Happy Halloween!! 2 years ago today....

We brought home Ollie!!

Looking at these pictures I cannot believe how small he is! He weighed about 12 lbs I think and now he weighs about 60! On Halloween 2009, Eric and I drove out to East Texas and picked up Ollie from a bird dog breeder. I had picked out his picture online so I knew which one we were getting. As soon as we met him, we loved him! He has always been a little on the hyperactive, crazy side and although there were days in the beginning, we wondered what we had gotten ourselves into, it all is worth it. The sleepless nights where he cried in his crate, the puppy sharp as needles teeth, and the cleaning up his messes no longer matter because he is such a great dog. I know a lot of you think Eric and I are tad obsessed with our dog, but he is our child right now. Although we are not planning on a human child anytime soon, having Ollie makes me that much more excited for a baby. I know we are going to be good, loving parents and having Ollie has made me see that I can love someone else so much. He is my running buddy and our constant companion and we couldn't ask for a better dog!

Hope everyone had a good Halloween weekend! We had a busy one. I had a Stella & Dot show on Friday night and Saturday afternoon. After that I went to a neighbors for a pumpkin carving party, went to dinner with Eric then out to McKinney Ave with Kate and Lauren for a Halloween pub crawl.

Here I am with the Indian and the Dino "Kateasaurus Rex". I wasn't in the dressing up mood but did throw on Halloween colors! I had fun looking at everyone else and their costumes.

And last but not least Happy Birthday to my brother, Matt!! He and Megan just welcomed Baby Merritt a week ago into the world and I am sure Merritt, Mason and Megan will make sure he has a wonderful birthday! I am so happy for their family of four! Miss you and love you!

So sweet!!!!!!! Happy birthday Matthew!!!!

Half Marathon & Babies!!

So first off, let's start with babies!! No, not me!! Of course here are some more of Merritt, my niece. Sorry, I am hoping this blog does not turn into Babies R Us. We all know it is really about Ollie! :)

How cool is this? I facetimed with Merrit on Sunday and my brother took a picture of it! This is Merrit and I's very first picture together!! Gotta love technology! 

Already a bathing beauty!! I think she has a little jaundice so she is sunning herself. So cute!

Check out this bow!! Miss Pretty in Pink!! On her way to her first check up.

Our good friends Tiffany and Victor just had their baby as well this weekend! Victor Phillip was born on Sunday and mom and baby are doing great!! I got to go over today to visit and hold the precious little one! He was so good and let me hold him for a really long time!

Isn't he cute?? I look a mess as I came straight from yoga, but he is all that matters! So happy for Victor and Tiffany!! (You will have to update your blog now!!)

Here is Ollie at the vet yesteday. Poor dog has an ear infection and some sort of acne that is caused by allergies. He has to get his ears cleaned out (which he hates) and take antibiotics for a couple of weeks. We also are bad parents and need to brush his teeth more. Word to the wise pet parents - they said brush 4 times a week or plaque will harden! He was a good patient and got pigs ears as a treat.

Allright, on to half marathon training! I haven't talked about running lately, but I have been running a lot. I haven't stuck to a strict half marathon training schedule like last year, but I have been running 4 or 5 times a week and increasing my mileage. Ollie and I ran 8 miles yesterday (well I dropped him off after 6, he was thirsty!). The last two miles were tough, but I pushed through. It is awesome that my body now is used to running and it is not as hard as last year and my pace is way better. White Rock is a little over a month away so it is time to get serious about training. I put all my runs on my calendar this afternoon and am going to be strict about it. I went to my very first yoga class today! A woman I met at one of my Stella & Dot shows is training to be an instructor and offering free classes so I thought why not? I really liked it! I was sweating like a pig but it was a great work out! I hate stretching so it is a great complement to running. I think I might keep it up!

All right off to do some work and then happy hour with Casey and Amy at Gloria's! Looking forward to some bean dip and a cold drink!

Ohh PS: We made the enchiladas I posted about on Monday and they were so good!! They are healthy also!! Not the quickest throw together meal, but if you want to spend a bit in the kitchen and have some yummy, spicy, healthy enchiladas, then try these! Check out the recipe on Gina's Skinny Recipes.

Updates - Merritt, Meals, & Our Weekend

Happy Tuesday... just some updates... Here are some pictures of my new neice Merritt. I wish that I was there to hold her! Thanksgiving will come soon, I hope!

 Big brother Mason holding his new baby sister. How sweet is this?? Mason will be five in Feburary.

My dad and my brother with Merritt. They looks so happy!

So yesterday I posted my menu for the week. I made the gingery chicken from Real Simple and to be honest it was not my fave. It took a bit more prep than I like. The kitchen was covered with tons of dishes. It has a lot of rice vinegar in it which kind of over powered the dish. The chicken was really good though, but the veggies were coated in the dressing and it was a bit much. The banana nut bread that I made was quite good though!

 Pictures from this weekend. Brittany and Dave came into town for a wedding so we all got together at the Ginger Man to catch up and have some beers. It was good to see them!

 Saturday night, went over to our friends Danny and Lindsay's house to celebrate Danny's birthday. We grilled fajitas and watched the Texas Ranger's game. This is Danny's Indiana Jones cake complete with a trick boulder. It was pretty funny.

Happy birthday Danny!

While my parents are in South Carolina visiting the baby, Chipper is staying with us. Don't let this picture fool you, they are not friends!

