Day 5- Your Siblings

Today is about my siblings!! Well when I was 3 1/2 years old I was blessed with a little sister, Ashley Elise! That little girl was the spunkiest little thing you could ever imagine. I dont think she ever really sat still when she was little; just always bouncing around. We had fun growing up singing in the living room, putting on plays, dressing up, playing Barbies, and pretending to be cheerleaders in the front yard! We definitely had our quarrels though! Ashley was in drill team in high school and then went to UT and graduate with a degree in elementary education. She is now married and is a first grade teacher in Irving!!

I also have 4 new siblings!! Holly, Heather, and Chase are Kevin's siblings and Patrick is Ashley's husband! I have enjoyed gaining new siblings through marriage!! 

Holly and Heather are teachers in Irving! I am so glad they ended up moving to Dallas and are closer to us!! They are the two best sister-in-laws I could ask for!! Chase is 17 and a junior in high school in Alabama!! Chase is awesome and so funny!! I just need him to move out to Texas as soon as possible so he can be closer to us!! And Patrick is Ashley's husband and he's been around for quite some time (they started dating back when my sister was 14). He graduate from UT and is now in dental school in Dallas!!

Day 4- Your Parents

So today is about my parents!! Neil and Paula Dugger are my parents!! An interesting fact about them is they both go by their middle names. My dad's full name is Harry Neil Dugger and my mom's is Lydia Paulette "Anderson" Dugger. My parents met back in like 1981 while they were both teaching at Nimitz High School in Irving. They dated about 3 months, got engaged, and were married 6 months later!!

My dad grew up in Temple, Texas and went to Angelo State University. He said he always planned to go to The University of Texas but was going to transfer in after starting out at Angelo State. He says he has always been a UT fan, but we still tease him that he's the only one in the family that didn't graduate from there! My dad also got his master's and doctorate degree from North Texas! My dad has a love for golf! He's actually a really good golfer! My dad also has a love for history which he's passed down to me! He especially loves anything about Texas History!! John Wayne's "The Alamo" is his favorite movie!! Growing up we'd go on vacation to places and we'd always have a history lesson from my dad about where we were! He started out teaching history after he graduated college. He eventually became and vice principle and worked his way up to where now he is the Assistant Superintendent for Personnel in Irving!

My mom grew up in Vernon, Texas and moved to Ft. Worth in middle school! She graduated from The University of Texas with a bachelor's and master's degree! She was a reading teacher/specialist most of her career but is now the reading coordinator for the district in Irving. My mom loves anything related to UT, she bleeds orange through and through! Both of my parents also LOVE their ranch! They bought a 28 acre ranch about 14-15 years ago. They planned to just get a couple of acres so my mom could have one longhorn steer! Well they ended up with 28 acres and have probably almost 20 longhorns now!! Those longhorns are my mom's babies!!

My parents have been married for 28 years and counting! They are each other's best friends and been a great example to me on what marriage looks like!!

Day 3- Your First Love

So today I am suppose to blog about my first love and I'll be honest, the first person I truly loved in every sense of the word and loved me back the same is Kevin! Honestly I love him more every day. He is the funniest, kindest, and most loving man in the world. All my life I figured I would never find a guy that was as great of a man as my dad. He is one of the most patient and loving man out there. He is a wonderful father, but he also a wonderful husband and I saw that everyday. I saw what is was like to have a husband put his wife first in everything and love her unconditionally. I thought my dad was just a "one of a kind guy."  I figured I would kind of have to "settle" with whomever I married. I also thought I would have to marry a guy that maybe wasn't as Godly of a man. Someone that I would have to work on to get to church and to help him love the Lord like I do. Really I seemed ok with that, I just figured that is what I was going to have to do.

Well God had better plans for me! Kevin is such a Godly man. He loves me so much and always looks out for me. He is patient with me and kind. He is soooo much more than I could have ever asked for. I love him so much. I hate when I'm not with him. I love just being with him. I know now what is really means to love someone with all my heart! I thank God every day for him!

Day 2- Meaning Behind Your Blog Name

Well today's blog isn't that interesting! Our blog name is The Harwood House. Obviously Harwood is our last name and the blog is about everyone in our house!! :) Really I was just trying to find an available name with blogspot so I was trying lots of different titles with Harwood in it and finally this one worked!

Speaking of Harwood, I think I'm finally completely use to my last name being Harwood!! Its weird even now if people call me Dugger or if I even think about how my last name use to be Dugger. I guess it just means I'm a Harwood through and through now!!

I'll be honest, it is nice to be blogging everyday, especially tonight because it gets my mind off the fact that Texas just lost to Baylor! BAYLOR?!?! Ugh, I'm very frustrated this season obviously, I don't really remember how to handle having such a bad team; its been tooo long! I still am a Longhorn through thick and thin, but man! Ok enough about that! At least I married an Auburn grad since they are #1 team in the nation right now!! I have someone to cheer for and get excited about this season!! WAR EAGLE!

