Review: The Lucado Inspirational Reader: Hope and Encouragement for Your Everyday Life

The Lucado Inspirational Reader: Hope and Encouragement for Your Everyday Life

By Max Lucado

This book is a collection of quotes, illustrations & stories from all of his books organized by topic. Some of the chapters include: The Bible, Comfort, Encouragement, Faith, Family, God's Love, Miracles, Peace, Second Chances, Spiritual Refreshment & Worship. It is a great book for encouragement and when you need a bit of a spiritual lift. I wouldn't however pick this book up if I were looking for a devotional book. It is a great read and has many things from all of his books over the past 25 years of his writing and teachings. As this being the first thing I have read by him I am really impressed with it and would definitely recommend this book to others in the future. Even though it is from various different works the book just flows well together. It is a book that doesn't have to be read from beginning to end but can be read according to where you need to be getting encouragement from at that point in time. Its a great time of year for such an uplifting book to be coming out! It will make a great Christmas gift for many :). I hope ya'll enjoy it as much as I did if you end up getting yourself a copy :) I will be encouraging my hubby to read it as well!

I received a free copy of this book through Booksneeze in exchange for my honest review, and was under no means obliged to write a positive review.

LOVE Opensky

Have I mentioned lately how much I freaking LOVE Opensky.com? Well I'm in love with them and all their amazing products they offer and the amazing deals you can get!! If you refer people to the site and they actually buy something from it you get a credit and for awhile they had it where if you shared a product and a friend bought it (whether you referred them or not)  you got a big credit of like 35 bucks. Their deals are always changing so its good to watch out for them to see if you could earn a little something something. But if you click ont his link OpenSky you'll get a 10 buck credit to go goes your first purchase (PS free shipping until MONDAY!) But anywho I've ordered a few things so far...shhhh...don't tell my hubby!! LOL
I bought these tumblers from this previous blog post (Plastic Wine Tumblers) and I can't wait for them to come in!!

I've also got these awesome things as well!!

I just loved these glasses when I saw them and well with my accident prone hubby I needed a new set :)

A set of 10 bowls just for 38 bucks! They're made by Duralex (like the glasses above) so a great price for a great product!

I thought this was neat and would be a good item to add to our gift stash :)

I got this for my hubby. If he likes it I can't wait to get myself one. Its a personal filtered water bottle. We have the brita systems here at the house but would like something for on the go so we don't have to buy bottles of water and this looked like a great idea! I can't wait for it to come! It says it just shipped :)

So yeah I'm a bit obsessed with this site! I can't wait to see what other deals they have to offer!!

Our Last Thanksgiving in Italy

Its amazing that this year is our last year for the holidays in Italy and that we don't know where we'll be next year. I am truly greatful for the time that we've spent here in Italy. I've enjoyed the things we've been able to see, that we were able to save for our adoption, that this base gave me the opportunity to be a stay at home wife and mom, and that we've grown our military family. As much as it was a pain to get use to as far as being a spouse and dependent and all that goes into I wouldn't give up the experience for anything. Even though we'd love to stay overseas another tour we understand its our time to go back to the states something I am a little excited about. I'm greatful that we'll be near family with all the rough times that have been upon us.

This Thanksgiving we have so much to be greatful for inspite of all the bad. I'm greatful for my amazing family, my own little family and my military family. I'm thankful that Tommy is doing better, slowly but still better. I'm greatful that my sister isn't doing it alone and has my mom there with her. I'm greatful that I was able to be there with my sister in the beginning and that Nathan was there to help ease her mind a bit. I'm greatful for our time in Italy, that this is our last holiday season here and that we have the most amazing people to spend it with. I'm greatful for the amazing friends who make being away from our family that much more bearable. There is so much to be greatful for even though there has been so much tragedy. Thank you everyone for being there when everything good or bad is happening!

This year we spent Thanksgiving with some of our amazing friends. We ate, chatted, played games, ate, watched the kids play, and just enjoyed each others company. It was a great time, great food, and of course some of the greatest people we know!

(more pics to come they just won't load for some reason boo!!)

What I'll always be most thankful for though is my amazing little man and my amazing big man! I don't know where I'd be without the two loves of my life in my life! (plus my amazing little doggies of course!!)

I hope everyone out there had an amazing day and continues to have an amazing rest of the year!

Katlyn's Birthday Party

This past Friday (Nov 11, 2011) we attended another birthday party!! This one was for my amazing friends daughter Katlyn. She turned 8 years old and had the coolest Monster High themed party ever! Her mom drew her an amazing Ghoulia to play pin the glasses on and had the cutest table setting and games for her!

And Monster High is so stinking cute! I love the dolls and the story and its just adorable! The kids dressed up and Nathan was a skeleton again of course LOL He had a blast running around with the little kids and the ballons. It was just a fun time :)

The super cute place settings

The curtain Lorenzo and I put up LOL

A table fit for a Monster High Birthday Girl!

The super awesome drawing that Melissa made for pin the glasses on Ghoulia!

Super cute cupcakes Melissa put together!

Well I've been trying to post pics of the birthday forever and either blogger sucks or my internet sucks but I can't get them to upload. If you have my FB then you've seen them :) It was a fun time and as you can see Melissa did an amazing job getting all this cute stuff together for her daughter! She even made brain puffs (rice krispy treats) and other fun themed food! They're such an awesome family to be around and always doing such neat things!!

