November

To say we had a busy November would really be an understatement!

We started November (actually the end of October) with a Birkner family birthday get-together at the farm. Darrin had to work so he didn't get to go :( but I rode with Jackie, Stephanie, & Bond down there. We had a wonderful day celebrating all the October/November birthdays and spending time together.

The "Birthday Tree"

Proud Great-Grandparents 

Just Horsin' Around!

Sistas!

Then we parted ways for the weekend in mid-November to participate in the Bachelor/Bachelorette parties for Bo & Patricia. I have no pictures from the boys' famous trip to New Orleans (this is most likely a good thing), but snagged a few of the girls' trip to Austin before my camera battery died - I'm getting really good at the whole dead camera battery thing. The ladies trip involved cruising around Austin in a LIMO! (If any of you have the pics of the group in front of the limo please email them to me!! jamielbarton@yahoo.com)

Bride-to-be in her devilish getup!

A winning Aggie football season left us itchin' to get back out there and watch our boys play one more time so we caved and bought tickets to the A&M vs nebraska game. Wow that turned out to be one heck of a good time! We won and there was a record-breaking attendance level. Aggie football atmosphere at it's finest. :) 

(Apparently I didn't get any pictures from the game which is slightly surprising of me. Guess I was too busy getting ready for Sunday...)

This same weekend was jam-packed with activity! Mom & I helped host a baby shower for Abby & sweet baby Emma. That's right, she's sweet even before we get to meet her. :) Emma got "the hook-up!" with all her fun gifts and we're all looking forward to meeting her in January.

Made this Diaper cake for Abbs - I plan on blogging about how to make one eventually

This cake was every bit as delicious as it is adorable

Best Friends!!!

hostesses

Then came Thanksgiving!! And do we have much to be thankful for this year or what!? (Not that we don't EVERY year) We had a wonderful time with both my Dad's extended family and Perch's extended family. I even braved the Black Friday crowds for the first time ever in "Shop-a-thon 2010" My cousin Michelle and her friend are crazy enough to do this every year. We shopped from 10pm Thursday night until 7am Friday, then Darrin & I headed up to Dallas and I spent all afternoon shopping with Martha, Darrin's cousin Tawney, & Aunt Tess! You'd think I would've gotten it all done over those few days, but no. hehe It was definitely a fun experience! 

the Lampley sisters

OK, so last year's family Thanksgiving shot we were in a little bit dressier clothes, but this is the REAL us! :)

And last, but CERTAINLY not least, we rounded out November with our very first Anniversary!!! :) We actually celebrated a few days early while we were in Dallas at a restaurant called Houstons. It was PHENOMENAL!!! mmmmmmm :) Sunday - our actual anniversary - we had a relaxing afternoon that consisted of Pizza Hut and a Harry Potter marathon. haha We were so exhausted from all the traveling! 

Our 1st Anniversary - and our Christmas card picture :)

I got a pleasant surprise Monday morning though, when I received a beautiful basket of flowers, chocolates and a teddy bear at work! (For those of you that don't know the Barton men, this is a BIG deal!! :)) I was SOOOOOOO excited!

Aren't they pretty!? :) :) I love my hubby!!!

It's been a wonderfully, busy, hectic, exciting, and perfect first year and we look forward to 99 more. (Yeah, just 99 - I only made Darrin sign a 100 year contract. :))

Thanks for reading this far - if you did! :) Merry Christmas in case I don't post again before then (ahem, let's be honest here...I won't!) :)

Be patient with me...

If you've come to check out our blog because you saw the link on our Christmas card, be patient with me. Pretty please. :) These last few months have been hectic, to put it mildly, and I haven't gotten around to posting much lately. This is all about to change. I am promising an update post before Christmas day! :)

In the meantime, Merry Christmas!!!

And here's our Christmas card if for some reason you didn't get it - which probably just means I didn't have your email address correct. (FYI, I designed/created it myself!)

Knock Off Wood

Happy Halloween!

What do you get when you mix lumber, screws, power tools, and a determined woman?
...
Ana White's Knock Off Wood!!!
(PLEASE check out her blog here ---> http://ana-white.com/ The woman built her own house!)

She's a totally inspiring, DIY, Stay-At-Home-Mom determined to make furniture affordable for everyone. She draws up easy-to-use plans (originally intended for women, but some of us allow our husbands to help) for how to make pieces of furniture that resemble those you would pay hundred$ to thou$and$ for at places like Pottery Barn or West Elm. Then she puts them online for people to use for FREE! All she asks is that you post pictures when you're done, leave some comments/tips, and tell your friends!!

