Our New Home!

When Wes and I got engaged, we immediately started looking for land to build a house TOGETHER in the school district where we want to raise our kids. We spent nearly an entire year surfing the web, looking at properties and houses when we stumbled upon the house you see here. It was a foreclosure (i.e., the only way we could afford it) and it needs some work to make it OURS, but we both fell in love with it (especially me!). Not only does it have plenty of rooms/bathrooms for guests and kids, it has a ginormous shop for Wes to play with all his "big kid" toys. We closed on it the week before the wedding, which only added to our stress, but we're glad we got it when we did. It's on 5 acres and will be PERFECT for raising kids and letting the dog run. We've got some work to do, which keeps us busy, but we hope to be living in it sooner than later. I'll try to post pictures as we renovate the interior and make it OUR house. Here are some pictures during our inspection.

SMILE,
SKH

The Coleman's are Getting MARRIED!

The Friday after Wes and I got married, his old roommate, Justin, also got married to a wonderful girl named Christine. I didn't get a lot of pictures from the rehearsal and wedding, but the ones I got are posted here.

Love,
Mrs. Hall

Short Honeymoon in Austin

Wes and I decided to postpone our "formal" honeymoon until later in 2010 or even the early part of 2011. Paying for a wedding, the stress of planning it and just wanting time to decompress, we decided that going to Austin for a few days was a perfect get-a-way (plus Wes had never spent much time in Austin). We left late Sunday afternoon, stopped in Waco for dinner and then spent the rest of the time in downtown Austin and going for a quick shopping trip in San Marcos ( I LOVE THAT PLACE!). We also managed to fit in some tourist attractions and dinner with our friends Ruben and Tina. We had fun in Austin (as you can see from THESE pictures) but are still hoping for a trip to Italy!

Hugs!
Sarah HALL!!

Wedding Pictures - FINALLY

We got our wedding pictures on disk about a month ago, but between consolidating houses, writing thank you notes and the daily tasks of living I haven't had time to post them. So HERE you go! Enjoy all 1100+ pictures!!

Hugs, Sunshine, & Kisses!
Sarah HALL

Quick Wedding Post

Just a quick post to tell everyone I added bridal photos and the photobooth pics from the wedding. There is lots to look at so, enjoy! Here they are!

Birthentines (Birthday + Valentine's) Day

For those that don't know, my birthday is ON Valentine's Day. This year for my Birthentine's day Wes gave me the SWEETEST gift. It's a picture that he had made with our names carved on a tree. You can see the picture of it here, as well as the roses and chocolates he gave me. I'm a lucky girl to have such a sweet guy. This was our LAST Valentine's day as

Thanksgiving & Christmas

It's been awhile since I've posted but between work and wedding planning, there is little time left for anything else...except the gym (I DO have to FIT into a white dress after all).

For Thanksgiving and Christmas, Wes and I made the family rounds. We spent Thanksgiving in College Station where we ate too much, took part in some early morning "black Friday" shopping and delivered Thanksgiving meals to those less fortunate. Of course I also had to watch the tu vs aTm game that day.

For Christmas we also went to College Station for the first part of the break. My brother had flown in from Chandler, Arizona so we spent Christmas day opening gifts and eating too much again. Christmas night it was back to Fort Worth to unpack and re-pack for the visit to IL. We stopped in Glen Carbon, IL our first night to visit Wes' mom Jan, exchange packages, and drop off the nieces and nephew presents. Then it was off to Elmwood, IL to visit Wes' dad, step-mom, and step-sister. We spent a week eating tons, watching movies, and playing in the snow. My first time to ever go sledding - it was FANTASTIC.

Wes and I really enjoyed all the time we got to spend with family and friends!! Pictures from all the traveling can be found here.

Hugs & Sunshine!
Sarah

Happy Halloween!

I got to spend Halloween weekend with my entire family including Mom, Mark, Mark's Girlfriend - Chrysta, Wesley and of course Megan. You can see all of us in this photo in front on my house. We had a wonderful weekend which included girl's trip to Sam Moon (if you haven't heard of it, you're missing out!), Canton (one of the world's LARGEST flea markets), eating at some of our favorite restaurants, handing out Halloween Candy (we had 90 kids come to my house) and taking a quick tour of Downtown Fort Worth and the Stockyards. Here are some of the pictures. I only wish we could have more weekends like this. I love my family!!!

Love,

SKY

Motivation!

