O Happy Day

Well, today I am officially 33 years old!

Yes, Happy Birthday to me. :) As turning 30 was a hard year for me, I have come to enjoy the years that have followed. It seems life gets more fun, adventurous, joyful, laughter filled, and precious memories swelling up inside.

I love my birthday and the time of year it happens to fall on and around. FALL, one of my favorite seasons and the time of year you get to be with family and laugh, and laugh, and eat, and eat! Its joyous and I am grateful for what it brings. This year my birthday has fallen before Thanksgiving so I truly have gotten to spend time with just the girls and Ryan today. It was special. Today we spent the whole afternoon and evening putting up our Christmas decorations and decorating the girls trees, and pulling out the stockings while Christmas music played in the background. Its been awesome and refreshing! I loved it and so did the girls. :)

Here a few pics of them decorating their tree.

A New Tradition

Old Town Spring, that is!!!! Well, if you live down in the Houston area or Bay Area, it is a must see. When, we first moved down here to League City 6 years ago, a friend kept telling me how cool this "Old Town Spring" was and all the shops, and food, and shops, and food. You get the picture! :) Anyway, last year Ryan and I finally made a trip to Spring, Texas which is on the North side of Houston. It was amazing and so much fun. You see, I am such a Fredericksburg, Texas lover and always will be but this had such a feel of Fredericksburg with the unique, specialty shops made of old houses lining 2 streets. This sure can make a momma happy! Last December, Ryan and I went all by ourselves and found this little German food and gifts shop. It was so cool! It had chocolate and gifts, and more chocolates to buy that were from Germany. Then, Yes..just want I wanted for the girls. I found an Advent calendar for kids with little Germany chocolates inside. I was so excited to buy this for the girls as I had an Advent calendar almost every year growing up and that was one thing I remember looking forward to during Christmas. The girls loved doing it every day last year counting down the days until Christmas! It was so cute because my little sweet, candy lover Avery never forgot that we were to open a door for a chocolate!

Well, this year we made a trip back to Old Town Spring and one of the last shops we went into was the famous German shop. Yep, we bought 3 advent calendars for the girls and this year, they got to pick which one they wanted. We had family in town this weekend so we decided to take them to Old Town Spring so we had the whole gang with us. BTW...we only lost Annalise once! That's a miracle since her nickname from me is bullet!!! Anyway, I decided on our journey home that this was it, my new tradition for my girls. We would go to Old Town Spring and shop and get our yearly advent calendars for Christmas! :) Makes me smile just typing this out. It was a good day and quite chilly for South Texas. I loved it!

Here are some pictures to enjoy.

One Week

Yes, a week from today I will be holding my mans hand walking around to the sights and sounds of Nashville, Tennessee. Yea-and the best part of our trip is that I googled the weather to see just what a girl is to wear and YEEEESSSS, its going to be cold- 52 during the day and upper 30's at night. I love the cold and often realize that God has a sense of humor since I live by Galveston Bay and its like warm tropical weather almost year round! So, now its time for me to pull out the jeans and boots, some layers of clothes, and those jacket vests that sit in your closet and you might wear once. Woohoo! This South Texan is ready for the northern blue skies. I can't wait as this is our long awaited 10 year trip. A time together without our 3 precious girls, a time to remember, a time to make memories, and a time to share our new adventures and dreams of our next 10+ years together.

So here is a big shout out to Grammy (my mom) who is watching, loving on the girls and holding down the fort while we go. Thanks mom! I couldn't go and have fun without your love and support for me and the girls.

Stay tuned for more is to come from Nashville, music city!

5 Conversations

To my blog roll of this blog spot is Virtue Alert by Vicki Courtney. She is an incredible talented woman who loves the Lord, has 3 kids of her own, and has created a ministry for teen girls and their moms. I was introduced to her by Ryan who told me about an interesting article and instantly I was hooked. I enjoyed her humor, her knowledge, her love for growing godly girls, and her personal experience of raising both girls and boys. Well, after following her blog community for months she has launched her long awaited book called 5 Conversations You Must Have with Your Daughter. Yea-when I first heard and read about her new book it was in June and I couldn't wait to pick it up as its about raising godly girls from the cradle to college. Its here, and she is creating a book read club through her blog (www.virtuealert.com) where you can follow. I am joining and really can't wait to be mentored in an area of raising godly girls as these tween and teen years will be upon me fast.

