Orlowski Family Blog: 2009

12.07.2009

Turkey Time!!

Michael and I hope each of you had a wonderful Thanksgiving this year surrounded by family and good food! This year, we spent the holiday in Burleson and Fort Worth. Dad, Mom, Jared, Alicia, and I got up and participated in the Fort Worth Turkey Trot 5K. There were over 12,000 participants! Michael slept in and made sure the dogs didn't tear the house down.

After cleaning up, we headed over to the church and enjoyed a wonderful lunch complete with every possible traditional Thanksgiving Day dish (and then some). The dessert table is always a favorite and this year was no exception (mmm...cherry pie, pecan pie, cookies, cake balls). The weather was great, so the adults and kids played outside after lunch.

Once we got back to the house, Dad, Jared and Alicia hung Christmas lights outside, Michael and I watched football (good effort Aggies!) and Mom took a nap. We ended the day with leftovers for dinner. Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours.

Post Turkey Trot

Michael tossing the football

Game of washers

Another shot of the washers game

Football game in the field

Another shot of the football game

Chatting in the parking lot

Happy Thanksgiving

11.29.2009

What is that?

...it's the best looking attic I've ever seen! Those of you that know my husband know that he loves his projects. Lucky for me, he is very good at what he does. One of his larger "on-going" projects has been finishing out or remodeling the attic. I must admit, every time Michael completes a large scale project like this, his craftsmanship and attention to detail just amazes me! I have already started adding some new things to his "honey-do" list! What do you think?

This is a series of pictures from the same vantage
point to show the progress:

Phase 1

Phase 2

Phase 3

Phase 4

He turned the stairs around.

Going up...

Light switch

Detail shot

Opposite angle

Door (just needs a handle)

Close-up of the floor and baseboard

It's Mike!

New Moon

As most of you already know, I'm a bit of a Twilight saga fan. We are sometimes referred to as "Twi-Hards". The second movie, "New Moon", came out on Friday, November 20th. Tickets went on sale about 3 months ago and I bought my ticket for the midnight showing as soon as I could (Thank you Katie and Fandango!). To prepare for the movie, I purchased not 1, but 2, Twilight themed shirts for the movie premier (I can hear you calling me a loser in your head...and I'm ok with it).

On Thursday, November 19th, Katie, Becky and I headed up to the movie theater at 6:15 p.m., because you see, the line had already started forming around 4:00 p.m. Katie and Becky grabbed us some food while I held our spots in line. We were let into the theater around 7:15 p.m and saw "Twilight" at 9:00 p.m. Then we stayed in the theater until "New Moon" started at 12:01 a.m. It was a long night, but completely worth it! The third movie, "Eclipse" comes out on June 30th! I can't wait!!

Team Edward!

Tamra, Katie and Becky

11.11.2009

She's Here!!

Our new niece, Zoey Layne Parker, arrived on October 28th at 5:41 a.m. She weighed 5lbs, 13 oz and was 18 1/4 inches long. Zoey decide to come into this world a little earlier than expected, so she spent a few days in the NICU, but she is home now with Mom, Dad and Big Sister Lexi!

We can't wait to meet you for the first time during Christmas!

Love,
Uncle Mike and Auntie Tamra

11.08.2009

Happy 1st Birthday Kiley!

Kiley (Lacey & Mikey's daughter) celebrated her 1st birthday with a Minnie Mouse themed birthday party. Lacey and her family did a great job of cooking and getting everything ready for the party. The slideshow was definitely one of my favorite special touches! Happy Birthday Princess Kiley!!

Birthday girl (Kiley) & Tamra

Kiley and Lacey opening our gift

Kiley helping her mom open gifts

Kiley & her Dad (Mikey)

Yummy cake!

Kiley and her special cake...she didn't know what to do with it!

Picture of all the little guests.

(Sorry Kelli, but this was just too cute not to post!)

Take 2

Girlfriends and Future Best Friends!

Shawna, Kelli, Bella, Courtney, Lacey, Kiley & Tamra

Tamra & Michael

Tamra's Birthday: Part V

...well, all good things must come to end, and that includes my birthday celebration. Michael and I ended the festivities this year with an amazing dinner at III Forks. This was actually a joint birthday celebration because Michael's birthday was November 6th. He asked me not to make a big deal out of his birthday this year, so (as hard as it was), we kept it pretty low key.

Happy Birthday baby! I love you!

Birthday cheeescake for 2!

Tamra's Birthday: Part IV

A few days after my birthday, me and some of my best girlfriends met up for dinner at P.F. Changs to continue the birthday celebration! This is a tradition of ours (not always at P.F. Changes) that we've been doing for years now! Thank you ladies for coming out! I had a wonderful time!

Red velvet cake shot

Shawna, Kelli, Lacey, K.C., Tamra & Courtney

Tamra's Birthday: Part III

Go Dallas Stars! Michael was given some tickets to the Stars game right around my birthday, so I'm going to pretend that this was part of the festivities for me! We arrived in time to grab some dinner before heading to our amazing seats right on the glass! I'm talking first row! It was so exciting every time the players would crash into the wall right in front of us or a puck would hit the wall and scare us all.

Unfortunately, not all of the audience members were as lucky as us. One gentleman got hit in the face and he didn't see the puck coming. He was knocked out cold and has a nice little reminder on his check bone. We figure he walked away with some sort of autographed souvenir and probably free tickets to another game! It was a high scoring game, but the Stars couldn't pull off the win following over-time and a shoot out.

Stars fans!

Before the game

Some action shots...

...the other team flying by...

I just thought this was cool shot

Our Dallas Stars!

Final score

Tamra's Birthday: Part II

On the day of my actual birthday (October 29th), I took the day off from work. This was a wonderful gift to myself! I slept in, made a trip to the spa (manicure, pedicure and facial), ran to the grocery store, made a lasagna for us and a friend that recently had a baby and rented a movie to watch later that night. It may not sound like much, but it was the perfect day for me.

I forgot about the best part...when I went up to the front to pay for the spa treatments, the bill had already been taken care! Michael had called ahead and taken care of everything! He really is the best husband I could have ever asked for. After Michael and I had dinner and watched "The Proposal", I went downstairs to get ready for bed and found some presents: red velvet cupcakes from The Cupcakery (my fav!), a scarf and a pair of sunglasses (not pictured). Thank you honey!

Presents!

Tamra's Birthday: Part I

Happy Birthday to me! My friend Katie organized a little pre-birthday bash (aka: dinner) the night before my birthday. A few of us (neighbors and friends) got together for dinner and drinks at BJ's Restaurant and Brewhouse. The food was delicious (I had one of the pizzas) and the pizookie was even better! Thank you all for coming out and helping kick-off the birthday celebration!

Birthday Pizookie!

Make a wish!

Michel Ann, Lara, Kylie, Katie, Tamra & Michelle

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween! (What? I'm only a week behind!) We had a great Halloween this year and I loved that it was on a Saturday! We started the early evening passing out candy to the all of the trick-or-treaters and then changed into our costumes and headed over to Michelle's 2nd annual Halloween cosutme party! The best part...Michelle is a neighbor so we just walked on over!

Michelle loves Halloween, and when she hosts a party, she goes all out and I mean ALL out. The pictures below of the food, drinks and decor do not do this party justice. I only captured a few of the special touches that Michelle laborlessly worked on during the week. Thank you Michelle for having us and we look forward to next year!