Elemedey

One of my best friends, Sarah, has an amazing etsy store that I want to pass on to everyone!  Its called Elemedey, which means "beauty' in Didinga, a tribe in Sudan.  Sarah's sister, Lauren, started the store and has now moved to Sudan and passed on the endeavor to Sarah.  Sarah has always been really crafty, but she has now taken her skills to the next level.  My mom gave me one of her clutches for Christmas and I love it!  Her newest product is a cute line of floral headbands.  She gave me one as a birthday gift and it is so cute. See...

   

Her website is www.elemedey.etsy.com .  She has clutches, tote bags and headbands.  They all make great gifts ...I have recieved two for gifts already and love them!  Click on the link and check out her store... you won't be sorry :)

Country Dog

We took Ruby to the lease in Cuero with us this weekend, and it's official... Ruby is a country dog.  She is in her element out in the open fields.  She had so much fun running around all weekend.  The hunting was unsuccessful, but that didn't stop her.  She had lots of fun in the mud pit behind the house.

And she found a new toy to chew on.

She had fun digging for treasures in the fire pit.

She had a long standoff with the cows.

And she likes sitting on the front porch watching the day go by.

Yep, it looks like we have a country dog on our hands!  She was pooped when we got home on Sunday and slept most of the day.

A Rodeo and A Wedding Dress

Last week Sarah and I met in Houston to do some dress shopping with Mallory and to go to the the Houston Rodeo with Mal and Rob.  It was a quick trip but we had so much fun!  On Wednesday we focused on bridesmaid dresses, shopping all around the Galleria area.  We found some good options in the stores, but ultimately loved the dress that Mal had already ordered online for us to try on.

With that task crossed off the to-do list we headed out for a fun night at the Rodeo.  It was my first big rodeo to go to.  Sure I'd been to Criders a few times, but this place makes Criders look like a flea circus!

The food was good, the seats were great, the company was even better!  I just love getting to spend time with these people! (Thanks Rob for being our personal photographers!)

We watched all the different events and then they cleared the floor and set up the stage about as fast as it took for us to take these pictures.  Gary Allen was the performer that night.  He was pretty good, except he never talked and all his songs were pretty depressing, but he does have some good ones though.  It was definitely a great first rodeo experience! 

The next day we met up again to go wedding dressing shopping with Mallory.  We shopped, met up with Rob for lunch, and then shopped some more.  I loved every second of it!  I think I was in such a rush to get my own wedding dress that I didn't have a chance to really enjoy it.  I had so much fun seeing Mal in all the different dresses.  Poor thing didn't look good in any of the dresses though :( Just Kidding! We could have pulled the most hideous dress in the store and she would have made it look like the most beautiful thing in the world!  It made it hard because we loved everyone she put on!  She look amazing in every style, color (you know...white, ivory, candlestick) and cut.  I took a ton of pictures, but I can't show you any... sorry!  We didn't make any final decisions that day but definitely found some good contenders.  She is going to make such a beautiful bride, I wanna cry just thinking about it! 

Rainy Day

Somebody wants to go outside today...

But its been a rainy morning so we will just sit and watch the rain.

Mallory is Engaged!

Rob popped the big question this past Friday night!  I am so excited for the two of them, they are perfect for each other.  It has been fun to see their relationship grow over the past year and watch them fall in love. When I thought that a proposal was coming up I called Rob to inform him that I was included in the list of people that had to be in the know and that I give my approval.  He let me know that he had just paid for the ring that day and that he was waiting for that to happen before he called me :)  Perfect timing! I'm not good at keeping secrets so my plan was to pretty much avoid contact with Mal until she had a ring on her finger.

