Hot Chocolate...YUMMY!

Hot Chocolate Smores..


I love trying out new recipes every week, whether it is real food, desserts, or drinks!! Here is something I made for my sister and cousin when they came to say the night with me last weekend.

Recipe:
Dip the rim of your cup in melted butter, then in gram cracker crumbs.
Heat milk in sauce pan. Break Hershey bar in a cup and then pour in hot milk, do not stir yet, let it work its magic. Toast marshmallows in the oven watching them closely. When the marshmallows are finished stir the chocolate in the milk then add the toasted marshmallows on top.

How it all began

Looking back all the way to the beginning of my blog I realized that I came into this blogging world without any introduction. Almost 4 years later I would like to explain how I came up with the name of my blog, although it has recently changed.

The church that I attend is one that has much older character and not much contemporary music, but for that same reason I love it dearly. The majority of our singing can be found from the pages of a hymnal. I have many favorite hymns, but I chose one in particular to be the motto or slogan for the blog. Blessed Assurance, here are the lyrics...

Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine!
O what a foretaste of glory divine!
Heir of salvation, purchase of God,
born of his Spirit, washed in his blood.

This is my story, this is my song,
praising my Savior all the day long;
this is my story, this is my song,
praising my Savior all the day long.

Perfect submission, perfect delight,
visions of rapture now burst on my sight;
angels descending bring from above
echoes of mercy, whispers of love.

Perfect submission, all is at rest;
I in my Savior am happy and blest,
watching and waiting, looking above,
filled with his goodness, lost in his love.

I named the blog "My Story" after this song and wanted to share the many seasons of life that I have gone through. Kyle and I teach the youth at our church and many times we have asked them, "Who do you think would have more fun, someone who is not saved or someone that is a Christian?" Most of the answers have been the person who is not saved, because they get to do whatever they want, party, drink, "have fun", etc. The answer disturbed both of us and since then have changed most of their opinions.

I think that is probably a perception that most people have before coming to know the Lord, that Christians are boring people that never have fun. I wanted to use this blog as a testament and show people/whoever that it's so NOT boring. The people that I surround myself with have more fun then anyone I know!!

Recently I have changed the name of my blog to "Our Story For His Glory". I am no longer on this journey of life alone, I have a husband that I get to enjoy it with. So now I will continue blogging about our family and ,hopefully, many additions God will give us in the future!!

**I would like to add that I am by no means a perfect person, but I find joy in knowing that I am a heir of salvation and purchased by God!! Isn't that so exciting?!?!

SNOW!

One of our favorite things about this time of the year is the snowy days. Although we do not get much here in Tennessee we always enjoy it when it does come. On Sunday the snow was BEAUTIFUL!! When we got home from church we took Maple out to see what she thought about it. I am not sure she new what it was but she had fun playing around in it while we were out. Later that evening we went over to my parents to watch a movie and relax by the fire. We all had such a fun day and hope to have many more snow days ahead!! :)

It's Christmas at the Gregory's!

Last year, the day after Christmas, I went shopping for this years Christmas decorations since I knew Kyle and I would be getting married. I am so glad that I spent the time and money then, otherwise we would not have what we do now. I love decorating for the holidays,Kyle on the other hand has never been as into it until Christmas came around the corner. He has loved putting up our two trees and we've both enjoyed the ambiance that the tree gives off.... so relaxing and cozy!
The day we left from Gatlinburg we had planed that we would go to a tree farm in Hendersonville to cut down our very first tree, drink hot chocolate, and get warm by the fire. Unfortunately traffic got in our way and we weren't able to make it until dark so we had to pick out a pre- cut tree in the dark. We brought it home and started decorating which was so much fun! I love making memories with my sweet husband!! After we finished Kyle took pictures of the decorations that I put up before we left for Gatlinburg. We hope every one has a very Merry Christmas!!! :)

Thanksgiving in the Mountains

Thanksgiving kicks off my favorite time of the year. Everything about this season is so special. I enjoy everything from remembering to remain thankful to celebrating our Savior and keeping with family traditions. This Thanksgiving we all decided to continue the tradition and go to Gatlinburg after staying home for the past 2 years.
Since I was not able to be home with my side of the family I made it a point to help out as much as I could before I left. I was able to make dessert for the family and I got cards for my mom and dad's side of the family. I know they all had a fun time from all the stories I have heard. :)
We had our Thanksgiving meal the Friday before with Kyle's grandmother since she was not able to go with us to Gatlinburg. On Thanksgiving day we all hung around our condo sifting through the paper for sales and watching movies/shows. That evening we all sat down and enjoyed a yummy bowl of stew and grilled cheese sandwiches. After we ate we walked around down town Gatlinburg. Cole loves Fannie Farkles, so we stopped in there to play some arcade games. Kyle, once again hit jackpot and won tons of tickets! :) Around 11:30 that night Kyle and I headed to Walmart to get some DVDs that we saw in the paper earlier. The next day was BLACK FRIDAY!!! The girls went shopping while the boys went to the Flea Market. We all got lots of good things!

