Resolutions?

Ok - I am back from my blogging haitus....it's been over a month, i know - Stephanie tells me almost every other day. On top of that i have clients telling me i'm lame for not blogging now too! Here is a shout out & thank you to Stacey for getting my blogging butt in gear ;)

Soooo to catch up from Christmas (wow) I have to post a pic of our tree project first...it was a big deal!

 so this is how dad dropped off the tree

one gift painted & a little bit of texture

(see how into this i got?! i was really lecturing James about texture - like i know anything!)

 after only two little fights between us we completed our tree! we didn't take a professional pic this year bc well, we didn't have time..next year the tradition starts! So excited!

had to add this picture of Heidi bc she looks possessed 

what a freaky little one we have...

 and of course, my handsome man who put his blood, sweat, and tears into making sure i got my tree finished in time for Christmas. You can tell how excited he was ;)

isn't it so super cute?!

Thanks!

Moving on.

I guess I need to give a reason for my lack of blogging....

I have nothing to really blog about! Is that so sad?! I mean things happen day to day - but I can't imagine anyone really wanting to read about them...then again, I love reading other people's random blogs so I digress.

My life has been so crazy (not blog crazy) but busy crazy that really I wake up work out work (trying to keep the w's going - not working) anyway you get the picture. I started boot camp a few weeks ago to get in shape for my wedding dress (gorgeous). It really has taken a lot out of me. I am exhausted. I miss my boyfriend. I miss my friends. I come to work and manage to chit chat here and there but i feel like im missing out on spending time and hanging out with my salon girls bc im too tired to keep up :( Lame! At home is even worse. Since we have to two TV areas it seems he goes to one side and I go to the other just long enough to catch 30 minutes of relax unwind tv till its time to wake up at 4:30 to do bootcamp and start my day cycle all over again. Like I said - I miss my man. We went out to dinner tonight. It felt sooo good to have him all to myself. I just wanted to hug him and squeeze him and tell him how much i love him - i didn't don't worry. I promise I waited until we got home. Here is the not happily ever after part....he is in the living room watching sports center right now and i am pouring my heart out to a computer. I think all of this wedding planning/ cpa testing aftermath/ life is ALWAYS busy kinda stuff is kind of overwhelming us right now. I miss when we had nothing to do but be together and have fun.  I guess to get to where you want to be, meet goals you want to reach, make life what you want of it you have to sacrifice a tiny bit..but im a little over it. Don't get me wrong. I consider myself a super lucky girl with an awesome guy, career i love, friends i love even more - i just miss SIMPLE.

and i know- i am ocd about wedding planning. i need to stop. when i could be spending time with James im looking up aisle runners or bridesmaid dresses. ugh! can we be in Antigua already?! so excited for our wedding its going to be the bomb.com but can september kinda get here soon? I might drive myself (and others) crazy by then! oooooh wedddddings.....so pretty & special but so so much mentally, physically, and spendilly ;)

so i guess what i can is to make a resolution or two.

1) keep life simple & keep my relationship with my super handsome super wonderful best friend i call my fiance - top priority.

2) blog a little bit more so i quit making people mad ;)

Hope everyone is having an awesome 2011 so far!

I am soooo excited to see where it takes us all here at the 4911!

xoxo-

Lauren

 my favorite New Years Eve picture. Silly guy ;)

Love him!

Not so bloggable...

I think that would describe my life lately...

Busy does not always equal bloggable.

