Picture updates!

So I said I would post more pictures from our photo shoot with Dan, but someone got distracted. I feel like I have been running a millions miles a minute. With Holly's shower, Mom's birthday, Thanksgiving pies, Christmas decorations, Cards...


So here is a few more of our pictures...

New Pics

Nate and I had pictures taken of us for the first time ever... well when we weren't getting married. It was really exciting! I will post more later.

photo: Dan Keatts Photography

Rest...

That seems to be the theme of my life, though I tend to avoid it. I schedule my time so busy and jam-packed that I forget to schedule time to rest! My husband is amazing at rest. (That is a compliment). He reminds himself to stop and recover, whereas if I have a spare minute I schedule as much as I can there before the next thing.

I am taking a leadership class at church on Monday nights. We have talked about leading up, down and out... signs great leaders look for... get on the right bus in the right seat kind of stuff.... inspiring talks. Than last night we talked about rest. And how whatever you water will grow... whatever your energy goes to will grow, so what are you watering? Am I watering everywhere except for myself?

On the 6th day of creation.... God created man. and then on the 7th day God (and Adam) rested. God wanted to remind us to spend time resting before things get busy. So often we find we need to recover after the busyness. But why don't we spend time before getting ourselves ready. When I swam in high school, we did this. Before a big meet we would taper. Basically swim less, watch what we ate, get good sleep... put good stuff in. This rest was so beneficial to our swims. When the time came we were well prepared to swim fast. Remind yourselves to taper off! Your body needs to recover and get ready for what is next.

So this weekend... I am resting. I am not planning anything I can't afford to miss.

Matthew 11:28-30 "Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you'll recover your life. I'll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won't lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you'll learn to live freely and lightly."

iPhone

Well we moved up in the world of cellular devices. My family got iPhones on Tuesday. Loving all the applications. Texting is so much easier than on Blackberry! The battery life compared to my Blackberry is a lot less, but all in all loving the phone!

Crowder, a Proposal and Reunion

What a busy weekend we had! On Friday night we went to the David Crowder concert! We had an awesome time. It feels like we waited for this concert forever! We got to meet him after the concert too, which was really neat. When the tickets were ordered presale, they promised good seats, so when tickets came they had a note saying "your tickets weren't as good as we promised so, Meet and Greets are waiting for you!" They were so personable. It was cute how he said "Hi I’m David, nice to meet you", like we didn't know who he was or something.

 After the concert we came back to our house. Kevin “proposed” to Nate, asking him to be his best man in their wedding in January! Nate was taken completely off guard. It was quite cute! (See pics below). So now Nate and I are the best man and Matron of honor in their wedding! We are so excited for our friends!

On Saturday night we went to Nate and Kevin’s 10 year reunion. The reunion was good. We saw a few people they knew from high school. When we were walking back to the car, we saw this cute little garden area so we took a ton of pictures! Enjoy!! (Oh the picture of the boys with the tree branch is one of my favorites. They broke the tree and were looking for the cops I believe).

Friends!

Our good friends Nate and Sarah are moving to Austin, TX. Nate accepted a great job with Travis County Paramedics. He starts training on Monday, October 12th. They left today to drive Nate out there. His new job provides housing for him, so Sarah and Savannah (2 year old) are staying here until around December 1st. We are very sad to see them go, but know God has great things in store for them in Austin!

We got the group together one last time before they move. Silly me, I forgot to take my camera out for a group picture until after Brian and Monica left. I guess we will just have to make sure and take one at Kevin and Holly's wedding!! We have just a few pictures of the group throughout the night. We will miss you guys!

This is us with Nate, Sarah and Savannah.

Haley hugging Savannah. They are buddies.

The whole group, but missing Brian, Monica and Katie.

All the boys with the little girls. So cute!

This one is super precious. She absolutly adores him! She calls him "MyNate!"

Nate's Birthday/Patio

Nate's 29th birthday was on monday. (Yes he feels old!) As you know we just finished the patio... so I have been looking for a patio set since we decided to pave the patio.

I found a set at Lowes weeks ago I love, but it was a lot of money. I talked to my In-laws and both of them chipped in and we purchased this beautiful set for our patio as Nate's birthday gift.

I struggled with him only getting a table and chairs for his birthday, but he is an adult and that's what happens when we get older, we get grown-up gifts. So here are the pictures of our finished patio!! Just in time for Fall weather!

Second Birthday

So my birthday was back in July, but I got to celebrate it again this past weekend. My great friends, Sarah and Emily took me out for my birthday. We went to a awesome little resturant called Cibos in downltown Phoenix. We had wine, amazing brick oven pizza and crepes.... Mmmm! What more could you ask for? Then we went and saw Valley Youth Theatre's production of Peter Pan. It was so awesome. Seriously the little kids that played the Lost Boys were adorable!! We had a great night! Thanks friends for an awesome birthday celebration!

Big Night!!

Tonight starts the fall season of most TV shows. If you know my hubby.... tonight is like Christmas to him. So for any of you who love TV as much as us... Happy Fall Season Premiere Night!!!

Sick!

So in general I would say we are pretty healthy. Even with Nate working around kids all the time. But Nate caught some kind of bug or virus or something. He has taken 2 sick days in a row! And it looks like he will be taking tomorrow as well.

Schools have a new rule... swine flu worries... you have to be 24 hours fever free to return to school, or in his case work. Well that means that this morning he would have to have been fever free. Not so much the case. So that means 3 sick days. Very abnormal for him. My poor hubby!

So we are hoping for no fever tomorrow!!!

LABOR Day Weekend

So Nate and I finally got around to doing something with our backyard. My parents graciously offered to put the plants and rock in for us. We looked into what it would cost to pay someone to have pavers put in, but it was going to be a lot more than we were hoping to pay. We decided to try and attempt to do it ourselves. As you can see the finished product looks awesome!!!

The plan was to start with sand and pavers Saturday morning. We got the sand delivered and moved back to the patio area... just in time for the DOWNPOUR!! We watched it pour for 30 minutes solid. My parents left and Nate and I ran errands. We kept watching to see how much water evaporated. Later saturday afternoon we started laying pavers and got about half of the patio laid. We finished Sunday mid afternoon. It was hard work but we are thrilled with how it turned out. The last step is to lay rock around the patio and the plants in the back yard. And get a patio table and chairs. We are excited to use it this fall!!

New to blogging

I finally gave in and started a blog! I read through the blogs of a lot of friends and I love them, but just hadn't given in and done it yet. I am sure I won't post too often because I am not sure if our lives are all that interesting. But at least this will serve as a way for our friends and family to stay updated with us.