Kyle and I always enjoy our time in the Smokies and we always look forward to going back as soon as we get home. :) We left on Sunday, a day before everyone else, so that we could go get our Fresh Christmas Tree! I will post pictures soon of our tree and some fun decorations around our home! :)

Baby Season...

Seems as if EVERYWHERE I go women are sporting their little baby bumps... so cute! I have been subbing at SCE and a lady I met the other day is pregnant and due the same month as my sister in law. Funny thing is, she happens to know 8 more women due during the same time.. so crazy!

Kyle and I are so excited to be celebrating with Adrian and Michael our nephew Cade Elias Johnson. When Cole was born I was still in college, living in another town and wasn't able to be around as much as Kyle. Kyle worked with Michael and has many special memories of Cole when he was a baby. I am so excited to be able to be more "hands on" with this new little one that will be due in April! Everywhere I go I am constantly looking for something cute for the new little baby to wear.

A few weekends ago we had a baby reveal party and we all found out what Michael and Adrian were expecting. We had so much fun celebrating the long anticipated gender announcement! Here are a few pictures from that evening...

Trek & Treat

Today my sister and I had "Sister" bonding time all day! We started out the morning eating at Cracker Barrel... yummy!! We then headed over to The Streets to visit with my mom. She had a booth set up for children to come and get apple cider and paint a pumpkin. This is her second year participating in the Hank Thompson Trek & Treat and she loves it! A few of my girlfriends came out, we took a break from the sun and went to Barnes and Noble to look through some magazines... one of my favorite pass times. After Madeline and I left there we ran around a few stores then met up with my parents for dinner. Madeline had a birthday to go to so our night ended at dinner, we had a fabulous day together! Its been on my heart lately how important family is and I want to soak up as much time as I can with them because time goes by WAY to fast! Maddie turns 13 this month and we all remember how the teenage years were. I hope that I can be a big enough example to my baby sister so that she will not fall into the same silly things I did as a teen!

Time for a update!

Fall is here and it is blessing us with BEAUTIFUL weather! I absolutely love this time of the year, now that I am married it makes it even more fun and exciting! Kyle and I have enjoyed many activities over the past few months that I haven't blogged, but ,finally, today I will share a few from these past few weeks!

We had our first bonfire of the season at my friend Kelly's house. We roasted dogs, made smores and I enjoyed a warm mug of Apple Cider! We enjoyed the cool evening talking and being outdoors!



On October 7th we participated in the yearly Light the Night walk for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. We started this tradition 3 years ago for my cousin that was diagnosed with Leukemia, now that he has gone to be with the Lord we still participate in memory of him. Dustan is not the only person that has been affected from this terrible disease ,but MANY others have as well. Raising money each year helps the society be able to reach out to more and more families in need.

Goodbye Party

On Sunday afternoon Kyle and I had my family over to celebrate Nick going off to UTC and Anthony going back to California. This was my fist fairly big dinner party and it was great! I made Fettuccine Alfredo, French Bread Pizza, Caesar Salad and my mom made us desert! The food was more then enough... we actually had leftovers! We had so much fun laughing and talking together. Other then my cold we had a wonderful Sunday! My dad preached the morning service and the youth pastor preached the evening service and both messages were amazing! After the evening service we had a time of fellowship for my grandfather(the pastor) birthday! I am so excited to see what the Lord has in store for our church... great things are happening! :)

Sips and Strokes

This past weekend I was invited to join a group of girls to go painting. I love being crafty and creative BUT I can not draw/paint. I was told that it was kind of like painting by numbers, but when I got there they gave me a blank canvas which was terrifying! The lady that started Sips and Strokes was our instructor and she was great! She walked us through everything and surprisingly all of our pictures turned out great. I have a few mistakes on mine, but for my first time I was pretty proud of the outcome. The environment there is very laid back... you can bring anything you want to eat or drink.. hence the name. I picked up some Starbucks before I came and next time I will make sure to bring water as well because we were there for a very long time! I am already looking forward to going back... maybe next month! :)