Our 2013 Christmas Card

Today I'm linking up with Faith to share our Christmas Card.

People have shared some really beautiful cards.  Like everyone else I love getting the mail this time of year.  It is so fun to open all the beautiful cards from family and friends.  

I keep all of the Christmas cards we receive.  People put a lot of time and $ into finding the perfect card and I want to keep them.  In the past I have placed each card in a scrapbook album.  I love watching how families grow and change over the years.

This year I think I'm going to put them together with binder ringers.  It will definitely be faster and easier than scrapbooking all of them.

Our card this year....

At first I hoped that our Christmas card would have a perfect picture of Baby Weaver.  Then I hoped our card would be our announcement that Baby Weaver was on the way.  When I realized neither one of those were going to be options I set out creating the perfect card to share all the changes that have happened in 2013.  I had the card all made and Andrew decided he didn't like it. 

Grr!

So it was back to the drawing board.  

We ended up with this...

From our home to yours.  Merry Christmas!!

Top Five Christmas CDs (In No Particular Order)

Growing up we only listened to one Christmas CD.  At least that is the way it seemed.  

Naturally when I was old enough to drive and had my own car (oh how I miss that mustang sometimes) I bought the exact CD my mother always listened to.

It was my favorite.  For me this CD defined Christmas music.

# 1

Then I met Andrew.  He isn't a big Anne Murrary fan.  Truth be told he HATES this album.  He forced me to listen to something different.  I tried not to like it.  I tried to stay loyal to Anne.  I really did.  But slowly but surely I began to not just like but love a new Christmas CD.

# 2

Since he had proven himself with one good Christmas CD, I was a little more open to the next Christmas CD the husband introduced me too.  After all I was already a big James Taylor fan.  I have a LOVE/HATE relationship with this next CD.  For the most part I LOVE it, but there are a few songs that I have to skip over because I cannot stand them.  

#3

I discovered this next album through Pandora and I love every song on it.   I dare say it is my favorite Christmas CD.  

#4

This last one is still pretty new to me.  I just bought it last year.  I like it but it takes me awhile to LOVE a new Christmas CD.  It takes me awhile to even get to the point where I listen to it often enough to learn to love it.  Maybe this time next year it will be a new favorite.

#5

What is your favorite Christmas CD?

Working in our Waiting

Christmas is only 14 days away.  14 days ya'll!!

2014 is only 21 days away.  

How crazy is that?!?

The moments of this year have been slow yet the year has flown by.

Ever since we started TTC I have felt like I lived life in two week increments.  There are the two weeks between ovulation and AF when I'm constantly back and forth between convincing myself I'm pregnant this month and convincing myself I'm not.
It's a vicious cycle.
Then there are the two weeks between AF and ovulation when I'm just looking forward to our next chance.  During those two weeks I tell myself it didn't happen this month but next month will be the month.

I'll admit I have found it very hard to have faith in this area of life.  I believe that God will give us children someday.  Yes children - not just one.  Yet each month I find it hard to believe that it will happen that month.  

I believe God did a huge thing this past weekend with my post about waiting.  Andrew & I both received more encouragement than I ever dreamed about.  I have friends struggling with the same thing & I had no idea.  Satan was winning the battle and we were keeping our struggles bottled up inside.

Not anymore!  

I'm not alone in waiting and neither are you.

My sweet sister-in-law Joy, along with several others of you, shared some pretty awesome things with me.  You may not be waiting for a baby like I am, but so many of you are waiting for something.

You are waiting for a job, for a husband, for a healed marriage, for a loved one to find their way back to Christ, for a drug addiction to end.... the list could go on and on.

We seem to all be waiting.

Waiting is hard.  In my simple mind NOW is the perfect time for a baby.  But I also would have said that this time a year ago - before I knew that God was going to provide Andrew with a new job and us with a new adventure that meant living apart for six months.  That would not have been the most fun time to be pregnant.

God sees the bigger picture.  He sees the whole picture.  He knows what is ahead when we can only see what is right in front of us.

As the heavens are higher than the earth,
    so are my ways higher than your ways
    and my thoughts than your thoughts.

