Happy Birthday Colby!

Yesterday, Colby joined me in the "oldness" and turned 27! He's been giving me a hard time the last three weeks, so welcome to 27 my dear! :) He is up to his ears in the Endocrine system right now. Not only is it hard starting back to school after a holiday break, but to be slammed with fast-paced and difficult Endocrine right of the bat has been hard with quizzes every other day and now a test coming up. Boo! So needless to say, he's been a little stressed. Our small group Bible Study is meeting at our house for the new study, so since everyone was coming over last night, how fun was it to surprise Colby and have a birthday cake! So I worked hard making the cake and even making Colby a special dinner. However, he almost ruined the plan! He told me he wasn't going to come home b/c he wanted to stay at school and study for the quiz today. WHAT?! Wrong answer I told him, he at least had to come home and eat dinner and then could go in the office and put in his ear plugs while we have Bible Study. I'm so glad he did, and then came out for a bit to enjoy some cake before returning for more studying. Studying on your birthday, whohoo, what a normal reality this has become for both of us. :( It's ok, it will all be worth it some day. I am so proud of his dedication and wish you a happy 27 my love!

Holy Cow cake with 27 in candles

Blowing them out for another year!

I love you Colb and am SO glad that God brought you into this world!

Happy New Year!

2009 was a fabulous year and we continually realize how blessed we are and how God provides greatly for us. Can't believe it's 2010! I've finally updated our December, so scroll down for all the new posts.

We had to pack up all the Christmas decorations....boo!

Goodbye beautiful Christmas tree! That corner looks so bare now!

I worked New Years Eve and Day at the hospital so that was pretty uneventful. We did go over to The Gallers house briefly, but then I came home to go to bed. Colby started back to school today, so back to reality! We had a fabulous Christmas break and feel so fortunate that we got to spend so much time together and with family.

We learned some sad news last night that my Grandpa (Dean's dad) passed away late afternoon yesterday. He has been in the hospital for the last 2 weeks, was 91 and had been having several health problems. We will miss him greatly and are sad for the news, but know that he is with our Lord and no longer in pain. We will leave town at the end of the week to be with family and to attend the funeral services. We are grateful for his continued presence and love. Grandpa Ted was such a sweet and endearing man and we praise God for his life here on Earth.

Here's the whole family this past June with Grandpa

Grandpa and PapsColby and I with Grandpa last Christmas 2008You will be greatly missed, we love you, and can't wait to see you again one day!

Christmas Break

We had a great Christmas break! Colby had 2 weeks off of school and I was off of school the same time, so it was great to be able to spend time together and go visit family. Colby left to go fishing down in Del Rio the first weekend for his annual guys trip. They stopped through and picked up my little brother Benji and had a great time. I stayed here and worked that weekend and then met them on the Tuesday before Christmas.

Benji with his keeper

We went to Andrews to stay with Colby's family and for Christmas Eve went to Midland to eat at Paige and Jarod's and also went to church with them.
Look how cute they all look in their red!
I made a Chocolate Eggnog birthday cake!Paige and I enjoying the spicy bean dip...yummo!!The whole Brownlee/Thomas familyChristmas Day Family Photo

We woke up to snow!! But sadly it didn't stay long.

Austin and Kaylan on Christmas morning

Kirsten and Mitzi in the new sweater Rocky gave her

Gran Patti with Callyn Joy

The boys grilling the "Christmas Cow" The steaks were great!She was pooped after her first Christmas!

That night we played our favorite Settlers of Catan

And the next night the Yarbroughs came over and we played "Things" That game was hilarious and we had a great time seeing these friends!

Sunday after church, we went out to shoot Reos new gun. It's an AR 15? 47? yah, something like that, clearly I have no clue but it is a mean looking gun and shot so smoothlyI squealed everytime I shot it!

We stopped through Abilene for one more night on the way back and then Breckenridge to the lakehouse. I got to practice casting my new fishing pole that Colb gave me for my birthday. And when we were leaving, snow! It was beautiful!A great Christmas break!

Old Lady

We celebrated both my 27th birthday and the end of another semester for Colby on the 17th. We went out to dinner and then had a bunch of people over to the house to hang out. My sweet girls surprised me with a yummy carrot birthday cake, my favorite! and even fun party hats to celebrate. It was great to be with friends and have all the guys done with yet another semester of medical school. We are so proud of ya'll, 2 1/2 years left! Whohoo!

We kinda had a hard time getting all of us to look at the same camera. Here are the best two!

Then the boys with their party hats on

This is me saying..."Gosh, that's a lot of candles!"
Then blowing them all out!I made Rocky wear his Christmas collar for the party, he looked so cute, but wasn't thrilled.

I wanted to take pictures by our Christmas tree, and Daniel did a bit of a photo session. There were several fun ones, but I loved these few. I think they capture our relationship pretty well.Always laughing about something

Colby gave me an awesome fishing pole for my birthday, can't wait to go catch some big bass! Thanks love! Hopefully 27 will be a great year!

Casino Night 2009

Colby's school hosted the annual Casino Night and it was a lot of fun. It was at the Stockyards this year and so much warmer. We didn't win any prizes this year, but actually did quite well at Texas Hold 'Em. We did come home with 2 poinsettias which have looked fabulous on our fireplace this Christmas season.

The girls were in town for dress shopping so we had a few minutes before we left to love on our sweet niece.

Callyn Joy, your Uncle Colby and Auntie Jo love you so much! We went to Gloria's beforehand, yum!I love this picture of us!
Daniel and Claire

Clint and WhitneyUs with Sarah and Hans, love these two!

Carefully placing our bets

Murder Mystery

Our small group bible study did a Murder Mystery night at the beginning of December and it was so fun! Everyone got dressed up for their characters and had backgrounds with secrets and the object was to play your role and find out who the murderer was. The scene was our high school reunion (80s style). We were Johnny and Jenny the prom king and queen, quarterback & cheerleader, now currently rich and Johnny was the mayor of the town about to run for governor. Funniest quote of the night was, "Colby, is your hair different?" We had a great time playing our parts and I was voted "best performer" for the night...ha! Turns out, Colby was the murderer...shame, shame, in attempts to cover up info against him toward his political campaign.

Everyone mingling and gathering info about othersPaige and I in our fantastic blue dressesAshleigh, Paige, and KeriAll the husbandsAnd the wivesYikes!!!