So, I started Weight Watchers. I suck at it. Steph says I started at a really bad BAD time. I think she's right. I can't help it that I am such an on impulse kinda gal though. The idea popped and my head and two minutes later BAM signed up. In my head I was on my way to my goal and I was going to get there quick fast and in a hurry...not so much. Everyone is asking why I wanted to start the program - I think that is silly. Why does anyone want to start a weight loss program.....to lose weight maybe? I have mastered the art of layering clothes and making double sure not to wear anything that results in rollage. Underneath this artful covering - there is some risky business happening - esp. with our wedding year coming up. Yeah. Wedding year. It's serious. Anyway - I have 10 lbs to lose. I will not accept losing 10lbs of water weight. I want 10 lbs GONE and in its place nice toned arms and a half decent tummy. A girl can dream ;) Let me tell you how WW has gone so far....I go over my points. Every single day. I  bet I went over at least 10 pts. Saturday night. Lets not get into today. Geez. I think they should have like WW for the work week - like give so many pts. that splurging sat and sunday is totally ok and encouraged. Hmmmmm......
I plan on getting better - the candy in the house is almost gone (not from Halloween, don't get crazy - I bought some Christmas candy) anyway - we've gone through most of that so I see an easier road ahead. Boot camp starts January 10th. Im super amped about that....me, boot camp, and WW combined is going to be Fab-U-lous....by March (our engagment pics) little late I know but my photographer said the light is great in march??? anyway by March I hope to be at least be 5 non water weight lbs lighter. Fingers crossed!!!!

Ok - enough rambling.
This weekend was fun....Saturday night J and I went out to eat and then went to Home Depot and Hobby Lobby to get stuff to finish my wooden Christmas tree my Dad made for us. Yes, he rocks. We have a tradition at Mom and Dads - every year we take a picture with Santa. This is no ordinary Santa. He is our personal super special Santa. Dad made him. Lynsey and I kinda helped. We were like 4&7 so not really. He cut him out of plywood and painted him from head to toe. I remember watching him thinking that he was the coolest Dad around and the was the most talented man in town (that so rhymed!) yeah sooooo here he is (Santa, not my Dad) :) Awesome right?!

anway - this year at Thanksgiving I mentioned to Dad that I would love to have something for our house kinda of like Santa. I came up with the christmas tree idea and drew out a plan for him. He laughed it off and said maybe for next christmas - well since my Dad is so freakin' awesome who has a tree for THIS Christmas?? ME and JAMES! James had to drop my parents off at that airport Saturday morning and my tree was delivered! So cool! Dad said we had to finish it though since it was going to become one of our traditions. I'm ok with that. Can't wait to post the results. Don't worry I will post a complete before and after deal. Wouldn't want you to be disappointed ;)

Super excited about this week - Tomorrow mani/pedi Tuesday girls dinner and this weeekend is full of fun parties with friends that I miss a lot since we are all growing up and have adult lives and priorities...no more nightly bar hops. sigh. anyway looking forward to the week!

Hope everyone had a fantastic weekend - and has an even better week!

XOXO

Lauren

"D" is for disappointment!

Which is also a great word to sum up my weekend.

Ok, I'm being dramatic. It wasn't toooo bad.
Just a lot of busy, not a lot of sleep. and what I was awake for - not worth the loss of sleep.

We had our salon Christmas party. We've had better.
that's all I really need to say about that. Lame.

Had some peeps over after the party - so my night got better. James, Steph, and Lauren N. are pretty much amazing at beer pong - I tried but I could feel a creepy cold coming on so I brought my butt back in the casa where there was a lot of DefJam Rapstar & Just Dance to take my mind off of it..wow that was the longest sentence ever. I'm not going to fix it. Yep, not caring.

Sunday woke up with no voice, sicky stomach, and a boyfriend with nasty breath.

That afternoon we met with Karla and some friends for her birthday in Katy. While it was fun hanging out my stomach was feeling a little not normal compliments of the jager from the night before.

Because of this lunch (Karla this is NOT your fault) I threw up three times Sunday night - have you ever hacked up chicken wings?! ugh.....never again.

So - While this first exciting holiday weekend wasn't the best I have high hopes for the next few weekends. No chicken wings, No jager, and um no work parties. Lookin' hopeful people!

Wednesday I have a another appointment with my dermatologist. I'm going to have to have a serious talk with her. I've been totally trusting and putting all my faith in what she recommends - but I'm almost over her. My face is peeeeeeeling off. I get that it does that at first but this is like month 3 of horrible flaky ugly skin. I see no improvement. Just bad bad bad skin. I know the wedding isn't until Sept. but hellllo my pictures are coming up soon for our save the dates and um yeah - I don't think she can photo shop flakiness people. So I will let you know how that goes. I'm not good at asking questions when I need to soooo this may just end with me in tears begging her to fix my face, pleeeease!