Isaiah 55:9

After my last post I received so many encouraging words and scriptures that have been my anchor this past week as I learned that I'm hearing again this month "Not yet my child".  I want to share this encouragement with you for whatever it is you are waiting for.

This is a song that Joy shared with me.  I've only listened to it a thousand times since she shared it with me and every time results in a big ol' ugly cry with arms raised in worship to my Father who is with me.  He is always with me.  He is working in my waiting.

Waiting

It's something we do every day.

It's something I struggle with.  Often.

I tend to be a little impatient.

I pray for something and claim to trust in God's perfect timing.  But with my very next breath I decide I know the best time and that it is now.

I think to myself I've waited two and a half years and I'm okay with that.  I have survived that.  But please don't make me wait three years or five years or more.

You may or may not remember this post I wrote back in 2010 about submitting to my husband in the area of children.

Not long after I wrote that post, Andrew and I decided together that it was time for me to stop taking birth control.  

I just knew this was God's reward for me because I had submitted.

We began planning exactly when we would have a baby.  And then we didn't get pregnant in the month we had planned.

Several more months went by and there was still no positive hpt.

I have cried and I have stressed.

We agreed not to share our decision with anyone for several reasons.  

We had no idea it wouldn't happen right away.

There have been many times when I have hated keeping it a secret.  I did share with my best friend, Traci.  I am so incredibly thankful for her listening hear and shoulder to cry on.  She has let me talk when I needed to talk, vent when I needed to vent, and just remain silent when there were no words.  She has encouraged me and hoped with me each month.  Poor girl knows as much about my monthly cycle as I do.  Ha!

Of course Andrew has done all of those things too.  But sometimes you just need a woman to talk to.  

There have also been many times when I've been glad it was a secret.  There was no one constantly asking how it was going.  There was no outside pressure.

Over the past few months we have started to share with people if they happen to ask.  I'll admit I was not happy about sharing at first. 

But I find such peace and am constantly encouraged in knowing that others are praying for Baby Weaver right along with us.

I've debated blogging about all of this for a long time.  I'm afraid that I will use this as a place to vent/whine when I'm having a hard day.  I don't want to do that.

I don't want our struggle to have a baby to be a constant conversation.

I need people to let me talk when I want to talk, but to otherwise know it isn't an approved topic of conversation.

That may be harsh.  But there are times when it just hurts too bad to talk about it.  If you have struggled to have a baby, then I'm sure you understand.

It's not that I don't want to talk about it at all, but I don't want every conversation I have with people to be about having a baby.  

I need people to understand when I say I can't talk about it right then.

Most days I don't mind talking about it.  But then there are the hard days...

I'm not ready to use the word infertility to describe our situation.  I'm not ready to have people feel sorry for us.

But I am ready to share that we've been waiting over two years.  I'm ready to share that I believe ALL hpt return a negative result.

I'm ready to share that we covet your prayers.

Never in my wildest dreams did I think I would be thirty years old and married for almost ten years and not have someone to call me mommy.

I think that's why I had such a hard time with turning thirty.

I know God's timing and God's will are perfect.  No matter what that means.

But I'm believing Him for Baby Weaver.  I'm expecting to be expecting soon.  I'm praying and trusting that God will give me the desires of my heart. 

It would mean the world to me if you would pray and believe with me.

Snow Day

Arkansas is experiencing a winter storm.  To be more specific we are experiencing Cleon.  Apparently they are naming winter storms these days.

We were sent home from school at 2 on Thursday and told that we would not be there on Friday.  It is always nice to know the day before that school is cancelled.  I immediately turned off my alarm for Friday morning.

Andrew has been sick all week.  I was thankful the weather was forcing him to stay home and rest Friday though he seemed to be feeling better.

We had the perfect Snow Day.  And by Snow Day I mean Ice Day.  

Cinnamon Rolls for breakfast. 

Lots of Snuggle Time.

Fun little walk to the grocery store.

We finished putting up the Christmas tree.

And even wrapped a couple of presents.

