Trying to Keep Up With My Jones'

Christmas CONQUERED. 

When you think Christmas in Colorado, you automatically assume a white Christmas. Apparently that’s actually a rarity according to Coloradans (is that even the correct term?). I have even visited for a Christmas before and it did NOT snow. Actually it never ever snowed anytime I ever came to Colorado so I was starting to think the whole snow thing was a hoax. But nope, I was dang wrong. And good thing because it snowed on Christmas this year!!! SO FUN. This Texas girl absolutely loved being able to look outside to watch the flurries come down on Christmas Day. Especially when I knew people at home were hanging out in shorts. 🙂

Snow wasn’t the only thing that made this Christmas awesome! Caleb LOVED Christmas. He got the whole opening presents thing down pretty quickly. And pretty sure he loved being handed new toy after new toy after new toy. (Grandparents are apparently in direct competition with Santa.) 

It was also so special to be able to go to our Christmas Eve service at our new church and to have family join us. There were 42 people that believed in Jesus for the first time at our services! PRAISE GOD! And THAT is why we celebrate Christmas.    

   
We spent the evening of Christmas Eve with some family friends. Yummy food and fun games made for such a great night! 

 If you know Nick at all, then you know his friendship (or love affair) with Phil. They are the bestest of friends and have been since they were kids. Phil’s wife and I joke that we know where we stand when it comes to their bromance. 

 But a really cool thing is that they had a little boy exactly a year after us. Caleb and Grayson are pretty much required to be best friends now and keep the legacy going. (Sorry boys, sure hope y’all like each other.) 

  
Christmas Day was so much fun to see Caleb’s face! Santa brought him a really cool work bench and then also laid out all of his new toys he had received on Christmas Eve. He looked SO excited. But the first thing he went for? The half eaten cookie left over from Santa. #priorities
 
He settled for a muffin instead.  

    
    

 JoJo and Aunt JJ came over so he had such a grand time getting to play with them all day! As JoJo calls it, we watched ‘the Caleb show’ all day.  
 We ended the night with Nick reading us the Christmas story. Absolutely love the thought that we get to start this sweet tradition with our boy. As fun as Santa and Christmas lights and presents are, we pray that as Caleb gets older, he would think of Jesus first when he thinks of Christmas. 
Thank you to everyone that loved our boy well during this season (and always)!

I hope everyone had such a great Christmas season! We were challenged yesterday at church to reflect on this past year and really work through how God wants to use us in this coming year. Can’t wait to see what is in store for 2016!
  

I remember it like it was yesterday. Nick and I were newly married. There was a lady from my church who lost her husband. I could not even fathom it. This was a couple that had been married years and years and still were just SO in love. He still always doted on her big time and she treated him like the king of the household. They were the things relationship goals were made of. And just like that, it was gone. I was just so unbelievably heartbroken for her. I remember sitting on our living room floor crying to Nick, explaining how I just did not see how she could go on. I knew that he was her everything and it broke my heart that all of it had come crashing down on her. 

What Nick said next completely shook my world and definitely molded how I viewed our marriage from then on. He reminded me that NOTHING could come before Jesus. Husbands and wives don’t have more precedence over Him, children don’t come before Him, ABSOLUTELY NOTHING should be more important in our lives than Jesus Christ. All of this I already knew so it should have come to no surprise, but yet there I was a brand new bride and so full of excitement about my life with my husband and all that was to come. And I was supposed to be okay if God just decided to rip that away? No AND yes. Of course with loss comes overwhelming sadness and devastation and broken hearts, but in that there is still HOPE. Hope that can only be found in Jesus when HE is who we live for. My friend’s life still went on because although her husband was her everything, Jesus was her ULTIMATE. Jesus is who she lived her life for, not her husband. 

At that moment I was challenged to evaluate my life to figure out if Jesus was truly my King, or if I was putting Nick in that wrongful place. Such a romantic moment for the beginning of marriage, right? But actually it SO is. Nick loves me so incredibly much and he would do absolutely anything for me. But he can NEVER love me as much as Jesus does. Nick is a sinful human after all. He will fail me even if he doesn’t want to. And the same goes for me. It truly is inevitable. 

I am not in any way undervaluing the hurt and pain that people go through, especially when losing a loved one. I know that pain well. When I look at my husband and my one year old, I want to hold them close to me so the world can’t leave its mark on them. But at the same time, I have hope in a Savior that loves me and will never leave me. 

