Happy 4 Year Anniversary!

On December 17th, Zach and I celebrated 4 years of marriage. We decided to celebrate low-key this year with dinner at Zach's favorite Italian place, The Spaghetti Warehouse. I decided to make it a little more special by taking him to the original Spaghetti Warehouse in the West End in Dallas. It really isn't that special, but the building is unique because it's so old. So we had a nice dinner and came home to watch Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs which Zach bought me for our anniversary.

So tell me... what does it mean when you buy each other the same anniversary card? I am thinking one of two things: there were slim pickins' or we were meant for each other. I'm hoping it's that latter.

And here's Derby's gear for our upcoming trip to New Mexico. He's our little jailbird dog. Now he'll stay warm when we have to take him out in the snow in Taos.

Dear Santa,

Here are some things that I would like for Christmas. But I will be happy with time with my family and friends. And I thank you for the ski trip to New Mexico that you are giving my family.

Something to add to my Christmas penguin collection...

Which you can find at this Etsy website - Gemini Studio

Some more to add to my reading collection...

Green by Ted Dekker

Kidnapped by Dee Henderson

Going Rogue: An American Life by Sarah Palin

Some new fun shoes from TOMS... either the Vegan Habitante or the Novia, Size 6 please.

Some fortune cookie earrings from my cousin's Etsy shop... Firefly Forge

A new bag from Sunny Mays... the Betty Lou

A giftcard to my favorite clothing store...

Thanks Santa!

Alyson

Chi Omega Christmas Market

I just got back from a great shopping trip with my friends and sister to the Chi Omega Christmas Market at the Dallas Convention Center. Some of things that we saw there, and bought there....

Underwrapped - features boxes, ribbon, toile, and wrapping papers for all occasions. I stocked up on some toile for this Christmas wrapping season.

Happy First - had sweet little onesies and also adult clothing and is the inspiration of a cancer survivor. Cute and simple designs... it's what I like.

Annie's Metal Outlet - where I found this cute ornament, which I have added Derby's name to so that he can be part of the tree this year.

Cherchies Specialty Foods - Where I got this and hope that it's a good addition to my Thanksgiving meal which will be prepared next week...

Loca Lola's Revenge - Which had all sorts of felt purses, but I couldn't see myself carrying, but I did buy these two items. A thin little scarf and a felt flower pin.

Sunny Mays Reversible Bags - Where my sister got this super cute bag... but I couldn't justify getting because I just got my new Vera Bradley (mentioned in a previous post.) One bag with two designs... love it.

When I saw just a few... I mean just a few. It's a very large market of all sorts of boutique gifts and handmade items. What fun. Hope that this is a tradition to continue.

Halloween Happenings (& More)

The last week has been pretty busy around here starting with last Friday, Oct 23rd. I took the day off and Zach had the day off from work, so we took advantage of our time together. We went to a museum for his photography class, then we went to Doug & Linda's ski shop to get our ski pants for the big ski trip at Christmas and then we ventured to Dave & Buster's Frisco for dinner with friends. It was a great day spent with Zach and I was thrilled to get so much done. We had dinner with Justin & Amanda and the girls and had so much fun playing games with the little ones. For old times sake, Amanda and I got a picture together. As always, Amanda had to stoop (sp?) down to my level. Always good times with the Beller's, just wish that we would see each other more often.

Then last Sunday, we went to church and spent the afternoon with the McSpadden's so that Zach could take some pictures of Shevawn while McBaby was/is still in her tummy. Fortunately, this was a good thing for both of us... Shevawn needed pictures, and then Zach found out that his next project in photography was portraits. How perfect! You can see the pics that Zach took at their blog... but here's one of Shevawn and I.

Zach spent most of last week staying up real late as many of you know by his facebook posts... here's what staying up late does to my house (and if you know me well, I'm not a big fan of this chaos. I like order.)

That brings us right up to Halloween... I don't have any pictures on Halloween night, but here's my attempt to dress Derby up as the Dragon. He was not a big fan of his costume as you can tell. I didn't dress up for Halloween, but we did have a costume contest at work on Friday and I dressed up as a gondolier (my parents brought the shirt back for Zach from their trip to Venice). The winners are below... 1st) The Joker, 2nd) The Clown, and 3rd)Scary Larry.

Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!

A week ago today, I was getting ready to go see this...

It was absolutely awesome... I don't think that I have seen a better musical at the music hall in Fair Park and I've been to several. Here's a little taste of the musical... my favorite scene Step In Time. Made me want to be able to tap dance.

Overall... a great birthday... we spent a little bit of time at the fair after the musical. Enough to get our corny dog (or as Oprah called it, Corn Dogy) and try another something sweet which was a fried smore for me. Then we were on our way.

Then on Thursday this past week, the accounting dept at D&B had a day at the fair. So my best bud, Shanna and I roamed the fair and saw all the good shows and ate another corny dog that day. Here are a couple of things that we saw....

A Ford F-150 in shambles from a wreck that two teens walked away from...

The African Acrobats doing their thing, and doing the limbo at 2 feet off the ground...

