Day of Celebration!

Today Nick and I were baptized.  As some of you know, we have been going to a new church for several months now.  We wanted a closer relationship with God and we wanted Mady to grow up in a strong Christian home.  We always believed in God but we didn't know what it truly meant to be a Christian.  In order to do that, we knew we would have to find a new church home.  The first church we attended, we knew was the right place for us.  We have met some amazing people and grown so much in our faith since then.  God guided us on this journey and brought us to the right church and put the right people on our path to Him.

I had been praying for a long time that we would find our way to Him and form a close relationship with Him.  When Nick went to the church men's retreat, it was there that he made the ultimate decision to fully invest and life his life for Him.  When I heard that, I realized that prayers are answered and I made the same decision.  This is a journey that we have been on together, and we made the decision to show that publicly through our baptism.  I was nervous when I first made that decision but as the day came closer that was replaced with peace.  I felt so comfortable with my decision.  Our parents surprised us this morning by making the trip up here to be there with us when we were baptized.  I didn't realize how much it would mean to me for them to be here, until they were actually here.  Standing there alongside Nick, and looking out and seeing all those people who have been instrumental in our lives and our journey was so special.

Celebrating the birth of Jesus, and understanding what His birth truly meant for all of us has made this Christmas season even more meaningful to us.  I am so at peace where we are now and am looking forward to where this will take us in the future.  Thanks to everyone who was part of this!

Thanksgiving

I don't know where the time has gone, but another Thanksgiving has passed.  We went down to Port Arthur this year and had a great Thanksgiving with our family.

I spent the the week of Thanksgiving, while super busy, also reflecting on what it is this year that I am truly thankful for.  I am so thankful for all of the special people that surround my life including my family and friends.  I love them all so much and know that they are always there when I need them.  I'm thankful for my wonderful husband.  There is no other man I would want to go on this journey with.  And of course, I am so thankful for my amazing daughter.  There are many times when I look at her and cannot believe that she is mine.  How grateful I am that God chose me to be her mommy.  I am also thankful for all that we have been given, and for growing up in a place where we have been given so many opportunities.

This year though, I have something else to be thankful for.  I am so thankful for our new church that we found several months ago.  We have been so blessed to find it and all of the great people that it has brought into our lives.  In these past few months we have grown so much in our faith and discovered what it is to truly be a Christian.

Now on to the celebration of Christmas!

Pumpkin Patch and Halloween

My parents came in town the week before Halloween.  It's always great having our parents in town, mostly because we love seeing them and visiting, but we also love it because it means DATE NIGHTS!  Hahaha

While they were in town we met my good friend Mindy and her precious baby, Blayne, and went to the pumpkin patch.  It was so fun out there and Mady had a great time.

Halloween was a bit of a different story.  I was so excited about her Halloween costume.  I found this cute owl costume on pinterest and decided to give it a shot.  It came out so cute and I couldn't wait to see Mady in it.  She had a different plan.  She did not like the costume at all and refused to wear it.  We stayed in and passed out candy to all the other cute kids who did wear their costume.  Maybe I can save it for next year?

When Nick's away....

Last week Nick went to Nashville for a conference during the week and then went straight to a men's retreat through our church for the weekend.  We definitely missed him but it was great that he was able to go to Nashville to present the research he's been working on and even better that he was able to make the church retreat.   It was a great experience for him.  God has really been doing some amazing work in our lives.  To keep us company while he was away, my mom came up and we had some fun girl time.

There was a "Pumpkins and Pancakes" event at the zoo for members and my friend Kindel invited Mady and I to go with them.  We ate pancakes at the zoo and we had a great time walking around and seeing the animals.  She didn't so much enjoy the carousel and would not ride on her horse.  Though she doesn't look super thrilled in these pictures, she really did have a great time!

State Fair

I am quite a bit behind with blog posts.  We have been so busy lately that I haven't had time to sit down and blog about it.  Things won't be slowing down either with the holidays right around the corner!

A few weeks ago my mother-in-law came in town to see us for the weekend and we had a great time.  We went to the state fair and it just so happened to be the day that Big Tex went up in flames!

Despite that sadness, we had a great time walking around and eating some yummy food!  That fried jumbalaya was delicious!

Poor Big Tex :(

She had a lot of fun at this little farm exhibit for kids

She met Elsie the Borden cow

All in all, I think she had a great day!

M-I-C-K-E-Y

I've never really let Mady watch much TV. Up until a month ago we didn't even have cable. We got rid of it around when Mady was born. We weren't watching much of it and whatever we did watch was on the local channels anyways. We did miss watching our Aggie football games though so this season we gave in and signed up for it again. So now we have the Disney channel and I've started letting Mady watch Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. Lets be honest here. It's really more for me. Mady can get pretty crabby in the morning when she's hungry so this kind of entertains her and buys me time to get breakfast on the table without having a screaming baby at my feet!

She has fallen in love with Mickey Mouse. Anytime she sees him she gets so excited and starts saying "mama" over and over which is her way of saying Mickey Mouse. Now, she knows I'm mommy and every now and then will call me mama but its a whole different story with that mouse. She will call him mama over and over and over with such love. I never thought I'd be jealous of that mouse :(

It is really cute though and I do love that she loves that show. I loved Mickey and all of them when I was young and think it's great that it's something that is still around for her to enjoy too. Because of that, I can even pass on my Pluto stuffed animal for her to love on too!

Where's your belly button?