Mex & Mel

I have been very bad about blogging this month! That’s really because not much has been going on. But, I do take pictures of Caden every day, or at least I try so here are some fun new ones!

You can go here to see more.

He is trying to open the doors, not quite there yet…that’s a good thing!

How he can sleep like this is beyond me!

Trying on Daddy’s new boots

Ready for Church one Sunday

He loves going down slides

Reading his book

Playing the piano with Moses

Taking a walk

*****This is a more personal, thought provoking blog than normal…you have been warned*****

I have a heavy heart right now for those in Haiti and now those in California, as I’m sure most people do. It is hard for me to put into words my longing to help, my feelings of inadequacy, my desire to help those that have lost everything, but it is even harder/weirder to describe the feelings of assurance that I have in a time like this. Most people will understand and relate to the first few feelings, but others will not understand how I could have assurance and peacefulness at a time of chaos. Call me heartless if you want, but in all honestly I truly believe that the Lord has gone before us in all things and that he had reasons for it all.

I have a tendency to board up worries or problems that I face. I strongly believe that worrying gets you no-where, but like most I am guilty of it. When I really let myself get all worked up I can worry about the stupidest of things, like getting some where on time, planning a party just right, getting my piano to Dallas from Austin, or making sure the house is clean EVERY SINGLE time some one comes over. Yet, a disaster like 9-11, the Haiti earthquake, the current state of war that our country is in, the floods in California, the past hurricanes, tsunamis, and fires that our world has seen don’t cause me to worry. I know that the Lord has plans with these bigger disasters, I have faith that the Lord’s will will prevail in the coming days, months and years that follow. I have faith that Haiti will be built up again one day and that Haitians will worship the Lord again, if not already. Isn’t it funny how I can have faith in the Lord with these HUGE global issues, but with my personal mundane issues I worry. Funny…no…more like sad. It reminds me that I need to trust God with the simplest of things.

Please don’t get my assurance in the Lord confused with not caring. Like I said my heart hurts for those that are hurting, for the families that have lost family members, houses and belongings. My heart hurts when I find out things like our Pastor having cancer, or when my grandmother is having a tough time adjusting to a retirement home, or my parents office being broken into 4 times, or when my dear friends brand new apartment floods….but hurting for/with them and worrying for them are two different things. I say prayers for those things, for the people going through those things and I move on. I give it to God and I then I let God. Most of the time I feel inadequate in how to help, but if He shows me a way to help physically, emotionally or monetarily, I will. I can’t even fathom those that don’t have the Lord in their hearts and how they go through the trials of life. I pray that they find the Lord soon.

I by no means have it all together….please don’t assume so. Just ask Chris, my husband, if he thinks I have it all together. I just stressed out today about getting the song that you hear playing now on this blog post! Crazy…I know. And as I write this I am wondering how I am going to get dinner ready and on the table for Chris by the time he comes home. But overall, I have faith in the Lord that he will guide me toward his will as long as I put in the effort to grow closer to Him. I trust that the Lord knows best. I just need to give him all the small things that I try to control too. Always something to work on.

Through these difficult times it does make me wonder how I can help. Are prayers enough? Is sending money enough? I wish I could do more. Am I missing a sign from the Lord? So many questions that I have. But for now, the way I think I CAN help, the Lord’s will if you will, is www.churcheshelpingchurches.com. Churches Helping Churches is not trying to take away from any other relief effort, they are trying to effectively mobilize the churches to raise funds for relief. So many churches want to help, and now the Lords people can come together as one and give to a Nation in need together. This is an article that mentions the two main pastors of Churches Helping Churches, I like it best when the reporter says “Faith groups offer the fundamental social network for education, welfare and health in a nation with virtually no government — and that was true before the quake. .” This outreach does not only help rebuild the churches, they help the congregation of those churches, the communities and people of Haiti who may not be reached otherwise.

