weekend wrap up & prayer requests!

Happy Monday, folks! Our weekend was pretty low key and just what we needed after the craziness of moving and helping out with vacation Bible school at church!

Friday night we had Stephen's family (minus his brother and his wife) over for dinner at our new home. It was so nice to have enough room to sit with everyone in our dining room...even though they had to bring their own card tables! (We should really put that on our purchase soon list honey!) The Friday before, which was the day before we moved in; Adam and Melissa had eaten dinner with us after VBS closing only we sat on the floor and ate on top of boxes! Being able to sit and enjoy the food together was such a blessing! I wish I had remembered to take pictures of the food, but we were all so hungry we dove right in. I will tell you what our menu was so you can imagine the food! We did a Mexican theme because we love enchiladas and I had not made them in forever...so we had: beef enchiladas, Mexican rice, fresh pico (thanks, Bev!), black beans and a yummy dip that is my cousin Naomi's recipe. I also whipped up a cake for the occasion, though I am sure that is no surprise to you who know me! I found a recipe online for Mexican Fruit Cake and thought it sounded good, so we gave it a try! It was a success! I will try and post that recipe to share with you all later this week!

Saturday was a little family reunion for Stephen's side of the family. It is held annually at his Aunt & Uncle's house, and this was my first year attending. We had so much delicious food and enjoyed the company of people we don't get to see everyday. The only downside was the flies. Oh boy, the flies! They were EVERYWHERE! I was able to hold baby Anna when she was super fussy and get her calmed down and sleeping. I was happy as a clam sitting inside rocking her, she is just so precious! After pigging out and then vegging out for some time we hit the road for the theater. Stephen and I had seen Harry Potter Part 2 at the drive-in when the movie was first released, but we wanted to see it in a real theater where we could appreciate the sound and special effects a little more. Boy did we! The movie was great! Now that I have been captivated by the movies (which I never thought I would watch, let alone enjoy) I think it may be time for me to read to book....I might have to come up with another animal to imagine when I am reading about Nagini, a unicorn perhaps? I guess unicorns cannot be evil, so I could go with a dragon...anything is fine with me as long as it is not a snake!

Sunday we were able to sleep in a little bit since we now live so close to church. It was really quite nice in my opinion! After church we were able to come home to our own home and eat leftovers from Friday night's dinner. This was also SO nice, since usually our Sunday lunches include something fast food on our way to spend the rest of the day doing laundry. Just being able to be at home is so nice and we really enjoy the time we spend there! We had a picnic in the living room while watching several episodes of Mad About You...do you watch that? We laugh a lot!! I headed back to the church for a bridal shower that was a lot of fun. It is great to connect with other women in the church and celebrate these special things with everyone. I loved being part of the bride-to-be, Casey's shower! Once I got home, Stephen and I headed outside to wash our cars. They were so dirty, so we ended up spending quite some time cleaning them up. When you live in an apartment hand washing your car is hard to do, so I appreciated being able to take care of it myself verses driving through a car wash. No offense automatic car washes, but I can usually do a better job! Both our cars were clean and shiny last night...They probably will have a few bugs on them by the time we get home tonight, but that's okay!

Oh, my sweet husband let me pick the movie we watched last night and was such a sport about watching Bride Wars. I just love that movie! Thanks again honey! I guess we can watch Jurassic Park tonight!

Please pray for my family in Florida. They are experiencing some unexpected trials right now and could really use the prayers and support at this time! There are several things going on that I won't mention, but please pray for patience, understanding and healing for the family. We all really appreciate it!

Okay, now onto the funner stuff...pictures of the house!

Last week I used my stand mixer for the first time, and I am in love. Oh my goodness, it made everything to easy and relatively mess free. Stephen loved the chocolate chip cookies!

Part of our first meal together at the house, a yummy cucumber salad from the garden!

The main entree of our first meal at the house, lemon pepper baked chicken breasts...so yummy!

We LOVE fresh corn on the cob, this was store bought and it was good-but not as good as fresh picked from the garden!

We had this wall in the kitchen that I was not sure what to do with. A sweet co-worker of mine gave me a nice candle-scape from Pier One, but it was broken :( When I took it back they had one other one in the store, but it was broken too...so I got store credit. I added a little bit of my own money and was able to get this beautiful plate hanging for the kitchen. It was just what I had visioned for the wall and I found it. We love it!

This is the view of our dining room basically from our front door. I am loving the way it is coming together! As much as I thought I was going to hate our glass top table in this room, it is actually not that bad. We might put off getting a new table for a year or two :)

Have I mentioned how much I love our fireplace?

I think the photo's could be lowered a little bit, but then we would have 3 ugly holes in a plaster wall. I think they will be staying where they are. It looks okay, right?

My reading chair :)

This painting has been stored in a closet for a year because I had nowhere to hang it in our apartment. It has found its home on the wall in our dining room and I am so happy to see it on a wall again. This was painted by my Dad's grandma, or my great-grandma many, many years ago.

Just some flowers that are on our console table in the dining room. I love the colors! :)

That's all of the house pictures for now. I am working on getting a photo tour together so you can see it all. All the rooms are complete so it is just a matter of taking the pictures and editing them for display! I am working on 2 recipe posting for later this week, so check for those. They are both delicious!

Hope everyone survives Monday!