CHRISTMAS QUESTIONS:

Another wonderful questionaire thanks to my friend Meredith- http://elliekateandpeyton.blogspot.com/ Definitely check out her blog! She has the sweetest family and her blog is always inspiring!

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? definitely paper! then you can have fun with ribbon.

2. Real tree or Artificial? unfortunately artificial- im SUPER allergic to real trees. Fortunately with artificial you can buy pre-lit! ;)

3. When do you put up the tree? The day after thanksgiving....it would be August if it were up to me. haha!

4. When do you take the tree down? well, one year it was March...last year it was Feb...this year i'll shoot for January-ish ;)

5. Do you like eggnog? LOVE LOVE LOVE eggnog! With whipped cream and nutmeg....sweet goodness.

6. Favorite gift received as a child? My barbie motorhome! I'll never forget waking up and coming in to see my dad, looking like he had NO SLEEP (cant imagine why;) putting all the tiny decals in the motorhome for me! Later in life was my full size keyboard for the praise and worship band!

7. Hardest person to buy for? well, it used to be my sister- but now she registers for gifts- haha! This actually is a tremendous help! Probably my dad because we get him the same thing every year- cologne and gift cards....exactly what he asks for. Every year I want to be creative and get him something special and different though!

8. Easiest person to buy for? Ryan- I write down hints all year of things he wants! I can NOT WAIT for Christmas morning. That man is going to be jumping around the house! :)

9. Do you have a nativity scene? actually no! I want one though, but haven't found one I really like. Also, our house doesnt have a ton of extra space to put a large scene, so it would need ot be smaller.

10. Mail or email Christmas cards? MAIL! I love getting christmas cards so much it's kinda scary. EVERY day i can NOT wait to check the mail and see all the cards! I save them all and look through the past years' cards each christmas. This was our first year to send cards so I was VERY enthusiastic about the whole process.

11. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? oh dear. a vest with teddy bears all over it. Not long ago. ha!

12. Favorite Christmas Movie? White Christmas by far!!! I LOVE that movie so much. My sister and I can perform the entire song "Sisters"- choreography and all.

13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? Usually after Thanksgiving. This year I started MONTHS ago and was done BY thanksgiving- determined to not stress this year!

14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? oh yes. haha. but normally within our family to where it's a running joke of "who will get it this year" type thing.

15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? My Grandma's butter almond toffee bars, her cheese grits, or mom's soup on Christmas day.

16. Lights on the tree (colored or clear)? Clear on the tree. Colored on the house.

17. Favorite Christmas song? Christian- O Holy Night. Other- Chestnuts roasting on an open fire. (is that the actual title?)

18. Travel at Christmas or stay home? Home...always home. We would love to go to Houston some year though to spend Christmas with Ryan's Brother Austin and his family.

19. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer's? name, yes. spell correctly- probably not. Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donner, Blitzen, aaaaaand RUDOLPH! :)

20. Angel, star or ribbon on top of tree? Finally got a tree-topper this year...a beautiful star! One of my favorite Christmas memories will always be making our tree-topper when Kelly and I were LITTLE. We made it out of cardboard, covered it in foil, and sprinkled it with glitter. I think it's still on the top of my parents tree. :)

21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? Used to be Christmas eve- now Christmas morning. I like doing one Christmas eve, and the rest the day of.

22. Favorite children's Christmas song? Santa Clause is comin' to town.

23. Most annoying thing about this time of the year? TRAFFIC, people forgetting what Christmas is REALLY about (im guilty), and traffic. haha

24. Favorite ornament theme or color? I have collected the Happy Holiday Barbies from my Grandma for Christmas since 1992 so I love those, but now my mom has been collecting shoe ornaments and beagle ornaments that look like our dog. Ryan thinks we have the girliest tree ever with barbies and shoes all over it! The beagles are OUR favorites tho!

25. Turkey or ham on Christmas day? neither! Mom makes vegetable or potato soup on Christmas day. Christmas Eve is usually ham though.

