Family photos

We just got back our family photos that we took in Alabama before we moved. 

It's so lush and green I really wanted to make sure to take pictures outside. 

Kristi Chappell is a wonderful photographer so if you are in the Birmingham/Gadsden, AL area make sure to check her out! 

I am so glad that we have taken photos every year around our anniversary. Love seeing out family grow and mature. 

Here are some of our photos! I am really looking forward to printing them to decorate our home! 

And look how much changed in two short years. 

Feeling so blessed. 

Color coordinating and love - Monica 

2nd thanksgiving married

I hope all you had a wonderfully beautiful thanksgiving!

The husband and I had a great time with fantastic food!!!
I had sweet potato casserole for the first time and Martin tried pecan pie for the first time!
The only bad thing with not cooking for own dinner is no left overs! Hehe.

We did not partake in black Friday but we did end up going to Wal-Mart and getting Christmas stuff and decorated our tree.(:
The theater was offering matinee prices all day so we saw Red Dawn after eating a DELICIOUS meal at Logans (two steak dinners with two sides each and dessert for $20).

After that we got all bundled to go see this part of town that is all lit up with Christmas lights. We were even going to take Sophia.... but when we got there it was going to cost $5 each. No thanks. Lol.

Today it has been really cold so we have just been snuggling all day. (:

Hope your weekend is going wonderful! (: did you do black friday? What was the best part of your thanksgiving dinner?

New foods, Christmas trees with colorful ornaments, and love. - Monica

Also make sure to like my Facebook page to see more about what's going on in my life. (:
Www.facebook.com/mrsv820blog

Autumn in Alabama

Happy Monday everyone!!!
Today i am spending the day cleaning and then babysitting. Husby is at work and then he gets to watch the 49ers game.
This past weekend we went to the pumpkin patch and carved our pumpkins. We had so so much fun! It was extremely cold but luckily my husband can still have fun and be silly with me!
We bought some hot cocoa and hot apple cider first! I shot off a corn blaster (pics are in Martins phone though), we did the mini corn maze (we pretty much just walked in it, took a picture and left), we rode on the back of a tractor thing, and then picked out our pumpkins!
We ended our Saturday with an amazing church service about how God, who is the great one, called us GOOD! The guest speaker talked about what it means too be called good by a great God. It was really empowering. We had some wonderful prayer time and my husband and i were really touches by it.
After that we dinner with friends. (:
Sunday we relaxed and carved out our pumpkins. I told Martin i didn't want to do a face and so we came up with our own little thing. (:
It was a wonderful weekend
Enjoy some pics and i am gonna go clean some more! (:
What did you do this weekend?
Have a blessed Monday and week!
Carved pumpkins, hot cider, and love. - Monica










 

Sweet sweet home Alabama {update}

I wanted to show you all a little update of my house here in Alabama.

You can go see when we first moved in [here] to see how much as changed. (: And yes I am wearing the same shirt. hehe.


Grab a cup of coffee and pretend that I am giving you a tour of our home. (:

There is some strange green lighting that was going on.. and I didn't know how to fix it so sorry about that.. and also I have this nervous habit where I play with my hair.. so I am doing that a lot in the video. haha.


new home love, Monica
♥ . ♥ . ♥

finding the faith to keep walking

This weekend we had some friends come and visit. We were so busy last week trying to get the house all ready for our guests!

It was so refreshing having our friends here. My friend is from California and was my roommate when Martin and I first met. She married an amazing man of God and has been a wife for 5 months.
We talked and talked about how married life is and of our hearts for the Lord. It was so wonderful.

When they left Sunday morning, Martin told me that he was sad.

It was the first time we TRULY felt homesick. Our friends reminded us of California. Of our church. Of our family and other friends.
Some doubt started to set in.

Why are we in Alabama? Did we really move here so that Martin could work so hard, all day in the sun? Why did we leave our church to come here and not even find a church? What is it for us here in Alabama?

When I started to think of alternatives we could have moved to, the doubt became larger.

Why didn't we stay in California? We could have moved to Southern California and be working in a church. We could have stayed closer to family. Why are we here? What does God have for us in ALABAMA?

My focus was completely on all the questioning.

After some text talk with my wise mother-in-law, an encouraging facebook e-mail from a friend, and some beautiful time with the Lord I found the answer -- I don't know.

I have no true idea why God opened the doors for us to move to Alabama, but He did. He opened so many doors for us to move here smoothly. It is completely evident that the Lord's hand was in this move. I just have to trust Him.

My husband and I are learning to trust the Lord in a new way before. We are being stretched further then we have ever been stretched in our lives. We are gaining more understanding of one another as well as Our God.

Yesterday in my quiet time I was reminded of the story of Jesus walking on water.

Now in the fourth watch of the night Jesus went to them, walking on the sea. And when the disciples saw Him walking on the sea, they were troubled, saying, "It is a ghost!" And they cried out for fear.

But immediately Jesus spoke to them saying, "Be of good cheer! It is I, do not be afraid."

And Peter answered Him saying, "Lord, if it is You, command me to come to You on the water."

So He said, "Come." And when Peter had come down out of the boat, he walked on the water to go to Jesus. 

But when he saw that the wind of boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink he cried out, "Lord, save me!"

And immediately Jesus stretched out His hand and caught him, and said to him, "O you of little faith, why did you doubt?" And when they got into the boat, the wind ceased. 

