Merry Christmas!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas. We have had a great Holiday season. Here are the highlights!

After Thanksgiving Bryan and I came home decorated the house and enjoyed Christmas movies! Yes, we have a Charlie Brown Christmas tree, but it is ours and we love it.






We had our annual bible study Christmas Party! We love these guys!




Bryan's mom and dad came to visit. We had a great time. We saw the Nutcracker at Bass Hall, went to Cowboys Stadium to watch my old High School football team play and win the State Championship game. (4th year in a row, Go Lake Travis!) We ventured to the Gaylord to enjoy the Christmas decorations, we ate some great food and enjoyed each others company.














For Christmas we headed to Houston. We spent Christmas at mom & Rex's house with Amber. We shopped and baked! Had an amazing time. We were able to rest and relax, which was much needed.







As we head into the new year I am so thankful for so many things throughout 2010. Friends, family, love and support. Ultimately, Thank you Jesus for your Sacrifice and the life, joy and love that you have given us!

Happy Holidays from Shutterfly

The Vaughn’s love Shutterfly! We love everything about it; from their promotions, the cards, the calendars and their prices. We have used Shutterly for several years in the past. Every year we make a calendar for Christmas presents for all of our family members and we love creating photo books to display our pictures and put our memories into words, and I am also excited this year to hopefully use 50 free Holiday cards!



With the Holidays coming up I have been racking my brain about what gifts to buy family, what our travel plans are going to be and last but not least thinking about Christmas cards. Christmas cards are one of my favorite things about the Holidays. I love getting pictures and cards from people with updates from the previous year. It is neat to see the families grow and what people are doing year after year. Getting Christmas cards from Shutterfly would allow us to update and reach our families and friends during the Holiday season.



Checkout some of the neat cards and calendars they have!



http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/christmas-cards



http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/holiday-cards



http://www.shutterfly.com/calendars/wall-calendars



I look forward to picking out a fabulous Christmas card to share with friends and family this year as well as making our hit calendars!



(As Claire said, "In full disclosure: In exchange for this review, I received 50 free cards from Shutterfly")

NC Friends!

(I know I am way behind with blogging...had a TON going on. But I actually wrote this after Eric and Anne Michelle left, but I just needed to go back later and add the pictures. Well apparently it took me 2 weeks to get the pictures so finally I can publish the post!)

This past weekend we had some great friends from North Carolina come and visit us! The Feyer's came and spent Friday - Tuesday morning in TX. They left their little girl, Addisyn at home with her grandparents. I felt like I was back in college; we did what we wanted and when we wanted. We ate out all weekend, enjoyed a Ranger baseball game, went shopping, stayed up late, slept in on Saturday and saw 2 movies! Perfect!

All in all we had a ton of fun and can't wait for them to come back. Or better yet...if they would just move to Texas! :)

Here are a few pictures from our awesome weekend!

Friday night we attended the 1st Playoff game to see the Rangers!!!







Saturday night we headed to Ft. Worth to show Eric & Anne Michelle the stockyards and met up with Seth and Jessica.





I guess we wore him out :)



We had a such a great time! We already miss you guys!

Go MOM!!

This past week my mom rented herself a beach house in Holden Beach to WRITE! She is in her last year of school. Not much longer and we are going to have to start calling her Dr. Mom :) But, I just wanted to let everyone know that she is amazing! Not many people, actually, I don't know anyone else that can do what she does. This woman works a full time - FULL TIME job, works on her school work from like 9-2am, is the executive director of Rexanna's Foundation for Fighting Lung Cancer, a mom, wife, friend and soooo much more. That doesn't even scratch the surface as to what she does on a day to day basis. She is amazing and I am so proud to be her daughter!!

While she was out in North Carolina Bryan and I sent her a care package. We knew this was a huge week for her and that she needed to get a lot of writing done. So we sent her a few fun things and a friend to keep her company. Funny how the times have changed (daughter sending mom care packages)

Check out a few of the pictures from my mom's week!

Mom called her friend docy! haha..
He sat at her table with her while she worked and kept her company!



He got to see the beach!



Docy even made friends :)



They came to visit Docy and mom each day. I am sure they even cooked for them. Yum.



Keep up the great work mom! You can do it. You are soo almost there! We are sooooo proud. And yes we will call you Dr. Mom. You deserve it :) Love you.