Again with the dramatics. I just need some nyquil and wine. and a hug from my man...

So please everyone pray this sickness goes away, my appointment book at work gets filled, and I win the lottery..twice.

oh & that my dermi fixes my face.


XoXo

Lauren

Busy, Busy & Busier...

Oooooh my goodness...even with James and I saying that we are keeping Christmas small this year - it's looking very overwhelming - while my bank account is well, underwhelming. I have sooo many great ideas about what I should could or would get people but this same thought keeps running through my head..."wedding wedding save for wedding"! Gross!! So I think I am just going to come to terms with the fact that this year isn't going to be about how many gifts we have under the tree - but about how great the wrapping paper coordinates on all three - maybe four gifts ;) Yes, I'm neurotic about matching my tree with my wrapping paper. That reminds me of a convo James and I had the other day....

So growing up our family tree was a big mish mosh of memories, crafts, all kinds of crazy ornaments. NO THEME - gasp! Every year though I remember looking at our tree thinking it was the most gorgeous twinkling crafty family tree EVER! but - now that I'm older and tree is very themed and very matchy matchy (besides the ornament we try to get from every place we or my parents visit) (NYC is our newest addition!)I get nervous about how I'm going to be when my child wants to add his/her personal touch. Im gonna freak. James doesn't think so - he says we are going to think every addition our child makes will be our new favorite ornament. I think not. I think they are going to have their own kid tree in the den. James says we'll see. Makes me nervous, just sayin'...
Here are a few pre Christmas pics to get you in the spirit - wooohoooo!


Moving on.....

James and his friends at work went in together to put their names in for the Devon suite at the Texans game last Sunday (yes, I saw the fight) (yes, very entertaining) but what I loved best about this was I drank allll the beer I wanted and alllll the cracker jacks I could get my hands on. The food - not so great so thank the good Lord there were cracker jacks. Those make me super happy - like WOAH happy.
We did the whole tailgating thing - that was ok. I was more interested in the yummy donuts J got us. Sooo we get there and James' intern is like the cousin of a cousin of a cousin (you know the drill) of someone who manages or works with or whatever with someone from the Texans sooo we got to go down to the sidelines pre game! It was pretty much awesome. It took me back to my cheerleading days real quick like. So cool! Not that I am the biggest sports fan - but that made it a bit more interesting...and maybe the fight helped me love football just a bit more as well :) I will say though that having awesome seats, free beer, and time with my super handsome boyfriend make for a pretty great Texas game experience. Couldn't really go wrong. Oh! and they won...bc we were there. Duh.

Below pictures were supposed to be at top....but since I am no bueno with the blogging they ended up down here.  Either way, Happy Holidays!!

Merry early Christmas from Lauren, Heidi, and James

-xoxo-

p.s. is anyone else getting a little nervous about making allll the events you are being invited to via Facebook?! I swear I don't have that many friends...it's going to be a busy December - deeeep breath!

Digital Get Down....

If you don't remember that song - download it. Digital Get Down by NSync. It is super fun & great to run I mean walk to...I suddenly have this addiction to all the highschool boy band groups. After watching the AMA's and seeing New Kids with Backstreet Boys - how can I not want to relive the poppy goodness?! So consequently my itunes is being flooded with NSync, Backstreet, and some more New Kids. Side note: the Backstreet Boys/New Kids on the Block tour is coming full force in June. I'm so there. You should be too..

Soooo I found my wedding dress! Yes! I did! Well I have to say that it was a group effort. If you realllly know me you already know I thought I found THE dress. It was simple, no fuss, and ok, not gonna lie. Soooo affordable. Like sick affordable. I was OK with that. I loved that about the dress. More money to spend here and there. Open bars aren't cheap people! So I brought my mom, sister, and bridesmaid/best girl ever, to go on a dress hunt. I really just thought we were going to David's Bridal I was going to put on the dress and then bam - mom and sister would say how much they LOVED it and that it was THE PERFECT DRESS! Well, yeah. None of that happened. Here is more of how the convo went..

Lynsey: it's pretty....with a not so convincing smile.
Mom: silence....smirk.
Steph: that is so perfect (steph knew how i felt about the dress and i had talked her into loving it as well)
Mom: breaking her silence: well if you want it lets buy it.
Me: do you like it?
Mom: silence - slight head movment from the left to right....
Mom: but it's your dress if you like it lets get it.

Me: maybe we should go to our next appointmet at Venturas
Mom: good idea.

sooooooooooooooooooooooooooo i was sick all the way to venturas. what was wrong with the dress?! why does nobody like it?! do i have awful wedding dress taste? and if that is the case do I just have awful wedding taste?! ooooh lord. my wedding is doomed. so we drive. i try to make small talk. Steph is being funny steph and making me feel 10 times  better per minute. so i just let the dress go and decided to give venturas a chance.

and thank goodness I did!

as you pull up it looks like a scary warehouse. its a little sketchy. Wanna know my opinion though?! I think they make the outside look that way to prevent theft. Theft of alllll the beautiful gorgeous amazing gowns that they have in the wedding dress heaven. Im telling you...we walked in and despite the lists of rules here and there ( we were thrown off a bit ) but once you get the "ok you're clear come in" it is like a candy store for brides. Silk, taffeta, lace, ribbon, jewels, ooooh M G.

My awesome consultant led me through rows and rows of amazingness. I chose a few to start off with -and she assured me she had some ideas that she would bring out later..

As she helped me into the first dress a crazy cool feeling came over me. I felt like a REAL BRIDE. The Davids dress was pretty and casual and i felt pretty. This dress made me feel glamorous, gorgeous, I can honestly say as I looked in the mirror I wondered how one dress could make me feel so great about myself. If you haven't guessed  - I ended up choosing the first dress I tried on. I tried on quite a few more but my mind kept pulling me back to dress one...and just seeing my mom, sisters and Stephs face just made me feel that much more confident in my decision. Mom said if I didn't pick that dress I was crazy & that she knew that was the dress I was supposed to marry James in. There were tears. Just seeing my favorite people so happy for me meant more than the dress. (the dress is fantastic though)..so after one day only I had the dress of my dreams. I can't wait for everyone to see it! My dad is going to wonder where his daughter went ;) I am so excited to see James' face when I walk down the aisle. He tells me I'm the prettiest girl ever pretty much every day but he has no idea what a treat he is going to get! LOL! This dress makes me feel sexy and confident and all the things I think of when I think of glamour. Yes, I said sexy ;)
Hurry up September!!!

So it's Thanksgiving. We went to mom and dad's in mont belvieu and it was a perfect day!

Games and puzzles with Lynsey. Wine. Listening to my dad, uncle, and James argue about foreign, vs. american made cars. Football. FOOOOOOOD!

my mom knows how to make thanksgiving dinner. let me tell ya. I so look forward to it. then I so regret it. but yeah, worth it totally.

to wrap up this post I am going to just throw out 5 things Im way thankful for!

1.) FAMILY - i would be lost without them.

 me and the fam. my dad may or may not be an undercover pimp. we don't talk about it ;)

this was at 9-5 for my mom's birthday. we had a blast! and yes, Dolly Parton was actually there (just for my mom's big day of course)

2.) JAMES he pretty much makes my day every single day.

sorry babe! thats what you get with you don't smile when i want to take your picture. this is your warning ;)

love him.

3.) HEIDI!

4.) FRIENDS

5.) NO DEBT & A STABLE FUN JOB!

oh man.

have to add one more.

6.) IM GETTING MARRIED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

HOPE EVERYONE HAD A GREAT TURKEY (in our case ham) DAY!

sorry for the last few pictures missing but James just came in and said he had a prize for me - he put up the tree! Woooohooooo! Off to decorate for our party next saturday, what?!

