Baby Eli

This weekend we went on our usual tour of Louisiana, stopping at family and friends houses to visit while on our way to our parents. We got to stop and see Shannon, Matt's sister in Lake Charles. We stayed the night at her house and had an amazing breakfast at Pitt Grill, then had to say our goodbyes. Next up was Lafayette to visit the Bornes'. The Bornes are great College friends of ours. Ryan is Matt's best friend from College, and I used to play against Karen in basketball when I was younger (funny thing). We have never seen their new house or their new baby, Eli. He is about a month old now and this was our first time meeting him in person. In an older post I talked about how we go to Skype with them. We were super excited to see them all. We got a house tour and got to snack on some delicious brownies they had made for their neighbor. (long story) Karen asked me to take a few pics of Eli while we were there because they were unable to get newborns pics and needed to send out announcements. Of course I was happy to oblige. I love newborns and needed to get some more sessions under my belt. Eli was a perfect baby and stayed asleep for almost the entire shoot. We were able to move and mold him into different positions, without waking him. However, we think he was just soo comfortable on the soft fabrics that he didn't really care. The theme of his room is all about traveling which was perfect since Ryan has his degree in aviation and has his pilot license, hence the props were travel related. I hope you enjoy the pics below. I will make an update w/ a few more pictures sometime today.

TV stand

When Matt and I moved in our house back in 2006, we acquired/ bought a lot of stuff form the previous owner. He, Ray,  was so generous and a great guy to deal with. It was our first house to buy and it was also for sale by owner. There were a lot of things we didn't know and could have gotten cheated but we were truly blessed by that experience and had no issues. One of the things we bought from Ray was his TV and stand.  This thing was huge. I believe it was a 36" screen, but the shell was sooo much bigger. This beast was also super heavy. When we moved to Texas, Matt, Mr. Denny and my dad all had to carry it and it was still too heavy. We swore when we moved again that we would leave the TV there and just get a new one. Fast forward to present day. Well, we moved, and we didn't take the TV. We actually sold it, but Matt and my dad did have to help move it. Here is a side view of the TV below.

Once we moved we had to use one of our older tv's. Our best option was one that was given to me when I was an RA back in the dorms. It was 20"'s and was a lil hard to see from the couch in the living room. It worked for us while Matt looked for a good deal on a nicer tv.

This is what we had the TV sitting on. Matt's old record player stand. It was pretty proportional to the TV.

I looked and looked forever on Craigslist,  overstock.com, and soo many other places. I really wanted a piece of furniture to hold the TV instead of a regular TV stand, so that we could reuse the piece if we ever needed to in the future. We finally came down to the point were we HAD to find one because our new TV had been ordered. We checked EVERY place in town that had furniture, including all thrift shops. I was really wanting to refinish an older wood piece, but we were running out of luck. I had mentioned going to Big Lots because I knew they had some pieces there, but was not hopeful, because they don't always have the best quality.

  I did end up falling in love with this piece above from Big Lots. Matt actually liked this piece as well. I just had to convince him that we weren't going to find something else cheaper. (which I have to do often :)

(Mac trying to help us put it together by laying on the pieces)

We had to put this bad boy together, but it was soo worth it for me. I still love this thing. We were able to hide all of our electronics, video games and VHS tapes. Our DVDs are in a stand to the left of it and probably wouldn't fit.

This is our old TV sitting on it.(above)

This is the new. This picture was used in the last post, forgive me. I will have to get a more updated picture once I finish decorating. The side table is kind of in the way of the cabinet, but you get the idea. Let me know what you think!

UPDATE! Here is a picture of the cabinet for Christmas this year!

(sorry about the pic quality, it was taken on my phone.)

What have I been up to?