Sarah's Key

I could not put this book down. Ask Bryan, for the past 3 nights I find myself sitting on the couch all night lost in this Historical Fiction book. If you are into Historical Fiction you should definitely read it. I do have to say it wasn't your feel good, pat you on the back book. The book fictionalized the 1942 Paris roundups and deportations, in which thousands of Jewish families were arrested, held at the Vel di Hiv and then transported to Auschwitz. Tied throughout the story about the Jewish families and their struggles and horrible treatment before their death is a story about a modern day journalist who is doing a report/column on this particular event in history for the 60th anniversary. Through her exploration, research and journey she becomes fascinated with Sarah's story and how things in her own life have actually intertwined with things that happened in the summer of 1942.
Awesome book.

Save the Date!!!!

Let me know if you are interested! It is a really fun time! Good food, great raffle prizes and fun entertainment! Check it out. Shoot me a email if you have any questions. We would love for you too come! Lindsey.Vaughn14@gmail.com

The HOTTEST Half!

Honestly, the name should have given it away. But, for me and Emily we were brave and still signed up to run a half marathon on August 15th, 2010 in the Texas heat. I have to say, I really didn't think much of it since we have been training all summer in the heat, but we had been running before the sun comes up. BIG difference. I am getting ahead of myself, so I will start at the beginning...

The alarm went off at 5:00am. Wasn't too hard to get out of bed. I had butterflies in my stomach and I wanted to get up, take care of buisness, and have time to eat something. When all of the above was done Bryan and I headed to Dallas. We arrived at the lake where the race was about 45 minutes before the race started. Plenty of time to soak everything in, have one more quick bathroom stop, and get warmed up.





Check out the lines for the port-o-potties. Can you say disgusting. I totally did not want to use one, but I had too. I did not want to be stuck 7 miles out and have to use the bathroom. Moving on...



Right before heading to the start line! Excited!



So the race begins. The gun is fired and we look like a bunch of cattle all being hurded on a sidewalk. There were probably a little less than a 1000 runners. Of course everyone is excited and start off full blast. Emily and I ran pretty fast for our pace, for the first 3 miles. BAD mistake. Lesson learned #1 - pace yourself, pace yourself, pace yourself. Otherwise you can use all your glycogen in your muscles and hit a wall. :( So we were off, needless to say I couldn't hang with Emily. She was feeling and doing great so I told her to go ahead and I would be behind her. I was already tired and out of breath. I knew this was going to make for a long race.

Anyways, I kept going. Making sure that I was stopping at every hydration station along the way to get some water or gatorade. After I reached the halfway point I was feeling pretty tired, HOT, and thinking "would it just be faster if I just ditched the race and kept going around the lake" "would it be faster than having to go back the way I came" "do you think one of these passing cars will just take me back to the start line?"



I had a few hiccups along on the way back. I was so thirsty I was drinking too much water at the stations and threw up 2 times on the way back to the finish. I reached Bryan with 3 miles left and I was ready to throw in the towel. I asked Bryan to just take me to the car. I was soo tired, hot, sick, and upset with myself that I wasn't doing the best that I knew I could do, time wise. It was also about this point where my new shirt had begun to rub my entire underarm raw. So I was having to walk with my hand on my side. Lovely, just lovely. Lesson Learned #2 - don't ever wear new clothes, shoes, socks ect for a race. Try things out in advance. I also, for the first time, changed out sports electrolytes that I use. I used Honey Sytingers for the first time versus my usual Sports beans. Needless to say, Bryan encouraged me to finish, I had already gone too far to quit now. Sidenote: I had already seen 3 people taken by ambulance off of the route. That should have been my first sign that this was not very smart to sign up for a half marathon in August.

Finished!!!! Emily was awesome! She had a great run despite the heat. She did great. Check her out finishing strong.



Finished!!!! This picture is me about 2 minutues after I finished. Not feeling so hot.



Trying to be as still as possible and cool off.



So basically, I felt terrible. My stomach was hurting so bad, I was sweting like crazy and I was so hot. I knew this wasn't going to end well. I told Bryan it might be a good idea for me to go and sit in the car in the AC. Well, I made it about 10 feet and just fell on the ground and puked my guts up. :( Bryan went and got me a medic and he came to the rescue. I ended up having to get an IV right there since I couldn't keep any fluids down and while sitting there getting the magic juice the Medic and Bryan poured cold water on my head and feet. After getting fluids through IV, I was feeling slightly better. After resting and getting some fluids and food once home I began to feel much better as the day progressed.

I like how my IV is just sitting on my shoulder! ha.





My Medic



All in all it was a good experience. I finished the half marathon in 3 hours and 9 mintues. That is something to be proud of. I am have worked really hard to get to the point. I am looking forward to doing another one this fall once the weather cools off some. I will take all of my lessons learned, and come prepared for my next race.

