Chris and Carrie

Posted by Carrie | April 18th, 2010

This past weekend Chris and I traveled to San Miguel, Mexico for my friend Brittany’s wedding.We were so excited to get to go so we made a little vacation out of it. We flew into Guanajuato airport and a driver picked us up, along with some of our friends, and drove us 2 hours into San Miguel. I know when you think of Mexico you think beaches and crystal clear water, but San Miguel is in the mountains so we were about 6 hours from any beach. It still had beautiful scenery and wonderful weather, and here are just a few of the hundreds of pics we took.

This cathedral is where Brittany and Ben got married. It was in the town square and could be seen from pretty much anywhere in the city.

The first day we got there and met up with all of our friends at the fabulous house we were all staying at. Then we decided to walk around and explore some and we decided to take this fun picture of our group.

That night was the welcome party at the house where Brittany was staying with her family. San Miguel is so quaint and cute and the streets are all cobblestone. As you are walking or driving by from the street all you can see are beautiful tall dark wooden doors, but once you could see what was behind them it was always breathtaking views. This is what we saw once we were inside Brittany’s house.

And this was Melissa, Beth and I with the city and mountain views behind us.

On Friday morning the girls all went on a shopping trip with the bride and her mom and grandma around the city.  We then headed to a small but wonderful bridal luncheon. Here were some pics I took as we were shopping:

My friend Beth standing in front of some pretty doors and colorful painted buildings. I wonder what it looks like behind the doors?

Here was the entrance to one of our stops along the way, the bullfighting arena. Can you believe that they had purple trees everywhere? So cool!

At the bullfighting arena, some of the groomsmen decided it would be fun to try out some bullfighting. We girls didn’t stay long to watch because we didn’t like it. Some of the guys were getting hurt (i.e. one guys new shirt was ripped up etc)  because they were being tossed around by a bull and we all felt sorry for the bull.  We were all glad our own husbands didn’t get involved in it.

Another pretty picture.

Friday night was the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner. This was the view inside of the cathedral where Brittany and Ben got married. Beautiful!

Me and some of the bridesmaids at the rehearsal dinner.

All of us after Brittany and Ben were married on Saturday night! Aren’t those really tall puppets funny? I think they are a tradition to have when someone gets married in San Miguel. There were actual people in them and at first I thought there were 2 people in them because they were so tall but in actuality there was only one.

The happy couple getting ready to go into the reception!

All of the bridesmaids outside of the reception.

Inside the beautiful reception. This picture doesn’t do it justice but the flowers and tables were so pretty.

Chris and I. You can’t see it but the reception spot looked out over the town and you could see the cathedral in the distance, so it is actually behind us in this picture.

The bride and groom driving away in a fun golf cart at the end of the night!

We had such a great time and we are so happy for Brittany and Ben!

Read Users' Comments (3)

Posted by Carrie | April 6th, 2010

Were back! We seem to have fallen behind once again as we have so much going on these days, but I wanted to catch up a little on what all has been happening with us!

This past Friday (Good Friday) Chris didn’t have school but I did because we had to make up our snow day. Yuck! Either way, I made the most of it and wasn’t surprised that a whole lot of my kiddos were absent or left throughout the day. However, I told Chris that I thought it would be so funny if I told my kids that we were going to have a special surprise visitor at some point throughout the day, maybe it would make them want to stay?! Anyways we decided it would be funny so can you guess who my special guest was?…

It was Coco!!!!!!

Some of the kids had actually starting guessing about who it might be and one child guessed that it was Coco dressed as the Easter Bunny!  I thought that was a clever guess, so Chris managed to find Coco some bunny ears and she came into the classroom with them on. (Sorry she does not have them on in this pic). The kids were very surprised and they got so excited that I think they scared her a bit because she kept trying to get away. Hmm, I think I may know how she feels! ha!

On Saturday we traveled to Houston to celebrate Passover/Easter with my family and my sister’s husband’s family, and then on Sunday morning we had a very nice brunch at my Uncle’s celebrating my Cousin Michael and his fiance Jen’s upcoming wedding. We had a wonderful time but as always it seems to go by too fast.

Finally I just wanted to share one more exciting piece of news that Chris finished his Masters Program!!!!! He didn’t want for me to say anything until his paper/project had officially been accepted, but I couldn’t help sharing the news. Hopefully it will be accepted, I can’t imagine it not being. I am so proud of him! So now at least one of us is done and I am a little jealous as I would love to be done too, but my time will come.  Until then you may be seeing more blogging by Chris rather than me since he may have a little more time on his hands! ha!

