Happy New Years

Another year has come and gone… They seem to go by faster and faster as I get older.  2013 brought many ups and downs.  It brought happiness, tears, heart ache, and lots of blessings.  Through everything God has been faithful and remained our strength and joy.  We are grateful that through everything God has drawn us closer to Himself.  And even when we have failed to remain faithful or lost sight of what matters most- He still loves us and uses circumstances and trials to draw us back.  He loves us with a pure and never failing love.  This year has brought some of our darkest times (losing Jonny's mom) and some of our best (celebrating 5 years of marriage).  We are excited and looking forward to what 2014 will bring and how God will use us.

So here are some (I could have posted so many but tried to not overdue it) blessings 2013 brought.  And these are way out of order but I have put the month they happened.  Enjoy a peek at our 2013:

We had a wonderful Christmas (December)

The girls turned 1 and 3 (November)

We celebrated 5 years of marriage in Mexico (June)

Bridal Showers (June)

Family Vacay in UTAH (August)

Best Friends Bachelorette Party (August)

Great Wolf Lodge for some family time (September)

Pumpkin Patches (October)

Lots of sweet smiles 

10k with some of my favorites (March)

Sweet sister moments (March)

Payton's First School performance (April)

Sweet Cousin Time (March)

Paytons 1st night in her big girl bed (February)

Matching pjs 

Met Bob Goff at our YL Banquet (March)

Celebrated my 26th Birthday (April)

So much cuteness (April)

Lots of Zoo Trips 

Dedicated our sweet Kinsley on Mothers Day (May)

Lots of sweet giggles from this girl

Kins got pneumonia- but took it like a champ and snuggled a lot!  

Water Parks (July)

A great 4th (July)

Time with Sweet Friends 

Friends and John Mayor 

Precious moments with Nana- ones we will cherish forever 

A trip to Aggieland (August)

Payton learned to Swim (July)

Another year at Fielder (August)

Best Friend got married 

Gods sweet reminders 

Lots of sweet time with cousins at Nana and Papas house 

Sweet Hadley came into this world (September)

Lots of Aggie Games 

Auburn game with my love

Sate Fair 

Donovan turned 3 (October)

My sweets dressed up for Shriek on the Creek(October)

Good times with this man

Celebrated Jonny's 28 Birthday 

Ran the turkey trot (November)

Kins started walking (October)

Happy Thanksgiving (November)

Baby Showers 

Meeting Sweet Kylee 

Love this friendship 

Sweet moments with my grammy (November)

Ice Storm 2013 (December)

My big helper 

Christmas Light Looking (December)

Classic (December)

Nutcracker with my sisters and Niece (December)

God is good. ALL THE TIME

So last year I made two "resolutions" or goals if you will.  But honestly both of them are something I always want to work on and make goals in my life.  They are two things I have been working on and should always be striving to do more of.  

I have not memorized the whole book yet but Im working on it.  Scripture memory is a huge struggle for me and like I said I should always strive to be better at it.  So I am still working towards getting the whole book down :)  1.  Memorize the book of James.  I started this a few months ago and started out really strong.  I have the 1st chapter memorized but I am determined to memorize the whole book.  I feel like scripture memory is something I struggle with a lot and something that should be a part of every person who claims Jesus as their Savior.  The Lord has been convicting me to memorize more and so thats what I am gonna work on and do! 

"How can a young person stay on the path of purity?

    By living according to your word.

10 

I seek you with all my heart;

    do not let me stray from your commands.

11 

I have hidden your word in my heart

    that I might not sin against you."  Psalm 119:9-11  

I feel like I did pretty good on this but some days were better than others.  So again, something I will continue to work on and strive to do better.  Giving my attention to what is most important.  2.  Spend less time with social media stuff- this includes facebook, twitter, instagram, tv, ect....  I am not gonna totally stop but I feel like I spend way to much time on them- time I could be reading Gods word, enjoying family, ect...  I am not including blogging in this... I will still blog on a pretty regular basis.  This is something that I am constantly feeling conviction about. 

So what goals will I set for this glorious year?  Well I have a few things I want to accomplish but for the most part I want to continue to work on the two things above (goals which I will always be working on).  My desire is to know my Savior better than I did last year and to live for Him better than I did last year.  I want to wake up each day and look more like Him than I did the day before.  And of course I will fail many times but thats why my Jesus is so awesome- He loves me regardless of my failures :)

I don't really like calling them resolutions or putting due dates on my goals but I do think its important to set goals and have ambitions.  So here are a few other goals- more physical if you will that I want to see happen:

1.  Continue to eat clean.  Cutting out processed food, eating more at home, and eating organic.  It was super overwhelming at first.  There is so much information out there and for someone who has never cared about what I was eating before- its been a slow and learning process.  But something I will continue to learn and do!
2.  Run a sprint triathlon- most likely in march
3.  Run another half marathon (maybe) lol  This one may not happen but since I am running so much more and getting faster I would like to see how fast I could do one in.  But I don't know if I can convince my self to do another one so we shall see :)
4.  Go to sleep earlier- get better rest!  Not stating tonight seeing as it is 11pm and I am still blogging
5.  Finally, read more.  My goal is to read at least 5 books (outside of devotionals and the Bible) this year.  And I am sure this is laughable to lots of people but believe me when I say I DO NOT READ.  2013- I read maybe 1.5 books lol.  Yes I know it is sad.  I wish I loved to do it but I don't.

So heres to a great 2014!  May He be glorified!

"I, Yahweh, have called You for a righteous purpose, and I will hold You by Your hand. I will keep You and appoint You to be a covenant for the people and a light to the nations." Isaiah 42:6