the lanes.

My New Favorite Snack...

2010-07-22T07:54:00.000-07:00

Emerald Trail Mix Berry Blend is AAAAMMMAAZZZINNNGGG and only 120 calories per package. The trail mix includes a mix of walnuts and peanuts, yogurt raisins, granola and dried blueberries, strawberries and cranberries. This makes for the perfect blend of salty and sweet and is satisfying for a mid day snack. I just LOVE it!!

Healthy Wife, Healthy Life

2010-07-21T13:18:00.000-07:00

It is week 2 of Healthy Wife, Healthy Life.

I feel so much better after just one week. I have a lot more energy which I give a lot of credit to the amount of water I have been drinking and my work out routine. My work out routine has given my metabolism a serious boost. Which calls for a very hungry girl! I feel like I am always hungry but I am not craving as much of the bad stuff as before.

In addition to lots of water and exercise I have been eating a lot more vegetables. I have always eaten a lot of fruit but vegetables have never been my thing. I went to the store and bought squash, zucchini, lettuce and tomatoes. Adding these items as my side dish has allowed me not to eat as much of my main dish as I normally would. Plus it adds some color to the plate :)

I have been going to the gym every night with Brady and have been staying faithful to a workout routine that I have found on line. I have also been running 2 miles every night to get my legs back into shape. I want to work my way back up to 5 miles but I know that will take some time. I am going to create a second blog for myself that tracks my work out routines so that I can keep up with what I have done and the progress that I am making. Once I get that up I will add it to this blog so if you would like to follow along you can.

Quick Recipe------>

Tacos are fun and easy to make. Regular tacos can be so greasy and messy but this recipe allows you to still eat those yummy tacos but in a healthier way so when you get up from the table you do not feel disgusting while asking your self " Why did I just eat that?". I prefer a soft taco over a hard taco so this recipe will include just that.

Healthy Tacos:

Serves 4

1 pound lean ground turkey

2 teaspoons chili powder

2 teaspoons ground cumin

1 teaspoon garlic salt

1 teaspoon black pepper

1 teaspoon paprika

1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce

1/2 Tabasco sauce

1/2 teaspoon Dijon mustard

4 whole-wheat tortillas

Toppings Include:

romaine lettuce

shredded reduced cheese (2%)

healthy sour cream = 1 cup nonfat Greek yogurt mixed with 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

Instructions:

1. Spray a nonstick skillet with cooking spray and put over medium heat. Crumble the ground turkey into pan. Add the next 8 ingredients and cook, stirring and breaking up the meat with a spatula, until that meat is browned. Set aside

2. Wrap the tortillas in a towel and heat in the microwave for 15 to 30 seconds.

3. Serve.

Hope you enjoy! I know we did!!

-Cooper Lane

Summer Read Number 2 Done...

2010-07-21T10:00:00.000-07:00

on to Summer Read 3 :)

I just finished Something Borrowed and it was very good. Emily Giffin never lets me down. Her books are always great from beginning to end. In this particular book I was so surprised by the ending! I do not want to give to much away just in case someone reading has not read the book yet.

The store is told of a young attorney, Rachel, who has always been the "good girl" who has never found true love and feels like she never will. Darcy is Rachel's best friend who always gets everything that she was and has the so called "perfect life". The story starts off with Darcy throwing Rachel a birthday party and Rachel ends up going home with her Darcy's fiance Dexter. Through the book it goes through the choices that each person has to make and in the end each has to choose which path that they want to take.

Such a great book!!
The next book on my list, which I just bought on my Kindle, is Uncharted Territori. I love, love, love Tori Spelling and her adorable family so I can not wait to start reading!!

-Cooper Lane

Healthy Wife, Healthy Life

2010-07-15T09:36:00.000-07:00

Here it is!! My first "Healthy Wife, Healthy Life" post!! I have noticed a couple of bloggers that keep track of their goals on their blog and thought why not have my own goals to a healthier lifestyle on my blog as well. I decided to start this series of blogs to track my journey to a healthier life style, home and body. I feel like sharing it so that it will hold me somewhat accountable.

Since the wedding I have not been keeping up with the exercise and healthy eating that I was doing the months before. My clothes are getting a little uncomfortable and my energy level has gone down, which is my biggest concern. So it is time to stop just talking about it and actually do it.

My fitness & diet goals:
1. Sign up at a new gym. Since graduation I have not been able to visit a gym regularly since I am no longer a member, so it is time to sign up for a membership somewhere else. There is only one gym in town that has everything you need including great workout classes. So tomorrow afternoon when hubby is off of work we will head up to the gym and sign me up.
2. Cut back on the sweet intake. I have a huge sweet tooth!! The more I travel the more I indulge in the things that I normally would not eat at home and when I do that my brain is in routine to have that yummy treat after a meal. So this definitely needs to stop.
3. Be better at preparing healthy meals at home for the both of us. This will be the hardest one for me. It is so easy for me to pick something up on the way home or put in a pizza in the oven but this is unhealthy.
4. Drink plenty of water! This is the most important and probably the easiest to do. All i need is 64 oz per day. It sounds easy but it seems like I am never thirsty. I could honestly go all day without drinking one thing! Weird I know. So my solution to this is to buy a big water bottle that I can refill through out the day. They water bottle that I have in front of me now is 33.8 oz so if I drink two of those I am good to go!
5. Run. I remember the days when I enjoyed to run. But that just is not the case anymore. I don't know if I could even run a mile. So slow but sure I am going to get this habit back :)

This is not going to be easy with our busy schedules but I have to make it work. I will have more to tell you on next Wednesday's "Healthy Wife, Healthy Life" post.

Until then, here is to a healthy week!
-Cooper Lane

One Year Session with Photography by Lauren Lane

2010-07-13T15:13:00.000-07:00

-Cooper Lane

Weekend Recap..

2010-07-13T15:08:00.000-07:00

this weekend of course went as fast as all of the others but managed to get some things accomplished and have some fun.
Friday night we all went to see Eclipse. I never want to be that person who jumps on the bandwagon so I was very hesitate to watch the Twilight series. But a couple of months back Brady and I took a long road trip and needed some movies to watch in the back seat so we picked up both of the first movies in the series and we really enjoyed them. So we were pretty excited to see the new one. I honestly think that Eclipse was the best one so far. In this one Bella once again finds herself in danger of the vampires and in the midst of all of that she is also in the middle of love games with Edward and Jacob. She is forced to choose between the two.

Saturday was filled with organizing and cleaning, which will come with another blog (I came up with some really great ideas on how to organize and want to share with everyone reading). That night with nothing better to do we went to another movie, Knight and Day. This movie is with none other than Cameron Diaz and Tom Cruise. June Havens, played by Diaz, finds that her simple everyday life is tangled with a secret agent, Cruise. It was an action packed movie that works because of Diaz and Cruise.

Sunday was my favorite day of them all. Brady and I attended our normal church service and then headed off to take our one year anniversary photos, once those are ready I will post them on here!! Then we had lunch with his parents, brisket ummm :)

So there you have it, my weekend in a nut shell. Hope that everyone had a fabulous weekend.
-Cooper Lane

Then and Now...

2010-07-12T14:42:00.000-07:00

In April of last year I posted this picture of our house that we bought and closed on in the middle of April. It was a cute house but needed some work. We have done some major renovations to the inside to make it feel more like home to us. The front is my favorite change. I love flowers and I love wreaths so I was excited to spruce things up.
So this is before...
And this is now
Added a cute little door hanger...
Some fresh flowers..

A bench...
And wa-la...
We just had a new garage door installed so I will have pictures posted soon of the new door.

-Cooper Lane

Slow Cooker Lasagna.

2010-07-12T14:19:00.000-07:00

Today when we get home from work we will go home to the sweet aroma of lasagna. This afternoon I ran home and prepared everything to add to the slow cooker so that when we got home tonight I would not have to do much but make some veggies and spoon everything out on a plate to serve. These are my favorite recipes because I HATE to go home from a long day at work and start dinner. This way everything is ready to go when you get home :)

Here is the recipe, I haven't ever used this recipe before but how can you go wrong with cheese and noodles?

