I have no life...

So I lied... Here I am again and this time I am SNOWED IN!! ha!  We tried to make it to Houston after K got off work this afternoon but it was snowing so hard I insisted on creating a snowman which I did successfully but this put us at a later departure than planned.  We hopped on the road and headed south but after we watched 2 cars go off into the ditch, a few already in the ditch, and us skid several times, after about 5 miles of driving that took an hour, and trying to get gas with nothing but frustration with the pumps being frozen but finally filling up... we decided that it might just be best for us to head back home, which we did.  I would much rather be safe and sound at home with my baby and a warm fire and a blanket of snow on the lawn than scared to death driving....I'm sure that we made the best, safest decision.  Upon our arrival at home we had no food because we had planned on being gone a few days... so here we were to make a decision... do we get back out on the road and drive to the grocery store for food or do we venture out on foot.  We did the latter and had a blast doing it.  The snow was falling super hard and the 40mph wind gusts were sure keeping us warm but again, we had a blast!! After we bought some pizza and beer for dinner we were walking home when all of a sudden I screamed bloody murder.  I had been following KJ so he was a little in front of me and shocked he turned around to see me nearly stiff as a board.  As I had been walking a small bird came out from under the snow, right beside where I had placed my foot and flew off right by my face.  Nearly scared me to death -- who knew birds lived under the snow in really cold conditions.  What an education experience tonight ha! We got home and started a warm cozy fire, the first one we have ever had here, baked the pizza and then some M&M cookies that K made.  They were supper yummy!!  If it doesn't hurt your feelings any I will post some pictures later this week as I guess right now it is time for me to go to bed so that Santa can come.... YES!!! :)

Dreaming of a White Christmas...

Well I guess I dont have to dream anymore... at noon today it started snowing and it is expected to keep falling until 8pm!!  It has only snowed on Christmas Eve here 6 times EVER- in the history of the weather records... this is truly a Christmas miracle :) 

*A WHITE CHRISTMAS!!*

Let me just tell you that yesterday it was 75 degrees!! Yes, this is Texas and we do have some crazy weather.  I love it!! 

The only problem with all of this to me is the fact that K is at work :'( and he doesn't get off till later this afternoon.  We were supposed to head to south Texas tonight to spend the holidays with my family... I guess we will check the conditions again when he gets home to see if it is safe for us to travel.  Please be praying for safety as we travel.  This will probably be my last post until later next week so please enjoy your family, your time off work, and all of your blessings these next few days, 

and MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!! 

200 Days!! and a new JOB! :)

Hello Bloggers!! Only a couple of days till the baby Jesus was born!! :)

Quick update for all of you out there who have been praying for me... I finally scored myself a part-time job that I will start beg of January and I am so excited.  I will be working at a bank and substitute teaching on my days off.  I am thrilled that God has opened this door for me and I would ask that you continue to pray that he would open another door for me to find a full time teaching job.  :) Thanks so much ya'll!

Also, exciting news!! Only 200 days until OUR WEDDING!!!!!!! YEEES!

I have been OBSESSED with wedding planning this week... bridesmaid dresses, colors, reception sites, save-the-dates, DJ's, photographers and so much more!! We are planning our wedding right outside of Charlotte, North Carolina so if any of you have vendor suggestions they would be GREATLY appreciated!  Every day I get a little more GIDDY! :)

So much happy in the air right now and I LOVE IT! Thank you God!

PS- I am going to do this:

Our First MARRIED CHRISTMAS!! :)

AH! Today was so much fun and I didn’t even know that it was coming... :)

Well let me get back to last night;... the wedding was absolutely wonderful- it was the most God centered wedding that I have ever been to and I was just absolutely in awe of how glorified God was last night at the marriage of these two people.  It was so evident that God had brought them together and that they wanted to bring Him all the glory.  WOW!  Now that is how a wedding is supposed to be!!!!!!!! :) Not to mention- Mel looked absolutely breathtaking and her groom (like the pastor said) didn't look bad himself ha!  Everything was *perfect* and nearly had me to tears about a dozen times.  I can not wait to get to know them better as a couple and hopefully blossom that friendship more than it already is :)

So yea, unfortunately K had to work on this wonderful Saturday and it kills me that he was gone all day... All I want to do is lie around, enjoy the Christmas season and veg with him.  I guess that will come later...

So this evening K got off work and for some reason (which I don’t know) both of us were in super happy/ giddy moods.  We decided that tonight would be the night to open our presents from each other because we will be going to hang out with my parents for Christmas and really didn’t want to haul all of our things/ wanted to really enjoy everyone else's gifts while we were there so we decided to do it before leaving our home.  And why not tonight!? ha! Tonight it was.  Usually I am one to enjoy looking forward to things for weeks/ months to come but this time I had no time to anticipate (minus about 30 mins) and it was a different kind of fun.  Giddy I guess you could say... I quickly went to the kitchen and started baking some Christmas cookies out of some cute cookie cutters that our friend Erin gave us for Christmas and put all kinds of tasty sprinkles to cover them :)  K got the leftover brisket out, chopped it up and made us both some bbq sandwiches.  They were oh-so-yummy!

