5 Years

5 years ago today.

I became Jen the Newlywed.

I was finally his wife.

I still can't believe he chose me.

I'm still really, really, REALLY in love with him.

He still makes me laugh.

He still makes really great decisions for our family.

He still impresses me with his wisdom.

He's an amazing man of God.

He is strong. He is smart. He is handsome.

He's beyond anything I ever thought I could have.

I love that man..... that husband of mine. 

Happy Anniversary, love.

You make everything better. 

Christmastime Was Here

Well it was Christmas.

And then it ended. WAY. TOO. SOON.

I'm sitting in my living room right now, knowing that I'll have to take the tree down in a few days but I DON'T WANNA! I love the smell and the pretty ornaments and all my Christmas decor. And also I'm lazy.

We had a great Christmas around here. Grant has been home all week and we've been lazy and productive which is the best way to spend our time. On Christmas Eve the two of us went to a late movie and saw the new Mission Impossible. The theater wasn't crowded and there was no line for snacks... it was nice!

Christmas morning we exchanged gifts. I got Grant an effects pedal for his guitar (he asked for it) and he bought me these ADORABLE Tory Burch flats that I loooove. My man is a good gift giver :)

After that we headed over to my parents and exchanged gifts with them and Jaclyn and her husband Jeremy as well as Grace and Dean. I got lots of cute clothes and gift cards and pajamas and shoes and lovely things. The kids were adorable. It's so fun to see them experience all this. Then we had lunch which included cheesy potatoes and I AM ALL ABOUT THAT.

Yesterday my other sister Shannon and her husband Jason and their twin girls Scarlett and Juliet arrived. It's always such a joy to see those girls. They are growing up so fast. We had a great time with them yesterday and then again with some extended family last night.

Today Grant and I have gotten work done around the house. The MAJOR highlight of the day was when we got a little visit from our other 3 kiddos! Yep, Chase and Ronda (Grant's brother and his wife) were driving through Houston on the way to San Antonio and decided to stop at our house for dinner. Although it was a short visit, we were overjoyed to have Evan, Emily, and Olivia here to eat some yummy Taco Cabana and have some quick snuggles and hugs and kisses. What a joy all these babies are!!

I've spent hours today filing and shredding paperwork from the last year. I'm determined to go into 2012 in a more organized fashion!

Well, Hi.

Hello, my name is Jen. Many of you might remember me as "Jen the Newlywed" and I used to write here on the blog fairly frequently. However, as of late I've had what I like to call "a bad case of the lazies" and writing has just not been high on my priority list. Nothing has been all that high, to be honest with you.

Thankfully, I seem to be coming out of this funk and felt like stopping by to let you all know that I am alive and you don't need to send the search and rescue team. (If that ever happens, you know you can bait me with Kraft Macaroni and Cheese.)

I can't even begin to recap everything that's happened in the last month or so with any real detail, so I'll just do one of those quicky recaps so I can look back on this years from now and know what was going on in my life.

We had Celebration at our church... the big church Christmas thing. We had six performances. Six glittery, red-lipsticked performances. Everything went off beautifully. There was a minor glitch on Saturday night during my special song when the flying violinist (Flyolinist) got a hitch in her wires and had to float back down, but other than that the show was great. I had an awesome time, got to know a bunch of people even better than I already did, lost my voice, got it back, and have spent the last few weeks recovering!

During Celebration, one of the girls introduced me to the clip-less curling wand and IT HAS CHANGED MY LIFE. I have never been able to curl my own hair.... and now I can get some lovely curls without being embarrassed about the back of my head!

Grant and I were supposed to leave yesterday to drive to New Orleans to spend a few days with the family before Christmas. (We rotate which family gets Christmas Day every year, but we always see both families during the Christmas season). This year the rotation has us in Houston for Christmas day, but we were planning on spending Wednesday thru Saturday in New Orleans. Sadly, last minute, we all decided to postpone. Between bad weather, busy work schedules, sick grandparents and sick babies... it just was going to be more work than fun and we would have about 5 hours together total. We decided to wait and go in January. We are disappointed but feel like we all made the best decision.

Meanwhile, I've been frantically finishing my Christmas shopping this week. Yes, I am WAY behind and now get to start the joy of wrapping. I love seeing wrapped presents under the tre... it's just getting them wrapped that's the exhausting part. I think my back is hurting just thinking about it....

Well, who knows when I'll be back to write again. If you haven't heard from me by February, go over to Lindsee's blog and ask her where I am.

Love you, people!

 

And Now It's December

So last month was seriously the worst blogging month I've had on record. I apologize for not being present. November was busier than October, and that's saying something. Plus, the last two weeks of November included the cold that would not end. Coughing and mucus and kleenex - OH MY! Not so much fun.

Today, when we got home from church, I ate lunch on the couch and then fell asleep. After I woke up feeling quite refreshed, I asked Grant how long my nap was. He informed that I had slept for 3 hours, totally snoring, and pretty much in a coma. Oops.

The good news is, I'm getting a head start on my rest for the week. This week is our big Christmas Celebration at church. I'll be at church every night this week, till well after 10:00, and it's super important that I'm getting all the rest I can. After last year's show, I got the sickest I've ever been and I REALLY REALLY do not want a repeat of that this year.