26. What do you want for Christmas this year? Already have it- Ryan's home this year :)

27. Does anyone in your family dress up as Santa? nope

28. Age you discovered who Santa was? not sure the exact age...sometime around 2nd grade i think. I cried a LOT! Still loved believing though...and pretending I believed. Dad would shake bells up on the roof- it was so fun! Ill never forget that! "santa" always left us a card in our stocking telling us the TRUE meaning of Christmas though- the birth of Jesus. Very neat how our parents kept the TRUTH alive, but let us have fun believing as children.

29. Eggnog, hot chocolate, or apple cider? Eggnog latte from Starbucks. ok ok just eggnog. i like eggnog. a lot.

30. Traditional colors (red and green) or other colors? traditional all the way! I do LOVE when people mix in fun one's though....such as- the Chesapeake trees! LOVE those lights. For our house though- traditional...mostly clear inside.

31. Do you have any Christmas decorations on your roof? yes, the big multi-colored bulbs. Very fun- reminds me of childhood, except we had all red. Another favorite memory- I was Dad's helper with hanging lights. I would hold them and unstring them for him....not sure if I helped at all but he made me feel like I was and I LOVED that!

32. What is your favorite holiday treat? Eggnog latte's. And Tamales from Pecos, TX...a new tradition Ryan and I are starting on Christmas night.

33. How does Santa get into your house? Chimney or magic key? ummmm not sure yet. haha. So far he uses his key to our house.

34. Do you prefer gifts or gift cards? if they know me well- gifts! If not, money! I'd rather not have gift cards unless it's to a restaurant :)

35. Favorite children's Christmas Cartoon? hmmmm this is hard....I have to go with the first one I thought of- Claymation Christmas....Rudolph!

Now YOUR turn! GO! :)

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year...

Wow, I can not BELIEVE it's been almost a month since my last post! This shows how CRAZY BUSY our month has been....so so fun though! I will try to give a general re-cap- I've never been good at the "long story short stuff" though...it's usually long story long! :)

1. Thanksgiving was wonderful! We had all of our family at my parents and more food than ever! Ryan decided he would make the turkey this year- it tasted AMAZING, but the cooking/carving part- a disaster! We definitely learned lots of helpful tips to make next year a little easier! ;) This year, my close friend- Stacy, from Life Church, also joined our family for dinner. It was wonderful having her with us....she even stayed til the last people left and helped us wash and dry all the dishes! It was truly a blessing to our whole family to have her there!

Oh  forgot to mention- I ran a 5k Thanksgiving morning with my brother-in-law Brian, and his father-in-law, John. It was FREEEEZING...I mean BITTER cold! I was so bundled up it was ridiculous; so much so that when i got to about mile 2, i was burning up but couldnt de-layer because I pinned my number to the front of my fleece. haha- smart Kathleen, real smart. I was happy though- I improved my time by 2 minutes! :)

NOW TO DECEMBER: best Christmas ever already! Why? Ryan. That's why! Enough said.

*side note- i was so excited to have ALL presents bought and wrapped BY thanksgiving...the day after thanksgiving was spent converting our house into one big pile of lighted garland- ha! I don't even WANT to know what our electricity bill will be with all the lights we have on the outside AND inside our our house!

2. One of my favorite things we did this month was our Christmas card pictures with the very talented Abi Ruth, a photographer and close friend of mine from church. http://www.abiruth.com/
-We took a few pics in our living room in front of the tree...with Franklin of course, then went to the Devon ice rink downtown, then onto Chesapeake. This was the first time we ever had professional pictures taken, and it was SO fun. We especially enjoyed all the kissing pictures she "made" us take. ;) Just a fun, COLD, christmasy afternoon! Here are a few of our favorites:

3. Parties Parties Parties!!! First was a very fun Pampered Chef party I hosted for my best friend, Cassidy. We had LOTS of yummy food, and she made a strawberry tart that was PERFECTION! We had about 15 people come, and I was able to get Ryan (the cook in our home) lots of fun Christmas goodies he will love.

Next was our Life Group Christmas Party! Everyone came over in pajamas, brought their favorite christmas dish, and we played "yankee swap"! For those of you non-office fans, it's the same as Dirty Santa. It was a VERY intense game of Yankee Swap I might add....lots of stealing....made it very fun though! We ended up having Tamales (from Pecos, TX) and then lots of desserts....we were all on a sugar high so the night ended up being VERY fun! Any night with them is so great- we are so blessed that God gave us such a great group of other couples to "do life" with.

