bluebonnet pictures!

Mumsie has done so much for us lately (IT'S RIDICULOUS!) that I decided we needed to get her bluebonnet pictures for a big, fat "thank you!" It was a WINDY AS HELL DAY, and we even had to lie to sneak out of Ennis to meet the photographer after hanging out with mom for a few hours ("Mom, we have to leave, we have a dinner to get to!") and... it all came together beautifully. We originally planned to give these to her for Mother's Day, but the prints arrived just in time for Easter. And to our delight, she was speechless when we gave them to her. :)

a saturday mini-vacation :)

We had the loveliest Saturday this weekend. Kinda a dream-like Saturday! Hilary was in town and Betsy's birthday was during the week, so R and I decided to pop over to Collins' house ;P for lunch... and Mumsie came with! IT WAS SO MUCH FUN. <3

Little Isa, stealing the whole show (duh).

MY BABES.

Mumsie, scratching R's beard. ;)

When we got back to Richardson, mom went home and R & I went to Masami for the first time, and it was so cute! The food is decent (it doesn't beat our favorite Japanese place - where the food is twice as expensive and the menu is hardly legible), and I tried so many new things! 

Our little appeteezer.

Azuki shiratama... or sweetened azuki beans with green tea + red plum ice cream and mochi! It was so crazy!

Thennn, my sweet man and I took a walk around the park before we went home, and when we got home we watched "Zootopia" and "The Peanuts Movie," and went to bed by 10pm. DREAM SCENARIO, FOLKS. And the weather was beautiful and perfect! Just so many good vibes!

And I'll leave you with this rando picture of Meghan working this morning on Halloween decor in a semi-Scarborough Faire outfit... because why not?! :)

a lovely august weekend...

My mommy loves pools so much that sometimes she'll rent hotel rooms just to have access to some water! ;) A few weeks ago, she rented out two rooms on a Friday night for us to have some FAMILY pool time (with Dan, Brenda, Dana, Tonya, Stephen + me and R!). The good news is that we were all together and watched Olympics, ate pizza, had complimentary breakfast in the morning and did some epic lounging. The bad news is there was a RAIN STORM the evening we were there, so it took us a hot minute to get into the pool... and when we did, it was sprinkling! (Hence the few pictures, haha XD) But fortunately, the next day was just overcast, so all of us hopped in again before check-out.

When R and I got back to Dallas, we stopped for a matinee showing of "Florence Foster Jenkins" (SO CUTE) and ate dinner at Henry's Majestic (where I had the most amazing mahi!!!). It was sooo lovely and chill and wonderful.

I had oysters for the first time! :D

a saturday in ennis!

This week has been really super great, and yet I still keep thinking about this awesome time we had last weekend! This past Saturday, R and I drove down to Ennis to hang out with my mommy and have lunch with Grandpa Jim! We had fried catfish, sweet potato fries, and coleslaw at Grandpa Jim's place (which mom called in to the kitchen on my fish-eating behalf, thankyouverymuch). It was so great to visit with him and see the other people in his retirement home. :) Afterwards, we went over to mom's for some drinks, laughs, and Honey Do's, and it was so much fun!

Other accomplishments of the day:

- fixing mom's wobbly chairs

- making technological break-throughs in her ancient computers!

- making technological break-throughs on her iPhone!

- going out for margaritas later!

- and realizing that bean&cheese nachos really is me and my mom's shared meal of choice (extra quac, plz!)

And to top it all off, it was a really beautiful, crisp sunny day! It was such a great way to wind down the holiday season and get ready to get back at it! (as much as I can want to get back at it... ;P)

ky & da on the trapeze!

Yep, you read that correctly! Traaapeeeze! This year for Father's Day, I found a good ole Groupon for a trapeze class for two. I mean, how can you resist that?! Richard was in a down-right giggle-fest when we did the big present reveal in June, and the kids had the biggest eyes watching their sweet daddy get so excited and giggly just at the prospect. It was such a sweet family moment. :)

Anywho, it took us a long, hot minute to get our schedule lined up with an actual class, but it did not disappoint! The instructors were so incredibly kind and patient and sweet. There were a couple of times I was really "humph!" because I wasn't getting it, but they never stopped encouraging. There were about 10 people in the class, all different age and talent levels, so the instructors really switched gears each time a different person climbed the ladder (thank goodness!). 

Modeling the safety belt! Or, the "hey, eating all those egg rolls before coming here was a terrible idea!" belt (that thing was tight, they weren't playing around).

The Father's Day Man, who quickly found his two new best friends.

And now, the videos! Both R and I managed to complete two tricks, and he got it a lot more quickly than I did... I was just so nervous and eggroll-y! (Don't worry, each playlist is 3 minutes total tops.) If you watch any, just watch Richard's -- his excitement-giggles were the star of the night. ;)

(Admittedly, I did a not-so-great job getting video of him because I was, you know, watching it live, and would then quickly think "oh yeah...!")

It was quite the workout! We were so incredibly sore the following days (and I was covered in leg bruises... the back of your knees isn't such a calloused area unfortunately). But we wouldn't give it up for anything. Now we can look at each other and say "Hey, remember that time we trapeeezed!" SO COOL. Seriously, I couldn't recommend it enough. If you can, try to trapeze at least once in your life.  ;)

honeymoon day :)

The day after our wedding, Richard and I took some time for our first date in a long time, which we dubbed our "honeymoon day!" We had been so busy with wedding planning, school, settling into our new house and starting our 2014 Kitten Month that this was just a fun little excuse to have some time to ourselves for a hot-minute. (We're still in the process of planning our big honeymoon, as going anywhere right after our wedding just obviously wasn't an option!) I got a new dress from Anthropolgie (legit excuse!) and we went for my first trip to the Dallas Arboretum and had lunch, before driving to Darrah's and having dinner with her, the boys, and Midge. It was such a nice day... before we jumped right back into the rest of July! ;P

remembering this weekend...