Slow Cooker Lasagna Recipe
Yield: 6-8 servings Prep: 25 min. Cook: 4-5 hours

Ingredients:
1 pound ground beef
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 can (29 ounces) tomato sauce - I used a little less
1 cup water
1 can (6 ounces) tomato paste
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 package ( 8 ounces) no-cook lasagna noodles
4 cups (16 ounces) shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese
1-1/2 cups (12 ounces) cottage cheese
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Directions:
In a skillet, cook beef and garlic over medium heat until meat is no longer pink; drain. Add the tomato sauce, water, tomato paste, salt and oregano; mix well.

Spread a fourth of the meat sauce in an ungreased slow cooker. Arrange a third of the noodles over sauce (break the noodles if necessary). Combine the cheeses; spoon a third of the mixture over noodles. Repeat layers twice. Top with remaining meat sauce.

Cover and cook on low for 4-5 hours or until noodles are tender.

-Cooper Lane

Taryn Howard & Grant Rogers...

2010-07-09T13:03:00.000-07:00

are officially engaged!!! I am soo excited for these two. They are so perfect together and deserve nothing but the best. Taryn is a good friend of mine and I can not wait to help her with all the wedding plans.

Congraulations you too! You will be a beautiful bride!!

-Cooper Lane

I love my new bling!

2010-07-09T12:11:00.000-07:00

I have been looking at buying a new watch and I finally found one that I really liked. It is a Micheal Kors silver watch. I took a picture and of course had to add my ring in there :)
I need to make a blog post a week of my new findings!! I love, love, love to shop!! If that was my job I would be in heaven every day :) But for now I will just do it for fun.

-Cooper Lane

Bon Voyage...

2010-07-09T11:57:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we said bye to Tucker and Justin for one month. They were given the opportunity to study abroad a Queen Mary's University of London until August 8Th. They have several breaks in between their studies and have already booked several different trip to Paris and Rome. I made them a blog called "Our European Adventures" and can follow them on tuckerandmorath.blogspot.com. I am so excited for them as this will be a journey of a lifetime.
Lauren and I made them a little bag of goodies so that their 10 hour plane ride would not be so bad. We filled it full of magazines, games and gum to chew on so the landing was not too hard on their ears. We took a picture of the group as we said good bye...
They are going to have so much fun and will remember this trip for ever.

-Cooper Lane

New Washer & Drier...

2010-07-08T12:19:00.001-07:00

Brady and I just bought our first brand new set of washer and driers. We bought the Samsung Steam Wash. The steam machine was a little bit more expensive but this is something that we will have for years and years to come. The steam clean is supposed to help get out those stubborn stains and extend the life of your clothes which is always a plus!! There is also a new technology called Diamond Drum which replaces the old typical washing drum with one that has smaller depressions so that your clothes do not snag. And the new items use less water, which was the husbands favorite part!

I have loved using them and now I just need to organize the laundry room! Which will be my next project.

-Cooper Lane

Diploma Framed..Check

2010-07-08T09:24:00.000-07:00

I received my diploma in the mail a couple of weeks ago and sent it straight to Gallery A Custom Framing which is my good friend Taryn's business. She always does such a great job on my frames. Here is a picture of my diploma which is now hanging in my office :)

she even added this cute comment to that back... isn't she the sweetest!?!

-Cooper Lane

fireworks with friends.

2010-07-07T13:44:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday was a perfect night to celebrate the 4th of July with some fireworks with friends. I always say the 4th of July is more fun for the guys because they love to blow everything up with fireworks. This year was no different then every other year that we have all been together. The boys blew everything up from coke cans to buckets and had so much fun doing it.

If by any chance you didnt get to see fireworks, here are some pictures for you.

-Cooper Lane

Happy Birthday Kylie Ann

2010-07-03T12:37:00.000-07:00

one of my best friends since freshman year is celebrating her 22nd birthday today!!

I love you ky!! Hope that you have a wonderful birthday.

-Cooper Lane

My New Baby Cousin..

2010-07-03T12:15:00.000-07:00

my beautiful Aunt Carol and my Uncle Nick had their precious little girl on May 21st at 5:oo pm. All I have to show of her is a picture because they live so far away (London). I will of course add more as I receive them.

And here she is little Ms. Polly

She also has a very proud baby sister, Sophia.

-Cooper Lane

Nikon D3000

2010-07-01T12:08:00.000-07:00

Coloring Program PICASA

Another Fun Filled Weekend.

2010-06-24T09:26:00.000-07:00

Today my friend Tucker and I are heading off to Dallas around 2 o'clock to pick up Lauren "Chef Lane" from the airport and then head to Tuckers bridal portraits! I am so excited to be able to experience this with her since she was my little helper for my bridal portraits! I pray that it isn't to hott for her today, I know how sweaty you get in the wedding dress, so please weather be nice to her!! I can't wait to post pictures, she is going to be a beautiful bride!!
this is the adorable couple here.

Once we leave the portraits it is off to Houston to stay for the weekend. Tucker's mom lives there and we are going to spend some time with her. We do not have many plans but to relax by the pool and do some shopping!! Which will be my kind of weekend :)

Well I hope that everyone has a wonderful end of the week! Be back soon!!
-Cooper Lane

Guess WHO

2010-06-21T20:28:00.000-07:00

got their new Kindle in....

MEEE!!!

I just love it! It is soo easy!!
-Cooper Lane

Birthday Weekend & Father's Day

2010-06-21T17:16:00.001-07:00

This weekend was a fun filled weekend that was all about the boys!

On Saturday night, after Brady got off work, we headed to Grapevine to stay at the Gaylord Texan Hotel.

We have been to the Gaylord several times for events that they have held in their atrium but we had never stayed. So we booked a room and it was lovely. We had an atrium view room so that we could see the whole inside area of the hotel. In the atrium there is a beautiful garden of flowers with different shops to go look in. Each time we go the Gaylord they have a different theme. This weekend the theme was Alice in Wonderland.

this would be me making fun of Brady's "model pose"

The next day, after breakfast, we went to the lovely Bass Pro Shop to get Brady's birthday present from me. Since he is an avid hunter haha all he wanted for his birthday was a gun case, and so that is what I got him. He is pretty easy to buy for. After we left Bass Pro we headed to Texas De Brazil. Brady had been begging to go since I went with the girls and showed him all of the pictures. So Steve and D'Lynn (Brady's parents) met us at the restaurant and we had a nice lunch. (Brady LOVED it!!) Once we left lunch we then went to another lovely place called Cabelas, needless to say I was worn our from all of the "hunt" shopping. At Cabelas we picked up another present for Brady from his dad which was a new gun safe, which was a much needed gift!

He is so spoiled!! :)

That night we had my dad over and since it was such a nice night we sat on the patio.

This weekend was a success!!

-Cooper Lane

June 17th...

2010-06-21T17:09:00.000-07:00

This is Brady's birthday cake..
It was a strawberry cheesecake ice cream cake with graham cracker crust!! Neither one of us like regular birthday day cake so we normally always get cookie cakes. But this year I decided to go to Maggie Moos and get an ice cream cake and mmmm mmm was it good! Earlier today we were looking for our next excuse to buy an ice cream cake and we came up with the Fourth of July!!! We can get a patriotic ice cream cake!! :)

-Cooper Lane

Cruise Booked, Check!

2010-06-21T11:13:00.000-07:00

Since our big 1 year wedding anniversary is coming up, what better excuse to go on another cruise!! Brady and I had so much fun on our honeymoon cruise that we decided to have a re-do and book another one. This time around we have decided to go on another 7 day cruise which parts from Port Canaveral (Orlando), Florida and goes to Nassau, Bahamas St. Thomas and St. Maarten. The ship that we are going on is called the Dream and it is their newest ship with the Carnival Cruise Line. It is the largest Carnival ship ever constructed and debuted on September 21 2009 (so it will almost be a year old when we go). This ship holds 3,646 passengers!!! Can you believe that?!? I pray it is not completely booked!!

The only bummer about the trip is the fact that it is not until September. So for our actual anniversary I really wanted to plan something that we have never done before. I have been thinking about a couple of things to do but the one thing that keeps popping up in my mind is going on a hot air balloon ride. I feel like it would be an unforgettable experience with my husband for our anniversary.

-Cooper Lane

Married Life..

2010-06-17T11:06:00.000-07:00

this is a video that was posted on YouTube as,life as a married couple, and I thought that it was hilarious!! It might just be me but I could not stop laughing.

Happy Happy Birthday...