This season of Christmas can be so hard for some. There is loss, hurt, abuse, anger, and all kinds of emotions that can sting a little deeper because this is supposed to be ‘the most wonderful time of year.’ BUT YET. God reminds us that more than anything, this is the season that we celebrate HOPE. He sent a little baby named Jesus that came to save the world by reconciling all of us broken people to the most amazing God. What great news that is! If we trust in Jesus, we know that although there may be pain, this world is not our home. We are able to serve Him here until the day that we are reunited with Him in glory. I so pray during this season (and always) that everyone will come to know Jesus in the most real way. 

‘Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.’ Romans 5:2-5 

So during Christmas time, I celebrate this hope! I pray that you have received that hope as well. And for those that have, my prayer is that you would be able to cling to Jesus fully, especially if you are in a hard season of life. 

‘I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.’ John 16:33

Christmas is getting so much closer!!! LESS THAN TWO WEEKS. Ahhhhh!!!! 

Here are some things I’m loving right now…

  
My mom and her boyfriend, Steve came to visit this past weekend!! Since for us this year meant Thanksgiving in Texas and Christmas in Colorado, some of my family are coming to us. I’m pretty confident it has something to do with a certain little one year old but I’ll take it. We did Christmas together and Caleb LOVED it.  

    
   
I’m pretty sure Nanan could get a job at the North Pole what with all the gifts she brought. Santa’s got some competition. 

 
Another thing I’m loving right now is this picture.  

 
I seriously crack up every time I look at it. SO DRAMATIC. They encouraged me to sit with him to ‘help’ the situation.  

 
Obviously it worked. I felt a little uncomfortable of the proximity of Santa as well so I guess I can’t blame the little guy. They also had us take this family picture which we were totally not prepared for. (Apparently we went for the whole North Pole photo shoot. My goodness.) 

 
Another thing I’m absolutely LOVING is how Caleb is taking his afternoon naps lately. He now plays in his crib for a good while and then just plops right over. The other day he fell asleep sitting up, just leaned back. And today this happened. That CAN’T be comfortable. 

 
So Christmas to me equals lots and lots of goodies and sweet treats!!! Last week I baked a million and one cookies and I certainly have done my share of eating yummy things wherever I go. BUT. Nothing says Christmas to me like my mama’s Texas Trash. (How country did that sound??) I LOVE IT. Ever since I could remember, my mom always makes a ginormous batch of ‘trash’ and then gives it away as presents but we always kept a ton at our house too. Talk about snacking your way thru Christmas. I made sure that I would not miss out just because I live far away and she did not disappoint.  

 
I seriously can’t walk by the container without eating some. Although I am concerned why that other name is on it and why he keeps reminding me that it’s not just mine.  

 
I do love so so so many things about Christastime, but definitely on the top of the list is going through an Advent devotional as a family. Nick and I have always done this since we have been married and it is such a rich way of preparing your heart for Christmas. Sometimes we try different ones, but the one we truly love is John Piper’s. This is a free printable, y’all! Definitely worth checking out because it’s certainly never too late to really study why we celebrate Christmas. And it has been so sweet to walk through this with Caleb. Sometimes he sits in our lap and listens and sometimes (most the time) he’s just in the room playing. But it totally counts. 🙂
 
The last thing I’ll share that I’m SUPER loving right now is that this little cutie is headed my way tomorrow (along with her parents)! AND they are spending a whole week. Here’s to lots of playtime and cuddles and fun showing them around! 

 

That’s all for now! Hope everyone is having such a fantastic Christmas season so far! 

Y’all. Today is a big day. Four years ago today, Nick asked me to marry him and I (obviously) said YES. (Well I actually didn’t say anything at first.. I just laughed.. but we’ll get to that part in a minute.) So to celebrate, I thought I would take a trip down memory lane and share how Nick proposed (and because he did such a stinkin fantastic job at it!). 

So it was Saturday, December 10, 2011. All I had on the agenda for the day was Nick’s youth Christmas party that evening (he’s a youth pastor just to be clear, not actually a youth). My roommate Katie and I were known to sleep late and lay around and watch TV on our sectional most Saturday’s, but that day she got up, got dressed, and was gone. This honestly should have been my first red flag because we rarely did things without the other AND she rarely got up before me. But oblivion was apparently my friend that day. 

