Another Christmas Has Come & Gone

Well friends, it looks as though another Christmas has come and gone. We spend days, weeks, even months for some planning for that day and then it's gone in a flash! That is the exact reason why taking pictures is SO important to me. To always be reminded of the moments that are worth remembering.

This year Rob and I celebrated Christmas by attending his company holiday party, attending a wonderful church service at Willow Creek, enjoying a delicious dinner of chicken and the "world's best mashed potatoes" {no joke!}, and opening presents.

I just want to give a shout out to Rob's mom, Cheryl, who hand-crafted the blankets in the pictures below for us as a Christmas present! We will definitely stay warm all Winter long with these bad boys! If you are interested in staying warm also...you can check out her Facebook fan page by using this link:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Cheris-Crochet-Cottage/243063105750820

And her Etsy.com shop by using this link:

http://www.etsy.com/shop/CherisCrochetCottage?utm_source=Facebook&utm_medium=App_Seller&utm_content=shops&utm_campaign=fb_seller_shop2

I hope you all had a fabulous Christmas!

A day of thanks, a surprise guest & the world's best mashed potatoes

THANKSGIVING: A day out of the year where you can get your whole dysfunctional family under one roof to give thanks.

Living in a different state as the rest of my family can be hard, especially around the holidays. But this year my two Aunts, Uncle, and Grandma all flew out from California and Washington to bless us with their presence. :) I was so happy to be with them again. It had been two years too many since I had seen them. Unfortunately my sister had moved to Colorado a few months prior and was not going to make it out for the holiday. So she would be spending it alone this year. The morning of Thanksgiving I wrote this on her Facebook wall: Even though we can't be together today, just wanted you to know we will be thinking of you! Happy Thanksgiving sis! Love and miss you tons! ♥ P.s.- I seriously just got choke up writing this...lol I'm such a nerd.

After returning home from work that day {Downside: I had to work the holiday. Upside: It was only for 4 hours.} my son runs to me and tells me there is a surprise in my room and I have to come see what it is, right NOW. Usually when he is that excited about something it's maybe a picture he drew me or something of that sort. So I followed him up to my room and out pops my sister! She had us ALL fooled. No one except my one Aunt knew she was coming! What an amazing feeling that was to see her.

Although her and I are the complete opposite of each other-- she's the loud, outspoken one, and I'm the shy, quiet one, I still love her to pieces.

Let me introduce you to the rest of my beloved family that I had the pleasure of celebrating that fabulous holiday with.

My Aunt Joan on the left. Aunt Lisa on the right.

My son Tyler and my Grandma Judy.

My beautiful mother, Susan. And also the creator of THE BEST MASHED POTATOES IN THE WORLD, no joke.

The love of my life, Rob Terrel.

My Step-Dad Ross and my Mom Susan-- married 22 years and still going strong.

My owner of my heart and soul, my son Tyler.

Uncle Steve, Aunt Joan, and Grandma Judy.

And of course, or beautiful {dirty} pooch, Sophie.

Rob carving his turkey that he slaved over and poured his love into.

We are so blessed...

The family that prays together stays together...

I know I'm just a tad bit late on this...but the things I am thankful for EVERY day are:

-My family, who has stuck together through thick and thin, sickness and health.

-My boyfriend, who has stood by me even when life has thrown curve ball after curve ball.

-My job. Although it might not be the job I had envisioned my self having at the age of 27, I am still beyond thankful that I even have one in this economy! And this is just a stepping stone on the way to where I want to be.

-My friends. Although I don't have many true ones, I am beyond thankful for the few I do have that I know I can always count on.

-My God who created such an incredible, magnificent, miraculous world that is so full of beauty and amazing things.

Come, let us sing for joy to the Lord; let us shout aloud to the Rock of our salvation. Let us come before him with thanksgiving and extol him with music and song. For the Lord is the great God, the great King above all gods. In his hand are the depths of the earth, and the mountain peaks belong to him. The sea is his, for he made it, and his hands formed the dry land. “
Psalm 95:1-5

God gave you a gift of 86,400 seconds today. Have you used one to say, ‘Thank you?’

Journey through the Ozarks of Missouri & Arkansas: Part 2

It boggles my mind that I am just now blogging about a trip that took place place in the Summer of 2011--months ago, when we are a few days away from 2012...

Either the time goes by extremely fast or the fact that I put the PRO in PROcrastinator...

Wait, me a procrastinator?! NO way... It MUST just be the fact that time really does fly by... ;)

The first part of our trip to Missouri and Arkansas was spent boating, swimming, tubing and cliff diving in the beautiful Tablerock Lake. It was also spent exploring an underground cave and a famous haunted hotel.

The second half of our trip, which I'm going to be talking about in this blog post, was spent fish frying for the 4th of July, checking out a magnificent spring cave at the Roaring River and also the dazzling Beaver Lake, plus climbing up an extremely high tower in order to get an incredible view of the Ozarks.

Here are my favorite pics from the 4th of July. Don't you just love our patriotic colors? :)

Next up is the dazzling cave spring in the Roaring River located in Southern Missouri. The Ozarks of the Midwest were named one of the 7 {underground} wonders of the world! The Ozark mountain range is filled with caverns and mines that date back generations. Believe it or not this particular cave has a depth of over 300 feet! The color comes from a combination of the dissolved limestone and the depth of the water. The color is almost hypnotizing-- it was SO pretty...

I'm deathly scared of heights just as much as the next person, but I will never pass up the opportunity to experience a beautiful view even if it means climbing up a 200 step lookout tower on a very windy day.

Us at the top of the tower. {Tyler didn't want to make the climb-- I don't blame him, I almost peed my pants on the way up! But shhhh! Don't tell anyone.}

One of things I love most about Rob is that he is just as spontaneous as me. He's perfectly content driving with no intended destination in mind. Just give us an open road without map and we are good to go. We take those dirt roads that others are too scared to. Or what I like to call "The roads less traveled". How else do you expect to get photographs no one else already has? Well our spontaneousness {yes, that is SO a word} is what led us to this incredible view of Beaver Lake.

Well that concludes our trip. We had such an amazing time. To my wonderful Aunt Terri and Uncle Steve: THANK YOU, so much for having us as guests in your beautiful lake front house. Thank you for the laughs and the good times and for all the fun boat rides. We miss you guys a lot and are hoping to come down there again sometime in 2012. Love you both! xxoo