Both of us then plopped on the floor in the living room and went to town.  Last week when we were putting out the nativity set I told K that whoever found baby Jesus had to open the first present (all the little pieces were wrapped in newspaper individually) and he found it.  We each saved 2 presents that we are going to open ON Christmas day at the rents house but we still had plenty to open tonight.  K got some practical things/ fun things.... he really gave me NO help this year as to anything that he even REMOTELY thought he might like for Christmas so I ended up going out on a limb....

-2 Racquetball racquets and 3 racquetballs.  He had mentioned a few months back how much fun he thought it would be to play racquetball at our gym (they do not provide the racquets) -- therefore I bought him 2 (one for me :-P) and some balls.  I am super excited about having a little fun and kicking both of our butts back in shape, all at the same time.

-Bedroom slippers ... I'm not sure if I am allowed to post this or not... (Sorry babe if I'm not) but K had taken a liking to my fuzzy slippers.... mind you they are leopard print... ha! So I bought him some "manly" ones that are Nautica- grey and navy. Now he has his own that actually fit him :) ha!

-Some DVD (I honestly do not remember the name of it right now) -- we were in wal-mart several weeks ago and while browsing movies he pointed at "this one" and was like "OOO- I want this movie!"  I immediately told him that he might want to *ask for it for Christmas* or maybe write it down because he and I both knew that I would forget what movie it was before we left the store.  true story. ha.  .... let me just tell you- I had to go back to the exact wal-mart and pick it out based on the placement of it.  I knew exactly where it was and luckily they had not rearranged the DVD's since our last visit- wheph! ha!

-A giant Cookies-and-Cream candy bar.  I HATE everything about them.  The smell. The taste. How they look. Everything.  K loves them.  and I love K.  Therefore I thought it would be a nice gesture because he knows how much I hate them.... I even threaten to not kiss him after he has eaten them but usually that doesn’t really work ha.  I don’t know why I dislike these things so bad... its weird- I almost hate them as bad as I hate onions ... EWW!

(and as we speak he is going after that "NASTY THING" and his slippers  {grin} (note: he says that the slippers are not quite as comfy as mine but let me tell you- they look much nicer on him hahaah)

And that is all for his gifts.  *minus the two I can not post about yet because he has yet to open them*

Let me just say I feel like a lame gift giver... not that he doesn’t like all of these things but he really went over the top and got me wonderful gifts.  I should have done better... maybe next year... or his birthday which happens to be in less than 10 days.

-He got me a gorgeous GORGEOUS James Avery cross necklace- the cross is formed of flowers and is on a beautiful black chord! WOW!

-A docking station for my iPhone/iPod-- I have never had one, yet I have had my ipod for almost 10 years... I am so behind.  This thing is so nifty it charges the iphone, plays music, has an alarm clock, comes with a remote, and probably a million other things that I have yet to discover! Jack-Pot!

-2 sleepers from VS-- I just love comfy PJ's ... and they have some of the best nightgowns... they have to be made from the softest material ever made. mmm mmm!

And there yah have it.

Our first MARRIED CHRISTMAS !!! 

I just love this man to pieces and found so much joy watching him open his gifts... that and shopping for them has to be my favorite part. :) Joy. 

{come back for pics soon of all the fun we had opening gifts!}

Such a BEAUTIFUL day that God has made!!

Today is SUCH a BEAUTIFUL day.... and for so many reasons...

1. The sky is soo-o blue out and the weather is cool but the sun will sure warm you up (as I am typing this I am sitting outside on our patio furniture that Cissie bought us- thanks!)

(view from our front porch) 

2. The countdown is on... only 7 more days till Jesus' birth!!! :) 

3. Our good friends Mel and Jake are getting married TODAY! and they also are going to be living right down the street from us!! We are so excited to share in their special day.  Yay for God bring people together in marriage!! :) 

(more pics to come later!) :)

Packages and More Packages!!

Can I just tell you how excited I was last night??

First of all, our Save-The-Dates came in the mail!!!
Want to hear a funny story about K and I ordering them??? Well we had been working very diligently on picking the perfect one and about making sure that everything was just right... but it was getting late and K was ready to finish them and order them after I had edited the 3 pictures about 10 times to make sure they were the "right shade of black and white" haha.  We looked them over, agreed they looked wonderful, and there we had it... we ordered 500 of them.  Yup, we are inviting around 500 guests to our wedding (call us crazy... more on this below) so we ordered 500 Save-The-Dates... right?? NO! Not right!! Anyone that has ever planned any type of event knows that just because you invite 500 people doesn't mean that you need 500 invites.  Yea, we really only had around 200 households represented and therefore, (Yup, you counted right) we ordered THREE HUNDRED EXTRA Save-the-dates!!!!!! (I just tried to abbreviate that and realized it maybe wouldnt correctly represent what I was trying to say hahah -- s-- t-- d--- okay you have it hahaha! -sorry I crack myself up sometimes :-P) So anyways, it only took me about 10 minutes after we ordered to realize this and when I did K and I were laughing forEVER ha! Everytime we bring it up, we laugh more.  Luckily we didnt spend thousands of dollars on these bad babies or I would not be a happy camper... so there it is- funny story of the day-- hope it made you smile!