I leave you with these lyrics from Chris Tomlin’s “Let God Arise” :
You can listen to the song by clicking play:

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Hear the holy roar of God resound
Watch the waters part before us now
Come and see what He has done for us
Tell the world of His great love

Our God is a God who saves
Our God is a God who saves

Let God arise
Let God arise
Our God reigns now and forever
He reigns now and forever

His enemies will run for sure
The church will stand, she will endure
He holds the keys of life, our Lord
Death has no sting, no final word

We had our 3rd Annual New Years Party this year. It was a blast! Here are some pictures to recap.

The spread…with the newly painted cabinets in the background! (I finished painting the night before the party) The boxes to the right of the cabinets are my new spice boxes that I got for Christmas! I am going to plant 6 different spices/herbs inside the boxes soon. I have always wanted my own herbs for cooking!

caught ya!!

Playing Rockband

Some of the girls!!

the guys by the fire

Jessica and Sydney (our neighbors precious girls)

Our tree (I already miss it)

out by the fire

Enjoying the fire

Amy and I being silly

Pouring the champagne

Mechsner's and Boudeaus

About 10 minutes before midnight we skyped our friends, The Farmer’s that live in Queensland, Australia. It was so fun to be able to bring in the New Year with them. They, along with the Hadley’s, haven’t missed a Mechsner New Year’s party yet! If you click on the picture it will get bigger and you can see Mandi on the screen on the fire place! She got to watch all of us bring in the New Year!

At about 12:05 I brought in Chris’s birthday cake! We always bring the New Year by singing him happy birthday. Chris really enjoys celebrated his birthday with friends and family every year!

The next morning we woke and had a lazy morning at the house. We love waking up and having cuddle time with Caden. He was so fun that morning, once we did all get up!

In the Mechsner house on someone’s birthday we typically let the birthday person pick things that they want to do that day and what they want to eat. Chris chose to go to Chuck-E-Cheeses!! HAHA! Okay so he chose to go there because some very dear friends of ours were celebrating their daughter’s second birthday there, but you can bet the Chris got a picture with Chuck-E too!

Marianne, the birthday girl Sophia, Chuck-E and Chris

Caden loved Chuck-E-Cheeses! He loved the games, the slide(going down head first of course), the pizza, picking out his prizes and the ball game! He liked to take the balls all over the place and not actually thrown the balls into the game! He DID NOT like Chuck-E though, he seems to not like people dressed in costumes at all! oh well…one day!

You can see more pictures here.

WARNING: long post…you can get the idea of our past week with just pictures here.

Last Saturday, the 19th, we loaded up the car, Caden, dog AND cat in tow and headed to Austin for a week! We are so blessed with wonderful families. Cadens’ second Christmas was so fun, he actually got into opening the gifts and got excited about the new toys!

The festivities started that night with a Christmas/Open House party at Chris’s parents house. (they recently did A LOT of remodeling) My brother, Charlie and his wife Magdalena came in from Poland for the holidays. This was the first time for them to meet Caden, I loved being able to see them and hang out with the them for the week. Caden loved the party, he walked around the whole house, screaming happily and babbling to everyone.

Linda, Grandma, mom and Caden

Maw-Maw, Dad, Charlie and Magdalena

Mom and me

Grandma, me and Caden

Caden LOVED sitting in his rocking chair and watching movies! That was Chris’ chair when he was little.

The next day we took Caden to see Santa. I had a mothers instinct, if you will, that was telling me that Caden would NOT like Santa and sure enough I was right! He went from happy, joyful Caden to screaming, upset Caden within seconds.

waiting in line to see Santa with Grandma

really does not like Santa

On Tuesday night we had dinner at my parents house, my cousin Christopher and his wife Kari came over. It was Karis’ birthday.

