AAAAhhh, it's Christmas.

It's officially Christmas time at the Young-Schultz house and we're loving it!  As I'm writing this, I'm baking my first batch of my Grandma Jeanne's famous pumpkin bread and watching our beautiful Christmas tree sparkle.  Trae and I have fond memories of our childhood homes with similar sweet smells and decor ... and it just makes us happy!

Our beautiful Christmas Tree

Misty Brook all lit up. Santa's not missing us!! :)

Everyone know's Santa is a Texas fan!

A little warning to all our friends and family...candles are obviously dangerous- use with caution.  But scented oils are also dangerous to wood!! I love Woodwick candles and scented oils.  A couple weeks ago I found one of my Woodwick oils had leaked out on the table.... and this is what it left:

 It completely stripped the wood!  Guess I'll be learning how to stain after the holidays!!

Next week we have 3 Christmas parties including our Annual Misty Brook Holiday party with all of our friends- we can't wait to celebrate with everyone before going home to our families.

Christmas this year will start in San Antonio with my parents, Grandma and my younger brother, David who is just getting home from a 2.5 year stay in Morocco with the Peace Corps.

Early Christmas morning, we'll head to Glen Rose to celebrate with Trae's family and relax at the ranch for a few days.

Be safe and Merry Christmas!!

Hark hear the Horns!

A big "WOO HOO" to our Texas Longhorns as we're on our way to Pasadena in January for the National Championships against Alabama!!
We had a blast in Arlington rooting on the Horns in Jerryworld.  Before going to the game, Trae insisted we stop in at J. Gilligans pub to grab a few drinks and try their famous "Irish Nachos" featured on the Food Network. 
I accidentally deleted the "before" picture...but obviously it was amazing- check out the "after":

Here's a few other shots of J Gilligans:

 

Zak and Trae celebrating Alabama's win with Alabama Slammers

 

The game was SUPER intense- I thought at times Trae and Milton were going to have a heart attack watching the final moments of the game.  At the end, it was all worth it- but WHEW.. we got our money's worth on that game!!

 

 Right after Thanskgiving weekend, Trae and I went to Sarasota, FL to see my cousin, Christine get married.  I rarely get to see this side of my family since they all live in Indiana & Florida, so it was great to spend time with everyone, and introduce Trae to the Youngs.  The wedding was right on the beach and absolutely beautiful.  It gave Trae and I am opportunity to think of our wedding day, only 7 months from now and get even more excited.  Congratulations, Christy & Michael! We can't wait to have ya'll in Austin in July!!!

 

 

 

Our engagement pictures finally came in this week!  With 300 photos to choose from, we're really happy with the way they turned out and can't wait to share them with everyone soon.

 

Also, this week I set up an alternate wedding website to check for wedding details: www.mywedding.com/traeandcyndi

Check this site periodically for information on blocked hotel info, wedding day details & transportation information.  Holiday weekends in Austin book early, so we're making sure all our loved ones have their information early so EVERYONE can be there. :)

It's that time of year!

Yes, it's that time again... Time to pull out the sweaters, decorate the tree and start cooking all those yummy holiday goodies. Our apologies for the lack of blog updates... our Horns have been making us proud and keeping us very busy this year. We're looking forward to the upcoming game against the Aggies on Thanksgiving Day and have already bought our flights out to California for the National Championships- Woo Hoo!!




I just LOVE holiday time, the change in weather and all the good times that come with it. With a LOT of Sharon's help, our house is transformed into a bedazzled winter wonderland with Cinnamon Candles burning and a fully decorated tree that I keep lit almost all the time.
Wedding plans are coming right along! We've started our first registry, which was an experience! Trae got a little scanner-gun happy at times, and I got pretty overwhelmed with the amount of decisions that needed to be made at one time, so we made a plan to come home & get organized on needs before trying it again. We've compiled a good list and plan to tackle it again right after the holidays, once stores have restocked all their items.

