Goodbye 2012!

I hope you all had a wonderful and Merry Christmas! I know our family did because here in Texas we enjoyed a white Christmas! It was beautiful. And I know I complained about educators getting off the Friday before Christmas but now I am really loving it! I still have this whole week to get everything organized and clean and PAINTED!! As dorky as it sounds, I have wanted to paint our house for 6 years now but since we always planned on moving we didn't put the money or effort into it. Now that we are waiting a while to move, we decided to do it since my cousin's sweet wife said she will help (y'all, her house is gorgeous and she is so talented) so it's exciting to see some color on the wall.!

Other than having snow at Christmas, it was so stinkin' fun because of the kids. Ella was SO anxious to open presents and Grayson was just thankful for everything which made it such a blessing as parents. He even said he was thankful for socks he got because some kids don't have anything! Melts.my.heart!
So here are a few of our Christmas pictures....okay not a few...a lot!!!

our family on Christmas Eve

making cookies

Ella is making a funny face but here are the 1st presents they got to open

waiting for Daddy to get in there

craziness begins

Heading to Papa and Nana's Christmas morning with gremlins...don't ask..lol

stinker and a half

Sawyer's first Christmas

Grayson at Mimi's and Pawpaw's

Sweet Liv giving Ella a makeover

at Nana's and Papa's on Christmas...snow!

Grayson's gingerbread house..pretty cute

our little chef

Me and my sweet sis in law and our girls

me and my furry hubby on a date

one of the best gifts ever...a necklace Grayson made for me!

I must also admit...I got some pretty amazing gifts this year and am thankful for all that God has blessed us with but most importantly I am thankful for God's grace, love, and His son. We are so blessed and that's what truly made our Christmas so wonderful.

So I guess it's goodbye 2012! I can't believe how time flies, especially when I am getting older. : ( Lol! I am looking forward to how God will use our family and what things He has in store for us. One thing that I have started and I hope will do well is my school counseling blog The Stylish School Counselor . It is still just getting started but I hope it will help other school counselors as much as some blogs have helped me! Please like it on Facebook or follow it on blogger and feel free to follow this blog!!! : )

I guess before I head out, I will leave you with some of my GOALS (remember I don't do resolutions) for 2013!

1. Read my bible more and be in God's word
2. Run MORE! I enjoy running but it seems to have taken the back burner lately!
3. Be even more hands on with the kids!! Play, play, play!!!!
4. Be a Godly wife and support my husband in all he does
5. Make a difference...do something GREAT!

I hope you all have a safe and happy new year! Feel free to share any resolutions you may have this year below!

Hello, 30!

I feel like this past week has been crazy with a capital C! For all you fellow educators, I am sure you feel the same way since we usually have a week off before Christmas! Luckily, Joey and I were prepared but it still doesn't make the holidays any less hectic!

So, last Sunday...I turned the big 3-0!!! I can't believe my 20's are gone. I don't stress about getting older because each day is a blessing from God but so many AH-mazing things have happened in my 20's! It's bittersweet.....

I graduated from college!!!

I married the cutest, sweetest guy in the world!

We had Grayson!

I finally finished grad school!

 

We had Ella!

The biggest thing that happened in my 20's that I don't have a picture of is getting baptized! Best day ever! So it's understandable to see why it's hard to leave the 20's. The best things in my life have started here! But I look forward to all that God has in store for me in my 30's.

Speaking of...I had a great, little get together full of family, friends, food, and sweet gifts! It was such a blessing to be able to relax with everyone!

 

me and my sweet hubby

mom and dad

me and some of my fav people

Grayson and Liv ready to dig into the cakes...love these kiddos SO much!

my bff Amanda made me a cake and so did my super sweet mother in law (hers is not pictured but is AMAZING)

birthday fun at work

me and megs

Joey knows the way to my heart! Starbucks for breakfast!

SO now here we are...2 days until Christmas and I am sooo excited. I feel like each year it goes by faster so we have tried to enjoy all of the festive things at this time of year!

Someone is on their 3rd pair of TOMS (it's all she likes to wear)...and my sweet niece Sawyer just got her first pair...can you say ADORABLE?

 

our handsome guy before he checked all the names on the presents under Papa and Nana's tree

Elves are real....haha

miss ella

I hope you all have a blessed and safe Christmas holiday full of love! I pray we all focus on the meaning of Christmas and not just the material things (which can be hard...)! As our pastor, Rocky, said in his sermon today....it's not just about the birth of Christ but what he did and who He is, from the cradle to the cross and to His glorious reign. That is just summed up but so true!

 

Oh...but wait! I went to a counseling conference which was amazing and picked up some goodies!

I can't believe I didn't have these books and I can't wait to create activities for them for small groups and guidance. I hope, for real, to have my counseling blog The Stylish School Counselor up over break!!

 

Have a Merry Christmas!!!

 

Love,

Mel

Proud Moments

It's about 9:42 p.m. on a Sunday night and usually I would have been asleep about an hour ago but I have all kinds of energy right now. I swear it has to be the green tea I have been drinking. I have lost about 7 pounds in the last month and aside from eating healthy I swear it's the tea. It's naturally decaffeinated and I drink it hot with 2 stevias and a little skim milk. So yum! It gave me energy to teach Sunday school, Christmas shop and have lunch with the fam, come home and cook about 3 meals for the week, and do all the laundry and get this....put it away!! And I am sure it is definitely God that helps this busy, workin' Mommy and wife get everything done!

This past weekend was one of those "proud, Mommy moments." As a mom, you are always proud of your children no matter what and think they are the cutest stinkin' thing on the face of this earth! But it is so exciting when you have those moments of things they do for the first time or when you see it is evident that they worked so hard and did it.