We had a great meal then headed out to the 37th street lights! Even though the lights weren’t as big and flashy as they have been in the past it is still fun to see the Austin twist to a Christmas tradition. Here are some examples:

a shark

a UFO

a lawn mower

a sock monkey manger scene

The next morning we woke up and started making christmas cookies. Caden even decorated….errr….ate some of the cookies!

snuggling with Ali

We also went and saw Maw Maw, she just moved into a little cottage at a retirement village. She has a bridge that she walks on from her cottage to the main building. Caden loved walking on the bridge.

walking on the bridge with Maw Maw

We had an early Christmas with Chris’ sister since she had to work on Christmas. Caden got his first taste of opening gifts. It took him a while to get a hold of it, but once he did he loved opening the gifts.

with Aunt Sandy

Of course, minutes later all he wanted was a box and some oranges!

We then headed to Christmas Eve Service at my mom’s church. We knew the nursery would be packed on Christmas Eve so we decided to keep Caden with us in the service. It was going great for a while. We were singing Angels We Have Heard on High and he was dancing in Chris’ arms, clapping and screaming happily. He even let out a big scream at the end of the song and everyone laughed! Then when it came time to read the story of Jesus’ Birth Caden did not want to settle down. He ended up head butting Chris’ nose, then poking Chris in the eye! So Chris took Caden out and when the preacher started to preach he commented on the “joyful scream of a baby” and then said he wished he hadn’t had left, “he had been hackled by more before.” Everyone laughed again!

After the service we headed back to my parents house to have our Christmas! It was a great Christmas and it was so good to have my brother and sister in law there with us.

he loved Mr. Potato Head

Charlie and Magdalena

Magdalena and I

We went to Chris’ parents house that evening and woke up early the next morning to have Christmas at my in-laws house. Caden must have known it was christmas because he woke up at 6:30!! Much earlier than normal.

Caden and Grandpa

walking around with his new slippers on that Grandma gave him

That afternoon Linda and Mike had my family and some family friends, The Shackelfords over for dinner. It was a fun evening of great food and fellowship. Chris got the Wii for Christmas so it wasn’t long before he hooked it up and it became the hit of the party!

Charlie, Magdalena, my parents, and us

katie and Chris playing the Wii

Even Mike and John got into it

It was a great Christmas day! We are so blessed with so much love in our life. Caden is such a joy to us and we look forward to many more years of Christmas with him!

For those of you that don’t live in Dallas, Christmas morning was a white one for Dallas. So we were kinda bummed that we missed the three inches of snow in our neighborhood. However, when we drove into our driveway Saturday evening, we saw some snow that was still in our yard! We immediately got out of the car and took Caden to see the snow. He wasn’t too impressed or excited about it, as you can see in the picture. Oh well…hopefully we will get more this coming week(so the weather says) and we can really have some fun in it!

You can see more pictures here.

I will warn you this is a pretty long post, but mainly because of the pictures. We have been busy with Christmas time things..parties, a show, and family christmas! We leave tomorrow for a week in Austin with our families. Merry Christmas everyone!

You can see more pictures here.

We had a girls night with our bible study. We did a gift exchange of our favorite Christmas decorations. LOTS of things were fought over and stolen. It was so fun! Here we are with our gifts at the end. Except me, I’m taking the picture.

Me, Amy and Lisa

We went to The Christmas Spectacular starring the Rockettes with our friends the Glenn’s.

Dinner before the show

at the show

Pictures weren’t allowed in the theater, but it was a great show. Looking back I think Caden would have loved it, but he stayed home with the sitter.

We had a party at our house for our small group within our Bible Study. Caden had two buddies come and play with him.

Caden, Brayden and Sam

The Helders

The Moores

The Kuntzs

Our good friend Amir was in town the same weekend as our bible study get together. He read Caden his bed time story. Caden loves his uncle Amir!

