Thanksgiving Weekend

We are so thankful for David's grandparents living in Colorado Springs. They invited us down to share a yummy turkey "lunner", as I call it. It was such a fun day for David and I to take a break in the middle of the week and spend some good quality time together.

We woke up and immediately took Lylah for a good long walk. Since not many people were on the trail yet [i guess everyone was cooking] we decided to see how Lylah did off of her leash. I mean, she basically stays right by us anyways. She did fantastic! She is literally the best dog ever. Lylah knows that we are the "alpha males" and her masters, and she is so obedient. She never let us get too far away before she ran up and walked right next to us. We just love our Lylah girl.

Then we headed home to quickly get ready and jet off to "the Springs" [as Coloradans call it]. We had fun dancing, singing, and talking the whole way down. When we got to Grandpa Bob and Grandma Mary's, David's Uncle Chris, his two sons and their girlfriends, and Mary's two kids were there (David's step-uncle and step-aunt…?). We got to chat with all of them for about an hour, then Chris and his sons, and their girlfriends, headed off to enjoy their turkey meals elsewhere. We chatted with the other (step) uncle and aunt until the meal was cooked. It was delicious. Green bean casserole is seriously one of my favorite things. I probably had 3 servings of that alone. Sorry I'm not sorry.

We headed back to our apartment around 4, picked up a Redbox, and relaxed on our couch with our sweet fur babies. I had to work on Friday, lucky me. However, I was put in the infant room, where I got to love on sweet babies (who weren't even walking yet) all day. It was a great change of pace. And, I got paid for 8 hours and only worked 6.5. When I got home, we walked Lylah, off leash again, then ran off to watch Catching Fire. Loved it! Definitely a win in my book.

Today we took Lylah to the dog park again. Poor baby got beat up by a boxer, literally. This dog just "punched" the mess out of our baby girl. And for some reason, all of the big dogs love to swarm her, which terrifies her. She does fine if just one dog comes up, but 5? Really? I guess that's what you get with pack animals. Overall, Lylah had fun, minus the boxer.

This has been a relaxing, fun Thanksgiving. It has been different than other. Our first one away from our immediate family. But, our first one as a married couple. I have loved the quality time that I have gotten to spend with my husband. I also love that having Lylah makes us get out of the house and enjoy the beautiful trail behind our apartment, and some fresh air. She has only been a positive addition to our lives, with no stress.

Here's some pictures from our walk today! Enjoy!

Some of the scenery from our walk. So beautiful. 

Sweet Lylah girl. There's still some snow on the ground!

I just love walking with these two!

New Jacket!

Okay, so in case you didn't know, it snows in Colorado. I knew this, yet, I think I was hoping it wasn't true. It has been freezing here since Thursday…literally. The highs on Thursday and Friday were in the 20's and Saturday and Sunday in the low 30's. Not fun. Especially when clothing-wise, you are not equipped.

I am, however, equipped now. Today David and I went to Eddie Bauer and I got the BEST fleece. It is even warmer than my old cheap-o Columbia puffy ski jacket. Which makes me wonder if I ever would have survived skiing in it. I probably just needed to layer better under it. Anyways…. This jacket is the bomb. And it's pretty feminine. And it keeps me super warm, for real though. Here's the Eddie Bauer catalog image, I am not taking a selfie for y'all. Sorry to disappoint. I did that once…and it was awkward.

Shoutout to my dad and Katy for the birthday money that I bought this jacket with. And to Eddie Bauer for putting the whole store 30% off today. But mainly my dad and Katy.

Our Fur Baby

Isn't she just the cutest thing?!

So I think it's easy to say that Lylah captured our hearts the day we adopted her, but after a week of actually living with her, she has not ceased to impress me. We kennel her while we are not home and at night, and she doesn't complain a bit! It's fantastic. All of us sleep peacefully through the night. She also has only had one accident, and that was the first night we brought her home. She holds her bladder well :) She's a total momma's girl, and I am not complaining.

Lylah hangs out with me and keeps me company while David is studying away. This week it was definitely wonderful to have someone to play with while David slaved over his big paper. I didn't even get to see him on Monday :( So Lylah and I have a strong bond now, and as David gets to spend more time with her, she grows more and more attached to him as well.

Since we didn't get to see each other much this week, we had a stay in date night. When I got home from work, we went to Chick-fil-a and grabbed some dinner, brought it home, and watched The Hunger Games on Netflix. It was so wonderful to just be able to sit and be together. This morning, we went to Einstein's Bagels and had a breakfast date. It was delicious! Then we headed off to Petsmart with Lylah to see if we needed anything for the Black Friday Sale. We're pretty stocked already, and since we don't know how big Lylah is going to get, we decided to wait on buying a bigger kennel until she outgrows this one. Next we headed off to the dog park to see how Lylah would do. It was so cold. The high today was 32, I believe, and there was still snow on the ground. Lots of people were at the dog park and Lylah did fantastic. We stayed in the small dog area until the other two people in there left. One of the dogs was a little rougher than Lylah liked and she tried to avoid him, but he loved her. He accidentally pushed her over and we heard our poor fur baby yelp for the first time. She wasn't too interested in playing with other dogs, but loved running next to us as we took turns running around the park. She's going to be a great off-leash running partner :) She also knew who her owners were. Anytime she got nervous or scared, she darted straight between one of our legs. Poor baby.

