The Catish is Meowing!

We had another great weekend with my Father-in-law! We spent Saturday in New Bern watching the Dragon boat races, eating on a rooftop restaurant, and learning how to catch crab. 

Yeah, we will be trying that sometime soon! 

New Bern is absolutely gorgeous!  

On Sunday, we decided to go fishing with Scott's cousin and his best friend. Best part!? We got to take my baby! We had to stop at Starbucks for our morning coffee [iced white-chocolate, caramel latte of course]. Mallow got spoiled with a 

pup-a-latte, which she eagerly inhaled and left the evidence all over her snout.

Got milk anyone?!

Mallow loooooves getting dirty! I can't imagine
what our little kiddies will look like! 

My catfish!! hahah isn't it the biggest fish you have.evER.SEEN?!
They actually make noises too... so ours were meowing!

Collin took us to the place he has been fishing at. Here are some pictures of the gorgeous scenery. 

Mallow found the only shade around, plus snuggled up to the ice bag.
I have the smartest puppy in the world! 

Puppy on ice! She made sure she was comfortable...and muddy!

The guys! :]

{Probably the best picture Mallow has taken. We love being a little family!}

After fishing we went to Buffalo Wild Wings for dinner, had a blast embarrassing each other.
Then to Rita's for dessert. We laughed soooo much, it was great!
And Rita's also plays K-Love radio, extra bonus! 

Now a little about my family in Utah, minus my hardworking Brother. My family had a fun weekend in Salt Lake. My Mama-in-love made them all dinner! My sister went to a concert with my best friend. 

Then they spent the annual two days at Lagoon. I'm just a litttttle jealous. 

My dad is such a big- little kid. I just love it and it looks like Keni is suffering from it! ;]

 

Wicked, Wild Mouse, White Roller Coaster, Rocket. {That's for you, Kenzi & Keni Beni}

Ahhhh, I miss my family so much! But I am so glad that they had a great weekend with each other! 

Love and miss you guys! Hope to see you next month!! 

Muah!

Ask. Seek. Knock.

This week has truly been amazing. From the very moment I knew I was going to be leaving Utah and moving to North Carolina to become a Military wife, so many people told me to plug in. Find a church that you feel comfortable at and plug in. Which is exactly what Scott and I have been trying to do. We found a church that we are starting to love, Discovery Church International. This week has been full of opportunities for me and I was extremely eager to take them on! 

Monday:     Church yoga class
Wednesday:  Morning bible study 
Thursday:   Morning bible study 
Sunday:     Church!

Conclusion?! I absolutely [LOVED] it all and the women that I met. They all made me feel so welcome and loved.

I just wanted to reiterate a little bit of what I have learned this week. At church the sermons are about "The Culture of Heaven". Everything has a culture and Scott & I have been challenged to make the culture of our home "heavenly", where everyone can see God working. "Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven." 

God plays heavenly hide and seek with His children, trying to find out who wants to truly seek Him. 
Ask. Seek. Knock. God reveals Himself where He is celebrated, not just tolerated. Well that makes perfect sense, doesn't it? No one wants to just be tolerated. We are taught to Ask, and keep on asking. Seek, and keep on seeking. Knock, and keep on knocking. 

One part of the study that really stood out to me was "Don't ask God to guide your steps if you're not willing to move." After graduating from college, I was always asking God what the next step was for me. I had already fallen in love with Scott, but that would mean drastic changes. I had to distinguish if these changes were from God or just from me. God blessed us throughout our whole courtship and we both had given God the pen to our love stories, so we knew it was from Him. It was still hard to let go, and let God. Just a few major changes would be: 1] Planning a wedding without my groom there to hold me when it was too overwhelming. 2] Moving cross-country and live no where close to my family (Why doesn't the Navy use Steinaker, Red Fleet, or the Gorge? ha) 3] Starting over in different places each couple of years. 4] Having a husband that is deployable and will have to physically leave me. 

The thing that helped besides support from my family and friends?! Realizing that God must need me more than my family. I was ready to go where God was telling me to go, I was ready and willing to move! So really if you are not wanting that next step to completely surrender and move, then don't ask God to guide your steps. He wants you completely, not luke warm. 

