Alabama Trip

I had such a great time this past weekend with my family, both my parents and my extended family on my dad's side. It had been at least 2 years since I'd seen some of them, and much longer since I had seen others!

We drove to Little Rock on Thursday night, and then on into Huntsville the next day. Well, I should say my dad, the driving machine, drove us there. Here he is--isn't he cute?! =)

My dad's cousin, Jim and his wife Betty Jane, let us stay with them at their beautiful new home. They live in a gorgeous neighborhood, surrounded by tall, graceful trees. They just finished building a wonderful arbor and outdoor kitchen in their backyard. Justin would have loved it, so I had to take these pictures to share with him!

On Saturday, we had two birthday celebrations for my sweet Aunt Louise. We had a reception for her at her assisted living home, as well as a family party back at Jim and Betty's home that evening. For being 90 years old, she is looking great and is still so in tune with everything going on. I was so glad that I came with my parents because I was able to spend some quality time with her! I made her a shawl, and this is her opening it! Hopefully it will keep her warm!

Everyone who knows my Aunt Louise knows she loves butterflies. She has so many beautiful butterfly figurines decorating her home, as well as many pins. It is pretty much a guarantee that anytime you see her, she will be wearing at least one butterfly on her somewhere! Here are some pictures of the party at her home.

This is Piper, my cousin Greg's little girl. She is in first grade and was such a great help in serving all the guests their cake and punch!! What a cutie!! She and I had such a fun time together! Here is Greg, her dad, and her little brother Grayden. He was such a cute little guy, and make us all laugh the whole time! He though it would be great to "dress-up" his dad as well!!

Here is Aunt Louise wearing a pair of butterfly wings all of her friends had given her!! We joked that it only took her 90 years to get her very own wings!


Later in the evening, we had dinner back at Jim and Betty's house. This is a family picture of all of us together!
What a great weekend had by all!! Hopefully I'll get to see them all again soon!!One more wonderful thing to share...our friends, Bill and Denise, who I asked for you to pray for in this blog, have had their baby!! His name is Brock Rohloff, and he was born at 38 weeks--14 weeks after his mom went on bedrest!! Delivery was pretty rough, but he is here and he is healthy!! Thanks for your prayers--I'm so happy to share this great update and adorable picture!!

Sweet Home Alabama....

I thought I would spend this weekend finally catching up my blog with all of my pictures from this past month, but I had a slight change of plans. Right now I'm typing this quick little blog from a hotel room in Little Rock, Arkansas! My parents and I are on our way to Huntsville, Alabama, for a 90th birthday celebration for my great Aunt Louise. I'm named after her (Alyson Louise), and since my dad's parents died before I was born, she and her husband were kind of like the grandparents on on his side of the family. I wasn't originally planning to go, but I decided that I couldn't pass the opportunity up! Hopefully she'll be surprised to see me!

So I'll be back later with lots of pictures--and hopefully some good ones from this trip too!! Hope you have a wonderful weekend! (I miss you Justin...have fun taking care of all the animals this weekend! 3!)

My Surprise Valentine's Day...

For those of you who know my husband, he is not big on 'Hallmark Holidays'. Meaning those holidays that seem to be made huge by the greeting card industry--like Valentine's Day. He will celebrate them for my sake, but would let it go by without any acknowledgment if he could! So we had talked earlier in the week, and we just decided that we wouldn't do anything this weekend special, but instead just enjoy relaxing at home. I usually am the queen of getting cards, but I suggested that this year, we wouldn't even worry about that. So needless to say, I was completely shocked when I started to make breakfast on Saturday morning (pink heart shaped pancakes--just for a bit of Valentine fun!), and he came in with these flowers and a wonderful card!!!



He completely shocked me, and absolutely made my day!!! Later on that afternoon, in the midst of our lazy day, he goes outside and comes back in with all the fixings of a yummy lasagna dinner he was going to make for me. I was in shock again--I was not expecting anything this Valentine's day, and here he surprised me with a whole day of wonderful surprises!




I love this man!!!



What a great Valentine's day!!! I love you, Justin, and I can't wait to share at least 65 more years of them with you!!!

(I have so many more pictures that I finally figured out how to upload onto our office computer--so come back this week for more posts with pictures. My laptop is STILL not back, but I'm hoping to have it soon!)

My excuse...

Here I am again--with weeks between blogs!! Terrible--and there should be no excuse! But I do have a pretty good one! My hard drive on my laptop completely crashed, and is, at the moment, being rebuilt. Everything is gone. But about 95% of my pictures are backed up, and the latest ones, including Christmas, that weren't, are mostly posted here on my blog!! So I will be back to blogging early next week when I have my (new) laptop back! So there it is--my excuse. Forgive me?!

Here is a quick run-down of some of the things that have been happening to us--so much that was blog-worthy, and will get a much more detailed description next week!

1. Watching our friends' dog, Sophie--Betsy first time having a friend spend the weekend! Our dog is definitely a spoiled only child!

2. Working at a huge Bridal Show here in Dallas for my brother. He owns a company called Weddzilla. Much more to come about this one...But if you are a bride to be, know one, or are at all involved in a business that caters to brides, PLEASE check out this website! And pass it along! In short, brides post what they need online, and the vendors come to them!! How genius is that?!

3. My parents finally moved to Texas!!! We are enjoying every moment having them here at our home, and my mom and I are working together!!! I'm so thankful that they are here! And Betsy loves Molly, their dog, and Simba, their cat too!


Okay--that is all for now, but next week will begin more regular posts! Sorry for the giant gaps in blogs--they will be a thing of the past very soon!