Rebecca and Kirk's Wedding

Jon's cousin, Rebecca got married this past Saturday in the DFW area and we had a great time catching up with family on his mom's side. We had quite the day of travel though...we left at 7:30am on Saturday and drove to Coppell where we had lunch with his Dad, then went to the wedding at 2pm and then the reception from 4-7 in downtown Dallas and then back to Coppell afterward for a little suprise retirement party for Aunt Lynette. We left DFW around 10pm and got home at 1am! Thanks to Jon who drove both ways and let me sleep. (The only reason we pulled this crazy day and came back is because I had to work on Sunday) There are 11 grandkids on Jon's mom's side, and everybody was there! I think the big family picture probably had 30 people in it! Congrats to Rebecca and Kirk...they are a precious couple and will be living in Austin not far from us!

Kirk and Rebecca's first dance

Uncle Aaron, Jon and Cousin Brett

Peggy, Mark, Bailee and Brooke(Jon's nieces), David(his brother in law), Marna(his sis) and us

Jon and Peggy


Us with Janey and Kenny (Jon's cousin)

Jon with his parents

Grandma and Jon

Updated Guest Bedroom

Well, we decided it was time to get a more comfortable and larger bed for our guest bedroom, so we recently bought new queen size mattresses. This of course spurred one of my favorites things to do, which is shop for home decor stuff! We needed new bedding since the bed is larger and I went ahead and decided to change out some of the decorations in the room also. It looked fine before, but I like it even better now. I don't have a before pic, but here's the new room. Everything I bought was on sale and I found some pretty good deals at: Burlington Coat Factory (which was a suprise to me...I'd never been there), Kirkland's and one of my favorite stores, Hobby Lobby!

Mindy's Going Away Party

Our good friend and down the street neighbor, Mindy is moving with her family to Minnesota this weekend. We are so sad to see her go and wish them the best in their journey. We had a little going away party for her at our house Tuesday night and really had a good time. We love you Mindy and will miss you guys!


I made a dip for the party that everybody loved and I wanted to share the recipe. It's from Brittany and it was super yummy!


Green Chili Corn Dip

* 1lb. Shredded Monterey Jack Cheese
* 1 cup Shredded Parmesean Cheese
*1 cup mayo
*1/2 cup creamed corn
*1/2 cup whole kennel corn
*1 (4 oz) can diced green chilis (I used two cans)
*2 cloves minced garlic
*1 Tbsp. red pepper flakes (I forgot this ingredient and it turned out fine)

Combine all ingredients and cook in a crock pot on high for 1 hour and serve with toritlla chips







Alana, Brett and Susie




Carrie, Travis and Laura





Mindy, Linda and Jacob



Jon, Veronica and me



Brett, Meghan, Ponder, Alana, Joe and Jon



Me and Laura



Brett, Me, Jon, Spence, Kristen, Mindy, Laura, Amanda, Bryson and Joe



Laura, Kristen, Mindy, me and Amanda



Mindy and Spence



Mindy with the Sandefur Fam



The Lambs with Mindy and Kaiser too

Beatin' the Heat

This summer has been so brutally hot! Other than time at the neighborhood pool, I don't spend too much time outside here lately. We have been watching a lot of movies though. We finally tried the Red Box and think that's pretty cool. For those who don't know it's like a huge vending machine and you can rent recent DVD's for only $1...you just have to return them the next day. We also really like to go see movies at the theater and have caught a few flicks lately. If you are looking for some suggestions, here's what we've seen at theater and liked this month: Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, Public Enemies, The Hangover, and The Proposal. They were all really good movies! And we also rented: Nothing But the Truth (really good), Yes Man, Valkrie (fell asleep), and I finally watched Mamma Mia yesterday. I've also been reading the Twilight series and am on the third book now and I like them more than I thought I would.


This past weekend was low key, but we did catch up with one of my BFF's from junior high and high school, Nicole. We had dinner with her and Joey at Kobe Steakhouse and then played Shuffleboard afterward at the Main Event. We live so close to each other and don't hang out enough...it was really fun to catch up with them.