We are so happy with them and can NOT wait to share this with you on here as soon as we get them out! Let me just tell you -- trying to get 500 peoples addresses (around 200 physical households- ie: aunt and uncle have 3 kids= 5 people), imputing them into an Excel spreadsheet and then merging them into a Word document with the correct label template is not quite as easy as it may seem.  I didn't have unrealistic expectations I don't think, however ... COME ON!! We spent about eh... 5-6 hours last night working on JUST the merging from the spreadsheet to the labels... SUCH work.  Not to mention, there were so many "holes" (lack of addresses on our spreadsheet) we had to first finish the merge then go back and delete incomplete cells... and no, it didn't automatically shift the labels for you.  We had to copy and paste entire labels into the empty spots in order to avoiding printing 10 sheets of labels when we really only needed 4 or 5.  Thanks for letting me vent a little ha.  BUT we did get about 1/2 of the postcards done (stamped and labeled) last night and IN THE MAIL! I am soooo excited that things are coming together. We did have fun putting hundreds of stamps on the postcards and then labeling them. I can't wait to finish off this little battle ha.
I hope everyone is okay with us not sending Christmas cards this year ... these are our Christmas cards ha!

Okay, so I'm already excited about getting the Save-The-Dates in the mail (don't you just love getting packages... I get so giddy) when around 8pm the hubs and I hear a loud knock on the door.... i think he was a little weirded out by someone visiting so late- as was i- (and not thinking he had ordered any other mail that was to be coming to our house) he approaches and opens the door to find, YET ANOTHER PACKAGE!! :) :) Okay so I don't know if I'm a little over-the-top here haha but I was pumped... guess what it was!?  ...
My Juice Plus that I had ordered!!  I am so so excited about this and can not wait to see how it works! I will keep you posted.  The hubby and I have been trying to work out 3-4 times a week and have been pretty good.  I unfortunately have a problem with my "healthy" eating habits... as I sit here typing we just finished our Papa John's Pizza we had for dinner, of which I have FOUR pieces ha! Oh well! :) This is why I am excited about having the nutrients from all of the veggies and fruits in a vitamin form. YES! :)

On a random note.... can you guys believe that Christmas is only ONE WEEK AWAY!?!?! WHHHHAT!?!?  I can NOT!  What is so crazy to me is for "all these years" I have always made a huge "vacation" out of Christmas-- I have family all over the world which makes for fun travel!  In school and college I always had time off to travel and see most all of my family.  When I had a job I scheduled my vacation so I could continue in this tradition-taking nearly 2 weeks off.  Not this year.  Things are different for our little family this year.  The hubs will be working on Christmas Eve (tear) and will only have a couple of days off.  Thanks for the airlines and their wonderful "Deals" around the holidays it would have cost us about $800 dollars for the 2 of us to fly home for that short of a period of time.  No. Thank. You.  I LOVE my family dearly and would do almost anything to be with them but seriously... 800 bucks. NO!  We are going to plan a trip early Jan or Feb to make it out of state to see his side of the family and some of mine... hey-- what better than spreading Christmas out for several months...right!!??! :)
We are ECSTATIC that we ARE going to have some time to spend with family, and we couldn't be happier that my parents and some of my family are within driving distance of us.  I am super excited that we will get to be with them for Christmas this year.  I can not remember the last year that we had Christmas morning together at their house.  Unfortunately, we will have to be driving late Christmas Eve and miss one of my favorite Christmas traditions, the Candlelight Christmas Eve Church Service, oh well it will all be worth it in the end!  I cant wait to see my cousins, aunt and uncle, grandma(s), -- most of who have yet to meet K-- and my parents and my 2 beautiful sisters!!! We are SO incredibly BLESSED to have so much family EVERYWHERE that love us so much.  It really is a hard thing to explain the great feeling it is when you have nearly 200 immediate family members, all of who love and care for us both deeply and dearly! (Hence why we are inviting 500 people to our wedding! ha!- yes we are nuts :-P)

Anyways... YAY for family and YAY for Jesus being born! :) Happy Almost-Friday!! :)

Also, real quick-- what did yall get the men in your life for Christmas??? This seems SO HARD every year- especially my dad... Help please!?! :)

Happy 101!

Thanks to my sweet friend Jen over at Love is the Sweetest Thing for passing along this along! If you haven't yet you should check out her blog, you will love it!

So now, to pass this award on, you must first post 10 things that make you happy and then send this on to 10 blogs that make you happy! :)

Things that Make Me Happy:

1)My AWESOME God, and his love for me... (I mean who would have his own son murdered for me and all of my sins!?)

2) The hubs, always!

3) The love of my family

4) Making new blog friends :)

5)Christmas decorations and songs

6)My warm cozy bed

7) Memories of my Daddy

8)Getting our Save-the-Dates in the mail today... YAY!!

