honeymoon!

Well there are so many posts that need to be done - but I cannot begin to do those without first documenting one of the sweetest times in my life...our honeymoon. David and I left early Sunday morning after our wedding on our trip to Zihuatanejo, Mexico.

(Most people have never heard of it - but it is the same place where Andy and Red take off to in Shawshank Redemption or where Meg Ryan and Andy Garcia visit in When a Man Loves a Woman).


We had a wonderful time!! It was fun (and fitting) that we were assigned the Romance suite upon arrival. ;-)

We spent a lot of time at the pool! They had these beautiful pools that dropped off the cliffs...we took lots of pictures with the pools!

We had our own little pool - which Dave enjoyed doing cannon balls in!

And yummy dinners!!

Dave was sweet and took me into town one day - I needed something for our home that would be a sweet reminder of our honeymoon. We had some trouble as the town is not really that great for shopping - but I did find a pink pillow - maybe if we have a little girl one day, she can have it on her bed.

More pool time...

This is looking up at the main hotel from the pool.

Praise God for good weather! My smart husband would not let us go to the Caribbean because it was hurricane season...and as it turns out, there were 3 hurricanes there during our honeymoon! The Pacific was a better spot for us.

Sweet Dave.

The beach.

We had a lot of practice with the self timer on our camera and taking self portraits.


We were so bummed to leave - but also so excited to start our lives as husband and wife back in Fort Worth. It has been nothing short of amazing!

Quirks...

i have been tagged by my friend lindsey to list 5 of my quirks.

here goes...

1. apparently, i have a really sensitive nose. there is something about the smell of nine west leather pumps. i have no idea why, but for some reason, the leather smell from those shoes drives me crazy. any other shoes from nine west are fine - even leather sandals and boots! (i really like BCBGgirl black heels ;-))

2. going along with the sensitive senses, i hate our alarm when we are setting it before we leave. i try to time leaving our house so that after i push the buttons to set the alarm that i get out immediately so i don't have to hear the beeping...or go out the front door because the unit is quieter.

3. i love pizza, as do most people...but i really love it. last week alone, i had it for dinner tuesday night (fortuna), wednesday night (dominos), thursday night (winslows) and saturday lunch (dominos again). oh and pizza dip sunday night! i can't get enough of it and my particular drink of choice with it is a big coke.

4. i hate to admit this, but it is rather quirky. . .i have watched days of our lives for like 10 years. i completely admit the show is ridiculous and several characters have died and come back to life. but it is nice to know that i can go without watching it for months at a time and pick right back up with the next episode.

5. my car trunk is completely useless. it is full to the brim (and i make no exaggeration here) with i don't even know what. i don't remember the last time i even opened it. for the entire time i have known my husband, nothing has been added to or taken away from its contents. it is really quite ridiculous.

Although Dave thinks it might look more like this....a large sheep carcass.

Alright - those are my current quirks...I now tag:

David's Birthday ;-)

Happy Birthday to my Husband of 44 days!

I hope your day is wonderful and that more than anything, you know how much you are loved by those around you.

Here are just a few of the reasons why I love you:

* You make me laugh at any given moment in the day.

* You know the person I want to be and encourage me to be that person.

* You make me coffee before I even wake up.

* You love my family as much as I do.

* You hug me when I am happy and when I am sad.

* You secretly fill up my gas tank & wash my car.

* You love to have fun!

* You like my cooking, or at least pretend to ;-)

* You can be my much needed voice of reason.

* You are a good friend and support me in being one also.

* You make life much, much sweeter!

I cannot wait to celebrate this special day! I love you!

back to blogging ;-)

I am so excited to go home and blog tonight about some big things that have been happening lately!

For starters, we got married!! We had a wonderful supportive group of friends and family and could not have asked for a better time. We still feel extremely blessed!

I moved into Dave's home - now OUR home ;-) He keeps having to remind me. I have confirmed my initial suspicion that I am in fact, a pack rat. I keep everything! Dave is patiently trying to work with me on this. He was also quite wonderful when I cried moving out of my apt...not because I didn't want to move...but it was just kind of special place - where our relationship began (first date) and evolved (got ready there on my wedding day).

Addison, my niece, had her first birthday on September 20! I cannot believe she is already 1! We found out she prefers Baby Graduates yogurt drops to birthday cake, loves a good plastic kitchen to play with and literally cracks herself up all the time.

We went to Wichita for the first time since we are married. This was SO fun and special for us to spend time with Dave's family debriefing the wedding festivities and hearing all about Jerry and Julie's baby boy who is on the way (names, bedding, etc.).

Marianne, my sister, started a new job! She is working for Baylor in Rockwall as a speech pathologist. She has business cards, a work email and most important - several letters behind her name ;-)

Her boyfriend, Norm, passed the finance section of the CPA exam - we found out yesterday! This is so impressive as most people don't pass it on the first time and he did it with flying colors. We are SO proud!

Finally, we have been married 1 month today! I know that doesn't seem long to many of you - but it has been the best month of my life! I have the best husband who supports me in everything I do - whether it makes sense or not. I love just being with him and I couldn't be happier! I love you Dave!

