Ain't Life Grand

My 26th birthday was one of the best I've ever had, because I got to spend it with so many of my favorite people! That morning, mom came over and made me blueberry muffins for breakfast and then we just spent the morning at my house hanging out. We met up with Whitney and Mrs. Pamela for lunch at Chocolate Covered Strawberry, where we enjoyed girls time. These three women mean the world to me and I feel so blessed to have them in my life!

 

 

 

I'm not sure why I don't have any other pictures, but Whitney and I spent the rest of the day getting pedicures and crafting, before meeting up with our husbands and families for dinner at PF Changs. Then all of us came back to the house for cake, darts, presents, and time together. It is so nice to be able to spend so much time with people I love!

 

On Saturday, my friend Grace and her husband came to visit us. It had been awhile since we had seen each other, and it was so great to hug her neck...and see her teeny tiny baby bump. I am so excited for them! We met up for lunch at Chocolate Covered Strawberry - it really is that good!

 

 

Then after hanging at the house for a bit, we drove them around downtown Nashville, and then went to see the Christmas lights at Opryland Hotel.

 

After seeing the beautiful lights, we headed back to the house for dinner and darts. It was really fun, and the boys had way too much fun trying to beat each other at darts! After breakfast on Sunday, they had to leave to drive back to Michigan. I feel so lucky that they came over the Nashville to spend the weekend with us!

 

I am looking forward to this next year in my life. While we are never sure what the future may hold, I am trusting in God that it will be a year of growth, change, and excitement. Here's to hoping my 26th year of life is the best one yet!

I Wanna Wish You A Merry Christmas

Christmas was so great this year! Kim and Dan came into town the weekend before Christmas. Kim and I made cookies, but we were in luck because I had an electric cookie gun. No bad words were said, and we finished all the cookies in less than 2 hours!

 

 

Apparently this is a feat, as normally these cookies take all day. We played darts with the boys while they were baking. It was definitely the start of a new tradition for the girls.

 

We played a bunch of games of darts. Girls vs. Boys, Mom/Son vs. FIL/DIL (father-in-law/daughter-in-law) - I was on the winning team every time! It's because I am really good at darts...yeah. Let's go with that.

 

Dan was under the weather, so we bumped elbows to celebrate our victory!

 

We exchanged gifts and enjoyed time all together. Such a sweet time with family!

 

On Christmas Eve, Matt came over to hang out with us. The boys played darts and spent time together hanging out.

 

On Christmas morning, we all went over to my parents house. We had a nice lunch and opened presents. The guys all had a jam session featuring Chris on the acoustic guitar, Matt on the electric, and Dad on the drums. We facetimed Kim and Dan so they could enjoy the music!

Christmas evening my parents, Chris, and I went over to the Cork's house to celebrate with them. We ate a delicious dinner, had a very hard quiz on Christmas song trivia, played spoons (with candy canes), KEMPS, and opened presents.

 

I consider everyone here family and it was so nice to be able to spend time with everyone together...except Michelle - we missed you! Between college, jobs, and life, it is very rare anymore for us all to be together at the same time. 10 out of 11 ain't bad :)

 

Chris and I spent the rest of the night just enjoying the quiet and talking about the day. Not only did God send Jesus to the world to release us from the boundaries of the Law, he has blessed us immensely! Happy Birthday Jesus! 

Papaw-Claus is Coming Town

The best thing ever happened this week. Papaw came to visit us in Tennessee! The whole family went out to dinner on Thursday night, and I took Friday off. Papaw spent the night with us on Thursday so him and I could have a breakfast date on Friday. We went to Pancake Pantry for breakfast, and then drove all over Nashville looking at the different sites. I tried to just truly live in the moment and soak up every minute I could spend with this sweet man. He is such an amazing man and I am so thankful he is my granddad. We met up with mom and dad for lunch and then went to Opryland Hotel to see the lights.

