2013 Goals

Goals, resolutions, whatever you want to call them, here are some of ours for 2013 (we are keeping some private too):

• Follow Highland Park Presbyterian Church's Read Through the Bible in a Year
• Get all A's in our classes
• Kristine complete Jillian Michaels 30 Day Shred in January and Get Ripped in 30 in February
• Kristine pick up sign language again
• Find somewhere to volunteer monthly as a family
• Spend more time outdoors/cut down on Josiah's television time
• Chris be able to spend more time writing music

So far we are on track with the Bible program and Kristine is on day 6 of the 30 Day Shred (I started a day early as to have Get Ripped completed by Febraury 28... see how I plan ahead? :)). Obviously our main focus is to continue on the path God is leading us, wherever that is, and be good servants of His and follow Him even when it's something we don't want to do.

Our friend, Jason, sent Chris this verse this morning:

Proverbs 30:8-9 (NIV)

 

⁸ Keep falsehood and lies far from me;
give me neither poverty nor riches,
but give me only my daily bread.
⁹ Otherwise, I may have too much and disown you
and say, ‘Who is the Lord?’
Or I may become poor and steal,
and so dishonor the name of my God.

 

This is a great verse for my family to rest in and pray on. I love when friends send verses of inspiration and reflection as to make us more holy and be in awe of God and all his blessings (seen and unseen)!

A Season of Joy

This is a long one!

This has been the best, most exciting Holiday Season the Munselles have had! To start off, Thanksgiving was so wonderful. Chris and I were unable to make it to Dallas for Thanksgiving the 3 years we lived Nashville, so it was such a blessing to be with all our family on Thanksgiving day. We hung out at my parents most of the day and Josiah and Layla loved all the food (if you know anything about Layla, it's that she will eat whatever is put in front of her, whenever she can!). Our only responsibility was to cook the sweet potato casserole, which Chris did without my help... what can I say, I'm terrible in the kitchen! The following day, my parents took Layla and Josiah to a farm in Waco with my brother and his wife, Naomi, and her whole family. Josiah LOVES his cousins more than me I think. When I ask him who he wants to pray for at night, he always says "Abby, Jakey, Robby". I love that he loves them, because it makes for fun family get togethers. While our children were in Waco, Chris and I moved into our OWN place!! We lived with Chris's parents through August, then we moved across the street from my work for 3 months house-sitting. It is so great having our own place with our own stuff. I forgot what all we had! Moving from a 2100 square foot house to a 1300 square foot apartment has been a slight adjustment. We had to get rid of several things, but de-cluttering/downsizing crap you don't need is one of my favorite things, so it came really easy for me. I must admit, not having so much excess is really nice. It makes me really appreciate just being with my husband/kids and not worrying about how much stuff we have. Besides, we have 2 wild children who destroy most things in their path, so what's the point of having stuff in their way?
12/12/12 was my 31st birthday (the best day ever created). My parents took the kids for the night and the hubs and I went out on a lovely date. He saw Breaking Dawn part 2 with me (what a loving hubby!) and then we got sushi to go and came home and watched an uber chick flick. It was a great celebration and I am just reminded constantly of how much I am loved by my husband and how undeserving I am of him. The week before Christmas was perfection. Chris's sister, Elyse, and her husband, Carter, were in town. Instead of buying gifts for each other, we went out to dinner. It was so fun just hanging out with the two of them and catching up and getting to know them better. Josiah is kind of obsessed with uncle Car Car. For instance, today Josiah told me that he wanted 2 mommies. Me and Uncle Car Car. I'm not sure how I feel about that... Josiah also is obsessed with Christmas lights, so one night we went to the Deerfield neighborhood in Plano and just walked around for a while. It was pretty incredible and a definite redo for next year.
Christmas eve my sister came in town from San Francisco. The last time she came in town was in February and I visited her in August, so it was so great being with her again. My brother, Matthew, and his family came in town that day too. So for the next 3 days it was controlled chaos and I loved every minute of it. We spoiled our children and loved doing it. One night all the siblings and their spouses went to Trinity Hall and had such a hilarious time. Man, I love my family. At one point I thought "in a few years there could be 8 of us". While the younger years with children are hard, the older years are all worth it!
Chris and I start school on January 22. He's going to get his bachelor's in business administration then go straight into getting his master's in healthcare administration. I am going back to get my pre-reqs so I can apply to nursing school. The last time I took a science class was well over a decade ago, so I might be horrible at it, but for over a year I have had a strong desire to become a labor and delivery nurse, so I am going to see if God gives me the ability to do it! We also start our new community group this month. We are so incredibly excited to begin/continue life with 2 dear couples that we love/adore/respect/cherish. I begin a woman's Bible study with some new friends on the 14th and it is such an answer to prayer. God continues to bless our life and we are very aware that we don't deserve any of it.