Another Great Deal

I found this site called OpenSky and when I joined I got a $15 credit to spend right away! I was like ok lets see what they have and they have a ton of stuff! Tons and tons of things that I would love to have in my kitchen because ya'll know I love cooking and my kitchen but then I ran across some wine tumblers and ya'll they're plastic and oh so cute! I seriously fell in love and had to order them and with my credit I paid $2 for four! How fantastic is that?!?! Well if you click on this link or the one above for OpenSky you'll get a $10 credit for joining...I know I know its not the $15 I got which was a special deal through my email that I got from another site that I'm apart of but still a free $10 bucks is still pretty sweet and I'm sure if you look you can find something you love at a great price!!

Here are the tumblers I look forward to getting in the mail soon!!

Go now and see what you can score! OPENSKY

Leo's Birthday Party

Last weekend was a lot of fun. We were invited to another birthday party for my good friends son. Leo turned 5 and had a bowling party with about a billion kids running around. It was a lot of fun to watch the kids run around, to watch them bowl, to watch them get excited over cake and of course the presents!!!

Nathan had so much fun. He ran up and down the length of the bowling alley. He bowled and clapped about it. He got excited when others bowled. He LOVED the cake. It was an all around great night with great people! Needless to say our little guy was stinking tired when we left and went to straight to bed for the night :)

Handmade Gifts

Today I just wanted to showcase some of my very talented friends in hopes that you will go like their Facbook pages, spread the word about them, and even possibly order from them! They are all Air Force wives and are so very talented in many different ways.

First is LoveandKnots. She crochets the most amazing things. She can literally make you anything you want but recently she has been making the most adorable sock monkey and owl hats! She also recently did a dino one that I'm in love with. She is currently is making my little man a gray and green mohawk one!! She also makes blankets, diaper covers, and pretty much anything else you can use crochet needles to make! She is getting ready to move (as all miliary wives have too) but will be getting ready to sell items up on her page and when she's settled will be taking custom orders again!

The owl hat is so stinking cute! (the picture was taken by another very amazing AF wife)

Here is a pic of just one of the many she has done. She has done them in every size, color imaginable!

My second one is Force Fashion Boutique and she makes the cutest purses ever. She recently made one for a woman retiring from the Air Force out of a blues jacket that is just the pretties one I've ever seen. Its seriously one of my all time favorites so far. She also makes beautiful bags out of old uniform material as well as any other fabric you may like if you're not into the military bag. She is also having a giveaway so go like her page to be entered and learn how to get more entries!

Large "Standing Tall" Bag

The retirement bag made out of blues! Amazing right?!?

And this last one is Lil Doodlebugs Boutique and she can sew just about anything! She is know for her carseat canopies which are stinking adorable and a great way to shield your little one from the elements. This is something I really wish I had known about as a first time mom especially in the cold state of Utah! we put a blanket over him but it wasn't as convienent as these! These make great baby shower gifts or to just have one for yourself! She will also be offering many other baby items blankets, burp clothes, bibs and other things as well in the near future so check out her page! Oh and she is currently having a giveaway so go like her page to be entered!

Carseat canopy!

all packaged up!

They all make great quality products and there are two giveaways going on so go like their pages and win!

Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween everyone. We hope that you had a great weekend/day! This was our last year in Europe to spend Halloween and we're both happy and sad at the same time. We didn't do anything amazing for it but we did go to the Fall Festival on base and daddy and baby boy got dressed up. They both were very spooky!

We also carved pumpkins and baby boy wanted nothing to do with the guts. He thought they were gross just like his daddy so of course I cleaned out the pumpkins. They did come out amazing this year though! I think next year we'll find Mickey Mouse templates so that Nathan loves his pumpkins even more. I did roast some pumpkin seeds. They came out rather tasty :)

So overall it was a fantastic weekend! The day after the fall festival Nathan went bowling for the first time as well. He was invited to Jett's 2nd birthday and boy did he have a blast! We get to take him bowling again this weekend for Leo's 5th birthday and I'm sure he'll love that too!!

Review: Our Last Great Hope

Our Last Great Hope
By Ronnie Floyd

Our Last Great Hope wasn't a book that really kept my attention for long periods of time and I couldn't quite get into it until towards the end. Although its a book I wouldn't pick up and read from cover to cover in one sitting it is about a topic that many feel should be discussed. I'm sure the Great Commission wasn't meant to have been read in one sitting though. I don't really have too many great things to really say about the book. I felt that some things were shortened and the full story wasn't truly shared. Its not something I would recommend to anyone to be totally honest. I just wasn't impressed and felt that the way it was written was hard to read, the bibilical stories weren't fully told, and it was hard to really get into.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through the BookSneeze®.com [...] book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255 [...] : "Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising."

Review: Wait No More

Wait No More: One Family's Amazing Adoption Journey (Focus on the Family Books)

By Kelly & John Rosati

I was really excited to see this book on Tyndale's list of books to review and of course jumped on the chance to read about this amazing family's adoption journey. I literally just received this book in the mail yesterday and had it finished by the time I went to bed last night (ok so I stayed up a little longer than my hubby cause I couldn't put it down). It was a great read and so neat how God played such an amazing roll and how he spoke to them and brought each of those children into their homes. This is definitely a book I would recommend to adoptive families as well as those who are considering adoption. If you have ever considered it yourself I say grab a company and read it. I don't know if its because we've been on an adoption journey ourselves but I truly LOVE to read and hear about others stories as well. Definitely a great book and love the way its told. I also really connected with the book because we're also a military family :) so in the end yes I'd recommend this book!

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from Tyndale as part of their Blogger Review program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255: "Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising."