Decisions, Decisions, Decisions!

Last week, Jason and I had a meeting at our builder's design center to pick everything out for our new house... outside brick and stone, granite, tile, paint colors, hardwood floors, carpet etc. It was an overwhelming but fun process and with the help of our good friend Sue, we finally got everything picked out.

This week, we had a pre-construction meeting with our builder to see how our home will be laid out on the lot, look at the blueprints and decide on any structural changes. We ended up making a few small changes to the original plans like adding a butler's pantry with a wine fridge between the kitchen and dining room and changing a half bath to a full bath.

We are excited about all of our choices and can't wait to see them come to life in the next few months! Here is a picture of some of the design choices that we made (the granite countertop that the selections are laying on is not part of our design palette).

Top left: Tile for the entryway, kitchen/ breakfast room and two bathrooms.

Top center: Tile for our master bathroom and shower.

Top right: Stone colors for our bathroom countertops.

Center left: Dark green granite countertops.

Bottom left: Dark wood floors for the dining room.

Bottom center: Dark wood cabinets for the kitchen.

Bottom right: Neutral carpet and paint color.

Valentine's Day and Exciting News!

This weekend we celebrated our first married Valentine's Day! It is not uncommon for Jason to send flowers to me at work for Valentine's Day, but this year he surprised me by having a beautiful bouquet of red roses delivered to school on Monday so that I could enjoy them throughout the week. I wanted to surprise Jason as well, so I had a dozen chocolate covered strawberries and half a dozen chocolate dipped cookies delivered to him on Saturday. Saturday evening Jason took me out to dinner to Eddie V's, a new seafood/steakhouse in the City Centre area of Houston. The food was was amazing and we had a wonderful date night! On Sunday, we were invited over to a friend's home for brunch in the morning and that evening we met two more friends at Alamo Draft House to see the movie "Valentine's Day". It was a perfect Valentine's weekend for both of us!

My beautiful Valentine's bouquet

However, as wonderful as Saturday and Sunday were, the best day of the weekend was for both of us was Friday. After a lot of thought and discussion, Jason and I signed the contract to begin building a new house!!! We have been going back and forth for some time now on not only when we wanted to purchase our first home but where we wanted to live as well. Jason wanted to buy a house right away and move to the Katy area of Houston where he grew up. I wanted to stay in the city for a few more years and eventually move to the Humble/Kingwood area of Houston to be closer to my family. In the end, we both compromised and decided to buy a home now but move to the suburb of Eagle Springs in Humble. With a lot of help and guidance from our realtor (and one of my best friends) we chose what we hope will be a perfect house for us to grow into. Jason and I are both so excited to start the building process on the home that we hope to start our family in and enjoy for many years! Here are some pictures of our new lot and community:

.

Us with our "sold" sign on our new lot. We were lucky enough to get a lot on a cul-de-sac away from traffic instead of a main street.

Some pictures of our new community. We really love the family-friendly feel and all of the amenities such as parks, pools, walking/biking paths, playgrounds, athletic club and sports complex.

Bowl Games!

As everyone knows, Jason and I are both huge football fans. Although we cheer for different teams, we try to split our time during the fall evenly and attend as many Tech and UT games as we can. This January, we were lucky enough to go to both the Alamo Bowl and the BCS game to cheer on the Raiders and the Horns!

Alamo Bowl: The Alamo Bowl is in San Antonio, so we drove up Saturday morning, tailgated and went to the game Saturday night. Sunday, we had lunch and enjoyed some time on the Riverwalk before coming home. Here are some pictures from the game:

The "Going Band from Raiderland" marched from their hotel on the Riverwalk to the Alamo Dome. I shot this picture from Jason's truck as they marched past us.

Jason and I in our great 50 yard line seats!

