Daniel's going away party

So Daniel is leaving for the Navy on December 7th, so April put together a little going away party for him at her parents house. It was a chilly night, but we had a lot of fun.

After a while we headed over to some bar in Waller.

Dancing to their song.

The gang.

Even though it was a fun night, it was hard knowing we won't be having any more of these for a long time. We wish Daniel all the best, but we will all miss him!

Thanksgiving

We have so much to be thankful for right now. Stephen and I are blessed with wonderful families, good health, and jobs that allow us to provide a good life for ourselves. Those are the things I am most thankful for this year!

This year, Aaron wanted to host Thanksgiving and Jessica's family came so that we could all meet.

It was so good to see Mamaw and Papaw!

Jessica's brother in law, also named Aaron, and Jessica's dad, Michael, fried a turkey.

Aaron carved the turkey

We fit as much as we could into the one oven and made it work!

Then it was time to eat!

CJ took a group picture of all of us. From the left: Dad, Mom, Me, Stephen, Aaron, Jessica, Aaron, Cristen, Michael, Shannon and Mamaw and Papaw in front. I'm glad we got to meet Jessica's family, they are a fun bunch!

After lunch, we hung out for a while and visited and then headed over to Stephen's dad's house. Stephen told Nancy he would put the christmas tree up today.

Making sure the ribbon is just right.

Shelly and Taylor

Steve played with Robbie while we put up all the ornaments

Then Taylor came and played with Robbie with his laser light. Robbie loved chasing it and cried when Taylor stopped.

The finished tree with Stephen's ornament right in front.

We had such a great Thanksgiving this year. I am glad we got to spend the day with both of our families. It was a full, but fun day!

The proposal

Last Saturday, Aaron asked Jessica to marry him. Dad came up with the perfect proposal plan. There was a night football game Saturday night, so Aaron got off early and told Jessica they had tickets. They parked over behind north gate and he told her they were meeting some of his frat brothers at the MSC and then were going to tailgate before the game. This was perfect because they had to walk towards the tree to get to the MSC.

The night before I asked Aaron if he would like me to be there to take pictures and he said yes, so I drove up to College Station and got in my place. I found the perfect hiding spot behind a staircase right in front of the tree. It was the perfect spot.

But then all these people started coming up, taking pictures, kids playing in the tree. etc. It was crazy and I was freaking out a little and wanted to yell "get away from the tree"!

Jessica didn't want to go under the tree at first and kept saying no, no, we can't. But then she did.

The couple walking under the tree finally realized what was happening as they saw me taking pictures and got out of the picture. They stood by me and watched everything happen and then clapped and cheered.

The future Mr. and Mrs. Aaron Edds

They were both so happy all night! Jessica had absolutely no clue so it was a great surprise and Aaron's plan worked out perfectly! I am so glad I could be there to capture the moment for them! That's what I love doing!

Nutcracker Market

Mom and I decided to brave the craziness that is the nutcracker market on Thursday, opening day.

The market opened at 10am and we got there right at 10 to see this. The line just to get inside!!

This is what we saw when we first walked in. A madhouse! But still so fun and exciting!

Here we are after 8, yes 8, hours of shopping. When we left it was pitch black dark outside. We had been there from 10 am to 6pm and didn't even realize it had been that long.

We had a blast though and I am so glad I got to go with my mom this year. I just love any time we get to spend together and we were in need to some mother, daughter time!

Fall Decor

I didn't have my fall decor up for long this year, but for the little time I did I loved it! I did a few new things this year so I took pictures so I could re-create them next year.

The mantle. I love the orange picks in the white vase.

I really loved this! I took a wreath and cut the wires holding it together. I stretched it out and put it in the bottom of the jar. The I filled in some mini pinecones and then added the pumpkins on top. I added a few fall leaves and it was done!

I also love this pumpkin in a little urn with some spanish moss under the cloche in our entry.

I am loving these two fall candles. I got them at Yankee candle on sale and they smell great burning together.

Halloween

Get ready for picture overload!! I need to figure out how to make collages.

Halloween started out with my family coming over for family day. I made stew and corn bread and then we carved pumpkins.

The stew turned out sooooooo good!

And the corn bread wasn't bad either!

Here are the pumpkins all ready to be carved. Aaron brought the ginormous one!

It took a while to get the top off this huge pumpkin.

Mom and Dad got this tool and it turned out to the BEST pumpkin carving tool EVER!!! It made everything so much easier!

Dad worked hard on his pumpkin.

Mom was kind enough to make chocolate chip cookies. They were so good!

Here's my pumpkin in progress.

After Mom got the cookies in the oven, she joined us in carving.

The finished products!

I love carving pumpkins because no matter what face you come up with they always look good!

My family left and Stephen and I headed over to Steve and Nancy's house.

Taylor said his pumpkin got drunk. Sigh.

I decided to put on a afro wig. It was so fun! Hannah was Marilyn Monroe.

Shelley was a scary witch.

All the kids.

And the adults who dressed up.

Our bubbling bowl of lemonade.

Mike later used it as a cooler for his beer after we ran out of lemonade.

Brook gave Mike shots of lemonade.

And this little guy got lucky and got to have pizza and a tootsie roll. Or at least chew on them.

We played in the living room. He is at such a fun age. Just about to start crawling.

We had such a great Halloween with both of our families!