Welcoming the New Year!

Hello everyone! It seems like ages since I have sat down to blog and it feels so good! The break was so needed, but I am happy to get back into the swing of things. The Holidays were good to me and with them came some amazing changes. Just thought I'd share the last few weeks with you through pictures.

My Christmas season started off with some lovely gifts from two of my friends. (One which is pictured)

The second weekend in December, I got to go visit my (then ;) ) boyfriend, Nathan and his family. Even though I was fighting a cold, it was so much fun! Nathan got me the loveliest Christmas presents! This picture was taken at Fishermen's Village in downtown Punta Gorda where they have lots of fun decorations and cute little shops. It's by the water and it was lots of fun!

And then, the biggest, most wonderful news of all! The love of my life got down on one knee and proposed to me on 12/14/13! (Story will be coming soon!) It was perfect and a little surreal! I am so thankful for the way God has knit our lives and hearts together and I am so excited to begin the next part of our journey together.

My beautiful, absolutely perfect ring =D It is everything I imagined and more than I could ever want!

The Sunday after our Saturday engagement we went to a family birthday party and stopped at Nathans grandparents house so they could get a load of firewood. I just couldn't pass up the opportunity to get a picture of three generations of Frook men. So thankful one is mine!

The next weekend he took me to see the Hobbit with some of my family! It was pretty good, although Nathan says we're harsh movie critics. It's true ;)

I finished my customized cross stitch designed by weelittlestitches on Etsy. It is absolutely perfect!

My sister Jennifer (far right) joined the Army in October, but she was able to come home on leave for the Holidays. We got some sister shopping in! She leaves today.

Gingerbread cookie making on Christmas Eve!

Christmas was amazing, as usual! I got some wonderful gifts, including that cute penguin mug =D and it was a good time of reflecting on my Savior.

Christmas is also my older sister's birthday! An old 23 year old =P

This past Sunday we celebrated my Pastor and his family for their 30 years of ministry leading our church. I love my pastor so much and they all have had such an impact on my life! Thankful for them.

Hopefully that caught all of you up on what my life has been like. =) I am so excited about all this year has for me! Lots of wedding planning too =D I'l be back to share with you my goals for 2014. I hope you all have a wonderful New Year!

Until next time...

It's been a long time - A much needed break

Wow, I cannot believe that it has been this long since I've blogged... But, I must say, this has been a break that I have needed! 

I've been swamped with Zoottle stuff, Thanksgiving, and now lots and lots of Christmas stuff!... So, I have decided that I will leave off blogging until next year (crazy, huh??). Then, hopefully, I will be back in full force!

I hope you all have a Merry Christmas and a very happy New Year!

Until next time...

Musical Monday//10

Come Thou Fount

Robert Robinson, 1735-1790

Come, thou Fount of every blessing, tune my heart to sing thy grace; 

streams of mercy, never ceasing, call for songs of loudest praise. 

Teach me some melodious sonnet, sung by flaming tongues above. 

Praise the mount! I'm fixed upon it, mount of thy redeeming love. 

Here I raise mine Ebenezer; hither by thy help I'm come; 

and I hope, by thy good pleasure, safely to arrive at home. 

Jesus sought me when a stranger, wandering from the fold of God; 

he, to rescue me from danger, interposed his precious blood. 

O to grace how great a debtor daily I'm constrained to be! 

Let thy goodness, like a fetter, bind my wandering heart to thee. 

Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it, prone to leave the God I love; 

here's my heart, O take and seal it, seal it for thy courts above.

I am so thankful that my Dad brought us up on Hymns. They are truly the songs that resonate deep in my heart and draw me to worship the One who deserves all my praise. I don't know if I could say that I have a favorite Hymn, because I love so many! But this beautiful song is definitely up there with it. I love how in the 3rd verse it says "let Thy goodness, like a fetter", isn't it beautiful how His goodness binds us to Him??

Romans 2:4

"Or do you think lightly of the riches of His kindness and tolerance and patience,

not knowing that the kindness {Goodness} of God leads you to repentance?"

(Note added by me)

Until next time...

Five Minute Friday//Tree

So, here I am again! It's been a while since I joined the 5 minute Friday group, but I'm glad that I am. If you don't know what's going on, check out this blog! I'm not sure how great this will be, because I have to admit, this one is stumping (Heehee, no pun intended ;) And it really was accidental!) me... But, 5 minutes of writing, little to no editing, on the word "tree".

Go!

I was trying to think, what does the word tree bring to mind? The trees in my front yard? They are pretty cool I guess... But, no, that's not really meaningful, I don't have many amazingly fond memories of them. But, ever since I was born, they have been there. I'm assuming quite a while before that too.

Then I started thinking about the Word, and ways that trees are used by

God to paint pictures, mainly pictures of His people. 

Psalm 1 came to mind first, "Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night.

He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season,

and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers"

And then a passage in Isaiah that has spoke to my heart many times: "...to grant to those who mourn in Zion — to give them a beautiful headdress instead of ashes,

the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the garment of praise instead of a faint spirit;

that they may be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that He may be glorified" (Is. 61:3)

Aren't those beautiful word pictures of who we can be in Christ? I pray that these words describe me. And all to bring glory to the One who grows our roots and spreads our leaves, Amen!

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Well... There you have it =) Have a wonderful Friday!

{Check out my other Five Minute Friday Posts here and here}

Until next time...

Introducing the Snowman Zoottle!

I am so excited to share with you the newest addition to the Zoottle family... The cutest Snowman ever! Just in time for the winters season too. I think this little guy would be the perfect stocking stuffer for your baby or toddler. Couldn't you see their little faces light up when they hear the jingle and see the bright eyes, orange nose, and cute top hat??

Make sure and check it out at my Etsy Shop! 

Until next time...

