Happy 3rd Anniversary!!

Three years ago today, October 21, 2006, I married my best friend!! What a wonderful day it was!! We were surrounded by our family and friends!! It was perfect!! I am still amazed at how lucky I am to have been given a gift like this! God knew what he was doing when he paired Scott and me up!! It was so worth the wait!! I have so loved doing "LIFE" with you Scott and can't wait to see what God has in store for us!! I love you so much!! Happy Anniversary Baby!!

Here are few of my favorite pictures from that day!!

(Sorry there are so many!!! I like a lot of them and it is hard to decide!!)

Me and my girls!!

Scott and the Groomsmen (and "Chick"!)

Scott and Lindsay "The Flower Girl"

Me and Mom

I love this picture with my amazing Daddy

Scott watching me walk down the isle. LOVE IT!!

Walking down the isle with Daddy

Ceremony. Smith Family Chapel at Riverbend Church in Austin, Texas.

This is one of my favorites!! It is just so sweet!!

First Dance

Father Daughter Dance

Mother Son Dance

I love this one too! Mom dancing with her new son!

Cake

Being silly!

Singing! I wish I could remember what we were singing! :)

Garter! (Well Scott decided it would be funny to pull out a pair of granny panties from under my skirt! I love my reaction. I had no idea!!)

My favorite girls!! Mom, Nicole and Me!!

Our Exit!

Catch Up

I bet you all wondered where I went! Well, I don't have an excuse really, just that I took a break, I guess! Basically, the last month was spent getting my house presentable for guests!! My college roommate, Shan came to visit at the end of September! (Watch for a few blog posts about her visit!) But first, I am going to back track and fill in the gap. So, get ready......there are a lot of posts coming!! So, keep checking back!!

Click on the links below to take you directly to a post..... (This is a complete list of what I will be blogging about, but only some are actually ready to view. I just thought it would be nice for you to know what I am working on!)

8/15 - Cairns - Day 1 & 2

8/17 - Cairns - Day 3 - SilverSonic Dives

8/18 - Cairns - Day 4 - Daintree Rainforest

8/20 - Cairns - Day 5 & 6 - OceanQuest LiveAboard

8/21 - Cairns - Day 7 - Last Day of Vacation

8/28 - Jon's Birthday Dinner

8/29 - Hawthorn vs. Essendon Footy Game

9/6 - Fantasy Football Draft Party

9/10 - AWA Lunch at Shantell Winery

9/11 - Hank & Jack Finally Make it to Australia

9/11 - VIDEO of the Boys!

9/17 - AWA Women of Wine

9/19 - Sleepover with the Mandani kids

9/22 - Shan Visits Australia - Day 1

9/23 - Shan Visits Australia - Day 2 - Brighton Beach and Shopping

9/24 - Shan Visits Australia - Day 3 - CBD

9/25 - Shan Visits Australia - Day 4 - Yarra Valley & Healsville Sanctuary

9/28 - Shan Visits Australia - Day 5-7 - Sydney

9/29 - Shan Visits Australia - Day 8

Sleepover with the Mandani Kids

On Friday, September 18, Scott and I offered to watch the Mandani kids overnight! Yes, that is what I said!! We had a slumber party! We wanted to give Jon and Steph some time without the kiddos. We had a great time! Scott grilled sausages and corn on the cob for dinner and then the kids settled in for Journey to the Center of the Earth in 3D! It was so cute to watch it with them and hear them tell us everything that was in 3D! We even made sundaes with sprinkles!! The boys didn't make it very far into the movie, but somehow Elivia watched the entire thing in my lap! I was amazed!! I set up a bed upstairs for them to all sleep on and they did well. I was not sure how they would be in a strange place. Elivia woke up at 6am and ended up in bed with us. We heard a pitter patter of little feet around 7am and knew the boys were awake. So, we got up. Scott made banana pancakes in the shape of Fish, Sting Rays, Manta Rays and Sharks!! Too cute!! Then after breakfast we headed to a park not too far from our house called Thomas Park. It is a very well designed playscape. It is huge and all connected to the point that you don't even have to touch the ground. It kept the kids very entertained!! We spent about an hour there playing with the kids and then headed home to meet Jon and Steph. The kids were very good for us and I can say that we will do it again sometime!!

