The past 10 years...

Warning... LONG post, but full of lots of pictures!

2000...
Aaron and I rung in the new year as a couple for the first time.
We had been dating for 4 months.
Here's a picture of us at our first prom :)


2001...
Aaron and I went to our 2nd prom.
He graduated that June and went on to study Mechanical Engineering at Purdue.


I went to my first concert in true style... :)
Don't judge us for our awesomeness!
And yes, I still know every word to every song on the No Strings Attached CD.


2002...
Our final prom together.
I graduated in June and decided Purdue seemed like a nice school.
I also went on a road trip with Aaron and his parents. We headed to Amarillo, TX to visit some of his family. That was my first trip to the giant state, and I definitely didn't leave thinking I could live there one day!
At Purdue, I majored in Elementary Education and was very much looking forward to having my boyfriend and best friend in the same town!





At the Big Texas Restaurant.

2003...
Aaron and I came back to LaPorte for the summer and spent a lot of time at the beach!



I moved into my first apartment with a great group of girls.
Had many, many naps on the coma couch.


2004...
Typical college life... Both of us moved into new apartments once again.
That summer, Aaron tried to do a lot of water skiing.
He stopped when shortly after this picture was taken we ended up in the emergency room, and Aaron left with 4 bright and shiny staples in his head!



2005...
Big year!
Got engaged.


Got married!



Funny story... Aaron and I worked really, really hard to paint that background on the church wall so that we could have a true winter themed wedding.
Or, the church decided a few weeks before the wedding to do a "Chronicles of Narnia" theme.
You can imagine my excitement when I saw it for the first time!
The running joke was that there would be a mechanical lion that would pop out when we said "I do."

And of course, went on our honeymoon! We went to San Jose del Cabo...


2006...
We were very thankful we each only had 1 semester left of college.
Aaron was now going to graduate in Civil Engineering.
I was student teaching in the most adorable Kindergarten class.

We decided to grow our little family a little bit...


We graduated on a very cold Saturday in May.
Loaded all our newlywed belongings into a Uhaul and headed to Austin that Monday.
We then became "Texans".

We visited the Alamo to learn some Texas history.

We had our awesome group of friends come visit us in our new place.


We had been going to the Austin Stone Community Church and were loving it.
That fall we took a class for "newly/nearly" wed couples.
We didn't realize God was using this class to grow our marriage, as well as give us an awesome group of friends!

2007...
We bought our first house!


Aaron quickly started fixing it up


Now that we had a yard, we decided Molly needed a friend.

Meet Cooper P. Williams Scott Jr. III

2008...
Biggest thing of the year was our trip to Italy.


2009...
Started the year off by visiting Peter out in California.

Traveled to the Texas coast for a sand castle competition

And then I pretty much started blogging, so you know the rest!

Wow, lots of pictures I know.
But looking at the past 10 years in photos is the best way to remember it.

Stay tuned for the next years of fun!

Not to brag or anything...

But you are looking at Stone Oak subdivision's 2009 Christmas light winners!

Way to go husband!

(since I had absolutely nothing to with putting them up... other then making sure he didn't fall down!)

The other day, Aaron was getting out of his truck and he had a nice conversation with another woman in our neighborhood:

Woman-Do you live here?

Aaron-Yes.

Woman-I just love your Christmas lights!

Aaron-Thank you.

Woman-I just think they are so beautiful. It makes my day seeing them when I drive past your house. It almost makes me want to cry thinking they'll be coming down soon.

Aaron-It makes me want to cry too!

What sweet neighbors we have :)

New Years Visitor

Yes, yes... I'm actually blogging within a week of my last post.
I'm off work for 1 more day, and figured I'd better try and do this now!

Aaron's college roommate Will came in from Atlanta to spend New Years with us.
We hadn't seen him since quick lunch in Indiana this past summer.
But you see, Will is very lucky.
He works for Delta.
He makes me question why I don't work for an airline.
He's able to travel cheaply all the time, which leave Aaron and I very jealous.

