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Today is a special day...our little Ernie is no longer a baby but a big bad 2 year old. If you think about dogs in human years, Ernie is now in the years of 14-21...so no longer a toddler/teeny bopper (let's see if he grows out of his stubborn-ness hehe). Ernie wasn't a fan of his birthday bandana from his Mimi but will definitely enjoy a nice piece of cheese this evening. Happy birthday chunky! 

I was planning on posting a giveaway today but after an awesome weekend of football (and remembering that today was Ernie's birthday haha), I am going to postpone that to next week. I know I may have confused you all if you follow me on Twitter or Instagram but I did not go to Baylor. I went to A&M but am actually a huge Baylor fan because Jon went there. We went to the Baylor/K State game on Saturday and expected a blowout but man we were wrong!! Y'all, it was the most fun game I've ever been to!!!!!!!!! Not only did Baylor beat the #1 team in the US (and make history), they kicked their booties! It was absolutely freezing and such a blast. I'm not really a huge football fan on my own (meaning I wouldn't watch without Jon) but to see Jon be so happy and go crazy wild...priceless!!

Before the game, we went to the Cameron Park Zoo in Waco which is surprisingly REALLY good. We try to go to a zoo or aquarium in every city we visit and back in August, I had an experience at the Salt Lake City Zoo that I didn't think I could top. But I did. The male lion came right up to the glass and started roaring literally inches from my face...it was amazing y'all. Literally once in a lifetime and will never happen again. If you are ever passing through Waco, go to the zoo...it's cheap and wonderful. 

(the hand sign in pictures is Sic Em Bears for the Baylor Bears, and yes, Baylor has a ping pong team and Jon played in college)

We drove straight to Dallas that night and fell into bed at my sister's after 1am. Jon stayed in Dallas to go to the Browns/Cowboys game while my sister, Embry and I headed back to Austin. I posted these pictures on Instagram and the comments were hilarious. Lot's of people (including Jon), thought the one on the right could be on Awkward Family Photos.com. Embry wasn't so sure about Jon's mask. And if you're wondering, Jon was born and grew up in Cleveland until he moved to Texas to go to Baylor in 2001. 

Ernie got to meet Embry for the first time yesterday at my parent's house. I was a little nervous for the first meeting because he has never really been around babies but he was funny. I would be holding her or she was laying on the floor and he'd come over, sniff and lick her, then walk away...looking for a ball. He moves too fast so I couldn't get a good picture but this is what I got. He looks so weird, almost mean because his eyes are partially closed. I think Ernie will love it when Embry starts walking because he loves little ones that are almost his size!

In other news (and photos)...

50 days until I meet John and Sherry from YHL! My sister met them this weekend in Dallas and I was giddy for her. Theirs was the first blog I ever read and is still my favorite!

My new wreath! And yes I made it :-)

We've been enjoying nighttime cold walks and doing hoodrat stuff in our suburbia neighborhood

Our mini Thanksgiving (thanks to Jon!). This was our 4th time to celebrate on our own, more on that Wednesday!

I woke up EXCITED today which is odd for a Monday haha. Tonight my mom is hosting a "Sip and See" for her friends to meet Embry and we have family coming in very soon! Short weeks make me so happy!

Am I the only one who doesn't mind it's Monday morning??

Birthdays, booze & Baylor Bears

This weekend was awesome. It was 100% exhausting but awesome-sauce. One of our best friends Justin turned 30 on Saturday and his wifey, Leah, threw him a surprise bash. It was epic. I was deemed photog for the night so even though I'm not in many pictures, I promise I was there (that's what ya get when you have a good camera). Jon was cracking me up the entire night. I know exactly when he's had too much to drink. His face turns red and he becomes a dance machine. Someone brought over the Just Dance Wii game and that made things hilarious. The party also doubled as their 3rd annual Christmakkuh party.