Hi All, I know many of you have been wondering where I have been and the answer is a lil bit of everything. So my goal is to get up all up to speed with in the next few days. I have been working hard, took some vacation, ran a 10k, took another vacation, moved, played a lil and had a birthday. I don't know if I should start from the end or the beginning. Well here goes:

Last weekend Matt's parents came in to see our new place (I'll get to that later). They helped us hang some frames (for my family portrait wall), look for curtains for the house and do some more odds and ends around the house, specifically with the outside. As some of you might know, Matt and I used to own our own house back in Louisiana. When Matt(we) decided he wanted to go back to grad school, here in Texas, we packed up all of our belongings, and sold our house. Now that Matt is through with school, we are still renting until we find a final place to settle in at. We have now moved to a new place that is much bigger than our last closet, I mean apartment. We even have a yard for lil Mac. My in-laws brought up our outdoor furniture we had at our house previously. We set up our old bird bath, our hammock, our grill, fire pit, and other patio chairs. It was soo wonderful to see all of my old things. It's like they are brand new again. We have three trees in our new backyard and they needed some HEAVY trimming. There are two beautiful crepe myrtles and one oak and their were branches all the way to the ground. That had to go because it was Mac's hiding place when he didn't want to come in. He knew it was hard for us to come and get him in all of that mess. NOW, the trees have new life and make our yard look soo much bigger.

Here is our yard below after all of the trimming and with my old birdbath. Looks pretty good huh? I forgot to take a before picture and am really kicking myself for that. 

Here is a really bad picture of my family photo wall. I need to add a few more pictures into the frames as well as add a few more frames, probably on the right. What do you think? 

We also got to Skype with Matt's buddy from college, Ryan, and his wife Karen. They just had a baby and we weren't able to meet him yet, so this was the next best thing. There is lil Eli on the TV.

Saturday night our friends Kevin and Brandi came over and we all went to the starlight music series concert the city was putting on. Let me tell you how awesome this city is (for the most part). Since we live in a college town, we are never short on things to do. There is always something going on at the University or the local parks or with the county. We love living here. Ok, back to the concert, it was held at the amphitheater in town. We packed a blanket, chairs and a cooler full and headed out. The sun was only out for another hour or so while we were out there, thank goodness, because it was sooo hot.

 The guys!

 Brandi, Mrs. Pat and me.

The Rock-a-fellas. They were really good.

  The view once the sun went down.

We had a great time with them here and dare I forget to mention their new puppy Zeke. Mac and Zeke had a wonderful time playing ALL weekend long. Here are a few shots of them playing together.

I don't think they would ever stop playing if it were up to them.

 After Matt's parents left, we tried out Matt's birthday present from Mac. An obstacle course. We set it up in our backyard and Matt has been training Mac on how to do it. He is getting pretty good. Here are a few pictures from the first day.

 Mac chillin by the weave poles. He has no idea what is about to happen.

 The jump thing. I'm sure there is a real term for this.

 The tunnel. This is Mac's best event. He really likes the tunnel and doesn't need much instruction on this.

Especially since he knows there is a treat at the end. However the first time he did the tunnel, he stopped halfway through, where the shade was. Haha, he didn't want to come back into the sun. Just like him momma.

 Here is Matt trying to get him to do another lap of the course. But as you can see below, he opted to stay in the shade.

 Hiding behind my chair.

Now lounging in the shade.


  Ok,  I have soo many more pictures to post, but I will just have to post them later, because I don't want to slow your computer down with this super long post. I hope I have not overloaded you with unimportant chatter and images. But its my blog and since no one reads it, I can do whatever. Thanks for taking a look!

Memorial Day Cutie

Hi All,
  It's me Dara, remember, the one that neglects her blog all the time, yep thats me. I am pretty sure no one bothers to check this thing anymore, so this post will probably wither away somewhere in blog land. It's a shame because this post is about a super cutie.

   Over Memorial day weekend we met up with my girlfriends from college and their families in Dallas. It was soo awesome to have three days of family time with them. We usually only see each other around homecoming at Louisiana Tech. This year we decided that it wasn't often enough and that we all needed a vacation. We went shopping, went to a Rangers game, walked around the zoo and oohed and ahhed through the aquarium. But more on that later. This post is about my friends Lori's lil boy, Dawson. Lori asked if I would take his 6mos pictures, and my reply was "of course"! He is one of the happiest babies I have ever known. We took his pictures Monday morning right before we all left to go home, so we just took a few at the hotel we were staying at. Take a look at this cuteness below:

 

Doesn't he just make you smile. I am so honored that I was able to take his pictures. Thanks again Lori, I am soo glad that you love them.