Capturing Moments

I did a photo shoot yesterday for a little girl who is turning one next month! Kinsley Brielle Estelle. Such a fun little lady to work with. She never got fussy and was happy go lucky the whole two hours we were at the McNay. 

The photo shoot yesterday was such a neat thing to be a part of because I did her moms(A'Livia) maternity pictures around this time last year at the same location- the McNay. 

Holland and I also captured some sweet moments of Kinsley as a newborn. 

Yesterday in the middle of some Estelle family pictures, I got to help capture another super sweet moment that involved something  sparkly!!

Cory and A'livia- Holland and I are so happy for you both! You both are so lucky to have one another for life partners and Kinsley is such a lucky girl to have you both as her parents.  It has been fun helping y'all capture moments this past year :). Congrats!!

When we were 15...

When we were 15, we were crazy. We were freshmen in High School. We had the world at our feet. The best thing of all was that we found each other in the mix of all the craziness.

I remember the first time I saw Holland. He looked pretty similar to the photo above. But he had on a white button up shirt. He remembers us first meeting at lunch, but I remember it being in front of our High School. Holland was and still is handsome. I thought that for sure the first time I saw him, but so did many other girls. Girls would flock to Holland. We had cement tables and benches on the outside part of our cafeteria and when I would walk to lunch (I am not kidding this is what I saw pretty much everyday) I would see Holland sitting on the table part of the bench and at least 8-10 girls surrounding him. This kinda drew my attention away from him. Yea, he was still cute but we could be friends. I never wanted to be that "girl" drooling over a guy with a pack of other girls.

Holland was on the swim team and as an "initiation for fish" and to cut time off your swim, the freshmen would shave their heads. One day in December I remember making that walk into the cafeteria and Holland was all alone.... and bald. Sitting on his concrete stoop without his flock of females. I remember pointing and laughing, but then we sat together with some friends and ate lunch.

In the beginning of the year we formed mutual friends between us, I even dated a guy that Holland went to Middle School with. However that only lasted like 3 months because that is typical when you are in High School. I found out later that Holland liked me when I was with his friend, and once I was single and I started to like Holland he wasn't interested anymore.  By the time March rolled around, I was crushing on Holland waaaaay too much. I couldn't handle myself. I did all the typical things a 14 (ALMOST 15) year old would do. I would beg my friends to call him at his house(WE HAD NO CELL PHONES PEOPLE). I would have them ask if he felt the same way and PLEASE SIT WITH ME AT LUNCH. SO much for not being "That girl" right?

Right before spring break I just told myself I needed to confront him. I was going to Florida for Cheerleading Nationals and on Friday after lunch I took a deep breath and walked up to him after he got a soda from the coke machine. I remember his face.... I caught him off guard. I said " Hey, I just want you to know that I like you..... I want to know if you feel the same..." and then my heart did this

sjdhfgsdkljfhgsdljfhgdsljghgdfjkhldfsgkjhdfsgkjdfshgdfksjhgsdkjhfgaskljhdiuashc!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

He looked totally shocked and he told me that he liked me as a friend, and that since I dated his friend that he knew from middle school, he didn't know if he could ever be my boyfriend. I was sad..... but I moved on. I went to Disney World came back from Spring Break and again.... did what every 15 year old would(or at least should do ;))  ..... I ignored him. No more sitting together at lunch with friends, no friend phone calls, ANYTHING. And you know what people, it worked like a charm. Weeks later he was calling me just to "chat". He came to my birthday dinner at Macaroni grill and I made SURE to look super cute for that dinner.

We were falling for each other. All of our friends knew it, we knew it... it was just the question of WHEN WAS HE GOING TO ASK ME TO BE HIS GIRLFRIEND?!" Looking back now I guess it only took him about 3-4 weeks but at the time it felt like months. On April 13, 2002, I asked him to come to one of my cheer competitions at Fiesta Texas. We hung out there all day, and then some people went to hang out at my friend Jessica's house. we were all jumping on the trampoline and then laying down looking up at the stars. *No this isn't the moment he asked me, but I am getting to it. *  Daylight savings time has just occurred I think the week or so before this. Hollands parents were extremely strict with Hollands curfew. I don't know what they did to him when he was late but OH MY GOODNESS, Holland was always asking people the time so he wouldn't be late. Freshman year he had to be home by 10, every year after that his curfew grew an hour later(p.s. I am to totally doing this with my future kids)