You know those weeks where you feel like you can't catch up? That's this week. Between the general burning of home fires, planning a move (we're not moving, but family is moving closer to us!), my graduate school interview, new work promotion groove, and trying really hard not to go insane (thanks for your help, alcohol!), I'm so exhausted.

Fortunately, Richard and I had such a nice weekend that slowed down the pace of all the chaos ever so slightly, and I've been relishing in the memories of our relaxation alot the past few days. We haven't had a nice, cozy, insufferable weekend alone in a couple of months and we sure made the most of it.

Highlights include...

- Red snapper and asparagus/sundried tomato risotto we made from scratch on Friday.

(The risotto tasted like pizza! It was so weird! There were zero left-overs...)

- Dnner for the first time at Seasons 52... so yummy, and they don't use butter! Amazing!

- THE DESSERTS AT SEASONS 52. SERIOUSLY. 

- Finally saw This Is The End, which was hilarious and stupid.

- I spilt white wine all over myself at the movie theatre and had to change R's huge, manly Dickies button-up mid-picture. #balance

- Staying in bed until 2pm on Sunday.

- Even doing productive things like laundry (me!) and washing our cars (R!).

Ugh, you sure were wonderful, Weekend, and we miss you already. You don't come around too often, which is a shame, but it makes us appreciate you all the more when you do!

treat yo' self 2013!

R and I recently took a glorious week-long "stay-cation," and we don't ever want to go back! We ate the best food,  stayed up late watched awesome television, hung out with our favorites, and slept-in until who-gives-a-fuck o'clock every single day. THE BEST EVER.

On Monday, my Bunny Brew (cutest juice name!) and I met Monsieur Ceej at the Design District, which is always so fun to poke around. Just look at this giant flask! Why didn't I buy that?!

On Wednesday, we did the Minimal Required Responsible Adult Activity for the week and took care of our cars. And by we, I mean Richard basically did everything while I looked really cute in my swimsuit. Oh, and Pandora! I figured out how to play Pandora while he changed oil, air filters, tail lights... all that stuff! I did help wash and vacuum everything, though!

We also made an honest "life is so hard!" effort to be functional at 11am to go try out Hypnotic Donuts... TOTALLY WORTH IT. I'm not into the cake-doughnuts for breakfast (I prefer savory to sweet in the mornings), but I did love me a classic Homer donut. :D Also, they have the most amazing biscuits. Like, so amazing I wanted a plain one after seeing R's chicken/gravy biscuit. I'm still dreaming about it... 

And then my sweetie got a handsome haircut. HANDSOME MANNN.

Annnd: Toulouse. One of our favorite places! We got all gussied up and made that menu our bitch.

A French-75! Officially added to my cocktail rotation. ;P

FROG LEGS, YUM YUM.

An old-fashioned and chocolate soufflé. :)

Not Pictured: the most wonderfully decadent scallop risotto and ugh-tastic lobster mac-and-cheese. We were too involved licking our bowls to photograph any of that.

This also happened at some point. OPULENCE.

Ok, let's all sit down and talk about Torchy's for a moment. This place makes Chipotle look like a pile of hot garbage. Fried avocado slices in my taco? Corn-flake battered cookie dough balls? Guacamole scooped into my queso?! What the what are you trying to do to me! If you're trying to make us order that fucking queso three seperate times within the entire week, well done, Torchy's! WELL DONE.

Torchy's queso for Hungover Breakfast-In-Bed at 1 in the afternoon?? Treat yo' self!!

Really awesome things that also happened during the week...
- hanging out with Ceej at JR's
- stayed up until 2 in the morning watching Zach Galifinakis and Eddie Murphy and laughing like crazy
- made kick-ass grapefruit-strawberry margaritas at Debbie and A-ron's
- discovered peach-flavored vodka!
- waking up every morning with my sweet handsome silly man there :)

Ugh, I don't ever want to go back. Vacations are awesome, but stay-cations are their own breed of kick-ass awesome. :) :)

sweet, sick saturday

So, R and I have both been sick all week with a crummy cold that likes to remind you it's still lingering just when you think you're on the Up-and-Up. We're talking 12-hour nights of sleep, nasty tastes, glands the size of grapefruits, lost voices... all that fun stuff! But in spite of ourselves, we've manage to have a lovely date-night (fresh ravioli, thankyouverymuch!), be super productive (grad school stuff! bills! major paperwork!), and make each other laugh (at... each other's laugh... we're that couple).

I haven't been completely worthless today, but I woke up feeling terrible and I've felt completely worthless (I mean, R3 actually asked me, "Can you put on pants and play outside with me?" and I had to live with myself saying, "No..."). I've still manage to get many computer-y things done and have fun little moments with the kiddos and take naps. And then there's Richard, who just shuts me up with awe while he goes and gets me groceries, does all of our laundry, cleans the kitchen, takes the littles out to dinner, and goes and gets me Chipotle all while he's sick, too.

Oh, and I also should mention that we finally became "Facebook Official" today, all because he initiated it this morning. What else can make you feel like a Queen in this day and age? ;P