Last Tuesday Trae and I took our Engagement photos. It was important for us to have pictures all over Austin, so our fabulous photographer, Ashley Garmon took us on a little Austin Safari photo shoot. The day started around 11 in South Austin and took us around South Congress, Campus, the Capital, cocktails at a local Cafe, & ending around 7pm at Lake Austin after 3 wardrobe changes. It was a long, fun day that made us even more excited to work with Ashley on the day of our wedding. Look out for one of these fab pics to show up on our Save the Date in January!!
Working with a wedding planner has been the BEST decision I've made so far. We are SO ahead of schedule on our "wedding to-do list" and haven't stressed about the day at all. So much is done that we plan to just coast through the holidays and pick it back up in January!

We hope you all have a GREAT Thanksgiving holiday with your families!! We have a lot of fun things coming up for us and we'll be sure to take lots of pictures and post often.
Kisses!!

Home Again!

After a week of business meetings in California, I flew in & met Trae in Dallas for TX/OU weekend festivities.  Trae and I have a lot of great friends in Dallas and were glad to meet up with many of them Friday night & Saturday.  Trae & his guy friends tend to stick to winning traditions, so we've stuck to Primo's on Friday night & The Quarter Bar after dinner.  This time we added a stop to The House of Blues to watch a Michael Jackson impersonator show that had everyone's best moves coming out with MJ's classics.

With the game starting at 11 this year, it made for an EARLY wake up call so that we would have plenty of wax cup beer-time at the fair, plus the yearly Fletchers corny dog.  We avoided all the other fried goodies, including this years new fare: Fried BUTTER!  *yuck*  The weather was BEAUTIFUL and we were so glad that UT pulled out the win over OU!!

 

It was a great, busy weekend and I was SO glad to finally get home and resume our normal schedule today.

Wedding planning has slowed down a bit (Thank goodness!!) but we've done some fun things lately including our first "go" at registering.  More stories & pictures to come....

ACL 2009

This past weekend was Austin City Limits music festival at Zilker Park. ACL brings in 65,000 music lovers every year for a 3 day festival filled with Austin local artists, shops, restaurants and over 50 bands! Usually ACL falls on a Texas football weekend, so Trae had never attended the festival and was super excited! Friday was a great day: high 70's, blue skies and great music (think Kings of Leon, John Legend & Reckless Kelly). THEN on Saturday....the rain came. This made what WAS a lovely & dry festival, a wet and sewage-smelling mud festival.

BUT... the festival must go on!!! We still had a great time and came home relatively clean compared to some of the Woodstock-wannabe's diving into the Dillo-dirt. Yep "dillo-dirt". Google it. It's the sewage & compost based dirt that the hippie Austin planners used in Zilker park to grow the lovely grass that quickly disappeared when it rained and 65,000 people danced on it. YUCK.

After it's all said and done, Trae and I decided that we will continue going to ACL....when its not raining. :) We had a GREAT time jamming out to bands we love and finding new bands we will add to our IPod. Also, we got the opportunity to hang out with some friends in town just for the occasion!!!

Falling in Love with Fall!!!

It's officially Fall in Texas and aside from the BRUTALLY hot UT/UTEP game last Saturday- we are loving the cooler weather and can't wait for more! The past two weeks of football have been so much fun seeing long lost friends and cheering on our winning team! With Milton & Sharon in town, we all decided to celebrate our latest win with a trip to our favorite B.Y.O.B BBQ joint, The Salt Lick. (as if we needed a reason to go!) Driftwood is only a few miles from Dripping Springs, so we were also able to take them by the wedding venue and start visualizing our special day. FUN!!!

July 3rd, 2010 is starting to really take shape. Trae and I look forward to celebrating our special day in our own unique way and we're having a lot of fun planning it! In the past 6 days alone, we've tasted cake, rehearsal dinner food and our wedding day food... and enjoyed every moment of it!! I think Trae was disappointed that I booked the first wedding cake baker we tasted, but this girls got a dress to fit into and can't afford to "taste" anymore!!!

