The Brother is 21

Well, on September 22, my younger brother J.J. turned 21!  Crazy, I know.  Along with his friends, girlfriend, and her family, we took him to a hibachi grill in town.  The food was delicious, and then we headed back to his girlfriend Lara's house for some games and cake.  Fun night for everyone!

The birthday boy and his girlfriend, Lara.

KOT Friends!

The honorary birthday shot. 

The hibachi grill was great, and so was the chef's performance!

We never knew J.J. was instrumental, but I guess when you bring out the birthday drums, 
things change!

Cake #1.

Lara, J.J., Me, and Austin

Cake #2!

Austin, J.J.'s roommate from last year. 

The plate tells the story... a birthday success!

Hunting

There is a first for everything, and this year was a first for hunting.  Unlike in California, kids in Texas are raised to hunt, so Austin wanted to show me what the sport was all about.  We got me a little 20 gauge, some camo, and headed out to see how successful we would be.

Needless to say that Austin was able to meet both mine and his 15 birds per person quota.

I did however hit one bird, and even if it was sitting in a tree, we still say that it counts!

I had never eaten dove before, and in my opinion it really doesn't taste any different than chicken, but it was still pretty neat to say that we shot what we ate.

Michigan vs. Alabama

Back in September, Michigan played Alabama at the Cowboy's Stadium.  One of Austin's good family friends is a HUGE Michigan fan, so of course we had to go.

 Kayron LOVED the Velvet Taco... a great little taco place in Dallas.
 

Ron = #1 Michigan Fan
 

I have never been to the Cowboy's Stadium and let me tell you it was something else!  You almost got dizzy just looking down to the field because the seats went up so high, and the Jumbotron was enormous.

Attempting to not to fall down the stairs.
 

Ace - Austin's brother.

 

We all had a great time and enjoyed the game!

I'm Back

Well, it has been a while, more like a long while since I posted anything.  In January, I helped open up an outdoor adventure store called Outdoor Waco and after managing their blog and website, I didn't have the energy or time to do mine.  Then I decided to stay at Baylor another year to take my prerequisites for medical school, which has been a big adjustment and pretty time consuming to take so many courses in one year.

Anyways, just thought I would start to play catch up on the blog.  Here is the plan, as a study break, I am starting with the end of this summer at the Bridal Shower for my good friend and old roommate, Emily, and then over Christmas break, I will publish everything from Feb-July 2012, so keep your eyes open.  I will keep the right dates, so to see all of my posts, you will have to look back in time.

Back to Emily's bridal shower... Bekah, another one of our roommates, had it at her family's house.  Her mom went all out and it was so fun to spend a weekend in Arkansas with all the girls.

 Mexican food for dinner...the usual!

 How cute is this??

 "TAFT"...Totally Awesome Fun Times!



 The bride to be!

 Lake Day

That night Bekah's mom decorated their dining room in the most adorable, vintage way, complete with an individual picture of each of us with Emily at our place setting.  They then served us like we were in a restaurant.

As We Go On

May is time for graduation and even though I won't graduate until next year, because I am taking my prerequisites for medical school, three of my roomies are!  May 12th came and they donned their caps and gowns.  Dave squeezed us all into his truck, and we listened to "Graduation" by Vitamin C on our way to the Ferrel Center.

Of course we had to take pictures!  Then it was time for the ceremony.  I am not going to lie, the ceremony was LONG (3 hours) and that was only for some of the schools and it was cold, and I was hungry, but it was worth every minute of it to hear Bekah and Emily and Peyton's names read.  Love y'all.

Emily with her younger brother, Bryce, and her grandparents.
 

 Theta Sisters
 

That night I had the graduation party for my Kappa pledge class at Ninfa's restaurant.  It was a nice dinner and a fun time visiting with everyone and reminiscing about our memories from the last four years!  We even had a great slideshow. It was funny to see how much we had all changed!  My college experience would not have been nearly as great without being a part of Kappa Kappa Gamma with all these great girls!

Typical... nearly impossible to get us all looking at the camera, because someone is always

laughing or talking, but it still makes for a great pic!

 

Laura and I met during rush, and I remember hoping that she would go Kappa with me.  :)

 

Mary, our awesome president!

 

Kristen and I always had a great time in our BEST business class...

even if we were occasionally looking at Pinterest.

 

A few days earlier, Tommye Lou, the best advisor ever and one of the most gracious women I know, had us all over to her house for dinner.  Everyone in Kappa adores her!

Shower Time

Well, as you know, my roomie, Emily, got engaged in January.  With the end of the school year fast approaching and everyone about to spread in every direction, we wanted to have a lingerie shower for her while everyone was still around.  Her maid of honor, Emily, and soon to be matron of honor, Lisa, were the gracious hosts and did a wonderful job.

Emily with her maids of honor, Emily and Lisa

The theme was vintage, of course; we girls are super into the Anthro, shabby chic thing.  Emily's backyard was perfect for the occasion.  We brought out a coffee table and spread blankets around it for a picnic.  Twine was strung around the yard, and we clipped pictures of Dave and Em to it with clothes pins.  Of course, we had to have plenty of candies, Em's favorite.

For our brunch we had all kinds of goodies... cinnamon rolls, egg casserole, mimosas, fruit salad, and more!  Em's mom came down from Dallas for the special occasion too!

After brunch, it was time for Em to open all of her presents.  Along with opening gifts, we played a little game.  Emily and Lisa had asked Dave questions like what was the best gift Emily ever gave him or what was his favorite outfit that she has ever worn or what was he was most looking forward to about being married.  These questions and his answers were written on little scraps of paper that we all drew from a jar.  When Emily opened our present, we would ask her the question and if she didn't guess Dave's answer right, then we would get to make her do something.  For example, when Em didn't guess what Dave's favorite meal she made him was (it was pasta, he thought it was homemade, but it really was Bertolli's from a bag), she had to call him and admit that it was from a frozen bag... it didn't matter to him though!  Another dare was to quickly "chug" some pixie sticks.... Lisa's payback from when Em made her chug tons of pixies at her shower.

Everyone had such a wonderful time.  I love some of the candid shots that were captured, because they show how much fun everyone had celebrating Em!

  

And on top of the cute candid shots, there were lots of great "posed" shots that I just had to include too!

 The Roomies

 Em with the Phossil girls (that is the name of their house)...

note the awesome pic of Dave and Em in the background.

 Em's Pi Phi Family

The Engaged Girls + Married Woman Showing Off Their Bling

Lisa - Em - Susan - Mrs. Young

Well, I wish I could show you the cute pics of Em's lingerie, but that is not for you to see, so I will show you a pic of the boxes and then a pic of our cute faces and the bride to be on Oct. 13, 2012.

The Mrs. Kinney To Be!!!