Engagement Fiesta

Last night was our engagement party at Riata's Great Room and we had a GREAT time!!! A huge "Thank You!!" to all our hosts: Heather Greeson, Monte Schultz, Marcus & Andrea Schultz, Mindy & Jason Hamm, Jaclyn Young & Cody Kelso, Heath Stanford, Carrie & Todd Smith, Paul & Mandy Young.

It was a Mexican themed fiesta full of bright colors, Sharon's delicious margaritas, Enchiladas y Mas Fajitas (yummy!) and a too-good-for-one-bite lemon-buttercream cake.
Trae's cousin, Monte gave a great speech after dinner inviting me to the Schultz family and congratulating me for making it through the tough Schultz-wife standards test-- a funny and thoughtful message around all our closest friends and family.

Leisha headed up a quick "newlyweds" game between Trae and me, our parents & the Greesons full of fun questions & even funnier answers. While the Greesons took the prize, Trae and I were happy with our close 2nd prize only lost in the LIGHTING ROUND. :)

The night was just as we had hoped for- a celebration with our closest friends and family members sharing fun stories of all our different stages in life, up to the point we fell in love. We are so grateful for everyone who was able to make it to the party, we're so blessed to have so many people who love us and support us.
We can't wait for July 3rd to come around!!

California Good Times...

We hope everyone has had a great start to their new year! We started our year off on a fun trip to Pasadena to see the Longhorns play Alabama in the National Championships. My brother and sister-in-law (Paul & Mandy), Trae's parents (Milton & Sharon) and many of our good friends made it out to California as well, so it was a big party for a few days. Bye Bye Diet, HELLO California Vacation!

We had all been to LA a few times and done most of the touristy things, but obviously a stop to In-N-Out burger was a must for Trae- so that was a priority. Milton was excited that "protein-style" was completely gluten-free, so I joined him to try to cut a few calories in splurging.
The night before the game was a party hosted by Vince Young, where Trae got to stop and talk to Vince for a few minutes & take a picture with him. (see above picture) It was really neat to hear Vince recall memories that Trae and he had together at UT and take a moment to "hug it out". Makes watching him play on TV that much more fun!!

Game day was a blast! I had never been to a National Championship game in person, so it was really fun to see all the professional tailgaters come out and enjoy each other. Plus... the weather couldn't have been better!! All our friends got to hang out, make a few Alabama friends for the day and enjoy the day.



We had another full day & night in Cali after the game before heading home, so we used this day to do a little sight seeing and meet up with my bestie & Matron of Honor, Heather, who lives in San Clemente. We met in beautiful Santa Monica where we were able to shop a little, see the pier & beach and just relax.

The hotel we stayed at was very fun and fashion forward, located right on Sunset Blvd. We were a stones throw away from the famous Chateau Marmont, 10 minutes from Beverly Hills & Rodeo Drive, 15 minutes from the beach and a block away from our favorite on the road bar: Saddle Ranch. Trae first discovered Saddle Ranch in LA for the 2005 National Championships, then we got to visit them at their Arizona location last year for the Fiesta Bowl. This year, we made about 4 stops there as a late night entertainment option full with big-as-yo-head Cotton Candy martinis, huge plates full of Carb overload goodness & a mechanical bull that gives hours of belly laughs as drunk girls "mount up" to try the beast after a few too many cocktails. It's a good time, even if it does pose a wicked tummy ache later:

yummmmmm...

While we were sad to leave our vacation and the beautiful Califonia weather, we were SO ready to get home & get back to our normal routine with our little 90 lb hound dog daughter. We know we'll be back in Pasadena very soon and look forward to it all over again!!
For now... Operation WEDDING DIET!

Bye Bye Hollywood.....
(Trae "holding" the Hollywood sign)

A New Year brings lots of new things....

We had a GREAT Christmas break with our family and friends this year. It all started with the Annual Christmas Party at our house with all our friends. This years gift exchange theme was "As Seen on TV" so everyone had lots of fun gifts to go home with like snuggies, Aqua Globes and Bump It's.
The Christmas party is always full of great eats & drinks (I think our special sangria will be a yearly addition after our superb 'first go' at it) and lots of laughs with our closest friends.. a great way to kick off the holiday season.

Trae and I went into San Antonio on the 22nd to spend time with my younger brother, David who just returned home from his 2 year Peace Corps duty in Morrocco. We got to get some last minute shopping done, drink a couple yummy margaritas and Trae finally got to test out the famous Chris Madrids burger. Burger Verdict?? Trae votes "overrated".

My older brother, Paul, sister-in-law, Mandy and my niece, Addison came in on XMAS EVE to open presents with all of us. We all got great goodies from Santa and had a fun time watching Addison tear open her gifts.







We left early XMAS morning to head to a snowy Glen Rose bustling with activity. Sharon & Carrie were busy cooking Christmas dinner and Milton, Tanner & Trent were busy de-icing walkways. Within an hour of our arrival, there were an additional 25 people of Trae's extended family had arrived and dinner was served! Whew! If nothing else, Trae and I can positively say that we ate WELL over our two-family Christmas break and we must have been very good, because Santa was very generous this year. We even got our first gifts off our registry!!

We stayed in Glen Rose for a few days to relax before we headed back home. We talked a lot about upcoming wedding duties and parties and booked a couples shower that Trae's family and friends will be throwing us in Glen Rose on May 15th. We can't wait to show all our friends Stone Mountain Ranch & celebrate becoming man & wife.

Thank you to both our families for a GREAT Christmas!!

Next week we leave to go root on our UT Longhorns in Pasadena, CA for the National Championships! Many of our friends and family are also going, so we should have some great photos to upload when we get back.

Also, our other wedding website is up and running: www.mywedding.com/traeandcyndi
Check there for all specific wedding details and to sign our guestbook.