First bath

Then we adventured into the large dog area. Those dogs were a little too intimidating for Lylah. There was a St. Bernard that was really gentle with her and laid down and let Lylah sniff him all over and nibble on a little. We liked him. Then she got stepped on by a Great Dane and yelped again :( So we headed back into the small dog area and played with a new friend, or tried. She did great for her first time!

She also got her first bath with us. She did so good. It was hard for her to stand though because her back leg kept slipping, so David held her up while I shampooed away. After, we took a nap snuggled up on the floor and had a relaxing day inside. She's exhausted!

Going into Thanksgiving break, David has two big papers to write, but no class. Hopefully he can get them done while I'm at work. We're super excited to go down to Colorado Springs and spend Turkey Day with his grandparents and see Tech Wreck Texas!

Addition to the Family

Well, we fell in love today. But let me backtrack and tell you the story of how we got this sweet little angel- Lylah.

This weekend was a citywide adoption weekend through Petsmart. We went on Saturday just to look around and give some puppies some loving. However, I fell in love with a little terrier mix named Ernie. He was so sweet and chill. And did I mention that while all the dogs around him were going crazy he didn't bark once. When we went into the cage to play with him, he just curled up in my lap. He was the perfect dog. He was only 1 year old, was neutered, and was up to date on all of his shots. David and I discussed if we could afford a dog, if it was plausible with all we have going on, etc. After ten minutes of discussing and deciding we wanted him, the adoption lady came and took him out of my lap and said he "was going home". My heart was broken.

So on today, Sunday, I begged David to go back to the shelter and see if the family that adopted him had returned him. My reason for this was because when we left, we saw them sitting on a bench outside with him. They looked mad or sad or angry or something that you should not look when you just get a dog! So I had convinced myself that they were bringing him back. Anyways, David caved and we went to see if he was there. He wasn't. Nor were any dogs we felt like we had to have.

So, walking back to the car (and right in front of our car-literally), there was this lady walking a little three-legged dog around. I stopped, knelt down, and started petting this cute puppy. As I was petting her, I was talking to the lady and she said that she had been hit by a car last month and the leg was too damaged to fix, so they amputated it. She also had a super cute underbite, which you can look at as either: 1. "Oh this dog is ugly", or 2. "What a cutie! She's always smiling!". I chose the latter. As I kept petting this puppy, I fell more and more in love with her. We were a little hesitant because we had decided we wanted to adopt a dog that was a year or two old so we didn't have to deal with all of the puppy craziness.We went inside to talk to the people about her and play with her, and found out that although she's only four months old, she's spayed, has all of her shots, and is basically potty trained.  She is a Hound/Beagle mix, but she looks like she has Australian Shepherd in her. We'll see when she grows up. We filled out all of the paperwork and adopted her! She's ours!

As we walked around Petsmart getting all of the basics, everyone wanted to pet her and love on her. I told David it felt so nice to have a dog that literally everyone wanted to see. We felt like movie stars. We eventually put her in the cart (which you can see in the picture to the right), so that she would stop stopping at every person we met hehe. When we got her home, we were a little nervous about how she'd do with Belle, our cat, but she was fantastic! She walked into our bedroom where Belle was, saw Belle, and turned around and walked out. She really doesn't seem to be at all interested in Belle- which is fantastic. Belle lives her life, Lylah lives hers. Oh yes! Her name is Lylah. And she is the best dog in the whole world! Feel free to be jealous of our laid back, calm, loving, potty trained puppy :)

Garden of the Gods

David and I took a sabbath on Sunday, skipped church, and headed down to Colorado Springs to walk around Garden of the Gods. It was much needed.

First off, Garden of the Gods is beautiful! We went in thinking it was going to be more of a hike, I was a little disappointed at first, but the scenery is just breathtaking there. I was really in the mood for a good hike and being outdoors, so imagine my surprise when it's all a concrete sidewalk. However, we did find the "hiking" trails, and those were fantastic! Then, we got lost. We were following "The Palmer Trail" and came to this super cool rock formation.

Then, we couldn't find The Palmer Trail again. Weird. So we followed "The Siamese Twins Trail" (which I think is what the rock formation is called) until we hit a fork in the road- up hill or down hill? We wanted to take everything in, so naturally we chose uphill. Wrong choice. The trail was there for about fifteen, twenty minutes, then it was gone. As we looked for it, we got further and further into the woods. So, we decided to make our own trail and get back to the car (we were getting tired and had to leave soon so we'd be back in time for youth). My knees were killing me as we followed the wash out from the floods earlier this summer. I told David that God sent those floods so that we would make it out of the woods hehe. As we were trekking through the wash out, I found shoe prints, so I immediately did not feel like such an idiot for losing the trail.

