Happy Anniversary Jim and Ava!

After an incredible weekend in Dallas in late February, Austin and I decided to head to Woodward the next weekend to share our big news with his parents.  We were so excited to head west and let the secret out -  mostly because Ava has been dropping hints about grandchildren for a few months (okay..years...haha!!) and we could barely contain our excitement to see her reaction at the news!!  We knew Jim and Ava might think it was a little weird that we were making family trips back to back, so we told them we were coming to visit Austin's grandma (which wasn't a total lie...).

We pulled into town around 8:30 on Friday evening and all hung out around the house for a while before we sat down to dinner.  At some point, we strategically casually mentioned that we had brought them a small anniversary gift.   It wasn't long after we sat down for dinner, that Big Jim decided he was ready to open their anniversary gift (PERFECT!!). 

They opened their gift (which was a bib like the one that we had given to Mary Anne the weekend before) and their reaction was so fun!  They were totally shocked and beyond excited for us! Here's a few pictures we snapped after the big surprise!!

excited about being Grandparents!

love these two.

I can't even begin to explain how lucky I am when it comes to in-laws.  Jim and Ava are great people and have been such supportive, loving parents to Austin and now, me!  I'm so thankful for the amazing man that they raised and I love being a part of their family.  Speaking of that amazing man I'm married to - he really got into the western Oklahoma spirit while we were in Woodward and morphed into his alter ego --

"hey y'all - I'm Cowboy Dougie!" 

showdown at the Keeney Saloon

fancy.

After letting the secret out on Friday, we spent Saturday being (relatively) productive.  Ava and I got mani/'pedis (not super productive) and Austin and Jim worked with the horses most of the day (very productive!  good job boys!!).  Saturday night we went to a yummy dinner and visited some other family memebers that live in town.  It was a super fun weekend.  Happy Anniversary Jim and Ava -- thanks for letting us crash your weekend!!

-Callie

Happy Birthday Mary Anne!

Towards the end of February, Austin and I (and Rowdy and Chubbs) took a road trip to Dallas to visit my family and celebrate my step mom Mary Anne's 50th birthday!  It was such a fun weekend for several reasons. 

First, the whole family was able to come in town to celebrate!  My brother, Brad, flew in from San Diego where he is stationed at Camp Pendleton.  My step sister, Lauren, was able to get the weekend off from training the animals at Sea World to come up from San Antonio and Vicki, my youngest step sister, was also able to take the day off so the whole family could celebrate together! With everyone usually running in 5 different directions it's not often that the whole family is able to be in one place, I know that made Mary Anne's birthday even more special!

the whole Gresham/Mauk/Keeney crew
Brad, me, Austin, Lauren, Mary Anne, Mike, Vicki

The weekend was made even more special because of the gift we got for Mary Anne.  50 is a big birthday and we all wanted to make sure that this was Mary Anne's best one yet.  So, months ago, Vicki came up with the idea to design a piece of jewelry for her birthday gift.  We all agreed it was extremely thoughtful and knew Mary Anne would love it since it's her favorite thing to do for us kids when we have big life events.  After a few trips to the jewelry store by Dad and Vicki, we ended up with a beautiful right hand ring complete with a center stone that Mary Anne got from her mother, Omi, when she passed away a couple of years ago. 

the birthday girl opening her gift

she loves it!

it's even more beautiful in person - just like MA!

After we opened the ring, Austin and I had one more surprise up our sleeve for the birthday girl!  Mary Anne had one last gift to open and we saved the biggest surprise for last.

opening her last gift

SURPRISE!!!!

proud parents to be!

these two are going to be the best grandparents!
Baby K is one lucky little babe.

We had so much fun with my family - especially after we were able to share our big news!  It was so special to me to have my entire family there as well - what an incredible weekend.  We are all very blessed!

-Callie

God is Good.

He has made everything beautiful in His time; also He has set eternity in their heart, so that no man can find out the work that God makes from the beginning to the end. - Ecc 3:11

It has been an incredible few months around the Keeney household and I'm thrilled to finally share all of our wonderful news with everyone.  I can feel God at work in Austin and I's lives and we are both feeling extremely blessed these days.

This all started a few months ago when Austin and I found out that we're going to be having a BABY!  We are both super excited and we can't wait to welcome Baby K into the world this October!  This baby is already so loved and we can't wait to meet our little one.

As if our baby news wasn't enough, a few weeks ago, Austin was offered a great new job.  We both knew that taking this job was the right decision for our growing family and, as of May 1st, Austin will be starting a new job with a new law firm. 

In addition to the new baby and the new job, we're going to be moving to a new city!  Austin and I have said for years that, while we love Tulsa, we knew that one day we wanted to be in Oklahoma City.  It's where most of our friends live and it's halfway between both of our families.  The new job offer is not only a great move for Austin professionally, but it also brings us to the place where we've always wanted to raise our family...god is so good and His timing is perfect.

our new home!  can't wait!

If all of this news isn't incredible enough, I found out this week that I'm going to be able to keep my job with Stryker!  My team here has been unbelievably supportive and they are going to be creating a new territory for me in Oklahoma City.

