The Brady Bunch

Here's the story of a lovely lady,

who was bringing up two very lovely kids.

All of them had hair of gold/brown like their mother,

the youngest one in curls (sorry John!).

Here's the story, of a man named Paul,

who was busy with three kids of his own.

They were four people, living all together,

Yet they were all alone.

Til the one day when the lady met this fellow,

And they knew it was much more than a hunch.

That this group somehow form a family,

That's the way we all became the Marable Bunch!

For Christmas, we got our parents the gift that keeps on giving - pictures! We waited until spring to take them so the scenery would look a little better. We even invited Betty Boop, Big Paul, Popa Duck and Hot Moma Duck (or Goose) to join in the fun. It was a "challenge" getting all 27 of us to look in the same direction with a smile on our face. We had a few melt down (kids and parents included) but the pictures came out very nice.

The Terrell family! So excited to take a family picture that isn't in wedding clothes!


Of course Bebe and Paw-Paw had to join us for a family picture! They are so excited to have two more grandkids! Welcome to the funny farm family Kellissa and Walker!

Sweet sisters and best friends since age 5!

All the siblings minus John. Don't worry, we are going to photoshop John in the pictures.

Paw-Paw with ALL his boys. Kelly, Blake, Brandon and Jon.

The Cox Bunch. They are the Brady Bunch too! Check out the Stud-Muffins pose. So cute!

This is how the Cox family typically is....crazy! A very good kind of crazy.

Blake and Amy and their oh so cute girls, Emery Kate and Molly. They are such a precious family and I am so so excited to be an aunt to EK and Molls....we are going to have so much fun!

What a face! Isn't she just precious?

Emery Kate is going to be such a good big sister. Look how sweet she is with Molly. I just love them!

Brandon and Carrie and their kiddos, Thomas, Wills and Camryn. Those kids are tons of fun and love coming out to the Funny Farm. I know Bebe and Paw-Paw are always so excited to have them out.

Anniversary Trip Numero Uno

Kelly: Happy Anniversary! I am taking you somehwere so pack your bags. Don't ask any questions because it is a surprise.
Me: Are we going to Fredericksburg (first trip as a couple), Gruene (honeymoon #1), San Antonio, Lake Texoma, Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Lubbock, the beach, the river, Waco (???), Granbury, Possum Kingdom, Austin, Houston?
Kelly: I.am.not.going.to.tell.you.
And this went on until we were just outside of Waco when I finally guessed Salado.

We stayed at Stone Creek Settlement just south of the main shopping area off of Main Street. It was secluded, quiet and so pretty! Kelly rented the biggest cabin on the property. It was so fun!

Salado all but shuts down at 5:00pm during the week. All that is left open is wineries sooooo we came with one bottle of wine and left with four more.

The other half of the downstairs. Alot of the furniture was dated back in the early 1900s. It was really neat!

The upstairs was one large room covered in old wood painted green. It was the prettiest thing! I just loved looking at the ceiling. So peaceful.

Our first trip as a couple was to Fredericksburg in January of 2008. We went to a winery where we made our own wine and labels. This was our last bottle and we were saving it for something special....I think our one year anniversary qualifies. It was just as delicious as we remembered and we drank it while sitting on the front porch during sunset at our B&B.

The Fredricksburg was not Kelly's first choice as the San Marcos is the best one but it was rented for the night. I thought Fredricksburg was perfect for us though. It was the first trip we took together!

I love coming home to this man! He is my best friend, buddy, playmate, partner in crime and is just really fun to be with!

We tried to take a shot of the two of us and this was as good as it got.

We love this place! I would recommend it to anyone who wants to visit Salado.

The entrance into the property. The owners built everything to look really old and charming. They did a great job and so did Kelly on this trip! What a great start to our anniversary.

We made it!

It seems like just yesterday we were hauling a U-Haul down to Moon River Ranch to get married. I can still feel the sweat dripping down my back and legs as I said I Do in front of all my friends and family. I can still see Kelly tearing up the dance floor and being shocked as I had never seen him move like that! I still get sad thinking that weekend went by so fast. All that planning, day dreaming, and wedding meetings and it was over in the blink of an eye. This was almost how this past year has felt. We have done so much! We survived a remodel from hell, a winning baseball season, went to six states, toobed the river 6 times during 3 different trips to the Hill Country, Kelly turned 40, Kellissa turned 16, put my car in the shop more times than I can count (all for crazy reasons), Spring Training, birth of a niece (yea for Molly!), and I am sure lots more. How can we top that in year two?

Kelly had a day game so I spent the whole day getting ready for him to come home. Lots of little projects made the day go by so quickly. I created a garland by using a picture from each month and then writing a little quote about what we did. It was so fun to see everything we did...we are one busy couple!