Nick came over that morning and brought me Starbucks (such a keeper from the start). We hung out for just a short bit because he said he had to get to church to help decorate for a wedding there that night and that it would take ALL DAY LONG. (Funny side note: It was the wedding of a girl he dated in the past but apparently none of this bothered me at all.. Still doesn’t.. Just funny this was his excuse to avoid me all day.) We said our good-byes and that we would see each other when he picked me up for the Christmas party. 

I seriously vegged all day long. Ohhh the single days. It was like the super long get ready for the evening kind of day. Take a shower. Watch a tv show. Blow dry my hair. Watch 10 tv shows. Put my make up on. Look at Facebook. You know those days (or did know them for the mamas out there). It seemed like everyone in my world was busy that day (or just avoiding me, I came to later find out) so it was a very quiet day. And Katie never came home ALL DAY LONG. Weird. But me and oblivion were still hanging out.

All the while, I was apparently being a real stinker at committing to the Christmas party. My sister and brother in law were supposed to come into town for the Cowboys game the next day and she never really gave a time they were getting there. I felt weird about dragging them to my boyfriend’s Christmas party with teenagers I only kind of knew but also felt bad about making them sit in my empty apartment. So somewhere in the world, Nick was freaking out that his plan was all going to come crashing down. Whoops!

Whenever my sister finally told me they were showing up apparently gave me the go-ahead to go to the party. Nick picked me up and the first thing I told him was that I had a headache. I actually don’t remember that part of the story at all but Nick does and it apparently freaked him out even more. Ha! Poor guy. Let me just tell you that homeboy was hanging on by a thread. He was an anxious hot mess. He had been for weeks but I didn’t have a clue what his deal was. But he played it nicely into the story. 

As we are driving on our way to the party, he randomly pulls into our Starbucks (our first ‘date’ was there and where we constantly went while dating). He begins to talk a million miles a minute: ‘So I know that I’ve been really weird lately and I’m really sorry so I thought that we could come to our Starbucks. I already called and ordered our drinks and the shutterfly book I made you of us came in and I dropped it off here so I thought we could look at it, drink coffee, and be happy.’

UM OK. 

So many red flags. First of all, who calls into Starbucks and orders their drinks beforehand? Famous people? Definitely NOT us. And secondly, he was an absolute freak show the way he said it all. But hey, I went with it. Nick has always been a super thoughtful guy so it didn’t seem too big of a stretch that he would call the baristas to pre-make our drinks (what?!). 

We walked in and sure enough, there was a table set up with our drinks (with our names on it) and a book he had made on shutter fly of our dating days. We sat down and he started ZOOMING thru the book with super fast comments (‘oh yeah, look at us there’, etc) but I didn’t see a single page. I was more concerned with the fact that everyone seemed to be STARING at us. I even leaned over and whispered to Nick at one point that everyone seemed to be looking at us. But this still didn’t tip me off because I just kept thinking that if I was sitting in Starbucks and some couple came into a pre-set-up table, I would definitely stare too. 

Well we reached the end of the book and at that moment, the barista walked over to our table with a mug with a J on it filled with coffee beans… And sure enough, something REAL sparkly sticking out. FINALLY IT HIT ME. This was happening. I look over to Nick and there he was on bended knee. Neither of us could tell you a thing he he said.. I’m sure it was all very, very sweet.. But at that point everything was a blur. I do know that he ended with ‘Will you marry me?’ Let me just say that when I get nervous, I laugh. And so that’s exactly what Nick got in that moment. I didn’t even realize I hadn’t answered him until he said ‘You’ve got to say something because people are watching.’ Whoops!!! Yes, yes of course! Everyone cheered and out popped my sister and bro-in-law from behind the Starbucks counter. They had videoed and took pictures of the whole thing. SO FUN! 

  

And this is apparently how I announced it to social media (because that’s when you know it’s official).. 

I still have the coffee mug with the original beans as a decoration in our home! 

 
  

So you know what my next thought was? Oh good, now it will seem normal to bring my sister and bro-in-law to the youth Christmas party since we have just gotten engaged! I am such a weirdo. 
So we all piled into the car and headed to where the Christmas party was. We walked in and everyone screamed ‘congratulations!’ ane tons of camera flashes went off. In my mind, I still thought this was the youth group being so excited for us. When I could finally see again after all the flashes, I started to (slowly) recognize that these were MY people, my best friends, my family. It was a surprise engagement party!!!