2010-06-17T10:20:00.000-07:00

to my wonderful husband Brady Lane!! I love you baby

Hurricane Harbor

2010-06-15T21:08:00.000-07:00

this weekend Brady and I decided to take a trip down to Arlington to have some fun at Hurricane Harbor. I could have done without all of the people and the lines but other than that it was a lot of fun! Like I always say it is nice just to get away :)
-Cooper Lane

Girls & Bubbles..

2010-06-15T20:48:00.000-07:00

My favorite baby girls (not babies anymore) had so much fun playing in the backyard with bottles of bubbles the other night.
Avery and Aidan

These little girls are so dear to my heart because they were the flower girls in our wedding! We have a play date with them at least once a month. They definitely grow up WAY too fast!
-Cooper Lane

How Could I Have Forgotten..

2010-06-15T20:37:00.000-07:00

my sweet best friend Lauren (chef Lane) sent me this cookie bouquet of chocolate chip cookies for one of my many graduation gifts from her. This was such a delicious gift :)

-Cooper Lane

Heart of the Matter...

2010-06-12T14:36:00.000-07:00

this book is definitely a good one....

Emily Giffin is one of my favorite authors. Her stories make me feel like I am in the scene, that the person she is talking about is someone I know. Heart of the Matter is a book about 2 women, Tessa Russo and Valerie Anderson, both women are mothers to small children. Other than what they share as mothers the two women have very little in common. Every other chapter is a perfect description of life in their eyes. Emily Giffin creates a story of these two women, both good people, caught in circumstances that test them in ways they never thought possible. Each having to question everything that they once believed and each discovering what truly matters most.

Emily Giffin has 5 books out now. Something Borrowed, Something Blue, Baby Proof, Love the One You're With and the latest is Heart of the Matter

In 2009 2S Films teamed up to produce Something Borrowed and Something Blue. Something Borrowed is shooting now with a fantastic cast that includes: Kate Hudson (my favorite) and Collin Farrell. I am soo soo excited. Both of these books were published in 2006 and I have not read either one of them.

So next on my list of summer reads is Something Borrowed and Something Blue.

-Cooper Lane

Magic In A Bottle

2010-06-10T08:58:00.001-07:00

I absolutely,positively, with out a doubt hate to iron more than anyone that I know! When looking through my closet if I see that it is wrinkled I will just skip right over it which leaves me with several pieces of clothing that I just don't wear. So while walking down the aisle of Walmart I saw this handy little travel bottle of Downy Wrinkle Releaser (I am sure that this is old to most of you but I have never used it before).

Well folks this little product succeeded my expectations! Just spray, tug, and smooth the wrinkles and wa-la they are gone! No iron needed!! And that's my kind of product, magic in a bottle!!!
-Cooper Lane

New Shades..

2010-06-09T10:39:00.000-07:00

I had to buy some new sunglasses. Unfortunately while floating down the river half of the group flipped their tubes and I just so happened to be in that half that flipped. It was kind of scary and at the time I wasn't thinking of saving anything but my life!! Once I jumped back on the tube I realized that I no longer had my sunglasses on. So I lost my sunglasses which sucked because we were only 2 hours into the ride and I now had nothing to cover my eyes from the sun and not to mention that these sunglasses were only a couple of months old. Why I brought my expensive pair of sunglasses to float the river I will never know but, good news is I bought a new pair. Hey, I couldn't go without sunglasses for too long! I went up to Dillards to look for some reasonably priced sunglasses and found these cute Jessica Simpson glasses...

-Cooper Lane

This little man...

2010-06-08T21:04:00.001-07:00

was soo excited to see his mommy and daddy yesterday night when we got home!! He had soo much fun at his grandparents house (Brady's parents) that he didn't think about us too too much but when Sunday night rolled around and into Monday he started getting pretty worried that we left him forever! 4 days gone from us is a long time for our sweet little boy!! As soon as we got home they came to drop him off and he was soooo excited to see us!! He gave me soo many kisses! Now he is connected to my side and does not want to leave it in fear that we will leave again.

We are so attached to this sweet little boy and can only imagine how hard it is going to be when we have to leave our kids for a few days. But they will have plenty of people that will love them and take good care of them! We are so blessed!!

-Cooper Lane

Monday in Arizona

2010-06-08T20:37:00.000-07:00

Monday was our last day in Arizona. Brady, Lauren and I slept in and then woke up and cleaned up Laurens apartment. After having 6 people in an apartment all weekend you can only imagine how messy it was and it was the least we could do after all that she did for us this weekend. Once the apartment was clean we left to run some last minute errands. Then went to Baja Fresh for lunch. This place was soo good (I bet you all are getting tired of me talking about food,but I just love food) it was the first time we had ever been. At Baja Fresh all of their ingredients are fresh with no microwaves, no freezers, no lard and no M.S.G.

Our next stop was the Arizona Biltmore! I have no words to explain how amazing this place was and to top it off this is where Lauren works as a pastry chief. The Biltmore was built in 1929 as one of Phoenix's first resort. The Biltmore has had every president since Hoover stay at the hotel and J.F Kennedy stayed at this resort on his honeymoon night. Just that alone is impressive but the Biltmore has celebrities filtering in and out of the doors all of the time and Lauren makes desserts for all of these people!!!! I am soo proud of her. She has soo many more ideas up her sleeve, I can't wait to experience it all with her.

Well that ended our stay in Arizona. It was soo much fun and I loved being around my favorite people all weekend. I defiantly did not want the trip to end and was sad to leave Lauren. But I will see her in 2 weeks when we head to Houston to visit Tuckers mom. I can not wait!

-Cooper Lane

Sunday in Arizona

2010-06-08T20:21:00.000-07:00

Sunday was our day to paint pottery! We went to a place called As You Wish. It is soo much fun! If you have never been to paint pottery I suggest that you put that on your list of things to do! It is for all ages. How it works is you pick a piece of pottery from the shelves of things that you can paint. On the shelves there is everything from picture frames, coffee mugs, bowls, vases and pottery animals. As soon as you pick the piece you would like to paint you design, decorate and doodle on your pottery as you wish! Once you have everything painted you turn it into the front and in just a few days the piece will be glazed, fired and ready to pick up.

Everyone decided to paint a piece except for Gilbert. Tucker picked out some cool looking coasters for their new house, Lauren painted a flower vase, Brady did a coffee mug, Justin painted a bowl and I also did a bowl for our kitchen.
this is us with our pottery all painted
That night we had to take Lauren and Justin to the airport which was sad because I was not ready for them to leave and plus them leaving made it closer to the time when we had to leave. We arrived at the airport a little earlier and so we goofed around in the airport! It was soo much fun and left us with several different memories to laugh at for years to come! Once they checked in their luggage they still had about 30 minutes left until they were boarding so we sat down and played some Skip Bo. We all love to play games!
-Cooper Lane

Saturday in Arizona

2010-06-08T19:19:00.000-07:00

Saturday morning we woke and got ready for a fun filled day of Salt River Tubing. Last year when all the girls came to Arizona we went tubing and it was a blast, so we had to do it again. We definitely came prepared this time (or should I say Lauren's friends came prepared). We each rented a tube and tied everyone in our group together with a rope. There was about 12 people including ourselves, so we had a very big group with us! Last year when we went tubing there was a group of people who brought big huge marshmallows and would throw them at people who would in turn throw them back and you would end up having a bunch of marshmallows being thrown around. So this year we brought our own bag. It was soo much fun to see everyone having a good time! At one point every person in our group grabbed 2 marshmallows each and we all threw them at once. It was hilarious!!
This is a picture from our marshmallow fight...Once our marshmallow fight was over we sat back and relaxed. Our float was 4 hours worth and around the 3 hour mark we came to a huge cliff that people were jumping off of. In order to jump off of this cliff you have to climb up the rocks. Brady and Gilbert of course wanted to jump off but the only thing that they cautioned was the fact that they had no shoes on. But that did not stop them. They climbed right up the rocks in no time and jumped off.
Lauren caught a shot of them in mid air...
(you have to look real close)
I was a little nervous for my husband to be jumping off this huge cliff but he made it back to his tube in one piece!! Soon after the jump we were nearing the end. Once we were done we loaded up our tubes and jumped on a bus which took us back to our car. Tubing is always an interesting experience and this time did not let me down. We all had so much fun and it was so nice to meet some of Lauren's friends in Arizona.