Preparing for Christmas

I know it is cliché to say this, but this year is flying by.  I cannot believe it is already December.  Only three weeks of school until Christmas break.  That little fact made it a little easier to get up and return to the real world this morning.

I set my alarm for five this morning because I had several things I needed to do before school.  I’m so used to waking up late that I convinced myself I was running late this morning.  I was rushing around revising my to do list because I knew there was no way I had time to accomplish everything I needed to accomplish.  As I was walking out the door I realized I still had an hour to spare.  Oops!! 

We pulled all of our Christmas décor out of the basement Saturday.  I separated branches into their respected piles and that is as far as we’ve gotten.  I wanted Andrew to help me, but he hasn’t felt well the past couple of days.  Yesterday I ended up laying on the couch watching Christmas movies on Lifetime all day.  It was a nice little break after all the hustle and bustle of Thanksgiving.  I plan to crank up the Christmas music and finish the tree tonight.

I started an Advent Bible study yesterday that will lead up to Christmas day.  I really want to prepare my heart for Christmas this year.  I want to avoid the stress and commercialism of it all and focus on the true meaning.  The birth of Jesus was such a precious gift to us and I don’t want to forget that.  The Bible study is one of the plans in You Version.  If you don’t have that app you need to get it.  It’s wonderful.  The plan is called Rediscovering the Christmas Season.  I have read the Christmas story many times, but I’m praying God will show me something different this year. 

Thanksgiving 2013

This has been the best Thanksgiving.

Andrew and I have dreamed about filling our home with family since the first moment we saw it.  

They started arriving Tuesday and the last guests left yesterday.

It has been a crazy, noisy, exhausting, wonderful, fun, amazing few days.

Cary & Sara came Tuesday with their kids.  

We loved having an extra day with them.

I am so incredibly thankful for Sara and all her help in the kitchen Wednesday as we prepared for dinner.  I could not have done it without her.  Sweet memories made in the kitchen.  

On Wednesday night our home was filled with 35 people.  

It was so much fun!  

Andrew and I are thankful for our big family and we loved hosting.  

There was food and people everywhere and it could not have been more perfect.

Each year after dinner we share what we are thankful for.  This year Andrew & I decided to put a little twist on that tradition.  As guest arrived we asked them to write what they are thankful for on a white board.  I snapped their pic with their board & Andrew had it set up so that the pics played as a slideshow on the TV for everyone to watch.

I think it turned out quite nicely.  

Fifteen of our guests were able to spend the night with us.  

One big sleepover.

It was so much fun.  The kids ran and played HARD until their parents told them it was time for bed.

I fell asleep smiling knowing that my house was full.  It made my heart full.

Thursday morning, Andrew, his mom, & I cooked a big breakfast for everyone.  I think breakfast was my favorite moment of hosting.

It was just sweet and simple.

After breakfast our guests began to gather their things and head out for other Thanksgiving celebrations.

Andrew and I included.  We enjoyed Thanksgiving lunch with my family at my Mommom's.

Unfortunately I didn't take a single picture.

But we enjoyed our time with everyone.  We were missing my cousin, Tyler.  He works for Wal-Mart and Black Friday duty called.

Speaking of Wal-Mart...on the way home Andrew & I decided to stop by there and see if we could get the Shark they had on sale.  We've been wanting one for awhile now.  It is what our cleaning lady prefers to use to clean floors.

As one might expect, it was absolutely crazy.  But we were in and out in no time with our shark.

My Momma, SIL, & her sis, and I headed to Little Rock Friday for a little Black Friday shopping.  I was able to make a nice little dent in my shopping list.  I also found my wrapping paper for the year.  I'm a little OCD about wrapping paper.  I never use the same paper two years in a row and I'm very picky about what paper I use.  Every year I give my left overs to my Momma.  She hasn't had to paper in several years.

I really enjoyed spending the day with the girls.  Sweet memories I will always cherish.

Andrew's mom and dad decided to stay with us until yesterday.  We so enjoyed having them here.
When they left yesterday the house immediately felt empty and sad.  They weren't even out of the driveway yet when the tears came.  I already missed having everyone here.