Lauren & Phil spend their last Thanksgiving apart... next year, we start splitting holidays. Thanksgiving with her family and Christmas with his! Hope everyone had a great holiday! Check out our photo album for more photos from both of our Thanksgiving vacations.

Last weekend, I traveled to Dallas on Thursday for a business trip and stayed for the weekend to hang out with Dana. We had lots of fun, and I got to meet her precious 2 lb. Maltese puppy, Bella, who is absolutely adorable! On Saturday night, Dana and two of her friends hosted a party for friends to meet each other's friends from work, college, and high school (in my case!). It was a great party and the old game Simon from our childhood ended up being the hit of the night. I think this might be what I get Dana for Christmas since she was the most intense player ever . (I can say this because I know she NEVER reads the blog and therefore will not find this out prior to receiving the gift.)

Happy Halloween!

Check out my rad costume, it won 3rd place in the office costume contest! Jennifer (purple witch costume) and Tony (pirate costume) won 1st and 2nd place, respectively. Check out our Photo Album in the links section of the blog for more photos.

Today Phil golfed at the 12th Annual Comfort Golf Boosters Tournament with his friend Chuck, Chuck's brother Chris, and friend J. Buck. Together they whipped up on the other golfers, and won 1st place!! Phil says they "pencil-whipped the competition"... I'm so proud of my golfer!

The Astros are going to the World Series!!!!

I hope everyone is as excited about this as we are! Goooooooo Astros!!!!

We're Registered!

Yesterday we completed one more wedding task, but this time a super fun one... registering! We decided to register at only 2 places: Bed, Bath, & Beyond and Pottery Barn. We started at 10am at Bed, Bath, & Beyond where we registered for everything from kitchen to bathroom to bedroom & living room items, but mostly kitchen. We're going for the stainless steel appliance look in our new place so everything will be cute and coordinated. We had lots of fun going all around the store scanning anything we might use when we are married, and probably some things we might not. :)

We took a break for a yummy lunch at Chris Madrid's where we re-fueled with greasy burgers and fries, then headed to the Pottery Barn at the Shops at La Cantera, our brand new open-air mall. At Pottery Barn we registered for lots of accessories including bedding, dishes, and vases, and even added the bedroom furniture we hope to have in our master bedroom some day. Maybe we will and maybe we won't get our bed, dresser, and nightstands, but we figure it doesn't hurt to add them to our "wish list"!

Both websites have the capability for guests to view our registeries online, so feel free to take a look!

If you missed it, you missed the best baseball game ever... at least the longest.... all 18 (eighteen) innings in 6 hours. You've gotta be a REAL fan to watch that much baseball... but that's what we are! Okay, that's what Phil is. I got hungry and left in the 16th.
Now that the Astros have such a monumental win behind them, it's time to gear up for 2 big games in St. Louis. If only we had someone in the family with the hook-ups to get us some tickets... anyone?
The Astros games will be all we think or talk about Wednesday, Thursday, Friday... as long as this series lasts... so you might want to check out Espn.com before calling us anytime soon. And don't even THINK about calling during the game... or if they (gasp!) lose. Leave at least a day or two for mourning/recovery. But of course that won't happen... we are ready to ride this all the way to the World Series!
And Brad, we're dissappointed in you for not watching last Sunday's game. Sorry, but you were an Astro's fan WAY before Logan was born.

This weekend was Jennelle & Greg's wedding in Houston. It was absolutely spectacular and Jennelle was a beautiful bride. Here is a photo of the bride with her bridesmaids from the rehearsal dinner at Brenner's Steakhouse on Friday night. The food was great and Greg and Jennelle's families are so adorable! We know this couple will be happy together forever... congratulations, Jennelle & Greg! We hope you have an amazing time in Italy on your honeymoon!

Disregard the scary red eyes... aren't we cute?

Look how happy the bride is, as the new Mrs. Berger!

Destination Wedding, here we come!

Phil and I made a huge decision this weekend about our wedding... that we are going to have a destination wedding! We are going to fly somewhere in the Caribbean and get married on the beach... we're checking on locations this week so that we can secure all of our travel plans so I'm super excited!!

We had already booked our photographer and location here in San Antonio but it just didn't feel "right" and we are still far enough out to get all our deposits back. Anyway we'll have a big celebration party when we get back so everyone can celebrate with us!

