Halloween

Well, Natalee's 2nd Halloween has come and gone! I can't believe how fast this year continues to fly! She was the sweetest angel you have ever seen. I decided on her being an Angel back in May! LOL I am a planner. I picked this costume for her specifically for 2 reasons: 1) My mom has started calling her "Grammy's Angel" so it kind of just stuck out and 2) my brother was a devil for his 2nd Halloween...and well, we all know how curious and mischievous he got after that! I wanted to make SURE there was no devil in her! LOL What a fun memory! I wish I had a picture to upload of Drew in his little devil costume. We trick-or-treated our little hearts out this year! Natalee would say, "tick-er-teat"...SO cute! She really only wanted the suckers though. :) We went to Central Church of Christs' Fall Festival. SO many people, and SO much fun! She had fun playing the games this year, so that was fun and new. Jeremy had class on this night, so we were all sad that he had to miss it. We also went and visited at St. Pauls' for their Halloween party. Natalee enjoyed seeing all of her "old" friends, and even remembered their names after not seeing them for a month! She loved seeing Nikki, and has asked about her several times since then. Our last hall was made in Dalhart, on actual Halloween. We went to the nursing home. All the residents LOVED seeing Natalee.We made cupcakes to take and give as treats to all of our family. We had fun going around town showing off our little Angel. That pretty much sums up the events of Halloween! We have more candy than we know what to do with...I am sure there will be enough to last us the whole year! Here are pictures from all of our Halloween activities! Enjoy!

Krystole

So sweet!

Daddy's Angel

Happy Halloween!

Central's Fall Festival
Robyn, Krysta & Natalee

At St. Paul's halloween festival.

We made cupcakes with Grammie!

Trick-or-Treating at the Nursing home.

Lil' Snowflake

So, we have officially had the first snow of the fall. LOL Who needs winter when you have the fall? I will say this was probably the BEST snow I have ever seen! Not only because it was the first time that I didn't have to get out in it if I didn't want to, but because it was falling slow and straight! That never happens. Natalee and I got suited up and went outside for some fun. She kept pointing out the door and saying, "see the rain?" Can you blame her, we never know what the weather will be around here. After many layers, we embarked to the great outdoors! She LOVED it! She was stomping all around, catching it in her gloves, looking up at it, trying to get some in her mouth, and clapping all the while. She was pretty mad about having to go inside, but that's just part of it kid. Of course I took pictures, thank you for asking. We had a great time enjoying the first snow! Thank you God for your creation! It never ceases to amaze me.
Krystole

Please can we got out now?

First 'stay at home' snow!

Love my little snowflake!

Baby Boots

Office Makeover

I LOVE my new office! It has been a long time coming, but I have finally got it organized. Thank goodness for tupperware containers, that is all I have to say! Since the start of "Krystole's BOWtique" my office has never been the same. It's really hard to put all of your "crafting" in one space. I have an entire room designated for this purpose, and I still cannot find a place for all of it. I have been SO unorganized, I finally broke down and decided to redo my space. I bought THIRTY...yes 30 new totes. I have a label maker...so we just went to town! We moved our huge 6 foot long bookshelf to the landing of the staircase. I love it here! We also moved our antique chair, side table and lamp back downstairs. This is in preparation for the mini office Natalee will be getting for Christmas this year! I can't wait for her to craft along with me! Here are the before pictures...and some of the after. I still need to take a final after picture, but you can see from the pictures that it is SO much better!

Krystole

The bookshelfs' new home.

Some of the craziness of our desk.

My desk!

See Mary, my house isn't always perfect! LOL

My new "closet" for completed orders.

All my new drawers!

Funeral Flowers

A sweet old lady passed away this week. Her name was Kirk...and my dad is named after her. Brian Kirk. She was 98 years old, and although I have few memories of her, every time I think of her, only good thoughts come to mind. This being said, we met my parents, grandad, and Great Aunt and Uncle, and a Cousin in Spearman, OK to attend her funeral. It was such a sweet service, which I cried through. Just the vision of her being in the arms of Jesus, and the sweet songs that were sang, and the sweet memories of her that were shared, really made me emotional, even though I don't really know her. I hope that someday (far away), my funeral will be much of the same. All the people I love, coming together in one place, to help celebrate my life. I hope there are happy memories shared, and great stories to tell. I hope they can rest assured that I am resting in the arms of Jesus. I hope the best songs are sung, and I hope people are crying because they are happy that I have finally been made "complete." I really want my funeral someday to start at about 10:13...because everyone who really knows me, knows I am ALWAYS late! This is one of the "best" funerals I have ever been too. A sweet (how many times will I write "sweet" in my blog today?) little old lady who loved her family, her friends, and her God passing away peacefully.

This is a pretty morbid blog, I will admit, but the presence of Jesus and His Glory were made known that day, in a little ol' church in a little ol' town. She was laid to rest in the middle of nowhere...literally, we drove forever before getting to the cemetary, next to her husband whom she loved so much.

And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away."
Revelation 21:3-4

Krystole

Kirk

Little Pumpkin

Today Natalee painted a pumpkin! It was our first painting experience at our house, and she loved it! I think she is going to have an artsy-fartsy side to her...we shall see. She loves all things art! I can't wait for Christmas because one of her gifts is a whole bunch of craft supplies! I know she is going to love it! I found this wooden pumpkin at Hobby Lobby (never could have guessed...), and it was only $2! The paint was a whole whopping .79 cents! This was a cheap and fun craft project! I plan on putting it up on our mantle, and labeling the back with the date and her age. It will be fun to pull out of my "fall box" every year. These times really do fly by, and I look forward to making each moment count.

Krystole

Let the fun begin!

My little artist!

I didn't help her one bit!

Sad because she didn't want to stop painting!

The Interview

Jeremy has an interview tomorrow. We are praying that God's direction will guide us to where we need to go! Where, you may be wondering? At Boys Ranch..."but Krystole, doesn't he work FOR Boys Ranch now?" Yes, my friend, but this is an IN TOWN position...actually 8 blocks from our house! What an amazing opportunity this would be, not to mention the huge savings on gas!

How did this come about? Well, I up and quit my job (4 months early) and may I just add here that I am LOVing every minute of it! I am SO glad God has blessed us in this decision. My last day of work was September 30th, and on September 28th, a new job posting was listed at Boys Ranch. It is still for a case work position, but it will be more working with the families, not just the children. The pay is higher, the case load is also higher. The paperwork is not so detailed and have I mentioned only 8 BLOCKS from our house?! After praying, we (he) decided to put in his application. They have since contacted him, and his interview is tomorrow at 12:30.

What do we have to lose? Nothing...really. If he gets the job, we will thank God for it. He will be closer to us, will be making more, and will have 2 more hours to his day that won't involve driving. He will be right down the street and could come home for lunch. He would have more time with us and for his school work. If this is not what God has in store for us, we will thank God for it. He has a great job. He knows what is expected of him. His boss is great, he is getting a good raise in November. He loves his boys out there. He car pools and is only driving to Boys Ranch once or twice a week (so the whole gas thing...was just talk!).

We are anxiously awaiting to see what God has in store for us. We will thank Him for whatever happens. HE knows what is best for our family, and hasn't failed us yet. We will keep our eyes and focus upon Him...and do everything we do for His glory.

Please pray for us.
"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." Jeremiah 29:11

Krystole

I am so thankful for this sweet man!

Blue steel face and all!

Bawoon Festival

YAY! We finally made it down to New Mexico for the annual Hot Air Balloon Festival! We've only been talking about going for about the last 4 years! I am so glad we finally got the time in our schedules to do it. We had a great time. Jeremy took Friday and Monday off, so we had a nice long weekend with our little family.

We also got to spend time with Jeremy's grandparents, who live just 20 miles out of Albuquerque. They were both feeling a little under the weather, but it was so good to catch up with them. Natalee was the star of the weekend. She talked a million words and rode her stick horse all over New Mexico! She pointed out every hot air balloon, and new exactly what we were talking about. On our way to New Mexico, she had fallen asleep in the car, and after about a 20 minute nap, woke straight up and said, "see the bawoons?!" It was hilarious!

