A Christmas Celebration

This Christmas was so special and filled with faith, hope, love and joy!! We have started a tradition on Christmas Eve of going to the Christmas Eve service at church and then having my family over to our house for games and goodies. I love it, it's so much fun!!

Christmas morning Kyle and I exchanged gifts at home before going over to my parents' house. I got Kyle a really awesome Dremel tool that he has been eyeing for a while and a few other things. He got me a new camera!!!! A Nikon D3000. I'm so happy! I love it! I'm so excited to learn how to use it and take really great pictures.

We spent most of Christmas Day at my parents' house. My grandparents and aunt and uncle also came over. My Dad cooked his standing rib roast like he does every year! Yes, Lord! We had a wonderful day and opened lots of presents. Some of my favorite gifts included my new Brighton necklace, an NC State serving tray and the gift my sister gave me... feeding a hungry baby through Samaritan's purse. Kyle loaded up with some shirts and a pocket knife.

Since we were expecting a significant amount of snow, we decided to head to Jacksonville Saturday night instead of Sunday. We were excited to have a second Christmas with the Fescoes and definitely did not want to get snowed in and miss it! The whole family was there this year so it was great to see everyone! Ava and Lincoln get cuter and sweeter every time we see them! We were also blessed with more gifts! Rick made me a shelf for my knick-knacks and I absolutely LOVE it! A RHF original as he calls it. It's beautiful and definitely one of the best gifts I have ever received. We also had a delicious, healthy meal made by Michelle and Courtney! And we got SNOW!! It was a beautiful snow and perfect for snowballs and snowmen!! We played outside in it for a while, it was so much fun!

We made some really great memories this year while celebrating the birth of the Christ Child, Immanuel, God with us! So thankful for that gift, truly the best gift anyone could ever receive!

Dad and the roast!

G-pa and Mom

Leah and Alex

Lesley and Eric, love this pic of them!

G-ma and Auntie Lou

Mom and Dad

Uncle Kyle and Lincoln

Linc and Zsa Zsa

I was so happy to get my shelf!

Cuteness!

Pretty Ava posing for me!

building a gingerbread house

Ava and the finished product

These two are crazy! Fighting on the Wii!

Yoda and Linc

Uncle Kyle and Aunt Lindsey with the kids

Love this pic!

Chad and his hat!

my shelf hung and decorated!

it's beautiful, I love it! Thanks, Rick!

Christmas Goodies

The holiday baking has begun!!! Here's what I've done so far:

I tried a new Peppermint Bark recipe...

and I'm in love!!! These are amazing!

Sausage balls make the list every year!

Peanut Blossoms!!

Chocolate and peanut butter is my absolute favorite food combination in the whole world!!

What goodies are you making this year??

Biltmore

Back in November we visited some friends who live in Asheville, NC. We had a wonderful visit and we spent almost an entire day at the Biltmore Estate. We got to tour the Antler Hill Village on the property which included the farm and the winery and of course we walked through the mansion. I'm still in shock that people can have that much money. Wow. They had it decorated for Christmas and it was absolutely beautiful! Thanks Wes and Kristina for hosting us, we had a wonderful time!!!

Antler Hill Village

the farmland

view from the balcony at the back of the house

Bag of Blessings

I really loved Kristen's post about the Reason for the Season. Jesus is truly the reason that we celebrate Christmas whether you believe it or not, it's true. Kyle and I give and serve others on a regular basis throughout the year but we definitely have a giving spirit at Christmas time! When you meet people's needs at the most basic level, it really opens up the door for you to share the Gospel with them. People want to see that you truly care about them, that you're not just "doing your religious duty" or trying to work your way to heaven. Which we know you can't work your way to heaven anyway ("Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us." Titus 3:5a and "For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith--and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God - not by works, so that no one can boast." Ephesians 2:9-10) Our goal is for people to see that we love them because God loves them and we want them to spend eternity in heaven with God and us! "We love because he first loved us." 1 John 4:19.

So..... this is why I absolutely LOVE what our church is doing this year. We are combining local missions with foreign missions. Our Pastors have asked each family at our church to make a "Bag of Blessings." They handed out white cloth bags to every family and asked us to decorate it and fill it with essential goodies for the homeless people living in downtown Raleigh. Once they collect all the bags, they will take them downtown and distribute them. I'm thrilled about this because it's so practical. We get to decorate the bags with a message to the individual who receives it. We get to see exactly where our money is going and who gets to benefit from it. We get to fill it with whatever we want!!! The person can reuse the bag and use it to carry their belongings! This is my cup of tea right here, people!!! This is it!!

Then, on the assigned date we are to bring our bags back to church and with the bag we will include our donation for the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering which goes to support foreign missions. It's really a great picture of what the church is here for: spreading the Gospel by helping people down the street and across the globe. I'm praising God for giving us Pastors who see this and believe this and encourage us in doing this!!!

Here is our bag of blessings. We are praying for the individual who receives this bag, that they may know God's love for them and receive his free gift of salvation.

We included: winter items like a blanket, hat and gloves, a Bible, food, water and hygiene items.