Musical Monday//9

Happy Monday! I hope you all had a beautiful weekend!  Saturday was my churches Fall Festival. It went so well and we had about 125 people come our thy had never been to our church. It was a great outreach, praise God! Here are some fun pictures from it along with my normal Musical Monday!

Shiloh, my Brother-in-law's brother and a good family friend

Mom and me

Cutest little Firefighter you ever did see =D And a pretty cute mommy too!

Dad and me!

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This song has always been a favorite, but yesterday morning at church one of my long time friends did ASL along with it and it was so beautiful! The picture that it brought and the beautiful signs that went along with it brought tears to my eyes. I hope you enjoy!

Holy (Wedding Day)

The City Harmonic 

This is the story of the Son of God, 

Hanging on the cross for me

But it ends with a bride and groom, 

And a wedding by a glassy sea

O death where is your sting, 

Cause I'll be there singing

Holy Holy Holy

Is the Lord

This is the story of a bride in white, 

Waiting on her wedding day

Anticipation welling up inside

While the groom is crowned as king

O death where is your sting, 

Cause we'll be there singing

Holy Holy Holy is the Lord

Holy Holy Holy Holy Holy Holy

Is the Lord Almighty

Holy Holy Holy Holy Holy Holy

Is the Lord Almighty

Who was and is and is to come

Who was and is and is to come

This is the story of the Son of God, 

Hanging on the cross for me

And it ends with a bride and groom

And a wedding by a glassy sea

This is the story of the a bride in white, 

Singing on her wedding day

Of the God who was and is to stand before a bride who sings

Holy Holy Holy Holy Holy Holy is the Lord Almighty

Until next time...

EtGoAFS//Brokenness

Psalm 51

"Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love;

according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions.

Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin!

For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me.

Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight,

so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment.

Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.

Behold, you delight in truth in the inward being, 

and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart.

Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.

Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones that you have broken rejoice.

Hide your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities.

Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.

Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me.

Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit.

Then I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will return to you.

Deliver me from blood-guiltiness, O God, O God of my salvation,

    and my tongue will sing aloud of your righteousness.

O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise.

For you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it;

    you will not be pleased with a burnt offering.

The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; 

    a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.

Do good to Zion in your good pleasure; build up the walls of Jerusalem;

then will you delight in right sacrifices, in burnt offerings and whole burnt offerings;

    then bulls will be offered on your altar."

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Just like in the Psalm 32, this beautiful and broken Psalm is written by King David after committing sin with Bathsheba. 

Right now, the Lord is teaching me how I can live a free life in Him. A life, free of guilt, free of fear, and free to serve Him. The word I get from this passage:

I need to be broken with my sin; Understanding that my sin is against a Holy God! I can't take it lightly, He doesn't. It is serious, it quenches the Spirit.

Here, David is truly crying out for forgiveness. God is Holy! And He is also merciful and full of grace! Because I am covered in Jesus' blood, I am forgiven! I am seen through that by God. But there still is that idea of confession and forgiveness as a believer. Am I practicing that? Truly crying out to Him about my sin??

Then I need to claim His forgiveness as my own, offer a humble heart to Him and use my story to show others how they can be forgiven and covered in grace. I can't let my sin cripple me! That is exactly what Satan wants. God promises to not remember my sin, why do I then, still hold on? 

You can read part one and two of this "series" Here and Here =)

Until next time..

A weekend in pictures

This past weekend I was able to go down and visit Nathan and his family. Saturday consisted of being with his sisters and their husbands, shopping and more shopping! Then Sunday we went to church, hung out at his house and played some volleyball. It was such a great time and I miss him already!

Crazy finds from our fun shopping trip to Good Will!

I really loved these! But I resisted... ;)

We did end up getting these cuties! only .99 each and I pretty much love them =D

Some other goodies from the weekend! Nathan bought me these crazy cool Captain America Pants and I bought myself this cute sweater from Old Navy!

We also went to Hobby Lobby; only my second time and it is incredible! I got the little rings to make more Christmas ornaments, and they were less than half the price they are at Michaels! And Nathan bought me pretty yarn and some fabric. He's so nice!

For lunch we had McDonalds. Oh my word! I have been craving a cheeseburger, fries, and a Coke for almost two months! Weird I know.. But it was finally satisfied!

Yum!

 After all that shopping we went home and watched some Disney movies; he was brought up on them, and I was never allowed to see them. His one condition is that I learn Disney ways before we get married ;) So we watched "Pocahontas" and "Lilo and Stitch" We also went to the park with his little 1 year old nephew, so cute!

Sadly, we didn't get any pictures from Sunday, but church was pretty good and it was fun to watch a movie and play some games, including volleyball. Can't wait to see each other again!

Until next time...

P.S. So sorry I missed doing Musical Mondays yesterday... To much weekend sleepies... =) I'll do better next week! 

Happy Weekend and a Free printable!

November is going to be such a busy month for my family. A church Fall Festival, my sisters baby shower, and a craft fair, wow! But I am excited about all of them!

You will definitely be seeing a lot of pictures from the baby shower after it's happened. I am heading up the decor and I can't wait for all of you to see it! =D This past week, though, we handed/sent out invitations. I ended up designing my own after browsing Google for ideas and I'm pretty happy with how they turned out. 

So, I wanted you to be able to have it! Maybe you're having a baby or are helping plan a shower for a friend. If they are having a boy, this would be the perfect invite! Just save the picture below, then use a photo editor to add the details (I used PicMonkey) or you can write it in by hand and copy it. =) Enjoy!

Here is the invitation that we used for my sisters shower so you have an idea of what it looks like =)

Also, my Fall #OoZgiveaway is over, but my Turkey Zoottles are now available in my Etsy shop! Click on the widget to the left. Have a great weekend!

Until next time...