The actual balloon festival itself was awesome! Over 400 balloons and 800,000 people were there. It was crazy! Balloons of all different shapes and sizes, from all over the world! There were booths set up with souvenirs and fair food (best part). We split a breakfast burrito and a funnel cake, Natalee's first one, and she loved it! We bought a Christmas ornament, like we do from anywhere we go, and a mug...also a tradition. Both our tree and out cabinet are getting full of fun memories! We love when fall time hits, and we bust out the hot chocolate in our mugs from corpus, Carlsbad caverns, pagosa springs, pikes peak, and now the balloon festival. (I am sure I missed some mugs in there...). Such fun memories with each little sip of hot goodness! I can't wait to decorate our tree again this year! We will be adding ornaments from Corpus Christi, The Alamo, The Balloon Festival, and my parents brought us back one from their trip to Alaska (although the ornament is from Seattle, which is where they stayed the first night.).


Memories...that is what life is all about! Making good ones, that will last.

"I thank my God for the constant memory of you." Philippians 1:3

Krystole

So many balloons!

Natalee enjoying her 1st funnel cake!



I LOVE this picture...and this little girl!

October 2011

Family Pictures

We got family photos done! What's even better, I won the photo shoot for only $25. The photographer that did our shoot is pretty popular here in Amarillo, and had a WAY different style of photography-ing that I do. I am satisfied with our pictures, but felt really rushed in the actual "shooting." I don't know if I would pay full price for her photography, but am SO glad we got the experience at a lesser rate. Here are some of our new photos!

I really do love this one!

Our little family!

Where did she go?

Go BUFFS!

WT all the way!

Hugging her Buffalo.

We love this little girl!

Potty Training

   Yep, you guessed it...potty training starts tomorrow! She is SO very interested in this new thing called the "potty." She will now tell us, "potty poop" anytime she thinks she needs to go and have a seat. I think it's a very good sign that she is ready to take the plunge...no pun intended! I am so excited to get out of the diaper stage (a good $10 saved in diapers and wipes per week), but am also so sad that she is getting so big! I can't believe we will be embarking on yet another new adventure with our sweet girl tomorrow morning. I am not expecting her to be trained by the end of the week, and I don't expect her to be perfect either. I am hoping that I have the patience to help her and make her feel proud of herself at the same time. We shall see!      
   We had a fun cookout over at the Lodholm's house tonight! I don't think I have ever seen that much meat! The food was good, the weather was good, the friends were good...it was good! But...the rolls...were GREAT! LOL I think next time we will be bringing 2 of those! I love fall, and all the fun that it brings!      
   Tomorrow we are also getting our family pictures made! SUPER excited about that! We are meeting in a beautiful tree spot...that looks like fall! :) I am hoping that Natalee will cooperate...and magically hide all my fat at the same time! LOL I love pictures, and hope we capture some sweet moments. We are changing our outfits...we are wearing our WT gear as one of the outfits, and a "fall inspired" one in the other...with Natalee wearing an owl shirt! SO appropriate right now, since she is in love with them so much! I love her sweet little face! I got my haircut, and cut Jeremy's today, so we are now picture ready...or at least as ready as we are going to be! Keeping my fingers crossed!
   Tomorrow also marks the "official" beginning to my first week as a stay at home mom! I have some really fun things planned for us to do this week! Fall crafting here we come! We also will be going to the grocery store...whenever and whatever day we want! Talk about living on the edge! :) A quick trip to Dalhart is also in store for us this week. I am trying to get the Halloween pillowcase dresses finished up to take to the shop. We will be wrapping up our week with a long weekend trip to the Grandparents house in New Mexico for the hot air balloon festival! I KNOW Natalee will have so much fun at this, and we are excited to see our family as well.
   Well, wrapping up tonight with joy in my heart. Good night! :)

"The LORD is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in him, and I am helped. My heart leaps for joy and I will give thanks to him in song." Psalm 28:7

Krystole

This is what she is waking up to tomorrow morning!

Sweet girl the night before potty training begins!