The gypsies never stop!

So it's been a while, and for that I apologize. I'm feeling uninspired at the moment but thought I would take advantage of this free moment to share a little of our life right now.
We had an amazing holiday season full of traveling, family, friends, new experiences, and lots of goodies of course!
As many of you know we just hit the 1 year mark! Whoop for marriage! We decided since life has been mostly insane the past year we needed to get away, so we took advantage of our good buddy Bryan and stayed at his families ranch house in Hearne, TX. We were there just for a weekend, but it was a good time of just relaxing, 4wheeler riding, fishing, roasting smores, classic movies, and enjoying each others presence - uninterrupted.
On from there we drove to Paris for Christmas festivities. We had a blast and drove back to Sugar Land on Christmas night in order to leave the following morning for our YL ski trip. As the gypsies we are, we set off with around 50 people total, including the San Antonio YL crew, on a near 30 hour bus ride up to Crooked Creek Ranch in Winter Park, CO. We skied for 3 days, of which I only skied 2, and for my first time skiing I have to say I am proud of myself for only falling once - thank you very much!
When we got back home, we spent most of the week cleaning house, visiting people, and packing again to leave for yet another trip to CO where we currently are residing for the next 2 weeks. Gary is attending YL's 1st year staff training, and I am just soakin up the sun on the glorious snow-laden mountains at Frontier Ranch in Buena Vista, CO.
Needless to say its been a pretty eventful, fun, and somewhat tiring holiday season. I'll leave you with some pictures of all of these events...
These are our beautiful nieces Cydnie, and her new baby sister, Criss

This is my mom's side of the family... there's never a crowd when its the one's you love

And the rest are from Winter Park, CO... Young Life Ski Trip 2008!

a bit too far

There are times when Christians go a bit too far and go from funny to ridiculous. This guy goes straight to ridiculous.



Here's the actual Ice, Ice, Baby video.

halloween 2008

Allison and I went to a halloween party hosted by a married couple from the church we attend. The theme was, "Famous Couples", and we saw everything from Brad and Anjolina to Ken and Barbie. We were American Gothic (the painting) and carried a very large picture frame with us. Our first halloween as a married couple. Yay.

One of the funnest things about being married is knowing you have that other person for all of life's experiences. Don't get me wrong, there are some great things about being single. I mean, in the past I never had to worry about whether or not I put the toilet seat back down, washing dishes with soap (rinsing works just fine), or putting my clothes back where I got them (the closet). As a married man I'm much cleaner and organized (not saying a lot). Overrated.

Just kidding. I like how marriage has made me a better man and not just because I'm cleaner or more organized. It has done things for me that singleness could never do. I could type about those things, but people have written books about it. Plus, if I tell all the secrets of marriage it would ruin the surprise.

I would suggest it, marriage that is. Whether or not you want to be cleaner or more organized that is up to you.

Our New Niece

My oldest brother, Billy, and his wife, Ashley, just had their second child. This is our newest niece and she was born on Halloween night!!! Crazy, huh? Maybe that is why she looks so funky. JK. But seriously, I've never seen a 'pretty' newborn. They all look like aliens.

Her name is Criss Ashlynn. Here's the story with her name - Billy and his football coach have established a great relationship over the past four years. His coach, Chris, is married, but they've never been able to have children. So, him and Ashley decided they would honor coach by naming their child after him. What an honor.