love this

This would look just PERFECT in our home.

When Nate and I were dating we would always say

"Being with you feels like home." (Sappy... I know)

So when I saw this I immediately fell in love.

found here

Tonight we are spending the evening at home decorating our tree!!

My heart feels so full and thankful. I am continuously being reminded

of how faithful Jesus is. And so patient. And He really does LOVE US... more than we will ever know.

Such a simple truth. But how huge the impact it has on us when we really start to realize it and BELIEVE it.

sweet lazy saturday

(This post is from Saturday, but I forgot to publish it)

It is finallllllyyyy chilly here and that means Chrismas is coming soon!

I have had an icky cold for the past two weeks and it will not go away... I guess I am seeing it as a welcome gift from the kids at work. It is incredible to think how quickly life changes. In the past six months I have moved, changed my last name, became a wife, gotten a new job, and more, more, more.

I have had so much vision lately for my life here in Illinois and the season we are in. Which is so good because for the longest time I just was ready to move and see new things and felt like this was just a transition time. I feel like for the first time, I am settled and content here. We are still incredibly unsure of what is to come or where/what we are doing, but for now, we are settled.

Today, I was sick alllll day. My sweeeeeet husband cleaned house, made chili and surprised me with my favorite ice cream. I love being married. And that is the understatement of the year. It is the sweetest feeling to come home to your best friend (who happens to be quite handsome). To share meals together, have pillow talk at night, argue, make up, argue more, learn from each other, forgive each other. Sharing a home with him is the most incredible thing ever. For me, it is my first time having a place of my own, and I live here with the man I love... who loves me in my crankiness and messiness and imperfection. And he just loves me. I remember talking with my mom in the first few weeks of marriage and wondering what it was that made being at home with Nate so wonderful. I remember saying that it was like a "taste of heaven." And in reality that is exactly what it is. Having someone love you, and accept you in your weakness. The good and the bad. And not only love you, but take delight in you. It is such a beautiful picture of the gospel. That is what is so wonderful about the husband/wife relationship. There is so much comfort in it.

Nate and I have been majorly procrastinating on our wedding thank you's. Zero excuse. So we have been trying to stay focused and complete them this weekend. We'll see how that goes.

But now it is bedtime. Nate is sleeeeepy and has been trying to get me to go to sleep for at least an hour. Goodnight to you all.

A little cheer

Growing up in the perfect country home, fall decor was a no-brainer. My Mom always had cozy smelling candles burning, leaves and pumpkins all around the house. I have so many wonderful memories of the fall. I'm not quite sure what it is that gets me so excited about this season (other than the fact that I LOVE cold weather clothes far more than summer clothes, and it means christmas is a comin!!) The house I grew up in was made to be decorated for the fall. And my Mom perfected it every year. This being my first year having a place of my own to decorate, there were several challenges. Nate and I live in a one bedroom blank slate apartment with white walls and two windows. Zero character. Zero coziness. Zero charm. So I ransacked my Mom's fall decor and did manage to add a little touch of fall-coze to our place.

Nate brought these beauts home for me last week:

Mums from my Mum

No fall decor here. I just wanted to brag on how beautifully perfect my husband made our bed.

Now I'm off to finish dinner.... chili and cornbread tonight with this sweet man.

yum yum yum

Perfect

hello again.

Enjoying my Monday off. Blogging time has become non-existent

with the new job and new wife-hood. If I've realized anything over the past few

months it is that I was not created to work a full-time job.

We had a lovely visit this weekend from the Parker's. Lots of laughing, relaxing, apple-pickin' and wii! Since I had some extra time this afternoon I thought I would share some photos from the day.

That's all for now. I hope everyone is having a wonderful monday!

love, alex

Shower!

They handmade the garland

Potted plants with pictures of Nate and I

Hand-dipped caramel apples for the favors.

Delicious food organized by my Momma

 

Beverage station

   My sweet little preg bffff m.o.h.

Lin and Josie(one of my lovely bridesmaid masterminds who put it all together)

Gifties! I got so much stuff!! We were spoiled! 

Thank you, Thank you, Thank you to everyone who came

and especially thank you to my TALENTED bridal party and mama

who put it all together.

love you all!

LOVE this...

I haven't cross-stitched since grade school
and I think that this would be a great time to start.



I had the absolute loveliest shower this weekend and I CANNOT wait to post pictures.
I have the sweetest, most selfless, giving friends and family a girl could ask for.

