the church search...

So we tried another church today. I think so far, we have tried at least 6 churchs since we have been here. We feel like we have searched to the ends of the earth on the internet to find something with sound doctrine, contemporary worship and a strong young couples group. Shockingly harder than we thought! We feel spoiled by our church home in Fort Worth and are starting to realize our church here may not be a spitting image of it.

While it has been somewhat of a trying experience, it has also been fun. It has brought David and I closer as we talk about what we are looking for. We have been in congregations of 30 to 1000 over the past couple of weeks. We have sung hymns, praise and worship, seen skits and film clips.

We are so looking forward to discovering our new church home! We are so excited to get plugged in and meet like minded couples.

Tonight, we sang this song in the church we visited. I had not heard it before, but just felt like it was really applicable to my Pittsburgh experience. We have said this many times...we don't know why we are here exactly, but we trust God with His plan for us. I cannot wait until I can sing, 'but now I can see.'

Whatever You're Doing (Something Heavenly) by Sanctus Real
It's time for healing time to move on
It's time to fix what's been broken too long
Time make right what has been wrong
It's time to find my way to where I belong
There's a wave that's crashing over me
And all I can do is surrender

(Chorus)
Whatever You're doing inside of me
It feels like chaos but somehow there's peace
It's hard to surrender to what I can't see
but I'm giving in to something Heavenly

Time for a milestone
Time to begin again
Reevaluate who I really am
Am I doing everything to follow Your will
Or just climbing aimlessly over these hills
So show me what it is You want from me
I give everything I surrender...
To...

(Chorus)

Time to face up
Clean this old house
Time to breathe in and let everything out
That I've wanted to say for so many years
Time to release all my held back tears

Whatever You're doing inside of me
It feels like chaos but I believe
You're up to something bigger than me
Larger than life something Heavenly

Whatever You're doing inside of me
It feels like chaos but now I can see
This something bigger than me
Larger than life something Heavenly
Something Heavenly

It's time to face up
Clean this old house
Time breathe in and let everything out

Happy Easter + Say Cheese

I hope you all had a wonderful Easter! We had a really good time down in Wichita...which kind of sounds funny to say 'down in Wichita.' Usually it is up. Anyway, it was so fun, relaxing and special to be with Dave's family! It had been way too long since we had been there - Thanksgiving!

There were many treats to this trip! First of all, we got the opportunity to meet our new nephew Carter for the first time. He is the sweetest baby. He loves to cuddle up on your shoulder - I really couldn't get enough of it. When he is not doing that, he prefers to be fed. We were all trying like crazy to get him to smile. He is precious!

So this is one of those moments in life where you look at your husband and think, 'he is the greatest!' While we aren't ready for kids just yet, I really look forward to when he becomes a dad. I so admire how he does with our nieces and nephews.

Grayson and I had a special afternoon making a Bunny Cake for Easter. We have done this with my mom since we were little ~ so it was fun to share traditions with Dave's family. Grayson did an awesome job! He colored the coconut for grass and decorated the whole bunny.

I love this picture! Grayson thought it was funny to give the bunny crazy whiskers!

Jerry 'combed' them out...leaving us with the final presentation!

Another treat this trip was that Luke, Brett's best friend came down from Omaha. These guys have been best friends for a very long time ~ so we enjoyed listening to their stories about each other growing up. Some were embarrassing, some incriminating ;-) This is Luke, Brett, Grayson, Dave, Julie and Me at Julie's home.

Treats continued: This is Carl and Sarah Hebert. Sarah and Dave have been friends for many years. fun fact: They both read scripture in each other's wedding. We love getting together with them and wish they were in the same town! They are expecting a baby girl in May. We are so excited! Sarah is amazingly artistic ~ so I thoroughly enjoyed seeing what they had done with the nursery. If you ever need any creative materials, papers, etc., see the link down below on the right of my blog. ;-)

We had fun on Sunday. We started off helping Dave's mom teach kindergarten Sunday School. She is so kind to give the other teachers the day off to be with their family and we always have fun helping her. We usually do trivia at the end. My favorite comment from this year? What is the capital of Kansas? The United States of America!!

So here are the post Church pics. These are the boys (minus Jerry who unfortunately wasn't feeling well). Pretty much fun chaos at all times.

Creepy brother pic

The whole fam (minus Jerry).

Treat: Dave and I gave up cheese for Lent. Oh my! Much harder than I had anticipated!! Cheese is in everything! I love pizza, pasta, sandwiches, cheese by itself! It was so fun on Sunday to indulge in cheese & cheesy potatoes!

Final Treat: My mother-in-law is the best! For Easter, she gave me and Julie these cute hand towels. I truly feel they brighten my kitchen. Julie and I are both bloggers ~ Julie's is a little more fun to read as her family is always out and about, but we both try to document our lives pretty regularly via the web. It was so neat because Janie had these books made of our blogs. It is like a scrap book with each blog, the pictures and all from the beginning. I loved it!!

