Memorial Day Weekend

This Memorial Day weekend I got to spend with one of my favorite families, The Ivy's!!  

Growing up this was my second family, I spent countless hours at their house, many family vacations, and several amazing concerts (Elton John for example)!!  The Ivy's have a lake house on Lake LBJ and we spent the weekend flying a kite, a little Frisbee (until I got it stuck on the roof), on a Pontoon and jet ski's, oh, and I jumped off a bridge :)

Dacy, Delaney, and I went to the Dollar Store and loaded up on some fun things to do while we were on vacation.  And I must say, the $2 kite was an awesome investment.  I forgot how much fun that is and everyone joined in on the action!

 Dacy gets the credit for this awesome picture!













 Delaney's turn!!

 Dacy showing little Korbin how to fly the kite.

 She's pretty much a pro!!

Coach Ivy even got in the action....go ahead...ask him who got it stuck in the tree!!

Dacy breaking and entering to retrieve our fly-away kite!














The next morning Dacy, Delaney and I went on a little walk to the other side of the lake and we found some neat stuff along the way.

I love being out and about in nature, and it's always fun when it shows a little love back :)

Somebody got them a new pet!

Sisters!!!

















Their cousin, Jeana, then took us out on the Pontoon (yes, I'm singing Little Big Town in my head as I type this) and Dacy and I (along with Dacy's younger cousins) jumped off of a bridge!!!!

That's my arm on the far right (Delaney didn't know we were jumping at the same time, but I promise it's me)!!!!

"Friends are the family you choose!"
















After we got back, Dacy taught me how the drive the jet ski....although I'm not convinced she knew exactly what she was doing either!!

 

And of course we had a little a Frisbee action (although the wind was crazy)!!  

 And I ultimately got the Frisbee stuck on the roof....oops!

We even had yummy s'mores!! There is just something about being out at the lake that makes them taste better then any where else!!

(Can anyone spot Delaney?!?!)

I just love being out on the lake, we have several great memories growing up there and it is fun to go back and make more!!

Everyone loaded up on Monday to head back to the real world! It was great little escape to recharge everything!! 

 

Big thanks again to the Ivys!! I had such a good time and love getting to catch up!! Love you all!!

Fiesta!

Well sadly, birthday week is officially over.  It was a lot of fun, filled with friends and family, and good eating!!

There are several ladies who share birthday week with me at my office so on Wednesday (my real birthday) we had a potluck lunch at the office...lets just say I work at an office full of people who can cook!!  I made a sloppy peanut butter pie for the first time and it was amazing!!

We are also very festive at HDSM, so there were streamers galore around my desk on the 8th! It's a lot of fun!

Through out the day, I was pleasantly surprised by my parents and little cousins with the most beautiful flower arrangements!  I love love love flowers, they always brighten up a room and office!!

Dana and I went out to eat on Wednesday at fun little pizza place here in Waco.  I've never been and it was delicious!!  Afterwords, we watched the latest chick flick, Safe Haven.  She got me the cutest little wine topper (perfect for me :) )


I was able to take off of work on Friday and head to Sweetwater for more celebrations with my family!  Mom made my favorite chocolate cake that I have every year and my favorite spaghetti for dinner!! Can you say still spoiled at 25 years old :)  One of my favorite birthday gifts is my new headphones.  They are the Frends Headphones and they are cute and girly, and best of all they do NOT hurt my ears!!


They also surprised me with two awesome reads!!

My family loves the Duck Dynasty crew and these books only reinforce my feelings for them.  I actually vegged out and finished both books this weekend, I couldn't put them down.  (It helps that we got some rain in Sweetwater so the lake had water and I just got sit out, soak up some sun, relax and enjoy the books!!)

So needless to say this was an amazing birthday week!! I'm so blessed to have such wonderful family and friends!!  Thank you all for your sweet comments and wishes!! Love you all and here is to another good year!!

Birthday Week

If you know me at all, you know how much I love to celebrate any holiday...seriously...ANY holiday.  Christmas is by far my favorite time of year, but my birthday is very very close second.  And yes I'm categorizing my birthday as a holiday because I don't celebrate just one day, I celebrate for the whole week (usually a very long week for anyone involved).

Little known facts about my birthday, it is also my Mom's birthday.  How fun is that!! Also, the year I was born, May 8th landed on Mother's day.  Talk about the BEST gift ever :)

So technically birthday week started yesterday, but let the party begin!!