Once we got back to the apartment we ate and then relaxed, we were all so worn out and sunburned!! Yes mom I put on my sunscreen, but I guess not enough!! haha

That night we went to one of my favorite restaurants, Yard House. Yard House is an upscale-casual eatery that has the most amazing food. Yard House is known for the world's largest selection of draft beer. Each location features a transparent keg room when you first walk in that contains more than 600 barrels of beer. Since I am not a beer drinker I go for the great food. My favorite thing on the menu is the French Onion Soup, makes me hungry just thinking about it!!

-Cooper Lane

Friday in Arizona

2010-06-08T12:42:00.000-07:00

So we arrived in Phoenix, Arizona around 9 o'clock in the morning with a safe, smooth flight! Since we did not check luggage in (25.00 dollars a piece which would equal 50.00 dollars a flight which was no good so we packed light, which I do not exactly know the meaning of) we were able to get off the plane and walk straight to the car where Lauren, Lauren and Justin were waiting to pick us up. We headed to a nice little restaurant called Camelback Inn Scottsdale. It is a beautiful resort that has a gorgeous outside eating area that you can eat at even if you are not staying at the resort.
The Garden Terrace

I had an amazing plate of all the fruits imaginable and a side of granola (my favorite) and yogurt. The rest of the group choose the buffet which was filled with a breakfast bar, a waffle/pancake stand, and also a chief that prepared you an omelet of your chose.

After we left Camelback inn we took few pictures...

Tucker & I Brady & I
After we left we went back to Lauren's apartment and relaxed for a little bit. The boys wanted to go golfing and so the girls went shopping. Which is what I am best at. :) That night we decided to go out and went to a place called Cadillac Ranch Bar and Grill. It was a fun atmosphere and they even had a mechanical bull that Justin rode on but we unfortunately didn't get any pictures of that. Once we were done with dinner we went to a place called The Big Bang Bar which is located in downtown Tempe and is a piano bar. We had so much fun signing to all of the great music!
Here is me and Lauren at Big Bang
Lauren and I could have stayed there ALL night long The rest of the group...It was a very fun night out with my favorite people!
-Cooper Lane

Packed & Ready to Go!!

2010-06-03T10:17:00.001-07:00

YIIIPPPIIIEEEE
Last night Brady and I packed our suitcase and now we are ready to head out!! We were planning on leaving tonight and trying to jump on a plane that was not full and get to Scottsdale a little earlier but I think it will be best for all of us if we get a good nights rest tonight because we have a full weekend ahead of us :)
Tomorrow morning we leave the house at about 4:30 in the morning...yikes! And then we take off about 8:00am. Since there is a time difference we will land somewhere around 8:00am Arizona time. Then Lauren will come pick us up from the airport!!

I unfortunately have to work today and I should be getting things done around here but I am just so excited that I can't focus on ANYTHING!
This is a much much needed vacation!
-Cooper Lane

Patiently Waiting...

2010-06-02T14:29:00.000-07:00

for my graduation present from my husband....
I am in love with the Tory Burch collection and I have been looking at the new purses trying to decide which one that I wanted. Little did I know the reason that Brady was so interested in which ones that I liked was because he was planning on surprising me with a purse for graduation!
This is the one that he picked out and I think that he did such an awesome job!

He definitely surprises me sometimes!!!
It should be in any day now, I just hope it comes in before we leave for our trip!
-Cooper Lane

Summer Reads

2010-06-02T13:48:00.000-07:00

Since I am out of school I LOVE to read. I have been reading more which has me itching to buy a Kindle. My good friends mom has one and absolutely loves it! The thing I love most about it is how small it is and the fact that you can take it with you where ever you go. Brady and I are planning on doing a lot of traveling these next couple of years and it would make for a good carry on item for the plane ride. The Kindle holds up to 1,500 books so I would never run out of room plus they have over 540,000 books to choose from that can be downloaded in seconds. When I was laying out the other day I was thinking about how perfect it would be to have a Kindle because it has a read-to-me function that allows you to just plug in your head phones and listen while it reads the book to you. I don't know about you but when I am laying out I hate for the big ol' book to get in the way of my sun :) I think that this will be on my next purchase list.
Ohhh and how could I forget about the cute cute cases that they have for the Kindles!.
This is the one that I want...I have made a list of books that I want to read...

Some are fun reads, some a little more serious, and then some might actually teach me a thing or two.

So this is the book that I have started on... I know a lot of people do not necessarily like Tori Spelling but I absolutely love her. I watch her show every week and have followed it since the very beginning. I love to read " tell all" books because from just reading the first 7 chapters I have learned so much about her that I did not know. This book came out in 2008 and has 2 other books out (Mommywood and Uncharted Territori). So she will keep me busy reading for a little while at least.

-Cooper Lane

10 Months...

2010-06-01T15:44:00.000-07:00

I can not believe that today, 10 months ago, I said "I do" to this wonderful man.
Getting married has been the most wonderful thing to happen to us. Yes we have our moments, but we are still happy. Marriage is a whole learning experience and everyday we learn something new. The thing that I love the most about relationships are their imperfections. They aren't anything like the books we read, or the movies we see....they're real.

-Cooper Lane

Memorial Day.

2010-05-31T09:22:00.001-07:00

Memorial Day is celebrated to commemorate those brave men and women who sacrificied their lives fighting for our country. Sometimes we all get carried away with the fun activities of Memorial weekend but we all need to take the time out of our day to remember how hard these people fight for our freedom and how thankful we are that they serve/served for our country.

-Cooper Lane

Ready or Not...

2010-05-31T08:36:00.000-07:00

Arizona here we come!!
Brady and I have been promising Lauren Lane, remember chef Lane, that we would come to Scottsdale to visit! The last time I was in Scottsdale to visit was May last year. Brady has never been, so he really wanted to go visit and plus we are in desperate need of a vacation! So a couple of weeks ago we bought our plane tickets which were of course OUTRAGEOUS, but Lauren is worth it. :)
We will be gone 5 days and we have already made out our itinerary! I love having an itinerary as long as it can be adjusted as we go. One day we are going floating the river, which I am most excited about, and on one of the other days we are going with the boys to play golf. The golf courses in Scottsdale are very nice so Brady is very excited. There will be many pictures to come so stay tuned!!
I thought this was a funny quote I saw while looking things up in Arizona...

You know you live in Phoenix when the four seasons are: tolerable, hot, really hot, and are you freakin' kidding me?!
-Cooper Lane

Texas de Brazil...

2010-05-31T07:55:00.000-07:00

Thursday night the girls and I took a road trip to downtown Ft Worth to eat at a Brazilian steakhouse called Texas de Brazil. The dinning experience at this restaurant was amazing! The salad bar area has over 60 items that includes appetizers, soups, salads, and then traditional side items like scalloped potatoes. Once you are done with the salad bar (try not to stuff yourself) you are given a card that has a green side and a red side.Once you are ready for the meats to come your way you turn your card to green and prepare for the swarm of carvers that come around to your table with various cuts of meat. The meets include everything from seasoned beef, pork, lamb, chicken and Brazilian sausage. I would have to say my favorite favorite was the fillet, it was soo amazing! The girls would have to say that their least favorite was the lamb!! haha They all wanted to try the lamb but I knew better! As soon as they got a taste of the meat they all spit it out!!! There is something about shinny meat I just will not come near!! If you are not completely and totally stuffed after the salad bar and the meat you can complete your experience with one of their desserts. All of the desserts look soo yummy but I just could not eat anything else after all of the other food. So if you have never been I definitely suggest you try it sometime! It is kind of pricey but if you sign up for their email list they will send you coupons all the time. For example, I signed up and they automatically sent me a complementary dinner with the purchase of a full price dinner.

-Cooper Lane

It is officially SUMMER Time...

2010-05-30T20:30:00.000-07:00

This weekend was a fun weekend filled of laying in the sun! This weekend was the first weekend that I have been in the pool and it felt AMAZING!! There will be many more weekends of this to come :)

May 9th...

2010-05-28T11:44:00.000-07:00

Since I am catching up on my blog I can't forget to mention May 9th! This day was pretty special because it was of course Mothers Day and my birthday!! Every couple of years my birthday falls on Mothers Day. The funny thing about that is Brady was born on Fathers Day :)

We all went to church and then took our mothers out to lunch. It is always a fun time when we get everyone together.

