Brandon's 24th Birthday

The Cake:

The explanation of "The Cake":

I have been planning to make Brandon a really good, decorated poker cake for a few months now... And here is the design I was going for:

But when I realized that the decorating icing tips didn't fit the icing tubes, I had to make a trip to United. Then when I came back from United, I realized I didn't have red icing! So time was running out and I was beginning to panic... I decided to continue without the red icing. But, when I ran out of the green icing and saw that I only had 20 minutes left to finish, I freaked out and just started to mix every icing color in site, put a big 24 on top, and stuck in 24 candles... Moral of the story: don't judge a book by its cover (at least the cake tasted good!)

Our First Christmas

I hope everybody had a very good Christmas!!!  Because it was me and Brandon's first Christmas together, there were a few traditional changes in both of our usual Christmases... for one thing, Brandon wouldn't wake up to see what Santa brought us and to open our presents at 4:30, when I woke up, so we had to settle for 7 that morning instead. Everything seemed to go perfect. We were so happy to get to spend it with our parents and sisters and all their families. 

Here are a few pictures from Christmas morning:

Hope everyone has a good New Years! Wedding pictures should come up pretty soon, so stay in touch!

Tag, I'm It!

8 TV SHOWS I ENJOY WATCHING:

1. Desperate Housewives

2. Grey's Anatomy

3. Private Practice

4. House

5. "25 Days of Christmas" on the family channel

6. Criss Angel

7. Full House

8. Fresh Prince of Bel-Air

8 THINGS THAT HAPPENED YESTERDAY:

1. Made sausage, biscuits, and gravy (not homemade biscuits because I didn't want to have to throw them away like "Rojo Caliente" did.)

2. Hung out with Juno

3. Unpacked from Cancun

4. Had a bball game in Perryton; we won 58-4 :)

5. Did some laundry

6. Made a Christmas to-do list

7. Ate Ramen Noodles (...Jena don't even comment...)

8. Thought about studying...

8 THINGS THAT I LOOK FORWARD TO:

1. Seeing all my family for Christmas

2. Christmas Break!

3. Getting wedding pictures back

4. New Years Eve!

5. GRADUATING!!!

6. getting paid again someday here in a month or so... ughh.

7. Jerod Wesley Soler to be here

8. Spending time with Brandon and the dogs

8 THINGS ON MY WISH LIST:

1. The new 24' Apple LED Cinema Display 

2. Live in the same area as my mom and dad

3. I'm with jena, I'm sick of not being able to wear ankle bracelets!

4. To be able to adopt Kaelynn and Kennedy in 5 years

5. For the rest of my friends and family to make a blog

6. Graduate next semester and have a job in August so I can check off #1

7. For Autumn to not eat her digested food

8. To stop walking and talking in my sleep every night...

8 THINGS BRANDON DID YESTERDAY:

1. Went to work

2. Put a doorknob on our closet door

3. Painted our closet door

4. Finished the laundry I never actually did... oops (he'll have to get used to that, huh mom?)

5. Put up our new medicine cabinet

6. Built some sort of table for his tools in the shop

7. Got me a Christmas present... (I can't figure out what it is!)

8. hung out with Jared

8 PEOPLE TO TAG:

I don't have 8 people to tag!....

So I'll just tag Julia and Haley since you two are the only ones on my list that haven't done this yet! :)

An Update from the Honeymooners!

A Day at Xcaret

On Wednesday, we went to a park called Xcaret. Xcaret, which means "small inlet," used to be a Mayan village that is now made into a natural park. 

When we first got to the park, we rented some snorkeling gear and a lifejacket and swam through an underground river...

After the river swim, we took a snorkeling tour on a boat to a few coral reefs...

The scenery was very pretty at the park...

Here is one of the restaurants at the Xcaret park.  I actually got Brandon to try some calamari! But I only told him what it was after he tried it! haha...sneaky sneaky! And, no, he didn't like it of course...
We also went to an aquarium at the park. The turtles and stingrays were huge!...
At the end of the day, Xcaret puts on a show that shows the background of the Mexican culture. The show was awesome...