# 27

Bryan's birthday was Monday and we celebrated with some friends on Saturday eating at BJ's. Gotta love that dessert! On his actual birthday just the two of us went to dinner and a movie(Salt). It was a great time, great birthday, great year! I look forward to this year and all that God has for Bryan and our lives. Happy Birthday!

I love you Bryan!!!

Ahhh....Lake Travis

This past weekend I headed to Austin by myself for a meeting for Rexanna's Foundation. Bryan stayed at home since he had to play in the band at church on Sunday. Every time I go to Austin, I want to move back! It is soo pretty there. I love the lake and everything about Austin. I always seem to forget how pretty it is there, even though I lived in Austin for 7 years! ha. Bryan always says, "Didn't you live there..you act like you have never been."

Anyways...
I went with my mom and Rex to their friend's house. They have an amazing place right on Lake Travis. They are on the Lago Vista side of the lake - which I had never been - so it was fun to site see and actually see the other side of the lake. We spent Sunday scoping out land for sale and homes for my parents to buy, swam in the lake and then took a fun little boat ride. All in all, it was a fun little trip. I wish Bryan would have been with me, but we will just have to go back. And we might get to go back more if my parents will get busy and move to Austin. How fun would that be for everyone! :)

I thought I would leave you with this...this picture was taken from my parents, friend's house. I was sitting on the couch in the living room when I took it. Amazing view!

WARNING - NO PICTURES!

So basically I have had this post written and then added some more for a few days. I have just been so lazy to upload some pictures for it. Actually, I have been really busy and just haven't had the time to upload the pictures. I have had other things that have taken priority. Anyways. I decided - what the heck - I need to just post this, b/c I haven't done a post in forever and if I don't get it up now I might not ever. So, here is a little post about what we did on our Mini vacation to Orlando, Florida!

By far Disney World is one of my favorite places to visit. It never gets old, there are so many happy people and fun things to see, and it's one of the only places that you can be 26 (or 46, mom) and act like you are 5 years old and no one looks at you funny. It doesn't get much better than that. Amber, Bryan and I flew in to Orlando a few weeks ago to surprise Rex and have a little fun with the fam. Rex got manager of the year & and it was his birthday weekend. We had lots of things to celebrate! We are very proud of him!

Thursday night mom and Rex had a banquet so Amber, Bryan and I were on our own. We headed to Universal Studios. Bryan was excited - this is one of his favorite parks and places to go in Orlando. I have to say I was pretty pumped, since I am a big Harry Potter fan and I knew the new section of the park was open. Besides the looooong lines it was pretty cool and they did a good job with it!

Friday, ahh Friday, we went to Magic Kingdom. I definitely have to say this is by far my favorite park. I love everything about it! It was hot, but we had a good time and were able to get a few rides in and grab some food before meeting Rex for an awesome dinner at our favorite restaurant, Seasons 52. (For the record one is opening right by our house at the Shops of Legacy and we cannot wait)

Saturday we spent the day at Hollywood Studios. We ventured to the Hollywood Tower of Terror, the Rockin Roller Coaster and the backlot studios. We hit up the shops and saw a few characters. We really wanted to see the Toy Story stuff, but the lines were too long and we had dinner reservations with Rex. We met Rex at Antonio's for dinner and oh my. This was the best pasta I have ever had. Hands down, not even joking. Ask the rest of the family - I made myself sick, because I ate so much pasta. I couldn't even take 1 bite of dessert, because I ate ALL of my pasta. It was bad, I am ashamed, but it was worth it...I guess.

Sunday we headed home. (when I get a chance, I have got to post a picture of the car ride to the airport. To say the least, we were a little crammed. We had to hold 2 suit cases in the backseat! haha it was funny!) All in all it was an awesome last minute get away. We love going to Florida and it is even more fun when the whole family gets to go. :) Again Congrats Rex - we love you and you are AMAZING!!

Summer Reading Update

I thought this would be the perfect time to update you guys on my summer reading list that a posted about a month and a half ago. Here are a few of my thoughts about these books.

Take 3 By: Karen Kingsbury - For those of you who know me, know that I love, LOVE, to read Karen Kingsbury. Anything by her I can't wait to get and it is always read within a few days. Her books are a very easy read and about families that are so relatable. Anyways if you have never read a Karen Kingsbury book, I would highly recommend it if you are looking for a good, Christian, fiction book. 2 thumbs up for this book.

Take 4 By: Karen Kingsbury - Currently, I am in the middle of this one. The serious Take 4 has spun off several other of her series, but focuses on various families. Very good. So far it received a 2 thumbs up.