The best analogy I've heard about God since becoming a parent was recently... and it goes something like this. If God gave us everything we asked for the world would be much worse than it is now. Think of your relationship with God as your relationship with your child. If you gave your child everything he asked for, his teeth would probably have fallen out of his mouth long ago and he would have so many things we wanted, but not much of what he needs. God sees the bigger picture, we can't. Just like, as parents, we see the bigger picture. If we gave our children candy every night their teeth would be rotten and they would be extremely unhealthy. So we force them to eat fruits and vegetables because we know it's good for them. So when God says no to a prayer request, I need to remind myself that He sees the bigger picture and is doing everything for His glory, not my selfish desires.

Happy Birthday Layla!!

I cannot believe our little girl is ONE! It's so crazy to me that one whole year has gone by in what seems like an instant. Time needs to seriously SLOW down!! Here's a breakdown of what Layla has been up to recently:

She takes about 7-8 steps... still not full on walking, but she's working on it
She LOVES to mimmick sounds me, Chris and Josiah make. It's pretty awesome
She eats ALL THE TIME! And she lets you know when she's not done eating by the high pitch shriek that comes out of her mouth until the food is on her plate!
She is a  really great napper/sleeper. She naps about 4 hours a day and then sleeps 13 hours... now only if Josiah slept that great, Chris and I would be well rested too
She poses for the camera. She knows she's gorgeous and lets me know it by posing!
Her eyes are to die for! Ten times a day strangers stop me to tell me how beautiful she is and that her eyes are the bluest and most beautiful eyes they've ever seen... no joke
Wherever her big brother is, that's where she wants to be. She adores him, and for the most part, he adores her.
She is a mama's girl. About a month ago she started crying when I left her. Unless she is familiar with the person, she will cry the whole time I'm gone... which is why I no longer can work out at the gym. I get called out every time because she's upset. As soon as I pick her up, she's fine. A little annoying,  but mostly special
She has exactly 4 1/2 teeth. One on top, 3 on bottom. However, she thinks she has a mouth full by the kinds of food she chomps on
She absolutely hates the car. She screams and cries no matter how short of a distance we go. It's not fun whatsoever
She LOVES music! It's awesome! Whenever she hears a beat, not matter what kind, she's dancing to it

Here are some pics that we took of her at her family birthday party we had :)

Busy busy summer

How we spent our summer:

 Met cousin Helen at a weekend getaway to Lost Pines Resort in Bastrop. It has the most amazing lazy river that connected to an awesome pool with a sand volleyball court. We also rode bikes, ate really yummy food and sipped on some super girly drinks!

 Kissed some random dog... j/k. that's Livey, Uncle Carter and Aunt Elyse's dog that I (Josiah) talk about every single day. No exaggeration.

 Had good quality nap time with daddy.

 Pet some donkeys

 Loved on Livey some more

 Chased squirrels

 Went to San Fran to see Aunt Mindy with my mommy, Bebe and Aunt Judi... it was an awesome girls trip that will hopefully become a yearly thing

 Played in the kiddie pool inside as to avoid West Nile virus

 Swam outside in my super cute bathing suit and enjoyed chewing on keys

 Hugged each other a lot

 Ate people food and started to grow my hair out

 Wrapped myself in a blanket, one of my favorite things to do!

