{Weekend Wrap-up // Babes, Hockey, Softball, Church, Sushi}

Happy Monday! I hope you all had a great weekend. Ours was pretty good, just not near long enough! I did soak up every minute that we got, though! It was filled with good food, family, friends, sports, and Jesus! I love those kinds of weekends. Here's a look at what we did...

{CHRISTMAS EVE SERVICE // 2022}

Christmas Eve candlelight service is one of my favorites of the entire year. Our church prepares such a special service for Christmas Eve. It's truly a gift and a blessing to get to attend. This year, my parents joined us and it made my heart so happy. I wish we would have thought to get a picture together. 

{Unmet Expectations // Church}

I recently shared this on Facebook but wanted to have it here on my blog also. I know that I may need to see this reminder again one day.

{Easter 2022}

Easter has quickly become one of my favorite holidays. I love celebrating the resurrection of our Lord and Savior! We had a weekend full of Easter festivities. Friday was the Easter carnival at church, then an evening of worship at the Good Friday Service, then Saturday and Sunday were spent with the family.

{Good Friday Service}

 Our church had a Good Friday service and I barely have any words to describe how amazing it was! It will forever be one of my favorite days I have shared with Nate. It was such a beautiful and moving night of worship. 

{Candlelight Christmas Eve Service // 2021}

 The candlelight Christmas Eve service at our church is always one of my favorites! I look forward to it every single year. The amount of time, planning, and preparing our church staff does is not lost on me. You can tell that they put their all into this service and it's so incredibly beautiful. This year, my whole family (minus my brother because they went to their church's service) came with us. That was the best gift I could ever receive. My family worshipping with us on Christmas Eve and hearing about the good news of Jesus, our Savior. I will cherish this day in my heart for a long, long time. 

{Fall Carnival at The Avenue // 2021}

 We were so excited that our church was going to host the annual Fall carnival this year! It was cancelled last year due to Covid and we were so bummed. It truly is so much fun! The Avenue goes all out...from Texas State Fair rides & concessions to pony rides, to food trucks, a DJ, tons of inflatables, etc. There's something for everyone! 

{Church with our Jeep family}

 Several members of our Jeep family have recently started attending our church and it has been so amazing!! We love having them there. It makes Sundays that much sweeter!! 

{Mason // First Midweek at Church}

 Mason got to attend his first ever Midweek on Wednesday! Midweek is for 6th - 12th graders only and they meet on Wednesdays at our church. They have all kinds of activities for the kids, worship, a sermon, and small groups! It's such an amazing night for these youth.

{Our Jeep family came to our church!!}

 One of our Jeep family members had a birthday over the weekend and his wish was to have friends join him at church. And you know our Jeep family delivered!! They just so happen to go to the same church as us, so that was perfect. I can't tell you how amazing it was to fill up a whole row at our church and to be in the Lord's house with our Jeep family!  

{Fall Festival at church}

This past Saturday was our fall festival at church! We decided to go to the 5:00 service before the festival. It was a special night because Nate's mom joined us for service and then the carnival. My parents, sister, and nephew met us at the carnival. Worship and the message were both amazing as always! We got out around 5:55 and then walked out into the parking lot where the carnival was. The carnival started at 6, but it was already so crowded. Our church puts this carnival (complete with carnival rides) on for the whole community for free. The only thing that costs is the food! There were several food trucks there and everything smelled amazing!!

{We tried a new church...}

The past two Sundays Nathan, Mason and I visited a new {to us} church. I have really felt the Lord pressing on my heart to give this church a try and, well, we did just that...