Picture time

Full sized cutout of the old man

What's a party without fake mustaches (and santa hats, yamakas and reindeer antlers)

The ladies of Sweet and Sour Showers

Team Hart

We did a white elephant exchange and my finger foods plates were a hit! Thank you Goodwill!

Some cornhole

Wii Dancing (my favorite picture of all time)

Someone was getting cuddly with her husband...or a cutout of him

Flip cup in the garage, college style

Who doesn't love pig in a blanket at 2:38am?

The last time I looked at the clock was somewhere around 3:40am. It was a long but super fun night. We stayed at the birthday boy's casa and woke up with aches and pains and drove to Waco for the Baylor vs Texas game. It rained off and on the entire game but I wasn't complaining- my belly was full of Chick-Fil-A and the Bears kicked some Longhorn booty. It was a great game!!! We stuffed our faces at Ninfa's after the game (someone please open up a Ninfa's in Austin stat!) and made the 1.5 hour car ride home...exhausted! 

Sic Em Bears!

Jon and I slept 10.5 hours on Saturday night. It was glorious!! Sunday we went to church, the gym and the grocery store then spent the day cuddled up watching scary shows (we are obsessed with the Investigative Discovery channel). Did anyone watch The Virgin Diaries?? OMG I think I had nightmares about that couple kissing it freaked me out so much.

What did y'all do this weekend?

This weekend

I had no intention of blogging about our weekend (I normally forget to take pictures of what we do or we just have a weekend not worthy of blogging about) but this weekend was really fun! I'd like to first start out by saying thank you to those who lost their lives 10 years ago yesterday and those who have courageously been protecting our country in the years that followed. We have a few 9/11 specials recorded on our dvr and couldn't bare to watch all of them this weekend. Friday morning I listened to news coverage, phone calls from the towers and air traffic control footage from 9/11 on the radio and it was too much. I decided I would watch the 9/11 specials when I am ready. Jon and I did a lot of praying and reflecting this weekend for those affected by 9/11, as we will never forget.

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We didn't have any concrete plans this weekend and sort of went with the flow. Here is what our weekend consisted of...

I've decided I am going to do a whole post dedicated to this book, A Stolen Life by Jaycee Dugard. I finished it in less than 2 days, I recommend it with all my heart. It was amazing. 

Walks around our neighborhood...only in Austin...

Froyo!! If you follow me on Twitter you'd know that Jon and I are obsessed with Yogurtland. It is a franchise so check their website to see if there is one in your area (we even went to one when we were in LA a couple weeks ago!). Yogurtland has the BEST flavors and even better toppings. This week they debuted PB &J froyo...it tasted oddly like a pb & j sandwich. And get this...they will be serving pumpkin froyo in October!

Chick Fil A FREE breakfast! I didn't want my sandwich to end. It was the most delicious thing I've ever eaten. I'd pay $10 for that thing.

We went to the Austin famous, Mount Bonnell with my parents and James on Saturday for an awesome view of Lake Austin. 

We brought Ernie and Kelli (my parents dog) and it was way too hot for the pups. We ended up carrying Ernie halfway into the trip. His gigantic tongue cracks me up

We also went to Mayfield Park which is a cute little park off of 35th Street that houses tons of peacocks! Jon and I actually took some of our engagement pictures there. Peacocks are quite interesting creatures (and pretty darn ugly when their feathers aren't displayed).

We dropped off the dogs at our house before going to South Lamar to explore some food trailers (my original post for today talked about food trailers so stay tuned for tomorrow's post). 

Buffalo Bob's Chalupa Wagon

Dad at Gourdough's Donuts...insanely huge donuts covered in cream cheese frosting, chocolate, peanut butter, raspberry sauce, bacon, chicken fingers...you name it!! We also had a chocolate covered frozen banana (from Bananarchy) and a lamb kabob (from Trey's Cuisine)

(disclaimer...we all ate on those 2 donuts!)

