also know you can remember back to the years where you lived in Texas and would get so excited over the littlest bit of white flakes....even if it was sleet.}

After we were completly numb, Ryan and I decided to go to

Santa's Wonderland....what is this you may ask?! Well it is a wooded park that is lit with over 1 Million christmas lights!. Pure genious! Anyway, it was delightful and so much fun especially because we could enjoy it all in the warmth of the truck with christmas music on the radio. At the end of the tour you have the option to go into Santa's land, (which we did) a western themed town with shops, santa and the mrs.', a petting zoo, bonfire, live music, food, and they play christmas movies on a huge screen. It was really neat and a fun experience for the both of us. BUT what made it even better was ALL THE SNOW! :)

they sure are proud of their ags!!

gotta have the nativity scene! all life size!
that donkey was so mean to the little bunnies!

busy little bees

sorry it has been a while since our last post, we have been just a little busy the past few weeks. Instead of a lengthy detailed play by play I will quickly sum up the events that have taken us away from blogging.....

~since thanksgiving~

*we decked our halls with christmas decorations

*ryan went hunting at his aunt and uncles farm

*harley got skunked and not so enjoyed a tomato juice bath....which also stained his coat

*we hosted the macy's executive christmas party

*I had a door decorating contest at work {2nd place!!}

("buddy the elf, what's your favorite color?" {get it? i do makeup/color})

*finished all of our christmas shopping minus ONE gift

*I have been playing around with the camera trying to get better and learn more

more thanksgiving

Ryan and I also enjoyed a thankgiving at his dad's house in Houston. It was a nice relaxing evening filled with great conversation, memories, food and of course laughter. Here are just a few pics.

Me, Jenny, John and Shirley

John and Penny, the sweetest dog ever

the boys, Ryan, Jason and Steven

thanksgiving

Thanksgiving was so much fun for us this year! (I know this is a week late but O well.) As mentioned before Ryan surprised me with a cabin in New Braunfels the night before we were due in Austin. It was a lot of fun and very relaxing! We were just down the road from a little town called Gruene which is also where we got engaged. :) We love this town so much because it is a VERY small town and people are so friendly and polite. There are a few shops that always have people sitting out in front of them and the same goes for all of the cafes and restaurants It is just a darling little town. So we just joined the crowd and poked around town AND took some photos.

Gruene Hall-where Ryan popped the question

gruene water tower
I LOVE Texas

us down on the Guadalupe River

again on the river

the leaves were so beautiful

After our relaxing night in New Braunfels we got ready for a busy day in Austin. We checked in to our hotel and then made our way to the Capitol. The grounds were so beautiful! I have never been to the capitol but it was breathtaking! As we were walking around we saw a lot of Aggies lining up and down Congress Avenue and found out that the Aggie Core/Band were marching in for the "big" game....So we again joined the crowd and waited for the parade of maroon, (after all, we do live in college station). It was pretty fun to watch how serious the core really is. I guess that may be one cool thing the Aggies actually do. haha. After all the hoopla we met up with Ryan's mom and sister and ate our thanksgiving brunch at the hotel then got ready for the big A&M vs. UT game. The game was lots of fun and we had a lot fun. All in all it was a great Thanksgiving filled with lots of new memories and pictures, my favorite. :)

ATX - Capitol Building

my sweet husband

tubas, the band marchin in
waiting for the game to start at the texas EXS building - GO HORNS
Jenny, Shirley, Ryan and I with their cousin Shelley - her last year as a longhorn cheerleader-

GO HORNS!!

Texas Fight

After every game the horns win the tower turns orange

Its Official

Well, its official - We're a Crackberry family. I (Ryan, just cuz I never post anything on here..) got my Blackberry Storm on Friday and LOVED it.. Danielle has been asking for a new phone for Christmas and I have been asking her to come over to Verizon - mostly because T-Mobile blows...alot. We met in the middle and she is now on Verizon and has a NEW STORM!

So far we both love our phones.. She's been setting the ring tones all night so that each message and whatever else has a different ring tone - which is fine, I do the same myself. Hers are all girly and "dingy" and sound like a chorus of Elf Bells going off all the time.

But regardless of her choice of ring tones, I am glad that she likes her phone. I just hope we can keep hers and mine separate!

-- Funny note: Each time hers dings or mine dings a certain tone, Harley thinks its the doorbell and starts to gruff... What a doof..

PROOF that Guys are funny even though their wives say differently...