I had a three course dinner ready for Kelly when he got home. Tyler Florence's Veal Oscar with homemade bernaise sauce, Pioneer Woman's Potatoes Au Gratin, salad with caesar dressing (Tyler Florence has a great recipe for one), and straight from the over pop overs that I made from scratch (we fell in love with them in San Francisco). It was such a good dinner!

Bebe and Moma Duck had sent gifts to us so I waited until Kelly got home so that we could open all our gifts together. I gave Kelly lots of cards b/c the first year is paper. The Captain Kelly card is obviously his cruise tickets - Alaska!

While I had all my gifts neatly arranged on the table, Kelly left his in the truck. Hello - I stopped peeking a long time ago! He went out to get it after he unwrapped mine. The first anniversary is paper so I got....paper.

I guess he was feeling bad that I got him a trip to Alaska so he went out to the truck and brought out a necklace that he had custom made into our brand and covered in black diamonds. Yea! Now we both have black diamonds. It is so so pretty! He also took me on a surprise trip to Salado the very next day. Salado is special to our family as that is where Mom and Paul were married so it was a really sweet trip.

For dessert, we had our frozen cake topper. Seriously, we better have really good luck because we had to choke to get that down. It tasted like an old sponge that you have used one too many times. The icing was still pretty good though. We eventually decided that we could not get down anymore and gave up. Oh well...it was the thought that counted.

This is what was left of our cake. It looks like we ate a lot but we really didn't put that much on our fine china paper plates....yes it might be our anniversary but the less dishes to wash, the better!

Sold Mine!

The Terrell's are officially moving....in the fall! We have been searching tirelessly for the past year all over the metroplex for a little place to call our own and finally found a place where we can put down roots. That little place is Trophy Club. Located just south of Denton and north of Southlake, Trophy Club is totally accessible to everything we need: shopping, restaurants, and friends! The Clarks, Vaughns and Jankowskis are going to be seeing a lot more of us. Our neighborhood is also a few feet away from Lake Grapevine....Yea for lake days!!

We knew we wanted a custom home and we just seemed to click with Ranchera Homes (based out of Austin) so we signed on the dotted line. Casa de Terrell should be ready for visitors at the end of November!

Our lot is located in Churchill Downs which is adjacent to corp of engineer land. That means that we will never ever ever have neighbors behind our house! Just lots and lots of trees, animals (armadillos, coyotes, snakes, hogs, and more) and water. Plus there is a park being built across the street as well as a dirt bike park, horse trails and a place to put our boat in all within 1 minute of our house! We are so excited that we have already started clearing some of the dead limbs ourself...well Kelly did and I supervised. About 100 yards behind our house, we stumbled on upon a finger of Lake Grapevine. Kelly named the part directly behind our house "Dead Man's Bend" as it is a nice bend in the river. We get a great view of the water!

Kelly and I loved exploring it. However I was a nervous nelly and did not do quite as much exploring as Kelly did. Here you can see Kelly at "Dead Man's Bend" in his nice snake boots. Good thing he wore them because the first creature we saw was a water moccasin taking a swim in the water. Needless to say, I was super alert then and didn't stay too long at the water. I am now shopping for snake boots! The only other animal we saw was an armadillo but we saw hog tracks, deer tracks, and horse poop - there is a riding trail behind our house too!

A little Arizona in our backyard. What beautiful blooms on the cactus!

When we first started looking at this lot, there were 4 houses on the street. Now almost all the lots on the southside of the street have houses on them. K Hovanian (booooo!) came in and bought a lot of lots from Flozell Adams (former Cowboy) who owned about half of the lots in our 'hood. Lots of contruction going on!

When we were flying back from Alaska, we flew over our house and Kelly noticed that they had grated our land. So we drove out the next day and this is what we saw. We are so excited!!!

I do feel a little bad for the guys building the house...it is way too hot to be outside! The below picture is from the back part of our house looking toward the street. This picture was taken on June 19. Notice that they have started construction directly across from us. We have neighbors on all sides now.

When we drove back out on June 27, we were so excited. Lots of progress being made! Now all we need are the permits and they can start pouring the slab and getting the frame work going.

Just what we always wanted...a dumpster! This means serious business.

The below picture is from the back of the house looking at the bay windows of the breakfast nook. It is getting really exciting!

Also, if you look across the street in the top left of the picture, you will see the house that is being built directly across the street. Look how fast it is going up. It has only been 8 days!

We are so excited to build a home together. Lots of memories to be made here!

Now we just have to get our Arlington house ready to be sold...anyone need a house?