My Goofy Husband

I thought he was kidding, but clearly he wasn't. Kyle has created his own version of Elf on the Shelf. See for yourself...




This is where I found the abominable snowman yesterday...

and today...

Also - we are excited to have a new tree this year!! It's a little bigger than our last one and it's sooo pretty! Thanks to our neighbor, Mr. Dan who gave it to us!!!

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving was wonderful as always. I've been going to Myrtle Beach with the Fescoe family since I met Kyle (6 years ago) and it's always so much fun. It's basically the only time of year we get to see a lot of the family that lives out of state. It was unseasonably warm this year which I was slightly disappointed about. I like it to be chilly at Thanksgiving but it was still nice. The food was absolutely amazing and Court made her famous pumpkin cake!! We also did a lot of shopping!! Kyle and I got a super good, awesome, sweeeet deal on my Christmas gift. A new camera. I'm way excited for it to get here!

We have so much to be thankful for. I try hard to not take anything for granted on a daily basis but it's special to have that one day to really reflect on all the many blessings we have. I'm am thankful for so much but I thought hard about the one thing I'm most thankful for this year and I have decided that it's my health. I look around and see so many sick people, even among my friends and family. It breaks my heart to see so many very young patients coming into the hospital with illnesses ranging anywhere from pneumonia to multiple sclerosis to epilepsy to metastatic cancer. This year my sister and I were both diagnosed with a minor abnormality that is totally treatable. At first I was ready to flip out and have a meltdown but then I started thinking about how much worse it could be. I had an immediate attitude adjustment. I'm so thankful everyday that I can get up and go where I want to go and do what I want to do without the crippling effects of a disease or sickness. Thank you Lord!

Feelings

Pondering this thought today. It's so true.

"We’re moving so fast these days that it’s hard to know how we feel about things, important or otherwise. Our feelings get all cross-wise and we end up getting mad about something we don’t even care about and not caring about something we should be mad about." - Beth Moore

It's almost here!

The countdown to Thanksgiving has begun!!!

20 days!

Can't believe it's almost here again! Thanksgiving at Myrtle Beach!! whohooo!!!

And we get to squeeze in a trip to Asheville, NC before then. So excited to get to see our friends and the beautiful fall colors in the mountains and the Biltmore estate!

Until then, it's back to work...

New Recipes

Funny thing about germs.... I work in a hospital and never get sick. I watch a few kids for a few hours and two days later and I'm sick. Kids are germ infested little stinkers, yes they are. So since I was stuck on the couch sick all week, I had a lot of time to think and search the internet. I took the time to search for some new recipes. I love to try new recipes but somehow I seem to always get stuck in the rut of cooking the same things over and over.

Here are a few of the experiments...

NOTE: These are not my pictures, just the closest thing I could find to what my food actually looked like :)

Stuffed shells! Definitely a keeper.



Calzones... this was one of Kyle's favs!



KEY LIME PIE!!! Kyle has been asking me for a while to learn how to make Key Lime pie since it's his favorite dessert. I have been asking around and finally found someone who had a very easy and super yummy recipe. It was delicious!

Couples Retreat

Kyle and I are part of a Life Group at our church with all young married couples. We have made some really neat friends, some that are just like us and some that are completely different than us. That's what makes our group so unique and attractive. We love studying God's word together, we love to eat, we love football (some of us do at least!), we love the beach, we love playing games and we love to laugh at each other. And yes, all of those were included in our Couple's Retreat we had at Topsail Island a couple weekends ago! The weather was gorgeous, we had lots of free time to relax and hangout, we had some really awesome food and Kyle and I won the drawing to get the Master Suite for the weekend. Score! Our leaders do a great job at organizing one of these weekends for us every year. It's truly a highlight of the year.


Wax lips and mustaches! Kyle ate his before we could get a group picture, figures.

Country Pancake Dinner

Just in case I haven't said it enough, I love the Women's Ministry at our church. Friday night we had a Country Pancake Dinner. What's better than being with friends, eating pancakes and listening to banjo music all night? Not much. I love breakfast for dinner anytime, and the best part... the men cooked for us... because they love us and because they have such servant's hearts. It was so much fun!!


"Taste and see that the Lord is good." Love it!


Daddy cooking up the yummy sausages!!


Lesley, Leah, Mom and me!


BTW, Leah just cut my hair for the first time last week!! She did a fabulous job. I am so excited to have a cosmetologist as a sister. Can't wait to let her color my hair next time! :)

It's officially fall

It's the first day of Fall and it's 90 something degrees outside. There is something very, very wrong with that! Bring on the cool weather, please! I love the fall. It's my absolute favorite time of the year. There's nothing exciting to blog about right now, but we are staying very busy.

What is occupying our time these days?

- Football. Football. Football. It's what we do on Saturdays. And Sundays. And Thursdays. And Mondays.

- We had a yardsale. Got rid of some junk and made a little money. That was kinda cool.

- Working long, weird hours.