This is my sweet mom...
Lunch was amazing and afterwards, since it was my day too :), Brady surprised me with a trip to our favorite spot Bricktown! Bricktown is in Oklahoma City. It was such a nice trip, just the two of us. We went shopping for a little bit and then went and walked around downtown. We stopped and had some ice cream and then made our way to dinner.
It was a very nice trip! So needless to say it was a very fun day!!!
-Cooper Lane

Miracle Field...

2010-05-28T11:19:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday I had the chance to spend some time with the most AMAZING kids. In Wichita Falls there is a new baseball field that is set up all for the organization called The Miracle League. Their mission is to provide opportunities for kids of all ages, regardless of their ability or disability, to play baseball. This field offers a unique opportunity to these children that they might not otherwise have.
They have asked the people of Wichita Falls to be a buddy to these children. The buddies are asked to help these children and cheer the children on. A couple of the firemen in town decided to be a buddy to some of these children and since my step dad is a fireman he asked me to come out and help. I, along with all of the kids, had the time of my life! It was something that I will never forget!
I wanted to share with you some of the pictures from the day....
This is Diego, isn't he the cutest little thing!
He was an awesome baseball player!

And this was Mathew, he was quite the flirt haha
It was such a fun day! I can't wait to go out next Saturday and see all of the kids again!!
-Cooper Lane

AND I'm Back!!!!

2010-05-25T14:06:00.000-07:00

So I took a break from blogging for a while because my list of things that I had on my plate were piling up and blogging wasn't on that list. But I am back! So much has gone on since my last post and over the next couple of weeks I am going to catch everyone up on our happenings.

The most exciting thing is that I graduated!!! It feels so amazing to wake up knowing that I have no worries of school and feels even better to be able to go to bed at a decent time and not stress over what I didn't get finished. Graduation was of course that long and boring ceremony that it has always been known for but all of my friends were there either graduating with me or cheering me on when my name was called. :) There I am patiently waiting for it to be over already! Since I graduated with a Business Management Degree we were the first group to go, once we were back in our seats we had a to wait for all of the over names to be called which took a good 2 hours. After graduation we took a few pictures out in the front...

So relieved that everything is over! The funny thing is now that it is all over I keep thinking to myself that it really wasn't all that bad and I should go back to get my Masters. But that is just a thought that will probably never be lived out because I am loving the freedom!

-Cooper Lane

What is in your kitchen??

2009-12-04T15:21:00.000-08:00

A couple of post ago I said that I was going to do some fixing up around the house during the break, and well I didn't get as much done as I would have liked.

One thing that I did do was put up the new blinds in the kitchen.

and while I was taking pictures of the blinds I figured I would show off the whole thing.

And there you have it, my kitchen!

How sweet....

2009-12-04T15:15:00.000-08:00

is my little boy?

(he was so tired)

Rice Crispy Treats

2009-12-04T14:55:00.000-08:00

Last Sunday I had a craving for some yummy rice crispy treats!

So while Brady was making lunch I was making dessert! This was the first time for me to make rice crispy treats and I was so surprised at how easy they were to make.

All the ingredients you need...

And the finished product...

After lunch we headed over to hang out with Justin and Lauren and I brought over the left over treats and of course they cleared them out in no time.

I don't know of anyone who doesn't enjoy rice crispy treats!!

Operation Santa Clause

2009-12-04T14:27:00.000-08:00

Last weekend we got invited to go along with my mom and step dad to the Annual Fire Department's Operation Santa Claus Dinner and Dance. The tickets to this event are pretty pricey but all the money goes toward a wonderful cause. The Operation Santa Claus is all about the kids that are less fortunate and do not get to have a Christmas. The money that was raised bought 305 bicycles and many other toys. Including helping a great charity, the food was wonderful as well. A couple of the firemen cooked and they had prime rib and shrimp with all the extra side dishes that you could imagine, they even had ice cream!!

All in all it was a wonderful time.

These days....

2009-11-20T10:54:00.000-08:00

it seems that there is an award for everything.

Well being bored at work allows me to spend many unnecessary hours just looking stuff up on line and today I came across a website that was hosting a contest for the ugliest couch award! Can you believe this would actually be a contest. If the couch is that ugly and you would actually enter it into this contest, then why the heck do you still own it???

Well regardless if I think it is goofy or not they still hosted it and here are some of the choices of ugly couches. Which one do you think should win??

#1.

my pick for the prize is #2 FOR sure!

the hubby's pick is #4!

I Volunteered...

2009-11-16T14:18:00.000-08:00

at our church.

Colonial Baptist Church is our church home and we just love it. Ever since we got married there in August we have had an extra special place in our hearts for this church.

So I decided that it is time for me to help out and get involved with the church. So 2 Sundays ago I filled out a volunteer card and requested to help out in the family ministry. I am soo excited because they are putting me with the new born babies - 1 year olds.

I absolutely LOVE little babies!

Brady and I have the same love for the cute little babies that we see when we are out. We love just looking at them and talking about how adorable they are.

But no babies for us for at least a couple of years!

For now we will just look and love on all of our friends babies!!

Diesel's Bath Time

2009-11-15T20:32:00.000-08:00

Diesel always cracks me up when it is bath time. He never acts like he wants to take one but boy when we get him in the bath tub and the water is on him he seems to be loving it!

now it's time to get out...

It never fails, as soon as we get him smelling good and all cleaned up he needs to go outside. And when he goes outside he seems to always get into something!

He is just a typical boy :)

Formal

2009-11-15T19:50:00.000-08:00

Every year Brady's work has a formal dinner and dance for all of their assistant managers and managers. We stay at the Hyatt Regency [next to Reunion Tower in Dallas] and have a dinner, a reward ceremony and dancing. It is always a really good time and is always nice to meet new people that work within the company.

This is a picture of us last night.

This is actually our 3rd year to go.

We look forward to this every year because we love getting all dressed up!

Hope that everyone had a good weekend!!

Christmas Decor

2009-11-14T08:09:00.000-08:00

Because we just got married and moved into a new house, this year I am buying all new Christmas decorations! Crate and Barrel has the cutest selection of Christmas stuff. I am going to show you a quick preview of the things that I am ordering and then once I get everything up (the Sunday after Thanksgiving) I will take pictures!

Our Stockings...

(one for me, one for Brady and one for Diesel!)

this is the tree skirt that goes with the stockings...

& the last thing that I have for now is the cute pillows for our couch in the living room

More to come!!

Love,

Thursdays = Dinner & A Movie

2009-11-13T16:33:00.000-08:00

Ever since we got married, Thursday nights have been our dinner and a movie night.

Last night we had a yummy chicken crock pot meal:

The recipe was given to me by my mother-in-law who always makes the most amazing meals.

I am going to share it with you and hope that you try it and enjoy it as much as we did!

Ingredients:

1 stick of butter

4-6 chicken breast (frozen)

1 slice of Swiss cheese per chicken breast

1 can of cream of chicken

2 cups of stuffing

(I bought the Herb Seasoned Stuffing in a bag and the brand is Pepperidge Farm)

First step is place the frozen chicken breast on the bottom of the crock pot and then add a slice of Swiss cheese on top of each breast. Next you are going to make in a separate bowl 1 can of cream of chicken soup and then with that same soup can fill it half way with water and mix the two together. Then you are going to pour the mixture on top of the chicken in the crock pot. Next pour the stuffing evenly making sure that everything is covered. The last and final step is to chop into slices the stick of butter and place them on top of the stuffing so that the butter evenly distributes.

Put the lid on and set on low temperature. You will want to leave this in the crock pot for about 8 hours.

I love this meal because you can make it before you go to work and then as soon as you get home it is ready to eat! It also makes your house smell oh so good!!!

This is the final product! (our plates were scraped clean)

Our Movie = The Ugly Truth.

This movie was HILARIOUS!

Lauren Lane "Life of Lo" advised me to watch it and I am so glad we did. There are so many laugh out loud funny moments that I want to watch it again!

It was another fun Thursday night

Love,

A Productive Day

2009-11-12T20:32:00.001-08:00

Lately I have been feeling like I never get anything done. It seems that everything just keeps piling up. So yesterday I had enough!

I went into work determined to get everything done in a short amount of time so that I could make it home and start on everything that needs to be done. I busted my butt and made it home by 4 o'clock which was perfect timing. My plan was to surprise my husband by mowing the front and the back yard! Brady is so good about keeping up with the yard and he loves to have it looking very nice for us, but since the time change he is not able to make it home in time before it gets dark. So I, being that lovely wife, mowed the front and the back yard! I was so proud of myself! After I was done mowing I blew all of the leaves off the front and back porch with the leaf blower.