   
 I’ve never been the quickest. Ha! Nick still thinks it’s hilarious that I thought he would propose and then take me to a youth event. I mean, you marry into the ministry, right? I wasn’t mad about it! 
   
  Nick’s work wife, Shannon (what I like to call her because she pretty much rocked at keeping him on track) hosted the entire thing for us. The decorations were fantastic and the food was so great. She made the evening SO special for us. 
   
 Family pics were a must since Nick was now going to officially be apart of the family! (I’m sure Chris was VERY excited to have another guy.) I even called my mom between Starbucks and the party to tell her I was engaged and she did so great at acting like she had no idea (or that I was about to see her in 10 minutes!). 
  
Some of my very best girls were there too! These girls didn’t know it yet but this was totally a bridesmaid picture (just missing 2 girls!). 

  
Look at that happy crazy couple! We were SO excited!!! That night still feels so surreal because Nick did such an amazing job of finding a special way to ask me (because coffee is my love language) and also organizing so many people I love to be there to celebrate with us. (There were other people not pictured that were there too! And my dad and stepmom sent a video because they were on a cruise so that’s a fun memory too.) 

I’m pretty sure Nick was so glad it was done because it required so many lies and so much energy to make sure it would all work out and for me to not find out. But it worked out perfectly!!! SUCH a rockstar. 

And five and a half months later, we were MARRIED… And we lived happily ever after 🙂

There is so much to catch up on since the end of November was such a whirlwind! Here are a few highlights…

Caleb and I flew out to Texas earlier than Nick for one of my best friend’s weddings. And a blizzard decided to come. So we had to hurry and fly out the night before planned. (Like I wasn’t already a nervous wreck flying with him alone for the first time!) But he was a champ even with a two hour delay. #rockstarstatus 

Here he is flirting with everyone in the airport! 

 
It was all worth it to see Hannah and Matt get married though! It seriously was such an honor to be apart of such a special and beautiful day. Everything about their ceremony reflected Jesus and their reception was such a great portrayal of their personalities. Such a fun day!!
 
Isn’t she such a stunning bride?!?!  
Seriously so cute. And so candid. 

 
It’s always a great day when I get to spend time with some of my best girls from college (and my bestie from grad school that has joined right in!). They make my life. 

And not to be outdone, Caleb was having himself a great time with Aunt LeyLey and Maddie Moo. He even crashed her school’s thanksgiving feast!     

On that Monday, we made the trek to Waco to see the brand new Silos that opened while I was in Colorado (or else I totally would have been at that grand opening!). I’m pretty much obsessed with Chip and Joanna from Fixer Upper and consider myself on first name basis with them. The trip did not disappoint! And one of my besties from FW made the trip to meet us. I have the best friends EVER. 

  
   
They even put in food trucks and one of them was my most favorite coffee shop in all the land. And all the people said AMEN! 
 
Then look who finally showed up to Texas!! After a week without this guy, we were VERY EXCITED.   (And there’s your little sneak peek to our family pics we took for Christmas cards. This one of the two of them makes my heart melt.)

Thanksgiving was next and such a blast getting to spend the day with so much family! 
Can you even handle the cuteness of these two turkeys?! 

 
He had so much fun with his grandparents!   
  

 
We flew out the day after Thanksgiving but were greeted by JoJo and…. Aunt JJ!!! She was back from the World Race of 11 months of being gone so it was so super fun to have her back! Crazy to think little man was only 2 months old when he last saw her… Quite the difference! (Thank you TimeHop.) 

It was seriously such a blast to be in Texas for so long and get to see so many of my people (although I wish there was time to see EVERYONE). But fun to come back to our new home with SNOW. Hello Christmastime!!!! I mean, when is the last time we went to pick out a Christmas tree and there was real snow on the ground? (For me… Ummm, NEVER.)

 

It pretty much makes you want to snuggle on the couch and watch Christmas movies and drink hot cocoa while staring at the tree ALL MONTH LONG. Here’s to life getting a whole lot more Christmassy! 

