Exciting News

As promised... exciting news to share! My brother Chase and his girlfriend Robyn are now ENGAGED as of this past Friday!!! EEEK!!!!

I wish you could hear the excitement in my voice when I say those words!!! She is so perfect for him and we are so so so blessed that he found such an amazing girl that we all love. She fits into our crazy family perfectly and we couldn't be happier. So being that she graduates from A&M in December and the ultimate planner that she is.... they have set the date to JANUARY 21, 2012!!! Yes you read right, 2012!!! Needless to say 2012 will be such a crazy/busy/exciting year for the Willingham family, filled with showers and planning.

I am so thrilled for them and excited for us to be sharing our planning experience together. The proposal was perfect... here is how it all went down, including a video.

Robyn was in Georgia for a summer internship all summer. So, her older sister Dana flew to Georgia to drive back to Texas with her. Her sister did an amazing job planning the trip home out so that they would arrive at her sister's house in Allen at 6:00 on Friday. Robyn thought that when they got to her sisters that her sister and her husband, her brother and his wife, and Chase were all going to go out to eat that night for a little welcome home dinner. So her sister and her got there her brother and his wife, and her sisters husband were there to welcome her home. My mom and dad, her mom and dad, Chase, and I were all in a bedroom so that she couldn't see we were there. She sat on the couch facing her back to the hallway, and her sister handed her a present wrapped... which was a book that Chase wrote and illustrated himself. 

The book was their story of how the met, etc. So while she was reading the book, we followed Chase and tip toed down the hallway. When Chase saw that she was at the last page which said this...

he then walked out, and got on his knee. She of course was so surprised and said YESSS!!! :)

This bad boy is to die for. We celebrated all together the rest of the night with a delicious dinner. It was absolutely perfect... he did such a good job planning it all and I was so happy he let us be apart of it. Congratulations to you two... We love you both so much! She is working on an engagement website... so I'll be posting that soon. 

After dinner Friday, I headed to Rockwall to stay the weekend with my one and only :) We went to Primo's to kick off the start of her birthday weekend.

On Saturday we celebrated with a night out in Fort Worth.

I always have so much fun with these girls and love when we all get together.

Happy 23rd birthday Tay... I love you so much, don't know where I'd be without you in my life and am so blessed to have you in it!

Work started back this week for me... which means summer is officially over and boy was it hard hearing that 6:00 alarm clock go off this morning. Excited for a new year, my student teaching begins in the spring... one step closer to finally being done. 

Can I just say WOW?! I can honestly say I'm BEYOND ready for fall, which then means winter (my favorite)!!!

Hope all of you had a Happy Monday!

VACA'ing the Summer Away!!!

Whew this is novel, hope your ready! This summer I have been on SO many little mini- vacations. I feel like I am never home, therefore this summer has FLOWN by! I start back to work on Monday and school on the 22nd.... YIKES!!! So 2 weeks ago I went on vaca with Brent's family to a little town right outside of Kemah, called League city. We stayed at the South Shore Haurbor... so pretty, and right on the water. 

We went to Kemah the night we got there...

If you have never been to this little boardwalk... it's so much fun for kids! There is like a mini amusement park including a little train that goes around the whole boardwalk, and restaurants all along the water. 

We ate at The Flying Dutchman, walked around, played a few games, and then of course had to get in the photobooth...

and ride the train :) 

This little one was on cloud 9 to say the least. 

The next day we hung out at the pool all day, and then got ready that night to go eat at a little hole in the wall place.

 It was delicious... these two were all smiles.

Biggest and best grilled shrimp ever!

 Then we walked along the dock to look at all the boats and headed back to the resort.

The next day we drove to Stewart Beach in Galveston... 

 We then left, covered from head to toe in sand, and walked around downtown Galveston and ate at a wonderful Burger place... and of course had to get a pina coloda since they were served in this...

 We headed home the next morning... it was a fun and relaxing trip! Crazy to think that our next summer's vacations we will be taking... we will be MARRIED!!! EEEEK!

This past weekend... for my mom's 50th birthday, her sisters, a few of my cousins, and her best friend all surprised her for a little trip in a condo at Horseshoe Bay on lake LBJ. This was the view from the balcony... awesome!

 Abby and I went down on Wednesday, to get everything set up for the surprise when she arrived on Thursday night. 

 We started early Thursday morning cooking, decorating, anticipating her arrival.

 I created these 2 pics on the aging booth app... had them printed in black and white and posted up everywhere... HILARIOUS, she about died!

We decided to do a black and white oldies pajama party! All the decor... before

All the decor and even the food were black and white.

White and dark chocolate covered strawberries, chocolate and vanilla cupcakes, cheesecake brownies, chicken salad sandwiches, cream cheese pinwheels, black chips and cream cheese sausage dip. YUM!!!

 We got her 50 presents... all wraped in black and white, of course :)

 They surprised her after work when she walked in with her bags packed, telling her they were going away for the weekend. So for the drive down they were giving her clues as to where she was going, but she still had no idea. They blindfolded her before they took the exit....

When they came up to the room they all changed themselves including her, with her blindfold still on. So we finally took it off of her we were all there standing in black to shout SURPRISE!!!! She was so surprised, since she had NO idea where she was, her birthday isn't even until the 20th, and had no clue I was there.

 We all wore black pajamas and tried to find mom all white pajamas but all we found was this... with a HUGE playboy bunny on the front, HAHA! She was pretty grossed out but I think she rocked it!

 All 4 sisters... :)

The next day we woke up and went into Marble Falls and had lunch at this little hole in the wall... DELICIOUS FOOD! So good, that we even went back on Sunday for breakfast before we headed back home.

After lunch we went downtown and shopped at this cute little square...

We then went to a winery tasting room called Wines Across Texas.

 We tasted 4 wines, then went to see Crazy Stupid Love...  if you haven't seen this movie yet, it is WONDERFUL! So not what I expected... I loved it

That night we went to eat at a place called on the rocks.

 This little band was playing outside... so we danced while waiting on our meal :)

This group of ladies are so much fun... I love them all!!!

 The next day we just stayed at the Condo and layed out at the pool all day...

Then got ready that night to go out to dinner on the lake at River City Grille.

 We ended the trip Sunday morning, ate breakfast at the bluebonnet cafe (once again) then headed home. It was a successful weekend to say the least.   

This weekend we will be celebrating my best friend, Taylor's 23rd birthday in downtown Ft. Worth. I am so excited since this the last weekend of my summer... we are gonna live it up.

Stay tuned for my next post... I have good news to share!!!