Travel research can be intense

I've noticed that most of my posts are about things that Jon and I are doing or have done, and I usually try to post when I have a picture to go along with it, and very few of my posts are about what's on my mind. Right now, what's on my mind is that doing research for travel can be overwhelming and a little intense. I think the internet is such a helpful tool, but sometimes, it's almost too helpful. There are soooo many sources to go for information and advice that I can get easily overwhelmed and frustrated. We've decided we want to go on a tropical vacation in September but didn't really know where to go, and I was getting all kinds of frustrated trying to determine if we should go to Mexico and if so, where in Mexico, the Bahamas, Costa Rica, the Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, Jamaica, etc etc. Thankfully my husband said to me the other day, "Why don't we just go to Jamaica again and this time go to Negril? We loved Jamaica on our honeymoon." Thank you Jon....I just needed a decision made to narrow down this massively large search. (I must comment in the middle of all of this that I do realize we are extremely blessed and fortunate to be able to go on a vacation this summer. And I mean really, this isn't really something to get stressed out over, is it?) Anyhoo, the narrowing down to Jamaica, and specifically Negril was helpful. So the past few days have been full out research and information overload for me. Luckily, Vanessa and Chad just got back from their honeymoon to Negril, so I've been able to pick her brain a few times. What we've determined is that although the all-inclusive resort can be quite nice and easy, this time we want to go for more of a quiet, secluded and romantic setting. Most of those are not all-inclusive. I've spent many hours the past few days on Trip Advisor, which turned out to be the most helpful website I could find. I came across the cutest looking place Country Country Beach Cottages and I think we've made our decision. So now I find myself a little relieved to have made a choice, yet a little nervous to hit the "purchase tickets" button on Travelocity. (Sometimes I act like booking a 5 day trip is life or death material here. And yes, I realize I can be dramatic.) So as soon as I get Jon's approval I think it's time to book this dang trip and then we'll have something to really look forward to!

Fourth of July Weekend

I was soooo happy that I got off work Friday, Saturday AND Sunday for the weekend of the 4th! What a nice treat! We were able to go home to San Angelo for a family reunion on my dad's side out at our family's place on the river in Christoval. But before we headed out to the river, we had dinner with my mom, Gene and Grandparents for an early birthday celebration for my mom. Brittany and Grier also stopped by to say hello for a bit. Grier was not very interested in me or Jon, but then Julie got there and she had bubbles in her car (of course, my sis, the child life specialist would be equipped with bubbles!). Grier was a big fan and whoever was blowing the bubbles then became her friend. We had a great dinner at Mom's and she made the yummiest Apple Dumplings....oh my gosh! They were to die for...check out the recipe! The rest of the weekend was spent at my family's place in Christoval, which is one of my favorite spots in the whole world. We were looking forward to floating in the swimming hole all day Saturday, but were quite suprised to find two water mocassins in the middle of the swimming hole! In all the years going out there I have never seen a snake in the water. This of course creeped all of us out, so we went a little higher up the river and found a new spot to hang out. My cousin Ross was not afraid at all to jump in a float and try to swim out and shoot the snake with his pellet gun. It was great to catch up with family from multiple generations and we enjoyed some good food, lots of beer, fireworks and lots of laughs. Looking forward to the next Christoval Family Reunion for sure!


This was Grier's face Pre-Bubbles....she was still checking us out.


Yay Julie....we love bubbles!


Even Jon became her friend

With Mimi, Papa, Julie and Mom

View from our tent (we didn't put the rain cover on, and the roof was see through) A pretty site to wake up to!

Everybody's tents

Cutie Pie Ainsley who is now 11 months old!

Uncle Curtis and Dad cooking up some breakfast

Dad's Father's Day Present

Cousin Ashley and Jewels

Getting ready to swim (We were all smiles because we were not aware of the snakes in the swimming hole at this point)

There was one live snake messing with a floating dead snake....Gross! (click on the picture to make it bigger)

Crazy cousin Ross trying to kill the snake

In the back of Matt's truck watching Fireworks

My cousin Harley bought great fireworks that kept us entertained for quite awhile. Thanks Harley!

The cabin that has been out there forever!! We love Christoval!