LOVE,

ME

xoxo

gosh have to say it one more time: I am soooo thankful for my handsome fiance for wanting to

MARRY ME ;)

and that my dermatologist is going to fix my oil problem - do you see that oil slick on my face - gross!

I suppose I have soooo much to be thankful for - kind of overwhelming! 

the end. 

Sex In The City

I can join that club!!!!!!

Yes, I went there.

Yes, I mean NEW YORK! (and maybe the sex in NY part too, maybe....you dirty minds)

but - sooooo in love with the big apple. We had the most amazing time. I know I could never be a true New Yorker but I had blast trying. Picture me: dark alleys, late night, coffee in hand, hailing taxis - I was legit. Legit & scared out of my ever loving mind. I grew up in the country people. Some nights we didn't lock the door - ok only when mom knew I would be home late and she didn't want the dog to wake up but you know what I mean. I was looking over my shoulder every ten, no 5 seconds ( I read in a magazine if you act aware of your surroundings are you a less likey target for a scary person) anyway James lauged at me and reminded me that he in fact was perfectly comfortable because he grew up in the ghetto - I mean, Channelview. I will admit having my man so confident in his street smarts did make me feel way way better and I think him  being so handsome helped too ;)

Ok - besides me being a little uncomfortable at night the actual city is amazing. and gorgeous, and wonderful, and busy and perfect. I think it would be the neatest girls weekend destination so yeah, start saving girls!

Here are a few pictures from the trip: They say more about the beauty of NY than I could ever type.

Ok - so these are just a few..didn't want to bore anyone ;) BUT if you want to see more (and you should) I have them loaded on my facebook under the NY:LOVE album I think...and it's not private so yes you can see them. No excuses!

So to round up our NY trip blog here are 10 fun things:

1. We saw Chicago - James was drooling. Those girls were smokin' and yeah, the musical talent: AMAZING!
2. We went to the Natural History Museum. Nothing came alive while we were there. I asked J if we could wait and see - big negative. Lame. but we did see some very very neat exhibits. I love a great museum :)
3. I rode the subway. YUCK. Not my fav but taxis are way expensive and I would rather spend my money on beer.
4. While in the subway I got shoved and instructed to "Get out tha way" by a homeless scary girl. Who then began asking everyone to open a phone she "Fout in da taxi"........where was my dang taxi?!
5. We found the cooooolest dive bar EVER. It was called Steve's. The sign outside simply said in neon lights: "BAR" Thank you YELP app for making our Saturday night at Steve's epic.
6. We spent maybe an hour of the total shopping. There was soooo much to do we really didn't have time. Guess we have to go back!!
7. The food was to die for. I don't think we had one bad meal. These people eat well. I'm jealous. and they walk EVERYWHERE so they don't have to worry about what they eat...Lucky. I wonder how long it would take me to walk from home to work...I would be a skinny biatch.
8. James is the love of my life. I know this because I didn't murder him while spending the weekend cooped up in our 2X5 hotel room...ok it was a bit larger than that BUT at the same time it was hella small. We made it :)
9. Times Square is crazy. It is like the Vegas strip on steriods. So cool. I do think it is crazy however that people actually want to cram themselves in there though for New Years. We went on an average weekend and were getting booty bumped left and right. New Years!? No thanks....
10. I look a boy when I wear hats. Especially beanies. and especially while I have my hair pulled up in a pony tail & wearing ear muffs. seriously! example in 3...2...1...look down!

So from my get ready room in the fabulous state of Texas I just wanted to fill you in on my so awesome trip to super fun New York!

Love,
Lauren

see I look way better without a hat :)

isn't James too cute?!

ok I'm really done......

xoxo

Halloween at the 4911...