One last thing! Stella & Dot is raising money for Breast Cancer research this month by donating a portion of the proceeds from the sale of the Tribute Bracelet. It is a gorgeous little bracelet that can be worn every day as a tribute to those who are fighting or have fought breast cancer. If you would like to purchase it, please visit my personal Stella & Dot website to show your support!

Menu Monday

Eric and I have been eating horribly it feels like lately, so I sat down this morning and planned out our menu for the week and am going to run to the grocery this morning. Yay for perks of working from home!

Sunday - We didn't have much in the kitchen, but Eric whipped up some turkey sausage and egg breakfast tacos and that did the trick! He sauteed some onions and garlic, then browned the turkey sausage and then cooked it all together with the eggs and then added some monterrey jack cheese. We served them on corn tortillas with salsa and they were quite the yummy, quick little dinner!

Monday - Gingery Chicken with Green Beans and Potatoes - I printed this recipe off earlier this year from a Real Simple email and have not done anything with it. We have some new potatoes sitting around that need to be used up, so this asian inspired dish should be pretty tasty!

Tuesday - Chicken and White Bean Enchiladas with Creamy Salsa Verde - This a healthy version of enchiladas from Gina's Skinny Recipes. We had a lot of the ingredients on hand, so I think this will be good!

Wednesday - Chicken Francese - Another Gina's Skinny Recipes that sounds good! I will have to figure out a side. Maybe Eric can make his risotto!

Thursday - Tortellini Soup from the Tasty Kitchen Blog. It is supposed to be chilly on Thursday and I have a Stella & Dot trunk show that evening, so this is an easy throw together meal without a lot of prep.

I am making banana bread today from Elizabeth Ann's Recipe Box because I have a bunch of bananas that are about to get to the point where even I won't eat them, and if you know me, you know they must be quite ripe.

Allright - I am off the the store and then I gotta get some work done today!!

Eric's Birthday Celebration

Last Saturday, Eric turned 35! Yup, I married an older man. I started his birthday morning off with donuts from our local donut shop. This is a rare treat in our house. Eric's favorite is a chocolate cake donut so I made sure to get him those, along with a regular chocolate donut, kolache, and a dozen holes for myself! I gave Eric his present as we were sitting on the patio enjoying our coffee.

Eric picked out this Miter Saw months ago at Lowe's. He plans to make all sorts of wood things now! He got a couple of wood working books from my parents, so we will see what his first project will be! Time to get some motivation!

SMU had a home game so all of Eric's friends came over to the house before hand to "pretailgate". I unfortunately could not go because I had a Stella & Dot trunk show that afternoon (which turned out to be such a fun show!!), so the guys headed down to SMU for the game. After the game, everyone came back to the house to grill hamburgers and watch the Rangers baseball game. Go Rangers! We had a good time hanging out with everyone. The next morning, I let Eric sleep until like noon! Seriously, he slept until noon! That afternoon, went over to his parents house to celebrate with his family and since Blair was there of course we just all watched and played with her. She is walking all over the place these days and will not sit still!

 Taking Uncle Eric his present.

 She enjoyed playing with his cards.

 Ice cream cake from Baskin Robins as requested by the birthday boy.

 Make a wish!!

 Who needs toys when you have Lipton Ice Tea boxes?

Happy birthday Eric! Here is to another wonderful year! Love you lots!

Welcome Merritt Kay Drake!!

Our family welcomed a new addition to it today! My brother, Matthew, and his wife, Megan, are now the proud parents to a little girl named Merritt Kay! Mason is going to be a great big brother! All the grandparents were there to experience the big event and report back if it was a boy or girl. Megan and Matthew did not find out the sex of the baby so we have all been anxious to find out if Merritt was Merritt Kay or Merritt Douglas! I think the consensus vote was a girl and the people were right! We are so excited to have a baby girl in the family and I cannot wait to meet her when we go visit for Thanksgiving. (They live in Greenville, South Carolina.)

First picture of Merritt!

Proud Mom! Merritt looks so alert!!

Congratulations to the Drake family!!

Speak Now: Taylor Swift!!

Last Saturday night, I went to the Taylor Swift concert at Cowboys Stadium! I went with my two Tay Swift veterans, Casey and Kate, and my cousin Jenna came along this time! Taylor puts on such an awesome show and it is such a blast to see her live. She is so sweet and I think she genuinely loves each and every show she does. This was my first time at Cowboys Stadium and I cannot say I love the venue. It was nice and huge, but is is so inconvenient to get to! Last year it was at American Airlines, which is just so easy to get in and out of.

 Casey, Jenna, Me and Kate

 Taylor's signature

 Gorgeous! I love her sparkly dresses! In fact, I kept calling the dress I wore to Lady Gaga my Taylor Swift dress.

 We had good seats, but this speaker thing was right in front of the huge jumbtron.

 Trouble makers :)

 Pretty sure this is Better than Revenge.

 Speak Now - "I am not the kind of girl who should be rudely barging in on a white veil occasion"

B.O.B.!! The rapper came out on stage and they did "Airplanes" together. Such a fun song and a highlight of the concert!

We had so much fun! I cannot wait until next year! I am definitely going to every Taylor Swift concert that comes to Dallas, that is how much I love her! Yes, I am aware I am a dork. At least I didn't wear my Taylor Swift t-shirt (thanks Mom and Ashley!) to the concert!