2012 Christmas Letter

Christmas 2012

Merry Christmas!!!

2012 has been the year for change in our home!

In May we went to Disney World! It was an amazing trip! We went with Jamie & Craig, & Jim & Cathy (my adopted parents J). We also went to Universal Studios to see Hogwarts! It was an experience we will never forget!

In June we bought our first home! 7131 Cloverglen Dr, Dallas, TX 75249 J It is taking a lot of work, but we are putting our own touches into everything! We have also had some amazing help! Thank you everyone who helped us move & helped us renovate!!! We love having our own home! But we miss seeing Conner & Elias everyday! They change so much from day to day that now when we see them we feel like they are different people! We would like to thank The Burns’ for the time ya’ll allowed us to live in your home! It was a blessing & we love ya’ll!

Then we changed churches. It was a very difficult decision, but we felt God calling us elsewhere. In June we started attending Waxahachie Bible Church. In August we attended our last youth service at Abundant, which was the most difficult part of leaving. We are really enjoying Waxahachie Bible! In the short time we have been there it already feels like home. We have met some great people & started attending a Sunday school class where everyone is like family.

Then Krystle became a Pet Granny! She started working for The Pet Granny as a pet sitter part time. It is a family owned & run business (Patrick’s Aunt’s) & they were getting busy so asked if she wanted to work with them. She is really enjoying it! She is also still creating for ScrappinArt, though not as much now that we have a home to put in order.

Patrick has been working at Promotional Arts for 8 ½ years! He is also continuing to grow his computer repair business in his free time.

I would like to leave you with a little Christmas nugget that came to me the other day. When we give gifts, we should do it out of love; not expecting a gift in return. When Jesus came to earth giving us the most precious gift, He knew we could never repay Him! But He did it anyway! And if you could not buy gifts this year, then lovingly accept the gifts others have gotten you, knowing they love you and wanted to give to you.

We love you! We hope you make this Christmas a wonderful time with friends, family, & love! Merry Christmas!

Love,

Patrick & Krystle

Another way of looking at Santa

I love Christmas! I love shopping for the perfect gifts for my loved ones, I love playing the Elf & handing out all the gifts from under the tree, I love watching their faces as they open the gifts (I don't usually open any of my gifts until everyone is finished because I get so caught up in their reactions). I also love Santa & Christmas trees & everything Christmassy! I have been disturbed lately by people condemning Santa because "He's not the reason for the season" that's not how I see it...
We are planning & hosting the biggest most important birthday party of the year! When you plan a child's birthday party, you might hire a clown, but that clown is not the reason for the celebration.
I have never seen Santa as the reason for Christmas, but he is just another of the many Christmas festivities we enjoy to celebrate Jesus' birth.
I just wanted to encourage you to choose a different way of looking at it & allow Christmas to be a time of celebrating!
Merry Christmas!!!

My Birthday

I had a great day today! I woke & Hubby was still in bed which is always nice. He worked from home today (Thanks Lacey!). Then I looked at my phone and the screen was full of FaceBook notifications telling me Happy Birthday :) I also got several emails from the weirdest places (like our home owners insurance) telling me Happy Birthday! Everywhere I turned I was being wished a happy birthday!
Hubby & I went to lunch together, and then I crafted most of the day while Hubby worked next to me :) What more could I ask for?!

I had amazing Thai food for dinner with friends & family, you know, since I'm part Thai ;)

I had a great time! Thank you all who came!!!

Then ice cream! Who needs cake?!

I also received the cutest videos ever!!! (Thank you Tiffany!)

Conner actually signed I love you! I've never seen him do it before, he has tried for a long time! I love him so much!

Elias is getting so big! And he said my name!!! (They call me Bo, it's my extra special name given to me by Conner) I cherish these videos :)

Lastly, we went to Chick Fila where Conner & Elias' dad is manager, & he gave me unsweet tea for my birthday (I wasn't hungry for anything else lol).

I had a great day filled with friends, family, and fun...and food lol!