So Friday rolls around and Rob calls me to tell me that Mallory was on her way to Houston and he was going to ask her that night.  I was giving him the pep talk and getting all the details when my phone beeps and its Mallory on the other line....ahhh! Rob tells me to answer so I beep over and try to play it cool.  "Oh your going to Houston?  Why are you going there? I thought you were going to Dallas tomorrow? You're crazy!"  I guess I did okay because she was completely surprised!  She did a good job in throwing a good curve ball or two....or five in Rob's plan, keeping him on his toes.  But like Rob said he was hitting her curve balls out of the park!

Luckly I got to see them the next day in Dallas and hear the full story in person and see the beautiful ring (Rob did good!).  I'm soooo looking forward to their big day coming up in 4 shorts months! Congrats Mal and Rob! Love yall so much!    

Our first trip to the ER

We made our first trip the the pet ER with Ruby this past Saturday night.

We started off the day with a morning donut run with Johnna and a puppy playdate with Rio and puppy (yet to be named).  She was good and tired for her schedule vet visit around noon to get her booster shots.  She did so good!  She patiently waited in the waiting room and then let the vet and assistants love on her.  She weighed 14.1 lbs., was in the 25th percentile for weight, 50th percentile for height, and 75th for head size (just kidding...she's just a dog!).  She also took the shots and nail clipping like a champ.  Here she is being a good girl:

  

The vet told us to watch for symptoms of an allergic reaction to the shots within an hour or two, but that it was rare that they do.  So we took her home and watched her for a while.  She seemed to be doing okay so we left at home while we ran some errands.  When we came home her eyes were a little puffy, but we thought it might be because she was so sleepy from the shots.  We watched her a little more closely, but besides being a little drowsy she was still her usual self.  Well her eyes continued to be swollen and maybe even got worse, so I was a little worried about her.  I was laying with her on the floor when all of a sudden she started to get hives all over her back and neck.  The vet had said that hives where a symptom of an allergic reaction so i started panicking.  Since her eyes were swollen and there were hives on her neck I was afraid that her throat might swell too  (maybe that is because my best friend carries an epi pen in her purse for her allergies and has instructed me on how to shove it into her leg if her throat swells and she can't breath)!  Long story short (too late!) there was only one place open that late on a Saturday so we called them to make sure that we needed to take her in.  They said to go ahead and bring her in.  On the way there her hived spread to her sides, but almost the second we walked in the had all but disappeared! Are you kidding me?! But her eyes were still swollen and she had a few hives left so they gave he a shot of antihistamine and some pills to take for the next two days along with some extra pills to give her before she gets the shots again in a month.  Poor little Ruby had a rough day, but the next day she was up and running again!  

Two days later she ran full speed into a small metal rod and started yelping.  Johnna went and scooped her up and and she was holding her eye shut and wouldn't open it.  I was afraid that we might have to make our second visit to the ER but lucky she just scratched her eyelid and not her eye.  Hopefully we can stay out of that place for good... especially since they charge you $100 just to walk in the front door! 

A Weekend at the Farm

This past weekend we went to the farm in Hempstead with Johnna, Cara, Jason, and Ainslee.  Trevor's parents came out for the day on Saturday and Bethany and Justin came out for the evening on Saturday.  Ruby and Rio joined us and had so much fun running around all weekend.  I think Ainslee had a good time meeting her puppy cousin.  They had so much fun together:

They played tetherball together,

 and went swinging together.

They played on the tractor together

and climbed on the hay together.

And then they relaxed together.

Ruby had so much fun meeting a lot of her family.  Here she is with her Aunt Cara and with her Grandparents:

Since Rio and Ruby already have an arranged marriage we went ahead and had an engagement picture taken :)

It was a nice relaxing weekend, its always great to go out there every once in a while and unwind.  The last time the Gilbreaths had gone out to the farm was when Ainslee was 7 months old.  We took this picture with them then:

Since the baby has grown and the cat turned into a puppy we decided we should take an updated picture.

We want to try to take one of these every time we go out there together.  It should be funny to see how our families change and grow!  And then we had to get one final picture of all the girls with our "babies".