8 Year Anniversary!!!!!

WOW! It is so hard to believe that 8 years ago Brady and I were standing before each other, our family, and our friends to express our love for each other and then we were off to Playa Del Carmen for a week on the beautiful beach....... Time passes so very fast and I wish there was a way to stop it!

Our anniversary, June 12, fell on a Tuesday and Brady had basketball camp.  So, Nana and Pop came down on Sunday to watch Bree so Brady and I could go out and celebrate.  We left the house about 9:45 so we could go out to eat at Old West Cafe for the first time to eat breakfast. And what a breakfast it was! The Gold Digger omelet with a side of hash browns and a lemon pancake..... YUMMY!!!!!

 

After our tummies were full, we went to do a little shopping at Old Navy, Target and a few other places.  Although a little early, we found Bree a few birthday presents! We went to the Movie Tavern to see Men in Black 3.  By that time it was about 6pm and we were hungry again.... So we finished our special day together at Texas Land and Cattle eating their Signature Sirloin.  We had not eaten there in a long time and it was well over due for sure! 

Our time together always passes by so fast as the years we have had together.  I look forward to years we have before us and am so excited to see what amazing things God has in store for us!

Bree's First Movies at a Theater

Being 3 in a few months, we thought we should start introducing Bree to movies in the theater! I was a little worried about her making through the movie and sitting there watching the whole thing.  Of course she loves Dora, Peppa Pig, Wow Wow Wubzy, and Bubble Guppies, but I knew this would be a different experience!
 
The past few weeks we have been taking Bree to Harkins Theater in Southlake for the summer movies.  Happy Feet 2 was her first experience in a movie theater.  She was so excited the whole way to the movies and kept talking about seeing the penguins.  She loved the theater and being able to play in the aisles.  When the movie started she wanted to know where the penguins were! The movie began with them singing and dancing and she was caught up in it all.  As the movie slowed down a little about 30 minutes into it, she began to cry and wanted to go home :(  We tried to talk to her but with no avail and had to end up leaving.  First attempt at a movie..... FAIL!!!

So yesterday we made our second attempt with Alvin and the Chipmunks, Shipwrecked! I popped some popcorn to take and took some of Bree's favorite snacks to see if that would help her stay there longer.  She wanted popcorn as soon as we got to the theater, but only ate a little.  As soon as she saw the Chipmunks, she was mesmerized! She made it through about 45 minutes and wanted to play with my phone, but while she had it she watched more of the movie than played with my phone.  To our surprise, Bree made it through the whole movie!! She loved it!!! Second attempt at a movie.... SUCCESS!!!! :)

Our next trip...... to watch Rio :)

Joy Dare

Brady and I began the Joy Dare at the beginning of June.  Each day there are 3 certain joys to look for in our lives and to make note of.  By next June we will have 1000 joys that we have recorded in our lives.  We both have had a great time doing this and it is opening our eyes even more to the joys that the Lord has placed in our lives. Here are a few:

Day 2:  Joys that are funny
               a) Bree looking at me after her bedtime prayer and saying " Is that right?
               b) Bree telling me to not go poop on the porch !

Day 5: Joys of Peace, Love, & Hope
              a) Quite time with the Father before Bree is awake
              b) When Bree crawls in my lap, hugs me and says "I love you Momma"
              c) Lifetime ahead of me with my soul mate

Day 10:  Joys at 8, at 12, at 2
              a)  Waking up to the alarm beginning our day together to
                    celebrate our anniversary
              b) Conversation in the car as we head to do a little shopping
                   after a yummy breakfast
              c) Being in the presence of my sweetheart

Day 13: Joys smelled
              a) Dinner cooking
              b)  Shampoo as I wash my hair
              c) Morning rain

Day 16: Joys from my Heavenly Father
             a) Direct conversation with Him
             b) Everlasting eternity with Him
             c) an amazing mom and dad who shaped me into who I am today

Anyone interested in doing this Joy Dare with us, let me know and I will show you were to find all you need!!! I am going to be more diligent and up date the blog with each week's joys that I find!!  ( Hopefully!!!)