Last Night's Dinner

Last night I did something that I do not recommend, I went to the grocery store with out any resemblance of a plan. I knew I wanted to make fish tacos for dinner, but all I had was fish & tortillas. So I went to get something, anything to make these fish tacos a reality.
Typically I will make Chipotle copy cat corn salsa to go with my fish tacos, but there was no fresh corn to be found :(
So I decided to make up my own Pineapple Salsa recipe:
1 fresh pineapple, peeled & chopped
1/4 red onion, chopped
1 large fresh jalapeno, seeded & chopped
sm handful fresh cilantro, chopped
1/2 lime, juiced
Mix all ingredients & sit in fridge to mingle flavors.
For a recipe I made up walking around the produce aisle I thought it was pretty tasty :)
But what should I make to go with the tacos? I felt uninspired by the regular rice & beans option, & nothing inspires me more than a new recipe to try out! So I pulled my handy pocket sized internet (also used for texting & making phone calls ;) out of my purse & searched Mexican side dishes on Pinterest. I found a recipe for Jalapeno Corn Cakes with Avocado Relish, this sounded promising! I got all the ingredients for the corn cakes, but decided to make my own recipe for guacamole instead of the avocado relish.
Oh my goodness, am I ever thankful for the ability to search for new recipes standing in the grocery store aisle! Dinner was amazing! The corn cakes with a little cheese, sour cream, & guacamole on top were super tasty! At 5:30 PM I had no idea what we would have for dinner, but an inspiring trip to the grocery store brought out the best!
So am I the only person who looks up recipes standing in the grocery store? Because I have to admit this was not my first time doing so :)

Being Happy

I have anger issues. I've never been one to yell & throw a fit if someone upsets me, instead I would just become bitter towards them & build up unnecessary anger that I may never let go of. That is no way to live!
This past weekend, a mom I know was telling me about her experience of losing her 4 day old daughter. She told me that through the whole experience she prayed that she would not become bitter & hard. Her words impacted me. I am sometimes bitter & hard & I have never been through an experience like she has!
I am going to work on letting go of my bitterness, I know being angry at someone only hurts me! I need to be a grown up & be able to disagree with someone without it changing who I am, who God wants me to be.
God is constantly working on me! I want to let Him :)

Going Home

Tonight I went back to visit my old church for their Fall Festival. I haven't been there since our last Wednesday night back in August, it was more difficult tonight than I expected. It was good to see the friends & family I still have there, but it was very hard too. And some people just didn't know what to say, which I totally understand, I remember being hurt & confused when people I loved would leave the church. I didn't understand why they were leaving, and now I'm the one that has left. I get it now, sometimes God calls us to a different place in our life & we have to follow. So to anyone I have ever been angry at for leaving, I am sorry. I do understand now. And anyone who is upset or confused at Patrick & I leaving, I am sorry. Please know it was very difficult, it is still sometimes very difficult. I love my friends & family, and moving to a different church definitely did not change that. Overall I am glad I went tonight, I got to spend quality time with Conner & Elias while they played all the games :) and I got to see people I haven't seen in awhile! It's just a process-this moving on thing. I've never handled change well : / but God is helping me every step of the way!

Conner got to fling pudding at his daddy which he thoroughly enjoyed! So I thought y'all would like to see those pics :)

Welcome to the State Fair of Texas!

I love the State Fair! I wait for it eagerly every year! I don't go for the rides & games or the shows though, I go for the food! Hubby & I have been on a diet for about 2 weeks, but when we started we knew Fair day would not be a dieting day, we are self controlled like that ;)
So I wanted to share the fried amazingness with you, so if you make it to the fair this year you will know what we liked!
We started our day with the most important meal of the day

A Fried Bacon Cinnamon Roll! As you can see from the sticker this won most creative from the fried foods competition this year. It was really good, but we could not taste the bacon in it, which was a little disappointing.

We also shared a Fried Biscuit & Gravy, which I thought was very yummy, Hubby wasn't as impressed.

Then we went to the 100 year celebration of the Girl Scouts where they gave us Girl Scout Cookies, & told us where to get Fried Samoas! Best sweet food we ate were those Fried Samoas! They wrapped the cookie in what looked like a wonton wrapper, fried it, & then covered it in chocolate, caramel, & toasted coconut!

We of course had to have our usual Fletcher's Jalapeno & Cheese corny dogs! The one thing I won't share, so Hubby has to get his own ;)

We tried the winner of the Best Taste for 2012 Fried Foods Competition:

Fried Jambalaya, it was really good! Lots of Cajun spice, and the spicy ranch they put on top was a good addition!

They have added Freshly Brewed Iced Tea Stands this year, they are cheaper than people sell the sodas for, & if you keep your cup you can get half priced refills, so we took full advantage of that!

Every year we have to visit the Hans Mueller tent, this time we decided to share a Reuben & Potato Salad, & as everything they sell in this tent, very yummy (but I know, not fried).