Huge success!
I honestly have been looking forward to Halloween night for the last 2 months. This was our first real Halloween at the 4911 and we were ready! We had a bucket FULL of candy and most of it is gone. We still have little bit left. I'm not gonna lie. I was worried we wouldn't have enough. Not because I was afraid to run out for the kids but um, because I needed breakfast this morning.
side note: Can you tell my diet is going splendidly?! I am on a roll - let me tell ya. Ew. like a stomach roll?! yes, I went there. I need to get to the gym asap. Im feeling way guilty right now.
Ok - i'm taking the focus off of my favorite holiday....getting back to halloween: so last year we went to Philly to meet up with some of J's friends for a concert and halloween party so while we were living here at the 4911 at the time - we weren't halloweening it up HERE. Last year was a freakin' blast - don't get me wrong. I wouldn't have traded last Halloween for anything except maybe not taking so many $2 jager shots or was it $3. doesn't matter. Yeah. I would trade that. Here is a recap of last Halloween before we get to this year.
 Drum roll....HALLOWEEN 2009 what, what?!

So much fun :) Pretty much one of my favorite Halloweens so far.

Now lets look into Halloween 2010:

This year was in the running for my favorite halloween - but in a different way. Last year we did the costumes, the parties, the $2-3 jager shots.....you get it. This year we stayed home. I raked leaves and cleaned the front entry. We hung webs and banners and plugged in sparkly pumpkins and James set up glowing paper bags. It was a fabulous first halloween decorating attempt. It was bittersweet in a way. We were the ones staying in, waiting for the trick or treaters and ooooh'ing an awwww'ing over the so so cute costumes. We were peeking out of the window waiting like a 5 year old waits for their birthday party guest to arrive. Just sayin' - we were excited! Then - I got nervous. What if I scare the kids, what if I don't say the right thing, what if they kick me and steal all of the candy?! Soooo James did the passing out. I just watched from a distance..smiling and waving like a goof. But I wouldnt have done it any other way. My man looks super hot while passing out candy & was so so adorable talking to everyone about their costumes and telling them to have fun. he is going to be an awesome dad. at one point there was a group of older boys and they asked him what he was and he said he was an old man in pj's. as he shut the door he asked, "do we have an age limit?!" oooooh yeah, that's my hubby to be ;)
so we only have a few kids on our street. but these are some smart kids. let me tell you! they hit our house ummmm like 3 times?! each time with a new little story on why they were back. well i take that back. the little girls across the street didn't say much. they just held out their bags and smiled (very sneakily). Love them. Now the boys were hilarious. They were our final trick or treaters. They came back just to let us know we werent getting anymore trick or treaters - they were the last ones out...I saw those boys eyeing up MY breakfast. I got a little panicky. This is how I know my guy knows me. He didn't give them allll the candy! I sooo thought it was about to happen but nope James just laughed and gave them each a handful. I was ok with that ;)
We also had a few special halloween visitors! Steph and Jeff brought over Iron Man (Jayden) and the cutest Ladybug ever (Bryleigh). They were my favorite trick of treaters of the night. I just want to say that Steph and Jeff are doing a fabulous job with their babies. Umm polite?! Sooo polite! Ok here is a scenario and you decide how you would have handled this as a kid in kindergarten or a toddler. You are in a ladies house that you know knows your mom and dad. She says here take whatever you want. What would you do? A) grab the biggest handful you coud ever imagine - then go back for more?! or B) take a few pieces and say Thank you. Um- A?! but nope. Jayden was so sweet. He took a few pieces said thank you and was totally satisfied. It was sweet. and Bryleigh was ok with just one snickers (my kind of girl) Good job Steph & Jeff. Your kids are AMAZING & way cute :)

So here are a few pics to end my blog - I have things to do people. NYC in 3, yes THREE days! WooHoo!

 Jayden

Bryleigh

So while I had my wine and James had his football - all the neighborhood kids had a crap load of candy. Score 1 for the 4911!

Can't wait for next year!
I am going as a Trophy Wife since it will be pretty much right after we GET MARRIED (a month and a day to be exact)! Perfect, I know! I think I'm partial to the first one...we shall see!!!

Maybe James can do the whole prisoner with a ball and chain with a sash that says slave husband....too much? maybe.....

Hope everyone had a fabulously spooookified Halloween!

Love Always,

Lauren