Alright - I hope to add pictures to these brief topics tonight!! Hope everyone is having a beautiful day!

Fort Worth Couples Shower

During the last weekend in June, Dave and I had our Fort Worth Couples Shower. It was at Cafe Aspen and an absolute blast! We had a great time introducing Dad and Karol and the Buchanans to all of our Fort Worth friends. We started off Friday night with a dinner over at Mom's. It was delicious and special because we were able to celebrate Van and Janie's anniversary and Janie's birthday!

Here is Kim, me and Marianne Janie, Mom and Aunt Carol
All the guys!

Lexie is our flower girl and she loves Dave and Norm! Here she is showing him around the house!
We laugh because Norm, Marianne and Lexie all look just alike. Its like Lexie knows it too - she loves hanging with Norm.
One treat to the evening was that Dad gave me his mother's watch to wear during the wedding. I have always loved it and was so excited when he gave it to me!
Saturday morning, we ran errands - one of which was picking out tuxedos for the guys. Grayson was so sweet to hang out with us through all of the details!

Then, the party started! We had so much fun!! A big thanks goes to all of the hostesses! The food, flowers and atmosphere were all wonderful.

Here is the Tarbox side of the family...

and the Drennan side...

Ashley and Grayson were both so sweet to come in town for the party. She got the cutest haircut that morning! I love it and so badly want the same one as soon as we get home from the honeymoon!

Way fun girls...

Dave and I waited to open our gifts until the next morning.

Cheers! Only 27 more days!

catching up, again...

Okay, so this will be the first of many posts due to all of the exciting things we and our friends and family have been up to lately!

After our girl's getaway at the end of May, the whole Drennan side of the family headed up to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania for our cousin Jeff's wedding. Jeff is the son of Pam (Terry's sister) and Jim. Jeff is the youngest of their 4 sons. They have a very fun family!

The sweet couple! Jeff and Faith Whalen

We cracked up because us kids flew up Friday night after mom and Terry went on Thursday. Mom booked us an suv at the rental car place, but they were fresh out by the time we got there. So we got a church van instead. It was hilarious and great!
The wedding was beautiful! It took place in Pam's backyard . They have a lovely home and set up a tent for the reception dinner. We had fun sitting with Jeff's older brother Jim and his wife, Liz.

Cute!

Terry and FaithDave and I
Mom with Jim and Liz' kids, Ty and Lily (ring bearer and flower girl).
The family
Terry and Mom with Jeff at the river house. Pam and Jim have a great little spot on the river. We loved getting to spend the downtime of the weekend there relaxing!
The family before we left on Sunday at the river house. Great weekend!! Congratulations Jeff and Faith!

wow - been WAY too long...

So I realize it has been almost a month since I last blogged...terrible I know! A lot has been going on - but I think I will start at the beggining because I would be crazy not to back track a little and tell about an awesome weekend my mom and I shared at the end of May! We went to Vegas for a friend's wedding and then on to Scotsdale for a couple of days at the spas. It was awesome!

This was Mom and Me before we left. We were REALLY excited!

We had just enough time to grab a drink before getting on the plane.

It was so neat because Mike's fiance, Lauren, was in town for work. So we all had dinner together at the Paris' Effiel Tower. The dinner was delicious and we watched the Bellagio fountains and toasted to getting married! Then we took Lauren to the casinos to play Blackjack...poor thing had to work super early the next morning - but she was a trooper and stayed with us until 2 am!


Then, the next night we attended Amanda Steven's wedding. As you can see, she looked GORGEOUS! The wedding was beautiful and lots of fun!

Diana and Jessica looked great too! In this pic, Jessica and I are actually taking blue shots - yuck! We had a ball - danced and laughed a lot!

Kathy and me...love that hot pink! It looks so good with the flowers in the pics.

While I couldn't even begin to describe the time between us leaving that reception and us arriving in Scotsdale, I will say it was HILARIOUS. Mom and I actually stayed up all night playing Blackjack (our favorite). We had a GREAT table and laughed until we cried. I still crack up when I think about all of the people we sat with that night at the tables. Scotsdale is the perfect place to go after an all-nighter at the tables because it is the most relaxing place I have ever visited. Loved it! Here is our hotel - The Phoenician.

They had the BEST breakfast every morning. Here is the one portion of the buffet and all of these shot glasses of different colors are freshly squeezed fruit juice. They had pineapple, watermelon, honeydew and cantalope. DELICIOUS!

As you can see, the rest of the stations provided many more delicious options. I LOVE eating outside and this might have been one of my favorite meals ever! Such fresh food and beautiful scenery.

Here is mom with watermelon shots and martini glasses of yogurt, granola and fruit! Yum!

You can sort of see Camelback Mountain in the background - which is where our hotel sat. This is mom and me before we got our first spa treatment. Loved this spa - they had amazing treatments and a really cool relaxation room with zero gravity chairs to take a nap in afterwards.

After our treatments and after dinner down time - it was SO fun! Loved everything about the trip. Hope we get to go back very soon! Thanks mom - loved the special girl's trip before the wedding...I will always look back on it fondly! It was nothing short of perfect. I love you!