Big Announcement!

I am so excited to announce the launch of my very own monogramming company, Stitch! There is definitely a back story to the genesis of this business that I'm sure I'll be sharing over time but for now, I invite you to check our our website- Stitchmonogramming.com.

And while you're being super supportive blog readers, like our Facebook page by clicking HERE.

A few of the jobs I've done recently! I can't wait to work on more orders!! 

Whirlwind

It's been a whirlwind around here. My baby brother is getting married this coming weekend so it's been nuts trying to get all the last minute details together for their big day!



It was also a whirlwind last week because our dear friends Melissa and Jdub had to deliver their baby boy, Colton 8 weeks early in an emergency c-section. Baby and mom are doing better and better each day but it was definitely a scary situation! We are praising the Lord for bringing Melissa and Colton's health to this point and praying for strength in the days ahead.

David and I drove down to see them in Houston this weekend. We got to watch Melissa hold Colton for the very first time. Talk about emotional....I was a mess. Such a sweet miracle.

Honeymoon Shower

This weekend we hosted a Honeymoon Couple's Shower for my baby brother and his soon-to-be wife!! Like David and I and many other couples, paying for your honeymoon can be a stressful thing on top of the wedding expenses! So we decided to throw a party to help them have the honeymoon of their dreams!

Honeyfund.com is the best way to do this...you can set up your own personal page and guests can buy certain items like: couples massage, private dinner on the beach, kayak excursion, sunset cruise etc.

I wanted the them to be nautical so I found a free invitation template on Wedding Chicks for the invitations. I then used my corner cutter to round the edges and lined the envelopes with a nautical navy/white stripe. Such an easy way to dress up plain white envelopes!

I was thrilled to find anchor plates at Target and crab/anchor napkins at Home Goods. My friend Lindsey brought the flowers and the other decor came from around my home. 

The Menu: 

Pioneer Woman's Sliders w/ caramelized onions and fry sauce

Chips & Salsa

Fruit Skewers

Veggies and dip

Pesto Pasta Salad w/ Mozzarella

Cupcakes 

My mom's famous Rice Krispies Treats

I had little goodie bags filled with Swedish Fish!

The happy couple...just 20 days away! 

Recent Happenings

Shoot...another 3.5 weeks gone by without a blog post. I'm not doing so well with recent postings!

Since I last posted, we had a wonderful visit from David's mother and her boyfriend. They live in Moab, Utah and while they have made several trips to Texas to see family, they haven't been to Dallas to see how we live our lives...or where we live our lives!! So it was an extra special treat that they came to town for this purpose.

David's mom got us a pasta making machine for Christmas so we had a pasta making class...of course! We made gnocchi, tagliolini and ravioli pasta. It was so YUMMY!

Kristie making gnocchi!

They were here the weekend after the George W. Bush library opened so we went to see that...of course!

David's mom and David in front of museum.

And my mother-in-law was a Science teacher for years so we went to the Perot Museum...of course!

Tony and David about to race a T-Rex at Perot.

And my mother-in-law's favorite musician, Jimmy Buffett happened to be in town that weekend so we went to the concert...of course!

Other fun things were: taking them to our church, introducing them to our sweet friends, had a dinner with my parents, rented a boat and got on the water and played ping pong at Klyde Warren Park.

Playing ping pong at Klyde Warren Park.

Tony and Kristie on the boat. 

It was one of the best weekends ever!

This past holiday weekend we packed it in full....David ran in a Race trying to raise awareness of Melanoma in Ft. Worth.

We went to the Colonial PGA Tournament and had Joe T's.

We celebrated our dear friends, Daryn and Matt's recent nuptials in Paris, France over a dinner reception at La Calle Doce.

We met up with my friend Maggie and her hubby, Kosta who were in town from Kansas City.

With Maggie, Karah and her daughter Londyn.

We went to the Farmers Market for the first time and my mom helped us plant flowers in all our pots.

Love my hydrangeas and Layla's photo bomb.

I will leave you with a funny story...we were standing at the nursery looking at flowers and I said "I really wished I had a long, rectangular flower box to fit this awkward spot on our front porch."  I was about to go look at the pots and David goes, "if you're just wanting a wooden box I can build you one." Oh ya! I forget I have such a handy husband! So we went home and he whipped up this flower box in a couple hours. :)

Trip Down Memory Lane

I have mentioned this a few times before but I'd like to share the full story. It's a story of provision and grace. I know my family is not alone in feeling the Lord's provision in our lives. I'm so thankful we serve a God who's grace and love flows down on us even in times of great trial, and sometimes we see it most in those times.

My parents moved out of my hometown of Rockwall, Texas the summer after I graduated from Baylor ('08). My dad had a business in Denver, CO and since all the kiddos were out of the house, they decided to move to Denver. Then the economy crashed and unfortunately so did my dad's business.

It was definitely a hard, ugly, emotional time for our family. I think it affected each of us in a different way. I can speak to my own journey in that David and I were getting married the year they lost their business and home. The Lord provided through my job a commission that covered the cost of a beautiful and perfect wedding. Also in his perfect timing, I also was given the leasing agent position over a building downtown with a private club at the top of that building. That's where we had our reception and were graciously given a discounted rate. I still get teary when I think about how he provided so abundantly during that time.

So back to my parents, they stayed in Denver for five years. During those five years, they Lord used them to impact many lives in that city. He stripped down many comforts and "idols" in their lives bringing them to the foot of the cross of His son Jesus Christ. Although we are all still learning how to really live this way, I think the Lord wanted our family to learn that Jesus is enough. He is all we need.


