It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

Can you believe this will be our 7th Christmas together? :)

Pickle and Sundae are ready for Christmas!!

Capital One (my job) hosted Girls Inc. in the American Airlines
Suite to see the Trans Siberian Orchestra!

The girls from Girls Inc. were so much fun to hang out with during the Trans Siberian Orchestra... something their parents would probably not be able to take them to cost-wise. Despite the hardships they each face, they have such amazing hearts and a wonderful outlook on life. An 11 year old said this to me...  "Isn't it cool that most of these people came to the orchestra just to hear music....but they are also getting to hear about Jesus!"....Wow! Amazing.

Our Christmas Family Reunion 10 years ago! Too funny! 

Dinner with Wesley and Ashley at Buzzard Billy's in Waco!

Capital One partnered with the Heart of America Foundation to complete a READesign (library makeover) at an extremely low income school in West Dallas. This was such a cool experience and blessing to help lead!

Bren's Tacky Sweater Christmas Party!

Richard won the tacky sweater contest! 

My job (Capital One) offered free Santa pictures for associates during our "Holiday Stress Busters" month! What a fun Christmas event! :)

Our fun Santa picture with family!

Holiday Fun!!!

Pickle and Richard ready to go out in the cold!

Yuuuummmmmm. Christmas is here! Eggnog Latte at Starbucks!

Richard met Dallas Cowboy Miles Austin at the North Park Mall! How cool and totally unexpected.
He was such a nice guy...he even shook Richard's hand!

Crafty gifts

Work White Elephant Gift :: "Spirit" Tree!

Our DIY bookshelf...more of a gift to us! :) haha

Earring Holders!

"The Man Can" - Filled with meat, cheese, hot sauce and dips!! 

Gobble Gobble 2011

Happy Turkey Week!

We have so much to be thankful for this holiday season! God has poured out His blessings on us in so many ways through our careers, ministry, family, friends and travel. We are so incredibly thankful for two furry little creatures that bring so much joy and laughter to our lives - Pickle and Sundae! They are so sweet!

Sundae and Pickle in their favorite spot!

 CARES Thanksgiving Dinner

We held our third CARES Thanksgiving Dinner! We had about 100 people in attendance. This event is always a ton of work - but so worth it! We have so many residents that are unable to spend Thanksgiving with friends and family, and this is their chance to celebrate. We had a ton of food and were thankful for help and support from our family and friends! The event was another success - praise God!

Kristi's homemade pumpkin pie!

Richard doing one last check before the event started.

Chloe giving our CARES Thanksgiving Dinner a thumbs up!

Jude at Fellowship Dallas Church after play time.

YMCA's Turkey Trot

The Turkey Trot was a ton of fun and so much warmer than last year! There were over 40,000 people in attendance. We saw several people and dogs dressed as turkeys - too cute! Richard ran 8 miles and I walked a 5K (3 miles) with my mother-in-law and friends!

Waiting on the DART Train to take us to the Turkey Trot!

Preparing to trot! :D

Richard finishing his 8 mile!

Thanksgiving with Family


We were surrounded by family this Thanksgiving and ate a ton of food, as always. We had three Thanksgiving celebrations - Dallas, Tyler and Nacogdoches. Our poor little Pickle ate rat poison on Thanksgiving night. We rushed her (and Sundae) to the emergency vet to have their stomachs pumped. Sundae was fine, but Pickle's tummy was filled with rat poison... she is now in recovery and on medication. Our poor little girl - we are so thankful God is watching over her!

Making a fruit and cheese turkey with my 4 year old niece, Chloe (and her dog, Poptart)! 

Thanksgiving #1 - Dallas (our neighbor Sonny joined us!)

Thanksgiving #2 - Tyler

Thanksgiving #3 - Nacogdoches

Pickle and Sundae made a new friend - Gracie!!