Another accomplishment of today: LAUNDRY. I've ignored the laundry for an embarrassing amount of time. I'm not even gonna tell you how long I've ignored but. But, it's all done, it's all put away. My handsome husband even cleaned the closet today and I am so thankful for his help. I think he realized during my 3 hour coma that I'm not fully functioning!

Now we're watching the Saints while resting and playing with the dog and having a really nice Sunday evening. This is the calm before the storm.

I am so ready for Celebration to get here. We've been working on this since summer time, and I am READY!

 

Twas the Saturday After Thanksgiving...

... and I am still full.

One of my favorite parts of Thanksgiving are the days and days of leftovers. I can eat stuffing and mashed potatoes every day of the week. I love food. I love Thanksgiving food. I just love sides so much and Thanksgiving is all about the sides.

It's Saturday morning and I'm sitting at the breakfast table in Grant's parents' house. We've had such a nice, relaxing few days here. I remember coming here when Grant and I were dating. The first time I came here was about seven years ago. I slept in a different bedroom, would say goodnight to Grant in the hallway before bed, and would get tours of New Orleans during the day. Now that we've been married almost 5 years (mercy!) this house feels very much like home. Thankfully, I now get to share a room with that handsome man, and take naps during the day at my leisure. The boys still go fish all day and the girls still chat and visit all day, but now there's 3 babies added to the mix!

When I met Grant, his family was just adults. Mom, Dad, Chase, Ronda, and Grant. And then I joined and we had a great time, just the six of us. But then the real fun started :)

Evan, Emmy and Olivia have turned this family upside down, but in the best possible way. I love their sweet faces, their big hugs, their loud exclamations when they see something exciting, and even when they start to crash. I love Olivia's curls. I love Emmy's big eyes and her ever-present "Pincess Cown" (princess crown). I love Evan's laugh and how he always wants his Uncle Gant.

I love that this whole house is child-proofed and there's toys everywhere. I love that a lot of the time someone has to help me get into our bedroom since the child-safety door knob is in place.

The thing is, sharing holidays is one of the trickier things about being married. You have to compromise, adjust, and embrace your spouse's way of doing things. Yes, I still miss my mom's mashed potatoes. On the years we spend Christmas here in New Orleans, there will always be a moment where I'll miss my parents living room and the noises there. Over time though, I have found that I no longer feel like this is "Grant's family." It's OUR family. It's MY family.

 

Clearly I'm Falling Apart Here

Apparently this month is not turning out to be very bloggy.

Bloggy (def.) adj. - full of blogs.


I'm just not finding time to blog, nor the material to blog about.

At some point, I'll drum up the energy to do a recap of this weekend. Lindsee and I went to San Antonio with our moms for our friend Amy's beautiful wedding. It was an awesome girl weekend and Lindsee took some pictures and I'll share them at a later date.

Meanwhile, the clothing situation in our home is out of control. The drawers. The closet. The laundry room. Clothes exploding everywhere. I'm not so sure where they all came from. The longer it goes, the more daunting it gets. My goal is to conquer it before bed tonight but I'm not so sure that is going to happen.

We're getting pretty excited about Thanksgiving around here. I get so gosh darn excited about the food. It's full of sides and I love sides. Mashed potatoes. Stuffing. Gravy. Macaroni and Cheese. Bread. MASHED. POTATOES. (I'm sorry I just had to mention them twice)

Plus, we get to hold lots of nieces and nephews. We love them :)

And this concludes the most boring blog you've ever read in all of your blog-reading life.

Reasons Why I've Been Behind on the Blog

Today is November 14th and it is only my second post of the entire month. I'm behind on blogging.

Ya know why? BECAUSE I AM BEHIND ON EVERYTHING.

You know how when I started working from home I started talking about how I'm on top of everything and I have no problems and my life is full of rainbows and unicorns?

Well, throw a major Christmas production that's less than a month away into the mix and you've got a recipe for exhaustion.

Ah, yes. My church has a fantastic, exciting, over-the-top, six performances of Christmas awesomeness every year and we are in full swing at the moment. Meetings, meetings, meetings, decorating, meetings, rehearsal, meetings, rehearsal, decorating, meetings, rehearsals. And meetings.

There's been a fully washed and dried load of clothing in the dryer for over a week now. While it would make sense to take the clothes out and fold them and put them away, I just keep going and getting out the specific clothing item that I need.

Anyways, I'll give you some highlights of the last few weeks:

Grant was traveling for a looong time and he's back for good now and that makes me happy.

I sang in a wedding last weekend. It was fun. I didn't have a microphone and I had no idea what to do with my hands.

Last night I made breaded chicken fingers and fettucine alfredo for dinner. I mostly ate the fettucine. Because it is delicious.

I've started wearing leggings. I'm pretty slow on jumping on the latest fashion trends.

We went to a Thanksgiving potluck on Saturday night. It was my job to bring mashed potatoes. Bringing mashed potatoes to a potluck is a pretty big job. Well, I started making my mashed potatoes around 2:30pm and around 3:30pm we had what I like to call "THE GREAT MASHED POTATO INCIDENT OF 2011" and around 4:00pm I finished crying and Grant finished cleaning up the mashed potatoes out of the stove and gas line and around 5:00pm I picked up several quarts of Mashed Potatoes from Cracker Barrel.

I love Thanksgiving food.

I'm gonna catch up on some work, but I feel much better now that I no longer have the "you haven't blogged in a sweet forever" feeling hanging over my head. :)