Pssssst, Guess What?!?!

I'm PREGNANT!!!!

Come check out my new & improved blog and I'll tell you ALL about it... www.atinyhiney.blogspot.com

Vegas 2010!!!!

Last weekend we went to Las VEGAS!!! It was such a wonderful vacation!! We stayed 5 days (the longest trip to Vegas so far) and it was great. Usually I'm good for 2-3 day Vegas trip but it was nice to relax the last day and we definitely were not in a rush by any means. I seem to enjoy the vacations where I'm not living out of my suitcase but rather stay enough days to use the hangers, closet, drawers, etc.

We stayed at Harrah's with some friends and my dad & stepmom stayed at Caesars...on the 43rd floor overlooking the Bellagio. It was an amazing view!!

Here are a few highlights of our trip...

• Legends in Concert
  
• Mac King Show
• Vinney Favorito
• lunch at the Pink Taco
• Lounge & Dinner at Voo Doo Lounge
• little bit of Keno & little bit of slots
  
• Wine Cellar & Tasting Room at Rio
• shopping at the new City Center
• Mojitos at Rum Jungle
• Roomservice
• Bellagio fountains
• visisted LOTS of casinos up & down the strip
• spent lots of time with dad, s-mom, friends & hubby

Here are a few pics from the trip...

Amazing view from the 43rd floor!

All of us!!

Yep, we met him!! But he wasn't the REAL one. Still fun! :)

Me & my daddio. Poor quality, taken with my camera in the dark setting.

Uh-MA-ZING mojitos at Rum Jungle!! Definitely one of our fave spots!!

drinking beer from a mason jar at Toby Keith's Bar

Private tour of the wine cellar at Rio. Pretty impressive!

dad & Mike at The Wine Cellar

Mike & I outside the Venetian

Finally a King!

We finally bought a King size bed! I'm SOOOO excited for this thing to be delivered...next Saturday! We went to The Dump on Friday for the first time and fell in love with our future bed! :) We have heard good & bad things about The Dump...I can see where both opinions are from but in the end, the place worked out for us! We also got a Four Seasons mattress! Oohhh, Ahhhh...I can't WAIT!

Today I went out to get our bedding. Of course it was picked out before we purchased the actual bed. I had my eye on it and finally went to pick it up today! It's pretty neutral but our walls are brown & our furniture set is dark brown too...so I think this will lighten up the room a bit. If you look closely you can see the texture, it's kind of lacy & frilly. I love it! I plan on having some accent colored pillows but haven't decided on those yet. Pics will come soon.


It rained pretty much all weekend. It was nice to stay inside, cook delicious meals and go to church. Today I went to see movie The Last Song with Miley Cyrus. Loved it but I bawled my eyes out, non-stop. And now I'm finishing up the weekend with a glass of wine while flipping between the Mavericks playoff game and the Country Music Awards. Perfect-O!

Handyman List!!!

I've been thinking recently what I can do around the house to make it prettier! I think it's the beautiful weather that puts me in this kind of mood. So here's my list...

• brick our flowerbed out front (professionally)
• brick around the 2 trees in the front yard (professionally)
• plant lots of flowers in the new beds
• grow tomatoes & bell peppers in the backyard
• replace our 2 chandeliers in our entry way
• paint the guest bedroom
• upgrade to a KING size bed and move our queen to one of the guest rooms
• give away the bedroom set in guest bedroom
• upgrade our sink in the kitchen

My goal is to get all of this done in a few weeks?!? I better get BUSY.....

Busy Bee!

In addition to the amazing concert this weekend, we managed to stay very busy! Thursday we went to the last Dallas Stars home game. Mike is a HUGE hockey & Mike Modano fan. This is potentially Modano's last game as a Dallas Star since his contract is officially up. He has not decided if he will return for another year. It was a very emotional game...Modano cried his eyes out. It was really sad.

Saturday we painted our hallway! This was both of our 1st time to paint...anything. It wasn't hard at all!! Well, Mike did all of the taping off and the stuff up high. It was a workout...for my right hand only. It turned out great and now our hallway matches the rest of our house!! (Not sure when we got the rest of the house professionally painted why we didn't just do it ALL...who knows?!?)

Sunday we went to the Texas Rangers game with our neighbor friends. We had a blast! The weather was perfect...not too chilly & not too hot! AND it was FREE hat day! So we all came home with a souvenir! Can't beat that!

Chris Tomlin!!!!

SqEEEEEEE!! Last night I went to see Chris Tomlin in concert. It was SUPER amazing! The first 4 rows were saved for sponsors...and I was in row FIVE. The whole night was pretty surreal to me. This is my all-time 2nd favorite artist...next to Michael W. Smith (who I've seen in concert 18 times!!!!!).


A definite FAVE!!!

Happy happy Easter!!!

We had such a wonderful Easter weekend!!!

