Prayer

Nathan and I have been immensely blessed in out first 9 months of marriage.  We have an amazing support system through our families, a cute, little apartment, a sweet puppy, fun friends and a growing church family.  We have loved our time here and the ups and downs that have come from this new adventure.  Through all of these things, Nathan and I have found we need to be rooted in prayer and quiet time with God.  Every time something new comes our way, we TRY to pray about it, and give it to God.  For control freaks like me, that is very, very hard!

To try to keep us praying and giving our cares to God, Nathan and I have decided to make time for Him every morning.  We went and bought prayer journals, and we want to really get into this prayerful routine.  I wanted to start by praying for Nathan and everything that he deals with on a daily basis.  It just so happens that I was reading Katy's new post from Twenty-Three Oh One, and she talked about praying for her husband.  She recommended this blog, and now I know what I am going to be spending some time praying for this month.  Thanks, Katy!

Never stop praying. Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you who belong to Christ Jesus.  1Thess. 5:17-18 NLT 

2012 Resolutions!

I recently read something about people and the probability that they will fulfill their resolutions and it didn't look good!  In the same article, the author wrote about having a new resolution every month, and I think that is better for me.  When I make a resolution, I usually forget about it by the end of the month anyway!  haha!

Sooooo.....

For January 2012:
I resolved to do the dishes everyday. (I  haven't been doing very good at this one, but this little plate makes me very thankful for the dirty dishes I have!)

I also resolve to start running again.  It needs to be done people.  My legs are like jello, and I hate it.  Running made me feel so good, and I bought some new shoes a couple weeks ago to make me want to run.  It has helped a little bit... I guess we'll see!

My Shoes!!!!!

The last thing I resolved to work on in January is my sewing!!!!  I want to finish my first project this month.  Which is probably going to be pretty hard for me since I am awful at it right now.  But practice makes perfect, so I'm told.

How cute is she???  I wish I would have learned to sew at this young!

I will keep y'all updated on my progress, and I would love some accountability.... Everybody needs to be held accountable!

I hope you have a blessed week!  Talk to ya soon!

Kaitlin

Midlothian, I'm 24 and its 2012!!!

Christmas was so much fun, but it was my first year not the spend the actual Christmas day with my parents.  It was weird not seeing them, and I know it was hard on my mom with us not being there!  Being in Midlothian still felt like home to me, and I loved watching Crockett enjoy Christmas.

The Family after Christmas Eve Service

On Christmas eve, we went to a Christmas Eve service at Natalie and Christopher's church.  It was really good, and I loved getting to spend that time with them.  Then we went home and opened presents that we bought each other.  Crockett was so cute.  Every time he opened a gift, he would say, "Oh man! Crockett likes this!"  I loved it!  On Christmas day, we made a birthday cake for Jesus, and I wish I had a picture of it!  Crockett decorated the cake with Mater, from Cars the movie, toys.  Crockett knew that Jesus wanted a Mater cake for his Birthday!  Then he sang happy birthday to Jesus.  It melted my heart!

Crockett and Rustin bought me an 'R'!!!!  I love it!

Tools!!!

Crockett loves his Tractors

Born to be a hunter!

Look at that cute smile!

Sweet little Rustin with Pops!

After an amazing couple days in Midlothian, we drove to Shallowater to spend time with my parents for my 24th birthday.  I can't believe I'm 24.  I feel old! Ahhh!!!  It was a great two days, I got Toms, new running shoes and my parents took me to Triple J's for dinner.  It was wonderful!

with my Husband for my birthday!!!!

My Poppy!  My favorite person!

New Apron from my mom!  Mrs. Riojas!

For New Years, we worked at the Midland Center for a huge free event that Nathan's work, PDAP, puts on every New Year.  We worked the Photo Booth.  It is fun, but challenging.  Everyone wants a free picture, and sometimes that means people aren't so nice when it comes to waiting patiently for their picture to print.  We have fun though!  It was a great weekend!

How was your Christmas/New Years!  I'm working on my resolutions post, so we'll see how that goes!

Love to all!

The Return

I haven't blogged in so long, and it makes me sad.  I want to be able to look back at our page and see posts to remind me how much fun we have been having this first year!  I cannot believe it has been 8 almost 9 months since Nathan and I got married.  It is still the best day of my life.  We have so much fun together!

I won't put you through the torture of catching you up on everything that has been going on since the last post, but I will give you some great highlights!