  

Since we have arrived in Colorado, everyone has been sure to tell me that the weather has been uncommonly WARM this fall. A bit concerning since I have certainly been able to pull out the boots and sweaters already. (Let’s just remember that in Texas, there are some days this time of the year that I could still be rockin’ some shorts.) So I say that God is easing me into this whole Colorado snowy life. Thank you Jesus for that small favor. 

Well last week it snowed and I was so excited and I took pictures and I went on and on to Caleb how there was SNOW. Nick quickly burst my bubble that even though I was staring at white stuff on our yard, that in reality it was nothing. (This stuff would shut down Texas, but ok.) Then this morning I woke up to what could only be described in my world as a WINTER WONDERLAND. It was beautiful!!! I felt like a kid on Christmas morning. We bundled up our little man and planted him right in the snow. And he LOVED it. He wanted to eat it and play with it and crawl in it. Apparently this kid was made for Colorado.  

    
 (Yes that is my husband standing in snow in shorts. This is what I’m working with, people. He only put on the snow boots to show me that he owned them. Who knew?)

So I thought this would be a great time to share some other things I’ve come to learn about Colorado! Anyone feel free to chime in and correct my observations or add to them because after all, I’m still pretty new here!

• Nobody is from here. It seems like everyone is a transplant from another state. This makes me feel not alone and also completely understand why the houses are SO STINKIN EXPENSIVE. 
• This is the land of Subarus and Qdobas and Noodles & Co. All of these things are EVERYWHERE. 
• Baking here is depressing. If you know me at all, you know I LOVE to bake. But here, none of my recipes turn out like they are supposed to. It makes me sad. 😦 (Locals, this is a cry for help.) 
• So I’m pretty sure this is a Littleton thing, but you get to choose your own trash service company. Which means there are so many different trash trucks coming down our street so many different days. This is weird to me (and also annoying when you have a child trying to nap). 
• The fall leaves are GORGEOUS. Who knew that in other places of the country leaves actually changed colors and it was beautiful?! This is what you see in the movies and books but never thought was real. Now I understand when people say Texas knows no seasons. I LOVE IT.

That is all for now, but I’m sure there will be more! Off to go stare at the snow while sitting cozily on my couch drinking coffee!

So this weekend three of my all-time favorite girls came to visit! My mom, sister, & niece flew in late Friday night and stayed until Sunday afternoon. It was a fast whirlwind of a trip but SO worth it.   Those eyes. Those pigtails. I can’t even handle it. It was Maddie Moo’s first flight and they reported that she was a champ! No sleeping for her though so she was a bit tuckered out throughout the weekend. But she was still a rockstar! 

We haven’t seen them since we moved so it’s been 7.5 WEEKS without seeing my little Moo. That may not seem very long, but when I had rarely gone a day of her life without seeing her, it’s kind of a BIG DEAL. And she went and got all big on me!  Here she is being all cute while climbing in and out of Caleb’s truck. I told her that she can stop growing up now, especially this fast. She told me she was going to convince her parents to move to Colorado. It was a good talk. 

So we did as many fun things as possible in those 48 hours… We walked around downtown Littleton, we went winter clothes shopping (my mom doesn’t want me to freeze in my Texas wardrobe.. thanks Mom!), we drove them to Idaho Springs to see a mountain town and eat ‘mountain pies’ (AKA stinkin delicious pizza), we took them to our amazing church, and then they left! Told you it was so quick but so fun! 

Here are some fun pics from the weekend..   

    
    
 
And one more thing I have to show you! We found this mug in downtown Littleton that I am pretty much obsessed with now.  

   
Probably because it’s so true! 

So thank you Mom, Ash, & Moo for making the trip so that we could show you our new home that we love.. We love y’all so much!

(And to the rest of you.. Plan your trips now to come see us. We are waiting.)

We have a ONE YEAR OLD. When did that happen? I feel like I was just pregnant with little man! But yet, he has entered toddlerhood in all its glory… the independence, the tantrums, and the super outgoing personality that has just exploded out of nowhere. The kid is a flirt and hasn’t met a pretty girl that he doesn’t like. (It’s a bit concerning for those teenage years.) So when thinking about Halloween this year, it was exciting to think that he actually would care a little more then just sleeping thru it like last year. 

