Patty Cake

Patty cake
Bakers man
Look at my sweet nephew
He can now STAND!

That's right y'all, Jackson Dean cannot only crawl, he can stand up own his own, and is about to start WaLKing!! This kid is not even 9 months old.

I just want to kiss him all over. He's so stinkin' cute.

I'll let you be the judge, too:

Playing golf with the clubs we gave him


Look aunt natty and uncle t-rye I can stand!!



Isn't he the studliest guy?

We think so.
- Posted from my iPhone

O Where, O Where

Have I been?

Right here:




And here:





Round 1 of tests is almost complete. After tomorrow, I will have taken 7 tests, 2 quizzes, 1 Excel assignment, and 1 lab within ONE week.

Thanks to a lot of this recently, all of my tests were pushed together.





Look carefully and you can see the dog bowl that is completely covered in snow. We had about 5.5 inches.



We were stuck in the house for 4 days with all that junk and saw 6 accidents on the little FM road in front of our house. People think they can drive on ice and they just end up making fools of themselves.

So other than studying and being snowed in we have been homebodies and haven't traveled once this year!!! It's so so nice being able to go to your home church on Sundays.

Weekend traveling will pick up again as the Houston Rodeo is about to start and we need to visit Llano, too!
- Posted from my iPhone

Rocky Mountain High

Trav and I packed up the truck and drove 12 hours to Winter Park, Colorado the first week of January. We met 3 other couples and stayed at a great house across the sreet from the slopes.

The snow was fresh, fluffy, and not icy which made for PERFECT skiing conditions. If only I was a better skiier. Truth is, I stink. It's a shame I am such a terrible skiier and my parents took us skiing nearly every winter since I was 5. I like to go slow, wedge, and ski greens...nearly flat. I despise big steep hills, because they scare me. My real problem is that I'm afraid of falling and getting hurt, so I figure if I go slow and easy, then I won't fall, right?!?!?

Travis, however prefers to live on the dangerous side and loves any type of thrill seeking adventure. (remember, he rode bulls in college bc it was FUN!). He likes to ski the bowls, do tricks, and even the dreaded, ACL tearing moguls. He will usually ski 1 or 2 runs with me before becoming too bored and then he will venture off to the other side of the mountain and do the 'scary' stuff.

That's why this trip was perfect because we had 8 people skiing ( 9 on one day bc my dear friend Alli came up from Denver one day to ski--with Travis--she's too good to ski with me) and we had a large variety of skiiers.

We capped off our trip with a visit to the Fraser Tubing Hill which is a MUST DO if you are ever in Winter Park during the snowy season. We tubed for an hour and had a blast!

The worst part of the trip was the drive home. It stunk every bit of the way, because we knew as soon as we arrived at our house we had about 6 hours to rest before we had to load up again and head to Houston for the annual Riley extended Family Christmas.

Walkin' in a Winter Wonderland

It all started late Monday night. The temps began dropping into the teens with 30mph wind gusts
along with thunder sleet, snow, and freezing rain.

It is now Wednesday night and the temps are STILL in the teens and the roads are a solid sheet of ice.

This is the road in front of our house.



A 2 inch thick chunk of ice from the street.


We saw a truck spin out and end up in the ditch. T offered to help but the guy declined. Guess he was embarrassed. 4 hours later a tow truck came and pulled him out.

Because of these nasty roads we've been stuck inside the house since Monday night. Going stir crazy! School has been cancelled Tuesday-Thursday!

I made a big pot of venison chili to cope with these frigid temps. It was so so good!





Temps will remain below until Friday when the high is expected to climb to a whopping 33 degrees and a chance to receive 2 inches of snow.

Where is my warm Texas sunshine?!


- Posted from my iPhone