Then- the SWITCH Leader Christmas party! Another potluck...needless to say the diet has gone OUT THE WINDOW this month! haha. We had an incredible spread of turkey, ham, potatoes, green bean casserole, etc. We then played SWITCH trivia, SWITCH leader Bingo, then Christmas movie Charades. This became hilarious. For some reason I get competitive with this game. I am competitive at almost nothing...but charades. Because of this fact- things FLY out of my mouth that I can't quite catch in time. For instance, had you been at our table, you might have heard "Vomitting Christmas", "Death by Christmas", "Hanging Santa", and a few others. I promise I love Christmas! Like I sad.....flying out of my mouth. It was definitely a great night with some wonderful people. This ministry has been another GIFT from the Lord in our lives this past year. Without SWITCH we wouldnt have our Life Group, and I wouldnt have made some of the best friends I've had in my life. Here are some pics from that night:

Michelle Brown- LOVE this girl...She and her husband Jeremy are in our Life Group

WONDERFUL women: Megann, Stacy, and Whitney...these girls are seriously THE BEST!

Anna Light, and her mom- Robin Meadows...These two have truly changed my life in so many ways. Anna is my trainer and Robin is my mentor

The Next party was the Oster/Goodman Christmas Party! I actually got to plan this as Andrew Oster's executive assistant. It was (to sound very cheesy) a magical night. The party was at Andrew's neighbor's home in Rose Creek, Nonna's catered, there were lights everywhere, heaters outside around the pool, live music...truly a perfect evening.

OH AND LAST BUT NOT LEAST: MY EARLY CHRISTMAS PRESENT...my 2nd wedding band!!!! I have a video of him giving this to me- it's pretty funny! I was screaming and jumping up and down and accidentally dropped the camera- fortunately, it's still in one peice! ;) I had NO IDEA this was coming though- he said he had something for me to go with my outfit and then pulled out "the box"...the same color box I remember from almot 2 years ago! He is truly the BEST HUSBAND in the world.

Well, like I said long story LONG....that's me I guess! :) Thanks for those of you who actually read ALL this. I will close with one thing- last night we were settling in for the evening about to fold 9 loads of laundry. (that's another story- our garage and backyard filled with sewage thanks to a HUGE whole in our main line. That will be fun and expensive to fix next year....so laundry couldn't be done for 2 weeks!)

We ordered Chinese and were about to start a movie when Ryan paused it, grabbed my hand and started praying...he prayed for us to remember, in the midst of the fun/crazy/busyness of this month what the true reason for Christmas is....celebrating the birth of our Saviour. It was the perfect gentle reminder I needed to get my focus back on Jesus. He truly is the "lifter of our heads".....and He often uses Ryan to re-focus me!

This is what I fell asleep to:         :)

Merry Christmas to you all!

Celebrating a faithful life...

Yesterday, Ryan's sweet "Granny", Fanora Miller, passed away. I had the pleasure of meeting her several months ago, and getting to spend some more time with her about a month ago while we were in Houston.

This is what I could already tell about her:
She LOVES her family. Her face LIT up anytime she started talking about her 3 children, or any of her grandchildren. We brought her a framed picture of Ryan and Austin (Ryan's brother), and she teared up and held it close to her heart. She told us she needs NO material posessions but things like that picture- memories of her family. She said if that was all she had in the world, she would be content.

Another thing I could tell about Granny-
She is a very STRONG person in so many ways. She told us stories about her family, her husband, and how hard they worked. Another way I could tell this was that, in her lifetime, she lost her husband, her son (Ryan's father), and her daughter-in-law, Ryan's mother,  yet still rejoiced in what she DID have. Her faith was strong and her will to live never lessened....she was content regardless of the circumstances, and when we saw her- although she may not have felt well, all she cared about was how we were doing.

What a BEAUTIFUL homecoming it must have been yesterday as she entered Heaven and was able to embrace her husband, Ryan's parents, and many other family members! Ryan told me with tears in his eyes last night that he was jealous of that aspect for sure, but SO happy Granny was re-united with them! We have no doubt when she came face to face with the Lord she heard, "Well done my good and faithful servant."