To end our eating fest (& to use the rest of our tickets) we each decided on our own dessert. I got a fried Smore's which was very chocolately, but the graham cracker had gotten very soggy & weird. Hubby got a Fried Ding Dong that he says was O.K.

Inbetween all this eating, we visited the car buildings, where I decided on my next vehicle :)

Dodge Ram LongHorn Edition, 3500, Diesel Engine, it only costs as much as our home, thats not a problem right?! :)

And we sat to listen to the Marine Drum & Bugle Corps

They were amazing!

We had a great Date at the Fair :) I can't wait til next year!

Conner is 3!

Today is Conner's 3rd birthday! We had a Superhero party for him & he had a great time! & his mommy made him a wonderful Superman cookie! Here are the pics I took from today :)

Swimming

A while ago I wrote about life habits I was going to work on... I have not done so well with them :( But I am here to recommit to a few of them. I have bought a year long membership to an indoor swimming pool. I plan on swimming laps this year 4 days a week! This will be my exercise, and I want to stick to it! I enjoy swimming, which is why I chose this route. If I enjoy it, I'll stick to it right?!
Thursday I got on my scale (first time since the move) and I am officially at my heaviest. I have not done well with eating right since we moved, it has been to easy to grab something on the go.
I am putting this here to keep myself accountable, I do not want to write about anymore failures! :)
I weigh 192... I hope to post a better # SOON!

New Phase

A week ago today Hubby and I ended a very important phase in our lives to begin a new one. It was our last night at the church I have gone to since I was 7. This transition has been very difficult for both of us. It had been something we had been praying about for months. We definitely feel that God called us to the church we will now be attending, but that doesn't mean it was an easy decision. I've just been thinking about everything in my life that happened there... I asked Jesus into my heart in Children's Church, I was baptized, I invited Patrick to come to church with me in the 9th grade & he came & was saved, we were married there! And so many other little things! They have been my church family for most of my life. I know I will keep in touch with my friends and family, but wow so much change!
I've been wanting to write about this for sometime, to get it all out, to share what I'm feeling...but I didn't want to say anything until we knew for sure...and now I just don't know what to say. How do you express everything a church means to you in a few sentences?! Suffice it to say that without my church of the last 20 years I would not be who I am.

Living in Our Home!

For 2 weeks Hubby & I have been living and SHOWERING in our own home!!! Thanks to my other parents Jim & Cathy Kenny, we have a beautiful master shower! It still has a few minor things to be done, but the important thing is we can use it, & I can show off pics of it! :)

This is the shower before. Yes that is a hole in the shower wall!

They came in and tore out all the old tile and the shower pan, then had to have plumbing work done because the last people to work on the shower shouldn't have.

The new shower pan and cement board (to keep it water proof)

Then the beautiful tile!

 I love this shower!

 And I love living in our first home!

Thank you again Jim & Cathy! Ya'll are crazy! And we love you!!!

Renovations

We have been very busy getting out home put together :) I wanted to share a few pics of things we have gotten accomplished!

We got a new AC system! Thanks to Patrick's dad :) 

This is the new unit compared to the old unit.

And this is the new unit compared to me! That is a beast of an AC unit!

 This was our kitchen when we bought the house. Something you can't see is the gaping hole under the sink where a cabinet should be. 

Cathy & I removed all the doors and drawers, and I sanded everything to prep for painting. 

Jamie, my mom, & I painted

green and brown :)

We are using the cabinets without doors for the time being. Once I paint the doors I'll take pics of the finished product :)

Patrick built a new cabinet for under the sink :) He's so handy! Now I need to paint it.

My dad and brother ran electricity to the ceiling in every room, apparently whoever lived here before only had lamps! So now we have the ability to hang fans & lights in every room :)

 This is the door that was on our garage.

 It was warped & a strong wind probably could have knocked it in.

Patrick replaced it with this metal plated door :)

We also got double paned windows installed thanks to Patrick's mom. Here are the old windows,

and the new windows! I love that the top is one window instead of the 3 sections :)

 Here is a hole in the kitchen

 and here is the new window :)

There is alot more little stuff that's been done, but these are the pics I had to share for now. More renovations to come! :)

5 years

11 years ago today Hubby asked me out over the phone, 6 years ago today Hubby asked me to be his wife on the observation deck of Reunion Tower, 5 years ago today Hubby walked down the aisle & received me as his bride, today I love him so much more than I could have imagined 11 years ago!