- Matthew 14:25-33 (NKJV)

The first thing that I really noticed about this story was that both times the disciples were frightened, Jesus responded IMMEDIATELY! Once fear was present Jesus comforted them with either His voice ("Be of good cheer! It is I, do not be afraid) or with His touch (Jesus stretched out His hand and caught him). I love that Jesus will always come to us immediately.

Our pastor would often point out that the moment Peter started to sink was when he started looking at the storm around him.  His focus changed from the Lord's face to the scariness that surrounded him. 

We have to put our focus on God and trust that He will guide us. Not looking behind us to see what was left (a nearly sinking boat), not looking around us (the big scary storm),  not looking below us (hello!? Water that is not normally walked upon!). Our lives need to be one unbroken gaze fixed upon the beauty of His face (Vicky Beeching - Captivated).

I noticed that Peter did not ask "why". 

"Hey, uh, Jesus WHY don't you just calm the storm and hop in this boat and we can get back to it."

"Jesus, WHY am I walking on water, whats the point?"

"Wait a moment. WHY I am not sinking right now?"

"WHY am I the only one doing this? WHY aren't the others trying?"

I guess we really shouldn't always ask why and just follow Him

The other thing that I noticed is that Jesus said to Peter that He had little faith and asked why he doubted. Uh! Conviction right there. 

Peter. Okay... Peter actually got OUT of the boat. He tried. He had enough faith to step out and start walking toward Jesus. The other disciples just stayed in the boat. But Jesus said Peter had little faith. It took some faith to step out but we need to keep growing in faith so we can walk alongside the Lord. 

The last thing that I noticed in this scripture was that once they got back to the boat, the storm ceased. It stopped. 

Jesus had the ability to stop the storm but instead He decided to stretch the faith of His disciples. 

________________________________________________________________________________

Now, I still do not know why God opened the doors to Alabama. I am not sure how long we will be here. I know that I miss my family and friends a lot. I get home sick from time to time and it saddens me to be missing out on family events (like my beautiful niece graduating high school).

But I have to yield to the Lord. I need to keep my eyes on Him, put my life in His hands, grow in my faith, and trust him completely. 

wholly trusting, learning, and love. - Monica

♥ . ♥ . ♥

A true southern date

Last night my husband comes home from work and says to me "we are going out tonight....."

"Hooray!!! This is exactly what we need after a week of 15 hours a day of work", I thought to myself.

My excitement left quickly with the second part of the sentence.

"..... for catfish."

Catfish?! What?! Seriously?!

Well a date is a date so I got ready.

We went to a restaurant called Top O The River. This was our second time there (I had my first sweet tea experience there).

We ordered turnip greens, pickled onions, fried dill pickles, broiled catfish, and fried catfish. Our dinner also came with cole slaw, fries, hush puppies, and corn bread.

We had so much fun!!! Surprisingly I liked it all!

I don't think I will order catfish again... but I didn't hate it.

It was so fun doing something for the first time with my husband!

When was the last time you did something for the first time?

New memories, baby cast iron skillets of cornbread, and love. - Monica

♥ . ♥ . ♥

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Our first Alabama date

After settling into our home in Alabama and Martin working a whole week we needed a date! Although I flirt with Martin and send him little encouraging/love notes we needed some date time.

We decided to go out to dinner and catch a movie.

It was our first official date in Alabama. (:

We went to a restaurant called Struts down the street from our house. They have such a huge menu! Martin had medium lemon pepper wings and I had a chicken sandwich.

Martin tried to surprise me and get tickets to see The Lucky One but they sold out while we were in line. We decided to watch The Hunger Games instead.

Its so amazing to just hang out with him and have fun. To have one another's undivided attention. Not talk about bills, money, schedules, or any other responsibilities and just enjoy each other.

Much needed dates and love. - Monica

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my lovely home

I wanted to show everyone our new home in Alabama besides in just pictures.
Now you can pretend that you are visiting and I am giving a tour of our home to you. (:

new home love,  - Monica

♥ . ♥ . ♥

Sweet Home Alabama

Well the decision is made!!! (Not that many of you even we were trying to make a decision. He he)

My love and I have been talking about moving and places we would like to go since we have been married. 7 months later... we are about to move!

We have some friends that moved to Alabama about a year ago (the husband is originally from there.) and they really like it. We started talking to them about the area and how we were interested in a possible change after summer as long as Martin and I could find work. Well the husband called Martin very early the other morning saying if we were willing to move sooner then later Martin could have a good paying job NOW!

So... we prayed about it and had peace..... so we will be there in two short weeks! We are packing, planning out the drive, and finding a place very quickly!

It will take us about five days to get to Alabama from Northern California. We are stopping along the way and will see things we have never seen before (hubby has never been out of Cali and I have only been to Portland, OR/Vancouver, WA).

We are ready for this new adventure!

Lord, be our guide and may we glorify You in this move and in our trip. We trust that this is Your will for our lives in this season and we praise You. My husband is my best friend and when stress levels are high I pray that I can be reminded that we are a team. When disagreements happen remind us that we are fighting against the issue and not against each other. Thank you for Your love, Lord, and for the love my husband has for me. Bless this move, God. In Jesus Name Amen!

New season, Alabama bound, and love. - Monica

♥ . ♥ . ♥

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