Engagement Pics

Here are some photos taken by the AMAZING LAUREN SELLARI!

Trust me these are not all of them and they are not all of our favorites cause there are just TONS AND TONS. We are incredibly happy and blessed.

LOVE LOVE LOVE

We have finally come around to making some decisions!!!! We will be getting married 2/12/12!!! Since we got engaged on 11/11/11 I figured I needed to try to do something with the numbers. Hopefully doing this will make it easier for us to remember year after year. We are very excited and anxious for the day. As things come together we get more and more excited for the day. It has been great working on all the decisions together. Through this I feel so blessed by my friends and their support and love and excitement for us! I feel so overwhelmed by love from everyone. Blessed beyond measure!

We're Engaged!!!

A weekend like no other... :)

I thought we were headed to Lubbock for a Tech game. When we got on the road...we were headed in the wrong direction! I asked DM why we were headed this way...He told me just to trust him and that he would let me know when we got there. I was all concerned for the football game. And not that I am untrusting, but I just like to know what is going on...so I kept asking and tried to think of options (I would have never guessed what did end up happening). We stopped and ate lunch at Uncle Julios then DM said I had two options to waste some time. I chose Nasher Sculpture Center...where we went on our first trip to Dallas together. Finally I felt at ease about the trip and just went with it. We got there looked around..took a picture in the same spot we did last time (see below) then walked around more...




 On our way out though, DM looked at the photo and said it wasn't good enough and we needed to go back and take another one. I thought it was a bit ridiculous, but went back again. I walked up to pose and turned around and saw him getting down on one knee. I was shocked!!!

Then COMPLETELY OVERWHELMED!!!!!!

  SOOOOO HAPPY!!!!! 

Next step...wedding planning...already wondering...how do people do this??? LOL. It should be interesting. I am so excited and happy and grateful for my other half and this journey that we will be going on together throughout life. I can't thank God enough for placing him in my life. I am beyond blessed. 

Canyon Adventure

July 22

This adventure led us straight to DonMark's home!

To say I was nervous would be an understatement. I asked DM TONS of questions about anything you could imagine.

She was very nervous, but had no reason to be. I was excited about this adventure as it had been a while since my last visit.

This adventure took us on another car ride journey with the kids. Shockingly enough...we made it the whole way with ZERO stops! Right away the kids wanted to see the horses.

That is a first for the kids, and no DVD player!!! Thanks again Abilene Public Library.

The next day we headed out to the Canyons. It was ridiculously hot..as we expected, but still fun. The kids had a great time and really that is all that matters. We stayed to have lunch then back home we went...for nap time!

For the majority of the time DonMark was up in the attic working on the airconditioner and Julianna (obviously stayed far away from that mess) and hung out with the kids/DonMark's mom/Gretchen. It was eventful! :)

Never heard so much banging on the ceiling in my life. I was very content sitting in the A/C and hanging out with everyone else!

The AC deal was frustrating on many levels, but we got the problem solved which is nice. 

The next day was church and then a RACE! Yeah you heard that correctly a race.

For some reason Wyatt got the idea that we needed to race or at least he wanted to race against Pa...somehow I managed to be on Wyatts team against Pa and DonMark. This was talked up A LOT. There was even a search for a baton to hand off. Soooo fun!!! After we raced, we were standing around laughing and then Emme...bursts out running the same path we had just taken. It was cute and hysterical.

One of the top Taz moments of all time!!

I got to take a little stroll on a horse...along with DonMark.

The kids also did a little Treasure Hunt with Pa & GT. I loved watching that! So cute and such a great idea!! I know they enjoyed it!



I feel EXTREMELY grateful to be a part of DonMark's life and the kids lives as well. A girl couldn't ask for more.

Overall, this was a great trip. The kids had a blast and I think the adults did too. Glad Gretch could come be a part of the craziness. 

World Aquarium Round 2

We had this grand idea to take the kids to Dallas to visit Aunt Gretch and go to the World Aquarium...
This was also the kids first trip in Black Beauty (Julianna's car).

This may seem like not to big of a deal, but I had decided we were not taking a DVD player for the trip...so then the contemplation of entertainment for 6 hours in a car...all in the same day! DonMark and I had gone to the library in preparation for this journey. Also, we bought coloring books for them as well. I was ready with Pipe Cleaners, but was hoping to avoid that in case my creative brain was lacking. I am extremely OCD about my vehicle so I was a bit nervous about the car ride.

We started off a bit late, but that's ok..when has time stopped us from getting somewhere! Right off the bat Wyatt was asking if we were there already. Yeahhhhh.

I started off giving each a book for them to flip through and then I would read the one Wyatt was holding. Make them trade and then read the next one. It went perfect. I decided I needed a little break from reading so gave them coloring books...which ended in me sitting back with them helping Wyatt with his CARS book. :)

All three kids did great in the car!!! Haha I don't know who entertained who and who had the most fun with the library books. These were not just any random library books, these were carefully selected dinosaur books with some farms animals mixed in there for Taz.  

FINALLY DALLAS! We met Gretchen at the Aquarium. It was PACKED! We still were determined to make due and not miss a thing. Our goal was to make it to the crocodile feedings. (For DonMark)

Crocodile feeding fail. We were told at our first trip that they feed them whole chickens, this I had to see.  Turns out they just fed them fish and it was very uneventful. 

We walked around for a bit until the kids started getting hungry and realized we needed to take a break. We left and attempted In-and-Out...which didn't work. Settled on Chick-fil-a (the kids favorite!)

We attempted nap time, which ended up as goof off time. Then back to the Aquarium for more!

This trip was tons of fun!!! The best part was the kids faces when we would encounter a new animal. I think it was a long day for everyone, but well worth it.  Thanks to Gretch for providing the photography.  My favorite part of the trip came in the last 5 minutes. We were all ready to be home and could see the lights of Abilene from about 5 miles out. Wyatt just couldn't hold it any longer. So when in need find a tree....

It was tons of fun...so packed with people, but we had a good time and that is all that matters to us. We ate some dinner (at Jimmy Johns) then headed back. 

Yes, of course we stopped at a Jamba Juice on the way home. 

Our fuses were very short and the kids were all riled up, but that didn't stop us laughing hysterically with them and smiling all the way home.
Wyatt was being silly and singing songs...then all of a sudden sings 'And Emme got the base.' We started dying laughing.