Here are a few pictures from right after breakfast. Scott sat down to relax for a second and for some reason he ended up with kids in his lap! :)

AWA Women Of Wine

On Thursday, September 17, I joined the AWA Wine Appreciation Group for an event with a group called Women of Wine. The event was held at the Royal Mail Hotel in the city. It was a great girls night out and I was very excited that my friend Steph joined me at this event! We got to enjoy two boutique Victorian wineries, Mitchell Harris Wines and Fratelli Wines. They shared their stories of their wines and labels. We did lots of tasting, talking and drinking! We enjoyed canapes paired with each wine we tasted. A few included kangaroo spring rolls and emu!

Our group with the winemakers.

Heide & Alison

Showing off the wine I won in the drawing.

Trying to take a picture with Steph, but she must be embarrassed!

Ok.....something is wrong here!

That's better! Sorry it is a little blurry! But, it is the best one of the night!

VIDEO of the Boys!

Hank & Jack Finally Make it to Australia

The day has finally arrived that our puppies, Hank & Jack arrived in Australia! They have spent the last 6 months at our families homes in Austin. Jack stayed with Christy and John. Hank stayed with Nicole and my parents. So, thankfully they were in homes with people who loved them! Thank you so much to Christy, John, Mom, Dad, Nicole, Terry and Patty for everything you did to help!! I know none of us really knew how much was going to be involved in getting them over here. There were definitely some ups and downs along the way! Just when we thought everything was good to go, something else would pop up! So, thank you for all of your hard work and effort!! I don't think we can express how grateful we are to all of you!

Now, they are in a quarantine kennel for the next 30 days, which I am not too excited about. It does help that we get to visit twice a week! So, I can make sure they are being taken care of. So, that means that we will actually get to bring them home around October 10th!!

I was very happy that they remembered us! Jack especially!! He yelped and howled for a very long time. (I will post our video from the visit in a separate post just so you can see their reactions!!) I was also relieved that we were able to bring beds, toys and treats for them. We made the mistake of giving them a treat right away and then realized that they were more interested in the purple bag we brought with the treats in it than us!! Jack barked almost the entire time for treats!! Thats our boy!! Very vocal and emotional. Hank is the total opposite. He is very quiet and just tried to get as close as possible to us! My cuddlebug! We were not allowed to take them out of the kennel on this visit since they still had to clear them through the vet. So, next time (which will probably be Monday afternoon) we can actually take them into a yard and let them run around. But, this was great for today. We just sat on the ground with them and loved on them! Here are some pictures from our day!

Oh Boy! Treats!!

Group Hug!!

It was very hard to get a good picture of them both looking at the camera! This is the best I could do!! Scott looks great though!!

Scott & Hank

Happy Jack!

Ali & Hank

Kisses

Here is a picture of Jack barking! This is what he did most of the time we were there!!

One more treat! The time came when we had to leave, so we gave them both a rawhide to hopefully keep them busy for a while.

For some reason this is how Hank decided to eat his rawhide! I am not sure when he started to do this? Mom, Dad, Nicole??? Did you teach him this?? :)

We are so happy to have them on Australian soil, but we can't wait for them to actually come home with us!! I am already counting down the days!!

AWA Lunch at Shantell Winery

On Thursday, September 10, I met up with the American Women's Auxiliary for a combined social event. It was a combination of the Out to Lunch Bunch, Wine Appreciation Group, PAL (Permanent Americans) and Newcomers. We had a wonderful lunch at the Shantell Vineyard and Winery located in the beautiful Yarra Valley!! The lunch included a glass of their own Cellar Door Wine, a shared plate of cheeses, meat, olives and dips and a main dish of either fish or lamb. It was great to get to know some more Americans here in Australia. I was able to catch up with my friend Heide and I made a new friend named Shani. She is so sweet and I am excited to get to know her more. We all had a great time!