 

On Saturday, Mom and I drove Papaw up to Aunt Sheri's house. We went to Uncle David's Cantata at church with Andrea, and then got to meet Adam's finance Jessica. It had snowed there, so we all bundled up and went outside to play in the snow. Adam, Andrea, and I went sledding on boogie boards which was a blast! On Sunday we went to Andrea's Cantata, met up with everyone for lunch, and then Mom and I drove back to Tennessee. In case you are ever driving from Saint Louis to Nashville, don't plan on stopping for Starbucks because they are all in malls, hospitals, pretty much not easy to get to...because we sure tried!

 

I am so thankful Papaw came to visit and I got to see some family I don't see often enough! God sure has blessed us this Christmas season!

 

It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas

After Thanksgiving, we seemed to hurry into the Christmas season very quickly since it fell so late this year. This is such a great time of year, and I enjoy spending time out and about with Chris. One afternoon we wanted to try a new restaurant, so we decided to go to Sushi Train. It was so much fun and we were able to try a ton of different types of sushi for a very reasonable price. Can't wait to go back again!

The past few weeks have been such a fun time of decorating our house for Christmas. Deciding where we want to place decorations, making new traditions in this house, and just enjoying this special time of year in our new house has been great. Since we don't have a kitchen table yet, it seemed like the perfect place for our Christmas tree. Hopefully next year, we will have to find a new place!

 

I love to try new foods, but sometimes it is easier to make something tried and true. Chris loves all things bacon, so BLTs were on the menu recently. He was so proud of how he "stacked it up" so he wanted his picture taken. Love this cutie pie!

 



 

Can't wait for Christmas and birthday celebrations to begin!

Mo-vember to Remember

November has been another crazy month for us. Between working and trying to make our house our home (on a budget), we have had our hands really full! Chris decided to participate in "No Shave November" this month, so it's been funny to watch him progress to full blown redneck :)

 

Chris has been wanting to go to Corsair Distillery, so we headed downtown one afternoon for a fun tour and tasting.  It is in the old Marathon Car Plant, so the building in itself is very cool to look at.

 

 

I LOVE Ikea, and ever since we moved into our house I have been wanting to make a trip down to Atlanta to shop til I drop! Mom and I met Kim in Chattanooga and we all drove down together. While I lived in Atlanta a few years ago, I had heard lots about a restaurant called the Varsity, but had never made it out there. We stopped there for lunch. It is a super cute building, with decent food for a good price. Fun!

 

The Corks, the Minks, and The Gardners all decided since we live in Hendersonville now, that Sunday night dinners would be an amazing idea. We hosted the first one and it was so much fun! My work had our Christmas party at my manager's new house. It was nice to be able to relax with everybody and enjoy some good food! I was also blessed to get to spend time with my mom seeing the Rockettes! Now I just have to figure out how to make my legs look like theirs.

 

 

I had the privilege of going to read and craft with a kindergarten class. We read "The Hungry Caterpillar" and then made our own caterpillars eating our favorite foods. It was our year for Thanksgiving with my family, so we had a pretty chill day. Chris had to work at 3, so we had an early lunch and then Mom and I put up her Christmas tree and watched Monster's Inc and Monster's University. We had some wintery mix last week and Zeppelin enjoyed running around like a banshee in the backyard.

 

 

Chris's family came in to town to celebrate Thanksgiving with us as well. We enjoyed dinner as a family at Chop House, and then on Saturday, we took them to the Corvette Factory in Bowling Green, Kentucky. It was so much fun, and Dan was like a kid in a candy store!

 

As you can see, Chris's beard has grown significantly since the beginning of the month. I am ready for December 1st so it can all come off!

 

 

As we head into the Christmas season, I can't help but think of how blessed we are. We both have jobs, we have a new house, we are both covered by the precious blood of Jesus, we both got to know my sweet Mamaw and learn from her how to trust Jesus through all things, and we get to spend the rest of this crazy life together. I have never been more thankful for the people we get to walk through life with and I am excited to spend the next few weeks celebrating the real reason for the season.