30 Days of Blogging!! Day 1

So I'm stealing this from my sister in law, Heather!! She's doing a 30 days of blogging challenge and each day is about something different! This seems fun so I think I'm going to see if I can blog every day for 30 days!!  


Here is the list:

Day 1-Introduce, recent picture, 15 interesting facts

Day 2-Meaning behind your blog name

Day 3-Your first love

Day 4-Your parents

Day 5-Your siblings

Day 6-A picture of something that makes you happy

Day 7-Favorite movies

Day 8-A place you've traveled to

Day 9-A picture of your friends

Day 10-Something you're afraid of

Day 11-Favorite tv shows

Day 12-What you believe

Day 13-Goals

Day 14-A picture you love

Day 15-Bible verse

Day 16-Dream house

Day 17-Something you're looking forward to

Day 18-Something you regret

Day 19-Something you miss

Day 20-Nicknames

Day 21-Picture of yourself

Day 22-Favorite city

Day 23-Favorite vacation

Day 24-Something you've learned

Day 25-Put your iPod on shuffle, first 10 songs

Day 26-Picture of your family

Day 27-Pets

Day 28-Something that stresses you out

Day 29-3 Wishes

Day 30-a picture

DAY 1:

Introduce, recent picture, 15 interesting facts

Welll, my name is Alicean Harwood, I am 26 years old! I live in Austin, Texas and work in Real Estate!

15 Interesting Facts:

1. My name comes from my Grandmother (mom's mom) Her name is Alice Ann and when my mom was growing up she thought it sounded like "Alison" when they said her name, so that is where my name comes from!

2. I am a planner!! Sometimes to a fault, I love planning things but I usually plan WAY in advance too just because I'm excited about planning something!

3. I can't stand to be late anywhere. I always want to be on time if not early!

4. I moved once in my life before I left home to go to college, and since then I've moved 7 times! 7 times in 8 years!

5. I love baseball!! I was a Diamond Doll for our HS baseball team, and then a Disch-Falk Diamond for UT. I lived at the ballpark in college and I got to go to Omaha twice when UT reached the Championship Game!

6. If for some reason I ever had to leave Austin, I would love to live in San Diego. It is so gorgeous there!

7. I love baking!! Cookies, cakes, any desserts really!

8. I hate driving at night. Something about all the lights makes me nervous!

9. I am a die hard longhorn (not a secret I know!), but seriously when I was little I thought my blood was orange because my mom told me I had orange blood through and through. So I always told people that my blood was orange not red!

10. I love buying people gifts!! Kevin has to keep telling me not to go overboard!

11. I took piano lessons for almost 10 years. I still love to play when I have the chance!!

12. Singing has always been my number 1 passion! The extent of my singing though these days in just in my car!

13. I have been going to The Austin Stone Church since 2003, not long after it was started and I love that I have a church that challenges me and makes me re-evaluate my life daily to be on mission for God.

14. I am going to Italy next year and am sooo excited I can't contain it!!

15. I love my husband more than anything else in this world. Just being with him makes me happy! He's the best thing thats ever happen to me!

I love this little girl...

I love this precious little girl sooooo MUCH!!!! 

Few things....

1. If you love the Melting Pot, you need to go ASAP!! We went last Thursday when we had a groupon to use and they have a French Big Night Out going on right now. We didn't partake in most of the French stuff, but we did try the chocolate fondue they had for it. It was Creme Brulee, and omg it was one of the most amazing things I've had in a long time!! And I love most of the chocolate fondues at the Melting Pot, but this one is above and beyond all the others. It is a white chocolate with caramelized sugar!! Go check it out!

2. Well Texas pretty much has sucked it up this season in Football. I still love my Horns, but this just isn't our year! Thankfully I married Kevin who loves Auburn, so I have a team to get excited about this year! It is so funny how our teams flip flopped this year! Rankings came out yesterday and Auburn is now ranked #1 in the BCS poll!! WHOOHOO! And they are lead by Heisman front runner, Cameron Newton!

3. Kevin has a NEW JOB!!! He starts on November 15th, but he'll be working full time as a Senior Mobile Developer! So he'll be making apps for the iPhone and Android all day everyday!! I'm soo excited for him as I know this is something he's truly going to enjoy! It was really hard to decide to leave National Instruments where he's at now, but we're excited about this new endeavor!

4. Tonight we're hosting about 16 people at our house for dinner. We're having new people that have started helping out at our church in the AVLC (tech)! Kevin is one of the head producers so we're having people over to thank them and to help everyone get to know each other!! Soo please wish me luck!! I dont know if I've ever cooked a FULL meal for 16, so pray for me!! I'm making chicken parmesan, spaghetti, cheese stuff shells, salad, bread, and a twist on cannoli's for dessert!!