FURminator

As most of you know we have a dog. Not just any dog, but a big 80 lb black lab. This is funny to all my friends since I was scared of dogs growing up. My parents got a minature yorkie when I went to college, and I was scared of him too (I mean a 5 lb little dog?). I had to take him to the vet for my parents one time when I was home from college and made the receptionist come out to the car to pick him up! Ha! Ok, so enough about that!

But now I am much more open to animals, and I LOVE my dog Bella! She sheds like no other. Just looking at her you would never think that. My Dyson Animal is FULL everyday(yes I vacuum everyday) of black dog hair. I kept seeing the furminator at the pet store, but I wondered if it really worked or was worth all the money.
Since we are moving into a brand new house in a few months, it would be so nice NOT to fill it with dog hair. So, we got the furminator and decided to try it. Brett took Bella outside and combed her for about 15 minutes. She didn't run away, she actually liked it! And I think she lost about 10 lbs, she looks so much skinnier. So, if you are wondering, the furminator DOES work and is AWESOME! We collected so much hair! I think I have a new weekly duty.... furminating Bella! Oh, and maybe I can just vacuum every other day instead of EVERYDAY! Wouldn't that be nice!
Here's a video of how it works:
FURMINATOR

Just SOME of the fur the FURminator took off!

~Wine and BBQ~

What a fun weekend we had! My parents and my brother came in for a little"Austin" fun! On saturday we were all over this city, but here are some pics of our 2 favorite stops.

First stop, Stonehill Winery. This is about 15 minutes from our new house, so if you are coming to visit, this is definitely a must see! This winery is in Spicewood and its just so relaxing. You sip wine and look at Lake Travis. What can be better than this? The grapes hadn't started growing yet, they being harvesting in the summer, so we will have to make another trip out here.

Second stop, Salt Lick BBQ in Driftwood. If you ever watch Rachel Ray, she is in LOVE with this place. On her stop to Austin, she can't stop talking about how wonderful the food is. Well, we decided to go check it out. This restaurant is in the middle of nowhere, and as you getting close to it, all you see is rows and rows of cars! I have never seen a place more packed! They have live bands playing under trees, a wine cellar, and tons of picnic tables. We had to wait 1-1/2 hours (yikes) to eat.. was it worth it? Well, according to my husband, it was the BEST bbq he has ever had (and he is the bbq king for those of you know him). And, he wanted to "take a bath in the bbq sauce"(his exact words, ha!). If you ask me, they must put something in the sauce because the boys couldn't stop talking about how great the food was. They also had to buy tshirts before we left too, ha! I guess this is another authentic "Austiny" spot to take our visitors!

Stonehill Winery

Wine Tasting

Crew trying to taste some wine
(don't worry, the cup was empty!)

Salt Lick waiting area

Salt Lick Wine Cellar

BBQ Pit

All the meats cookin'!

The "Grub"

Crew even liked the dinner!=)

All BOY!

Last weekend we went to check out the progress on our house. We dressed Crew in his "play clothes" and let him have fun. (Brett's mom bought him these rubber work-boots for him to wear out at the house and they are just perfect, thanks!) He could finally run around inside since all the drywall is up. But, his favorite part was playing in all the dirt and sand outside. He is definitely ALL BOY, no doubt about that! By the time we left the house, his pants were white, and hands and feet were filthy brown. At least we know he had fun=)!

Diggin'

Playing in the sand they used for mortar

Hello mom and dad!=)

"I didn't do it... "

I can even open windows!

Happy Valentines Day!

Happy Valentines Day! Valentines is one of my favorite holidays, it's so fun to celebrate a day of LOVE and cherish those who are so important in our lives!

Since we live away from our families I always send out a picture card for each holiday. (I also have a book with all our holiday pics, it's so fun to look back.) Here is Crew's valentine for 2011.

Here is also a link to a few of his other valentines pictures. Enjoy=)

Valentines Day Wreath

Last week I saw this valentines wreath on a blog and my friend and I decided to try it ourselves. The most time consuming part was cutting out the circles, but we were pretty impressed on how the overall wreath turned out. It looks like a wreath made of roses. I think I can add a green ribbon and use mine for Christmas too!
My friend Shae made hers with 2 shades of pink and is going hang them from her booksheves to decorate for her daughters "pink cupcake" first bday party (too cute!) Here are some pics of the finished products. Happy Valentines Day!

Flower Arranging

Last night I went to Chi Omega Alumni monthly outing. It was so much fun to catch up with one of my sorority sisters and to meet some new girls too! This month's get together was a flower arranging class at Central Market. I have always thought it would be fun to be able to know how to arrange flowers, so I gave it a try! Well, lets just say if I had my pick of flowers this is not exactly what I would have choosen, but it was what we used in the class so we had to go with it. It was so much fun and I learned alot about flowers and flower arranging. It is definetly an art! Here is the final product we can enjoy for a few days.
And maybe for the next shower I throw I may just have to try to do the arragements myself. =)

(P.S.- Anyone can schedule these classes at Central Market- wouldn't that be a fun girls night out or birthday outing?)

First Austin Snow!

You guessed it, we woke up to snow this morning- in AUSTIN!!! Crazy, this definetly does not happen here too often! We bundled Crew up and went to go enjoy it before it all melted away! Crew could not figure it out what the white stuff was- but as you can tell from the pictures, he really liked it!=)

Snow is FUN!=)

Crew and Bella at the park

What is this stuff?

P.S.- For those of you noticing, we totally do not match at all!

We live in Austin so we dont have much snow "gear"!

pLaYdAtE

Last week we got a special visit from the Wilsons (Jodi and Beau that is). They are some of our best friends from back on Dallas and they now live in Midland. Crew and Beau are exactly one week apart and they hadn't seen each other since their birthdays. Jodi and I had so much fun catching up and watching the boys get into EVERYTHING! The boys played together so well too! As you can tell from the pictures, it was hard to get them to slow down to smile for the camera- boys,boys, boys! It was such nice weather so we even got to enjoy some fun at the park. Oh how we miss having them just 10 minutes away! Come back and visit anytime!

Boys at the park (17 months old)

Lets check EVERYTHING out!

"I'll race you...."

" Up, Up, Up" we go!

(our new word of the week- UP)

Helping the mommys cook dinner.

Both boys are into stirring and pulling everything out of the cabinets!

All warm and cozy in our dino jammies!