I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend!

- Carrie

Read Users' Comments (4)

Posted by Carrie | March 11th, 2010

I just wanted to wish my husband Chris a very Happy Birthday today! I hope you have a wonderful day. I am so lucky to have you in my life.

It is also Chris’ aunt Kathy’s Birthday today. Happy Birthday Kathy! I think it is so neat how you two get to share this special day together! I hope you also have a wonderful birthday!

Love you both!

Love, Carrie

Read Users' Comments (2)

Posted by Chris | March 6th, 2010

Smile, Coco! You’re at Pugapalooza! We went out to Euless today for “Pugapalooza,” benefitting the DFW Pug Rescue. First time we’ve been somewhere with so many pugs at once. There’s no mistaking a pug, but even then no two pugs seem to look alike. Coco was, of course, the cutest one.

Coco gave out a lot of kisses and sniffed a lot of rear ends at Pugapalooza.

When we pulled into the parking lot, we saw a couple mucking around with a couple strollers. As we drove pass, we saw that their babies indeed had wrinkled faces and curly tails. There were an abundance of pugs in strollers in the park. Hoo boy. Coco had to walk.

Some of the crowd favorites from the “Best Kisser” contest.

Lots of happy pugs and pug owners at Pugapalooza! Coco was completely worn out when we left, which we love.  She’ll sleep well tonight.

Read Users' Comments (1)

Posted by Carrie | February 27th, 2010

It has taken me a week to post this but this past weekend I traveled to the coast for a girls weekend to celebrate my friend Brittany’s upcoming wedding at her bachelorette party! It was so much fun! Brittany will be getting married in Mexico so we are all so excited for her big day! Here are some of the tamer pictures from the weekend! Ha!

Miss Brittany the Bride to be!

Friday night most of us arrived and all traveled to Brittany’s parents house on the coast. My parents were sweet to pick me and a friend up at the airport and drive us out there. Brittany’s parents live in a beautiful home they recently built that makes you feel like you are at a Spanish Villa somewhere way far away, not on the Coast! ha! It felt like a vacation get-away!

We all live in different cities – Megan even came all the way from London – so when we arrived we had the best time just catching up and eating a yummy dinner together.

The next day the sun came out for a while so even though it was still a little chilly we hung out in the hot tub and got a little sun. Don’t you love this view?!

Girls sunbathing and catching up

Anne, Brittany, Muffy, and Beth hanging by the pool.

Another scenic picture of the beautiful porch looking out onto the bay. The best part about it for me was that it had electric screens that could be put down to keep the mosquitoes out! That was great for me as they adore me and for some reason even in February they were still out and bigger than I have ever seen!

My friend Muffy being silly but she, like all of us, is ready for Mexico!

The gift table before Brittany’s lingerie shower!

Lacey and Anne waiting for the shower to begin

The bride to be and Megan

My friend Beth and me

After the shower we all took the ferry over to the other island for a great dinner and then a night on the town! We ended up at a bar that has been there (according to my mom) since she was my age. It was tiny,  but they had a super fun little band and I had to take a picture of the ceiling. It was covered with hats!  In this picture it looks like people’s heads are hitting the hats but the ceiling was not that low. Either way, it was interesting!

Some more of the girls that night. I never got a full group shot which I was sad about, but there were 13 of us altogether so it was hard with such a big group.

Overall, the weekend was a blast! It had been way to long since I had seen many of my close friends so it was great to catch up with everyone.  Chris and I can’t wait to get to go to the wedding!

Read Users' Comments (1)

Posted by Carrie | February 13th, 2010

This past Thursday we woke up to snow falling but both of our schools were not canceled, so we headed to work. It then continued to snow for the entire day non-stop!  At about 11:00 my school lost power and it never came back on!  We were so cold and the kids just wanted to go outside and play in the snow.  The kids were wild to say the least. At the end of day once school had dismissed I wish you could have seen the front of my school! It was like a full on snowball fight with every kid. We teachers attempted to stop it at first but then we just gave up. Later that evening it was announced that we did not have to go to school on Friday so Chris and I hunkered down and made a big pot of Chili! It was so fun! This is what we woke up to on Friday morning!

We got 12.5 inches of snow! It was so pretty and it didn’t even feel like I lived in Dallas, Texas! Maybe more like Colorado. A lot of trees were down in our neighborhood and around Dallas but we were lucky that we didn’t have any major damage. We had also lost power during the night, but thankfully got it back Friday morning. Some of our friends have not been so lucky and they still do not have power. Yuck!

