Title color?...and randoms...

I'm so sorry that my title is so hard to read. I felt compelled to change my blog background, but not so compelled to make a pretty banner :) AND I've had a brainfart and can't, for the life of me, remember (or figure out how to) change the font color of the title! It's driving me nuts! But not so nuts that I'm willing to piddle at it and lose sleep over it.

If you feel so compelled as to leave me a comment reminding me how to fix it, that would be most appreciated. :) Until then, it shall remain yellow!

Now that I have that out there, I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas! I know we did. I'm gearing up for a Near Year's Eve party at my house on Friday. If you can call it a party. We are just having family over for dinner and some firecracky. I've realized that I'm getting to the point that I can't handle being around large crowds. I've found myself following behind people picking up leaves on the floor behind them, or just whatever may have been dropped or spilled. It's bad. If I didn't mind taking meds I would say I needed to be medicated for OCD. :/

If you've ever seen Gene Simmons "Family Jewels", sometimes I feel like his wife. She will hide in their bedroom when people are in their house and scream "Gene, get these people out of my house!" HAHA! I can relate. Really, I can. I'm scared of how I will react when we have kids and their messes. EEEEEEEeeeeeeeeee...

I hope you have a Happy New Year and hopefully soon after I will be able update with some pictures from the holidays.

Here comes Santa Claus, errr...

Santa must have already dropped by!

I have been so busy wrapping gifts. My back hurts from sitting. I'm so glad I'm done. What am I going to do when I have kids and have that many more gifts to wrap? I tell you what, I'm going to LOVE it! My problem this year was that I swear I used all my creativity at work and had problems figuring out what to buy everyone. (side note: Did you know that shopping can make you physically AND MENTALLY exhausted? I didn't. Not until this year.) So I wrap the gifts I've already bought and then decide I don't like what I've gotten, so I go back and buy more. And have to wrap more. But that's ok. It makes my trees look pretty :)

Seeeeeeeeeeeeee.

Christmas yummies

I was super busy this past weekend. Baking. As if I needed anything else to keep me busy. Luckily, there were no disasters. Except for EXTREMELY gooey 'gooey butter cake'. I guess that's where the name comes from, eh? But seriously, it's never been that gooey. Perhaps I should have left it in the oven a tad bit longer? Oh well, the boys at the office have not cared ONE BIT! They asked me to bring more. :)

Here's the proof.


The gooey butter cake (see how I was deceived?? It does NOT look gooey!)

THE best of the yummies:


The finished products: peanut butter cookies, chocolate chip, chewy chocolate chip, spritz, gooey butter cake, and cinnamon candy!!

Kephart's Celebration

The weekend after Thanksgiving, we were so lucky to get to celebrate with Trey's grandparents, Addie and Kep, their 60th wedding anniversary! They had a big party at Walden Country Club on the Saturday following Thanksgiving. Since the country club was only open for a couple of hours, Trey and I hosted his family at our home to keep the party going as there were so many out-of-towners for the occasion. We didn't want to just send everyone back home or to their hotel. We wanted to visit!
The happy couple:




Leslie giving her speech:

Leslie and Trey: (obvious mother and son? I think so!)


Ashley and Andrew:

Trey and Amy:

Their getaway car!

Oh My Deer!

This weekend, 11/11 - 11/14, Trey and I went to our deer lease in South Texas. It was the only weekend that I actually did not have anything planned between the weekend bow season opened and the first weekend of December, so we jumped at the chance for me to go. Especially since Trey goes pretty much every week.

I have prided myself on being able to say that I have never killed a big game animal with a rifle (only the bobcat which was my first kill ever that made me switch to bow hunting). Unfortunately, I can no longer say this. :( Here's the story:

Trey has had a particular 8 point buck picked out (and approved by the lease manager) for me to hunt and kill. He had him patterned and this guy was coming into the feeder every evening just before the feeder went off, waiting for it, and almost every morning. We sat in the stand, bow in hand - Friday morning, Friday night, Saturday morning, Saturday night - ALL of which came and went. A few deer came in and out, but not any that we were allowed to kill and certainly not the one that I was allowed to kill. Sunday morning, as a last resort, we got in the rifle stand, with the rifle, and corned the road. Prepared to take a long shot if I had to, I sat. Sure enough. There he is. We got him in to about 180 yards. I pulled the trigger. Twice. I can't say I've only killed large game animals with a bow anymore, but at least I have a good story to tell. :)

I used a Remington 6mm at 180 yards. He scored 115. 8pt. 190 pounds. And he broke the wench on the jeep. :D

Randoms...

