January Birthdays

Before January 2012 is over, we wanted to take a moment to wish Christopher's sis, Jamie Jo, and his mommy, Christine, a very happy belated birthday! We weren't able to celebrate Jamie's birthday with her, but we know she had an amazing time with her hubby and kiddos. :) We were, however, able to celebrate Chris's mom's birthday with her on Friday. We started the night with a movie (Man on a Ledge) and then had dinner at The Cheesecake Factory. We hope these two special ladies had a wonderful birthday and we are so glad we could celebrate with at least one of you. ;) Love you!

Christopher's mommy and her birthday cheesecake

New Year, New Logo

So Chris and I have been calling ourselves "J&C Photography" since I first began taking photos in 2009. Since then, however, we discovered another person (in my hometown of all places) has a business with the same name. Unacceptable. :( We knew we had to make a change, but I've been hesitant. Hesitant because I love that our first name represented us both as the duo we are and I like how it sounds when we say it (it rhymes and who doesn't like to say things that rhyme?). However, we finally decided it was time to say goodbye to J&C and hello to Jo.

Introducing…

We wanted something with my name, but not just my name and we thought this had the whimsical feel we were looking for.  The font/design of the logo is something we're still tweaking, but for now this is it! Hope you guys like it! :)

Where Did 2011 Go?

Happy new year, my friends! I hope everyone had a fun (and safe) time ringing in 2012! 

So another year has come and gone and I would like to take a moment to recap what happened in 2011 (especially since I was such a HORRIBLE blogger). So many amazing times this year, so I thought I should highlight a few in order by month:

January brought us a snowfall that we, Texans, are not accustomed to seeing. This (unlike pretty much everything else), was nicely documented on the blog, which you can see here. 

In February, Chris and I celebrated 11 years as a couple. Still sounds strange to say out loud, and even more so that in a month we'll be celebrating 12 years. Woooooooow. 

In March, our one and only son, Shamrock, turned 8~ 

I never tire of looking at that adorable face...

April marked our second Easter at Chateau J&C. I cannot wait for the day the rest of my family makes the trip to celebrate a holiday at our home...or at least come visit. :)

With my parents on Easter Sunday

In May, we, along with my parents, went to the Big 12 baseball tournament in Oklahoma City to cheer on our Horns. 

Chris and I didn't take a photo, but here's one of my parents rooting for the Horns

June was somewhat uneventful. I say that because neither Chris nor I can recall anything of interest occurring...oops. :)

July was my Dad's big 60th birthday. My mom decided to throw a 60's themed surprise party. She did an amazing job keeping the entire bash from him and we managed to stay hidden until the party so everything was a total surprise. This was a huge milestone birthday and I'm so glad Chris and I were able to help my Dad celebrate.

My fab family- 60s style

August was a busy month! It kicked off with our 3rd wedding anniversary. We celebrated by finishing up our trip planning/bookings (more info on our trip below).

Our next August event was a bridal shower for my beautiful friend, Ryan. I, along with her sis and another friend, hosted the soiree. Here's a shot of the hostesses with beautiful bride-to-be~

You can't see the decor or food, but it was so cute

The next big event was our nephew, Jack's, first birthday. Another milestone birthday Chris and I were lucky to be a part of this year. How cute is this little guy?!

Someone got a big kick out of his birthday cake

To cap off a crazy August, Chris and I set off on our annual Euro trip! We started in romantic Prague, moved on to Vienna, Salzburg and Innsbruck in Austria (all beautiful!), made a stop in Germany for a day to see Neuschwanstein Castle and then headed to Switzerland. We stopped in Zermatt to try to see the Matterhorn, spent some time in charming Lauterbrunnen, made our way to see Jungfraujoch, enjoyed peaceful Lucerne and wrapped up our Swiss trip in Zurich. We made a pit stop in Amsterdam for a night and then flew back to the States on September 11th. Chris and I loved our time in Europe and hope to return later this year. :)- Fingers crossed!

Chris on the famous Charles Bridge in Prague

Chris and I in the gardens of Schoenbrunn Palace in Vienna 

Chris atop Geireck peak on the Untersberg Mountain in Austria

At Neuschwanstein Castle

Showing my disappointment with our detour to Zermatt.
The weather conditions kept the Matterhorn hidden behind clouds the entire time we were there. :(

One of the cutest places we've ever stayed- Lauterbrunnen
 Our hotel room had a balcony looking out to the main waterfall (the one shown in this pic)

On the "Top of Europe"- the peak at Jungfraujoch, Switzerland

Feeding the swans in Lucerne

Overlooking Zurich with my favorite travel buddy

Amsterdam's "fun" area ;)

Chris took another trip in September, but this time for work. He was able to semi-explore the rainy city of Seattle. It was just a quick jaunt, but he was able to visit what our dear friend Bruce refers to as "the mothership"~

Chris at the very first Starbucks at Pike Place

October 1st was the big day for our friends, Ryan and Rusty. Chris and I were the official photographers, making this our official first wedding gig. It was a nerve-racking time for both of us (you don't want to be the people responsible for ruining someone's wedding memories), but it was worth it in the end to see our amazing friends get their happily ever afters. Here's a shot of the cute couple~

November is my birthday month. Chris treated me to a day of pampering and indulgence (I had at least five different birthday desserts including a pumpkin soufflé). The celebration continued into the weekend when we met my parents in Austin to see a Longhorns football game.