Grayson had his first "school" program this weekend. It lasted a little under 3 minutes and I couldn't have been any prouder. He has been talking about it for weeks and said he's been working hard at school with all his friends. They were all AH-dorable!! And don't worry...I took plenty of pics!! : )
Nana was there and that was super exciting for Grayson. My mom, Mimi, unfortunately couldn't be there because she is in Canada for my cousin's wedding. Joey actually didn't get to see it because he had to take Ella home because she was in desperate need of a nap and at her breaking point. She did get to enjoy some of the fun stuff they had before her little meltdown. Poor thing! : (

Ella getting her sweet lil' face painted

Ella making her cookie

Celebrate Jesus!

Nana

making cookies

he loves his school

train ride and hot cocoa

one proud mommy!!!

Y'all, I can't believe Christmas is almost here! If you're in education and your break starts the day of Christmas eve then you know how I am feelin'! I have been trying to get so much done so that I can enjoy the weekend before Christmas making cookies and soaking up all the Christmas movies, hot cocoa, Christmas music, and lights while we can. The kids have really enjoyed the season this year and I say this every year...but I just love the age they are right now! It is so fun. Aside from all the places we have been going, we have really tried to reinforce the meaning of Christmas. I put some Christmas books in a basket in their rooms that they can choose from at night so that we can read some fun Christmas stories. One of my personal favs is This is the Stable which Grayson read to me and Ella tonight!

I have seen so many neat Random Acts of Kindness ideas on Pinterest and on blogs but we have a little Acker tradition that we do. It may not be as cutesy but the meaning of it is wonderful! My husband (and me and the kiddos) pass Money tracts out during the holiday season. They look like this on the outside:

And then when you open it, it looks like this:

Joey puts a dollar in there and it has the gospel message and he passes them out like regular tracts....they just have a $1 in them. It may not be much but the main goal is to get the gospel out to people. Joey tries to save up dollar bills all year just for this purpose. If you are interested in getting some for this year or next or for any other evangelism products, check out: livingwaters.com


Well I am off to wrap presents!!! I hope you all have a blessed week and stay warm! I will leave you with a picture of our sweet girl!!!

Being content....

Let me start off with some updates on my kiddos....

Sweet Miss Ella has had a whirlwind of a weekend and start to her week. This past weekend she seemed to have had a super yucky tummy bug. Yesterday morning, she got into our bed. I had taken off work to take Grayson to a specialist appointment (more about that later). Well, all morning she was extremely lethargic and if you know our Ella that is SOOO not like her. It scared me and I called my bff/medical advisor and she said she would highly suggest taking her to the dr. Ella was so stinkin' out that when I picked her up she was just limp. She didn't talk. She didn't wiggle as usual. She didn't even want to eat. I brought her to a local urgent care and she still laid there. They brought us back pretty fast and they said she was severely dehydrated. They gave her an IV which I must say is seriously uncool for a 2 year old. After 5 hours, we were released and she was still pretty lethargic but she was talking and staying awake longer than 10 minutes. I swear this mommy cried more than her! : (  A trip to McDonalds for some chicken nuggets and some donuts at Brookshires seemed to cheer her up and make her eat again...

She still has an upset tummy but is much better. She will probably need to get whatever it is out of her system but hopefully she will be back to school Thursday....she keeps asking to go.

Finally playing!!!

Now to the other sweet one. Grayson. As many of you know, Grayson has struggled with some pretty rough asthma. We had an appointment yesterday with an amazing doctor who specializes in pediatric pulmonology Joey ended up taking Grayson since I had to stay with Ella. Joey said the dr. spent about 2-3 hours with him and Grayson. He gave us some action plans and all kinds of fun info. We even got an organized binder full of resources....you know how I love me some organization! Needless to say, we are thankful for this dr. and we both learned a lot. We pray that this will be a nice, healthy future for Grayson and his asthma!


Now to blog about what I felt I needed to blog about....being content. I think as a woman it is a battle feeling content. With fashion, stuff for homes, stuff for our kids, and so many other things...it's hard to be completely satisfied or at least for me, it is one of my struggles. Tonight I felt horrible. I was feeling overwhelmed and just started getting upset with things at home. I felt like my carpets looked horrible, my couch looked like a canvas of drawings, and the white walls were starting to make me feel like our house looked so ....blah. I just prayed about it and prayed. I didn't pray for my house to change but for God to take away the feelings of not being content. While I was putting Grayson to bed, I prayed and remembered a blog I had once read. I remember reading it a little less than a year ago. I felt the need to look it up and read it again. You can find the exact entry here: Grace Full Mama
Her blog describes her own feelings about being content and thankful...it's a great, short read. It also discusses a missionary's rules for her contentment. These are the rules the woman had that contributed to her contentment.
1. Never allow yourself to complain about anything, not even the weather.
2. Never picture yourself in a different circumstance or someplace else.
3. Never compare your lot with the lot of another.
4. Never allow yourself to wish this or that had been otherwise.
5. Never dwell on tomorrow.  Remember it is God’s, and not ours.
And, to this I would add, (Grace Full Mama)
6. Choose to be thankful for exactly where you are and exactly what you have.

This just pulled at my heart. I broke into tears. I can't even count the times that I have done those things. So many times I have thought, "What if I would have taken this job?" or "What if our house sold and we would have done this?"  Wow, how humbling. I know that God placed me where I am and where my family is for his divine purposes. I may not know just why yet but I am so thankful for being where I am. I am sure I will have my tough days but to know that I am an integral part of His plan and to know he thoughtfully put me where I am is amazing. This may just be me struggling with this, but if not....I hope this was able to help someone else.

Have a blessed week!