My next item on the to do list was the spare bedroom. This bedroom is a disaster! Everything wedding was just in a pile on the bed and everything else that I just couldn't find a spot for right then and there went into that room. I was soo tired of seeing that door closed, so I took some action!! I cleaned everything out and now you can actually see that there is a bed in there.

The last thing that I did was organize our filing cabinet. I labeled everything and put them in their correct folder so that if we need to find something we won't have to frantically look for it.

I really wish that everyday was like yesterday!

I felt so accomplished!

(But I think that is it until next week :] )

House Renovations..

2009-11-09T15:15:00.000-08:00

Over the Thanskgiving Break, my husband and I have decided to finally start where we left off and continue to fix our house up.

So for the past few weeks Brady and I have been making regular stops to Lowes to pick up/ look at all the things that we will need, so when it comes to that time, we are set and ready to go.

So far we have purchased....

door knobs for all of the doors in our house

(our doors need some help so we are going to take them all down, sand them, and re-paint them)

faux wood blinds
(I would love for every room in my house to have these blinds, and maybe after Christmas they will, but for now we are replacing the living room and kitchen blinds)

And last but not least on our to-do list is replace the flooring in the kitchen and bathroom

(I found this picture on-line. This is the closest example of the coloring and tile shape that I could find on line)

Graduation Countdown

2009-11-08T16:21:00.001-08:00

So I have officially started my Graduation Countdown!

17 weeks! (Sounds like forever)

Last week I registered for the last semester of college. It was a bitter sweet feeling. I am sooo excited to get out of school but also so confused about what I want to do once I graduate.

I am going to be receiving a Business Management degree which allows me to have many options. I currently have a really good job working as an Area Sales Manager, but I do not think that it is exactly what I want to be doing. Hopefully once I graduate everything will fall into place and I will find that perfect job.

In business I have realized that no job is ever safe especially in rough times like we are facing now. But I also do realize that they are thousands of opportunities out there for me.

PIZZA, PIZZA, PIZZA

2009-11-08T15:21:00.000-08:00

that is what's on the menu for tonight!

We just love ordering pizza because it is so easy. We never stay true to one particular pizza place until now. A week and a half ago we wanted to try a Papa Murphy's Pizza and ever since then we have been craving another one. If you are not aware of what Papa Murphy's is it is a Take and Bake Pizza place. They make it in front of you just the way you like it and then you take it home to cook yourself. This works best at our house because we like our pizza cooked just a certain way, and other pizza locations never seem to make it how we like it. With Papa Murphy's we can also add the extra cheese we want and the seasonings that we like to make it just perfect!

We always order the large, thin crust, cheese and pepperoni.

I am surprising Brady, so I better go pick it up! Hope everyone has a good night!

Ps. Cowboys please beat the Eagles or else we will hear about it for forever

Change of Season = Change of Clothes

2009-11-06T07:16:00.000-08:00

I love cold weather only because of the cute clothes that come along with it. Last weekend I cleaned out all of my summer clothes and put them in the extra bedroom. After cleaning I realized that I needed to go on a shopping trip to fill my closet up once again. I have been eyeing the styles for this season and I have made a conclusion of what my winter style is going to consist of.

I am a huge fan of the skinny jeans and the tall boots.

I love the over sized sweaters.

And last but not least JACKETS!!

[as you can tell I could fill up my closet completely with jackets]

I just love how in the cutest outfit you can still feel comfy.

Can You Believe...

2009-11-03T20:41:00.000-08:00

that we have been married for 3 months!

I know its only three months but wow how the time flies by.

These past few months Brady and I have learned so much more about each other than we did in the four years of dating.

[the flowers he sent me]

thank you for giving him to me.

i don't know what on earth i'd do without him.

i am so lucky to have someone so caring and patient.

Happy Halloween

2009-10-31T13:40:00.000-07:00

I have somebody who wants to say Trick-or-Treat.....

He wanted to be a fireman just like his daddy :)

Hope everyone has a wonderful Halloween!

I Wanted To Say Congratulation

2009-10-28T16:27:00.001-07:00

to my best friend Lauren Tucker and my cousin (by marriage) Justin Morath

Justin proposed to Lauren on Saturday night! So now Lauren will be in my family too!! I am sure for some of you readers out there who might not know me very well, are starting to get confused with the Lauren's. So let me try to explain. There are 2 Lauren's and both of the Laurens are my best friends. Lauren Lane and Justin Morath are both Brady's cousins. So Lauren Lane is now my cousin by marriage and Lauren Tucker will be once she gets married to Justin. Pretty interesting story, but I love the fact that for the rest of my life they will both be spending the Holidays and every other family event with me :)

My Top 15....

2009-10-28T12:10:00.000-07:00

wedding pictures. I finally recieved the cd in the mail and was soo excited to look through all of the pictures!!! I wanted to share my top 15 favorite pictures from the wedding. I wanted to do my top 10, but there was no way that I could pick only 10.

Here I am getting ready, my bridesmaids are helping.

everyone watching the video

the birds-eye-view

the kiss :)

Mr and Mrs Lane!!!

this pictures makes me smile everytime! I just love it!!

aren't my shoes ADORABLE?! my maid of honor, Lauren, made them for me

I love how the sun hits in this picture

these next two pictures are tied! (This is the picture right after their speeches.)

These two people mean the world to Brady and I!

Bradys best man and cousin

And my maid of honor and now cousin, thank you again Lauren for the most heart felt loving speech. There are no words to explain how much it ment to me.

my face is priceless in this one..

I hope you enjoyed looking at my favorites of the night. Now we have to get started on making the album!! Hopefully we will have it by Christmas.

7 days....

2009-10-24T15:20:00.000-07:00

until HALLOWEEN!

I love Halloween because of all the candy, dressing up, and most of all carving pumpkins. The other night Brady and I went to Walmart to pick out the two very best pumpkins that we could find! Brady of course wanted to find the biggest pumpkin in the store and I was just looking for a perfectly shaped pumpkin with no defects. After about an hour of goofing off and digging to the bottom of the buckets of pumpkins we found our perfect pumpkin...

we bought a magazine of some pretty neat stencils of designs that you can just place on your pumpkin and carve. Since it was so cold outside we just laid some plastic on the hardwood floor in the living room and carved our pumpkins inside. This was the first year that we had carved pumpkins together, so it was a lot of fun! They ended up turning out really cute..

HAPPY HALLOWEEN EVERYONE :)

And for my Favorite Subject...

2009-10-13T15:15:00.000-07:00

Our Honeymoon!!

We went on a 7 day Western Caribbean Carnival Cruise.

On Saturday night we drove to Dallas and stayed at The W.

which was a total surprise. Every time we would pass this hotel in Dallas I would always say that I would LOVE to stay there. So when we drove up I got very excited!! We had valet service as soon as we pulled up and they took our luggage to the room which was great because we were so tired from the wedding I don't think either one of us could have picked our luggage up.

The next morning we drove to Galveston....

we arrived at the port and I can not even explain to you how huge this cruise ship is! I never imagined how big it was until I stood right next to it. So we got onto the ship and did the emergency drill that they make you do the first 30 minutes on the ship. After this we went up to our room ,which was on the 9th floor the Lido deck :). We were so excited to go look around so we changed and headed out. Our first two days were at sea which was good because there was so much to do we needed sometime to take it all in. We headed back to the room right before dinner and saw that we received an itinerary for the next days activities. Here is us on the first night on the ship just hanging out on the deck.

the next day we went straight to the pool and hung out there all day. That night was our first formal night so we got all dressed up and headed to our dinner.

after dinner we tried our hand at the slot machines.... needless to say after losing 20 dollars in 30 minutes we were done

the next day was our first stop; Montego Bay, Jamaica

In Jamaica, Brady went golfing at this beautiful golf coarse. I do not golf but I love going with Brady and this golf trip in particular was my favorite because of the amazing scenery. I had a blast just taking pictures and driving the golf cart.

the next day stop was Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands

this was by far my favorite.... we decided to just get off the ship and hang out on the beach which is called the 7 mile beach. As soon as we got there we saw a shop that was renting out scooters so of coarse we had to get one of those for the day..

we rode this all around town! It was so much fun!!!! That night was our second formal night..

our last stop was Cozymel, Mexico

when we got off the cruise ship we looked at the shops and then found our adventure sponsor so that we could go on our excursion which included rock climbing, zip-lining and snorkeling!!!

our last day was spend just hanging out at the pool. Our vacation on the cruise was a blast. With all of the food, entertainment and activities we never had a dull moment. We could not have chosen a better honeymoon vacation.