9)Warm chocolate chip cookies mmm

10) Having friends over to our house (we have an open door so just stop by and say hi!-- we have the Santa Windsock outside :) )

Blog's that Make Me Happy:

(sorry if you have already received this but ya'll make me happy!)

1) For the Love of Stilettos

2)Little Texas Love Nest

3)Sing me Anything

4)Jimmy Choo's and a Baby Too

5)Vineyard Vogue

6)Happy Day World

7)Naturally Nina

8)The Pink Chick

9)Pocket Full of Pink

10)The Mr. and the Mrs. 

So there yah go! Now pass on the Love! :)

PRIVATE INVITE... PLUS CHRISTMAS DECOR!!

Hey Ya'll!! 
I hope that you all are having a good week.  Mine has been great (as was our weekend) but busy (duh!)-- I am sure that all of you are also, but this is the kind of busy that I actually enjoy... wahoo for Christmas shopping.  


So just in time for Christmas I have a PRIVATE invite for you!!  I have recently joined a great shopping site, its called Shop it to Me!  You get lots of awesome deals on name brand clothes and best of all you get to personalize your profile and pick what brands and stores you are interested in- no more getting tons of junk in your inbox about things you really DON'T care about.  You will also have the opportunity to select how often/when you would like to receive your emails about the sales going on.  If you would like to join-- here is your PRIVATE INVITE! :)  Feel free to pass this on to any of your friends that may be interested also!  Here is the hyperlink just-in-case.... 


http://www.shopittome.com/index/twitter/C5Y5iFg0hMlhKXZK3MD6xEDg_eq_eq


This weekend started out great for us. We went to sushi with our friends Em & Justin, and we had a great time. We had planned on going bowling afterward but I am very happy to say that we changed plans and had them over instead, to play a fun and exciting game of spades! Yipppeee! Sadly, I am a terrible person and forgot to take pictures but it was a great time. I am so happy that K decided that we needed to clean/ pick up the house in case they decided to come over. K also baked some fresh cookies and all was Christmas-ie around the abode!


Speaking of Christmas decor, many of you have asked that we share our Christmas decorations... I am sorry that I have not shared the pictures earlier. I will say that I am extremely happy how the decorations came out, especially considering that this is the first year that we have decorated and that this is our first Christmas together! I am however sorry to say that my picture-taking-skills are not pro :( So lemme just say that everything looks MUCH nicer in person, so how about you come over for a visit :) Now we're talking... heheh


Are you ready for the overload of pictures?? Here goes...

Me hanging the Christmas lights... 

The little lights we put up (Why did we not think to SHUT the garage... sorry for the mess ha! And its too cold to go outside now and take a re-do or I would...this will have to do for now)

Okay so I forgot that I took one on my phone... MUCH better :) but blurry... grr

Little outside bows

Okay so really this isn't related to our Christmas decor but I HAD to add it... such a cutie- and I captured a REAL smile for once ha! :) This is K opening a wedding gift from Erin and Brian (who visited a couple weekends ago- a CrockPot! YES!)

Erin (AKA St. Nick) came to see us on December 6th and filled our shoes with treats!! This is def. one going to be our new tradition and I LOVE IT! (Thanks Rin :) )

And again....(before the mantel was fully decorated...)

Picture perfect ;)

Our monogramed stockings AGAIN, because I just love them so!

(we even bought more yesterday for our future kiddos- this was both K and My ideas but on SEPARATE occasions- I didn't know he thought about doing it and he didn't know that I thought about doing it.  So we did it ha!!

The living room! 

Dining Room Christmas Decor

Ya'll we have SOME GIFTS... DON"T WE!? I love it!!I greatly anticipate every single person opening the gifts that we have picked out for them... it is my favorite part of Christmas!! :) 

Our little Nativity that I picked up while in Guatemala this summer, K loves this and so do I... it might have to stay out all year long :) 

And before I show you this AWFUL tree I will share with you a short little story... I HATE artificial trees and never in my life have been a part of setting one up.  Luckily no one in my family is allergic to Christmas trees so we have always had a "real" one.  And for those of you who claim you do it because "real" trees are a mess... well let me tell you ... this little guy made as big (or bigger) of a mess as our beautiful 8 foot REAL tree ha! So dont tell me fake trees dont make a mess... they DO! ha Okay, okay...