We'd been trying to get him here for quite some time, and it finally worked out!
He got in New Years Eve, but we began an early celebration with the Allisons.
Brad, Rachael, Aaron and I enjoyed our last meal of 2009 the way everyone should....
stuffing ourselves FULL of Chuy's *free* nachos.
Yes. Free.
How have we lived in Austin for almost 4 years, eaten at Chuy's 1000 time, and never knew that happy hour meant self-serve nachos?!
We knew about the chips and salsa at the bar, but not everything else they have to offer.

So, after our amazing waitress gave us a free chicken quesadilla, we decided our actual table wasn't needed, and we would just order a la carte at our bar table.
Cheapest meal ever.
Did I feel fabulous afterwards?
Not so much.... But it was enjoyable in the moment.

Then, Will go in so Aaron and Brad picked him up.
Rach and I started watching 17 Again but haven't gotten to finish it yet.
We all rung in the New Year just talking and hanging out.

New Years day we took Will downtown and around The Domain (outdoor shopping area).
The real highlight was dinner at Salt Lick.
Will said he was bringing people with him next time to try the famous bbq.
We worked off all the wonderful food by playing Rock Band.

Today, we just hung out, which was nice.
We did try out the 620 Cafe, which was full of deep-fried goodness.
Don't think less of us by what we eat...
This post seems to be full of the healthiest of food choices.
Pictures to follow!
Maybe this is why I feel the need to join a gym this year...

Pictures!

Aaron and Will

I have been wanting to take this picture for a long time :)

The before dinner shot

Photo taken with smokey goodness!

Chicken Fried.... bacon. It might have been delicious.

Can I just say that as I type this, my techy husband is turning lights in our off and on by using the computer!? His electrical knowledge astounds me!

Hello again

Here's the past month.. all in one post!

Thanksgiving.

We spend Thanksgiving in New Orleans with my family.

We stayed in the French Quarter, went to the zoo, and ate amazing food.

Best of all, we went to the LSU vs. Arkansas game.

When I was 4, my parents and I moved to Baton Rouge so that my dad could get his masters at LSU.

We only lived there for a year, but my parents are definitely lovers of all things Louisiana.

The game was a blast!

Purdue football looks like an elementary school game in comparison.

LSU fans have more pride than I've ever seen.

Here's some pictures from that week:

My parents Thanksgiving night.

A cajun Thanksgiving was very delicious.

Lyndee trying grits... she obviously loved them!

Creeeeepy baby aligator at the zoo.

After the game... thank goodness LSU won :)

Anniversary.

Aaron and I celebrated 4 years of marriage on December 17th.

It's hard to believe that it's been 4 years, yet it seems like it could have been forever!

I planned our actual anniversary night: spaghetti and The Office marathon :)

The last week of school before Christmas break is just about as crazy as the last week of school.

So, I wanted to have a fun, stay-in night.

We celebrated again Saturday night with a delicious dinner and then our first trip to Austin's Trail of Lights.

Here we are under the big, Christmas light tree.

Christmas.

Aaron's parents flew in from Arizona a couple of days before Christmas so we had a big Mullins/Nyby family holiday.

We had a good time playing with the boys, finishing up shopping, and just spending time together.

My Texas husband got me cowgirl boots! I've been asking for them, so he did very good. Now we can go dancing...

I also got a sewing machine! So, watch out Martha Stewart.. once I actually figure out more than just threading the machine, I'll be a sewing fool!

I don't have any pictures yet, so I'll post them if I get them soon...

Hope your holidays were warm and bright :)

Snow day

So I really thought I was going to be good about this whole blogging thing... apparently not.

Expect the next few posts to be out of order, but appreciate the time it took to write them :)

Story actually from Friday, December 4th.

It snowed last Friday.