Four weeks of school left (please go by quickkkkly)


have a good evening.

sleeepy thoughts

It is 11:53pm and it is time for my little eyes to be shut for the night.
Only 81 littttttle days til the wedding and I am getting so excited!
We went with my parents over the weekend to look at the ceremony and reception location... It was
looking so beautiful! Everything is starting to bloom in the garden where the ceremony will be and it
smelled so wonderful! My heart just felt so at peace after all the stress and planning.

This is going to be such a good week! My sweeet best friend gets in town friday, my shower is on saturday, engagement pictures on sunday and I CANNOT wait!

Nate applied for a BIG job tonight and we were praying together tonight that God's will be done in the situation. I feel so thankful to be marrying such a good man who leads me so well. Although we are getting ready to enter a new, unknown season... I feel so much peace knowing that I am entering it with him and ultimately we are entering it with complete trust in God... that He is a good Father who takes good care of His children, and that is the ultimate security. What a good feeling.

That is all for now. I am going to sleep!
I hope you are all enjoying this BEAUTIFUL spring weather because I definitely am!!

love, alex

simple truths

oh my little mind just goes and goes and goes at night.
which is why i can never fall asleep until nearly 2am.

i have been so sober minded in my thinking as of lately. i do believe that the massively huge
covenant i am about to make with a man in less than 3 months has something to do with it.

but life is just passing by and passing by.
i mean really it is. what is mostly terrifying is that only every once in awhile
do i get this reminder. of how quickly its all going going going. i mean i always always everyday
know it in my head. but its only now and then that i feel it in my soul. really feel it in my heart and emotions.

at least once a week i look at my life and i just think Jesus, do I really love you?
I mean i know I love the idea of You
the idea of really going for it. really giving myself to Him entirely
But other then just the dream of it. do I really love Him for Him. The Man Jesus Christ. Do I love Him?

I remember a good friend of mine used to say that on judgement day when she stands before God she
wants His face to be familiar.

ever since i was little. i have always been such an all or nothing girl. and that is how i am in my relationship with God.
I just want it to be authentic. I want to know what it really is supposed to be and look like and feel like. i remember when i was living in texas just sitting in my bed at night and praying little prayers to God and asking Him to awaken my heart. And He was faithful to this. Something happened in my soul. I remember the evening it happened in kansas city, missouri. Its like my eyes were open wide for the first time and I saw new things for the first time in a new light with new eyes. Ever since then my heart has been absolutely miserable when it is mediocre. Its almost as if my heart was ruined for the ordinary. which in the end is a good thing. But now that i am living day to day going to school, going to work, soon to be a wife, how do i live?? I want my
love for Him to be pure and true. But in the midst of this I am reminded that all i have to give is weak love.

and that my weak, small love is important in His eyes. grasping that is so unbelievably difficult for me.
but I am going to try again... knowing that more confusion, question, hardship is coming. because although
there is so much about Jesus that does not make sense... He is the only thing at the end of the day that really does make sense. and that is enough for me to keep running.

new tunes

newest addition to my ipod.

it has been a looooong time since i have listened to any new music.
seriously since before teen mania. i just dont have time
to search out new artists. because of this.. my ipod overplays
ihop, waterdeep, and to be entirely honest a whole lot of beyonce.

so i was glad to stumble upon this little duo a few months ago.
i just cant get enough of them!!

dayjreammming...

i spend wayyyyyyyyyyyyyy too much time here and here

and even more time on this little site

just some wedding dreams. i have 3450298 ideas and zero organization of them.
which is why it will be a hodge podge wedding. and it will be perfect.

the dreaming is soo much fun

the implementation of the dreams is actually quite terrible.

but for now... ill share some of my favorites that i love...





89 litttttle days til it is here!! SO EXCITING!!


love, alex

here she goes.

I have been wanting to create this little blog for awhile.
In all honesty, a blog is the last thing that I have time for.
So, as a forewarning, I will be sporadic.

I am currently creating this instead of writing a 6 page paper
on the meno paradox. I would tell you what it is but I have absolutely
no idea. Which is why I hate philosophy.

Nate and I have been engaged for six months. What a roller coaster.
Contrary to popular belief, being engaged is miserable.
What an awful limbo of a season where you aren't just dating
but you aren't husband and wife.

But all in all I am so grateful to become a Parker in 99 days
and even more grateful for the man who's name I am taking.
love is one of the most humbling, beautiful, exciting, terrifying thing
I have yet to encounter in my almost 23 years of life.

and it is just the beginning.

thats all for now.

love, alex