Another thing accomplished... our wedding party! We are so excited to be blessed with so many great friends that are able to be part of our special day, no matter the mileage between us.

Cyndi's Gals:

Matron of Honor: Heather Regan

Heather and Cyndi were roommates at TLU and have been besties ever since! Heather lives with her husband and two kids, Haley & Jack, on Camp Pendleton in San Clemente, CA.

Bridesmaid: Cori Grimes

Cyndi, Cori and Heather all met while at TLU and have been the closest of friends since. Cori lives in Boston, MA with her cutie-pie hubby Joe and they're expecting their first baby in March!

Bridesmaid: Amie Schill

Cyndi first met Amie while in school at TLU, and she quickly became one of her best while both living in San Antonio. Amie lives in Austin with her wonderful boyfriend James and their adorable brand new daughter, Bliss.

Bridesmaid: Heather Greeson

Heather and Cyndi became quick friends while working at Dell several years ago and continues to be one of Cyndi's closest friends & fitness buddies. Heather lives in Cedar Park, TX with her husband Chad, and daughter, Ramsey.

Bridesmaid: Jaclyn Young

Cyndi and Jaclyn have been partners in crime for the past couple years- double dating and even traveling to Mexico with our men!

Jaclyn lives in Austin with her boyfriend, Cody Kelso.

Trae's Guys:

Best Man: Stephen Ratliff

Trae and Stephen were college roommates at UT and worked on the Texas Football team as student managers. Stephen currently resides in Dallas, TX.

Groomsman: Monte Schultz

Monte and Trae are cousins who grew up together and continue to be close. Monte lives in Houston, TX.

Groomsman: Kris Ehlert

Trae and Kris were college roommates at UT and worked on the Texas Football team as student managers. Kris lives in Austin, TX with his beautiful wife, Leisha and his sweet baby girl, Elle.

Groomsman: Jonathan Parker

Trae and Parker were college roommates at UT and worked on the Texas Football team as student managers. Jonathan lives in Austin with his sweet wife, Heidi and they are expecting their first child in January!

Groomsman: Heath Stanford

Trae and Heath were college roommates at UT and worked on the Texas Football team as student managers. Heath lives in Ft Worth, TX.

Groomsman: Marcus Schultz

Marcus and Trae are cousins who grew up together and continue to be close friends. Marcus lives in Houston, TX with his wife, Andrea and two kids: Mason & Madelyn.

Groomsman: Matt Rutherford

Trae and Matt were college roommates at UT and worked on the Texas Football team as student managers. Matt lives if Pflugerville, Tx with his fiance, Shelley Smith.

Groomsman: Jason Hamm

Trae and Jason were college roommates at UT and worked on the Texas Football team as student managers. Jason lives in Midland, TX with his wife, Mindy.

Busy, Busy Bees...er...Longhorns!

We've been engaged for 1 month and planning is in FULL effect!! Of course... so is UT Football season- the combination of wedding planning, work, friends & football has kept life pretty busy for us lately.

Fortunately, we're a pretty solid Team-Schultz-in-training and we've done a decent job making decisions for our big day so far. After tossing around date possibilities and looking at a bunch of Austin venues, we knew we wanted something as unique as we were. We finally settled on a weekend that we look forward to every year: July 4th weekend! Our actual wedding will take place on July 3, 2010.

Where, you ask?? We settled on a cute little venue called Vista West Ranch in Dripping Springs. (www.vistawestranch.com)

Check it out:

Here's a picture to where we'll get married onsite...but we'll spruce it up a bit. (duh)

This weekend is a BIG weekend for UT football fans with the UT/Texas Tech game on Saturday. We look forward to the big tailgate and seeing all our friends to celebrate!

"Hook 'Em Horns!"

On the next Blog of "Keeping up with the Schultzs"... WEDDING PARTY!