pikes peak or bust rodeo

we arrived in colorado on saturday for a conference with campus crusade for Christ. we flew into denver and headed down to colorado springs to visit my aunt and uncle for the night before our final destination of fort collins.

justin and i were so excited to experience our first colorado rodeo. these people were in to it! it is a completely different culture than our alabama hunting/fishing culture...but the rodeo was tons of fun.

[if you know me at all, i am a sucker for animals doing human things..so this pig in a wagon was just too cute to me. i had to pose with him. a bunch of kids and i were probably the only ones that thought this was presh.]

there were like 5 or 6 different "events" with cowboys and cowgirls from around colorado and nearby states. my favorite one was when they jumped off their running horse onto a cow and wrestled it down to the ground. that takes some serious practice and talent! most of my "action" shots turned out blurry because the horses/cattle/riders were moving so fast.

i could seriously stare at this view for days. colorado is gorgeous!

our conference officially starts tomorrow, we can't wait to hear from CCC leadership and other speakers.

dual "vacations"

this week justin headed up to louisville, ky to take a seminary class. he is beyond excited...the class is on church history, he has really enjoyed reading and getting prepared for this class. he really enjoys studying and being a student. [another way we are completely different]

since justin is away for the week millie and i decided to visit my parents for a couple days in georgia. i got here saturday and i don't think i have been hungry since i got here. mom does a great job of making all my favorite meals while i'm here...some might say i'm spoiled :)

millie adores her time at my parent's house. they have a nice backyard where she can run around. somehow she manages to find the biggest sticks in the yard then makes you play fetch with them. it's amazing she can even run with these in her mouth...

so thankful for my parents and being able to come see them!

i'm 24!

friday was my birthday. not an april fools joke.

we spent the weekend with my parents.

friday night we went to a hibachi restaurant with the entire fam: me and justin, my parents, and my brother and his wife, danielle. we had lots to celebrate: dad's birthday, danielle's birthday, my birthday, promotions, seminary acceptance and my parent's 31st wedding anniversary. how precious!

i am so blessed to get to celebrate with my family. we had a great weekend with family and then celebrating a dear friend's wedding on saturday.

side note: i got photoshop elements for my birthday. can't wait to play around and figure it out! anybody know of good tutorials?

happy valentines day

"we love because He first loved us" 1 john 4:19

i enjoy valentines day so much more now that we are married...no pressure to pick out a sweet, over-the-top present and card. actually, this is what i got for justin this year. 

please tell me you have seen those gatorade commercials...prime, perform, recovery. the gratitude. welcome to some of our lame inside jokes. we never claimed to be cool.

he got me some beautiful red roses, i guess he likes me :)

we couldn't leave out poor Millie. she loves socks so i let her play with one of mine. it may look brown and nasty, thats because she has been licking and chewing on it for most of the afternoon. 

yes, she is that easy to please.

our staff team takes one day a month and devotes it to our relationship with the Lord. we are so blessed by this and it is such a rejuvenation to our ministry. today, we are spending our day reading the Bible and drinking starbucks. two of my favorites.

tonight we are fixing one of our favorite meals, calzones. yummmm.

what a great day. hope you are enjoying your valentines day as well. spend it with someone you love!

family christmas picture

someone in my family came up with the idea to take our family Christmas card in christmas sweaters while the dogs wore antlers. lets just say it was stressful.

wilma is my parents 14 year old basset hound. this has been her second time (...maybe) in the house. she was terrified. i am sure she never wants back in the house again.

millie was out of control trying to play with wilma. she would not stay still nor keep her antler ears on (i can't imagine why she wouldn't like them)

buster is clint and danielle's pomeranian. he got stuck wearing the santa suit. from the second my brother put that outfit on the dog buster didn't move. he was not enjoying this.

we kept having issues with the timer actually going off...the dogs were growing impatient and we were starting to get hot from the Christmas sweaters. but alas, we got a great pic of the entire family, all 9 of us.

i love my family. look at how cute we are.

thanks danielle for using your camera!!

now for another karl family photo...

merry christmas from james, joy, clint, danielle, justin, alana

wilma, buster and millie.

thanksgiving

thanksgiving break always takes a lot out of me. lots of eating and shopping, my life is tough.

we were blessed to spend thanksgiving with my momma and daddy. mom is a fantastic cook and thanksgiving is always great with my parents, even though it was just the 4 of us at lunch.

