LAKE PLEASANT

Our family loves water. Whether its a day on the lake out boating, visiting the Pacific Ocean, or a man made lake in the Arizona desert, thirty minutes north of our home. 
We love it. 
We are happiest here.

Ric and I fell in love around water. 

We got married next to water. 
We honeymooned in water (Oceanside, CA.)

Our sons middle name; translated in one of the two Japanese Kanji it represents, 

is Ocean.

Yesterdays lake day was just happiness. 
I truly mean that, despite what Hawke's face tells you in the photo -- he was simply grumpers we (read Mom) asked for a moment on land for a family photo. 
He is our fearless fish.
We are the happy Sherman's.

Xx, M

CHRISTMAS WILL BE DIFFERENT

This year our #ShermStyle fam wanted to switch up how we do Christmas. We hope to really focus our efforts into keeping it a Christ centered Christmas. To help achieve this, we opted to only gift each other/receive three gifts this year. One to represent each of the gifts given to Christ: Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh. No, our budget isn't swelling enough to present one another with matching gifts fit for a King, but we expect our simplified Christmas to certainly support our Student budget.

To guide our hearts & minds towards a CHRISTmas, we are partnering with New Tradition Crafts for 25 Days of Christ. This activity set comes with a booklet and display of 25 ornaments. One a day, to hang on your tree, or to display however you choose. The booklet it set with prompts of a scripture, video and short story/phrase/quote to read, that coincides with that days ornament.

Hawke and I simply had fun opening and exploring all the ornaments we received. We can't wait to start our day or end our evenings with Christ. If you'd like to celebrate with your family and ours, use the discount code SHERMAN10 for 10% off your order for the next 48 hours.

Get pumped for the holidays, enjoy your festivities and egg nog (which I sincerely do not enjoy), sing those songs, exchange those gifts, and remember to keep your heart warm and open to those around you and those in need.

Xx,

      M

HALLOWEEN 2016

It's 10:00pm on November 7 in Arizona, temperature outside: 70 degrees Fahrenheit. Moving to a new state has been so different for me, luckily the state of Arizona is pretty consistent, weather wise, so it hasn't been too much of an adjustment. Growing up in Utah (25.5 years), I remember being so bummed on Halloween - because it was so cold. You would need to wear a coat to go trick-or-treating but then people couldn't see our costumes. I remember years being so upset that I shed tears over my unseen, cool costume. (Oh, to be a kid and have those kinds of worries again!)

We had so much fun with our festivities throughout the month. We loved taking Hawke out this year. He almost understood the celebrating and trick-or-treating. H would go up to the door, grab a candy, then place it in his pumpkin bucket. He'd then proceed to the other kids buckets and try to grab candy to put into his. We had a good laugh.