catching up with pictures

Okay, here are some pictures of what we've been up to lately, but they are in random order because blogger is being difficult and I can't get them to move around. Enjoy!
We spent Thanksgiving with Anthony's family this year. His aunt, uncle and cousins who live in Sugar Land always come over and there's never a dull moment when we all get together. We love our games and this year us girls went down memory lane with a game of Dream Phone...it was quite entertaining!

Tara, Julie, me and Mia with the huge pink phone The whole gang after a delicious meal
My sister Kim and I ran the Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving morning and our sweet hubbies came with us to show their support. It was fun having someone to run with and maybe we'll make it a new tradition.
We got to see my parents, grandparents and the Reaves at lunch on Wednesday and it was great to see everyone and enjoy some good food at Pappasitos. It's so fun being an aunt!


My birthday dinner...since we celebrated the Saturday night before my birthday with a night out on the town, I wanted to stay in on my actually birthday. We picked up thai food from Tom Tom and finished the night with cupcakes from Sprinkles and a bottle of Domaine Chandon sparkling wine (my favorite). It was a great day off of work and time spent with my hubby.
Here are a few random pics of our house

This is the green wall in our living room and the 3 black units are full of books/movies/etc.
Here's a view of the entertainment system...eventually we'll get a tv that we'll mount to the wall and hang black shelves to the right of the tv
another view...excuse the vacuum cleaner in the background :)
my birthday dinner at Charlie Palmer...YUM!!

walking around on Main Street after dinner

I love this time of year and all the festive things that go along with Christmas. Only 17 days until Christmas...have you finished your shopping?

survey...

I always get sucked into filling these things out for some reason, so I thought I'd post it here for fun and since I haven't posted in a few weeks. Answers are in no particular order. I will post soon about what we've been up to lately after I upload the pictures to my computer :)

7 Things I Want To Do Before I Die...
1. TRAVEL the world--there are so many places I want to visit--Italy, Greece, Africa, Scotland, Puerto Rico--just to name a few
2. become a MOM
3. IMPACT someone's life for the better
4. ADOPT a child
5. READ the Bible cover to cover in order
6. LEARN to speak spanish fluently (preferably before I have kids so I can teach them when they're young)
7. WALK the 3-day walk for breast cancer

7 Things I Can Do...
1. COOK--i LOVE to cook/bake just about anything and its nice to have a hubby to enjoys eating
2. RUN--running is my favorite form of exercising--its time to myself that i cherish and is a great stress-reliever
3. THROW a good party--i love having people over and organizing fun get-togethers for my friends
4. REMEMBER birthdays--for some reason once i know someones birthday i don't seem to forget it...i wish useful info. would stick with me the way random birthdays do
5. TALK on the phone--i can definitely get carried away on the phone just chatting about nothing
6. WATCH chic-flicks anytime of day
7. LOOK for new recipes for hours

7 Things I Can Not Do...
1. WATCH science fiction type movies...boring to me
2. continue READING a book if its not good--i'll give up and find another one to read
3. walk through a store and AVOID looking at the shoe section
4. WINK...i can sorta wink with my left eye but there's no hope for the right one
5. keep my closest ORGANIZED...for the most part i'm a pretty organized person but not my closet
6. PAINT my own finger nails...it never looks good and takes way too long
7. RESIST playing with /babies/kids if they are around me

7 Things That Attracted Me to My Hubby...
1. his HONESTY--for those of you who know anthony, you know he is very honest about everything. i wouldn't say this initially attracted me to him (in fact, it used to bother me he was so honest) but over the years i've grown to love it about him
2. his SMILE and perfectly straight TEETH (and he didn't even have braces)
3. the way he FLIRTED with me to get my attention...for those of you who know our story, you know i was the one who actually helplessly flirted with him long before we got together because i had a major crush :)
4. CHRISTIAN beliefs
5. GOOD LOOKS--dark eyes, dark hair, tan skin :)
6. his BRAINS...you learn alot when you're around someone as smart as he is
7. VALUES the relationships with his family

7 Things I Say Most Often...
1. anthony
2. how's it going?
3. i love you
4. hey!
5. thanks
6. junior achievement
7. good night

7 Celebrity crushes...
1. David Beckham
2. Patrick Dempsey
3. George Clooney
4. Matthew McConaughey
5. Kirk Cameron (when I was little)
6. Jonathan Taylor Thomas (when I was little)
7. Justin Timberlake (high school)

7 People I'm Tagging...
1. Kim
2. Kara
3. Suzy
4. Anita
5. Marcia
6. Erynn
7. anyone else who wants to do it

thankfulness

A few weeks ago I met Aicha for the first time. I was in the women's restroom at church, washing my hands when Aicha came in and immediately went right to the sink to start washing her hands. I noticed she was struggling to turn the knobs, so I quickly went over to help her. That's when I noticed that she didn't have any fingers, her hands were just fists. As I was turning the hot water on, she quickly claimed it was "too hot" so I turned on the cold water and she said "too cold". Seeing her big, beautiful smile brightened my day and I wondered who she was because I had never seen her at our church before.

Last Sunday, Aicha was brought up to the front (along with a family that goes to our church) and we were all introduced to Aicha. She is a little girl from Africa who has come to the U.S. in hopes of having surgery that will give her fingers. You see, in the village where Aicha is from, you cannot go to school if you can't hold a pencil with one hand. Can you imagine flying halfway across the world all alone to a place you've only heard and dreamed about but have never seen. Then you come live with a family that looks different from you and doesn't speak your language, in fact, no one here speaks your language...all at the age of seven? How brave! A family from our church took her in, gave her a home, took her to doctor's appointments, and loved her so she might be able to have the opportunity to go to school.