 

 

 

One Month of Crazy

October was one of the most insane months of my life. We started the month by closing on our house, I went to California, and then we painted, moved, cleaned, and worked on making our new house our home. I am so thankful for my parents and in-laws for helping us get set up and moved! I will begin posting pictures soon!

 

For our anniversary, we had decided to not do anything big. We both worked and were planning on going to a nice dinner downtown. I made it two work, started feeling pretty horrible, and within 30 minutes, I was doubled over in pain. Chris had to take me to the emergency room, where it was determined I was passing a kidney stone...NO FUN! We enjoyed a pepperoni roll for dinner and just relaxed most of the day. I am so blessed to have such an amazing husband who stayed with me the whole day and took great care of me.

 

Besides working on the house, we haven't done much the rest of the month. We celebrated Halloween at work by dressing up as the Wizard of Oz characters...so much fun!

 

 

We had our first trick or treaters and it was way fun! Can't wait to celebrate many more holidays in our new home!

 

I am so thankful for all of the good things that happened in October, and I am also thankful that I am confident that God will work all the things that weren't so great into something good!

It Is Well With My Soul

October 2 was a day I had been planning and excited about for over 6 weeks. Chris and I were supposed to be closing on our house. All of that changed when I had to fly to California for Mamaw's funeral. My sweet husband had to sign all of the mortgage paperwork for himself and me. I am so thankful for all he did to make sure everything went off without a hitch. We are officially homeowners!

 

That Wednesday morning, I headed out to Los Angeles. I met Mom and Dad at the LAX airport and Michelle picked us up. We drove over to Cora's to freshen up for the viewing and to visit for a few minutes. Afterwards, we headed over to Papaw's house to meet up with the family. It is such an amazing blessing that our entire family was able to make it in for the viewing.

 

The mortuary where the viewing was held was so perfect. It had a gorgeous indoor garden and two nice TVs that played an absolutely perfect slideshow Michelle made. I had the privilege of walking arm and arm with Papaw to see Mamaw. She looked so beautiful and peaceful. So many people came by to pay their respects and many others sent such pretty arrangements. We had such a good time telling stories and hearing all the different ways both Mamaw and Papaw had blessed so many others.



 

This is one of my favorite pictures of Mamaw from the slideshow.

 

 

I love these two of Mamaw and Pawpaw...they look so happy and in love!

 

 

After the viewing, everyone headed to dinner. I could tell Papaw was tired, so I asked him if he would take me on a date to El Pollo Loco...with our third wheel Uncle Gary! It was such an amazingly sweet time with the two of them.

 

Thursday we spent most of the day around the house, just spending time together as family. I believe it is such a testament of Mamaw and Papaw's love that we had 8 people staying in a small house, and 12 people spending time there, and there were no fights, arguments, nothing. It was a beautiful time of togetherness. When it was time to head to the church, we all went over together, prayed as a family, and then celebrated Mamaw's life! It was such a perfect ceremony and is exactly what Mamaw would have wanted. 

 

On Friday, we spent time going through Mamaw's clothes and jewelry. It was definitely difficult, but we found over $250 she had stuffed in different purses, so Mamaw was buying dinner. We also found a box with every breakfast note Papaw had written her, which is another testament to their love. Later I realized that one of the three necklaces I chose was the necklace she wore to our wedding...such a sweet God thing!

 

We headed out to Laguna Beach to take family pictures. It was an absolutely perfect day and it was so fun. I am so glad that we were all able to celebrate Mamaw's life and spend some time together.

 

 

Recreation of a picture from our trip to DC together as kids!

 

 

I love my sweet family!

 

I am so thankful I was able to make it to California to be with my family. It is truly a blessing to have such an amazing family and I am so glad we were all there together. Mamaw was such a special person and I will miss her until I get to dance on the streets of gold with her!