In the past three-hundred and sixty-five days....

This past year alot of has happened and I am going to try and catch you all up to date!
Wes' childhood buddy got married in New Jersey and we attended their wedding, it was a blast (and of course my friend Katie caught the bouquet!)

Wes and I took a trip to Playa del Carmen in May.




Landry graduated highschool in June and we had a sweet family get together. It was 3 weeks before my precious Grandmother passed away.





Two weeks later we all gathered again in Norman at Mema's house. We had the most special weekend. I will always hold this weekend with my family close to my heart. It was the last time I got to see my Grandmother and it is when I told her goodbye. She passed away a week later.











Mema had a memorial service in Norman that was truly celebratory of her life. She was a very well liked lady and I am honored to have gotten to be her Granddaugther. Yes, our family takes pictures at funerals- weird? Maybe. Just a little bit. But we don't mind, Mema was always the one behind the camera at relatives burial sites having us all squeeze together and saying "cheese"! I know she'd be proud :)

Look very close, it's a blue bird!






Family genetics.. hyperhydrosis-- check.

Believe me people, this would make my Grandmother's day. She would have been very disappointed in us if we left all of those beautiful flowers there where no one could enjoy them!




The day ended with a beautiful sunset.

Sister married Hal Nall in July. They had a beautiful and sweet wedding out at my Aunt Stacey and Uncle Doug's beautiful home in the country.
At her brunch the day of...
Here Jen is prepping Lynley for the 10 minute bachelorette party. Gotta cover all the bases, shotgun wedding or not! (love you Lyn ☺ )



The evening of her big day :)...



Last August Wes and I went on my very first cruise together with my brother-in-law Cal, his girlfriend (fiance now-as of 3-18-11!! Congrats guys!) Tiffany, and another couple Katy and Trevor. We flew to Ft. Lauderdale (compliments of free airline tickets the Winchester's gave us--Thanks again!) and then took a taxi down to Miami where we stayed in a little posh/euro style hotel for the evening.


The next day we boarded Royal Carribbean's Majesty of the Seas.
First stop of Key West.




damn shark, bit my leg.

Second stop was Nassau, Bahamas.



Third stop-- some small island Royal Carribbean owns in the Bahamas.




I was pleasantly suprised that I enjoyed the cruise as much as I did. I really enjoyed relaxing out on deck in the middle of the ocean. I enjoyed going to a few different places, oh, and did I mention the food? The food....I gained a good 6 pounds on that cruise. Food EVERYWHERE 24/7. I couldn't help myself!



In September the parentals came for a visit. We had a really great weekend together! Catching live crabs for their pretty shells. Poor crabs. One is still incognito in my back yard somewhere (We recently got rid of the hot tub and when I was cleaning it out there was some strange specimen covered in goo in the bottom.. crab? maybe.)





We took a little tour through King Ranch

I spy with my little eye something ....green with really sharp teeth... it's not the cow!



In November, Sister had her baby shower for the precious Miss Claire Parker. Ton's of pink! Cute tutus, hats, flowers, socks, onesies. It might have given me just a snige of baby fever.







For Thanksgiving Wes and I drove (like 20 somethin' hours) to South Carolina to be with his family for the holiday. Wes' Grandfather lives in this crazy old historical home in North Augusta, SC. It even has an old slave house on the premises. Kinda creepy? A little bit. Really neat? Oh yes! I wish I would have gotten a photo of the basement that was converted into a little shooting range.


That is the old slave house out back.

So I went just a little bit crazy photographing the donkeys. Oh, & goat--gotta give props to Butthead Billy (no I am not name callin'.. that is his name!)







It is a real jackass.

Morning Hike around the pond.


In the beginning of December we decided to have our ceiling repaired, it had a long crack down it for the last year and we had kept putting off fixing it. We decided to put DIY aside and leave this to the pros. While we were having that work done we decided to go ahead and scrape the popcorn off the ceilings. Wes and I did DIY the dining room awhile back and realized quickly how awful it would be to scrape the ceilings ourselves through the rest of the house. We also replaced our cracked tile floors with these purty things... I have really enjoyed them. Although I never realized how nasty my floor was when we had the tile. I can see every white Scout hair floating around. And I thought he wasn't supposed to shed?

Christmas came and went. The Winchester's came down and spent the holiday with us. We had a shrimp boil at the water front airstream rv park and opened lots of fun gifts Christmas morning.





We went to San Antonio for New Years and saw Chris Robison at Gruene Hall.

Lynley had precious baby Claire Jan. 25th. I got to see her in labor and the contraction charts and all of that good stuff. It was such an amazing experience. And wow-- I am an Aunt now to this itty bitty baby. She is so sweet. She is also an amazing trooper. Look at what my mom and I put her through when she was just a few days old...









Look, she already has a great sense of humor! :)


I miss her all the time, Lynley sends me flip videos and pictures and man she has changed so much already. I hate that.


Need I say more? :)

My dearest friend Leandra moved back to Maryland March 12th. I am hating that. She was my buddy down here in South Texas away from everyone. We had some really amazing times together! I miss her all the time and will continue to do so. I already went to visit her March 31st and she was back down here at the beginning of May.

Here is the famous Maryland blue crab her sweet family treated me to!

It was great seeing where Wanita (my nickname for Leandra) grew up!
In the meantime I have taken up (or attempting to) crochet! This is my first masterpiece!!!!





I have really thrown myself into gardening this year. I always plant every year but this year I have really done alot of research and reading and preparing. I hope it pays off because I have been working my buns off! Not really, my buns are definetly still there, but you get the drift.

I made the back yard flower bed curvy and built it up for better drainage.


Some of the things I planted are okra, yellow pear tomatos, salvia, pink verbena,zinnias, pentas, mexican sage.

And no, my grass is not that crazy green. I played with the photoshop app on my iphone and up'd the saturation! :)
This is what is really looks like-- but hey a gal can dream can't she!!?





And speaking of gardens...I planted 7 tomato plants this year and have had an abudance of fresh fruit! I decided to make canned salsa with all the tomaters last night. It's no where as good as my mom's homemade stuff but it'll do-- and I'll change it up the next round.