We can not wait to go on our next cruise!!!

The Best Day of My Life

2009-10-13T14:10:00.000-07:00

Every time I think of how wonderful this day was...MY WEDDING DAY... I just get a huge smile on my face! Everyone always told me to not get worked up over anything that might go wrong on the day of the wedding and just relax and stay calm. So going into this I was preparing myself to stay calm and not to let the little things get to me, because who wants to have a horrible wedding day, NOT ME! So Friday night after the rehearsal dinner all of the bridesmaids came over to Lo's house (my Maid of Honor) and did a few of the little things that were left to do before the big day. The plan was to get some good rest and be energized for the next day....WRONG! Why in the world was I thinking that we would go to bed at a decent hour??? Well, correct me if I'm wrong girls, but I believe we stayed up until 4 o'clock in the morning!!!! yeeek I know! We did make some good memories that we will never forget...

this picture is a little embarrassing....

So even though we stayed up soo late, we still made it for our amazing breakfast that my (now) Aunt Lisa (Lauren's mom) made us...

After breakfast it was time for us to get our hair and makeup done. Around 2 o'clock all of the girls went downtown to meet with Kristin our photographer so that she could take some pictures of just us girls before the wedding. Unfortunately I do not have the CD yet from my photographer with all the photos, but here is one just to show my beautiful bridesmaids...

After the pictures it was getting down to crunch time and we had to book it to the church. From this point on I was on literally floating on clouds. I had every emotion you could think of.

Here we are after the wedding.

(This is the only picture I have from our photographer so far)

I could not have imaged this day to be any better than it was. I can honestly say that nothing went wrong! Everyone had so many amazing things to say about the wedding and the reception and for that I can only be so thankful for all my family and friends for the love and support that they showed Brady and I on our wedding day.

Mrs. Lane

2009-09-25T13:40:00.000-07:00

As most of you know....I am officially Mrs Lane

(this is a picture of Brady and I receiving our marriage certificate)

Everything is just now settling down and so now I will be more dedicated to writing and keeping "Splendid Bliss" up to date!!

The next few blogs are going to be a recap of everything that has been going on over the last few months. I am going to try to do a blog a day over a different topic....

Todays blog is going to be the Rehearsal Dinner.

My Rehearsal Dinner was perfect except for the bride and all the bridesmaids ariving late...opps.( It would not be me if I was not late and you will read later on in the week that I was ALMOST late to the wedding too!!) Once everyone was at the church (Colonial Baptist Church) we started. The wedding cordinator went over the do's and dont's and who was going to stand where. Since I did not want to walk twice I made my lovely Maid of Honor take over for me. Funny thing about that is the groom is her cousin...NICCCEE HUH! Here is the lovely fill in bride and the groom..

everything was so hectic at the rehersal I felt like I was never going to remember what to do the day of the wedding, but good thing I had my dad to hold on to :) After the rehersal everyone drove over to Brady's Parents house for a wonderful dinner that they set up for the two of us, our family, and a few of our closest friends. Everything was decorated sooo beautifully I could not have asked for a better set up. I wish I would have taken more pictures of the decorations but unfortunately that was not on my mind at the time. Here are some pictures that we did capture...

My hubby to be :)

My beautiful beautiful bridesmaids

And we can not forget my beautiful hostess

& my flowergirls

After a wonderful night at the rehearsal dinner, lets just say I had an amazing feeling about the next day...MY WEDDING DAY!

oh and I almost forgot...

I wanted to squeeze in a picture of the Bridal Luncheon at the Winery.

Its finally coming together...

2009-07-11T08:23:00.000-07:00

Starting when I picked up Lo (last blog) until today I have been constantly on the move. I have loved every minute of it!

#1 Bachelorette Party:

Thank You to everyone that was there! Everyone made it soo much fun for me!
#2 Bridal Shower:

I had soo much fun at my Bridal Shower! Everything was decorated so beautifully and all the gifts that I received were amazing! I truly have been blessed with an amazing family, new family, and friends!!!
At my bridal shower they made a cute game for me. Earlier that week they called Brady and asked him a series of about 15 questions. The questions were anything from, Where was your first date? to How much do you think Cooper spends on clothes in a month??, needless to say the answers were pretty funny because remember these are answers from Brady. At the shower they asked me these questions and I was supposed to answer how Brady would answer and if I answered the question wrong they would stuff a marshmallow in my mouth.

They also came up with another idea that was very thoughtful!
Everyone took a balloon and a sharpie and wrote words of wisdom for our marriage. It was very nice to see what everyone had to say. Once I read all of the balloons I took them outside and let them go...

#3 Final wedding dress fitting and pickup!!!
#4 FOURTH OF JULY!!!
#5 Bridal Portraits. Kristen my photographer does most of her work in Oklahoma City but also has some clients in Texas, and I would be one of them!!! For my bridal portraits I wanted a different look then what we had in Wichita Falls and so I wanted to go out of town to a garden area. Kristen suggested the Botanical Gardens in Oklahoma City. Wow it is such a beautiful location, I was definitely blown away by the view when we pulled up. I can not wait to see how they turned out!!
While we were in OKC Tucker and my mom, who were so wonderful to come and help with the bridal portraits, went to Toby Keith's bar! It was sooo much fun!!! If you have never been I would definitely make plans to go soon! The atmosphere is soo fun and entertaining! Tucker and I are planning on going back soon and taking the boys!
#6 Yesterday my mom treated me with a spa treatment and lunch at the Wildcatter Ranch!! It was an amazing day and just what I needed to relax me for a bit!

Even though the last two weeks have been crazy it has been so much fun!
Only 20 days until I say I do!!

The Count Down has started....

2009-06-24T22:04:00.000-07:00

only 37 days untill me and this handsome devil right here get married!!!!!!
\

HAHAHAHAHA

Around this time...

2009-06-24T21:08:00.000-07:00

2 years ago I was getting on a plane with Kylie, Clay and Brady heading off to Playa Del Carmen, Mexico.

What an AMAZING trip this was!
I do not think that we had imaged that the trip would have been as fun as it was. We are still, to this day, laughing at all of the crazy things that happened and how absolutely beautiful it was!
In Mexico, from what I have seen, Playa is hands down the best spot!

1 year ago I was getting ready to board a very LOOOONNGGG plane ride to visit my family! I have 5 aunts and 3 uncles, I know what your thinking, geez that is a lot of family. (Well how the story goes is that my mom has a very large family and when my grandparents split up my mother decided to move off with my grandfather. My grandfather was in the military at the time and had orders to come to Sheppard Air Force base, hints why she is in Texas. With 5 sisters and no brothers, I can only imagine how growing up in that household would be, yeek!)
They each live in separate little communities right outside of London and all work in the city.
This trip was an experience that I will never forget. I am very privileged to have had the opportunity to go to London.
And let me introduce you to a few of them...
these stunning ladies...
(my mom, Carol, me and Connie)

these 2 kiddos would be my little cousins Alex & Milli, short for Amelia.

And last but not least my baby cousin Sophia...who melts my heart

Over the last 2 years I have been able to experience a lot of new adventures! I love reminiscing about the wonderful family and friends that I have been able to spend time with.

Family is such an important thing to me and it is very hard when they live so far away. So any chance that we get to spend some time together we are right on board! I am very excited to say that in just a little over a month that all of my family and friends will all be together in one room to celebrate the most amazing day of my life!! I can not wait

"The Proposal"

2009-06-19T23:41:00.000-07:00

What a great movie this was!!!
This is one of the best movies I have seen in awhile.
My top two favorite movies of this year have been : Hangover and The Proposal. If a movie makes me laugh out loud (which if you know me that is pretty hard to do in a movie theater) then it is going to be classified as one of my favorite movies!!
So go out and see for yourself!! I don't think you will be disappointed.

Drive in Movie!!!!

2009-05-25T23:08:00.000-07:00

Arizona...

2009-05-25T22:22:00.000-07:00

has been so much fun! On Friday we went to a little place in the mountains called, Goldfield. We stopped in the Saloon and had lunch and then did some sight seeing.