{Five on Friday // Bible, Farmluck, Snow Cones, Dieting}

Happy Friday! It has been almost a month since I have written a Five on Friday post. Y'all...it has been so dang busy around these parts! First was vacation {gone for 10 days}, then I came back to the Photobucket fiasco {I've already updated 136 blog posts and counting}, trying to catch up on Bible studies {personal, study with my girlfriends, Wednesday nights at church, and Sunday school}, going through the 1400+ photos I took while on vacation, trying to get the house back in order, etc. And then this week Nate's Step Grandfather was taken by ambulance to the hospital for low oxygen levels, Nathan had jury duty all week, my sister lost her father in law, and a family friend's 11 year old was diagnosed with the mumps. His family went on vacation with us and the kid and Mason played together a lot. I had to contact Mason's doctor to see if she wanted him to come in. But, he's fully vaccinated and the incubation period would have been towards the end of our vacay {and the kid left 2 days before us} so we should be in the clear. Whew! Other than all  of that, life has been pretty dang grand over here. Nathan and I have had a bunch of unexpected date nights {Praise Jesus, Hallelujah} and we've had a ton of family time. We are trying to soak up every last drop of summer and making so many memories. We hope to squeeze in a few more little adventures before school starts back. One of these days I will be able to answer emails and  I will blog about our vacation and all of the other little things we have done! But for today it's a Five on Friday...a little bit of what we've been up to this week.

{Never made the blog // Volume 1 // Bday, Well Check, Cops & Kids, Father's Day, Child Dedication}

My friend Sarah has been doing these posts on "things that never made it to the blog" and I have loved reading them. Life gets away from you so quick and then blog posts keep piling up. I have so many things that never made it to the blog, but I want them to. So, I thought this would be the best way to catch up. Here is a bunch of random things that never made this blog...

{Five on Friday // VBS, Lexi, 4th of July, Vacation, Amevie Sunglasses}

It has been a long while since I've wrote a Five on Friday post! It was back at the beginning of May to be exact. May and June have been our busiest months so far this year and I don't see it slowing down any time soon. Here is a little bit of what we have been up to this week...

{Winter Bucketlist Update // Christmas on the Square, Decking the Halls, Candlelight Service }

Time for our final Winter Bucketlist Update! We managed to cross every last item off of our list this season! Well, I am still in the middle of the Christmas Photo Challenge with Stephanie so that's not in this post. I'll blog about it once I finish it. We've had so much fun Christmas-ing this year. I am sad that the season is over. But, I am sure I will be blogging about Christmas for at least the next couple of weeks. We packed so much into this season! Here is a look at some of the things we checked off our 2016 Winter Bucketlist

{Weekend Wrap-up // hair, boats, homemade ice cream and church}

 We had such a good weekend! It was one of those that was the perfect balance between busy and relaxing! Friday night my boys had a guys night while I had a girls night at my aunt's house. My cousin is a hairdresser and is currently doing most of the girls in my family's hair. She knew that several of us were due for a hair appointment so she scheduled a 'hair party night'. It was so fun and great to hang out with some of my favorite girls. Nate and Mason rented the new Captain America movie and got a pizza. They were both asleep when I got home and I was bummed, but I couldn't wait to snuggle with them.

{Weekending // Art Gala, Friends from Houston, Church}

Happy Monday! Can we please just go back to the weekend? I'm not ready for another work week. This weekend was a good one and left my heart so, so full. We soaked up lots of friend and {church} family time. I am exhausted today, but it is so worth it.

Friday night we went over to our pastor's house for an art exhibit on his farm. One of our church members is a recently single mom and paints beautiful canvases. She showcased her work around the farm and gardens and had 8 paintings for sale. Each one of her paintings had spiritual meaning and name {Exodus, Genesis, Crucifixion, etc}. Our church family rallied and helped her sell all 8 paintings. They also had a wine tasting and cheeses from a local farm. The kids ran around the farm petting the animals, playing in the treehouse and on the inflatable slide. Later that evening they projected Zootopia outside and had a fire going for s'mores. It was an amazing evening and their farm is awesome!

       Saturday morning we woke up and finished cleaning the house and getting ready for friends that were coming in from Houston. It's been a whole year since we had seen them and it was a long overdue visit. However, I love that no matter how much time passes between us we always pick right back up! The Tolberts are such dear friends to us and we are so blessed to have them in our lives.

We chatted for a while and then the kids had a quick waterballoon fight...

     Then we all loaded up in the carpool van and we showed them around our town! It was neat to show them little places that are special to us. After our tour we went to eat at Nate's favorite restaurant, Ojedas {Beth, there it is again! haha}. We left there and went straight to Academy for bait and then headed out to the lake for some fishing. On the way there we saw a glorious sunset. Nothing was biting, but we had a good time.

Sunday was church and the Tolberts joined us! We were so excited to have our friends at our church. We love that place and want to share it with the world! Service was AMAZING.

