Tough Cookie

Mmmmmmm, so many things I love about Christmas time, the spirit of giving, being around family, the decorations, finding the perfect gift for someone, watching movies you've seen 100 times before, but somewhere inappropriately high on that list would be cookies. Sugar cookies, pecan sandies, macaroons, chocolate chip, it doesn't matter the kind, cookies are my holiday crack.

My sweet friend Rachel loves Christmas as much as I, so Saturday the Fullers came over and Rachel and I attempted sugar cookies. I don't believe I have ever been successful in my sugar cookies endeavors. But the holiday spirit suckers me into trying it again and again.

Our attempts to overcome my sugar cookie curse were unfruitful...





Disgusting egg-like, burnt cookies + hungry tummies = sad faces


Our husbands took a break from their welding (seriously, they were outside welding, what manly men we have for husbands) and bought us some store bought dough.
This happy picture is brought to you by Pillsbury Sugar cookies dough...


This isn't just a story of how I am an awful baker (which I am but refused to come to terms with) but how a night of burning cookies to a crisp can be such fun times with good friends and a little Christmas spirit!

PRINCESS TESSA'S TEA PARTY

So, I'm a little behind with my blogging, I'm trying to play catch-up today. A couple weeks ago, we drove to Midlothian to celebrate our niece Tessa's birthday. She had a tea party and it was so stinkin cute. The tea party was at this little tea room where they dressed up, got to wear make-up, had a tea party, then had a princess parade. That Saturday was actually Andy's birthday as well, and Tessa appointed him a princess as well, so he participated in the Princess parade as well. The little girls just ate it up, it was so sweet.





Seriously, how do you not love that face?


We had a great time. Every time we go to Midlothian we wish we lived closer to the Mapes. Daisy and Tessa are both vivacious, smart, sweet girls that are growing up so quickly it is amazing.

THANKSGIVING 2009

So this Thanksgiving we choose to spend it just doing exactly what we love to do- hanging out at home, projects, eating, and a whole lot of relaxing. We had numerous invites to share Thanksgiving meal with friends and that was really nice but I'm glad we decided to lay-low (that sounds so much better than anti-social) this holiday. We know we won't be able to have this much free time forever so we savor weekends like this. It has been a great weekend. Andy was in charge of the turkey and did a great job.


In the spirit of giving thanks, here's just a few my favorite things in this world

1) A marriage full of laughter
2) A spunky crazy puppy dog
3) Wonderful friendships
4) Nurturing church home
5) Chai Lattes
6) My mom and dad
7) Scarves
8) Christmas music
9) My house of many colors
10) Having a husband that can do/fix/make anything
11) Hoodies
12) Financial security
13) Cherry chap-stick
14) Living in Austin TX
15) Being an Okie
16) Taco Deli's Mojo fish tacos
17) facebook and blogger
18) couponing
19) Sun shine
20) Microwavable slippers
21) Big trees
22) That I get to live in a time of such change
23) Target
24) Cherry tomatoes
25) Smell of rain
26) Luxury of working from home
27) Having a job
28) BLAT sandwiches
28) Garth Brooks
29) Smell of laundry
30) My health

No particular order, certainly not everything, but a just a few of my favorite things.....

Hope everyone had a wonderful weekend full of family, laughing, eating, and counting all our blessings!

Having withdrawls......

So since ACS was paying for our interent since I worked from home and now I no longer work from ACS we have no internet. It has been though, this has been the first time I have been on in 4 days!
When we get internet back up I will post pics from our wonderfull weekend which was spent in Midlothian celebrating Andy and Tessa's birthday with lots of yummy meals and a very special tea party! Had a blast!
Hope everyone is having a good week!

Christmas Pasts....

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Okay, so just bear with me, I plan on lots of Christmas blogging, so sorry if it's too much, but I LOVE Christmas and am giddy pretty much the entire month of December!
I was looking through old photos and thought it was funny to see our Christmas photos over the years....

CHRISTMAS 2004
How did I think that black hair was cute or any way flattering. Come on younger Ashley, you're old enough to know better than that!



CHRISTMAS 2005

Having a "who can open their mouth the biggest" contest totally made sense at the time...Andy clearly doesn't have his heart in it, Brian is the clear winner.


CHRISTMAS 2006- Our first "married" Christmas!

Cutest picture ever of my parents and Emma


CHRISTMAS 2007- First Christmas living in Austin, and kinda of a bummer Christmas because I had to work the day after so we had to stay in Austin. The one and only Christmas I spent away from my parents.



CHRISTMAS 2008- Christmas in our first house

While we were in Tulsa Andy didn't shave and then one night while I was sleeping he shaved a gross moustache to freak me out when I woke up the next morning- it worked- and then I "strongly suggested" he shave it off. Weirdo.

Yea for having a Job!

So I guess my interview went well, I got the call yesterday with a job offer from Free and Clear! They are going to match my current pay and let me keep my same schedule! Training is 5 weeks long and starts November 16th and I get to go through training with some friends! Everything worked out so perfectly! Thanks for the prayers everyone! God is so good.

HALLOWEEN 2009

We had a great Halloween weekend! We felt like we had aged 10 years since last Halloween, since last Halloween we got all dressed up, went down to 6th Street and had a great time downtown. This year we stayed in, had friends over, grilled out, and went to bed early- and it was GREAT!

Andy made delicious dirt pie-



And I made carmel corn-


Since I have no good pics from this year, here are our costumes from last Halloween:


Also, Friday night we went to Pancake Theater, which is where Alamo Drafthouse (a movie theater in Austin that serves food) shows a movie and there is 3 commedianes that sit and make fun of it and do little skits about it on breaks where they pause the movie. I've been to a couple of them and they are really fun. So I saw that they were going to do Nightmare of Elm Street, which is Andy's favorite movie, so I bought tickets as a suprise for Andy. It was really funny, and probably the only way I could ever watch a movie with that much icky gore. I got one picture of one of the improv things they did.


It was a wonderful weekend and now I can start looking forward to THANKSGIVING! YEA!