Well as most of you know... this is the hubs and i first christmas together and I have ALWAYS (growing up) had a sentimental tree (this meaning full of our childhood ornaments and sentimental ornaments... u get the idea) ... well this year we had nothing... So thanks to K's grandma we had a gift card to Garden Ridge who is your Queen store for ALL things Christmas and here we were... going after the "fancy" type things... Pretty glass ornaments, beautiful ribbon, little berries, and so on, to add to the tree... and there you have it... no sentimental tree... a Fancy tree it was for me and i LOVE it... its so different and so elegant. Well my MIL (mother-in-love) and my mom have both sent us "our ornaments" -- aka the childhood ones-- and as of today we have TWO christmas trees, the second one is NOTHING like the first and we refer to it as the "Charlie Brown" tree... it is much uglier (Ha) -- has colored lights, and ALL of our fun childhood ornaments (it is also a artificial tree (our other is real- the only way I like to  go)... We got Charlie Brown at garden ridge yesterday for 20 dollars and its 6 feet tall... we strung the lights and enjoyed making it the "less classy" of the trees, but FULL of GREAT MEMORIES!! :) Its here to stay I'm afraid... and I think when we start having kiddos, they too will get their own version of a "charlie brown tree" but maybe on a smaller scale than 6ft. ha! :)  And I must admit... it is slowly growing on me... I love just gazing at it and remembering each special memory that each ornament holds... its Great! :) Now that's the Christmas spirit! :)

And you call this a TREE!?! HAHAHA

Our Charlie Brown Tree (ew isnt it gross ha) 

And the lil guy cleans up pretty good if I don't say so myself ;)

And there it is! Our lil humble abode at Christmas time! :) 

And remember to keep it a 

MERRY CHRISTMAS 

because HE is the reason for the season! 

God Bless!! 

Do you know Juice Plus+ ?

So I don't know what it is but I have been having the total lack of motivation to get my rear in gear and head to the gym.  Luckily my wonderful husband does just about all he can to motivate and pretty much the only thing that finally gets me there is that I don't want him to have to go alone so I go with.  HA!  (I am so thankful for him!) :)
Our wedding (I know this may sound confusing since he is my husband already...  We had a very small 'wedding' in September when we were officially married and now we are having a BIG-OL wedding this summer so that all of our friends and family can come and celebrate with us.  We did it this way on purpose... if yah want to know more feel free to ask :) )  Okay... like I was saying... Our wedding is quickly approaching... in fact, as of today we have exactly SEVEN months.  Now, for some of you that might seem like forever, but for me... well its coming up soon because I am so indecisive it takes me several weeks to make one decision haha. So tell me... who doesn't want to look amazing in their wedding gown? alrighty then... this is why I need to get the ball rolling...
Anyways... I need to get rid of some of this weight I have been packing on (I am now at my heaviest EVER and I have gained about 5 of those pounds over the past couple of months-- am I too comfortable being married? ha).  I have desperately tried to start eating healthy... cutting soda's out of my diet... etc etc. but to me this is a total NIGHTMARE!! I love my food and it is just so hard for me to give things up- esp when I am craving a good ol Dr. Pepper with lime from Sonic- mmm mmm good!

Anyways, one of my sweet blogger friends Sonja has really got me hooked on the idea of trying Juice Plus... before you freak out it is NOT a weight loss pill... it is more like a... vitamin.  It has all natural fruits and vitamins...
Have any of you out there tried this or know of anyone else who has?  I need to be more healthy in my eating habits and I think this might be my only hope... I will let you know if it changes my life.  :)

OH OH! and How could I Forget... SAVE THE DATES!

OH OH!! How could I have forgotten to post about what we spent the last few nights doing... We finally ordered our SAVE-THE-DATES!!!!!!! YAAAAY!! We are both SOO excited!!! On top of that we have been working on our wedding web-site which has been lots of fun- K has done most of the work so I'm not going to take all the credit there ha! Do any of ya'll have wedding websites? I would love to see them! Also, where did everyone register?  Looking for ideas here... Thanks for all the help :)

Friendly Weekend!

Hello Wednesday.  Goodness I can not believe that it is already Wednesday and I have not updated since Friday! Well for the weekend wrap up:

FRIDAY:

Some of our wonderful friends came in town this weekend, Erin and her hubby.  She is new to blogging so you should check out her blog :)  Anyways, we ALWAYS love it when we have friends come in town but this weekend was exceptionally fun! Erin and I are childhood friends who don't get to see near enough of each other!  Well Friday night as they were arriving we met them at Cuba Libre- one of my fav. places to eat and hang out.  It was the first place that I took K on his first visit to Texas.  We enjoyed a nice dinner, some yummy Mojitos, and some wonderful company!  We had not seen each other since their wedding but we picked right up where we left off.  It ended up being a rather late night so we ended it promptly when we got home.

 

SATURDAY:

Saturday morning we slept in (yee-haw!) and then ate some breakfast and exchanged gifts.  We got a great new crock-pot (which we needed) that I am very excited about putting to work and a recipe book for all crock-pot recipes-so neat!.  K had to work which was no fun so Erin and Brian and I all went downtown Denton to "square" and looked around at lots of neat shops, and antique shops.  We had a great lunch at the well-known "Denton County Burger" and I do believe that they were impressed- I'm not going to lie- it is a great burger!! (I'm sure I have posted about this before).  When Brian was younger he used to live in the area and so we then went to find his old house which we did.  It was a lot of fun listening to his excitement as he reminisced about "the good ol days" and.... "so-and-so lived here," and "this is where I saw such-and-such movie for the first time" and "this is where I broke my first bone."  It really was a lot of fun and brought back some of my childhood memories as well! When we left there we came back to the house and laid around watching Christmas movies, and for some reason we were all so exhausted that we opted for nap time :)  Later that evening K got off work and we went to the Gaylord Texans "ICE" exhibit.