For about half of you reading this, that's no big deal at all. You probably live in the midwest and you dread those snowy days.

Here in Texas, snow is like nothing I've ever seen.

Partially because it's the saddest example of snow, but also because Texans FLIP when it snows.

Days leading up to it everyone is terrified we're going to get snowed/frozen in. I will say, the one ice storm that happened the first year we lived here was bad... for a day or two.

So last week everyone bought their water, waited to see if school would be cancelled or delayed, but of course, the snow didn't quite live up to everyone's expectations.

Around 11:30 I noticed white specks floating outside our window so I called the kids over to squint their little eyes to try to see them.

Lucky for the kids, they went outside for recess at 12.

Even more lucky for me, I had 5 kiddos in study hall (watching kids that didn't finish their work) inside my nice, heated classroom.

Sidenote--I'm a huge wimp when it comes to cold weather--

About 20 minutes into study hall I look out the window and it is snowing.

For real snowing. Indiana flurries snowing.

So I quickly tell the kids study hall is cancelled and get your jackets!

One student didn't actually have work to finish, but had left his jacket in his mom's car so he stayed inside for recess that day.

Special note about this child... he moved here from Michigan in September.

I told him that he could just borrow a jacket from lost and found so that he could go outside.

He kindly replied, "I don't want to wear someone else's jacket."

I tried to explain to him how I knew seeing snow wasn't anything new for him, but that it was for the other 4 students about to pee their pants with excitement!

So we finally head outside, and this is what I see.

I promise.. there really is snow blowing around.

We missed when it was really blowing.

The best part was the kids were SO loving those tiny specks.

Catching them on their tongues was their favorite part.

Realize, it hasn't snowed in Austin since 2007. So some of these kids barely remember that.

Here are my kiddos, pink cheeks and all :)

Week(s) in Review!

Our close friend Kathrin was baptized about a week ago. We met her and her husband through the Newly, Nearly Wed class at the Stone. They have been part of our community group since last fall, and we just love them! We felt really special to be able to be with her during this memorable moment.



Aaron is using his skills to work on a house with some of our friends. He's some of the guys. I'm so excited to see what this house will look like months down the road!






One day, a family's going to walk through that door into a beautiful home :)

We're getting ready to leave for our Thanksgiving trip tomorrow morning.
We're meeting my family in New Orleans tomorrow!
We will spend Wednesday-Friday in New Orleans.
Then we'll drive to Baton Rouge on Saturday for the LSU vs. Arkansas game.
My dad will be his own personal heaven all week long.
Pictures to come!

I'll leave you with some pictures taken a year ago today, when Aaron was in his own personal heaven...

Inner Teenager

Tonight I will find myself feeling like a teenager again.

I have great memories of being a teenager... Singing/dancing to NSync, sleepovers, talking and giggling about boys, hanging pictures of cute boys on my walls, etc. I wish I had a scanner so I could show you just how cool I was as a teenager.

Well, tonight I'll be embracing that teenager again.

I'm going to see New Moon, at midnight.

If you know me at all, you know I'll be napping before hand because there's no way I'll make it through the movie otherwise.

So, yes. I've read all four of the Twilight books.

It all started last summer when my younger sister Lyndee was reading them. She came to visit so I read the first book. I was shocked that I actually enjoyed reading it. I think most people felt this way after having read a love story that involved a vampire. I moved onto the next book immediately. The third one took a bit longer (silly me started it in August, not my best month). Then I waited patiently for the fourth book to come out. It was actually this time last that the last book came out. I spent Thanksgiving break with my nose in the book. I didn't have many opportunities to read it, but when I did, I was sucked in (no pun intended).

I'm going to the movie with about 12 other girls. We're getting to the movie theater at 8. The movie starts at midnight. I'm sure tonight is bound to be full of some strange people. I'm hopeful I won't be one of them!

And no. I'm not wearing a Twilight/New Moon/Mrs. Cullen Tshirt :)