I can't begin to tell you how thankful I am for this family- my family now! Austin and Jami, and their sweet children are truly gifts from God for me, and Ryan as well. I know it's hard that so many in their family have passed away, but we have them and have never felt so blessed for each and every one of them! What a neat gift that those 3 children were able to meet and spend time with their Great Grandmother!

Last night Ryan and I sat down and made a list of every memory, fun time, quality, etc. that he remembers about his Mom, dad, Granny, and Papaw. It was fun as we listed these things so that we can one day tell our children about the amazing legacy Ryan's family has left.

I want to close with one story that Ryan said sums up perfectly how his Granny and Papaw were:
When Ryan's dad was 15, he and his brother and sister would come home from school for lunch every day. Granny would prepare amazing meals from what I've been told, and was constantly cooking! One day, she made lunch for her 3 children and her husband (Ronald),  but because Ryan's dad and uncle were teenage boys, they ate a LOT of food! Well, by the time Ronald got home, all the food was GONE! She was sitting at the table crying and apologizing that there was nothing left. Ronald reached in his pocket, handed her a $100 bill (which was HUGE in those days) and said "Go buy bigger pots."

I just loved this story- Ryan said it describes perfectly how Ronald (Papaw) was always rather serious, but a very hard worker, and had more of a dry sense of humor. Fanora (Granny) was the emotional one, but would definitely have her honory moments Ryan recalls!

Praise God we have memories to pass on when those we love go home!

Subtle and Sweet...

This will be a short post. I promise this time. :) Just had to share something fun...

I get home from SWITCH (youth group at our church) and Ryan has lit every candle in the house and is literally giddy. I'm very confused. Normally after SWITCH we are WIPED OUT. We drive separately because I head to church straight form work.

He tells me he has a surprise. "what kind of surprise?" I ask. He replies "one that will make you the happiest ever if I know you as well as I think I do." He tells me to look around for the hints. So I search high and low. Finally I just go to wash my hands and he's standing there with a huge smile going "did you notice?!"

I look down to see this:



"Yay new handsoap", I say. hahaha. He goes "No this is me giving you the okay to decorate for Christmas the week before Thanksgiving!"

This....is....HUGE! I just didn't know what to expect so at first I tried really hard to be excited, then when I thought about it- I really did get VERY excited! Before we were married I called him the Grinch because when the store we worked in played Christmas music early, he was in a bad mood all day!

I love this man so much for his creativity and SENSITIVITY to my love for Christmas and decorating in general!



FUN FALL WEEKEND!

So this is once again 2 posts...in ONE day! I love slow work days- much more time for blogging! :)

I just can't NOT have a post in here about a HUGE accomplishment for Ryan and I:

WE RAN A 5K!!

And I truly mean RAN! No walking, just running the entire time- side by side! The side by side thing probably won't happen again because we have VERY different strides and couldn't find a pace agreeable for both of us, however, we were hip to hip the whole race and it helped tremendously having each other to push the other one when we wanted to give up!

Now I know- 3.1 miles isn't much, but I had to fight back tears at the end thinking of where I've come from. 3 years ago during all the jaw surgeries, mono, etc...I would have to lay down for a while after simply showering because my body was so worn out. I would lay on the floor and Mom would dry my hair. To go from that to running 3.1 miles- PRAISE THE LORD!!!!!

Now- training for a half marathon! That's right people- 13.1 miles! WOOOHOOO! I will be honest- right now I don't think I can do it, but with that attitude I never will. So let the training begin and hopefully my attitude will improve as my running does! :)

ALSO- most productive weekend ever:
-Had an amazing time at the Thunder game with my sister- front row seats, and pictures with Rumble!
-finished ALL my Christmas shopping after our 5k Saturday- while ryan enjoyed an ENTIRE day of football
-Great service at Life Church Sunday, then cleaned the house to PERFECTION! Im OCD about that...I think I'm just beginning to realize that!
-Dinner with the newest members of our Life Group, Emily and Daniel Hayes,  at RePUBlic :)

Here are some pics from the weekend:

BEFORE THE RACE....he wasn't super excited to get up at 6am and run in 30 degree weather! haha

AFTER THE RACE- EXHAUSTED...