About "ICE":

In mid-October, 40 master artisans will travel to Gaylord Texan’s location in Grapevine, Texas from Harbin, China – otherwise know as the world’s “ice city” for its spectacular outdoor ice sculpture displays. Transforming 5,000 blocks of ice weighing TWO MILLION POUNDS into the city of Who-ville will take the carvers approximately 30 days. From the Grinch’s frozen mountaintop lair and 20-foot high slides to a variety of family photo opportunities and the picturesque Who-ville including feasting Who’s and Max the dog, the enchanting attraction will make more hearts than just the Grinch’s grow three times in size. 

IT WAS AMAZING!! Seriously, you should make a visit if you live in the Dallas Area!

Unfortunately, I didn't have my camera... BUT ERIN DID! :) So those pics will come as soon as I get them from her.  Oh and did I mention we nearly froze to death! It was NINE DEGREES in there!! and we were in there for THIRTY MINUTES!!!!! BRRR!!! (so fun though!)

SUNDAY:

Unfortunately the company had to leave and the hubs had to go to work yet again... BUT when we finally woke up after sleeping in.... we went into the living room to find that Saint Nicholas had visited us!!! If you are not familiar with the tradition, every year on December 6th it is "Saint Nicholas Day" and St. Nick comes and fills the shoes of the household with lots of little goodies (like you would a stocking).  Erin is the sweetest thing for doing this for us and it totally made our day.

Well thats all for the weekend but I did want to update you on Matt and his recovery. His recovery in the hospital has been extended and there is still no word on the biopsy but results are expected middle of this week. Please check out that website for all of the details and as always, please remember him in your prayers!  

Also, some news on the job front for me... I had an interview with a rather large bank yesterday and that went extremely well.  It was a group interview which was weird, and I had never done anything like that before but like I said it went well (besides it taking 2+hours!).  We were told to expect to hear something in 3-10 days ... well guess what?! I got a call back today saying that one of the branch managers wanted to interview me on Friday (this is after filling out an online application, getting through that screening, being asked to a phone interview, getting through that, and then getting through the group interview and getting through that).  I am hopeful that this means that I have the job ... but I'm not 100% sure so keep praying for that.

Well I guess I will let that be all for tonight.  Man I am so happy its cold outside but these chapped lips are not my friend.  :( ha!

Pray... Surgery today 10:45 CST

Just keeping you updated on our pastor Matt who is having a piece of his brain removed today.  You will remember I asked for your prayers a few days after he had a seizure on Thanksgiving day and the doctors found a tumor on his right frontal lobe...here is my previous post. 

I wanted you all to see his perspective on things- he has blogged as well as his wife but I am going to copy and paste his blog on here (for your easy reading and I will link you to it also.)

My Heart is full…I am Thankful

The last seven days have been some of the most interesting of my life. I have felt anxiety, fear, sadness and a deep and unmovable joy simultaneously and in deeper ways than I have felt before. I am grateful for this heightened sense of things. Today at 10:45 a.m. CST I will have a good portion of my right frontal lobe removed. I head into that surgery with a heart that is filled with gratitude and hope.

Here are some of the things I am thankful for in no particular order:

1. I am thankful for the thousands of you who have prayed and fasted for my health. It has brought far more tears to Lauren’s and my eyes to receive this kind of attention from the Church universal than this tumor has.
2. I’m thankful for health insurance because I’m guessing they aren’t doing my five-hour surgery for free!
3. I am thankful that I have deep, real friendships at The Village with Michael Bleecker, Josh Patterson, Brian Miller, Chris Chavez and Beau Hughes. They have been such a comfort to me and my family this past week. Pastors should have good friends on their staff. It’s risky but worth the risk.
4. I am grateful for the men of God in my life, namely John Piper who taught me to hold my life cheap and to join with Paul in saying “I don’t count my life of any value or as precious to myself if only I might finish my course and complete the work that He gave me to do to testify to the Gospel of the grace of God. I’m nothing, I just have a job. God keep me faithful on the job and then let me drop and go to the reward.” Without this strong view of God’s sovereign will, I’m not sure how you don’t despair in circumstances like mine.
5. I am thankful for my wife Lauren. “Strength and dignity are her clothing, and she laughs at the time to come. She opens her mouth with wisdom, and the teaching of kindness is on her tongue. She looks well to the ways of her household and does not eat the bread of idleness. Her children rise up and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praises her: ‘Many women have done excellently, but you surpass them all.’” “Charm is deceitful, and beauty is vain, but a woman who fears the LORD is to be praised.”
6. I am thankful for my children. Audrey the Beautiful, Reid the Valiant and Norah the Joyous. Being a daddy to these three is one of the greatest joys of my life.
7. The privilege of seeing and appreciating all of life through the grid of a heightened sense of my own mortality.
8. I am thankful for brilliant doctors and surgeons who have been given a real gift by our great God and King to repair things as complex as the brain.
9. I am thankful for The Village Church. If there is a place that loves Jesus more, takes sanctification as seriously and wants to see the lost love the great King deeply I am unaware of it. These last seven years have been a spectacular joy!
10. More than anything else I am grateful to my King Eternal, my Lord Immortal, for my God invisible. He alone is God. All Glory and Honor, Forever to You O God. I am overwhelmed in these moments by God Himself and the assurance of a future inheritance of a Kingdom that cannot be shaken and where all things are made new (Hebrews 12).

