5 things I’m thankful for this year:

1. My amazing husband! I absolutely love being married to him! I can’t imagine it being any better than this!

2. Our awesome dog, Jack Bauer.  What a cool pup.

3. My wonderful family and inlaws. How blessed I am to have such great people that love us so much!

4a. Sunsets on the beach.  And the fact that we get to see them everyday!

4b. Palm trees.  And the fact that we get to see them everyday!

5. Knowing that God is in control of our futures and that He is taking care of us right now!

Brook and I had a great Thanksgiving together.  Being out in Cali and not getting to spend it with our families was a little weird, but we enjoyed the day together and made some yummy steaks and all our favorites! Can’t beat that.  Well, actually my dad’s dressing would beat that. Maybe next year!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!

We made it to California.  We are officially “Californians” or something like that.  We’re going to call ourselves Oklafornians.  I like that better. I haven’t been feeling well since we got here so I haven’t really sat down to blog.

We pulled into town late Tuesday night and grabed some dinner with John and Mariah.  We are so grateful to have these wonderful people taking us in for a few weeks while we get settled and find a place of our own.  Thanks guys!!

Wednesday we unloaded the truck into our tiny storage unit.  I can’t believe everything fit!! Brook did great! We finally got everything done and made it to the beach to watch the sunset.  WOW.  I can’t believe we live here and get to see that all the time now! It’s amazing how beautiful it is here, God sure did good in these parts

Today we got up and I did some online job hunting and called some places to follow up on some job stuff.  No luck so far.  It’s frustrating because I’m not patient and want something immediately, but I guess I can’t always have it my way.  We did some exploring and drove up PCH to look around a bit.  This evening we had dinner with the lead pastor and his wife from Kingsfield Church.  They sure were a blessing, what great people.  Going to church there on Sunday, we’re looking forward to seeing what God is doing there.  Cool stuff happening it sure seems like!!

It’s been a crazy busy week, but I’m thankful to be here and so looking forward to what is ahead for us! And I’m obsessed with getting to see palm trees all the time!! I loooove it!

We’re halfway to California! I write this sitting in a strange little town in the middle of nowhere New Mexico. Ahhhh….the Land of Enchantment.  Apparently? At least it’s not Texas.  For one night we are residents of New Mexico.  Thank goodness that ends tomorrow! It was a loooooooong day of driving, but went suprisingly fast and we only stopped 4 times.  Not bad for me and my tiny tiny bladder!! I was proud of myself!

We’re off again bright and early in the morning.  Thank you for your prayers so far for us, we had a smooth day and pray for another one tomorrow!!

Next time I blog…I blog from California!!!

So we leave for California in 6 days! WOW! We have been packing up the house and fulfilling the demands of our buyer.  Lots to do but it’s going quickly so that’s a relief! We are so excited to have our families come visit us this weekend and celebrate an early Thanksgiving.  It’s still a little crazy thinking how a week from today we’ll be in California!

We have a complete peace about this move, and although I know it is what God has for us, its still hard to walk into something with blind faith.  I was reading in Acts 22, the story of where God blinded Saul.  Saul asked what he was to do, and God told him to “Go and once he was there He would tell him what He had for him.” It was not the path that Saul had planned for himself, but what God had for him was better.

I feel like God is telling us to go, and will reveal it to us when we are there.  Whether that is a great job, or just a fresh start.  Maybe it will be a great experience for us, and a great time for our marriage.  It might be more hard times, and only another step in the road that we are supposed to take.  Whatever it may be though, I’m excited and grateful for the blessings He’s given us to allow us this opportunity.

Please keep praying for us that all goes smoothly in the next few days as we continue to pack and prepare to leave!!

The new Alvarez baby has arrived! She was born Nov. 7th at 3:27 ish am.  Which means Brook and I have been playing Mommy & Daddy for the last couple of days. VERY exhausted, and very rewarding.  I am so thankful to be able to help out Mindy and Dean while they are in the hospital enjoying their newest addition.  I have a whole new respect for parents and have already apologized to my mom for waking her up in the middle of the night for various reasons.  I can’t believe this is baby #5 for them, but although at times the kiddos can be tough and wear you out, they are precious and makes me really look forward to being a mom and getting to pour my heart and soul into little ones.  Such a huge responsibility and blessing it will be.  Check out some pics of the precious new Baby “Mystery” as the kids have been calling her because they haven’t picked a name yet.

Maisie & Mallory meeting their new baby sister

Begging Brook for one

Sweet baby girl!

Welp, it’s offical.  We’re moving to California.  HOORAY! Well I guess as long as everything goes ok with the inspection on our house Friday we’re moving We aren’t really worried about that though.

We’ve started packing and trying to get rid of a TON of our stuff so we can downsize our lives.  Good times!

I am so excited to be on the beach! I think my darling hubby is a tiny bit excited about it too. I am looking forward to what God has for us out there. So many things in the last few months have been pointing us in this direction, and we are taking the final steps to get there.  Please be praying for jobs, and a place to live!

For the last few months I’ve had the joy of helping out a sweet friend of mine who is pregnant with her 5th child.  She is down to the last week and I’m excited for this new little baby! It’s fun to get to spend a lot of time with these kiddos before we leave.

Here are a couple pictures of the two youngest girls I took at the park the other day.  They are just precious!!

They love Jack!

Me and sweet Mallory Kate!!

My favorite of them!! What a joy!

What a blessing it’s been to play “mommy” and be a part of these sweet girls lives.  Makes me look forward to being a mom, and also makes me very grateful for the time Brook and I have alone right now.  I love this time!!