THE WHOLE GROUP...this is our "WE MADE IT" pic :)

The Great Blogging Challenge Day 9- a Letter to your parents

Wow...This one could be long- just warning you! I have always thought of what I would say in a letter to my parents- as in the type of letter that might have been read at our wedding (had we had a big wedding).

Dear Mama and Daddy (yes we still call them that- and always will:),
I could never begin to thank you for being the parents you have been for me and Kelly. You have raised us to be women who seek the Lord first, and who have been taught truth from HIS Word both from all you have told us, and from constantly keeping us surrounded by positive, Godly influences. You have made sacrifice after sacrifice to send us to a Christian school, send us on mission trips all over the world (literally), and paid for more medical bills than I will ever even know about!
Daddy,
Thank you for waking me up EVERY day growing up and putting up with my horrible moods in the morning:). Thank you for following us around unplugging curling irons, hair dryers, chi's, etc. Thank you for spending a LONG time tying the perfect bows on our dresses when we were little, and occasionally attempting to fix our hair! Thank you for ALWAYS reading our morning devotional to us during breakfast, and for taking me to breakfast with you on the weekends and to run your errands while I was growing up.
Thank you for letting me watch you shave when I was VERY little, and for teaching me to ride my bike- and drive a car too- much later of course! I LOVED your bedtime stories, and loved that you prayed with Kelly and I together every night. I remember multiple mornings when I would have to go to the back of the house to iron, I could hear you praying out loud for Kelly and I in your office with the door closed. You would pray for us, our future husbands, future children, etc....and many many days it brought tears to my eyes to hear that. You have taught me what it means to have a real and intimate relationship with my Heavenly Father by watching your life. You have also been an example to me through your unconditional love of how He loves me!
Mama,
Thank you for putting me to bed every night, even some in college when I would be crying from broken hearts! Thank you for always cooking such wonderful healthy meals for our family and taking care of us so well physically. You were ALWAYS there to help us with ANYTHING...I remember countless nights when you would stay up with me to put together a science fair project or help me remember things for tests by singing songs about the information I was learning! I also remember you even DOING my homework some for a history class! haha! Thank you for dropping everything and driving to Conway so many times when I would be broken hearted over a boy, and for taking me to TJ Maxx for retail therapy to get what are still my favorite shoes! :) I can't thank you enough for always doing my laundry- even in college when I came home. Now that I do our laundry, I KNOW what a task this is! You taught me everything I know about cooking, cleaning, folding fitted sheets (which i need a lesson on again), NOT putting pasta down the garbage disposal (which I had to learn the hard way), and BARGAIN SHOPPING! :) I will also never forget during our basketball days in high school (neither of us were even a little athletic) you would always tell us (even if we sat on the bench the whole game) that it didn't matter how we played because we looked pretty! haha. You truly are one of my best friends and I Love that I can talk to you about EVERYTHING. Some of my favorite memories are when I would wake up at 2 or 3 am and find you in the dining room with your Bible, Dictionary, Greek and Hebrew Concordance, and multiple other references just studying and searching in God's Word because you loved it so much! I also loved that when you would drive to Conway to see me, you listened to the hispanic stations for fun and would text me the songs you were hearing! hahaha. Not to mention you can do the "mashed potato" better than ANYONE I know! Oh, and the Roger Rabbit! ;)
And how could I forget- you staying with me night after night in the ER or the hospital in Dallas during my jaw surgeries, and driving me to and from Dallas SO many times to see the Dr. I will also always be grateful for how well you took care of me that month at the Mayo Clinic- cooking for me and putting up with how AWEFUL I was while going through everything there. You are such a servant!!!

Thank you BOTH for believing in me when I wanted to give up on life completely. For always giving me hope in what GOD has for me in my future; for sacrificing SO much to get me out of pain from my jaw, and for going through that whole frustrating battle right next to me! Thank you for putting up with all the boyfriends, and drama that went a long with them and for comforting me countless times when they didnt work out. Thank you for believing in me and TRUSTING GOD (mainly) when I came home one night and said I wanted to marry Ryan in 6 days (After dating 3 weeks). Daddy I KNOW that scared you to death!;) Thank you for accepting him into our family so quickly and for literally being life savers for us this past year with all we went through. Without your prayers, support, and financial help we wouldn't have made it! WE love you both more than you will ever know and are eternally grateful to have you as parents.