The Pirates of the Caribbean diving show, where a man jumps from an 80 ft pole into 10 ft of water. Amazing... made me hold my breath.

And my family bricks... Here were are starting with my dad and mom.

My sister and I.

Uncle Jim and Aunt Sharon

Cousin Amy

Uncle John and Aunt Linda

Cousins Heidi and Sean

And the ones who started it all Papaw and Mamaw.

So the story goes that sometime after Papaw passed away and my dad and his sisters were settling the estate, they used some of the money to donate to the fair. This was when I was little bitty as I was not even 2 when Papaw passed away. So if you are ever at the fair, you can always find the Kilgore family on row 256 of the red brick path.

Busy Weekend

Let me start by saying... I just celebrated 3 years with Dave & Buster's on September 13th. A very happy 3 years of employment with a great company I might add. In recognition of my 3 years of service, I was awarded points to spend on a website that had anything and everything. So I choose two items which should hopefully be here by my birthday. So Dave & Buster's furnished my little birthday present to myself... a Vera Bradley Tote and Wristlet. So exciting...

More on the birthday front to come...

So this weekend was busy hanging out with friends. On Saturday, I met up with Sarah, Jessica and Holly to ride together to Shevawn's baby shower. We had some good bonding time and then met up with Jamie & Lana at the shower. The first time that we have all been together since before the summer began probably. Time flies. Here we all are at the shower celebrating Baby McGirl, who will join us in a few short weeks. It was so good to be with everyone again.

On Sunday, we made our way to church on a gloomy day. Zach and I became official this Sunday. Two weeks ago, we checked the box at church and this past Sunday they announced us. We are now new members at Riverside Church of Christ in Coppell. It's been a work in process for the past three months, but we are happy and are really excited about joining in the fellowship at Riverside. A new chapter in our lives. We didn't mean to rush out of church on Sunday, but we had to get over to the Kirksey's for lunch. A last supper of sorts for the official small group. It was a tremendous blessing to be together with the whole group again (We missed you, Jessica & Josh!). We'll have to do this often because we have to see all these little ones grow up.

And speaking of little ones... here's our baby. Derby dog is as energetic as ever and he's is a joy in our lives. Zach actually got him to lay on his bed to chew on his toy. Pretty amazing. Stay tuned for the birthday extravaganza.

Happy 29th Birthday Zach!

On Monday, Zach turned 29. Because Zach was in school all day on Monday, we celebrated his birthday on Sunday. We made a day of... first church starting with a breakfast with the Bible class, then worship (which we had to slip out of early) because then it was on to the Rangers game. I wanted to do something fun that he would enjoy that wouldn't be too expensive. So for $16 a seat we celebrated at the Rangers game. This was a pretty pivotal game and unfortunately the Rangers lost to the Angels 10-5. We enjoyed watching from the bleacher seats and we also did some shopping in the giftshop. Zach is now the proud owner of a Josh Hamilton tshirt and I now have myself a Jared Saltalamacchia tshirt. I had to have his jersey because I think it's cool that the name goes all the way from one shoulder to the other. ;-) Here we are enjoying the game....

When we got home from the game, we hung out for a little bit and eventually made Bison burgers which Zach claims to like better than beef. I personally like beef better. My sister got to enjoy the bison burgers with us as she was coming over to pick up her pup, Miley. My sister was out of town all week and we were pupsitting. What an adventure with Miley and Derby dog. Back to Zach's birthday though... he opened his presents from me later that night in the midst of me making his strawberry cupcakes that he took to school with him.

What could it be...

Some TOMS... Make Art, Not War. I felt that these were very appropriate for my artist of a husband. Plus, when asked "if you were to have a pair of TOMS, what style would you like?" His response was the ones with writing on them. There are only a couple like that... so this is the pair that I chose.

This is the other little gift that I had for my honey. I have been meaning to do this for a long while, but I figured that his birthday would be the best time. On Saturday, I got myself a piece of scrap wood from the side of our house and I went to town being somewhat crafty. It doesn't happen all that often with me anymore. So I got the spray paint out and I dug into Zach's painting supplies and this is what I came up with. I had everything cleaned up Saturday night, so that he wouldn't know what I had done, except I forget to put away the spray paint. Still he had no idea. I know that this little plaque is very meaningful. We're going to put a stake on the back and stick it in the flower bed. That way we can take it with us to the next house should we move.

I'll leave you with some pics of the pups during Miley's visit last week.

Finished Product

The bathroom is finally finished. These are just a couple of pictures of the finished shower. It is now completely finished with touch up paint done, stuff put back on the walls, and the rugs put down on the floor. It's so wonderful to have two working bathrooms and I'm sooo pleased with the finished product. Thank you so much honey for your hard work!!

We already have supplies for the next project which I intend to start on soon. We will be replacing the stairs with wood treads instead of carpet. It's a pretty big project, but it is desperately needed as the carpet is really old and gross. Always something to do.

For all those teachers out there, I hope that you're first week of school goes well. To my honey, I'm excited about this semester of school for you because it means that we are going to be that much closer to the finish line. Zach's schedule will be rough this semester, but with all art classes I have no doubt that he will enjoy it.