My Thanksgiving Table!!!

I am soooo excited about my Thanksgiving Table!! Especially the fact that I did all of this for just a whoping 13 BUCKS!! That's it! Most of it, I either already had, or I am borrowing! Check it out!!

All this is, is wine glasses upside down, with fall leaves inside as well as some pine cones, then brown rice on the plate!

Now I have the wine glasses right side up, with the rice inside the cups, and the leaves on the plate!!

TA DA!!!

My Handsome Boys!

Zachary was out of school today, but Dan wasn't. So, Zachary got all dressed up to go to school with his Daddy!!! He was so handsome!

Another Wonderful Weekend!!

Awe... we had another great weekend!

It started out on Friday night with the Women's Ministry. It was a night of Thanksgiving and Prayer. It was very cool, hearing some of the testimonies and the prayer requests that were out there. It really opens your eyes. There are a lot of hurting people out there. It was also a night to say goodbye to some of the senior student wives. I only really know one woman who will be leaving, and I bairley know her at that. But none the less, it was a very emotional night. I turned to one of my friends and said, "My goodness, if this is this hard now, I dread what it'll feel like in four years!"

Early Saturday morning we took off to Shelbyville! One of my joyful moments was stopping by Panera Bread and getting a Cinnamon Crunch Bagel with Hazel Nut Cream Cheese!!! MmMmM ..... YUMMO!!! I haven't had one of these things in months!!! It is seriously heaven on earth to me!! :)

After being in Louisville for a bit, we arrived at my parent's house. It was such a relaxing visit. The simplist moments were my favorite moments!

• Dad and Zachary, with the help of Nicholas, all played Hide & Seek;


• Marquita gave me some great tips on crocheting my scarf, and corrected the wavieness of it!


• We all watched Dr. Suesses How the Grinch Stole Christmas - my all time fav!!


• We all got up early and started fixing the Thanksgiving meal!

All of the family was there! It was so great seeing my brothers and my sister, and all my neices and nephews! The kiddos had so much fun being with each other again to!

Aiden, Nicholas, and Alyssa playing with the blocks!

Zachary and AJ are best buds!

Tyler and Nicholas playing cars together!

Tyler, Zachary, and Justin hangin' out!

Zachary and Dan built this tower using every single block! Zachary was so proud of it!

Billie Jo and Alyssa taking a pose!

Jen and Chuck!

Marquita with her mom and brother! It was so great seeing them there that day!

A squirrel eating from the bird feeder!!!

On our way out, we stopped by Mary and Corys for a quick visit, and we got to see their new home! It's always a joy being around them!!

I love weekends like these! Next weekend otta' be good too - It's Thanksgiving!!!

Day Dreamin'...

Do you ever have those days when you just day-dream about the plans that God has in store for you? Today is one of those days for me. I've been day-dreaming about our little girl in China that God has waiting for us. In five years we'll be able to adopt! Although I'm so ready for her now, the Chinese law will not allow you to adopt until you are 30 years old. As I was researching a bit, I was allowing Satan to discourage me about the financial end of it. But then I came across this verse:

"being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus."

~ Philippians 1:6

That made me feel so much better!

Food for Thought

I heard something really cool on the radio today, and it made me think back on a recent conversation with a very close friend. I'm not going to mention any names, or the exact conversation - I hope she's not offended by me posting this. But I've gotta share what I heard on the radio!

Her and I were chatting about letting go of our lives, giving control over to God. Her and her husband have a life changing decision ahead of them and she is struggling to give God complete control. She feels His calling very strongly, but it is a scary thing to let Him have it all. Even if it means changing the plans that you have made for yourself.

I thought this was cool:

Jesus is speaking....
"The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy, I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full."
~John 10:10

Focus on the latter part of the verse. "I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full."

Jesus wants you to live life to the fullest! He wants you to obey His calling and trust in Him on this adventure that He has for you!!
Trust me, it's a hard thing to do to give Him complete control and surrender to His will for you. But man, once you do it, it is the most incredible adventure!!

Love ya!

What a Wonderful Weekend!

We had the pleasure of having some of our really good friends down for a visit this past weekend! Mary and Cory just got married in September and these two are a true testament of how God is

able to completely transform lives. Taking one out of sin and creating a new life in Him!

Earlier in the week, the weather man was calling for rain, and we were really wanting to take them up to the Pinnacle Point and on our favorite walking trail. It ended up being absolutely beautiful that day!! YAY! Thanks for holding the rain up God!

Mary & Cory at the Pinnacle Point

Mary in Kentucky & Virginia at the same time!

Cory in two states at once!

Who says you can't be two places at once?!?!

Some good pics from the walking trail

Some of my favorite moments:

• Laughing together!
• Staying up late just talking about God and His Word!
• Sharing wisdom to one another
• Eating, Eating, Eating!!
• Our 5AM Wake up call, all sitting at the kitchen table sipping on coffee (well except me - I hate coffee) trying to wake up- Mary and Cory had commitments with their church- they had to leave our house by 6AM!
• Just being with good friends again!!!

My prayer is that God will continue to work in their lives! I can see Him up to something big with these two. My secret prayer is that God will call Cory into the ministry and have him get an education at CCBBC!!! ~ While we're here of course! ~ How awesome would that be?!?!? ;)

Thanks for visiting - We love you guys!

Happy Birthday!!

Happy 25th Birthday Sweetie!!

Some Updates!

Hey Guys -
Life has pretty much settled down here for us.

The new job at the bank is going great! Some things to get used to, but I'll manage. Still miss CUB though. I'm in the works of designing a New Hire Orientation - which sure is fun for me!

Dan is wrapping up his first semester - Can you believe it?!?! Already a semester down! He's doing great though!

The boys are great - Nicholas is exploring the "Potty World" with his first victory yesterday afternoon!! One step closer to no more diapers / pull ups! :) Nicholas is singing his ABC's now, and also likes singing "Jesus Loves Me" while walking around with his little Bible and tapping on it when he sings the part of the song that says, "the Bible tells me so". Zachary had a Veteran's Day thing at his school yesterday where he sang a song with his classmates. It was so cute! Zachary is also doing really good with his reading! He sure is loving school. Oh, something I have to tell you guys - the other night we were teaching Zachary about Creation. We read to him all the days that God created the earth, then we began telling him about the fact that there will be a day when someone will try to tell him that God did not create the earth. And Zachary says, "Well. I know! I can put my Bible in my back pack and when they say that, I can just go to this first chapter and show them." It was so sweet. My prayer is that he will always keep that simplicity. We were also talking about His Return, and teaching him about that. (I was so proud that Zachary actually told us pretty much the whole story of Jesus' return!) Well anyway, I was telling him about how He is preparing a place for us in Heaven. And Zachary says, "I hope it's not on the clouds, because that mansion would be too heavy for the clouds!"!!!!! I love my baby!


We were back home last weekend - it's funny, I don't think I realize how much I miss it until I'm there again. Especially the little things - like close interstate access (not having to drive 45 minutes just to get to one); good radio reception; good phone reception; calling up friends to just hang out; calling up parents to just see if we can visit; our home church. I never thought I'de say it, but I sure do miss Shelbyville! I also always enjoy going to Louisville of course whenever we're home.

Love and Miss you all!
Nicole

Happy Halloween!

Our little Cowboy and Handy Manny!