I am the Central Park Jogger By: Trisha Meili - This book was OK. I had never heard of the Central Park Jogger or the accident associated with it. It was actually just a book that caught my eye at the library and so I went for it. It was a terrible accident that a lady endured while running in central park. The book was the story of her recovery, the struggles and overcoming a lot of obstacles.

Fight Like a Girl: The Power of Being a Woman By: Lisa Bevere - I had a really hard time really getting into this book. So I stopped about halfway, due to lack on interest.

Strengths Finder By: Tom Rath - Awesome. Great book to see where your strengths lie and help you understand how to use those and work in groups or on a team more effectively. 2 thumbs up!

Crazy Love By: Francis Chan - Any Christian who is tired of being stagnant or lukewarm this book will challenge you! It was great! 2 thumbs up!

90 Minutes in Heaven By: Don Piper - This is a true story about a man who died for 90 minutes and went to heaven and then was brought back to life by the power of prayer. The man shares about his struggles and life back to recovery as well as his 90 minutes in heaven. Pretty neat book and perspective to hear about his experience with heaven. Worth reading. 2 thumbs up!

Same Kind of Different as Me By: Ron Hall & Denver Moore - By far this was the best book that I have read all summer. It was awesome! Description from the back: A dangerous homeless drifter who grew up picking cotton in virtual slavery. An upscale art dealer accustomed to the world of Armani & Chanel. A gutsy woman with a stubborn dream. A story so incredible no novelist would ever dream it. This true story is eye opening and encourage. So good. If you are too read anything from this list, pick this book. You will not be disappointed. 5 thumbs up!

Still on the list:
3 Cups of Tea By: Dave Mortenson & David Oliver Relin - I have started this, just need to finish!
Sarah's Key By: Tatiana De Rosnay
So Long Insecurity By: Beth Moore

Vacation come back to me!!!

Disclaimer: This is a long post!
Well as you have probably noticed, we have been MIA for the past several weeks. We have been on the go, but are finally back home. Ahh, Home Sweet Home! Every year we head to Holden Beach with my family. We always have a fabulous time laying on the beach, cooking dinners together and playing cards or Lord of Catan at night. This year Bryan and I were either on the beach or playing with the kiddos on this trip, while the other adults golfed or did homework(Bertha & Mom).

Trip Memories 2010:
* Playing cards with the family
* Soaking up the sun on the beach
* Toy Story 3 w/ the kiddos
* Shrimp Burger from Provision Company!
* Reading for pleasure (Same Kind of Different as Me - a MUST read)
* Bocce ball
* Reserving the house for 2011 - YAY!

Bryan & Lindsey



Great Grandma & Lindsey



The Halfmann Family



Bryan & Lindsey



Bryan & Andis



Hott Husband!



Wish you were here..




After 7 days at the beach we headed back to our old college town to visit with family and friends for a few days. We had a good time catching up with everyone. We stayed with Bryan's brother and sister-in-law, and they are always the best hostess and awesome at letting us have tons of people over :) Saturday when we got back from the beach we had a get together with several of our closest friends - grilling out and playing yard games. Fun was had by all.

Sunday for the fourth we spent the day with family. It was really great weather in NC. It was nice to be able to hangout and enjoy each other.

Mema & Lindsey



Lee



Debbie & Dave



Mema, Buddy & Robin



Bethany & Nick



:)



Monday we had an AWESOME day with Lee, Kasey and Bethany. Lee & Kasey took us all to Morehead City to the beach. We went out on their boat and headed out to Cape Lookout. I could not believe the water - I felt like we were in the Bahamas. It was so clear and gorgeous. I had no idea we were going to an island with a lighthouse. It was so fun. It was a great day, followed by a great seafood dinner! We had a great time and can't wait to go back!

Fun things from the day:
* We saw 4 foot long sharks!
* Ventured to the lighthouse and learned about the lighthouse keepers
* Enjoyed the clear, clear water
* Stuffed ourselves on yummy shrimp
* Loved the boat ride - B didn't get sick! yay!
* Being w/ the siblings :)
* Catching some rays & swimming in the ocean

The Captain, The Driver & The Passenger
(from left to right)



Our driver for the day



Cape Lookout





Kasey & Bethany



Bryan, Lindsey, Bethany @ dinner



All in all we had a fabulous trip and a fun time, but are glad to be back in Texas in our own bed and house! Thank you mom and Rex for an awesome time at the beach. We always look forward to that week every year. Thank you Lee & Kasey for letting us invade your house and stay with you guys and have people over all the time! You guys are awesome!