Saturday night we did dinner and game night at Justin & Leah's casa. We turned Yahtzee into a hysterical drinking game and ended the night with "Would You Rather". Have any of you played that game?? The questions are beyond disgusting. My stomach is brewing thinking about the questions! 

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Sunday morning we did early church and we are so excited to start our new small group this Tuesday. Our church started a series yesterday called "Breaking down the walls". What is keeping you from a relationship with Christ? Are you blaming your unhappiness on the economy? On your lack of a love life? I can't wait for the next 4 weeks in the series and pinpointing what walls I can work on 'breaking down'. 

A couple of months ago Jon discovered The Central Texas Browns Backers. If you've read my blog a while (or listened to Jon's accent vlog!), you'd know that Jon was born and raised in Cleveland. He is a die hard Browns fan. Not a "Ooooh Colt McCoy is on the Browns so I am going to be a Browns fan until he gets traded" fan (his biggest pet peeve). I mean, the Browns don't have the greatest track record but who has been with them through it all...Jon Hart!

We joined the Browns Backers at The Ranch, a bar on West 6th for the 12p game. Unfortunately Direct TV was having a nation wide outage (we were cracking up at all the tweets about how Direct TV blows) so the coverage was shotty until the end of the 2nd quarter.

It was a great game and even though the Browns ended up losing, it was really fun. A couple friends of ours joined us as well. A bunch of die hard Browns fans with their Midwest accents. We even scored free beer and vodka (Three Olives promo girls were passing out shots and sweat bands and what do ya know...Jon wore this the whole game) and bought sandwiches from Whole Foods across the street.

The game took a lot out of us (combined with little sleep) and I ended up conking out on the couch which is rare for me. I am not a napper at all and although it felt good to fall asleep...I hated waking up from my nap. I was groggy and felt worse than before I went to sleep. Luckily Jon and I were lazy bums the rest of the day and watched more football and the movie Love Happens (it was sad!). 

So what did y'all do this weekend? Anything rip roaring? Any football fans out there? And here's another question...who is like me and hates naps?! I know I am probably alone on that one...

Oh and happy birthday to my 2 'brother in laws' today! My sister's hubby and his twin brother turn 26. Happy Birthday Jacob and Luke!

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Weekend things

Jon and I had a great weekend! Date night, NFL football and pool time. Why isn't the weekend 5 days long?? We have a short week this week because we leave for LA on Thursday afternoon so that is what is getting me through this Monday! 
Here are some highlights of our weekend...

Friday was date night and we bowled 3.5 games before trying out the Austin- famous enchiladas at Dart Bowl. If you simply google "Dart Bowl", pages and pages of reviews will show up raving about their enchiladas. We were not impressed. Fortunately we ended the night with froyo.

Saturday we were lazy during the day, napping on the couch and watching Discovery ID (anyone else obsessed with this channel?). Jon was giddy all day because the Browns game was on the NFL Network which we subscribe to. Friends came over for bacon wrapped hot dogs and chili to watch the game. Even though it's preseason and nothing counts, the Browns did great and beat the Packers! Check out Jon's new August-mas Browns shirt...

Sunday morning was spent at church where we finished up a series called Outed: The Secret Lives of Almost Anyone. It was an awesome service! Our pastor talked about how we indulge in vices keeping us from a relationship with our Father, but that it is never to late to go home to God. Jon and I are praying for a few big things right now and we got so much out of this service. Sundays are my favorite.


The rest of Sunday was spent at my parent's pool with our best friends (I actually have a feeling the Texas heat is subsiding! Hallelujah it was only in the 90's today and we got a little rain!). We ended the weekend with dinner at our favorite Austin hole in the wall, Kerbey Lane.

Oh and I almost forgot. We are watching my parent's sweet dog Kelli for a week so Ernie is getting some serious cuddle time with his aunt (much to her dismay)

How cute are they??

How was your weekend? Anything exciting going on this week for ya?