Since the weather is beautiful outside we've been going out on neighborhood walks every night. That was the first thing we did after work on Friday, it was nice to wind down from a crazy work week for Mike! While we were out our neighbors stopped us to invite us out for barbecue at our local FAVORITE spot, Big Daddys! We couldn't decline, of course! Dinner was delish and it was fun to hang out with our friends!
Saturday was non-stop for me! I volunteered at our neighborhood Easter Egg Hunt & Festival. I was in charge of the 0-3 year olds for the egg hunt and also the ice cream freezer for EVERYbody! It was absolutely nuts! I figured 'Sure...I'll had out Popsicles...no biggie!!!" Boy, was I wrong. I didn't realize there was a MENU of free ice cream for everybody. We had everything... drumsticks, jolly rancher pops, moo bars, crunch bars, fudge-cicles, ice cream sandwiches, tropical Popsicles....I was basically like the ice cream truck lady minus the truck!!! The line was super long so luckily I was able to recruit some friends to help me out! Anyway, no complaints from the customers...who can complain when you get free ice cream!!! :)
I was also in charge of 'hiding' all of the eggs for the youngsters. We had over 4,000 eggs and we broke down the areas of the park into various age groups. It was pretty smooth. We had a DJ, 4 HUGE bounces, balloon lady, clown, popcorn stand, bottled water stand, ice cream stand (ME), and lots of kid music. I won't lie, I'm pretty sure I sang along to Miley Cyrus & Hansen! haha!
From there I rushed home at 4pm to change clothes and speed over to Valley Ranch for a Easter Dinner party that my friend, Lynda, hosted. She did a fabulous job!!! We didn't expect anything less because she is a FOODIE! She's an UH-MA-ZING cook and she sure showed off for us for the party! There was 15 of us and she had a beautiful set up outside. The weather honestly couldn't have been better!!! So perfect!! I offered to bring some munchies and this is what I brought...

Deviled Eggs with Hummus instead of Mayo!! They were SO delish! I'm a huge hummus lover so it was right up my alley! (here's the recipe!)

Fresh mozzarella & tomatoes (marinated in olive oil, salt & pepper). These were a big hit too! Perfect size and easy finger food for the outdoors!! (here's the website!)

Today Mike & I went to the early service at church and once again were amazed how awesome our church is! To say the least, it was a superb Easter service. After church we went to breakfast in downtown Rockwall. It was yummmmmy. We came home to rest for a bit then went to Plano for Easter dinner with my mom, step dad & step brother. It was great to spend time with family and just relax. Came home...went on a walk...and now I'm here drinking a glass of wine!

That's what I call a wonderful Easter weekend! Hope you had a great one too because Jesus died for ME and YOU!!!

Happy SPRING!!!

This weekend was freeeezing! Literally! We got lots of snow yesterday and today but luckily now it is melting away and it's supposed to be 60s & 70s the rest of the week! Whew! I'm SO ready for Spring! I displayed all of our Easter & Spring house decorations including decor eggs, bunnies, flowers, and the door wreath. I LOVE this time of year...minus the snow (even though it's BEAUtiful!)!


Mike & I have been talking about trading in my car since last year. I had a Jeep Compass...which is a smaller SUV/crossover and we initially got it because we needed a bigger vehicle to pull our 2 wave runners & the trailer. BUT we found out over the past few years that the Jeep wasn't powerful enough. SOooo, we went yesterday (of all days...in the 30 degree weather) to car shop. We had an idea of what we wanted and did a bunch of research online before hitting the car lots. We found the car (SUV) we love and made the trade official.

...So, we drove home in our 2010 Expedition!! I'm super excited! I'll be the primary driver of this big hunk of a vehicle so I definitely need to get used to it. I'm pretty sure it seats 8 people and I can start the car with a button when I'm not even IN the car...perfect to get the heat or AC started!!
It also comes with Sirius Radio (Oprah...here I come!!!), Sync System (apparently you can sync your phone to the radio and use it as hands-free), lots of storage, a safety beeping feature when you are in reverse and something is behind you, and most of all...lots of power to pull the water crafts!

Me next to my new car in the freeeezing cold! :)

Words With Friends is my new addiction since December. This is my high score I played against my hubby!! 111 points on ONE word!! Just had to brag for a minute...

...only if I had more time!!

If I had more time in my day, I would...

• make greeting cards
• go through my closet full of clothes I don't wear
• read my Bible
• catch up with old friends
• plant flowers
• volunteer
• spend time with family & friends
• travel the world
• worship
• catch up on all The Real Housewives shows
• read blogs
• exercise
• take road trips
• relax

Whew...I need more time!

Skylar

Here is my nephew, Skylar, again. This is his most recent work. I love finding him in magazines and seeing him in the stores! What a cutie!!!

I want one soooooo bad!

It's a Cricut Expression!!! Do you know the endless things I could do with this thing?!? Well, I'm thinking really hard about getting one really soon!!