Want to Improve Your Marriage?

Love, Sex and Happily Ever After by Craig Groeschel is a wonderful book for people in all walks of life: still single, newlyweds, or married for 20 years. The main focus on the book seems to target those who are single, engaged, or newly married, but even those who are married can still gain knowledge of how to improve their marriage in areas in which they struggle. Even after being married for 8 years, there were issues in this book we have been dealing! This book is a great easy read and full of useful information!

The author tackles very difficult topics within a relationship: sex, money, roles within the relationship, and steps to deal with those topics. The reader is presented with with actual experiences within Groeschel's life and ways that he overcame them.  He does an amazing job of backing up his advice and suggestions with God's Word.  Myths are exposed about sex along with the factual Truth. 

I wish this book would have been available for my husband and I to have read before we were married, but even now we shared info from the book and how we were going to apply it to our marriage.  This book would be great for a small group singles study!

I received this book for free from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing group for this review.

Easter Time!

Bree and I spend Easter 2012 with Mom.  She had only had her gall bladder surgery on the previous Tuesday and Dad had to work Easter weekend.  We did not want her to be alone so Bree and I went on a road trip on Thursday night to stay with her.  We stayed through Easter Sunday with her.  Bree attended the Easter Egg hunt at the First Baptist Church and just loved it.  She found lots of eggs filled with candy which she was super excited about since she doesn't get to have much candy.  She was utterly disappointed when she didn't win the door prize but she got over it! She had a lot of candy and eggs to dye to get her mind off of it.  She had a great time coloring eggs.  She was able to help a lot more than last year so she enjoyed it, letting us know the purple and pink were her favorite eggs!  Of course, all weekend we had to hid the eggs for her in the house so she could find them.  It was really hard to leave when we had to go back home after being with Mom and Dad for 4 days and also knowing that Bree helped Mom feel better while recovering from her surgery. 

A Great Book for Women!

                                                                  

Cooking dinner. Taking care of the screaming children. We go through the exhaustion of life.  We don't know how to get out of this rut so we just give up and don't try. We women all have issues, as much as we want to try to hide them.  Whether we are controlling, angry, insecure or fearful, we have some issue that we are fighting with almost every single day.  For us to be able to live the life that our Creator designed us to live, we have to bring these issues to light and come to dealing with each of them.  She's Got Issues by Nicole Unice confronts this issues and brings them out into the open.  She describes these issue in detail with a way we can transform ourselves and bring ourselves closer to Christ.

As I read through the issues in this book, I could relate so well to each.  This book has made a great difference in my life and how I have even been dealing with these issues since beginning to read the book.  I love the prayer, journaling exercise, discussion questions at the end of each chapter.  The discussion questions allow us to dig deep inside ourselves and draw out those issues we have. I also love how Nicole uses scripture throughout each chapter reflecting upon each issue and it is also scripture that we can memorize and ponder upon when we are struggling daily.  This would be a wonderful book for a women's study, discussing and supporting each other through our issues. 

Tyndale House publishers has provided me with a complimentary copy of this book. 

A Wonderful Book for Little Ones!!

As a Christian, coming upon a book focusing on God and his creation is exciting! Finding one to read for my 2 year old is even greater.  This is a book that I thoroughly enjoyed reading to her as much as she liked to hear it!

This book is beautifully depicted with drawings on every other page reflecting the words on the page before. My daughter excitedly looked over each page at the pictures as I read to her. We have read it every night for the past three nights because she likes it so much!

I love the way the baby bear is talking to his mom about where he came from and the mama bear goes through the process of her and papa bear being lonely, to God giving them baby bear in her tummy, to baby bear being born. Even though this book seems to be geared towards toddler aged children, the underlying theme of the book is great for even older children and beautifully depicted! What a joy to read!

I received this book for free from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group for the purpose of this review. Any opinions expressed here are my own.