It has been a wonderful few months around the Keeney house!  We are so thankful for all of our many blessings and are excited to get to Oklahoma City and get settled in!!  Now fingers are crossed that our house sells quickly...any of you in the market for a house in Tulsa?! :)

-Cal

some Pinteresting recipes

hey everyone...for dinner tonight I decided to try a few of the recipes I've been pinning on my Pinterest pin boards.  It always seems like I pin a million things and then never actually make anything...so here's to taking action! 

The plan is to make 1-2 pinterest recipes a week and so far, the few recipes I've tried range from awesome to awful.  So i figured I'd save you all some time (and a last minute pizza order b/c your crock pot baked potatoes were a massive fail) and let you know how everything turns out!

Tonight's Menu: Greek Turkey Burgers, Sweet Potato Fries and Steamed Broccoli

The Results:

eh.  please excuse my food photography.

Overall, I thought these recipes were just okay.  The sweet potato fries weren't great, probably because I burned them..ha!!  Even though they were burned, they weren't very "fryish" and didn't get crispy.  I think I'll stick with my usual way of making sweet potatoes moving forward.  I thought the burgers were good and Austin really liked them.  The greek topping definitely makes the burger and next time I think I'll serve them without the english muffin bun.  I'll give these a B+ since they are low in fat and only 240 calories!  Woohoo!

Have you all tried any good Pinterest recipes?  If so, please share!  I'm always looking for great recipes to add to my collection!!

Happy Pinning!
-Callie

my favorite models

Much to Chubbs and Rowdy's dismay, I've been using them both as models as I practice taking pictures with my new Nikon camera.  As you can tell, they aren't always amused by my flash photography early in the morning, but I can't help myself - they are so cute!  Here are a few of my favorites:

"mom, it's too early for this" - chubbs

"get that camera out of my face" - chubbs

"mmm, this branch is tasty" - chubbs

"this is getting old - i just want to play fetch" - rowdy

"less pictures, more playing" - rowdy

"okay...photo session is over." - chubbs

I know I'm a little biased, but aren't they adorable?!  I'm sure you'll all be seeing more of these guys soon.

-Cal

Yard Makeover - Part 2

What a weekend!  We've been hard at work on part 2 of our yard makeover!  You can check out Part 1 here. This weekend it was all about the front flower beds....and man, did they need some work!  Thankfully, we had an extra hand - my amazing mother-in-law who also happens to have quite the green thumb!

hey ava!!

We started Saturday by cleaning out what remained in the beds after last weekend.  It wasn't much more than some weeds and some tulip bulbs, but either way we got it all cleaned out!  The next step was to even out the soil. 

good work Keeney!

After the beds were even, we laid out some bed liners.  According to Ava, these are great for keeping out weeds, but most importantly for making sure the mulch and the soil don't mix thus making your mulch last longer.  who knew?!

master gardener - hard at work!

i had no clue about the greatness.

part 2 is well underway

The weather was so nice outside that the day actually went by really quickly.  It felt so good to be making some big progress. It also helped that we had some visitors!

Matt, Laura and Payton stopped by!

how cute is he?  Chubbs and Rowdy's new BFF 

  After we got the liners down, we laid out the plants where we wanted.  Then we cut holes in the liners and planted the flowers in just the right place. 

looks like a real flower bed!

coming together nicely...

After we got all of the plants planted, we mulched the beds, admired all of our hard work and tossed back a few cold beers to reward ourselves! 

so much better

this makes me happy

welcome!!

I'm so happy with the results.  Now all the front needs is a great wreath for the door and a pretty potted container like this.

Yard Makeover - Part 1

Hey everyone!!  Long time no blog!  Austin and I have had a busy few weeks!  We went to Dallas for my step mom Mary Anne's birthday and to Woodward to visit Austin's parents.  Both weekends were spent being lazy with family (does it get any better?!).  I've got blog posts coming on all of the family fun, but it the meantime, let's talk about what else we've been up to!

When we haven't been traveling, Austin and I have spent a few weekends working on home improvement projects and I'm excited to share our latest endeavour - a yard makeover! 

Our poor yard is a mess!  From the flower beds to the grass in the backyard - it all needs a face lift.  and maybe some lipo and botox and possibly a tummy tuck too.  it's bad!  BUT ... for the past two weekends we've been hard at work and I'm so excited that it's looking A TON better! 

Last weekend, we decided that the front flower beds were so terrible, that it would probably be best if we just started over from scratch.  So, we spent a few hours on Saturday (before NCAA basketball started, duh!!) transplanting the sad looking azaleas in the front to the barren flower beds in the back. 

Here are a few pictures of the flower beds during the process.  Side note: I can't actually believe I'm actually showing people how bad our yard has gotten, but it makes the end result that much better! :)

front flower beds - man these need some work!

sad little front porch

barren - ready to be made over!!

back yard flower beds - ready for the azaleas to be planted

my handsome hubby hard at work in the back yard

this flower bed used to be so pretty - until these little guys decided to trample it. 
oh hey chubbs and rowdy - did you hear me say that?!?!

To finish up the first part of our project, we got all of the azaleas from the front transplanted to the back. 

woohoo..no more barren flower beds! still needs mulch - that's part 3!



a BIG improvement

I'm happy to report that a week after these photos were taken, the azaleas look BEAUTIFUL thanks mostly to Austin's hard work and this stuff...


Peat Moss - evidently azaleas love it.
it's no joke...they are going crazy!!

More to come on Part 2 of our Yard Makeover soon!

-Callie