 Documented every restaurant we went to in San Fran (this says Naked Sushi on the chopsticks)

 Read books

Worked on my jump shot!

That was our summer in a nut shell! I will blog again next week after Layla turns ONE!!! I can't believe it!

Thank you, but I didn't ask for your opinion.

We found out Layla was a girl when I was 20 weeks pregnant. Tomorrow she is 10 months old. When people asked us what we were having and we told them a girl, usually the first thing people said was, "well that's great! So you're done having children since you have a boy and a girl, what more could you want". This wasn't typically a question, it was a statement of fact. It used to offend me that people would just assume because we have a girl and a boy that we were done. Many people added to that statement that they think we shouldn't have any more children because why on earth would you want more than 2 children if you already have a boy and a girl?? People still do this today, as I assume they will until I get pregnant again. Some women tell me how lucky I am I don't have to be pregnant again (again, they are assuming we are done having children). This does not offend me anymore because I have learned that people have their own opinions and can think what they want, especially when it comes to children and how you should raise them. For some reason they believe if they tell you their opinion over and over again that it will, too, become your opinion. First let me say, why do people think just because we have a boy and a girl all is right in the world and we are done having children? Has anyone ever thought that having a male and female was not my goal in the first place? Second, why is just having one of each desirable? Am I not, or anyone else who wants children, allowed to want more than 2 children if the first 2 happen to be opposite genders? Second, I am NOT done having children. I want LOTS of children. How many I want to have is none of your business, quite frankly. That is for me and Chris to decide. If you think we should have just 2, then keep that thought to yourself. Yesterday a woman told me that having 3 children is bad because then someone always feels left out. Just go for 2. Why would she assume that I did not come from a family of 3 children? This woman also told Chris that she thinks tattoos are defacing your body after her and him just talked about his tattoo. Let's just say she lacked tact. So, to sum up: 1)we want more than 2 children 2) how many we want is for us to decide and change whenever we want 3) keep your opinions about how many children a couple should have to yourself. Thanks for stopping by.

C-C-Cicada (read like cha-cha-cha-chia)

Growing up I remember hunting for cicada shells, skin, whatever you call it, at night with my dad and brothers. I used to love doing that. Every year summer rolled around and I heard the sound of cicadas I would instantly be happy because I was reminded of my fun "cicada night hunts". However, because of the cicada swarm of 2011 in Nashville I hate the sound of cicadas. I am not joking or exaggerating when I say that there were hundreds of thousands of cicadas flying around town last summer for 2 full weeks. I hated leaving the house. I lost count at how many times I got pelted in the head or face by a stupid cicada. The worst part was they screamed when they hit you. It was horrifying. And I was 7.5 months pregnant back then, so trying to speed walk from my car to the door with a 1.5 year old was hilarious. Just to creep you out, here's a picture of a tree during those 2 weeks.

Terrifying, right? That's how every tree looked. Gross. So this summer when the cicadas starting singing, I immediately got shivers down my spine. The fond memories that used to flood my mind were no longer even a distant thought... all I could picture was what those trees looked like and the sound they made when they hit you. Yesterday afternoon when my little family was coming inside from a walk, Chris spotted a cicada coming out of it's skin. He pointed it out to Josiah and all Josiah wanted to do was touch it. He kept saying "touch it, touch it, touch it". I quickly peaced out with Layla. I was coming down the stairs after I had put her down for a nap and Chris said "Josiah has something for you mommy." I thought that he had taken the live cicada and wanted to show it to me. I started to freak out, but Chris assured me it was just the skin. Josiah had it on his shoulder (something I used to do and thought was hilarious). Chris then told me that Josiah touched the cicada over and over again, and then he showed me this:

Hopefully, next summer, I won't be horrified at the thought of cicadas and I can enjoy hunting cicada skins at night with my little bug man.