We Are Blessed!

Hubby & I bought a foreclosure, which means we bought a project :) from the very beginning we made a list of things that needed to get done in order of importance. We have been so blessed with family and friends helping us out that some of the less important things will be able to get done soon instead of later down the road :)
I just wanted to take a minute to thank some people.
First off all the people who helped us move! We would have been moving for weeks without you :)
Patrick's mommy gave us the ability to fix our roof, get a water heater, get pretty paint, and have double paned windows installed! Without her help our renovations would have spanned months. She is also letting us stay with her while we get some of these renovations done.
The day we moved in my adopted parents, the Kenny's, decided they wanted to renovate our shower. They have been up here almost every night since we moved our stuff in, tearing stuff up & rebuilding. Now Cathy is tiling the shower & then we will be able to officially move in & shower in our own place! This was a huge project that we knew had to get done before we could move in & they have been such a blessing doing it so that we could focus on other tasks.
Patrick's daddy hired an ac guy to install a brand new ac unit in our home, it is a beast :) He also helped Patrick install the new water heater.
My brother fixed our Internet (since he works for the company, it's nice to know people lol) and he is helping Hubby run cat-5 through the whole house.
My mommy & sister helped me paint the kitchen cabinets a beautiful shade of green (even though they don't find it as beautiful as I do lol) & they both have been trying to make sure I stay hydrated :)
My dad came over on Fathers day and started fixing some of our electrical problems. He & my brother made a list of electrical things he is going to fix.
We are so blessed with wonderful people in our lives! It would have taken us months to get our home ready to move into, but with help it will only be weeks :) Thank you all soooooo much! I can't wait to have you all over for a homecooked meal!

Sold!

This post is late in being written, but I still wanted to share the pics! We closed on our house 6/5, and we bought new locks & keys for our home :) On 6/6 we were finally told all the papers had been signed and we had access, it was ours!!! We have been moving & renovating ever since! I will share those stories with you soon :) thank you for being patient while I'm busy!

Moving out

Tonight I planned on telling you all about our move (which I will very soon) and then we said goodbye to the Crazy People Downstairs. So tonight I am a little sad. How do you not live with people anymore? I hugged Conner & he told me that I lived upstairs, and then the waterworks started (for me of course) I love Conner & Elias so much! How am I not going to see them everyday? I can't answer when Conner yells up the stairs at me. This family is very special to Hubby & I! & I know we will continue seeing each other & hanging out, and I know that it is late & I have been very busy & am therefore over tired & emotional :), but tonight I am a little sad.

We have a close date!!!

Tuesday June 5th, 2012 Hubby & I will be first time home owners!!! :) We have already gotten homeowners insurance, and today we called and set up our electricity, gas, water, and internet! We are ready to go! Once we close & get the keys Hubby & his dad are going to fix the A/C and install a new water heater & I will begin painting. Then we will start moving all our stuff next weekend! I can't wait to start making this house our home! I will post pics of the progress :)

Eating Around The World in Epcot

Our last day in Orlando we decided to go back to Epcot for the sole purpose of eating in every country represented :) This is what we ate:

Canada

 First we watched a short video about Canada staring Martin Short.

 Then we ate a Maple Syrup Sucker & a Wunderbar, which is a Chocolate, Peanut Butter, Caramel candy bar. They were yummy :)

United Kingdom

 English Bulldog (Banger & Mash) & Strong Bow (hard apple cider)

 France

 Slept in Air Conditioning through a video about France :)

 Didn't take a pic, but here we shared Crem Brulee, Quishe, and a Cream Puff

Morraco

 Mediterranean Sliders with lentils, hummus, & tabbouleh

Japan

 Walked through the art gallery

 Ate Beef Udon, it was wonderful :)

America

 Smores Mousse Brownie, if you are ever in Epcot, go to Liberty Inn & have this brownie! And get one for me while you are there :)

 Italy

 I forgot to take a picture, but we had Tiramisu

Germany

 Bratwurst and sauerkraut on a roll

China

 Pork Potstickers

Norway

 Chocolate Mousse Cake

 and a shot of Potato Vodka. The cashier told Hubby & Brother that if they took the entire shot without making a face, then they were Vikings... they are Vikings :)

Mexico

Patron Lime Margarita & Pomegranate Margarita, the only thing we were disappointed in all day :(

All in all it was a great day of feasting! :)

Have you ever been around the world in Epcot? Where were your favorite places to eat? Did u get the brownie?!