Cheering on our Horns against K State…too bad it wasn't enough. ;)

December is Chris's b-day month. We celebrated his special day hanging out with his family and watching football…just like he wanted. :)

My handsome hubby his family (missing his older sis)

December is also my Mommy's birthday month and she, like my Dad, turned the big 6-0 this year. I was able to convince them to come up here to celebrate and my Dad and I did our best to make this milestone one of her all-time favorites. So grateful I was able to spend this amazing day with my wonderful mother who, by the way, looks sensational for 60. :)

As soon as the clock struck midnight, we celebrated 60 years of greatness :)

And lastly, we spent our holidays in C.C. (as usual). We were fortunate enough to spend quality of time with BOTH sides of our families and had a fantastic time doing it. :)

Our annual Christmas photo in front of my parents' fireplace

 So, as I type this, I completely understand how 2011 whizzed by- our year was jam-packed! My one crisis (or what I considered a crisis) was when my external hard drive crashed and I lost all of our images over the last two years (which included all of our Europe trips). And if that's the worst thing to happen to us over a year, I'll take it. :)

I hope you all had a wonderful 2011 and that 2012 is eeeeeeeeven better. :) 

  Oh, and I promise I'll be updating the blog more than last year. Shouldn't be too difficult. ;)

Baby Benjamin

On Saturday, March 19th, Chris and I had the pleasure of meeting Baby Ben for the first time! As some of you may remember, his big sis, Mattie, was the subject of our very first photo shoot. So, of course, we had to make sure we got a few photos of the newest addition to the Vietti family. I'm not quite done with the photos, but I wanted to give the proud parents (and all of you in the Blogosphere) a sneak peek of some of what I have so far~


Intorducing Bejamin Michael Vietti



Proud Big Sister

 

She's so sweet with him



And Miss Mattie, J&C's first official model- look how big she is now!

  Congratulations to the Vietti's on their precious new baby boy, Ben! Thank you so much for allowing us to be a part of this amazing time in your life. And, I must say, you guys have one beautiful (and photogenic) family. :)

Unique Delivery

Happy belated Valentine's day, all! Hope you had a lovely day with someone you love.

I just wanted to take a quick moment to share the fun surprise my creative hubby delivered to me on Monday~

Now, you're probably wondering what the heck these foil-wrapped things are. Some guessed bananas, others hot dogs or corn dogs. Wrong. For those of you who don't know, I'm a pickle fiend. So when I opened the wrapping, I was thrilled to see fried pickles from (in my opinion) the best fried pickle makers in the land, Pluckers.

Chris had the clever idea to wrap each pickle in foil, place them on wooden skewers and arrange them in a bouquet. I have to say...my hubby did great and definitely knows his wife. I'll take food over flowers any day. ;) The whole gesture really melted my heart...

Thank you, Chris, for the thoughtful gift, for your caring heart and for loving me. You never cease to amaze me... :) I LOVE YOU!

Mommy Monday

  

On Sunday, my mother called and informed me she might be in Dallas the next day. I'm sure you're wondering about that key word "might". Well, apparently she thought she was traveling later in the week and she wasn't positive about her destination, Dallas or Houston.

I got the call on Monday morning that she would, indeed, be visiting the Big D- what a surprise and a treat! And a convenient coincidence? My mom was landing in the afternoon and driving to a hotel less than ten minutes from my workplace. I couldn't have planned it any better. I suggested I pick her up from her hotel when I got off of work and we could go to dinner.

So our mother/daughter date was set. I picked her up, we made a quick mall stop (since Corpus doesn't have much to offer on that front) and then made our way to one of my mom's favorite stops, Pappadeaux. Chris, unfortunately, couldn't join us because he had class. To be honest, though, it worked out for the best because it gave my mom and I a rare opportunity to chat, laugh and connect, just the two of us.

After dinner, we headed back to my house because Mom couldn't come to Dallas without a little time with her furry grandson and "favorite" son-in law. Then we all watched the rough draft of our wedding video (yes, we still don't have the finished product). We managed to squeeze quite a bit in during those few, short hours, didn't we?

Well, we knew our time together would be brief. And so the following morning, my mom gave me a hug and kiss goodbye and she and my hubby hit the highway. Chris was so sweet; he offered to take my mom to her hotel in the morning on his way to work so she could stay the night with us and I could have more quality time.

I'm so glad my mom had a chance to drop in Dallas. A totally unexpected, but very welcome visit.

Love you, Mom!

Care to Riverdance, Anyone?

As an early birthday gift to Chris's mom, we treated her to a performance of Riverdance. If you're not familiar with the show, here is how Wikipedia describes it:

Riverdance is a theatrical show consisting of traditional Irish stepdancing, notable for its rapid leg movements while body and arms are kept largely stationary. Riverdance is, in essentials, the story of the Irish culture and of the Irish immigration to America.

Chris has been a huge fan of the production since it first started in the 90's. And when I say fan, I mean owns a video of the show, has the soundtrack and does the dances whenever the mood strikes him kind of fan. So when his mom mentioned it as something she would like as a gift, Chris was definitely on board with the idea.

So the three of us made our way to see the show on Saturday, January 15th. We had sweet seats- they were in a suite! The show was fun, touching at times and brought back many fond memories of our trip to Ireland, Scotland and even Spain (they had a flemenco dancer!). Everyone found the experience highly enjoyable, from what I could tell.

I know my hubby loved, after all this time, being able to see the show live and in person. I was delighted to finally see what Chris has been crazy about all these years. And of course, Chris and I were both very happy to give his mom a gift and experience she will remember for many years to come. Happy birthday, Mrs. Castillo! We love you!



Chris with the birthday girl

All of us after the show