- Bible Study Fellowship. BSF is an international, interdenominational, structured Bible study. There are a lot of women who want to get into this program so you have to register and be chosen to participate. I just got accepted into this 8-year program. I go every Monday night during the school year to a church down the road for about 2 hours for some hard core Bible study. I'm super excited about it. My Mom had done the first 7 years when I was in preschool and they just added an 8th year onto the program. So we are going together and I could not be happier. This year we are studying the book of Isaiah. Yes, a whole year to study one book of the Bible. Very intense. Isaiah is my kind of man though. Say it like it is, don't sugar coat it. Call sin what it is and don't back down. Gotta love it! I also love studying prophecy so I'm thrilled to get to start with this book. This is what I have been craving in my spiritual life and I am so excited about learning and growing in my walk with the Lord!!

- "Scouting the Divine." Kyle and I are facilitating this young adult Bible study at our house on Sunday nights. It's a six week study and it's our first time facilitating as a couple. We have 9 people in our group and they are all so wonderful. We are excited to study with our peers and get to know them better! I'm so proud of myself too because I have created a snack schedule that coordinates with what we are studying that week. For example, this week we are studying God as the Good Shepherd and we are learning about sheep and shepherding. So I am making butterscotch haystacks! We will have grape everying the night we learn about vineyards and wine and we'll have honey snacks on the night we learn about bees and honey. hehe. It doesn't take much to make me happy.

- This is random but I have to say that it thrills my heart that we can hear the local high school marching band on Friday nights from our house. We are super close to the high school and it brings back so many memories when I hear those drums. I loved being in the marching band when I was in high school and Friday night football games were the best!! If we ever get a Friday night free we are going to go to a game.

OK, I'm done rambling. Happy Fall everybody!! Hoping cool weather comes soon! :)

Labor Day 2010

I am finally getting around to writing about the awesome time we had last weekend. For those of you that don't know, my Mom had two surgeries on Tuesday and I have spent the majority of the week focused on her. I had the week off of work which was such a huge blessing. I got to be at the hospital with my Dad all day Tuesday while Mom was in surgery and I got to spend time with her the next two days as well. My wonderful Aunt came up from Atlanta to stay with Mom all week and I know my Dad was so thankful for the extra help. Not to mention my aunt is a nurse so she was able to help with all "that stuff" that needed to be done. Mom is doing great, she has truly done amazing and is recovering very quickly. I decided I needed to stay home today and get my own life (and house) back in order before my 70-hour work week starts tomorrow. So today I am catching up on stuff like getting my car inspected, watching my DVR shows, responding to emails, grocery shopping, getting ready for our yard sale next Saturday, etc etc...

Anyway, back to our awesome weekend. We went to Jacksonville to see the Fescoe's and we got to meet two Fescoe's that we have only known through Facebook. Jen and Delaney. Jen is Kyle's cousin Bob's wife and Delaney is their 9 month old daughter. They are so cool! We really had a blast getting to know them. Of course Mom and Dad Fescoe feed us like nobody's business every time we go. Monday we went to the beach and took lots of pictures!! Delaney is so cute and probably the happiest and best baby I have ever seen in my whole entire life. I don't think the kid cried the whole time we were there. They had been traveling for a week and she was still so happy and slept great. A very fun time! Now if we could just get them to come to Myrtle Beach for Thanksgiving next year... ;)


Happy Delaney


Jen and Delaney


Mom F, Courtney, Dad F


Kyle and me

Computer Lessons...

It is no secret that computers and I don't get along very well. I don't understand how they work and I don't have the patience to learn. I just want them to work when and how I want them to work. And when my computer doesn't work, all I have to do is yell... "KYYYYYYYLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" and he comes and magically fixes whatever the problem is. That's why I married him, just kidding. Sort of. Anyway, recently I was trying to log in to a website and I repeatedly got this message: "The Server understood your request, but chose not to fulfill it."

Has anyone else seen that message before?? I'm sure my jaw hit the floor the first time I saw that message. "That computer has a lot of nerve", I said aloud to my kitty who was sitting next to me. Some nerve indeed. It totally understood what I was telling it to do and it just flat out refused. Then I kind of chuckled to myself thinking about how children are sometimes the exact same way...

All of the sudden this thought popped into my head. How many times have I understood exactly what God was telling me to do and just flat out chose not to do it?? I am no better than that darn computer. I'm sure there are days when God just sits up there thinking, "That girl has a lot of nerve." I had to say a prayer of repentance because I knew that I have refused to obey God so many times. Some times I disobey because I lack the faith to believe that God can accomplish something through me, sometimes it's way too out of my comfort zone to do it, other times I'm just too lazy and stubborn to do it. The sin of omission is just as wrong as doing something I know not to do.

"Therefore, to one who knows the right thing to do and does not do it, to him it is sin."
- James 4:17

Talk about feeling convicted. Praise Jesus for his patience and mercy and for giving me countless second chances to get it right. Whew... who knew I would learn something spiritual from working on a computer?! God knew.

Dining Room

We had finished the painting and crown molding months and months ago and finally got around to the curtains this past week. It was an absolute headache to get the curtains to work in this room. Still don't love them, but it's going to stay like it is for a while. Definitely an improvement from what it was though. Enjoy the pics! :)


BEFORE:




AFTER:














Changes made:
paint (alternating flat and semi-gloss burgundy stripes)
new curtains
new light fixture
new wall plates
added crown molding