We went to Maggiano’s for the Ascendio Christmas party. It was a great time and delicious!! Especially the cheesecake…I dare say that it was better than ANY cheesecake factory cheesecake. I know that sounds crazy, but so true!!

all of us....minus Michelle

We had a family christmas night for just myself, Chris and Caden. We went to the Frisco Town Square where they have a music/light show. It was really fun to sit in the car and listen to the music while the lights go on and off with the music. Then we got out and walked around. Caden loved the lights, but he really LOVED walking on the wall by the water fountain.

his hand is in his pocket!!! so cute

We then went home and had our family Christmas. We started by doing the advent for the day. Caden loves eating the chocolate! We have also started a new tradition for Christmas. On Christmas eve everyone gets to open up one present, a specific present. Christmas pajamas! So we all put our pajamas on and then watched Caden open up some more gifts. He really gets into this year, it is so fun! He really loved carrying around a card that he got in the mail from his Great Grandma.

in his new pajamas with his card

And just because this is cute…..Caden is dancing and the little boy I watch two days a week, Moses is having fun too!!

A few years ago we stole an idea for a Christmas card from some dear friends. So for those of you who did not get the card, you can see it here. Chris and I, and one day Caden, list our top ten favorite things from the past year. This past year was so fun watching Caden grow up, I had way more than 10, but you get the idea of what our year was like. We are so blessed in this life and so thankful for Christ’s Birthday on the 25th!

We wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!

Melanie

Watching Caden become a 1 year old & Chris become an AMAZING dad
Completing 2 10K’s & hopefully by the time you read this a half marathon
Angel Fire, NM ski trip and Kansas lake trip with close friends
Farm trip with our dear friends The Shanks
Christmas in July with our friends The Glenns
Fredericksburg trip with Chris
California trip to see Chris’s extended family
2 Beth Moore studies with great girlfriends
Morning snuggle time with Chris and Caden
Family Thanksgiving at our house

Chris

Learning to be a dad
Riding my neighbors 848 Ducati
Bath time with Caden before bed
Going to the farm with The Shanks
Having Caden at the office working with Mel & I.
Kansas Lake trip with the Hadley’s and friends
Christmas in July
Teaching Caden to swim (he’s gonna be a navy seal!) haha
Mel and I’s vacation to the hill country
Trip to California to visit family

Stayed tuned for a blog about fun Christmas parties!!

Well, I did it, along with 20,000+ runners!! let’s just say I am glad it’s over. My knees REALLY can not handle any more running! So I think I will stick to volleyball! Ironically, they don’t hurt AT ALL when I play volleyball. Here are some pictures of my running buddies, Amber, Chrishtan and myself before and after the big race! I am so blessed to have had them there with me. And our friend Amy came out to the finish line and took some great pictures for us! Thanks Amy!

Before-so happy!!

After-so happy, but tired

Mechsner's and Glenn's

Caden liked my medal!

Well, now that it is December I can put our Christmas/Family photos up for 2009. We have a friend, Erin, who is starting her own photography business and wanted to take pictures of us to use as marketing material for the Christmas season. She did a great job, even with Caden not smiling and walking all over the place! (We have a kid that does not like to take photos at all) He is too busy to sit still for a photo! Here are some of the images, you can see more here. If you want to use Erin for your photo needs, check her out, she is great! www.sweeteimages.com Thank you Erin!

Another great friend agreed to take some family pictures for us. We went to the gorgeous Dallas Arboretum first. Let’s just say it wasn’t a good day for Caden, we only got a few good shots. So a few days later we went to a park about a mile from our house, that day went much better! Thank you Amy!

Chris and I both thought this picture was hilarious!

and within seconds he changes to this….a little confused as to why he was crying I think.

Again you can see more family photos here.

I hope all of you have had a great Turkey-day!! We enjoyed some great food and company at my house! After burning one set of rolls, I managed to get all the food on the table with the help of my mom, mother-in-law, grandmother and sister-in-law!! It has been a fun, relaxing day and we are now all in the living room relaxing and watching the Texas/ATM game!!

Some pictures of the day!

The Thankful Tree, a new tradition for us

jewels getting ready for christmas

Ali and Caden

Caden and his Grandpa

mom, me and maw-maw

Sandy and her snow flake pancakes...YUM!!

The table set up

Caden and his maw-maw

taking a walk

Mechsner family photo

getting ready for Christmas!!

Rootin' for the Aggies!!

you can see more pictures here.