Baking pumpkin cookies for Thanksgiving! :)

Richard's 1st Marathon, 26th b-day / 7 pound burger challenge, Kid fun

Richard's 1st Half-Marathon
He did it! Richard ran 13.1 miles in 2 hours and 18 minutes. What an amazing accomplishment! The funny thing was, the very next day the elevators went out at his job. He works on the 16th floor . . .  luckily, he only had to walk down . . . but, he was so sore!

Smile on his face before he crossed the finish line!

Richard has his friend Sean (from college) running their 1st half marathon together.
They started training together in The Village when we all lived there.

Proud wives! :)

Richard turns 26 and enters a 7 POUND burger challenge!
One week following the half-marathon, Richard enters in the 7 pound burger challenge at Kenny's Burger Joint in Frisco for his 26th birthday. He did not eat the entire burger, but we all had a great time watching him! Plus, we had TONS of leftovers for the days following the challenge. The burger was really good...jalapenos, fries, cheese sauce, and tons more! Happy Birthday, Richard!

Our waiter announcing the start of the burger challenge to the entire restaurant! Richard has little girls cheering him on during the 1-hour challenge. They told him he was their role model. haha 

Happy 26th Birthday!

Celebrating with friends!

Celebrating with family!

Look who came to visit us! Chloe and Jude! =P

Chloe showing off her Dora nightgown!

Hyper little Jude!

Halloween :: State Fair :: CARES

Halloween 2011. Mad Men Style!

Richard and I just finished Season 1 of Mad Men (I know, we are so behind)! Not only is Mad Men such a fun show to watch, it is an Ad Agency just like Richard's job at TPN. Now, don't get us wrong, times have certainly changed...but there are several things that are the same! So, we had a great time dressing up as Don Draper and Peggy Olson! Our Halloween festivities included a fall festival, Halloween spooky dinner, two costume parties and tons of Halloween movies! Let the holiday season begin!

Mad Men: Don Draper and Peggy Olson

Olivia's Halloween Party

Whitney and Nathaniel's Halloween Party

Amy's spooky Halloween Dinner

Capital One - Fall Festival

State Fair of Texas

We had our fair share of fried food this year! We both had team building "fun days" at the fair with our companies (TPN and Capital One). Then, we went back to the fair together to try out our favorite foods! My favorite: fried salsa :: Richard's favorite: fried sauerkraut 

Fried salsa at the State Fair of Texas!

Work (Capital One, Community Affairs)


I've had the opportunity to really get out in the community the past few weeks at work. I spent 2 days conducting site visits to Dallas ISD elementary schools during a competitive grant process through Capital One. The winner received a brand new library - completely made over! The elementary students got to draw their dream library and in two months, we will bring a group of volunteers into the school to complete the dream library makeover! I also got to see first-hand the condition of some of our Dallas ISD schools... they are in really bad condition with teachers not having essential supplies and even books!


Another exciting project I got to participate in is a program called Finance Park. In partnership with Capital One, Junior Achievement provides a 6 hour "mock city" for middle and high school students to participate in! Students are given an identify, salary and family...they have to go through real life situations and learn how to manage a monthly budget. The students learned a ton about how hard it is to pay your bills and get through daily struggles. It was SO funny listening to their thoughts on life, budgets and expectations... one student told me he was going to be a MLB player AND NFL player at the same time, so he really didn't need to worry about budgeting because he will have a 2.3 billion dollar contract. Ha! :)

Capital One Golf Classic Benefiting Girls Inc.

Javier Colon - Winner of "The Voice"
(I got to meet him!)

Boys and Girls Club Gala 

Amelia Earhart Elementary - Winner of the library makeover!
(The kids are holding their "dream library" pictures.) 

Teaching financial literacy to middle school kids at Finance Park - this was my group!

CARES


This month we had a CARES breakfast and Halloween Desserts and Pumpkin Pie night! We love the holiday season and our community!

Halloween Desserts with Sonny!

Bren helped us set-up our CARES event!