Another exciting adventure I am joining is the jr high girly ministry that's in its first stages of development. I am leading out this book club with jr high moms and anyone else who wants to commit to reading the book, following Vicki Courtney's blog, pray for each other's girls, and a chance for us moms of girls to communicate and share our deepest struggles, challenges, or most fruitful growth of our girls. I am truly scared and excited as launching this in jr high ministry is already showing a sign of great success. Within 2 days of the email going out to all jr high parents, I have 21 moms that have contacted me via email that reads, "count me in" or "this is so exciting and I need all the help I can get." Yea- I am thrilled to commit myself and join this new journey. So, here is what I need from you. Please pray for me when I come across your mind. I want God to use me in a way that I can help facilitate a group of moms who have committed to this book read. Join the journey if you have a girl. There are moms of girls with all ages so come and bring friends. I have a good feeling God will do some amazing things!

My Soap Box

I have to tell you about my soap box that I got on the other day with Ryan. Poor guy just looked at me like a deer in headlights and then would say yes, I know. Well, I don't know if he really knows or understands but it was nice to get it off my chest so I could move on and have a good day. :)

Here it is....Do any of you like me get a little overwhelmed with all the fundraisers and constant asking of money from the school systems? Ok.. I said it and it sounds so tacky but hear me out for a minute. In just the past 2 weeks, my girls backpacks have been full of info on fundraising and sending in money for certain things. For example, Addie has 2 fundraisers going on right now, A Fun Run and selling butter breads. Yikes! Last week was Halloween so I sent in money for the party plus money for the Zoo field trip in December and the week before that was school pictures. Then, this week they send home Scholastic Book orders. I sound like a grumpy mommy but seriously..I feel like weekly I am sending in money for something and this doesn't even include Avery's preschool stuff! I went on and on to Ryan about how I want to be a huge supporter of Addie's school and will always participate in the activities but it does take a toll on me. Being on a single income, we watch all pennies and sometimes I just have to say no. This month it was Scholastic book orders and I had to convince myself that it was ok. Just part of my personality, but I hate for it to "look" like I am not supporting the school. Ryan convinced me that its ok and really Addie's teacher would completely understand as she is a single mom herself. So, thats my soapbox! Can someone adjust my attitude please or say they understand or offer any advice??? Your input would help my self worth here!! he he :D

Thanks for listening and letting me vent one last time as I am off to print out pictures for school project for Addie! Ha ha :) Cha-ching!!!!

My 5 Year Old!

Happy 5th Birthday Avery!

I can't believe my 8 lb, chunky monkey, no ankle little girl turned 5 years old yesterday! I love how she has definitely been my girl that has changed the most in personality and looks. She was my chunk a love with black hair and grew into this major meltdown 2 year old, then into this more reserved, sweet, tender hearted girl who has brought so much joy to my life.

I am so proud of her and thankful for this life that God has given me to help develop into HIS precious princess.

Avery had a great birthday this year. We started the celebration at Grammy's house and Aunt Melissa's. (2 of her favorite people) We treated all the girls and Chandler and Berkley to High School Musical 3 and then ended the celebration with Halloween cookie baking and presents.

At home, we celebrated with more friends and family and carved our pumpkins for Halloween.

It was a special day and I just love my little pumpkin girl.

Happy Birthday Avery,

We love you so Much!

Moms of Daughters

I have decided to read a book that peeked my interest early this summer but wasn't due to release until November. YIPEE...November is upon us and the book will soon be in my hands. The book titled...5 Conversations You Must Have With Your Daughter by Vicki Courtney. I landed on Vicki Courtney after Ryan introduced me to her website in which she gives up to date happenings in the teen world mostly on girls but does talk about boys too. Her experience and knowledge of the tween and teen years are incredible. The moment I read the first entry on her website, I was hooked. I follow her constantly and now with the release of her new book on daughters and conversations you must have, it captured my attention quickly. Its hard for me to believe that one of my own daughters is not that far away from being in the tween years as she turns 7 this December. With 2 other girls right behind her, I wanted to read this book and take time to open this book and find out just what I can do as my girls go from cradle to college. Vicki Courtney has also launched a blog community that you can interact with her and leave your thoughts, ideas, struggles, etc on topics that are seriously struggles for our girls in this culture. If you don't read the book, hop on over to Vicki's website and read all her virtue alerts. She's very insightful and has tons of experience on the youth culture today but in a godly way.

Have fun...www.virtuealert.com

So, please let me know if you decide to join in the journey and read this book and follow Vicki's blog community. It will be fun.