Christ is All,
Matt Chandler

Address: http://hv.thevillagechurch.net/blog/hvpastor/?p=357

You can also follow him on twitter @mattchandler74

****PLEASE KEEP MATT AND HIS FAMILY IN YOUR PRAYERS!!! ALSO, A PRAYER REQUEST FROM HIS WIFE LAUREN, "Pray for the gospel to be planted in the hearts of those involved in the surgery. HE can use anything!"
Her blog link: http://themchandlers.blogspot.com/2009/11/we-had-this-picture-taken-well-before.html *****

Thanks ya'll!

The Big Reveal!

...the moment that you all have been waiting for... {drum roll please....}

hope you all like it sorry its not the best pic, i was in the car and tired. ha

I went and met my hubby at Best Buy after he got off work last night, I tapped him on the shoulders and think that I startled him quite a bit ha! He really loves it and I am glad, I couldnt tell you how many times he has told me how much he loves it and how good I look... isn't that what all women what to hear from their men?  I'm so thankful for him and all he does for me :) ilukjp!

PS- sorry I didnt post the pic last night, I was so tired last night that by the time we got home from some shopping it was 11:30 and I fell asleep on the couch ha!

Shhhh!! It's a Secret!

Okay so first of all, SHHH! This is a secret!

So all of you remember when a few weeks ago I posted "Cast your vote now" about whether I should keep my current blonde hair or go with the darker brunette that I had back when.  My husband is ALL about me having dark hair again.  Thats the color it was when he met me so I'm thinking that may have something to do with it??  I know that many of you liked the blonde better (as do I currently- but I like both just fine) but he realllllly reallllly wants me to have dark hair again.  I'm doing it- I'm going to dye my hair brown.

Here are a few reasons for dying my hair.

• I already made a promise that I would have dark hair for my wedding.....&.....
• We are soon going to take some engagement style pics (I hope) and I want my hair to be the same color in those pics as my wedding day pics (make sense?)
• Its winter... now is the time to go darker... we are having a summer wedding and I think it might be weird (or just a little "emo" as daddy used to tell me) to dye my hair dark in the middle of the summer.
• Dying my hair will most likely make it look a little healthier, and is not as bad for your hair as highlighting 
• Dying hair is WAY cheaper than highlighting it. (hundreds of dollars vs. 50 dollars)
• MOST of all, I want to surprise my hubby and make him go nuts (because I know he will). ha!

So there are some of the reasons I am MAKING THE JUMP!  I just got off the phone with the hair place that I swore I would never go to again, but they always DYED my hair when it was dark and I was always happy with it.  I'm mad that I am giving them business after this terrible hair fiasco I had this summer... but a girls gotta do what a girls gotta do... and like my friend Jen said... Toni & Guy tend to be hit and miss ... hopefully today is a HIT! (I know it will be, the lady doing it has been doing one of my friends hair for almost 3 years and she has dyed mine before.)

So 2pm today I will be heading to get my new "do!" Im freakishly nervous... don't know why... maybe because I'm surprising my man, maybe because my hair is already so damaged thanks to that "terrible hair fiasco", maybe because I'm still not 100% sure that I want dark hair ... but I'm making taking the leap! 

The hubby is at work and by the time he gets home to read this he will have already see my hair and hopefully be blown away! haha Be sure to check back later today for some new pictures :) YAY!

* Let it Snow *

Well this morning I woke up to send K off to work and we were in the living room when he turned on the TV and they were talking about "Snow in North Texas..." I got all excited (thinking that it would be snowing soon) and started squealing! Last night I was not happy because other parts of Texas were getting snow but not us.  K explained to me that the weather people were crazy and that there was no way it was going to snow... and I was like no! no! there we are on the radar... it says SNOW! ha!  He again was like, nah... no way... they are nuts (or something along those lines ha) ... BUT as he was saying this, mid sentence, he glanced over toward the window... (the blinds were closed but you could barely peak through them)... gets up off the couch and walks a little closer... says "oh my!", opens the blinds and WAH-LAH! There was SNOW already covering the ground table and EVERYthing else! :) I was thrilled, him... not so much haha he just isnt a huge fan of snow.

In the midst of all that is going on I feel like the past few days I have been in one of those ruts... I think everyone spends some time there occasionally and I don't think it is necessarily a bad place to be but more of a bad place to stay.  Its a great place to be if it brings you to your knees and back to the Lord!

