'Twas the Month After Christmas!

I got this from a very good friend of mine and just had to post it! It's so true! :)

'Twas the month after Christmas,
and all through the house
Nothing would fit me, not even a blouse.

The cookies I'd nibbled,
the eggnog I'd taste
At the holiday parties had gone to my waist.

When I got on the scales there arose such a number!
When I walked to the store (less a walk than a lumber).
I'd remember the marvelous meals I'd prepared;
The gravies and sauces and beef nicely rared,
The wine and the rum balls, the bread and the cheese
And the way I'd never said, "No thank you, please."

As I dressed myself in my husband's old shirt
And prepared once again to do battle with dirt.
I said to myself, as I only can
"You can't spend a winter disguised as a man!"

So--away with the last of the sour cream dip,
Get rid of the fruit cake, every cracker and chip
Every last bit of food that I like must be banished
Till all the additional ounces have vanished.

I won't have a cookie--not even a lick.
I'll want only to chew on a long celery stick.
I won't have hot biscuits, or corn bread, or pie,
I'll munch on a carrot and quietly cry.

I'm hungry, I'm lonesome, and life is a bore,
But isn't that what January is for?
Unable to giggle, no longer a riot.
Happy New Year to all and to all a good diet!

I'll Be HOME......

FOR CHRISTMAS!!!!
Our long awaited trip is finally here and we are leaving tomorrow to go HOME for Christmas! This will be the first year in 2 Christmas' that I'll get to see SNOW on Christmas! They have over 2 feet so it's not going anywhere anytime soon! :) Today I've been packing and cleaning my house so that I don't come home to a messy house, which I hate. I had a party last night so the house was a disaster but it's gotten better!

I will try to post while I am there. I'm so excited about taking pictures of Brookie in the snow and what she thinks of it, so I'm sure that I will have to share them all with you!

Merry Christmas to all of you! I hope that no matter where you are or what the weather you will remember the true meaning of the season! For unto you is born this day in the city of David a SAVIOUR which is CHRIST THE LORD!

Right Now...

I am doing something very stupid. I am blogging. I will regret it in the morning when I have to teach piano for an hour and a half. Right now it is 11:41pm and will be much later by the time I actually make it to bed, so if this all comes out strange you will know why! Here are pictures of our early Christmas we had with Nate's family last night!

I am so sad that this came out blurry...we did our annual tradition of a family picture with the self timer and it always makes us laugh :)

Another tradition: Happy Birthday Jesus cake!

My pretty tree with lots of presents :)

We had some extra lights so Nate put these up for me! I was SO excited!

I LOVE this picture of Brookie and I making memories frosting sugar cookies :)

Uriah got into the food coloring!

We tried to get good pictures of Brookie and Trinity but it didn't work out too well. They wouldn't smile for anything!

For your information, it is now 11:58pm. Goodnight!

Sugar Cookies

I hope I don't bore you all with too many pictures! This blog is the way that my family keeps up with me, so that's why I post so many. :) Today Isaac, Brooke and I frosted some of my sugar cookies that I've baked in the past month or so. Ike did 2 and Brookie only did a half because she ate half of hers before we got a chance to frost it :). I did the rest!

Isaac very proud of his cookies that he was about to eat

Brookie is happy because she's already been eating :)
I made this little collage with the finished result!

Especially for Poppy and Nonnie

After seeing Brookie's UT outfits, my parents bought her this Yankees cheerleader outfit last year for Christmas. It was the only size they could find, so I saved it and it finally fits. I wanted them to see her in it! Hi Poppy and Nonnie! We love you!

S-N-O-W!!!

I take back what I said about it never snowing here! It did last night, much to our amazement! :) It was more like an icy sleet, but then later there were some big snow flakes that came down and it actually stayed on the roof, car and ground until about 10 this morning. Who would have ever thought that I would think that snow was such a novelty? :) Or that I would miss it? This is the time of year that I miss it. By January 3rd, give me my warm weather again...I'm ready for summer! :) Hope you enjoyed the pictures of the great event! :)

The Christmas Season Begins!

Well, the most wonderful time of the year is upon us once again. It's definately my favorite time of the year--I love how pretty everything looks. More and more people are putting up lights as the days pass and every time I drive somewhere I get to see a new set! I decorated my house last week after Thanksgiving, so I wanted to share some pictures of that.