 While we were laying on the trampoline Holland jumped up and said "OH SHIT!" I AM LATE! We thought it was only 9:40 but it was already 10:40! I called my mom to come pick us up and told her to hurry because Holland might get killed for already being SO late! We ran upstairs to Jessicas room to get our stuff and right there in front of her bunk bed struggling to catch his breath probably from fear and from running up the stairs so quickly, Holland asked me to be his girlfriend. I literally screamed and hugged him and said yes then booked it back down the stairs to run outside to tell my friends! On the way outside I tripped and broke my big toe on a cement stair but I was so excited I barely felt the pain. Holland made it home and he was still alive the next morning .Thank you Jayne and Mr.Whit for not killing him :).

I could write dozens of more posts on all the funny times we had when we were younger. I definitely want to use this blog to remember all the fun things we do and I really want to put all the past memories on here as well.  I will leave off with this.  When I was 15, I had NO idea Holland and I would be where we are now. We started off our relationship by celebrating every single month because again, thats about how long relationships lated in High School. On our one month anniversary, Holland brought me a dozen red roses to school, for 3 months he gave me a James Avery ring with a butterfly engraved on it. By the time we reached one year we were so excited to hit such a milestone! Yesterday we celebrated that same milestone, but for the 11th time. It still hasn't gotten old, it has just gotten better.  I know how cliche this sounds, but I am really excited for all the new memories we are going to make together. Here is to 11 years babe! Cheers :)

If you want to see some more old school photos, you can watch the video I made for our Ten Year anniversary last year!

Ten Years Video!

11th Anniversary

Holland and I celebrated our 11 year anniversary this weekend! We started off by going to Real Ale's 17th Anniversary party in Blanco. The event had around 1,000 people and it was dog friendly. THANK GOODNESS Hannah did not give us hell and was actually decent. She was going around sniffing everyone and making friends with other wiener dogs. Bleu was the social butterfly like he always is and was literally smiling the whole time. 

After the anniversary party we set off towards the lake house in Sunrise Beach, one of my favorite places in the world! I fell asleep in the car and woke up to Holland veering off onto the shoulder saying "WAKE UP! WE"RE TAKING PICTURES IN THE BLUEBONNETS!" The roads going up to the lake house were FILLED with bluebonnets. It is the best time of year in Texas. 

I had THE BEST shirt for our impromptu photo shoot :) Thanks Chris Mahler.

While I was going through pictures for this post I was laughing so hard out loud at how funny Holland was.

FACEBOOK PROFILE PIC!!

 Okay so my sister and Holland both told me that rattle snakes nest in bluebonnets. I did not have time to research this before our photo shoot and Holland wanted me to lay on my belly. He kept saying "JUST DO IT and GO FOR IT!!"I was hesitant but eventually got over it.

 Today we were REALLY lazy and laid in bed watching tv for what seemed like forever. Even and Hannah and Bleu were asleep and lazy with us. We don't have cable and we overdosed our selves on hoarders, say yes to the dress, extreme couponing and some drug enforcement agency show where they look for submarines. We came to the conclusion that extreme couponing is a form of hoarding. Seriously, you need 500 rolls of paper towels? You need all that formula? Oh and you don't have a baby? Makes total sense.... haha.

Once we got going we hung out at the deck and Hannah and Bleu sunbathed and swam. We went on a boat ride and ate lunch at the marina as well.

We had a fabulous weekend away. This weekend really felt like summer was here.  8 more weeks and we will officially be there!

Easter Celebrations

Holland came back from D.C.  in the evening on Easter so I spent the day with my family at my parents house.  It has been a while since we had a barbecue and it was nice to relax. I made some pasta salad, deviled eggs, and these easy brownie cupcakes.

 All you need is brownie mix, cake mix and cream cheese frosting. Make box mixes as directed- put a scoop of brownie mix then a scoop of cake mix and bake! SO delicious. I got white cake mix and used food coloring for different colors!