Savor Dallas

This weekend Mike & I (and my great friend, Lynda) volunteered at Savor Dallas. The event was spectacular this year!!! We worked the Wine Seminars in the afternoon. It was pretty simple--although we had to dress in a white button down & black pants--so we were 'bossed' around a bit more than I was comfortable with. :) We were able to participate in the seminars too, so that was nice. The 1st one was about 'Blending Wine'. We were able to blend our own wine and compare it to the winemakers blend. Of course, nothing compared to his delicious wine. It was a super fun experience. The 2nd one was wine & chocolate pairing. That speaks for itself...it was SO good!
As a wonderful surprise, we were each given a ticket to the Grand Tasting from 7-10pm that night. The tickets were $175/pp so I was SO very thankful for the freeeee tickets since I couldn't justify spending that much! It was a formal event so I was glad I brought extra clothes and that Mike was wearing a suit. We were able to taste the signature food from the best restaurants throughout North Texas AND taste over 400 different wines/liquors/beers! Of course, we didn't taste ALL 400...but we definitely had our fair share!
Overall, it was super duper fun...and put me in the mood to host a wine party at my house! BUT I don't want to pour wine all night...so I'm tempted to hire somebody so I can enjoy the fun too!! We'll see....Cheers!

Miss Blue Eyes.

My precious niece. She melts my heart!

Years go by...

Last night I went to dinner with my best friend Casey. It's so funny how times change. We have been best friends since we were 10 years old (that's 18 YEARS people!!)! So, as you can imagine, we have tons of memories.

It's crazy because 3, 4, 5...years ago we would meet after work and go to Sherlocks, Sterlings, or Salute (all local bars) and basically drink beer for dinner. Last night, without hesitation, we went to Black Eyed Pea. Are we old or what?!? :o) It's funny because we met at 5pm and we were the youngest guest in there by about 25 years! (Maybe they had an early-bird special going on?!?)

I love how the time changes and to think back to what our lives used to be and where we are now! We are both happily married. She now has a sweet baby girl name Kendall, who just turned 2 and she was able to join us for dinner too!

Even though many years have passed, we are still the BEST of friends. We still gossip, laugh, cry, joke and love each other to the fullest!

I cry.

Every time I hear this song, I cry. We sang this at church this weekend. It truly is super powerful and reminds me how incredibly awesome our God really is!

Happy Valentines Day!!!

Mike & I are having such a great weekend!

Thursday/Friday we got over 10 inches of snooow!!! It was so beautiful!! We carpooled into work on Friday because the roads were full of snow and slush. I went in 3 hours late so it was nice to sleep in. :)

Saturday we met my mom at Northpark Mall and ate lunch at the Nordstrom Bistro (Mmmm)! The mall and surrounding area was a madhouse since the NBA All-Star weekend in in Dallas tonight. We were able to make it back to Rockwall and to church just in time for an amazing sermon.

Today we slept in, exchanged V-day gifts and made a delicious brunch. We relaxed alllll day and instead of dealing with the crazy crowds at an restaurant and ordering off of an over-priced 'special' menu...we went to Central Market and purchased filets, red skinned potatoes and salad fixings to make our own special dinner. We are also opening a special bottle of '95 Opus One...it's decanting as I type.

I hope you and your Valentine have a love-filled day!!

NAPA!!!

Ahhhh, what a truly AMAZING vacation!!! We had soooo much fun on our trip to San Francisco/Napa Valley. We are already planning our next trip out there! We learned so so much, drank delicious wine, ate wonderful food, had a great time with family and relaxed a lot!!! Unless I write a novel, I wouldn't be able to give all of the details...here are the highlights and most of the wineries we visited....

We stayed at a cute Bed & Breakfast called La Residence--the property was huge with many houses... this was the house we stayed in.

Nestled in the heart of Napa Valley, La Residence is a tranquil, luxury inn set on two acres of lush gardens, beautiful vineyards, towering heritage oaks and redwoods, and peaceful fountains. (If you can't tell...I copied that from the website.)

La Residence

Napa Valley

Cakebread Cellars--delicious Chardonnay!!

Chateau Montelena--Have you seen the movie Bottle Shock?!? It was based on a true story and THIS was the place where part of it was filmed and where (partially) Napa became famous...in 1976

Mike & I at Chateau Montelena

Opus One...AMAZING view from the rooftop deck!!! Cabernet is to die for! $30/glass. GULP!!

Inside Opus One

The entrance to Opus...it was a bit overcast. :(

Mike & me :)

Sterling Vineyards--this is the cable car that you take to the top of their property. The view is jaw-dropping! Wine not so good but amazing customer service and wonderful property!!

My mom & step dad at Sterling

Mike & I at Sterling Vineyards

Lunch on the patio at Auberg du Soleil--SOOOO amazing! Highly recommended!

We visited 10 wineries in total and loved every minute of our vacation. It was great to get away...now I'm just awaiting the arrival of all our wine shipments!!

Sweet, sweet kids!!

nephew-Logan-3 yrs.

Logan--3yrs

Skylar--6

Aiden--9

Skylar, Logan & Aiden = lovable brothers!

Skylar & Aiden

Niece, Austyn visiting Dallas!--1.5 years.

Silly Austyn

Austyn--imitating a monkey!

Austyn--1.5 years