Brookie was scared of the tree at first, but later she loved putting the "balls" on the branches :)

Nate put on his Santa hat to help us decorate :)

I love the finished product. This year I did red and gold colors. I also love having a mantle! I haven't hung stockings yet, but that's coming. :)

I love this picture of my two favorite people drinking their Starbucks :)

Enjoying that chocolate milk!

Since it never snows here, I added snow to this picture. Looks real, doesn't it?

Helping mommy make cookies. She's smiling here cause I let her eat the dough :)

Tag I'm It!

I've been tagged by Arianna to list 15 things that I'm not afraid to admit. This might take me a while, because there are alot of things that I am afraid to admit :). So here it goes!


I'm not afraid to admit that...
1) I am saved by the grace of God and going to Heaven when I die
2) That my family members are the most important people in my life
3) My husband is my best friend in the whole wide world
4) I look up to my Mom and Dad more than any other people in this whole world
5) I am not a very neat person, so I really have to work to keep my house tidy!
6) I spend too much time on Facebook!
7) I am very proud of how young I am because most of my married friends are at least 3-5 years older than me :)
8) I don't really like the state of Texas very much, but I love the people and my church!
9) I miss the snow at this time of year sooooooooo bad
10) I love getting great deals when I'm shopping (a few weeks ago I got a sweater for $2.50 at Marshalls. Also, I save about $10.00 a week grocery shopping using coupons! :)
11) I LOVE to EAT!
12) I also love to exercise--cardio and weights. I love the way I feel when I'm done!
13) I really like the smell of my Christmas tree :)
14) Pink is my favorite Color
15) I'm so excited about spending Christmas at home with my family!!!!!!

Merry Christmas!

It's December First, so I can officially say it! :) I've decorated my house for the season, so I figured why not decorate my blog too! I hope you like it. :)

Thanksgiving!

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend! Mine was the best that I've had since living here, probably because I'm getting used to it here. Our day was nice and warm so I purposed that I was going to be thankful for the weather and not complain. After all, it was Thanksgiving!! :)

Brookie and I with our fall outfits on for church Wednesday night

Nate helping me mix the stuffing!

My pumpkin pie :)

We celebrated with friends this year since my in-laws were out of town. There was about 20 people there and she decorated the table so beautifully!



We had SO much food! We ate all day long. :)

Before the meal

Brookie loved the swing set they had, especially when they put the dog up there. (Later he zoomed down the slide it was pretty funny!!! :)

Playing with the dog and LOVING it!

Of course we had to go shopping on black Friday! We didn't get up really early beacuse there wasn't great deals in the ads, but we did get some good deals later!

I got Brookie's Christmas outfit at Childrens Place that day. It's so pretty-- I'm in love with it!Later on Friday we went to Dave and Jessica's with a bunch of friends. Amidst all the noise, Nate was reading Brooklynne this book and I thought it was so sweet!

Dave and Jess bought a pool table with a ping-pong table topper so we played a lot of Round Robin that night. We all had a blast!

So, there is our Thanksgiving! On Saturday we got our tree and decorated the house so I will be posting pictures of that next. I hope you all had a wonderful weekend!

Please Pray!!!

Please read this story here to find out the horrible things that are happening to these boys/girls homes that have been helping troubled kids for years. Your prayers are truly needed for all of those involved in this! Let's fight the forces of Satan by coming to the throne and finding grace to help in time of need!

The Hephzibah House is another that has been attacked and they are already trying to pass legislation to shut down all homes in that state.

These kids are so much better off in the environment and programs that these homes offer. They need to stay up and running!

FEEL FREE TO POST THIS ON YOUR BLOG ALSO! WE NEED TO GET THE WORD OUT TO CHRISTIANS ACROSS AMERICA AND THE WORLD!

Please comment if you are praying!

Recent Pictures and Happenings

So today is gorgeous. I'm sitting here eating a bowl of Italian Wedding Soup, and I have a pot of chicken noodle soup on the stove cooking for supper. The weather has cooled down a little and I am taking advantage of it! I'm just hoping that it stays cool until Thanksgiving! Warm winter holidays are extremely depressing to me. I'm not keeping my fingers crossed, though. We have 6 days until Thanksgiving and how much do you wanna bet it'll be 80 degrees again by then??