It all started with a chalk date!

Scott's first week of this training was about to be over and I wanted him to come home to a surprise... A chalk date! 

I was thinking doodle all over our driveway, eat some yummy treats that I made, watch a movie, and cuddle. Perfect right?! Well, when he got home.. the night ended up being a little different, but better than I had planned. 

The yummy peanut butter treats that I made,Delicious. And the array of movies we can choose from.  We still had a form of chalk date... we decided to chalk our puppy! I had noticed that the chalk stuck to her hair when she stepped into the picture. So that is what we did, we chalked Mallow!  

My cotton candy puppy! I've always wanted a rainbow dog;]

Hahahah she's the best sport. The best puppy. Just the best!

Saturday my amazing father-in-law came into town and stayed with us! We had so much fun and it was so good to see him. He just got an apartment 3ish hours away from here and they will be here in a month. Family!

We decided to go to Wilmington for dinner. Scott's cousin is also stationed here, so we was able to come with us! Wilmington is seriously one of the best cities I have ever been to. One, it is beautiful. Two, it has amaaaaazing food. and three, movies are always being filmed here! I can't wait until we can go on the tour of the movie sets, especially to see the places where my favorite movie was filmed, A Walk To Remember. It is also a very historic city and around October they have haunted houses. Very, very old haunted houses. I've never been into that, but houses from the 17th century and 18th, I'll give that one a try! 

One of the amazing restaurants. 

Scott is going to take me sailing here one day...[hint, hint Husband!] 

Father-in-law, meeeeeeee, and Hubby. 

Us with Scott's cousin Collin. Yay for people from Utah! 

Scott's dinner for the night. A huge bucket full of all different seafood.

We headed over to Surf City on Sunday and enjoyed the beach. Mallow actually had heaps of fun this time at the ocean! Plus she got extra attention from everyone on the beach and dug all the way to China. Kidding, but really, our puppy can dig!

These boys were having so much fun with their kites, such a great moment captured of a care-free beach day.

The guys taking out my baby to play!

I love my little family, even when covered in sand from
head to...paw! 

"This is the day that the Lord has made; Let us rejoice and be glad in it!"  -Psalms 119:11

Sandy Toes and Salty Kisses!

Here is our last week through the lens of my phone! 

Enjoy.

Mallows first time seeing the ocean. Our first beach picnic. 

Awe, my little family! 

She didn't like the ocean, but loves water...? Yah, I don't know either.

My favorite! I found this vintage picnic basket and HAD to get it!

 I had to. It just has been so, summer-y lately and that reminded me of my mom making garden salsa. I decided that Scott needed to know how well his wife makes homemade garden salsa ;]... 

HE LOVED IT! Yay me!! 

Mallow and I decided that it was an "iced coffee-cruise in Lucee" kind of hot summer day! So we got into Lucee and headed over to Starbucks to use the great gift card I received. The thing is, Mallow hated the heat. 
Poor thing. So she went on the floor of the car and under the seat!

Saturday we went to Emerald Island, enjoyed the pouring rain and awesome food. Watched Despicable Me 2. 

Then spent the rest of the night cuddling, our favorite! 

 Awe, my poor Husband felt sick the last part of the weekend. And on Sunday morning he didn't want to get out of bed. So what did the best wifey ever do?! Bake him delicious blueberry muffins and hot tea. And guess what?! It did the trick. 

Recipe to make your Husband feel better:

1 platter of blueberry muffins

1 cup hot tea

1 cup coffee (to give the wife some energy ha)

Unlimited sugary kisses

1 yummy blanket, stitched with love

Enjoy together while wrapped in each others arms on the couch for the rest of the morning! 

Scott is starting to be very busy with his trainings for his deployment and this verse caught my eye. It is so very true and something that Scott and I always tell each other. With God, nothing is impossible and we will always feel connected with God being in the center. 

This verse will also help me when he can't come home at night and I have to resort to cuddling Mallow and Jack-Jack.