JOY! Our Charming House in Cammack Village

Yes, of course the word joy is associated with the upcoming holiday and I am filled with joy when I think about how absolutely blessed I am to be able to spend Christmas with the ones I love. However, the JOY I speak of today has come from my going through and organizing the things that were in the last 2 boxes from my condo! I probably shouldn't be too proud of this considering we have lived here in this house together for almost 6 months now but alas, I am so super excited!! We still have a long way to go to bring this house up to the level of organization that my sometimes type A personality requires but we have come a LONG way! When I moved in after the wedding you could not even see our dining room for all of the wedding gifts. Definitely a blessing yes, but I thought we'd never find a place for it all! We did and we celebrated with a bottle of wine! THEN, I found a renter for the condo I lived in prior to the wedding...yes, another blessing indeed! However, all of the stuff crammed into a 2 story condo had to go somewhere and again, the dining room disappeared...as did the living room, guest room, "back" room, breakfast area and kitchen. It felt like it would never end but of course after a lot of work and a lot of compromise* it finally did (sort of!). I am not posting pictures of the "mad house" (other than the Christmas ones already posted) until we have a "not mad house"...and our new furniture arrives! I just had to get this all out and thought this the perfect place!

*There are still too many ducks (never alive and used to be alive) in this house for me and I fear the antlers in the picture below will require a spot on a wall one day soon...but I hear compromise is a good thing in a marraige! :)

Merry Christmas!

So, almost 2 months later I'm finally posting a new blog!
We've been staying quite busy these days! We had a wonderful Thanksgiving with our families and soon after we went to Kansas to visit my grandparents and so Jim could deer hunt. He is happy to report that he got the biggest deer of the week and I'm just happy that our freezer will be full of what I pretend is meat that comes from the "grocery store". Since, we've been getting ready for Christmas. We finally decorated our house and our cute little tree. We didn't get the lights up on the outside of the house this year because we just ran out of time. Hopefully next year we'll do that again because I just love our big colored lights on our cute little house!

A couple of weekends ago my friend Andrea and her kiddos who live in Springdale came to visit for a fun day of shopping! Her boys are so much fun! Luke will be 3 in March and Sam will be 1 in April. Andrea is such a fun Mom! I really enjoy watching her with her boys. She is teaching them so much and is very patient even though at times she definitely has her hands full as most moms do with little ones! Luke is very smart and likes to talk a lot. Sam is very observant and very laid back. We started the day with lunch at DGP where Luke stuffed is pockets full of pink packages and paper towels...later to be found in the wash! Then we headed to Mid-Towne and Park Plaza to shop with the crazy mass of people! We had so much fun and Luke really enjoyed playing with the kitty and Jim. I think Santa needs to bring him a kitten for Christmas!

We are off to Lavaca to spend some time with my family and friends this Thursday and then we'll be back for Christmas with Jim's family...then we're headed to Dallas for New Year's Eve with a few of our best friends and the guys will be cheering on the Hogs at the Cotton Bowl! WOOO PIG SOOIE!

Here are a few pictures of random happenings in our world...

My Papa, Dad, Brother and Jim with his deer...


Kansas Sky...


Christmas at the Battreal house!




Luke and Sam!


Luke and Jim making funny faces...


Luke playing at Starbucks...


Cute Sam!

Earthquake in California!

I'm in San Francisco for a class...so, tonight I was sitting in Union Square reading and people watching (and rat watching...yes, a "cute" little rat was in the small garden just behind the bench I was sitting on) when I felt the ground shake. I briefly considered the fact that it could be earthquake related since I'm in California but didn't really think too much of it because it was fairly subtle. However, when I got back to the room I turned on the tv and as I flipped through the channels I sadly realized that I missed Charlie Brown - The Great Pumpkin. I love that show and try to watch it every year! After I got over my sadness I noticed text flashing across the screen that confirmed my thought! There was a 5.6 magnitude earthquake 50 miles southeast of San Francisco! So, now I can mark "feel the effects of an earthquake but not get sucked into the ground" off of my list of things to accomplish/experience in my lifetime!

And now, Barry Mannilow is performing "Mandy" on Dancing with the Stars...my evening is complete! ha

Happy Halloween!

I love tradition...one of my favorite "Katie and Jim" traditions is carving jack-o-lanterns for Halloween and then sitting on the front porch to pass out candy to the cute little trick-or-treaters. We've carved jack-o-lanterns almost every year since we started dating. This year I'm going to be in San Francisco for a class on Halloween so we won't get to sit on the porch together...but we did carve our jack-o-lanterns! Jim's is sad because I won't be home this year and mine could use a eyelash brush...looks like a case of the clumpy mascara!

Mary Haven's Soccer Game

Last night Jim and I went to watch our niece Mary Haven's soccer game. Watching 4 year olds play soccer is so much fun! I kind of expected to see them running around unsure of what soccer really was but I have to say, they really knew what was up! The game didn't last very long but they had a half time and they switched directions at the half. At the end of the game everyone got goldfish crackers and juice. Mary Haven was very excited about that. Jim asked her if she was only there for the goldfish and juice and she quickly responded while shrugging her shoulders, "yes". That's my kind of kid! :)

For those of you who don't know Mary Haven, she is #8.

Ready?


YAY!


Look at me go!


Okay coach, time to practice my dance moves!


Fine...I'll practice my moves later. Time to play soccer!


Seriously, I can so do this!


Time for a water break...good game!

Sad little squash...

For the past few years Jim has planted a garden in our backyard. For the entire summer the garden is his baby and he takes care of it almost every day. The first couple of years he grew tomatoes, cucumbers and as always, several varieties of peppers. This year he attempted to grow squash and I'm convinced that he would have been successful had it not been for the craziness of planning a wedding...or maybe...just maybe a rabbit was to blame. What do you think?

Girl's Night!

Friday night I had girl night with my friends Jennifer, Jenny and Jenny's daughter Rachel. We did some shopping and went for sushi. Rachel told me that her favorite thing to shop for is "pink shoes". Sadly, we didn't find any pink shoes but she definitely got the hang of the chopsticks!

Instructions? Yeah, I don't need em!













Look Ma! I have a chicken mustache!













Seriously, I've got this!













See! I told you!














Such a fun evening!

Weekend fun at the lake!

We spent this weekend with our friends Mattson, Karen, Riley and Buddy Wade at their lake house on Cedar Creek Reservoir in Texas. Riley is getting so big and is so much fun! She and Buddy both love the boat and Riley even gets to drive! We had such a fun time and can't wait to visit again!

Zoe the Cat

Zoe has been such a big help around the house lately! She loves to help with boxes and play in baskets at the exact same time I'm trying to move them around and get organized.

The Honeymoon in Jamaica

Bachelorette Party