Being Tourists in Austin!

Today, we decided to take a trip around Austin and act like tourists. So many people have been getting pictures done around all the cool murals around Austin. So, while we didn't go the route of professional photography, we did decide to go on a scavenger hunt to find a few of them. And I will also add..."I love you so much" is written on the side of a coffee shop, so of course we picked up an iced coffee while we were there to help beat the heat :)

Kicking off Summer!

Wow, time definitely gets away from us. It's already been 3 months since the last time I posted. So much for once a week or even once a month postings. So, we are gearing up for summer here in Pflugerville. It's been around 85 degrees pretty much everyday which has actually been wonderful! The last several years it's been in the 90s and 100s in May, so we are definitely enjoying the break. Those warmer days are just around the corner.

Some of the things that have been going on in the Marshall world:

• Kids just finished up the school year this week. Caden will be going into 4th grade and Carly will be in Kindergarten
• Dustin took me to a nice date night dinner this week to the Roaring Fork downtown. What a great date! And of course, afterwards we went out for coffee on Lake Austin at Mozarts.
• Went with our friends the Deans to see Jamestown Revival at Uncle Billy's downtown Austin
• I flew up to Colorado for my sister-in-laws bachelorette party, which was a blast!
• We enjoyed a wonderful Easter with our great friends at the Seaman's house
• Took the kids to see Stomp which was an amazing show!
• Rode 43 miles in the Rosedale Ride
• Carly lost her first tooth
• We made a quick trip down to South Padre to see Dustin's aunt and uncle while they were on vacation
• Enjoyed a double dinner date with Caden and my friend Jessica and her son while Dustin took Carly to her first Daddy Daughter dance

Wow...I guess now I know why I haven't managed to post anything. That's just the highlights! 

Tonight starts our long memorial day weekend! We have a great weekend planned. Tomorrow we'll wake up without an alarm, have breakfast, go for a bike ride and then come home and relax. Sunday, we'll go to church and go to 2 BBQs, what is the kick off to summer without some of those?! Then, Monday, we'll just have a lazy day around the house, maybe do all those boring chores to get ready for the work week and just enjoy life a bit.

New Year, New Goals!

Wow, January is already gone! It was a whirlwind of a month. Over the week of new year's, I got the privilege of staying home with the kids for an entire week while Dustin was at work. I got to take them to tennis camp, out to lunch for burgers, downtown to let Caden drive his off-road RC truck at a BMX track and just hang out with them. I'm not going to lie, there were definitely challenges, but at the end of the day and week, we had a blast. I'm so very lucky to have those two kids in my life. Dustin passed a huge milestone at work, he just had his 15 year anniversary which is hard for me to even imagine. But at the same time I'm getting ready to pass my 5 year anniversary. It really is amazing how fast time goes.

January is a time to reflect on the past year and make a plan for the coming year. I realize it's already February, but I thought it would be good to at least put into words what our goals for the coming year are.

• Work on getting fit again
• Refining our budget and sticking to it
• If things work out as planned, my student loans will be 100% paid off by the end of the year!!
• Come up with a real savings goal to achieve by the end of this year
• Making our house feel even more like home
• Keep up the flower beds better this year to keep our house pretty
• Come up with our official plan to expand our back patio
• Work on a deeper relationship with God

One of the things Dustin and I really have enjoyed doing together is road biking. It's a great way to get outdoors and get great exercise. Over most of last year, life just kind of happened and we didn't ride much. In 2012, we rode a 52 mile ride, and also had no issues signing up and finished a 43 mile group ride. We were riding anywhere from 3-4 days a week and would routinely ride 25 miles on the weekends. We've ridden 3 times since the beginning of the year, 21 miles, 14 miles and 16 miles. We are still quite a ways off from what we were doing over a year ago, but you have to start somewhere.

I would talk about budget stuff, but giving actual numbers would be a bit tacky. The main theme here is to work more on meal planning, eating at home most of the time especially when we have the kids, only taking the toll road when absolutely necessary and be conscious of our buying decisions.

Our house. I love our house. Dustin picked it out and had a contract on it just before we started dating. Thankfully he has great taste and it's an awesome house. We are lucky in that it's already pretty landscaped and doesn't require much work unless we want to change something. But, the one thing I dislike is pulling grass and weeds from the flower beds. I'm going to do a better job at keeping this up this year! The other thing with our house is the inside. While we painted a bunch last year and bought a few things, I definitely want to work more on this so we really make it ours and feel like home.