A Day at the BeachYesterday we spent all day out on the beach at our resort. They have a lot of activities here to keep everyone entertained: beach volleyball, beach soccer, beach trivia, water basketball, oh and did we mention strip water volleyball???...
Although it seemed like fun, we just preferred to keep fully clothed near the ocean...
I have been trying really hard to get Brandon's picture with the ocean in the background, but some how other things keep getting in the way!...

Out on the TownToday we decided to take the bus to where the shopping and restaurants were. People here are CRazY drivers! Everyone drives very fast and do not care about anyone else on the road... *interesting fact* -here in Mexico, they do not require people to pass a driving test! People automatically receive their driver's license when they turn 16.
Here we are are at the mall!...
Brandon bought me a new ring! It has an amethyst stone :) ...
Brandon and Me at Margaritaville for lunch...
Hasta La Vista! Well, since tomorrow is our last full day here in Cancun at Temptation Resort and Spa, we plan to lay out on the beach all day and get as much sun as we can! Hope it's not too cold there in Texas! Miss ya'll! See ya'll soon!

Hola! Greetings from Paradise!

We both really didn't know what to expect on this trip, so we really didn't have any expectations other than to have a lot of fun! So, as of day 2 of the trip, our expectations have been exceeded! 

 

First of all, I know everyone was very worried about my condition during the plane ride over... 

But I did SO GOOD! Mom, you would be very proud!

I wasn't scared once! (okay, maybe when we started to descend, but that is a major improvement!)...

Kayla and Nathan, thanks so much for the bag of things for the trip! They are greatly appreciated!...

SKYLINK??? I guess we aren't up to date on the world and its new inventions! This was soooo fun! Kinda like a roller coaster ride!  

Here we are riding the Skylink in Dallas to another terminal...

We finally got to Cancun, and we finally got to see the BLUE water! It is sooo pretty and just like the pictures from all the postcards and calendars!

Here is the view from our balcony, and here is the view of our resort...

The food here is a lot better than what we expected. There is a lot of choices! There are 5 different restaurants at the resort and one snack bar. Since everything is inclusive, we get to eat whatever we want, however much we want, and whenever we want...which we have discovered is a bittersweet thing that we have definitely been taking advantage of. So far, our favorite place to eat is a restaurant called Margaritas...

Today, we did two cool things...
1.  A couple's massage...
2.  And, some tattoos...

This vacation has also been very educational!  All of the employees here are very hard working, nice people! They are always quick to help! Did you know that the minimum wage in Mexico is only $4 a day? So, even though this trip is all inclusive, tipping is kind of an unspoken thing that is done. We are also learning a bit of Spanish.We have also learned that it is okay to walk around topless (which a lot of old women choose to do.) I didn't think Brandon was even caring, nor looking. But when I asked, "Whoa, did you see those ones that were pierced?!" he said, "Uh huh..." Haha...so yeah, right...
Well, tomorrow we are going to this park called Xcaret. We will be swimming through natural caves, snorkeling, snubaing, riding water rides, and watching a Mexican show (kinda like our play "Texas")Now we are heading to go eat some TexMex and then off to Karaoke night at the "Nice Shoes" bar. Adios!

7 and Counting!

We are now counting down the days until the Big Day! We have exactly one week left! I cannot believe how fast it went! 

Since we will be in Mexico for a week after the wedding, I figured that I could finally make a blog so we can keep you all updated on how things in Mexico are going! 

But, until then, I thought I would post a few pictures to update the past few months!

We'll start with Jena and Cody's big halloween party:

~Here is the cake I made for Krista's birthday...

~Me and Brandon as "Frost Bite" and a nerdy basketball player...

~Me with Jena, the "Mobster"...

~Cody and Jena as the "Mobsters"...

Brandon and Jared getting ready for the big game...

Juno and Autumn:

~Here's my big baby Juno! He is now able to sit, shake, speak, lay down, crawl, roll over, and say "I Love You."

~Meet Autumn! Brandon adopted her from the SPCA. Isn't she cute!?

When is it really TOO early?

~Yes, mom, I know..."People should never put up Christmas decorations until after Thanksgiving. But, we won't be back until December 7th and that is too late. If we waited until after the wedding and honeymoon to decorate, then it would never get done! That is my reason...I wonder what Julia's is???

~And the tree...

~Autumn's favorite spot...