We were all up early playing in the snow!  Here Coco looks like she doesn’t like the snow but she really loved it! She was trying to eat most of it and I actually think it made her a little sick later. Does that happen to dogs when they eat snow?

This is a better picture to show you how much she loved it.

It was so fun having the day off, but sadly now I think we have to make up our snow day in April. Oh well it was worth it!

I hope everyone is having a great weekend and has a great Valentines Day tomorrow!

Read Users' Comments (1)

Posted by Carrie | February 10th, 2010

This past weekend my family came in town to visit us but to also mainly celebrate the engagement of my cousin Michael and his fiancée Jen. It was so much fun but it seemed to go by way too fast.

Friday night we went to Ft. Worth where we went to my Aunt and Uncle’s temple for services and their Rabbi did a special blessing for Michael and Jen. It was really nice.

The cute couple!

Then Saturday night we celebrated some more at an engagement party for them at Jen’s mom’s house here in Dallas. It was so fun! For dinner they served mini sliders, yummy guacamole, and a really good broccoli salad, plus yummy desserts. Then the after dinner entertainment was all of the kids (from our family and theirs)  danced around the living room for us. It was so cute!  We all had so much fun meeting Jen’s family and are excited that they will be a part of ours soon.

Then of course Chris ended up being the kids entertainment for the night. My cousins all call him “Silly Chris” because he is always teasing them and just so silly with them. Everyone at the party was wearing name tags so that it would be easier to get to know each other, but later in the night the kids began drawing on them and writing different things on them so of course Chris started the game of, “lets put funny name tags on people without them knowing!”… Well, you can see how that backfired on him! hehe. They LOVE Chris and they were running around squealing with laughter.

You gotta love him!

Overall, it was a great weekend and we are so excited for Michael and Jen. We can’t wait for the wedding in June!

Read Users' Comments (1)

Posted by Carrie | January 16th, 2010

Today our niece Harper turns one year old! We never thought a baby could be so cute (outside of Coco), but you are adorable! We are so thankful to have you in our family, and can’t wait to see the wonderful young lady you will grow up to be!

Proud mama Kelly!

Uncle Chris scares Harper.

When Harper met Coco.

Read Users' Comments (1)

Posted by Carrie | January 1st, 2010

Happy 2010 Everyone! I hope you all are having a great New Year’s day. Chris and I had a wonderful 2009 and are ready to take on the new  year. We’ve spent the last few weeks zipping around the state seeing all our relatives for the holidays. Here are some pictures from Christmas with my family down in Corpus.

Coco is sent to her bed to think about her bad behavior.

Celebrating my dad’s birthday on Christmas night with my family.

Some of the important women in my life.

Behold, the Christmas ficus tree.

My dad surprised my mom with a huge painting by her favorite Corpus artist, Deborah Males.

Enjoying good food and friends at my dad’s birthday party.

Read Users' Comments (1)

Posted by Carrie | December 21st, 2009

It is official! Chris and I are on our winter breaks! Of course they actually started this past Friday, but not getting up at the crack of dawn this morning made it real for us. I wanted to share some things my class did on the last week of school and also some of the decorations we have up in our home.
Every year since I have taught third grade we have taken a day on the last week before the break to make a huge gingerbread house. It takes us the entire day, and the kids LOVE it. Then later in the week we donate it to a nursing home, hospital, or someplace where they can appreciate it over the holidays.

The kids all bring candy, I put them in groups, and then I assign them a part of the house to decorate. They then plan out what they are going to do. Here was the set up:

Lots and lots of candy, and yes it doesn’t all go on the house. The kids get to eat some too! Here are some of my kiddos planning and working together. I was doing the icing as the kids talked and decorated, and some of the conversations that were happening were hilarious! I was trying to get my video camera to work but couldn’t figure it out.  Kids are so funny. Here was one conversation that tickled me. “Hey guys, let’s make sleds out of Laffy Taffy, and then use the gummy bears for people riding in the sled. ” “Oh, that is a great idea!” Let’s make a pond out of blue M&M’s and then we can have people ice skating on it!” Ha!  Isn’t that creative? You gotta love them!

Lastly, I had to share this! This year Chris doesn’t have an actual class so he didn’t get any gifts. Yes, that is right, no super funny ones to write about this year. Boo! But, a teacher at his school did give him this and I laughed out loud when he showed me. It even has little plastic pieces of coal in it. I think this will be in Coco’s stocking this year! I hope you all have a wonderful holiday!
Love, Carrie

Read Users' Comments (1)