This time of year always causes me to reflect on my life and all the wonderful things I have to be thankful for. During this uncertain economic time for all of us, there is still much to be thankful for and I thought I'd share with all of you some of the things I'm thankful for this year...

• Anthony--my best friend and life partner; thankful that we are closer than we've ever been and that I get to share each day of my life with him
  
• Family--my constant reminder of unconditional love and my sounding board
  
• Friends--the old ones that I can laugh with about past experiences and know me better than most & the new ones who are a breath of fresh air and that I still have so much to learn about
• a church family that joins together in prayer when people need it most
• a job where I get to open the eyes of students to a world they might have ever known about otherwise
  
• that Maggie Cole (baby of our friends Matt & Brooke) is finally home with her family after a long road. She was born 2 1/2 weeks ago with spina-bifada, had a shunt put in earlier this week, BUT is doing wonderfully well and is definitely an answered prayer.
  
• And finally, I am thankful that yesterday Aicha had surgery on her right hand and now has 3 fingers. Soon she will have another surgery on her left hand and will have fingers made for that hand too. Now, she can go back home and start going to school because she'll be able to hold a pencil by herself. What a wonderful gift to Aicha! Her world has been forever changed, and my world has been changed just from the few seconds I interacted with her a few weeks ago.

Enjoy your Thanksgiving and remember to be thankful for not just the big things but the small things as well this season!

I just thought this picture was so cute from last weekend that I had to post it! We love Barrett and Brooklyn so much! This is on our roof-top with the skyline in the background. Barrett isn't as impressed with the Dallas skyline as he is Chicago :)

We have a busy weekend planned but I'm looking forward to getting a lot done around the house and spending time with friends. I can't belive Thanksgiving is less than 2 weeks away. I need to do some baking over the weekend with pumpkin since we're almost out of time.

My sister, Kim, and her family came to stay with us over the weekend. We had a great time hanging out and catching up on life. The kids were great. Check out her blog for pictures (my camera was dead so I didn't get very many and she got some cute ones).
http://kimreaves.blogspot.com/

We also got to hang out with our good friends, Jordan and Kelci Brock, last night. They were in town for the weekend and stayed with us last night. It was great seeing them too and of course, we enjoyed 2 bottles of vino. Kelci looks adorable pregnant and I can't wait to meet little Ben.

I'm so thankful for wonderful family and friends who we can share our lives with. Thanks for coming to stay with us!!

Homecoming

Last weekend we made the trip to Abilene for ACU homecoming. I do enjoy going back to good ol' Abilene--brings back lots of memories and reminds of how simple life used to be when I was a college student. So much has changed around campus! For those of you who haven't been back in a while, the biggest change is most definitely The World Famous Bean. They have completely remodeled it and I hear the food is actually good! It was great to see lots of old friends and catch up with family. Tara was pledging, so of course the whole gang went to breakfast to show our support for the youngest KJK family member. Here are some pictures from the weekend:

Me, Jamie, Tara, Laura & Kelli at breakfast...btw, NO I am not pregnant even though it looks like I have a little pregnant belly in this picture. Ha! However, Kelli is pregnant with baby #2 and finds out soon what it is!

Me with Gwen Estes at breakfast--our families go way back and its always great to see her!
Me with the little NuNu...now she's a Kojie because they got in a few nights ago. Oh pledging!

I just had to post this picture of the Mitchen women clan. It was great to see all of them at the parade and get some sugar from little Bailey...she's so precious! I was also able to get some sugar from two of my favorite kids--Elizabeth and Peyton (Kara's kids) but didn't get a picture. It is always great seeing Kara and her family!
Kojie float
Nunus in the parade...the picture is blurry but I promise that's Tara in the middle.
at the football game...

way to go Wildcats on the big win! The older these girls get, the more they look like twins!

It was such a fun weekend and great to see everyone. Anita, if you're reading this, I was looking for you guys at the parade because we always see you there--were yall there and I missed you or did you not go this year?

my husband...

I took this from Brooke's blog and thought it was cute. Anthony will probably kill me for blogging about him but oh well. I still love him and here's just a few answered questions about my sweetest husband, Anthony.

1. He’s sitting in front of the TV: what is on the screen? NFL, Seinfeld or Campaign coverage
2. You’re out to eat. What kind of dressing does he get on his salad? Italian or Ceasar
3. What is one food he doesn’t like? bananas
4. You go out to the bar. What does he order? wine or if we're at a mexican restaurant bar then margaritas
5. Where did he go to high school? Klein Oak HS in Spring, TX
6. What size shoe does he wear? 10 or 10 1/2
7. If he was to collect anything, what would it be? collects wine
8. What is his favorite type of sandwich? philly cheesesteak made the right way or meatball sub
9. What would the Husband eat every day if he could? the family recipe for Italian red sauce on some sort of pasta
10. What is his favorite cereal? not much of a cereal eater but probably Kix or Corn Flakes
11. What would he never wear? clothes that are made to fit tight
12. What is his favorite sports team? Chicago Bears, White Sox, Astros
13. Who will he vote for? Obama
14. Who is his best friend? Jordan, Kevin and me :)
15. What is something you do that he wishes you wouldn’t do? drive in the dark (my eyes aren't the best)
16. How many states has he lived in? 2--Texas and Illinois
17. What is his heritage? 1/4 Italian, 1/4 Puerto Rican, 1/2 not sure...he would claim 100% Italian
18. You bake him a cake for his birthday; what kind? chocolate--same one his mom has made for him for years
19. What sports did he play in high school? basketball
20. What could he spend hours doing? working

I do love my hubby very much!!

We went to Abilene for the weekend for homecoming. It was a lot of fun and I saw many old friends. I took a few pictures and will try to post them this week. If you have time, post about your hubby so I'm not the only one.