The balloon drop and trophy presentation after Tech beat Michigan State. :)

Rose Bowl: Earlier this fall, Jason played in the Texas Exes golf tournament where he was the grand prize winner in a raffle for two tickets and a hotel room in LA for the BSC game. As you can imagine, he was on pins and needles the entire season, hoping that UT would stay undefeated and make it to the big game. Luckily for Jason, they did and we headed off to California. During our short stay, we were able to spend some time with my cousin who lives in LA, have lunch and go sightseeing in Old Town Pasadena, tailgate with friends who had also come to the game and of course, go to the Rose Bowl. Although UT lost, we still had a great time in California!

Jason and I enjoying lunch and the warm weather in Old Town Pasadena


The whole crew that met us in California for the game. Jimmy Halvatzis (standing) and Dave Fletcher (far left) are two of my friends from high school that ended up being in Jason's fraternity at UT!

We stopped to take a picture as we walked from Old Town Pasadena to the Rose Bowl.

In front of the Rose Bowl with our friends Nick and Kristi

Tailgating before the game.

The Rose Bowl Stadium

Parachuters landed on the field before the game.

The Longhorns warming up on the field before the game.

Updates!

Wow... between the wedding and the holidays I have been absolutely horrible at keeping up with our blog. I promise to be better in the future! We have had a very exciting past few months that has included several showers, our wedding, our honeymoon and the holidays. Here are some updates and pictures from all of these exciting events!

Showers: Jason and I had several wonderful showers thrown for us! In October, our good friends Kristi and Nick Conway and Sara and Dave Fletcher threw a couple's shower for us at Nick and Kristi's home in Houston. We had a great evening with close friends. At the beginning of November, Debbie Richter, Suzanne Murphy and Cathe Heinrich (two of my Bridesmaids and my Matron of Honor) hosted another wonderful couple's shower for us. We enjoyed good friends and fajitas at Sue's beautiful new home! Right before Thanksgiving break, the parents and students in my homeroom class threw a bridal shower for me during the school day. The kids (especially the girls!) absolutely loved all of the fun wedding decorations, heart shaped cookies and personalized M&Ms. Finally, in December my amazing team at Frostwood had an "Hour Shower" for me after school. All of the grade level teams gave us a gift according to the "hour" on their invitations. For example, for 8:00am, we received muffin pans, measuring spoons, a whisk and muffin mix. The teachers at my school are SO creative and we got some really neat gifts! Here are some pictures from the various showers:

The Big Day: December 12th, the big day was finally here! The day before the wedding, my mom hosted a wonderful bridal luncheon in the wine room at Ouisie's Table for me and my wedding party. After the luncheon all of my bridesmaids and I treated ourselves to manicures and pedicures. That evening, we had the rehearsal at the church and enjoyed a delicious rehearsal dinner hosted by Jason's family at Brenner's on the Bayou (the same restaurant where Jason proposed!) The next day, we were married at Chapelwood United Methodist Church. Following the wedding, we had a reception at Paraiso Maravilla, a Tuscan-style villa located in the Galleria area of Houston. Both the church and reception hall looked beautiful and everything went off without a hitch. It was truly the best evening of my life! Although we don't have access to all of the pictures from the photographer yet, here are a few pictures from our amazing wedding weekend!

Bridal Luncheon

Mani/Pedis

Wedding Rehearsal

Rehearsal Dinner
Before the Wedding

After the CeremonyLeaving the reception and off to our honeymoon!

The Honeymoon: The Monday after the wedding, we headed to Playa Del Carmen, Mexico for an amazing honeymoon. The weather was great, the food was wonderful and the resort that we stayed at did an incredible job of making our honeymoon spectacular. To view our honeymoon pictures, click here: http://alisonandjasonshoneymoon.shutterfly.com/

The Holidays: We got back from our honeymoon just in time to celebrate our first Christmas and New Year's Eve as a married couple. We were able to divide up our time on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day between both of our families and had a wonderful time with everyone. We rang in the new year at Smith and Wollensky's with a group of close friends. We are looking forward to what the New Year holds for our new family!

In front of our tree on New Year's Eve