The venue search is over...

...as soon as they cash the check. After months of searching and lots of flip-flopping, we have finally decided on a venue for both the ceremony and the reception. We will be at the Parador on April 9th. The Parador is a gorgeous building near the Museum district here in Houston. It used to be a Christian Scientist church, but now is used for events.It's a historical landmark, so everything is original and it has this wonderful dome over the main room and a small stage with a dance floor area.

It also has a very beautiful garden which will be perfect for our ceremony.

Can't wait for everyone to join us there!

Family Vacation 2009

So this year's vacation destination was Lake Tahoe. We stayed at the same inn where we stayed when my sister got married several years ago. It was a new house on the property and was pretty nice. It was a great size for all of us. The excitement of the weekend was the bear in the garbage when we arrived at the house at 2am. As you can probably tell from the pic below..it was COLD! It snowed higher up the mountain and was easily in the 40s. A nice breaks from the 100+ weather we were having at home.

Everyone was enamored of Beckett with his cute red hair that sticks out everywhere. We all wanted to hold him, I don't think we left him alone all weekend.

The girls were adorable as well and they enjoyed the hiking and the swimming....

...but their favorite part was the water gun fight! We filled the guns from the hot tub so we wouldn't freeze, but it was still pretty cold.
All in all, a very successful family trip and it was great for William to meet my brother and his family.

Pics of the house

Here are some pics of the house. The front....

The back...
I want to build a pergola next to the passage way to provide some shade and a place to entertain outdoors. Maybe we can get a fire bowl too.

The kitchen before we painted it. Notice the LOVELY 90s wallpaper.

2 coats of primer and 2 coats of yellow paint covered that right up.

Paperdolls...

We booked our photographer today! Love her and her pictures are wonderful! Here's a sneak peek with some pictures from her blog http://www.paperdollshouston.blogspot.com/

Still haven't left Square 1....

So after a weekend visiting potential sites, we still haven't left square 1. The place I really though was the one turned out to be ok, but the reception room was not ok. And the other place, I really like and think would be a lot of fun, but would be expensive for the guests. (Is $200 a night a lot if it includes meals and activities?)

But you can check it out here. So I guess we keep searching...maybe find something here in town and plan lots of activities to make it a fun wedding weekend....

Watching the grass grow...

Here's a pic of our new lawnmower. Isn't it cute? I did our whole back yard today in about 1/2 an hour. (But maybe that speaks to the smallness of our yard and not the ease of using the lawnmower.) Either way, I like it.

When it rains, it pours....

Look at the flooding on my side of town this week. Luckily our neighborhood has really good draining, because less than a mile away the water was still up on the road last night. William drives through the intersection in this picture every day on the way to work.