I'm so sorry it's been so long since I've posted. I won't back date the few events that have passed that I have a couple of pics from (ie: the Renaissance Festival and the hockey game) - I only have a couple of pictures anyway. I'll just apologize for being shoddy with my blogging lately and promise to try and be better in the near future. Especially because I'm contemplating not doing a Christmas card this year.

I'm starting my new job at PetroHawk tomorrow and things are going to be go, go, go for the next few weeks, so I'm just afraid I won't have time to get it done. (Now come the excuses..) I still need to clean my house and decorate. Maybe once I decorate it will put me in the Christmas spirit and I'll actually get around to a card - but no promises. :)

Best Friends....

Dad and Trey have become quite the best of friends. They've gone hunting countless times this year. Here is a picture from one of their dove hunting trips. Notice the gun. He's lucky he still has a foot! :D

some of Trey's work...

So, Trey's ALWAYS out of town working...and you never get to see any of the work. I BEGGED him to send me some pictures that I could post for y'all to see. Just for proof that he actually does work on occassion, if nothing else. :)

This is a playground:

they are becoming quite popular this year...

Cassi's Hitched...Mr. & Mrs. James Holmon!

YAY! Cassi and James got hitched! It was beautiful..even though we were late. Because Cassi gives crappy directions. :D
first dance as hubby and wife:


me & Trey:

me, Cassi & Laura:

me & Laura:

Lisa's baby shower

Here are a couple pictures from Lisa's baby shower from a while back. I forgot to post the pictures.
Baby Gavin is due in November :)
The cake is beautiful and was made by our friend Christy and her mom. Turns out Christy had a major allergic reaction to the fondant :(

a night out with the girls....

So I haven't updated in a LONG time. And last weekend I had a fun night out with the girl's for my friend Cassi's last hoo-rah before gettin' hitched yesterday, Saturday, October 16th - her batcherlorette party at Howl at the Moon. It was a blast!

Some proof:
I didn't realize I was tugging on her veil....HAHHAHA...she looks so distraught. :) I love it.

Me and Cassi:

The whole group:

"playing" with our drink...

This is after deciding to "crash" the batchelor party. James was passed out, so Cassi decided to violate him. It appears as if she has just discovered something.

Trey's new toy

First off, I'd like to make it known that I'm not diggin' the uploading of videos process. The last 2 times I've tried, it's not worked. :(

So now for our big news. Nothing too exciting, so don't get your panties in a twist. NO babies - yet. But Trey traded up trucks. Ya know how boys are about their toys. :D

He's been wanting a deisel for a LONG time. He was debating on whether it be a Dodge or Ford F250. He finally found the perfect one in an F250 4x4. It's used, a 2008, but only had 25k miles on it, had all the options he wanted and the price was right.

So here's the beast!!:

gettin' the lease ready...

Last weekend Trey and I went to the lease in La Pryor to get another stand up so the deer can get ready for it. We took dad with us and thought we might get another hog on the ground while we were there. I didn't feel like hunting, but dad and Trey took every opportunity they could.

We got there super late on Friday night, Trey spotted a cougar stalking the bunkhouses as he was unloading the truck (luckily I was already in bed). Saturday morning Dad and Trey got up and hunted (saw lots of deer, but no pigs). They came back and got me, went and got breakfast tacos, came back and we put up the stand. Then we went and took a dip in the Nueces River. Gosh that felt so good after being out in the blistering hot sun. :)

These prickly pears don't taste so good....blech..

This stand is Trey's most recent creation. It's a 6x6 gun/bow blind. It's stationed about 20 yards from the feeder with the intention of being a bow blind. He welded it all together but has a turf floor lining. We spray painted the camo on the outside ourselves. Can you tell?

This is the 360' rifle stand Trey's dad built out of scaffolding. It's pretty cool.

This was a stand that Trey built. He built the base out of steel and tied down a pop-up ground blind to it.

The Nueces River was nice and refreshing... :)

Our huntin' buggy... Dad and I used it as a stand for the evening hunt on Saturday. We sat in the top seats and still didn't see any pigs. Didn't see any deer either. We did see a family of pheasants. They were cute :)

Sunday morning Dad and Trey had another unsuccessful hunt and then we went home.