This is Church.

God is faithful in the midst of suffering.

I love that whoever was working the balcony was able to capture this photo. It moves me. This is our church praying around our pastor and his wife.

After church we grabbed a couple of photos with the kiddos.

 

Then we loaded up for some little adventures. The Tolberts wanted to eat lunch somewhere that they didn't have in their hometown. Joe lived in California for a while so we settled on In and Out Burger. He hasn't had it since his California days and his family had never had it. It was really good! And I cheated on my diet. O'well. We spent the rest of the day at Cabela's. We all love that place! The kids had fun driving the boats and four wheelers and looking at the animals It was a fun time!

Then it was time to say goodbye to our friends! We started missing them the minute they pulled out of the driveway! We can't wait to go visit them in their hometown!

How was your weekend?

{Weekending // Bass Pro // Father's Day // Church Sports Camp}

Happy Monday! We had a good weekend, but it went oh so fast. I feel like I always say that the weekends fly by, but this one truly did. It was a good one, though!

Friday night we had supper with my family and then visited at their house for a while. We stayed a little later than we probably should have and Mason ended up having night terrors all night {for over 7 hours} long. It seems to happen every single time we leave my parents house. I am not sure what it is. I am thinking it's the over-stimulation from playing with his 4 boy cousins. They're loud and it's complete chaos when they're all together. That's the only thing different that I can pinpoint. I tried to tend to Mason's night terrors as much as I could because Nate had to be up super early Saturday morning for a church men's fishing trip. But, neither he or I got much sleep that night. Mason finally calmed down and rested from 6:30 am until 11:30 am. I let him sleep in because I knew he would be exhausted. I am truly grateful that he doesn't remember the night terrors the next day, because they are so tough!!

Nate left the house around 5 am on Saturday to meet the men at church. They fished from about 7 am until noon-ish. Nathan had a blast and thinks he caught a bunch of fish. He sent me this picture from the middle of the lake.

This man could spend all day fishing! He loves it. I'm not patient enough for it. I'd rather take pictures. ha.

{Weekending // Heroe Party, Sweet friends, New riding toy, Mother's Day}

Happy Monday! I don't know about y'all, but Monday morning came entirely too fast. I woke up this morning and my first thought was how? How is the weekend already over? It was a busy weekend for sure, but a really really good one. And you guys...this post almost didn't happen. My computer was running slow, I couldn't get anything to upload to photobucket and it was just chaos. That's a Monday for you.

Friday we spent the evening cleaning and prepping for Mason's birthday party on Saturday. And in true Crystal fashion I started projects at 9pm the night before. I stumbled upon them on Pinterest and had to do it! It was worth it, though.

Saturday we woke up and continued the party prepping. Before we left I asked Mason if I could get some photos of him. And of course, this is what I got....
    

I love this silly boy something fierce. My sweet friend Amanda came into town to visit her family and was able to come to Mason's party. She arrived and we loaded up and headed into town. Mason's party {which I will be posting about separately} went really well. It was one of the less stressful parties I think I ever planned.

After the party we went back home and had some yummy burgers and the kids played on Mason's new Green Machine {gift from my parents}, had nerf gun wars and jumped on the trampoline. It was a good evening!

Sunday I got up and did my usual early morning routine of grocery shopping & grabbing donuts. Then we were off to church. I love when holidays fall on church days!! There is something so special about sitting on a pew with your loved ones. What a gift! And to be able to be in the house of the Lord with some of my favorite mamas on Mother's Day was such a blessing as well. Also, one of our sweet friends was in town {she's a flight attendant and stationed elsewhere} and joined the worship team in leading praise and worship. What a treat that we weren't expecting at all. Nathan and I agreed that we could listen to her sing for hours. Amazing voice! And, she sang one of my favorite songs {that I have had on repeat lately} - Ever Be by Bethel. After service they handed out carnations and a devotional to all of the mamas. And Mason made me a sweet card in children's church.

After church we went to my aunts house to celebrate all the mamas on that side of the family. We did a sandwich type potluck and it was delicious. We visited a while and then headed to Nate's parents to visit with his mom. We are so blessed with so many amazing women in our lives! It was a great day of celebrating them.

How was your weekend? I hope you all had an amazing one and a Happy Mother's Day!