Just wanted to share the news with everyone. :)

Happy Birthday to Robin & Drew!

We are so sorry we can't be in Houston this weekend to celebrate with everyone, but hope you both have fabulous birthdays. We'll see y'all in 2 weeks! Love you!

On Saturday evening, I hosted a bridal shower for Jennelle at Patti's beautiful home. It was a luau theme and to give myself a bit of credit, the invitations were so darn cute I wanted them to be for me. ;) But the theme turned out very well except for the fact nobody ended up wanting to hang out poolside since it was almost 100 degrees out there. But we had plenty of great food, drinks, and leis of course. We were able to head outdoors after eating so Jennelle could open her presents since it had cooled down a bit. But then we went back indoors afterwards because we enjoyed the climate controlled environment much more. :) Anyway Jennelle got some great things from her registry and all in all was a successful event! Pictured above, L to R: Ginger (Sigma big sis), Shifi (sorority sister), Susan (soririty sister), Rosalee (sorority sister), Jennelle (bride), and Janet (mother of bride). Not pictured are Patti, Shannon, Kaye, Jennifer, and me (all co-workers of bride), and Liana (had to leave early, sorority sister). See more pictures in photo album, and more to follow soon!

I won at Settlers of Catan!

Jennelle and Greg introduced us to Settlers of Catan, one of those board games that if you try to explain the concept to other people, sounds extremely dorky and boring. However, it is also one of those games you could become obsessed with playing, and is actually quite fun. The past two times we've played, Phil won (even his first time!) so Jennelle and Greg thought he was cheating (surprise) because he was "the bank". Tonight, however, Jennelle was the bank. And while Phil did not win, he told me he was proud of me for "keeping it in the family". Jennelle & Greg were not so excited, but at least I am enthusiastic about playing again since I actually have a chance of winning again.

Thanks, Jennelle & Greg, for hosting a fun evening. We look forward to playing with the Sea Farers expansion pack when it arrives!

Happy Anniversary, Brad & Stacy!

Happy Birthday, Stacy!

We hope you have a fabulous day filled with all sorts of fun birthday surprises. (Sorry we didn't send you a card; Phil has promised for weeks to get your new address from Brad but to date I don't have it...) Hope that all your birthday wishes come true, and we hope to see you soon to celebrate with you!

We Booked a Photographer!

Today we met with Matt & Elizabeth Deserly of Deserly Photography. They impressed us so much that tonight we mailed off our deposit and signed the agreement to have them photograph our wedding!

They have been in photography for 14 years, and met in college (sat next to each other in class!). They started out doing commercial/ad agency photography but found their clients never were happy with the product and did not enjoy shooting photos of table settings all day. They begun photographing weddings as favors to friends and ended up finding it to be so enjoyable that they made it their profession. Their style is very photojournalistic and they like to capture all of the little things that brides have spent months planning and years dreaming about. They just seemed to be the right fit, plus they are young (she is 28) and family-oriented so we liked that as well.

They guarantee that you will have one of them at your wedding plus an assistant. If they don't have 2 weddings on that day, you might have both of them there, but that's not guaranteed (but can be... for a fee, of course). We can purchase the rights to our photos and obtain them on a high-res CD immediately after the wedding, whereas most places make you wait at least 1 year before you can buy the rights to your own photos.

We are super excited and are working to plan our engagement portrait session already!

April 29, 2006

We are excited to announce that we have made our first wedding plan! The ceremony and reception will be held at River Rock Cafe in Fair Oaks Ranch, TX (about 10-15 minutes north of SA) on April 29, 2006! We are very excited to begin planning all the other details of the wedding, now that we have the most important part behind us.

We have decided to also reserve both of the Fair Oaks Guest Houses, which are on the grounds of the River Rock Cafe, for both Friday and Saturday night, so that we have a potential place for the rehearsal dinner, bridal & groom party dressing, etc.

Our next step is to book a photographer. We met with 3 a while back and now would like to meet with just a few more before making our decision. Hopefully we will book one in the next week or so. Wish us luck!

Happy Birthday, Amity!! We hope you have a great day, and that all your birthday wishes come true! Love, Phil & Lil

On the 4th of July, we went to the SA Missions minor league baseball game, followed by a good concert by Robert Earl Keen and lovely fireworks. Phil's friends John and Debbie from STMU water polo invited us and Jennelle and Greg came as well, so it was lots of fun!