Last week we found out that my pastor has a brain tumor (read more about it here).  He had a doctor appointment on Tuesday that went well and is scheduled for surgery on Friday.  Updates can be found here.  This is terrible, sad news for anyone but especially our pastor who has done so much for the body of Christ.  Dallas Morning News has also put out an article.  This has created an outpouring of prayer from all over the world from literally thousands of people which is totally amazing!   Join with us in praying!
On top of that yesterday I found out that my sisters kitty was killed in some sort of a fight outside.  Terrible news.
There are also some other things going on with K's job and the holidays coming up that we are in need of many prayers for.  
It just seems like so many negative things are happening to people all around the world.  It has managed to get me a little down.

Putting all of this aside, I think it so neat that this morning God would waken me to a beautiful gift, a surprise, of a beautiful First-snow-of-the-year (esp in TX where it never snows!) that immediately boosted my spirit and I felt instantly renewed.  I LOVE the little gifts that God gives us,  they are the greatest!

Home Sweet Home... :) Its all starting to melt...

(Nevermind that just a couple of hours later one would never know that it had snowed ha.  The streets are dry and the grass is green again. Oh well- they are calling for more on Friday- Yippee!)

Thought of the Day: 

"HOLD ON TIGHT TO THE HAND OF JESUS. THIS IS A WAR WE ARE IN!" 

"When I walk into the thick of trouble, keep me alive in the angry turmoil. With one hand strike my foes, With your other hand save me. Finish what you started in me, God. Your love is eternal—don't quit on me now." Psalm 138:7-8, The Message.

"The Spirit can make life. Sheer muscle and willpower don't make anything happen. Every word I've spoken to you is a Spirit-word, and so it is life-making." John 6:63.  

Check out  Beth Moore's Blog for more on this.... it is a GREAT read, especially how it relates to everything else I have already spoken about on here today.  Love ya'll! 

Decorating for our 1st Christmas together! :)

Now on a happier note... Tis The Season!! :)

Well yesterday K and I decided it was time to go from Fall to Christmas! We have some wonderful friends coming into town this weekend and that was kinda like a push in the butt for me to take all the Fall decor down. I will admit I had a hard time at first taking it down because I love all of the fall colors.. sooo much! Instead of taking all the decor down we opted to go for a shopping trip! K's wonderful grandma gave us a gift card to Garden Ridge (thank you again!)- it was K's idea to go there for all of our Christmas needs.  We had no anything christmas except for a few doo-dad's that I had from the past few years in my apartment.  Usually around Christmas I head home for a few weeks to be with family so I never bothered with my own tree or stockings, etc... So we head to Garden Ridge and GO TO TOWN on the christmas things.... we first chose to tackle ornaments... this was a quite a task... yellow, pink, purple, blue, gold, green, orange, brown, red... what colors to choose?? Well we went for the classic look for green and gold (SIC EM! ha) and red!  We picked out different sized glass balls in these colors then just wandered around the store.  We picked out matching stockings (that are currently being embroidered with our names, yay!) I will post pics as soon as we get them back.  We also purchased a tree skirt that matches both stockings, and 2 stocking hangers that are snowflakes!  We then headed over to Lowes, we also had a gift card from K's aunt and uncle (thank you again!) and we picked out a tree.  This was a fun event because K has never in his LIFE had a live Christmas tree.  I have ALWAYS (all of my life) had a LIVE Christmas tree. I had to teach him about the different trees, how to pick them out, looking for "holes" or gaps in the tree and all the other fun stuff you do when you shop for a real tree.  We finally decided on one that looked  just right! :)   We also picked out some lights to put outside of our house (which we haven't begun to tackle quite yet).

We came home and had a wonderful date night -- Papa John's pizza, MNF (Monday night football- Patriots and the Saints), taking down the fall things (which I was now okay with since I had some "replacements" ha!) and DECORATING for Christmas!!!!!! We had a blast! Last night was such a productive night, we even tackled part of our registry that we have started... WAHOO!

Tonight has been an equally fun day/night- We went to lunch with some of our great IBM friends at my fav. place ever! HANG OUT! Tonight K took me on a date to Outback (with another gift card from his mommy! thannnnks) and boy. was. it. good! :) I love that we had gift cards for lots of places to do are shopping- my wallet sure does like it :)

Days till Christmas: 24! Days till our Wedding: 220!! Yippee! Now enjoy some fun pictures!

Getting the stand ready (its always so difficult to get K to smile so he sometimes makes this face.  Today was my turn -- I can totally relate to your story Jen haha)

Putting the tree in the stand

Getting it adjusted

Opening the tree up :)

Yoda was such a great helper! (ignore mess and fall decor still up ha- its down now!)

bye bye fall...

stringing the lights

K helping (still no smiles... hes hiding)

putting hooks on the gold balls (Yoda again is helping)

He was in charge of trash duty.

Hanging the 1st gold ornament.  (Fake smile = better than no smile ha!)

He helped so much! I am so lucky :)

OUR FIRST CHRISTMAS TREE!!! :) TAH-DAH!!! 

Merry Christmas to ALL! :)