 October and November were crazy months for me.  I started selling Thrity-One, and I booked my months full of parties parties parties!  It was so much fun, and I am ready to get back to selling.  (I took a break in December!)  I also started making hats, so I was trying to get those orders out quickly too.  Needless to say, I was very very very busy!  October and November flew by so fast, I was blindsided when December got here and realized I needed to get on the ball for all of our Christmas stuff!

We were gone every weekend in December!  The first weekend was Jason and Laura Beth's wedding in Austin at the Lakeway Resort!  Jason is a youth minister at GCR, which means he is one of my boss's.  I still like him though! haha.  We had so much fun, and their wedding was beautiful.  (Sadly, I didn't take any pictures!  Sorry!)

The next weekend, we headed back to Austin for Tyler and Ashley's wedding, one of Nathan's friends from UT. Their wedding was at Vintage Villas.  It was a really cool place on the opposite side of the lake from Jason and Laura Beth's wedding.  Tyler and Ashley's wedding was so sweet.  We danced the night away at their reception, and I loved getting to meet some of Nathan's friends from his college days. (that makes him sound old!  haha!)

Nathan's college roommates!  Jason, Tyler, and JJ

Then it was Christmas with the Lee's/Poynor's!  We went to Muleshoe for our big family Christmas and ate a ton of amazing food.  I love it when my Uncle Phil and Aunt Patti cook, it is ALWAYS good.  We headed back to Shallowater for our immediate family Christmas and had tons of fun.  Kellen and Jessica brought over Redneck Life the board game.  Oh my word, I loved it!  It was so funny, and definitely lived up to it's name of Redneck!

All the grand-kids and their special someones!

Gran-Gran put scratch offs in all of our stockings.  Nathan happened to end up with one in Spanish!  haha  It was so funny!

Our stockings!  Poor Nathan and Meagan still don't have homemade one's by mom yet!

My brothers and sisters!!!!  :)

This post has already exceeded the amount of reading and pictures anyone should have to look at, so I am going to post another one soon with Christmas in Midlothian, my 24th birthday and all about our New Years!

It feels good to be back!  :)

Random Happenings!!! :)

First off, my older brother, Kellen, and his wife, my sister-in-lay, Jessica are going to have a baby!!!!!  Hopefully, I'll have a little niece, but a HEALTHY baby is the most important thing!  Here is the sweet little baby!  I love you already baby Lee!

I think Jessica was like 10 or 12 weeks when this was taken.  I lose track!

Also, I would love to share pictures of my nephews!  We get to see them this weekend, AND I am so excited because we just found out, they are coming TO STAY WITH US in two weeks!!!!  We are going to have a full house, and Nathan and I couldn't be happier!

Note to readers: Some of the pictures were send to me through phones, and some I stole from Natalie's facebook profile.  Just letting you know!

Look at those ADORABLE boys!

You can't tell me you don't want to SQUEEEEEEEEZE those cheeks!

Rustin is getting so big!

Look at my little Spiderman!

Needless to say, I love my nephews and that baby inside of Jessica!  I'm such a proud aunt, and I know Nathan is a very proud Uncle!  Crockett left Nathan the sweetest voicemail yesterday, and if I could figure out how to get that on here, I would totally put it on here!  I miss them!

This last weekend was a busy one!  Friday was pretty relaxing, but Saturday was a full day!  Eryen, one of my new friends, (yes, I said friend!  Aren't you proud?) asked me to volunteer to help at a water station at the Crossroads Marathon in Odessa.  We were at mile 21.  I felt so bad for some of those people!  One guy asked if they were at 23.  I wanted to lie to him to make him feel better, but he saw the mile 21 sign.  Let's just say, I have NO drive what so ever to run a full marathon!  I'll stick to half's, thank you.  We had lots of fun sitting at that water station.  It was a great Saturday morning!  Poor Nathan had to work, or he would have been able to join the mile 21 fun!

Saturday night was great.  We drove to Shallowater and got to hang out with Pete and Lori, Nathan's parents.  They are seriously the best In-laws anyone could ask for!!!  Christopher would say the same thing too!  We are so blessed!  Lori and I had a great conversation in the kitchen, while Pete and Nathan talked outside by the grill.  Then we all sat together and watched the Longhorns beat up on Iowa Sate!  Go Horns!

