Lovely in Love

Today is the 10-year anniversary of the day Levi and I were married!

It's strange, it seems like we've been together forever and yet at the same time I can't believe it's been 10 years already.

So much has changed since we first met - we've graduated high school and college, we've gotten married (obviously).

We've moved across the country four times. Levi has a Master's Degree. I'm now a doctor.

Most importantly, we have a beautiful daughter that daily teaches us the lessons of love, patience, and imagination.

I know that we're far from done growing together, as a family and as a couple. I am thankful that despite - or because of - all that we have been through together, we have such a deep understanding and love for each other. I pray that this though it has been 10 years already, it is only the beginning.





Baking Cookies

Our new house in Austin has an amazing kitchen...okay, so it's probably a "normal" kitchen by anyone else's standards, but we've spent the last several years in less-than-stellar kitchens. I LOVE this kitchen - it has lots of nice, spacious countertops, new appliances, a gas stove! I've been cooking alot and trying to bake some of the things I didn't have the space or nerve to try before.

A few days ago my favorite food blog, Annie's Eats, had a recipe for those yummy soft frosted sugar cookies you can buy in the grocery store...you know, the ones that have different frosting depending on the season or nearest holiday that are so yummy you want to eat the entire box? yeah, those.

I decided to try them...and of course, I have a helper in the kitchen. She really does well, as long as I remember not to fuss at her about getting flour all over her shirt or eating half of the sugar before I can get it in the bowl...

The cookies turned out very well, though the icing left much to be desired. I wanted that fluffy, thick icing that comes on the cookies in the grocery store, but my icing was very runny. Will have to play with it next time (maybe use real butter, which I ran out of this time).

This was taken the next day, after they'd have time to set. Levi caught me right after my shower...

Olivia is very proud of her cookies! She loves to help me bake.

close up of the cookies. Can you guess who picked the color? :)

Evening Prayers

We've started saying prayers at night as Olivia goes to sleep. It started out with me praying out loud and she repeating what I said. Something like:

"Dear Heavenly Father,
Thank you for this day
Thank you for my family
Thank you for Jesus
In His name we pray, Amen."

Now we've moved on to Olivia saying the prayers, and of course she wants me to repeat them after her. These go something like this:

"Dear Heavenly Father,
Thank you for this day
Thank you for my family
I hope you love my kitty
and my lips
and my cheeks.
I love my ears so so so much.
In Jesus' name we pray, Amen."

Austin: We've Arrived!

So really, it's been almost 2 weeks since we arrived in Austin...

(please note - I'm abandoning writing in the 3rd person, ie, writing about "the Jacksons" instead of "us," because it's too hard. :P Plus, you all know it's me, Charity, writing this blog and not Levi. Hee hee.)

Anyway. We left Nashville at the very end of June and made our way to Austin. Thankfully and luckily, Tim & Kathy bought us a Garmin GPS as a going away present. It was (and still is!) so helpful! It has helped us find places to eat, places to stay, the post office. pretty much everything. Every now and then it's wrong but most of the time it's indispensible!

We beat our furniture to Austin by about 5 days. Let me tell you, by the time it arrived we were VERY ready for it. Squatters, we are not. I never realized how much I loved our couches before I had to sit on the floor for nearly a week!

We really love our new house. It's so nice! Two story, with 3 bedrooms and a loft that we turned into an office.

The front door. Pretty stone! And a purple door. :)

 Office space. :)

Living & Dining room, as seen from front door.

As seen from the stairs...

Back toward the front door

Kitchen and Dining Room

Our neighborhood is definitely "suburbia" but it fits us. There is a community playground, a community pool, and an elementary right in the middle of it all! Olivia has definitely enjoyed all of that!

So now we're all settled, and are slowly exploring our way around Austin. In the midst of it all, was Levi's birthday! HAPPY BIRTHDAY LEVI!!! To celebrate we went to a fun restaurant on Lake Travis called The Oasis.  It was yummy food and an awesome view because (according to the menu) the restaurant is on a cliff about 400ft above the water. Definitely a place to take visitors!

And that's it!  Olivia and Kitty are waiting for visitors! :)