So first it was to decide WHAT he was going to be. I scrolled thru Pinterest like any good mom with high hopes does. Peter Pan seemed like the perfect fit. He’s too young to care or realize I’m putting him in tights and he’s blonde so what could be cuter. But then we strolled thru Babies R Us and came upon their (on sale) costumes and there hung Mickey Mouse. Now there’s not much that gets Caleb’s attention more than that mouse shouting ‘Hey everybody! It’s me, Mickey Mouse!’ The child could be in the other room and will haul butt at the sound of that mouse’s voice. So the mom guilt set in. Caleb LOVES Mickey Mouse. He doesn’t have about a clue who Peter Pan is. And let’s be honest, I’m the least creative person in the world and not about to MAKE a Peter Pan costume. Mickey Mouse for the win! We bought it, took it home, and he LOVED it. Well except for the hood. These were his feelings on the hood.   

  So now it was time to decide WHAT to do on Halloween. A little bit of a struggle because he’s not walking yet and also can’t exactly say ‘trick or treat.’ I was pretty confident calling all strangers ‘dada’ may not be the kind of message we wanted to send. (Yes, my child refuses to still say ‘mama.’ Not bitter at all.) So we decided a shopping center that was offering a trick or treat event was the perfect place for us! We placed our Mickey Mouse in his wagon and just wheeled him up to each store clerk and they threw candy in his bucket. It was perfect! Pretty sure Caleb missed most of it because he was so fixated on the items that kept appearing in his bucket that he rarely ever looked up (unless I made him take a picture). 

   Afterwards, we ate dinner at the Noodles & Co in the shopping center and he ate macaroni & cheese to his heart’s content. A successful trip indeed!

Once we got home, we did go knock on our neighbors’ doors just because we are new to the neighborhood and what better way to make them meet us! The fact that they had to give us candy was just an added bonus. After going back home, Mickey Mouse was pooped.  

 We gave him a bite of Hershey’s and put that mouse to bed. Halloween conquered!  

 Hope everyone else had a great time! There is seriously nothing cuter than little kids dressed up in costumes so I LOVED seeing everyone’s pictures posted on social media. Until next year!  

(Nick does not share my affinity for costumes. Obviously he chose to not join our theme and go as Donald Duck.)

Onto Thanksgiving!

So life looks a little different than the last time I posted.  Which is a lot of reason why I HAVEN’T posted in forever.  We moved to Colorado, y’all!  And boy did we do it fast.  Nick accepted a new position and within 3 weeks, we were the newest residents of Littleton, Colorado.  And now we have been here a MONTH.  Time flies when life is changing like crazy!  So as most of you know, I am a born and raised Texas girl so I have received a LOT of questions about how I am doing.  So I figured why not just tell you all at once!

I am GOOD! I really am loving our new home, new city, new church, new state!  Now hear me right.. I’ve got Texas pride like no other and the Lone Star State is being represented WELL in our new home with all kinds of Texas decor.  And it’s the first time in my entire life that I’ve found myself caring about things like Caleb going to an elementary school that does not have the Texas flag flying outside.  Let’s just say I get weirdly nostalgic about all kinds of random things.  And I am ADAMANT that I will not lose my accent and that Caleb will always know he’s originally from the best state ever.

BUT.  Life is seriously fantastic here!  Have you ever just shown up somewhere and it just feels like home?!  That is our new church and this town for us.  The people are incredible and the mountains are GORGEOUS and everyone has gone above and beyond to make us feel so welcome.  Talk about God just confirming over and over again that this is where He has called us.  It is like a breath of fresh air (fresh MOUNTAIN air!).  I always tell people that it is hard to be TOO upset about anything when everytime you turn, you are staring at the glory that is the mountains!!  I can’t imagine ever getting used to it.

So thank you friends for all of your prayers and checking on us!  God is taking care of us and allowing us to stare at mountains while He does!!!  (Can you tell I’m a little bit obsessed?)  But as a true Texas girl, I have never experienced the winter that is coming.  And I am not generally a fan of the cold.  So that should be interesting.  So keep the prayers (and possibly coats or hot cocoa or anything else that can keep me warm!) coming.  And I promise to keep you up to date on all of the adventures of trying to get used to this whole new world!

Our sweet little home!

This is just driving down the road. Staring at snow-topped mountains in the distance.  (Nick was driving, I promise.)

Chilly weather does mean this guy in puffy vest which equals about the cutest thing in all the world.