A warm welcome...

This week my parent's cats sent Samson a box of toys to welcome him to the family. Here is what the card said...

Samson and Brad quickly got to work breaking in (or just breaking) one of the toys...

Thanks Crowe Cats!

Our First Christmas Tree...

On Sunday, we decorated Brad's Christmas tree. We combined all of our ornaments for our first tree together and it is pretty!!

 The final touch...

I told Brad to enjoy it because next year my cats will be there... it may never look this pretty again.

Then we decided to play around the timer on his camera...

Oh the joys of trying to photograph animals...

Take 1...

Take 2...

Take 3...

Close enough...

We'll take it!

After the tree was done, we went to an orchestra performance at our church. We are very blessed with incredible musicians in our church. Our Orchestra recorded their first CD and had a "release" performance. The music was FANTASTIC and we really enjoyed ourselves.

A good friend of ours, Sara, plays clarinet so we also went to support her. We also brought her flowers because every great performer deserves them after a great show!

Me, Sara and Mary

Save The Date!

Friday night we sent out our "Save The Dates" and announced our wedding date.

Also included in the email was our website information. We worked really hard on this site and we hope it will provide people all the information they need regarding the big day! (It is password protected, so if you lose the password, just email me and I can send it to you.)

Another thing you will see on our website are our engagement pictures. We had a lot of fun with our photographer Ryan Herring that day. We ran all over Zilker Park and then the West Mall area of UT near the famous Tower. 

So, now the countdown to our special day begins!!

Dickens on Main...

After we left the shooting range, we went back home and met up with Brad’s Mom. We loaded up and went to a local Mexican restaurant for dinner.  Then we headed into “downtown” Boerne for Dickens on Main. This is annual event sponsored by the town and it was a lot of fun! They block off all of Main Street to pedestrians and horse-drawn carriages only. All of the shops open their doors, local musicians and performers come out and yummy food stands are set-up. There are even pictures with Santa! These kinds of events are my kind of thing… I absolutely love them!!!

We met up with Brad’s Sister-in-Law, Gina and his niece, Irina and stood in line for some YUMMY hot cocoa. This is a very nice treat because it was COLD!!!

In line for hot cocoa. Its a horrible picture of just about everyone, but it the only one I got!

 With warm hot cocoa in our bellies, we decided to take a ride around Main Street on one of the horse-drawn carriages. We wrapped up in blankets and enjoyed the sights. 

Another fun thing they had set-up were snow machines!! They were at random places all over Main and the kids loved it. Yes, got under the snow for a while too!

We enjoyed walking around Main and taking in all the holiday cheer. We came to a local jewelry store that had a sign out front that caught our eye. We could NOT pass up the photo opportunity!! 

Fine print: "Just in case you were looking for one."

 This store had fantastic marketing… here is another one of their signs. 

Fine print: "You've got the right woman, we've got the right policy."

Eventually, the family decided it was time to go home. However, at that very moment I spotted a food stand with one of my all-time favorites… fresh kettle corn. So, we parted ways and headed to the corn!!! 

I wish you could smell this through the blog... so good.

Brad and I wandered around for a while and found ourselves inside a Christmas store. We made a purchase that we are SO excited about!!! All I can tell you is that it is a canvas painting with the most beautiful saying on it. We plan on hanging it in our home. I can’t tell you any more because we loved the saying so much we have decided to have it read at the wedding… I guess you will just have to wait until then!!!

It had been a long day... even Cheyenne and Samson were tired. So, Brad came in to my room with them and they all tucked me in!!

The next morning, we got up and went to church with Brad’s parents. 

After lunch, we loaded up the car (now stuffed with our Black Friday and Dickens purchases) and had the dogs jump in. Then we headed home! It had been a busy, yet relaxing family weekend.

Amy Oakley...

Brad isn’t a hunter or “outdoors-man” but he and the other men in his family all own guns and like to go to the range. I had never even held a gun, let alone shot one. Mostly out of fear but also out of lack of opportunity. Ever since Brad and I started dating, we have talked about going to the shooting range. I have been very curious about this. Little did any of us know how naturally I would take to shooting!!! 

Brad & Doug

There is a range in Bandera which is about 20 minutes from his parents’ home, so on Saturday I headed out with Brad, his brother Doug and their father, Larry. I was apprehensive and excited all at once. As soon as we got there I knew I was WAY out of my element but I trusted the Becker men to guide me and show me the way. Our first stop was to shoot at targets. Larry started me out with a small gun and patiently showed me how to hold it, use the safety and aim. Brad stood by to help (and take pictures). 

Larry was dancing around behind me catching my empty shells!

 

The first shot was scary because one of the things I had been most scared of was the kickback. Once I got that over with, it was a bit easier. I slowly emptied my first gun on the target and surprised everyone, especially me… apparently I had great aim! They complimented about things I don’t really understand… stuff about keeping all of my shots very close together and being very precise with my aim. Apparently, I don’t stray too much and with a short barrel gun, that is difficult to do. I even got a bulls eye on my first try! We went through several targets and a couple of different kinds of guns. 

The arsenal...

After a few rounds, I got a little cocky and decided to shoot my target in the head… poor target- never had a chance. By the time we had finished target shooting, I had shot a .32 and a .22 and had really enjoyed it. I continued to surprise the guys with my skill so Larry started calling me “Amy Oakley”.

In between my attempts, the guys would shot their own guns.

Next stop… skeet shooting with a shotgun!! Now this I was VERY scared about because I knew the kickback would be really rough. However, always willing to try something at least once, I stepped up. Even though they launched a skeet, I was more concerned about shooting the big 9mm 12 gauge shotgun then aiming at the flying target. After I did it, Brad said I actually came close to hitting it. However, I was more concerned about putting my shoulder back in its socket!! I only shot the gun once more… that was enough for me. I think I will stick to the smaller firearms. So, I enjoyed watching the guys skeet shoot for a while. 

The skeet range was funny. In an effort to appeal to all of their audiences, they have UT section and an A&M section. Sadly, we were put in the A&M section… the guys tried to make me feel better by saying that we were shooting AT the Aggies. Whatever.

You figure out which is the Men's restroom and which is the Women's...

 

So, it was a fun day with the guys and I enjoyed it quite a bit more than I expected. This is something I would enjoy doing with Brad and with his family. Plus, I think Brad will now think twice about crossing Amy Oakley.