Austin Trip

The second weekend in September, we were able to go out to Texas for some family time and to go to the BYU vs. Texas football game. My Dad is a big BYU fan, and my sister Natalie and I are both big Texas fans (since we're both alumni). So it was fun to be able to go to the game all together.



Luckily for me, Texas pulled out a win. The first half wasn't looking so good, but the second half Texas took control and we were able to pull out a W!


It was so fun to be able to go back to a Texas football game! It reminded me of being in college and having season tickets and going to all of the games! We had fun with a little family rivalry :)

We even had McKinley join in the football fun :)





And of course, we loved getting to spend time with my whole family! We rented a house near downtown Austin and we were all able to stay in it together. We had fun playing games, celebrating my brother-in-law Matt's birthday, and going to some of my favorite places in Austin that I miss! We got to walk around campus which was a lot of fun and brought back some memories of the 4 great years I spent there!


And of course McKinley got some cousin time in! She always loves getting to see her cousins and has so much fun being around them!


And Uncle Bossy too!

I also got the opportunity to see 2 of my best friends from my college days, Tara and Michele. We had such a great time catching up and joking and laughing just like the old days! It's so fun to have friends that no matter how long it's been since you've seen them it feels the same! I love these girls and wish I got to see them more!

Meme & Pepe visit Nebraska

My Mom and Dad came out to Nebraska to celebrate McKinley's first birthday with us! We had a great time showing them around Lincoln, and spending time with them! The picture above is of them with McKinley at her birthday party. This is one of my favorite pictures from the night! My Dad's face is hilarious, so I had to include it on here! While they were here they rented a red Chevy Camaro. McKinley looked so cute in it with Pepe!



We took them and showed them around campus and downtown Lincoln!


We had a great time hanging out with Meme and Pepe!


My Mom stayed a week longer and hung out with us some more! We of course went shopping, ate lots of yummy food, made some crafts and played with McKinley! We had a great time!


Also, while my Mom and Dad were out here we celebrated my 26th birthday! We went to one of my favorite restaurants, The Cheesecake Factory, in Omaha. We met up with my cousins Misty and her family who live there, and my cousin Becky, who was visiting Misty, and her 3 girls! We had fun and it was a great way to celebrate my birthday a little early! My parents surprised me with an iPad for my birthday! It was a great surprise! I love my iPad! On my actual birthday, Travis and McKinley gave me some really neat design software for my cricut, so I can design what it cuts on my computer! It's a neat program and it makes it possible to design and cut some really neat things, I love it! Travis's parents got me a Kitchenaid for my birthday, which I also LOVE! It makes it so much easier to bake things, especially bread. I'm already planning on baking my first batch of rolls this Sunday! On my actual birthday, Travis and I went out to a movie to celebrate! I had a wonderful 26th birthday! Here are some pictures of us celebrating at The Cheesecake Factory!

This picture cracks me up! I love McKinley's face, it's not the best picture of Me and Travis, but McKinley is too cute in it not to include it!



McKinley loved the bread, one of my favorite things there too!


My cute family! I'd say it's been a pretty great 26 years to have gotten to the point to be sitting by these 2 people on my birthday and everyday!

McKinley's First birthday party

On August 27th, we threw McKinley's first birthday party! It was quite the bash! The theme of the party was, "Our Wild Child is turning ONE". So I went with animal print for all the decorations and McKinley's party outfit. We had the celebration at Pioneers Park, a beautiful park here in Lincoln! The weather turned out to be just perfect and made for a wonderful event!

These are the cakes that Travis used his artistic skills to create! If planning doesn't workout, I think he has a future in cake decorating :)


McKinley had lots of friends and family there to celebrate with! Here she is getting some love from her Meme...

Of course Pepe was there too...

And Grandma and Grandpa Hulse!

My cousins Becky and Misty also came up from Omaha (well Becky is actually from New Jersey, but she happened to be visiting her sister Misty in Omaha at the time, so that worked out great to get to see her and her 3 girls too!)



And we had the Oxford's and the McConnell's there as well!



McKinley was nice enough to pose for a small photo shoot I did in front of a beautiful tree at the park! I got some really cute pictures of her in her cute party attire!




Here she is ready for some dinner!


Mya took the opportunity to help feed McKinley her dinner! Mya loves feeding McKinley, she's such a great helper!


McKinley had fun opening her presents! She got some great stuff! She wanted to play with each thing and didn't know why she had to open another present and not play with the one she just opened!



And of course we had the traditional first birthday experice! McKinley had her own personal pink and black heart shaped cake!


At first she wasn't quite sure what to do with or think of the cake!


She thought it was fun smearing it on her chest!



Then she realized, hey this stuff is actually pretty good and really started to enjoy herself!

I think she had a good time, what do you think?


We had a wonderful time celebrating McKinley turning one! We're so grateful to all of our family and friends who were able to come and celebrate with us and for the wonderful presents you spoiled McKinley with! We had a wonderful day celebrating a wonderful milestone in our family! I'm going to leave you with one of my favorite pictures of my sweet little girl from the party! I love my little one year old!