The Best Year!!

Most of us don't remember what we were doing one month ago today much less one year ago, but I DO!!

We were getting married!!!

Tara and I have had a fun year together. We didn't ever think that our 1 year anniversary would arrive, but it's here!! We used to grit our teeth when people would say, "Oh you're still newly weds!" but now we've arrived and I couldn't be happier. Tara really is my better half and while I had no idea all of the growing we would do together, I love her more today than ever. I couldn't have found a better best friend and wife (and her family's not so bad either ;o). So to the girl of my dreams, HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!!

My First Deer [Contains Graphic Content]

I got a chance to go deer hunting this weekend with my Dad and his neighbor, Ralph. Ralph owns part of a 1600 acre ranch outside of Del Rio, TX and we headed down to have some fun. Tara and I drove down to San Antonio where we met up with my Dad and Ralph and then Tara headed on to her parents. We didn't get to bed until 1:30 that night and were up by 5am. We spent Friday morning watching some deer and touring the ranch. Saturday morning we all had our spots picked out, and after watching a buck for a little bit, I decided to take him at 7:31am. It took us another two hours to get the deer back to camp and cleaned up, but it was a lot of fun and a great trip to get my first deer. As a tradition in the camp, you get "war paint" (deer blood) put on your face when you get your first deer. I've had the opportunity to hunt ducks, geese, and rabbits, but this was my first deer. Below are pictures of the the deer and my war paint.

Snow!

Just wanted to share a picture of Scout loving snow in Texas. I know Tara's not happy, but at least Scout gets to use her coat. :)

Deck the Halls (well, just the one room...)

We put up our Christmas tree last night, since the living room was finally clean enough to be decorated ;). It was pretty darn exciting, we had to put the two parts of the tree together, and then plug in the lights. The tree is cute, I knew it was only 4.5 feet before we put it up, but I was still surprised at how short it is! But cute! It was fun decorating our first tree together. I know you're all dying to see how it looks, so here are some pictures! (you can also see our entertainment center that Marcus sanded down and we re stained together - the stain was darker than we thought it would be, but we still like it...)







And then here's a picture of the cute amaryllis plant that Marcus bought me. We got to plant the bulb and watch it grow, which I didn't think it would do, so we were pleasantly surprised by how nice it turned out!