Sunday was busy too!  We went to church with Pete and Lori at Shallowater Baptist.  That is such a sweet church.  We celebrated Mitch's 15th year anniversary with the church.  He has been such a blessing to that church and us!  He married us!  :)  Sunday afternoon was a learning experience!  I had my first REAL Thirty-One party at my mom's house!  It was so much fun!  I'm loving every minute of my Thirty-One experience so far!  (let me know if you want more info!  I'll be glad to share!)  I loved giving the party and talking to everyone.  Thanks for all the support!  I don't think y'all have any idea of what it meant to me.  Love to everyone!  Especially my parents who support me through everything!  I love y'all so much!  :)

This Friday, I have a party at Natalie's!  I'll get someone to take pictures, so I can start adding pictures to my stores.  Pictures make everything better.  We are also going to the State Fair on Sunday!  I'm pumped because I have never been!  Nathan and I are setting aside money to buy the all the FRIED goodness we can get our hands on, and then probably detox for weeks after!  It will be totally worth it!

Sorry for the uber long post!  I hope everyone has a blessed week!

Whoops....

Blogging has not been my winning horse this month, (see Enjoying the Small Things).  Nathan and I have jumped into Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University.  We have been budgeting, trying to give, trying to save, and trying to not lose our minds!!!!!  Honestly though, it has been a wonderful experience for us so far, but we do need a little extra of something.  SOOOO, I signed up to sell Thirty-One products.  I have never done anything like this before, and I am VERY nervous about it.  I have a great director, but I am so worried about people wanting to host parties.  But I am trying to be positive and just go for it. Thirty-One is a great opportunity for me, and I am selling it for 3 reasons.
1. To save up to buy me a new car! (I still have the Miata, and it currently has no back window. oh, and remember that last weekend is rained?  It was beautiful, but now my car smells like a pond.)  I want a Ford Edge, but I think that will always be a little (ok, a lot) out of our price range, but this will do!  A Nissian Juke, I know it's weird but for some reason I just really love it.
2. To help complete the baby steps in Dave's plan.
3. To give me something to do!

Don't get me wrong, I love Midland, but I am bored!  I have a few friends, but I want to get to know more people.  I think this will be a great way for me to do that.  I have my first party scheduled for my mom's house, and I am already practicing what I am going to say!  I'm so nervous!  I know this is going to be a good thing for me, because it puts me out of my comfort zone of sitting in our apartment watching That 70's Show and Office reruns on the weekends!  Haha!  :)

This week we are also watching some of our friend's kids while they are out of town.  I can tell you this, not all teenagers are crazy, rude, wild kids.  The kids we are keeping are so sweet and respectful.  One of them even told me NOT to unload the dishwasher, because she wanted to do it.  Wow!  I don't think I have ever or will ever stop someone from emptying my dishwasher.  These kids give me hope about this world!

I'll post a more exciting blog later.  I learned how to make FUDGE, and it was actually good.  I am going to give you the recipe soon.

Love to all!

Dirty Thirty!!! :)

Nathan came up with this post's name in honor of our brother, Christopher Preston Holleman, who turned 30 on Labor Day.  We took a trip down to Midlothian to celebrate his birthday and to see family and friends.  It was the perfect weekend. 

A special thanks to Aaron and Whitney MacDonald who graciously let us stay in their beautiful house and the awesome Welcome Basket!  :)

Friday, Nathan and I got off work early, so we got to travel before the sun went down, which is different for us, since we usually arrive late at night when everyone is asleep.  It was great to have an extra night and day this time around.

Saturday was all about getting ready for Christopher's Dirty Thirty Birthday Bash that night.  Natalie was brave enough to let me help in the kitchen a little bit, and I got to help make the homemade peach ice cream!  It was really good!  We got to see all of Christopher's family and hang out with new friends. (Hi Whitney MacD, Hi Sarah U.!)  Nathan played baseball with a bunch of the kids, and all the women kept commenting on how great a dad they think Nathan is going to be.  It it good to be reminded how blessed I am to have Nathan as my husband.  I take him for granted all the time, but I hope he knows how much I love him and appreciate his awesomeness!  :)

Crockett LOVES Uncle Mate!

Kaden MacD ready to hit the ball!

Our little slugger! 

Sunday was the best day.  We just sat around and did absolutely nothing.  It was wonderful.  We played with Crockett and held sweet baby Asa Rustin.  Sunday was awesome.

Nathan gave Crockett a bath.  What a cutie!!

"My Aunt (Kait) Digs Me"

Crockett found out that Nathan would swing him outside for hours, and definitely took advantage of the find, and Nathan loved it!  I loved watching and taking pictures of it!

He just kept saying, "CHHHEEESSSEEEE!"  When he saw I was taking pictures.

WWHEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!

Here is a picture of Banjo and his best friend, Mali.  They have a love/hate relationship.  Banjo loves Mali, and she hates him!  haha!

I hope everyone had a blessed and un-Labor-filled weekend!  :)

KPR