I'm a Lucky Girl

It's humbling and refreshing to check back to see where I've come from, to see how I've evolved into the woman that I am. To see how my passions and personality have changed in more ways than one...for the better. Particularly, in the relationships I share with my family. I've experienced handfuls of the typical bouts that these relationships do, with no doubt, produce. I've felt the intense disappointment and sadness when I've had misunderstandings with those I love and have realized afterward that I failed to be my best self or that my intentions may have been misunderstood. 

Today, I see these photos of my entire family together and I know I'm a lucky girl, daughter, sister, and wife for more reasons than I can fit into this blog post. I feel a deep and honest happiness in my heart and that's what family is all about. Without happiness, life couldn't possibly be as rewarding, fulfilling, and fun as the version I'm living right now.

I included lots of photos of the incredibly fun times Aaron and I had with my family in Dallas to celebrate Papa Moon's 50th birthday. 

A shameless amount of trips to our favorite Mexi fast food place, Tacobueno, with my sistahs.

Rich and creamy. Scoops of sweet, satisfyingly chilled chunks of heaven in a carton... It's a beloved Texas staple.

Meet AMC.... 

The ever glorious pre-packaged fudge brownie's can always put an instant smile on my sweetheart's lips. Sweet-treat hunting is always done within a few moments of arriving at the Moon's. Thank you Dad. That's right. Mom, I hate to leave you out of the fun, but we all know who's the junk-food junkie in the home.

 He's simply darling, isn't he? Yes. I let him get away with eating cookies (or whatever dessert is leftover from the night before) for nearly every breakfast. And yes. I poke fun at him for it. But, I still let him. Simply put, he looks that good.

Movies.

Fro-yo. Basically free of fat and calories and everything else wrong in this world.

And the main event! Dad's surprise birthday party that we had been scheming! On the way to the Dallas temple, my parents traditionally head to the nearest Tacobueno (this is one of those Texas things you non-resident bloggettes are missing out on.) We were feeling quite festive and brought with us a ton of black 50th b-day balloons. Close friends and family showed up shortly before the parentals arrived. The picture below captures my dad's confused expression before a huge grin covered his face.

Rather than add commentary along the way, I thought I would just run the series of pics from the event. I hope you enjoy!

After Tacobueno, the party headed over to the Moon home where we mingled, played the best games of pictionary I  have ever played (thank you mom for this re-introduction. I have been missing out!), and enjoyed the favorite dessert of the the birthday boy!

You, naughty Marlys you. This is so not kosher.

My sister Stephanie made a delicious Strawberry-Coconut Cheesecake accompanied by a Turtle Pecan Cheesecake that I baked. It's possible I may not be returning to the Cheesecake Factory for my luxury slice of cheesecake when my pride self is convinced I can make a pretty darn good knock-off. 

Recipe post to come : )

I have to blog this. So, I remember walking home from grade school and I was chatting with girlfriend about who knows what. In the conversation I told my little friend that I thought my dad was handsome (I am convinced thats every little girl must think their dad is handsome.) Without hesitation the girl responded with, "But he's bald." Hahaha. This was news to me!  I didn't believe her and had no idea that he was! I felt really proud of myself for seeing past flaws. I knew I'd be okay if my guy went bald.

Ihop for a yummy breakfast. Prior to the embarrassing amount of cheesecake I ingested the night before I was regularly a 4-stack kind of gal.

I really love them all...but like they say "You can choose your friends but you can't choose your relatives!" {wink, wink}

Yours truly, Me