End of year

I just looked back over my 2013 posts. Not as many as previous years, but boy, what a memorable year. It started on a very sad note with Michael's mom dying, but got better from there. I went to Greece and learned about human trafficking. Came home and helped start an organization to help fight it. Moved Jordan back home after her year away at school. Then vacationed in Paris with the family. (thanks to all Josh's miles) Then Jordan got engaged! Aside from several friends walking through breast cancer, the holidays were very happy and trouble free. Hannah is on her last high school semester, and the wedding planning for J is in full force.
Next year will bring a new season of life for all of us and I'm looking forward to it. 2014 could be the best year yet. <3

Merry Christmas

My favorite senior pic of Hannah from school

Piece 1 of my gift from Michael. Brilliant wrapping job

Josh got us 3 girls matching Tiffany bracelets

Josh did really well this year on gifts for me. My surprise gifts were tan Tom wedges and a matching tan pleather jacket. I LOVE them both. Michael and J got me a bow and some arrows and a target. I was SOOO excited, and turns out I'm not bad at it!


We are shipping out the final amp to California today for evaluation by our possible future business partner. Pray for traveling mercy for the equipment and favor in the eyes of these people.  

more pics

The other night we all drove out to BLORA to look at lights, they were awesome.

Then on Saturday we all ventured up to Waco to watch Michael graduate from Baylor! We are so proud of him, he has worked really hard on his double major.

Random - tree in our back yard finally decided it was fall in mid December. It completely turned overnight.

Random pt 2 - We finally found a place that carries the color J wanted for her bridesmaid dresses. You wouldn't believe how hard it is to find Tiffany Blue! One store had just gotten in new swatches with this new color the day we visited

Hope you all are having a Merry Christmas season.

More birthday and holiday pics

For my birthday lunch Josh and I went to Top Golf for the first time. I LOVE THAT PLACE! It was so much fun, and I actually beat him 2 out of the 3 games.

Then we picked up the kids and went downtown for some shopping and a visit to The Big Top Candy Shop.

Then we ate and looked at a bunch of cool lights and went to Mozarts for the awesome lights/music show.

Today my Dad and Rebecca came down to visit and shop for dresses for the girls for her house party (for her wedding). We had SO much fun hanging out and found 2 perfect dresses. I so wish we could do this more frequently. I love my family. I had no idea how similar my sister and I are, since we didn't really grow up together, it must be the genes. I wish we all lived closer.

Random pics from the last few weeks

Hannah is 17!

cousins at Thanksgiving

Michael and Jordan's first purchases for their apartment next year. She is in love with this color blue. (so am I ) 

Josh eating a jalepeno - he's nuts

My wedding ring broke!! After 21 years it finally came unhitched. Will have to take it to the jewelers soon :(

my beautiful girl playing at our Anderson Mill campus this morning

Josh playing at his company Christmas party (with Chris, Abel and Kristian)

Josh and I at his company party

We found the gown!

We didn't intend to! We decided to go check out the gown buying process, see what's out there, how long it takes to order, see what she likes, etc.. All in preparation to start serious shopping next weekend when her bridesmaid Erin would be home. Then visit a few more and decide over the holidays. Well of course the very first one she tries on, she LOVES!! She tried on 5 more just to be sure, then put back on the first one with a veil, and it was over. She insisted she didn't want to shop around when all the dresses she would see she would only be comparing to this one. So we ordered it! (Even with the veil and petticoat it cost less than I had anticipated which was a pleasant surprise!) I just can't believe it happened so fast. We've been watching dress shows and pinning dresses on Pinterest for years, imagining all the dresses she would try on to pick from. I was almost kind of sad to not go through that whole process of parading around town trying on tons of dresses, but when I saw how happy she was in that dress, what I wanted was irrelevant. This is all still so surreal.

Oh, we also booked a venue last week!! It's the mansion she wanted on west campus. August 3rd is the big day. It's a Sunday, not ideal, but that's all that was available. We are soo excited this is finally in the books. Major stress off our shoulders.


In a much different start to our day we did a self defense training this morning with some other women. We had a blast! It is amazing how simple moves can completely throw a man off you, and also amazing how much confidence that gives you. Both my girls came along and are glad they did.

Friday I got to take Jordan to her first Christmas Affair. I've been going since she was a baby but have never taken her. She really enjoyed it, and I think I have a new shopping partner every year! I always get a huge jump start on the shopping at this event, you should check it out if you've never been.

*Becky's cancer surgery went as well as anyone could have hoped. The cancer was not in her nearby lymph glands, which is great news! She's still recovering in the hospital but is hoping to come home early next week.

Lots of exciting things happening here at Revelation Guitar Amps in Austin Texas! Hoping to announce a cool partnership soon. Josh is busy cranking out some amps for the company to play with over the holidays. If anyone you know is in the market for a custom, hand made, high quality amplifier, check us out.

Revelation Amps website

2 social media posts today that made me happy. Hannah is always managing to get Oscar in some funny poses for their "selfies". And when the big kids showed up at church this morning Pastor Lori wanted a pic with them and was SOO excited for them she even posted their photo.

Just returned from a trip to our nations capitol.

very eye catching awareness tool

Our team went to a trafficking conference last week. It was really good, practical material, and we heard amazing stories from actual survivors. It was very inspiring. We also got a night time tour of the capitol, which was pretty darn cool. We got to sit in the House chamber where the president gives his annual state of the union
address. That was REALLY cool. We weren't allowed to take pictures in there, or I would have. We also toured alot of the monuments and Smithsonians, but I already posted pics of those several years ago, so I won't do it again.





As soon as I got home the wedding planning commenced. We toured our first venue last night and ruled it out. We have 5 more this week. Apparently we are months behind schedule. Planning a wedding these days is a year long ordeal. One venue she really likes is already completely booked on all saturdays through next summer. But if she likes it enough we may choose a Friday or Sunday. This is gonna be a crazy ride.

The Proposal

The proposal was so beautiful. He had several friends and family there before we arrived and we were there pretending to do a photo shoot. Then Hannah had her listen to a song on her phone that was Michael singing her a song he wrote. Then one by one during the song her friends and family brought her pictures that he had drawn her of some of his favorite memories of their relationship. At the end he came up with blank paper for their next memories, and then he proposed. I think there were very few dry eyes. 

collage of all the drawings