14 pounds of pure goodness. 

after lunch, i looked at every single black friday ad. it's a tradition. i have always loved weekly ads, i'm pretty sure that is a little bit strange...but i'm okay with that.

we spent a significant amount of time taking family pictures for our christmas card. this isn't the one going out, but too cute of millie not to share. plus, i didn't want the only picture of the post to be a turkey :)

my brother and sister-in-law came over for dinner and we stuffed our faces again. so good to see them. 

i am so blessed to have such a loving husband and family. we had a fantastic thanksgiving break...but it sure is nice to be back home.

pre-thanksgiving trip to virginia

we spent the past couple of days visiting with justin's family in richmond, virginia. we hadn't been there in a minute, so it was really good to spend time with them!

we made the drive up on saturday, which was quite beautiful...although it took us over 8 hours from georgia. i don't remember the fall leaves looking as pretty as they have this season. i like it.

after church on sunday, we walked over to lexi's elementary school and played with millie and on the playground. (justin put millie in my lap and i fell off the swing. i have bruises to prove)
lexi and i collected leaves to make her mom a centerpiece for the table.

we played lots of cards and watched the dogs play. look at the earlier posts about shopping with lexi and millie's retrieving skills for more specific stories about our trip. all in all, we had a really great visit!

on our way back to georgia from richmond, we spent the night in north carolina with justin's aunt. his aunt and uncle live on multiple acres and have 4 dogs, 3 goats, 3 pigs and 2 cats. pretty much animal paradise. millie loved playing with the other dogs. but was scared of the goats and cats...imagine that! we had a great time visiting with aunt tracy as well!!

happy thanksgiving ya'll!!

road trip.

we are leaving bright and early tomorrow morning to begin our massive trip for fall conference and thanksgiving.

our trip includes
1. conference in orlando, fl for southeast region staff of crusade. flying--praise the Lord.
2. road trip to richmond, va to visit with justin's family.
3. stopping by pittsboro, nc to spend the night with justin's aunt and uncle. this will be millie's fav part of the trip...tons of land and other animals to play with.
4. back to atl for thanksgiving with my family. plus lots of baking, hanging with justin's dad and of course shopping.

please pray for our travels and safety. and sanity while traveling with a puppy.

thanks for your patience in reading my boring updated :)

family time.

we had such a jam packed (but still fun) weekend. we were able to hit most of the tuscaloosa highlights.

on friday night, we went to Cypress Inn--delish. The weather was perfect, so we were able to walk down by the river and rock in the rocking chairs as we waited.

Saturday was homecoming for Alabama, which is a WAY bigger deal than UGA's. Bama Crusade had a tailgate on campus, so we tailgated before the game. We also walked around the sorority houses to look at their boards (I wish I had taken pics of them, they were amazing...!) before heading back to our apartment to watch the game.

Obviously, we dressed pretty neutral for the game :)

Our pastor asked us to share our testimonies at church on Sunday, it was special to have my parents there in the congregation! The Lord spoke through us and it went well....until the microphone quit working. Oops. 

Anyway, it was so refreshing to have my parents come visit and meet some of our Tuscaloosa friends. I'm glad we got to see them, but I'm already counting down the days until our next visit to Atlanta.

weekend.

i am seriously so excited to see my parents this weekend. 

Daddy got here today to do some business and Momma J is coming down tomorrow morning. Dad has been here a couple times on business, and Mom hasn't been since we moved...so I am excited to show them our little life here in Tuscaloosa and campus since neither have gotten a chance to see much of it.

 Tuscaloosa friends! Come tailgate with Bama Crusade (and my parents!!!) on Saturday. We are planning on getting to campus around 3, hopefully our spot will be on the quad across from Bid Good and Graves Hall.

Even Millie is pumped to see her grandparents!

family photos.

after a disappointing loss to colorado last night, we masked our frustrations by waking trying to wake Millie up and take pics.

after looking at this picture, how could you still be upset? Millz was so tired from being at the lake with Justin earlier...she refused to even open her eyes for the photo shoot.

i love my little family.

my sweet family.

the other night justin fell asleep on the couch. and millie jumped up and cuddled up next to him. 

how precious is my family? i love them so much.

labor day weekend.

this past weekend, we had a whirlwind of a weekend.

We drove to my parent's house on Friday. Got to spend quality time hanging out, which is always refreshing.

Then early Saturday morning, we drove to visit Nate and Kristin in Columbia. We had our "couples reunion" with the Spurriers and the Hilburns! Much needed chill/friend time. We love hanging out with them...we spent lots of time watching football and movies, napping and eating. All personal favorites.

It was so much fun letting the dogs play together. Millie definitely annoyed Brody, but it was so adorable to see them jumping around together!

On Sunday, the boys played golf, while the girls went shopping in downtown Columbia. For dinner we went to a hibachi restaurant, I forget how much fun and tasty those places are.

Hibachi

THEN, on Monday (praise the Lord for the 3 day weekend!!!) we drove to Athens!! We haven't been back since graduation (I know...bad UGA fans, but life gets busy!) and we got to have lunch with my long-lost bff, Courtney (Check out her blog!!) We had a great time catching up... chatting face-to-face is so much better than following her on twitter or facebook :)

Lunch at Barberitos!

Monday dinner with my parents, then back to Tuscaloosa early Tuesday morning.

All in all, we had an A-MAZING weekend with friends and family. It was so great to see yall!!