Thanks to a few leftover wedding gift cards, and the fact that our end tables are currently TV trays - I had all the inspiration I needed to try my hand at one of these nifty projects. A few trips to Home Depot & Lowe's, a handful of startup questions for Darrin, and several hours later and I've assembled and sanded my first carpentry project. Ladies & Gentlemen, I give you the "Tryde" End Table! (Similar to Pottery Barn's "Hyde" End Table but about 1/10th the cost and 1,000 times the pride!) Paige Hemmis better watch out! Now all I've got to do is stain this puppy and she's done. :)
*I did build this pretty much by myself, but Darrin gave me a few pointers before using any of my our power tools and he gave me a demo on the sanding.

Demonstrating how to use the new hand sander, in his Church clothes! :)

Assembly completed

All it really needs is a good staining.

Still needs to be stained but I was excited to put it in the living room so here it is.

Stay tuned for pictures of the finished product. 

So proud of my little sis

Remember a few weeks ago when I said that Kaitlyn was nominated for homecoming queen?

Allow me to introduce to you Miss Kaitlyn Lampley, Rudder High School's [first ever!] Homecoming Queen!!!! :) She SO deserves this! <3

Finalists

Winner being announced

Getting her crown

The King & Queen

The Royal family :)

Brent & Kaitlyn :)

Dancin' the night away!

A Birthday Party, Travels, Beauty Queens, Conquering Fears, and a Baby Girl

Whew, we've been busy! I just realized I haven't posted in over a month. I really thought there hadn't been much going on to post about, but as I started thinking about what to write I realized how wrong I was. :)

We started our September travels with a trip to Dallas for our sweet niece, Avaree's, 1st birthday party!! We can't believe she's one already! She's growing up to be such a beautiful little angel and already walking - crazy!

Birthday Princess!!

Ave with her Gigi & G-Pops!

Her first taste of sugar, Yum!! :) 

September held many more weekend trips (mainly for football) and lots of fun times with friends. All this traveling has made our church hunt slow, but we've been visiting a few and working on narrowing down our list. We'll sure be glad when we find our "home" and get settled in!

Kyle Field <3

Visiting Darrin's Mimi

Last weekend I got to go home (Darrin had to stay in SA to prepare for inventory at work) and help the little girls get ready for their boyfriends' homecomings. Me & Chrissy were the "fill in Moms" because Mom was out of town - we decided our parents are superheroes! They were both so beautiful - I am so proud to have 3 beautiful, caring, kind sisters and do miss being around them more often. This weekend is their Rudder homecoming and Kaitlyn has even been nominated for Homecoming Queen!! :) I can't wait to see them all dolled up again.

with my gorgeous sisters and our Daddy (We missed you Mom!)

the Beauty Queens :)

Layne & Seth

Kaitlyn & Brent (their 4th year to go to homecoming together!)

This week was a week full of [accidentally] conquering my fears! I spent 3 nights alone while Darrin was in Houston for training. While he was gone I managed to cut myself on a paper cutter at work (it wasn't as bad as it sounds) causing me to need a tetanus shot. The next day we had annual flu shots at work - 2 shots in one week UGH!! I also started a new workout routine complete with a pedometer to help put a number to my goals. We topped off Friday night by going to a Haunted House with Andrew and his girlfriend! Whew! Glad I had my handsome Hubby to protect me! :)

The icing on the cake for this post is that my sweet cousin Camille just welcomed her second baby girl into the world on Friday! We're so excited for them and can't wait to meet sweet baby Caroline! According to my mom, her side of the family now has a ratio of 11 boys to 17 girls!

That's all I've got for now, I'll try to keep up better in the future. :) (Yeah, I always say that...)

Fall is back!!!!

Ah, Fall! Our favorite - and busiest - time of year! We are sooo excited that Aggie football has started back and the temperatures have started to drop. Seriously, you wouldn't believe how many times I heard "I'm so excited for Aggie football!" last week! And how many mornings I went to work NOT soaked in sweat - I love it! Bring on that Fall weather!!!!!

We have been awfully busy in other areas lately too:

1. I got a job! I am the new Investment Services Administrator (aka Assistant to the CEO of Investment Services:)) for SWBC - Southwest Business Corp. So far I'm really loving the job and the people I work with. Not to mention it's one of the best companies to work for with awesome benefits like a free gym membership that might actually motivate me to workout! (Ok, let's not get ahead of ourselves here.)