Happy Easter to you all!

we heart texas & kansas

Well the last two weekends have been kind of crazy for us. I have been in Texas for both and Dave went with me last weekend. Our sweet friends have had some really special celebrations and we feel very fortunate that we got to be there for them. We are starting to learn we can't go back for everything - so we do our best to go back with weekends where we get to see lots of family and friends!

Before I get into the loveliness that is celebrating babies and weddings, I must vent briefly on airline/airplane etiquette.

- First of all, if you must cancel my Friday night flight and it is the last flight going out that night, please make a verbal announcement that a) it has been cancelled and b) why instead of discreetly changing the status on the gate monitors to cancelled.

- Once you have cancelled my precious ride home, please do not be 'put out' and sarcastic with those of us that now must figure out some other flight/route to get to our intended destination.

- If you are bringing children on a flight, I ask that you bring an appropriate ratio of parent/supervisor to children. For some adults, you might be able to handle numerous children under the age of 5 all by yourself. However, some can't and I think we need to carefully evaluate the situation and plan accordingly.

- When traveling with children, please do not subject them to a 2.5 hour flight without bringing anything for them to do. Sitting in an airplane facing the seat in front of you without activities is like time out. Seriously, bring something, anything for them to do! It is so not fair to your kids.

- I realize some parents can simply ignore young children. I however, cannot when a 4 year old is screaming "I hate you" to her mother across the aisle, kicking the seats, popping up over the headrests and leaning their chair up and down. Just something to consider, discuss amongst yourselves.

Okay, back to the fun stuff! Starting with last weekend:

So last weekend, I got some major girl time in! I loved it! As I mentioned above, my flight on Friday got cancelled, so I jumped on a 5:45 am (I wouldn't recommend it) flight to get to FW in time for Brooke and Rowan's Sip 'N See. I had a great surprise in that Marianne, Chad and Addi picked me up from the airport. I knew Addi was going to be in town, but I was so excited to see her at the airport! So then, we got back to FW just in time for the party. It was so fun to see the girls and cuddle with Rowan some more.

I miss them.

We were talking.

Then, I spent a little more time with Addi. She is getting so big and talking so much more and louder! We took her to get her face painted (courtesy of Braden) at the Church for their Easter program. She slept through the whole thing, which was probably good.


I am reminded of DJ telling me in school, no one looks intelligent with their mouth open.

I just think this is so sweet of Addi and Doc on the stairs.

When we got back, I took off for the lake for Haley's bachelorette party. Haley is one of my kappa pledge sisters from Tech. She is full of energy, kindness and one of the most supportive friends I know. I treasure our friendship very much and wanted more than anything to be able to celebrate this special time in her life with her. We had a great time that night!! We played the most hilarious games, talked about college stories, boy stories, marriages and all sorts of girl stuff! I LOVE my husband, but this night was just what I needed - girls only. ;-) Thank you Haley for including me!


After the bachelorette wound down on Sunday, I headed back to FW for Kathleen's wedding shower with the girls! It was so fun and yummy! She cooked for us! We had delicious mexican food and shared recipes with her. It was a great end to a quick weekend!

The girls

Kathi Lee and her Mom (and Mother in Law to be at the stove)

Then, on the following Friday, Dave and I successfully made the late flight to DFW. It was fun ~ Brooke S picked me up and Brett and Dan picked up Dave from the airport. Brooke and I headed to Dallas for Kathleen's bachelorette. The boys hit up Joe T's and the Oui - their favorites! Us girls had a blast eating at Hattie's (love that neighborhood Lizzie!). We then went back to the Dragonfly at Hotel ZaZa where we proceeded to watch every guy in the bar come talk to Kathleen. It was lots of fun!! Pictures are coming. ;-)

We woke up early the next morning to head to Horseshoe Bay for Rob Craig and Lindsey Lanehart's wedding. This was really neat because there were a lot of family, Lubbock people I have known all my life and college friends there. It was great to see Dad and Karol, my Aunt Candy, the McWhirters and many others. Marianne brought Brett, Dave's brother. So the 4 of us had lots of fun! The wedding was beautiful and the weather was perfect! Congratulations Rob and Lindsey!!

The Happy Couple - loved her dress!!

Brett, Marianne, Me and Dave

I got some more Rowan time and I loved it.

Us with the McWhirters. Brooke looked gorgeous in that pink!!

Dave had yet to meet Rowan! So he was really excited!

Sunday, we drove back to DFW and hopped on the plane home. It was fast and furious, but we wouldn't trade it for the world. Now, we are counting down the hours until we catch our next flight tomorrow to Kansas! We are going there for Easter and can hardly wait to meet Carter, our new nephew, and spend time with our family. We cannot believe it has been since Thanskgiving! We are also excited to see the Heberts!!

Hope you all have a Happy Easter!