Brookie fell asleep on the floor like this today. She was all whiny and got in trouble, so she got this blankie, sucked her thumb and went right to sleep on the living room floor!

A really funny thing happened the other night as I was getting her ready for church. She aggressively trying to pull off this adorable jean jumper I had put her in. Since the house was a little hot, I took it off her. When I went to put it back on she flipped out. I held up a different jumper.

"Do you want to wear this?"

"No."

Held up another one.

"Do you want to wear this?"

"Ooohh!!!!"

I took that as a yes and she was happy as a lark the whole night! Girls will be girls, starting at a young age being picky about her clothes. I told Nate she probably felt fat in that jumper :0. I just let her wear what she wanted to, but I'm sure sometimes I won't be able to do that.

Brookie LOVES outside lately and constantly asks to go "side". When she went to N.Y. for 5 days, they said she was always out there on the big trampoline, so I guess she got a little spoiled! Thankfully I have a fenced in back yard so I can just send her out there to play. Someone is supposed to be giving me a little climbing gym that her kids don't use anymore so Brooklynne has something to do besides walk around!

Yesterday we went out and played in the front yard for a little while after her nap (which explains the crazy hair!). You can't tell but it was almost 80 degrees in these pictures. I am really getting sick of warm weather, but yet I know if I was home I would want it to be warm! The eyes of man are never satisfied. I just wish it would be cool like it is today for the whole winter. And by cool I mean 40's at night, 50-60 during the day. Perfect temps. I wouldn't mind some snow on Christmas either, but that NEVER happens.

I mentioned that I had started my Christmas baking. Here is Isaac and Brooke sitting by some of the cookies! :) Last night I made the dough for sugar cookies really quick and stuck it in the fridge. Tonight or tomorrow I am going to cut them out and bake them. The problem when I make sugar cookies is that I never like to finish cutting out all the dough! It seems to last forever! :)

Well ,that's about it. Just wanted to let you know whats been going on!

The Christmas Spirit

During our Missions Conference, I was very convicted to witness to our neighbors and accquantences. A better Christian would have no problem knocking on doors in her neighboorhood and passing out tracts. She would have no problem striking up a conversation with piano students and giving them the gospel. I am not that person, sadly, and need a little help to get me started.

Enter: Christmas!!!

This year I am so excited about my little "Christmas Outreach"! Today I started my Christmas baking because I will need a lot this year. I am making plates of cookies for all the people that I am friends with that are not saved that I know of. Even if they are, I'm sure they won't mind some good, homemade Christmas cookies! Of course I will include a tract with it that tells them how they can know for sure they are going to Heaven when they die!

For my neighbors that I don't know, I'm putting together a tract and some Christmas candy. I'm going to have a caroling party and we will go door to door singing Christmas carols and hand them the little package that tells of the true meaning of Christmas. I'm hoping that this will open a door and later on I will have a good opportunity to ask them if they got a chance to read it and what they thought of it.

What about you? Is there something you can do this year to show others around you that Jesus is the Reason for the Season? We have such a great message of hope that so many people deserve to hear!

These Times Don't Last Long Enough!

As I said in my last post, Felicia (one of my best friends) and Claire (my sister) came for about 10 days and we had the best time together, as always. Usually, Feli and Ashley (my other best friend :) come together, but since Ash is working at a girls home this year, she wasn't able to come. Although we really missed her, we still had a blast! On Thursday we went to some beautiful botanical gardens near our house. I had never been there before and when we saw all of it I saw what I've been missing these past couple years! It was so beautiful and perfect for taking lots of pictures, of course :). I am so blessed to have the best family and friends. I wish that we could all be in the same state at least all the time, but such is life. This is where God has placed me and I just have to be happy with that! I just wish that our times together could last longer. I can't wait till Heaven when we will be together forever and won't have to say goodbye again!

Trying to take some "fall" pictures even though she's in a pink dress :)

We thought this trellis was so pretty!

Brookie loved the water and all of the gardens and especially this waterfall!

This is the view of the rose garden. You can't see them all, but it was so pretty considering it's November!

We had to take all our pictures with the self timer, but they turned out pretty good!

I'm so happy that she can finally walk :)

We loved the bamboo!

There were a lot of ponds too, that were sort of mucky :) but some had fish!