On October 19th, I got to spend the day with my management at a Leadership Motivational Seminar in downtown Fort Worth. Other than the rain, it was a great day that included motivational speeches from John Walsh (America's Most Wanted), General Colin Powell (FANTASTIC speaker!), Former US President George W. Bush, Terry Bradshaw (he has a crazy amount of enthusiasm), Zig Ziglar, and Rudy Giuliani. You can see some of my pictures here...we were lucky enough to have 8th row seats so I got some decent shots.

Gig'em.

Sarah

Wedding Update

So here's a brief update on the latest wedding details:

• I selected the bridesmaid dresses! Here are some more pictures from the final trip to David's Bridal. I'll keep you guessing which one I chose!
• We selected our photographer. She's local to Granbury and we're excited for her to not only take pictures at our wedding/reception but also at the rehearsal dinner.
• We have an officiant! One of the guys I work with is ordained and agreed to perform the ceremony - Thanks Kevin!
• We took a quick trip to Granbury (in the rain) to look at hotels for our guests as well as potential cake vendors.
• We interviewed a DJ who was absolutely FANTASTIC! Both Wes and I absolutely agreed he was GREAT!

Things are coming along, but we are down to just over 6 months with tons still left to do. I'll keep updating our blog as we proceed to our walk down the aisle.

Time for this girl to go to bed.

Night!

Sarah

Jon's Wedding in Tennessee

Wes' cousin, Jon, got married in Tennessee on September 12 so Wes, Megan and I drove my truck to Tennessee for a long weekend to take part in the festivities. Wes and his dad, Dave, were both groomsmen in the wedding. Unfortunately, I didn't do a great job of taking pictures at the rehearsal or wedding, so this is the ONLY wedding photo I have; courtesy of the wedding photographer (Doesn't Wes look so handsome?!?! I think so!). Perhaps Dave's wife, Di, has some she can share with me :-).

In addition to the wedding, we drove to Tennessee so that we could haul a 16' trailer home loaded with work benches, paint and miscellaneous garage supplies. These were all items graciously given to us by Wes' brother and sister-in-law, Vince & Haley. They recently moved from TN to WI and didn't have room for everything, so we inherited it. Here are a few pictures from the drive to/from TN. The picture of Megan is how she spent nearly the entire drive to/from.

It was a short trip, but we got to spend quality time with family and friends. We owe a special thanks to Susan for opening her house to us and allowing us to spend the weekend there. Staying there felt like home and was far better than any hotel we could have found.

XOXO,

SKY

September Birthday Weekend

First and foremost, sorry I haven't posted in awhile. Between wedding planning and work, I haven't had a lot of time to update. However, I'm in Colorado this week (Oct 5 - Oct 9) and hope to have some time after my training class to update everyone on the wedding and our lives.

So here is hopefully the first of several updates: The first weekend in September we had a birthday weekend (My mom's birthday [Mom S] is Sept 2 and Wes' Birthday is Sept 25) in College Station. Wes' mom, Jan (i.e., Mom J) was in town from Illinois and my brother flew in from Tempe, Arizona. We spent the weekend at the aTm season opener football game (we won - WHOOP!), touring the George Bush Presidential Library, the boys working on the sprinklers, and eating, eating, eating! Here are some pictures from that weekend. Fun times were had by all, including Megan!

**HUGS**

Sarah

Same Date, New Place

This last week has been D-R-A-M-A and stressful, but ended wonderfully. Long story short, I asked Wes to call to confirm our venue (mind you we "reserved" it in March) and he was told it was booked by someone else. I guess the only good thing is we found out 8 months before the wedding, not just one month before.

Therefore, we spent our entire Saturday, today, looking at other venues. It went REALLY well...actually the first place we looked at we both fell in love with. We went to look at the others, but knew they probably weren't going to compare. It's not in Weatherford anymore and there is no scenic waterfall or bridge, but it's rustic, charming and hopefully come April the bluebonnets will be coming up. All, in all, we're both happy and excited about the new venue. I took some pictures and borrowed some from the venue's site (Rambling Oak Ranch) and you can find them here.

Building a Home...Together

Wes and I both love the outdoors, especially in the spring and fall when the weather is just right. So, since he'll be moving into my house once we say "I do" we have been adding a large wooden deck to the back yard for the last month. It took longer than I expected, but was definitely worth the work, sweat, and blood (literally - one toe and one finger; both Wes' [We'll be registering for a first aid kit :-)]). Here are some pictures of the process and the nearly final product. Enjoy!

Love,

Sarah