Brownie Cupcakes Recipe

Another new thing I brought to Easter this year was conversation dinner starters. I got the questions from this link:
Easter Conversation Printables

Everyone seemed to really like this! I cut up all the strips and put them in plastic eggs and passed them around. It was funny to hear peoples answers. I also learned that my dad always got his Easter basket on the kitchen table. I thought that was interesting since when we were kids, we always got our baskets on the fireplace. I always thought the Easter Bunny came through the chimney like Santa. :)

Cardenas Clan

Tio Greg and I after a cascarone battle. 

I was at the airport picking up Holland when the crazy storm was coming through San Antonio. Luckily I missed all the hail and it cleared up by the time he landed. We got home and I gave him his basket filled with a beer and a chopping knife. He was definitely missed while he was gone. 

Vegas!

Okay, I am doing some SERIOUS catching up on our blog today. I have so much I want to write about but am just now finding the time to sit down and type away. Holland and I were travelistas in the month of March. We went to a friends wedding in Houston, Santa Fe, Vegas and Holland went to D.C. for a brewers convention and thankfully I was able to stay home. This is our first weekend at home together since March 16th! I am going to start off our first catching up blog from our trip to Vegas for my cousins 21st birthday and My 5th annual 21st birthday!

Above is a picture of the whole group! My uncle Greg, PP, Billy, Dawn, Grandma, Holland, Ness, Amanda, me, Danny, Nikki, my Mom and Dad.  We all flew from San Antonio but my cousin and her husband flew from Chicago and they were in for a surprise!!  PP did not know that we had tricked her and brought her dad along with us. It was the best secret I ever kept! TWO MONTHS PEOPLE! I tried to just not talk about the trip with her and her dad did a great job of not spilling the beans either. 

My original surprise plan(insert evil laugh here) MUAHAHAHAHA. 

1.LIE to pp and tell her to meet us at the hotel. She would be so surprised that we were at the airport waiting for her in the luggage dept. 

2. Show her her dads picture on a stick to REMIND her that he was "not here" but here in spirit on a stick. 

3. PP gets all sad because her dad is not here. 

4. BAM!! Have tio greg walk up and we all get excited. 

Well right as PP and Billys flight landed my mom brought up the idea that she probably carried on all her luggage because she packs SO LIGHT. She has like a forrest gump sized suitcase on her long travel trips so I had to quickly revise the plan to. 

1. Tell PP SURPRISEE!!!! We are here, meet us at the luggage claim

2. Show tio greg on a stick. 

3. BAM!!! He shows up. 

It worked soooooo great and my cousin was SOO surprised. She got tears in her eyes and then hit him like the Hill in her :)

This is our Tio Greg pose. 

We all had such a fabulous time. I seriously I am in love with Vegas. I love playing black Jack and I get so addicted to that feeling of excitement!! To me, to win money is nice but I really like just playing the game!! I downloaded blackjack on my iPad and have been coping with that since we are no longer in Vegas!

The Birthday peeps!

 My grandma never looks at the camera!! haha.

  Some of the things we did:

* Walked all the way down the strip! We stayed at the Luxor and did the long walk all the way to Caesars!

* Saw the Beatles Love show. Holland and I saw it 6 years ago and it was still amazing. 

*Ate amazing yummy food! The pizza in Vegas is amazing. AMAZING. I ate that twice. 

*Gambled some money away. Luckily we found it again!

* Ate a sundae at Serendipitys. THE BEST!

*Stalked my dad in the High Limit room- he had ADHD when we were in Sin City!

* me the nicest dealer EVER named Julio. Every time we chanted his name "JU-LI-O", we would win :)

*danced the night away at a fun night club. 

 Billy and I had a dance off :)  I won by default because it was my birthday :)

We also got to meet up with some friends that now live in Vegas!! It is so nice to pick up where things left off. So happy we got to spend some fun times with them! I am also jealous that they are minutes away from the strip!

We had such an amazing time. Every trip I have been on to Vegas with my dad is always one to remember. My mom said it in the best words "He treats us like we are celebrities". I will never forget this awesome trip with some of the best people around. My dad is already itching to go back. I told him " In the summer!" and he looked at me crazy because it seems too far away. He was thinking like we should go again next weekend. Thanks mom, dad and nessa for the great birthday celebration! 

P.S.  I am now on the downhill slope to 30. :) Totally okay with it.