2. We got a new car! Thanks to the model year end deals we were able to get a car that Darrin's long legs can fit in and we LOVE it! It's a sassy red Ford Edge. Below is a picture of me by my pretty new car after my first day of work. (Hello real world!) Quite possibly the coolest feature on it is called Sync. I can throw my purse in the back of the car and talk on my phone (through the speaker system in the car) while I'm driving down the road without ever using my hands. It's all voice activated! I'm totally HOOKED!

3. "On the road again...and again...and again" We've been traveling a LOT lately! We went to the lake with "the Crew" a few weeks ago to celebrate the 3 birthdays (Darrin, Patricia, and Hannah) that fall within about a week and a half and spend some QT relaxing with friends before we start back to, well, being busy. We also went back to B/CS to kickoff a new season of Fightin' Texas Aggie football, WHOOP!!! :) There are many more trips planned in the coming months, but I won't mention them just yet since this is the internet.

4. Our sweet little babies are growing like weeds! They are the funniest little things with lots of silly personality! I know they're "only cats" but these kids provide us with hours on end of entertainment and laughter. They are the most curious things in the world and we love them to pieces!

Here's some pictures from the last few weeks, enjoy! JB

Family Photo on Darrin's bday
NOTE: Soot's almost "taller" than me now!

Birthday Goodies!!!
Including Birkner Family Christmas Cookies - yup, in August!

Handsome Birthday Boy - he never lets me take pictures of him alone so this is rare.

Pictures from mini-golf bday celebration/date night! :)

Sadie & Shane "Shadie" from our SS Class @ Central came to visit. We went to Dave & Buster's to celebrate Darrin's birthday, yet again! :)

The new ride!!

Recipes. No, seriously!

Due to the fact that I'm currently unemployed I've been branching out quite a bit lately in the area of cooking - basically, I've actually been cooking! (Go ahead, laugh as long as you feel led to...) I mentioned some of my recipes and have actually had requests for them so here are some online favorites:

1. Soy Sauce/Brown Sugar Grilled Salmon
2. Cinnamon French Toast
3. Meatloaf

Also some family favorites:

Birkner Family Christmas (or in this case, Birthday) Cookies
*This does take quite a bit of time even though they only cook for 10 mins.
3 eggs
1 cup butter
2 cups sugar
1 tsp. Vanilla
4 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
pinch of salt

Mix together. Chill dough before rolling it out. Cut and cook on 350 for 10 mins or until lightly brown. 

for the icing...
1 stick butter
1 tsp vanilla
2 T canned milk (add more or less to get desired consistency)
3 cups powdered sugar
1/2 tsp almond extract
food coloring


Barton Family Chicken & Rice
1 stick butter
1 cup uncooked rice
1 can cream of chicken
1 pack Lipton onion soup mix
4-6 boneless skinless chicken breasts
salt and pepper
Pam

Pam the pan. Melt butter in baking dish. Pour 1 cup rice into baking dish w/ butter. Boil 2 cups water with cream of chicken. Pour boiling mix over rice and butter. Lay chicken over the mix. Add 1 pack Lipton Onion Soup mix. Salt & pepper on top & cover with foil. Bake @350 for 1:30 - 1:45




Breakfast Casserole
6 slices white bread buttered on each side
1 lb sausage, browned and drained
1 tsp salt
1 tsp dry mustard (although I left this out because I didn't know what it was! :) )
1 1/2 cups grated cheddar cheese
2 cups milk or half and half
5 eggs

Place bread in a long baking dish. Lightly mix eggs, sausage, milk, seasoning and cheese. Pour mixture over bread. Cover and refrigerate over night. Bake uncovered 40-50 mins on 350.


We half a lot of the recipes so we don't have oodles of leftovers, although they do make a quick, easy lunch for the next day. Trust me, if I can make these anyone in the world can make them! haha Hope you enjoy some of them as much as we have!

Yours truly,
Betty Crocker/Rachel Ray
Uh, I mean...Jamie :)

Happy Birthday Hubby!!!

Today is my totally awesome, wonderful, loving, handsome, and AMAZING husband's 24th birthday!!! Gosh, that's old! :) In honor of your 1st birthday as my husband, I've written you a lovely poem, Babe. I love you Darrin Blair!!!!! :) :)

D Does sweet things for me just because he loves me.
A Always getting me into some new and exciting adventure.
R Reallllly handsome, especially when he smiles with that one dimple. :)
R Ready to help salvage dinner and save another meal in danger of ME!
I Incredibly amazing singer.
N Nicest man I know!

Ok, so I'm lame at poems. At least I gave you something to laugh at!!! Happy Birthday Darrin!!!! :)