That night we went out on the town and had a nice dinner at a place called Uno's, which was very yummy.
On Saturday we woke up early and headed out to float the Salt River.

after the river everyone went to Barros, a pizza place, and had dinner.
Our next adventure on Sunday was to go get the girls tattoos!! crrraazzzyyy giiirrrlllss

we then went to a place called Yard House. They are known for the huge selection of beers that they have.

my yummy food, even though it doesn't look very good in the pictures

What a fun trip we have had. I have had such a great time. I do not want to leave. We have two days left so we will have to make the most of it! As for tonight, drive in movie and then in the morning laying out by the pool!!!

"As You Wish"

2009-05-22T10:53:00.001-07:00

...is a little pottery painting place in Scottsdale Arizona.
You walk into this shop and straight away you go and pick your piece of pottery that you want to paint. There is a whole wall dedicated to all of the different things that you can paint. There is anything from pictures frames to huge canisters. I spent a while trying to figure out what I was going to do and finally decided to make Mr. Diesel and dog bowl. So cute!!! Of course I needed some ideas on how to decorate so I googled online and found the cutest dog bowl that I was going to try and imitate.
This is the one off line....

And this is mine...

We will just have to wait and see how well it turns out!! I am excited to see the end result. But we have to wait until Sunday at 4 because there is a long line of pottery that they have to fire.
Here is a picture of all of us girls!

ROAD TRIP!!!!

2009-05-22T10:22:00.000-07:00

... me, Tucker, Corinn, and Kiley left on Thursday morning to go visit our best friend Lauren!

Our flight flew out of Dallas at 6:30 am and landed in Arizona at 7:30am (since the 2 hour difference). We got off the plane, grabbed our luggage and hopped on a cab. Everything went so smoothly. We had the cab take us to Scottsdale Culinary Institute where Lauren is taken pastry classes. Lauren came down and got us and we went up stairs into her class room. Culinary school looks like sooo much fun! Everyone was working so hard. We grabbed Lauren's car and attempted to make it to Lauren's apartment without getting lost. With me driving and Tucker giving directions we made it!
We walked in and saw this on the table...isn't she the sweetest!!

We unpacked our bags and had just enough time to relax before it was time to go pick Lauren up from school. We drove up and in her hand was a yummy cake that she had made in class, it was delish :)

We were all hungry so went to the famous IN and OUT Burger.
We each had to take a picture with our IN and OUT Burger.. and here is mine

More to come...

My Sweet Sweet Little Boy..

2009-05-13T20:51:00.000-07:00

(as a baby)

This is the sweetest little boy that you will ever meet. Yes he demands a lot of your attention but that just means that he is spoiled :) He always makes me laugh at all the funny little things that he does. One more picture of my sweet boy waiting for mommy to give him his treat...

Birthday Time

2009-05-13T20:36:00.000-07:00

Saturday was my birthday and I had such a good time. My birthday started on Tuesday when Brady gave me my birthday present because he was so excited he could not keep it from me. He bought me Mav tickets (remember I love going to games)!! Which was a blast!! Then on Thursday we went & had dinner with my dad and his crew. Saturday I slept in and then went to another lunch with my mom. I love the day of your birthday because you get treated so special! :)
That night all my wonderful friends came to Don Joses where we started the night!

We then headed to the Neon Spur to watch Casey Donahew, It was such a great night! I would not have wanted to spend it any other way.
This coming weekend is my friend Julie's Birthday!!! So look for pictures and a post!

Does Anyone Know What Today IS????

2009-05-12T14:28:00.001-07:00

the official start of my summer!! woo hoo time to celebrate
I have so much planned for my very short summer (ending June 1st for summer school).
The most exciting adventure I will be taking is a trip with the girls to see Lauren, Laurenmorath.blogspot.com. Lauren is my best friend, almost family, that moved off to Scottsdale Arizona to pursue being a pastry chief. I know, I know I am jealous too!
What comes in pretty close in line to going to AZ is that I am closing on my house. The date is May 20Th!! I can not wait to get in and start decorating.

Well I am off to relax:) I hope everyone has a good week and good luck on finals!!!

Ranger Game

2009-05-12T14:12:00.000-07:00

Last Sunday we drove down to to Arlington to spend the day at the Texas Rangers Stadium! It was such a perfect day to go to a game, not to hot and not to cold, perfect! I do not know much about baseball, but I do like going to watch. I always pick out one player and that is "my guy". So this is My Guy...
Josh Hamilton

& no it has nothing to do with the fact that he is pretty cute haha

I know I am late...

2009-05-08T19:00:00.000-07:00

but this is how I spent my Spring Break
with my sweet best friend Melissa

we went down to Plano to spend the day with her roomie and then all of us went to the Stars Game. Oh how I love to go to the Stars Game. It is always so much fun and very entertaining to watch!!

her parents were so sweet to buy us these AMAZING seats...

The Stars of course won :), so we had to go celebrate! We walked down to the House of Blues and had some dessert. That next morning we heading to the lake and spent the next two days there. I had such a blast! Nothing better than spending your vacation with a really good friend. Love you Mel

Yes OR No????

2009-04-29T13:52:00.000-07:00

I am having the hardest time trying to decide! I feel like I am not the type of girl that wears the long veil. I feel like it is just not for me, I want something different. I am really thinking about wearing something like this...

Be honest and PLEASE let me know what you thing!!

WorkOuts.

2009-04-29T11:41:00.000-07:00

There are no words

2009-04-28T13:59:00.000-07:00

to explain this picture except for...

HILARIOUS!

Just thought that this would be a great way to end the day:)

CRAZINESS...

2009-04-28T13:46:00.000-07:00

It has been forever since I have posted a blog and boy have I been hearing about it! My friends and family were so excited for me to start this new blog to write about all of my adventures with wedding planning, and needless to say I have not kept up with it! So my goal for the next 3 months (can you believe that) is to blog at least once a week. I hope I can hold to that promise :)

So lets just pick up on the most recent excitement of mine and that is buying my first house!!! I am more than excited to be buying a house, but still can not believe that I am actually doing it!I have spent several months looking for the perfect house and I finally found it. I am all about curb appeal so if it doesn't catch my eye at first then I normally loose interest right off, so I knew when I saw this cute little house that it was going to be the one. It is in a wonderful neighborhood and just perfect for Brady and I to live in once we get married. So here it is...

We made the Paper!!!!

2009-04-28T12:53:00.000-07:00

Ha and right before being published we saw that there was a typo! It says Steve and D'Lynn Shane!! Thank goodness we caught that.

Obsession..

2009-02-22T09:09:00.001-08:00

This beautiful dress would be just another addition to my obsession. I am constantly online shopping! I hadn't realized my problem until just the other day I received 3 different boxes from 3 different stores!!! yeeekkkk Somebody help!

On the positive note this dress will look great at the Rehearsal Dinner :)

Going to the chapel and were....GOING TO GET MARRIED!!!!!

2009-02-21T19:50:00.000-08:00

I am soo happy to be ENGAGED!!

I am excited to be getting married to the love of my life, my best friend and my biggest fan.

So here is the story!! We had both been talking about getting married for quite some time. The funny thing is all my friends and family had dibs on when it would happen, so needless to say I was always on the look out for anything suspicious, except for this time! He is quite the sneaky one. We left on a Friday night and headed for our adventures to New Mexico where we would spend time with his family. We spent the first day golfing at a beautiful resort in Ruidoso called the Inn of the Mountain Gods so of course Brady had an amazing day. Since golfing isn't considered a grand activity for me he made sure to inform me that the next day was all for me!! That morning I hurried down stairs ready to start the day. We had breakfast and then did some shopping around town. Afterwards we headed to my first surprise, the horse races!!! What an AMAZING surprise! After the horse races it was off to a nice sit down dinner and then coffee at Starbucks! It was getting late and I was ready to go home, but Brady insisted that he had one more surprise and of course I did no complaining!! He drove me to a beautiful spot where I saw the most amazing 8 level waterfall and I insisted to get out even though at this point it had started sprinkling. Holding hands we stood there fore a while just admiring the amazing view when out of the corner of my eye I say him go down on one knee, ring and box in hand with the biggest grin on his face!! My hands immediately grabbed my mouth in shock and all I could say was "Oh my Gosh!" it is so funny how you can never plan this moment out even though you know its coming and at that very moment you go into shock! We kissed, we hugged, and we cried for what seemed like forever. It was the most perfect day with the most perfect ending:)