"But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong."  2 Corinthians 12:9-10

My brother and I now both live in DFW and I think my parents saw and heard from both of us how much we'd love to have my parents close again. They still have a wonderful community of friends in Dallas and Rockwall and it would be a perfect place to come back to. My parents were both torn. I think on one hand they wanted to be back here but didn't know how to make it work with jobs etc. I kept encouraging my parents to just start sending their resumes out. You never know what will happen. So my mom started sending her resume to schools seeking administrative assistants and she got a call for an interview from the Dallas Theological Seminary. They held a couple rounds of interviews and she got the job! Not only did she get the job they wanted her to start in two weeks. Okay Lord, we hear you.

My dad had become certified as a chaplain while in Denver so he started applying for chaplain positions. He found out the hospital in Rockwall was looking for a chaplain so he sent his resume but I think truly didn't think he'd stood a chance. Then he got a call for a phone interview. It went really well and they asked for an in person interview. That went really well. Then he interviewed with the hospital president and THAT went really well. Sure enough he got the job!

So within about three months they have moved back, started their new jobs and bought a house in Rockwall!

My sister and niece came in town from NYC this past weekend for future sister-in-law's wedding shower and it was a trip down memory lane for all of us. Just driving around our hometown, going to the Aspasians craft show at the town square, seeing old faces. We even drove by our old house.

We are still getting used to it all but feel so very thankful. My heart is truly happy.

Below are some fun pics from this weekend! 

Weekend Update, Netflix and a Royal Baby Bump

This weekend was busy but so fun. Friday night we celebrated my friend Caroline's birthday with some Coal Vines. Yum. We went back to her and her husband's apartment and played Dance Dance Revolution. It was SO fun.

Saturday we had brunch on the patio at Company Cafe and it was such a gorgeous day! We painted a little accent table {pictures to come later} and went to a craw fish boil for another friend's birthday.

Saturday night I met up with my mom {because she lives her now!}, Caroline and her mom in my hometown of Rockwall for the high school drill team's spring show. See I first met Caroline my Freshman year of high school when I just auditioned for the drill team. The night I made the team these two Sophomore girls came up to me to have me stand back to back with the taller girl to see who would get the 50 yard line spot on the line. I must have been wearing slightly taller shoes or my hair bow made me look taller but these two girls determined I was taller and I jumped up and down with excitement and shouted "yay!" The girl I was being measured up against was Caroline. I didn't know at the time that she really wanted to be the 50 yard line girl and I was still riding high from making the team. I couldn't give a you-know-what about this but she did NOT like this new girl getting excited about taking her spot on the field! Ha!

Fast forward to summer practices and she ended up getting the 50 yard line and I was on the 49 yard. We got to know each other and spent a lot of time together and became best friends. We both auditioned for officer (her senior year my junior year) and made the officer line...becoming even closer. Our mom's became good friends and the four of us share very special memories.

I'm taller here because I'm wearing 3 inch heels :)

All this to say...it was very special to get to go to the drill team spring show with them!

This year marks the 40th Anniversary of the Stingerette program so they had lots of memorabilia displayed...and I even found my sister on the picture board. She was a Stingerette too and the reason I even tried out!

My sister, Shawna is the one on the top right. :) 

Oh the memories! 

Sunday became lazy Sunday and to be honest I needed it. It was SO nice getting to just rest and relax. David and I watched the TV-mini series, Hatfields and McCoys on Netflix Instant. The History Channel originally aired this and it was very entertaining! Plus, it had Kevin Costner and Bill Paxton...um yes please!



If you need another recommendation for an Netflix Instant watch The Imposter. It's amazing.

Now for the royal baby bump. I almost left out the word "royal" in this blog post title just to give my friends a heart attack but I thought that just wouldn't be right. :)

Princess Kate stepped out this weekend and the world finally got to see more of her royal baby bump. I know there are a lot of important things going on in the world right now...and some really really heavy things but I can't help but squeal when a picture is posted of Kate! Love this mint green coat on her!



Happy Monday! Hope you all have a great week!

Weekend Wrap-Up

I know it's Wednesday...so technically we should be looking forward and not backwards but we had such a fun weekend last week.

We celebrated three blissful years as a married couple starting on the actual anniversary day, March 27th. This year this fell on a Wednesday so we decided to go out to a fun dinner in Bishop Arts. We've been dying to try the new seafood restaurant, Driftwood so we made it happen. David had their chargrilled octopus and I ordered the roasted sea scallops...yum yum yum! I also loved the crispy brussels sprouts but what stole the show was their Tahitian vanilla creme brulee! It came in this little jar with caramel on the bottom. YUM.

I also loved the inside of the restaurant too- soft blue paint, white or light furniture and beautiful driftwood art. I would kill for some driftwood art for our beachy bedroom.



On Friday we drove down to the Fredericksburg area and hiked Enchanted rock, wine tasted and went to Hondos on Main St. for dinner and Texas two stepping. It was awesome.

I posted the {blurry} picture above on Instagram and my friend from college texted me and said she and her husband were also in Fredericksburg! So we met up with them at Becker Vineyards.

We went to Navajo Grill for dinner Saturday night which was oh so yummy! 

And had German beers at the Auslander while listening to live music.

We also had massages, bought way too much wine and enjoyed every minute of this nice weekend away.