Many years ago, Kelly and I were asked to sing the song below on Father's Day in front of our entire church. We both barely made it through the song because of the tears, and it was a complete surprise to our dad that we were doing this, so there were lots of tears throughout the room! This song sums up how I feel about BOTH of my parents.....it's called "It was your life that led me to Him."

Before I took a breath,
Before I took a step
Unnumbered prayers were spoken–
Were spoken just for me.
And as I rested peacefully
There in your loving arms,
You dreamed of what my future would bring
And what tomorrow would bring.

My childhood days are gone,
And time keeps moving on.
It seems as though the months, the years
Quickly slip away.
The life of faith you offered,
Examples of God’s love,
Is the life I long to share
With my children someday.

You watched me as each tiny step grew stronger,
You guided me through choices I would make.
And though I didn’t know the road that I would walk,
Your prayers would always light the path I take.
Your arms reached down to lift me when I’d fallen,
Your arms would hold me when I felt afraid.
Your eyes could see right through the dark and stormy clouds
And point me to a brighter day.
Your steps would set the path that I would follow,
Your words of hope my broken dreams could mend.
Your heart of love would always show me Jesus,
But it was your life that led me to Him.(“It Was Your Life”)

This picture sums up my dad so well. One arm around me (before going into a 7 hour surgery), and his Bible in the other hand. Just looking at this picture makes me cry still....most incredible dad ever.

SO SO thankful....



Most GIVING woman I've ever known. She put our beautiful wedding together in 6 days- made dinner for everyone, found my dress for me the night before, made flower arrangements herself that wer GORGEOUS, and made our day PERFECT. She truly is my role model!

The Great Blogging Challenge Day 8- Something you Crave

Ok....this one sounds fun! Instead of Crave, I kinda thought of this as "what do I look forward to more than ANYTHING?" So here we go:

1. DIET DR. PEPPER!!!! Ryan and I used to drink almost 6 of these a day! I now drink NONE, and Ryan maybe has one. This is for our new Diet....I mean- "Lifestyle" ;). But really, cutting pop out, carbs, sugar, etc...has made us feel a million times better, and lose some weight too!

2. PICKLES- I could live on pickles alone. And like I mentioned before- Peanut Butter and Pickle Sandwiches are THE BEST!! Last week I finished a jar of pickles in one day- I can't believe I'm admitting this. haha! But hey- it's part of our new healthy lifestyle:)

3. CHILIS SKILLET QUESO- has there ever been a better queso?! Problem: Chili's has an amazing dish, the Margarita Grilled Chicken, which is perfectly ON our diet, however when we go there- the queso calls out to us! Talk about will power...

4. CARBS- although i've felt great having cut MOST of these out lately, i definitely have moments of craving some of this good stuff:

5. PEDICURES- this is my favorite TREAT ever! I love foot rubs so so much- not a fan of the filing part because i'm super ticklish, but I LOVE the relaxation that comes along with it! Isn't this a cute pic too?!

6. Being able to fit into THESE again: (almost there actually!)

7. CHRISTMAS!! My favorite Holiday! A few reasons why: LIGHTS, SNOW, time with family, giving gifts, WRAPPING gifts (love this part), decorations, and most importantly- celebrating the birth of our Savior!

8. TIME w/ Ryan probably the one thing I look forward to more than anything! We LAUGH constantly and that is my favorite thing about us. He's truly my BEST friend. Last night was the FIRST night in probably a month that we had a WHOLE evening at home together- we cooked a healthy chicken/veggie stirfy, watched a scary move (HIS choice actually), and got in some good reading time before bed. It was pure bliss!

Alright, I could seriously go on and on (even more than I already have- sorry this is SO long), but I do CRAVE and enjoy lots of things in life! Thankful for the blessings of DDP, pickles, queso, carbs, skinny jeans, pedi's, Christmas time, and time w/ my man!