One of the big things Dustin and I have in common is enjoying the outdoors. I've always dreamed of having a beautiful sort of entertaining backyard and Dustin shares this dream. We've started discussing and throwing ideas around. I'm not sure what time frame we'll realistically be able to get it built, but I would love it if we can pin down exactly what we want out there so we can start planning to make it happen.

Lastly, the most important of them all is God. We do attend church regularly, but, I am setting a goal to get more engaged into it. Right now I have a real bad habit of going to church on Sunday and not digging in the Word more than that. This is one thing I want us to do as a couple. I hope to start reading the bible together and hopefully have some great discussions on what we are reading. Sometime this year, I hope to actually find a bible study to join. I have a strong desire to get more connected with people about God, I have just really struggled to make it happen. This will be the year.

Holidays of 2013

Unfortunately, the holidays this year did not include any of our family. We were unable to travel due to work schedules which was a real bummer. However, we are lucky to have wonderful friends that are like family here in Austin.

We celebrated Thanksgiving with Dustin, Caden, Carly and myself over at our friends Stacey & Alexis. Stacey absolutely loves hosting dinner parties so you can always count on having a nice, decorated, all out dinner experience when going to their house.

Later that weekend, we went and cut down our family Christmas tree! We found just the right tree to fit perfectly in our house. Caden was especially excited to be part of cutting down the tree. We are so lucky to have an awesome Christmas tree farm here in Central Tx when they don't actually grow naturally here. Although, they are still nothing compared to the beautiful trees in Colorado or Oregon!

Then one of the other great joys of the season! Baking Christmas cookies!! Just a quick picture I captured of Caden & Carly anxiously waiting for them to get done.

The weekend before Christmas, we were invited to another party over at Alexis & Stacey's. This time was an Ugly Sweater Party! We all had to come up with ugly sweaters and the winner received a prize. Much to my surprise with my lack of creativity, Dustin won the contest of the ugliest sweater! Check him out on the left along with the rest of our friends in their awesome Christmas garb. (Left to right - Dustin, myself, Carol with arms around Hendrix, Kelly holding Roscoe, Trey, Eric, Stacey, and Alexis)

Christmas Eve Dustin and I watched the all time classic It's a Wonderful Life. I had never seen it before and I was told it was a must see. I'm very glad we watched it and I think it might just become a Christmas tradition to watch every year! Christmas morning, we got up and had our coffee and just hung out enjoy each other's company before we picked up the kids at 2. This was not our year to have them on Christmas since we had them on Thanksgiving, so we were very blessed being able to spend the afternoon and evening with them until their mom picked them up the next morning. When the kids made it over, the immediately made it over by the tree and opened their stockings and presents to see what goodies they got this year!

Later in the day, Dustin deep fried his first turkey in the backyard. It's literally amazing how fast that thing cooks - 45 minutes and it was fully cooked! No more slaving away in the kitchen for hours on end to make the big dinner happen.

That now brings us to New Year's Eve. We rang in the new year with our neighbors Ryan & Heather for the second year in a row. We got to play games and just hang out and have a good time. 

2013 has been a year full of amazing blessings for our family. I can't wait to see what 2014 has in store for us! 

God bless

Where it all started

In February of 2012, while casually standing in line to get coffee there was a man. Not just any man, but an extremely attractive, friendly man. With quick conversation due it being at work, there was just a friendly exchange. But it had a resonating feel to it that made me yearn to chat further with him. Much to my appreciation, he contacted me later and we started talking from there. A month or so later on March 14, 2012, we went on our first official date. It was an amazing date, complete with Italian Food (North in the Domain) and wine (Cru also in the Domain). It left me realizing this guy was a real catch!

Soon after this amazing first date in May, we made the crazy decision to move in together. Neither one of us are all that spontaneous and both tend to over think things. But somehow it just felt right. One month after moving in together, came the most dreaded introduction of all - the mother in law. You always hear the stories of the crazy in laws and how much people don't like their in laws. So while I had already been told she was a nice, normal, friendly woman, I was skeptical like anyone. But, I decided to just be myself and hope for the best. Much to my surprise, she was a wonderful woman which was a good thing since she was staying with us for a week! She gave me a glimpse of why this man is as amazing as he is. Over the course of the next year, we spent a lot of time together and enjoyed every minute of it. I really got to know him and his 2 amazing children.

In March 2013, we decided to go on vacation. We took a cruise in the Caribbean. On that first magical night, this amazing man proposed and we got engaged! While it is what I wanted for a while at that point, I was totally surprised. It was one of the best days of my life.

On July 7, 2013, we had a very quiet, intimate ceremony with only immediate family up in the mountains of Colorado. The day couldn't have been more perfect.