Cara Box

This past month I participated in my first ever Cara Box Exchange!  Kaitlyn over at Wifessionals hosts the awesome event each month and if you don't know about Cara Box you can learn more here.

This month's theme was "Go Green" and I got paired up with two of the most awesome ladies!  I had the pleasure of getting to know Amanda at MandaLoves and I had fun looking for "green" things throughout the month to put in the Cara Box I sent to her!

And I also got to know Jessa over at Life of a Sports Wife. and she sent me an awesome Cara Box surprise including a green "go green" travel cup, cute little frog bottle opener, a mani/ped kit, aloe gel (which was needed desperately today after my nose ended up burned after my outing with the family Saturday), the most adorable little note kit with a "C" and a green marker board I've already put on my fridge a filled with the grocery list :)

I really enjoyed building a new blogships (friendships) with both ladies and it was neat to see how much we had in common! I look forward to continuing getting to know them more!!

A loss for words

I woke up this morning and thought to myself, 'Can we just erase this week and try again?'  Two major events occurred, that have hit closer to home than I'd like. 

First, though I've just starting in my running, my goal is to one day run in a major marathon.  When I heard about the bombings in Boston, I froze for a second while reality set in.  I had just run in the Austin 10/20 the day before same type event, just a different venue.  My heart hurts for all of those who's entire life will forever be changed.  So many who lost limbs and lives, it's not ok.

Secondly, I live in Waco, just 15-20 miles away from West.  The explosion in West wed shook the walls of my apartment.  One of my dearest friends, Dana, is an EMT first responder and was less than 200 ft away from the blast.  She is physically ok, but I hurt for her because she lost classmates and friends.  I wish I could take away all that she saw and felt that night.  To have someone so close to me have to go through everything she has with this breaks my heart.  But I know how blessed I am to have her in my life.  She is one of the strongest people I know and I can only strive to be as brave as she is.

With so much going on in the world I realize more and more just how blessed I am.  I have, without a doubt, the BEST family and friends.  I have the ability to do any and everything I want to.  And I will never take any of that for granted! Ok, Ok, I'll step off my soapbox now :)

TGIF and here's to having a great weekend, Love you all!!

Austin 10/20

This past Sunday I participated in one of the most fun races ever, the Austin 10/20.  It is a 10 mile course in Austin with 20 live bands set up roughly every half mile.  I've said it before, but I'll say it again, the atmosphere at these events is always so fun and to have live bands on stages throughout the run was so exciting!!

 There were so many people running in this race, it was by far the biggest race I've ever participated in.  This picture doesn't even show half of the people!

I ran with my co-worker Christie and childhood friend Delaney and my parents were there cheering for us at around miles 1, 6, 7 and 10!!  (This was taken before...obviously!)

Here are a few more pics from the race...I remind you this was a 10 mile race, so do not judge the sweaty look we are trying to pull off :)

 Probably mile 6 or so...but I at least don't look like I'm in pain :)

            Go Christie Go!!

And I'm start to look a little less happy :)

So so very excited that my brother surprised me!!

This look says, "I just ran 10 miles...come at me!"

Easter 2013

I was fortunate to get to go home this Easter.  I love spending time with my family!  We had an action packed weekend that consisted of birthday parties, great food, arts and crafts, spa day with my Momma, and Easter Egg hunts.

The first day there it was a beautiful day outside and then within a matter of minutes after my Dad turned the sprinkler on this happened....

 

That's right...nothing like a west Texas spring hail storm!!  It didn't last long but I still loved it.

The next day we celebrated Austin and Alli's birthday!!

 

 Awesome shirt signed by Louie Vito!!! If you don't know who he is, he is a Professional Snowboarder, Olympian, and Retired Dancing With The Stars contestant!

 Me with the Birthday Kids....ps Tyler's birthday was a few weeks before so I'm throwing his pictures into this post as well!!

The following night we did some arts and crafts and dyed Easter Eggs!!....I may be 24, almost 25 but I still love dyeing eggs and hunting them the next day...Big Kid at Heart.

On my last day Home we got all dressed up for Easter service...and I must say, we have a good looking family :)

Finally we began our Easter Egg hunt...this year it was Alli v. T and then Stacey v. Me (I won...just saying)  My family takes this very seriously and we have been known to push, shove, and steal to get ahead....all in good fun of course :)

Like I said...big kid at heart!!

I almost forgot...check out the little guy we found on the front porch!!

 

Spring time baby :)  Hope you all had a great Easter weekend!!!