As Time Goes By!

Well, to say it has been a while since I've blogged would be the understatement of the century.  Since I've blogged my last name has changed, a billion of my friends have had gorgeous babies, I've been blessed by new friendships and had to say goodbye to some amazing friends who have moved away!  I've had bunion surgery on both my feet, and Chad has changed jobs twice!  All in all, we have been blessed.

Chad and I were married on April 17, 2010.  Doesn't seem like it was that long ago that Chad was running to the dollar store to get an under shirt because he didn't pack any and I was trying not to cry as my dad maintained a somewhat solemn disposition before the wedding.  Don't hear me wrong, he is thrilled that his baby girl is happy but he repeated very often to me 'why you want to leave me?'  What a joyous day it was!

After the wedding, we were off to a week in Hawaii!  A week we thoroughly enjoyed despite a little sun poisoning! 

After we got back, we settled in to life as normal, well while making all those adjustments you make in the first year.  We eventually joined a young married sunday school class at church.  Through this class, I truly believe we've made some life long friends and also enhanced some of the friendships we already had!  We have been so very blessed to have these people in our lives.  Here are a couple of images from a BBQ we had at our house in June 2011:

Shortly after this BBQ we packed our bags and headed to Tennesse for a week with my family:

While we were there, we went white water rafting:

Since the summer we've been just enjoying life!  Chad was enrolled in 9 hours last semester so we tried to cherish our weekends together as much as we could!  I've gotten completed addicted to Pinterest and have started/completed some of the Pinterest projects I found.  I plan to post about a sign I made my mom for Christmas, coffee filter wreaths, crayon rolls, and a canvas project that I still haven't quite completed! 

I'll be back in a couple of days to post about our Christmas!  We were truly blessed this year and stand in awe of how much we are loved by our families but mostly our Savior. 

"The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth."  John 1:14

I hope you have all had a blessed holiday season!! Here's to blogging and hopefully I will truly jump on board this time!!  :)

Anybody Out There?

New blog....coming soon......

That's What Friends are For Part 3

It's been a couple of weeks since an installment about our amazing wedding party!  We have four married couples in our wedding party and I'm excited that tonight I get to introduce two of them at the same time...

Meet Jamie Leighann:

Jamie Leighann came in to my life with a BANG!  It was summer of 2000--Jamie had just graduated high school and I had just joined The Oaks and was at my first youth camp.  I was shy and quiet (I know hard to imagine).  Jamie was my bunkmate and when I asked her to 'toss' me my bible she attempted to fake a toss which resulted in my bible flying from the cover and smacking me in the face.  Although Jamie apologized profusely I just laughed, it was, in the end, what brought me out of my shell.  Jamie and I also quickly bonded over the situation and became good friends.  When Zach saw her picture on the refrigerator at our house and told me he would marry her, I said 'I don't think so.'  I had no idea what God had intended for my life and Jamie's.  Jamie has become one of my very dearest friends.  She has brought much joy to my life and provided me with constant friendship and love over the last nearly 10 years of life.  I could not imagine Jamie Leigh Ann not being in my life and my family's life and I'm thankful for the way God orchestrates things together.  Jamie is now my family--I was honored to stand with her on her wedding day and will be more than blessed and honored to have her standing with me in April.  :)

I bet you can't guess which groomsman I'm about to introduce:

Meet Zachary (fyi I don't have a pic of him and Chad so I figured I'd use the one of me, Zach, and Erick from Zach's rehearsal dinner):

Zach is one of my amazing big brothers.  He use to pick on me like crazy in high school but is now one of my best buds.  He is married to the lovely woman I spke of above!  Zach and Chad have really hit it off and share a lot of interests such as golf!  Chad was, at one time, very intimidated by Zach but has made mention several times of how grateful he is to have a good relationship with my brother!  I'm also thankful for this relationship and look forward to seeing how our friendships will continue to grow!

On the next installment of That's What Friends are For:  Erick (oldest bro) and Abby!

Love to all, I hope you are all excited about the new year ahead, I know I am!!

Full Steam Ahead...

After a very blessed week of Christmas, Chad and I spent most of Sunday working on our wedding.  We are so excited that the wedding day is so quickly approaching but are also beginning to feel the crunch.  Yesterday we did, however, accomplish the following tasks:

- purchased sparklers for our exit
- purchased spray paint and ribbon to assemble flower girl baskets
- completed flowergirl baskets
- started on favors
- addressed invitations (with the exception of those who we do not have addresses for yet)

After yesterdays events I'm feeling pretty accomplished today.  Around 2:30 today I also got news that my wedding dress is in!  I'm a bit nervous about going to pick it up.  Not that it really changes anything but it sorta starts making everything really real, not that it has been 'fake' real before! 

We have proposed a revision for our Mason Jar design; here are a couple of pictures of a completed jar:

Tammy, my future mother-in-law has also completed the flower girl dresses (aside from the hem), here are some pictures of dresses:

We also completed the flower girl baskets last night that were originally gold baskets, here is a picture:

I think that's all the wedding updating I'll do for now...

Hope you have all had a blessed day!

Merry Christmas!

I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas...

In my entire life I have NEVER experienced a White Christmas...it appears that may all change.  It's been snowing most the day here in DFW and the temp is now under freezing with approximately 4 hours of snow expected....here are a few pics of the white scenes outside right now...

I hope each of you have a very blessed and Merry Christmas!  What a wonderful time of year to reflect on the Glory of our Lord and Savior!

My Disappearance

So, I was so 'gun-ho' on this blogging adventure and then I disappeared!  So sorry for the disappearance.  Last week I caught a nasty case of the flu and strep!  Needless to say I had a very rough go at it and barely lifted my head off the bed much less think of a blog post.

Stay stuned for more installments of the 'That's What Friend are For' series!  We have more wonderful people from the wedding party to introduce!

This blog will be rather short, it is merely meant to provide a short update and let you (the few who read) know where I've been.

Another post to come soon with pictures!

Merry Christmas!