Even though we completely lost the trail, it was still so fun. It was wonderful to be out in God's beautiful creation, spending some much needed, away from the house, time together. The perfect refresher.

Obviously a trail. Right before it disappeared. Who would have thought?!

The washout we used to get out of the woods

Dinner Fail

So I'm at it again in the kitchen. I fail miserably, often.

And that's okay!

I'm a newlywed, fresh out of college, and learning how to cook. You would think that with my mom owning Family Feast, I would have learned how to cook some things. Nope. I call her often to ask for recipes, the same ones usually. She finally sent them to me so I no longer have to badger her about those few recipes I know turn out well.

One of my greatest fails was when we still lived in Lubbock. I was making pot roast in our new crock pot, and I was super excited. So, I invited about six of our friends over for dinner. Low and behold, the pot roast was not fully cooked in time for dinner. So, we ended up going out. I felt awful. I had invited all of these people over for a free meal, and we were all out buying chinese. At least the chinese was good.

On my way home from work tonight, it occurred to me that I did not put the pot in the crock pot. No worries, I spent the morning preparing everything so that all I had to do on my lunch break was put the pot on the crock portion (I think that makes sense…?) and turn it on. BUT, I did not come home for lunch today! And I had planned on not coming home. I am a crazy person. So, in my desperate case for food, we are having spaghetti. But I'm not complaining. I could eat spaghetti every night. I love pasta.

This is not the first time I have failed at making dinner. There have been times when I'm at work and remember, 'Oh, I didn't plan anything for dinner tonight…'. Yeah, awkward. I come home starving, David's hungry, and nothing. We just dig up whatever we can between the fridge, freezer, and pantry.

At least this time I had something semi-prepared. Right?

Birthday Festivities

So my birthday was November 1st. Woohoo! Another year older. I am officially 23 if you were wondering.

My sweet hubby took extra good care of me on my birthday and the day after. I am so spoiled!

So right after the alarm went off, David told me he had a surprise for me. He pulled out his phone while I tried to open my eyes and keep them open. Then he showed me a series of maybe seven videos from our friends. They all had sent David a video of them wishing me a happy birthday and telling me how much they loved me. It was so special to see all of my sweet friends' faces and hear their voices. A couple people made them funny and others were serious. It was a fantastic mix and I appreciated it so much!

Then it was off to work. Nothing too eventful. Only one person knew it was my birthday, and she didn't come in until 2:30. I think they think my birthday is on the 11th….that will be awkward.

When I got home, there were cards and package strewn across our counter, however, I got off late and had to rush to get to my birthday dinner. David had invited our young married's group and a couple of other friends we've met along the way. We called to get our names on the list at Casa Mariachi (one of the first decent Mexican restaurants (to be honest, there's not really any good Mexican food up here)), and they had a bunch of big parties and wouldn't be able to sit us until at least 7:30. Problem #1: We told everyone 6:30. So we quickly found a new place, Hacienda, and tried to relay the message to as many people as possible. Problem #2: We didn't have everyone's phone numbers. Yikes! So David and I flew to Casa Mariachi to send people on to Hacienda.

By the time we got there, everyone who we didn't have the phone numbers of was there, so we all caravanned to Hacienda. It worked great! One of the couples from our young married's group had bought me a margarita, and I love margaritas! Problem #3: I hadn't had a drink since we'd been in Colorado. Uh oh. Let's just say I'm a light weight to begin with, add in the altitude and I was a goner. I'll get back to that in a minute. While we waited for our table we were outside by a giant fire pit. It was super cool! Moving the dinner to Hacienda was the best idea we had all night! When our table was ready, I had only drank half of my margarita, but when I tried to walk, oh man did I feel that drink. We sat down and I couldn't even read the menu! I have never felt like this before. I asked David how long it would last and he said like 20-30 minutes and took my margarita away from me, laughing. Dinner was great! Everyone got along, the food was more decent than Casa Mariachi, and apparently I was more talkative than ever! When we got home, I laid down for a second, and it was game over. (Side note, I so love this picture, minus the fact that the string used to help keep my sweater on the hanger decided to photo bomb. Not cool.)

The next day I convinced David to take me to brunch at Le Peep. We have one back in San Antonio, and it is delicious! It's where I had my bridesmaid's brunch. Le Peep did not disappoint in Colorado. It was fantastic. David and I then headed off to do some birthday shopping and Christmas present hunting. We went down to the outlet mall in Castle Rock- which is fabulous. We spent a couple hours there then headed home to make some dinner and relax (for me at least, David had a paper to write).

In other news, we all know that I am pretty decent at doing other people's hair and pretty lazy when it comes to my own. I'm attempting to change that, again. Now that my hair is getting longer- praise Jesus!- I am capable of actually doing more to it than straightening it or wearing it natural. As of right now, I'm digging the loose curl look. I even did y'all the pleasure of taking a selfie so that you can see it too. Selfie's are awkward, I'm not gonna lie.