Friday, October 5, 2012

birthday boy!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY
to my favorite guy!
best day ever.
I am so thankful for my amazing, hardworking husband! What a blessing to get to spend every day with my best friend. How did we get so lucky?? :)
 
first date. also one of the best days :)
 Love you, honey! Happy 27th!

· sylvia ·

Monday, October 1, 2012

dear sarah richardson....

.... please come design my house. Also, a few more season's of Sarah's House would be great.

Sarah Richardson Design - Hilltop Contemporary - Bedroom
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love these colors!
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cream, blue, gold living room by sarah richardson
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sarah's house season 4 living room
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natural + blue & white, sarah richardson
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sarah richardson mudroom
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Pretty fabulous, eh?

· sylvia ·

Tuesday, September 25, 2012

we missed sandy.

It has been a whirlwind of a year for the Mack Family:

Our Wedding in October
These guys ran a half marathon in November

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Christmas in Colorado!
10K in February
Ryan's graduation from Medical School in May
 {Insert picture of Bryce & Julie graduating from ACU in May!}

Trip to the Grand Canyon in June
Melissa & Blake's Wedding in June
Bryce & Julieanne's Wedding in July
Annual Mack Family Labor Day Retreat in September

This year was filled with so much happiness and joy, but it was a hard year. At each one of these occasions, we really missed Sandy.

God has been so faithful to this family this year (and always), blessing us with so many people to bring us love and encouragement. I don't have an answer to the age-old question, "Why do bad things happen to good people?" but I do know (from experience) He will always be faithful to comfort and strengthen us through storms and bring us out of them. You can read my sister-in-law's inspiring post on this here.

My father-in-law, Steve, came to visit us in Temple this weekend. We had a great time going to dinner with him, and a sweet time where we sat talked and remembered Sandy. We are so thankful for the life she led and the legacy she left!

Sandy loved Scripture, and she framed her favorite scriptures and placed them all around the house - I don't think there's a single room in the Mack home that doesn't have at least one of these scriptures in it! Steve left us with this gift, and Ryan and I are so proud to have it in our home. An inspiring Scripture that perfectly describes the life that Sandy led. We will always treasure this:

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Psalm 19:14
 
We miss you!


· sylvia ·

Sunday, September 16, 2012

fall

Had a wonderful cloudy & wet fall weekend with my friends Emily & Cassey. We spent the weekend in Meridian, TX shopping, eating, and catching up on life. It was so fun! Praise the Lord for great friends. :)

We sat out on the porch for several hours this weekend and it was fabulous. If I wasn't already in the "fall mood," you better believe I am now! Here is some of my current favorite fun fall inspiration:

Artichokes for fall
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candle cardigan for fall
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paint pumpkins blue for fall
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hmmm, hot tea
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 So many pretty, easy projects to warm up your home and make it look like fall! 
Hearty Chicken Stew with Butternut Squash & Quinoa Recipe
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This hearty Butternut Squash Stew with Quinoa and Chicken was my favorite fall meal I made last year, and I can't wait to do it again! Ryan loved it, and we would highly recommend it to anyone.

Enjoy the weather! Let's hope it stays this way. :)

· sylvia ·

Tuesday, September 11, 2012

welcoming some new friends

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We have a new addition to our family... meet Bradley Mack!
We adopted him last Friday, and we are in L.O.V.E.
And not that I'm biased at all... but we think we may have the smartest dog in the entire world... he learned to sit in about 20 minutes.
He's such a cutie, and he can't wait to meet his cousins Kevin and Andy!

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At the Humane Society - isn't he cute???

 Not enjoying leash training so much....

 What a stud! :)

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Snuggle time!

We also got to welcome a new little man to our Temple family today... Carter Robert Edwards was born to Jeff and Lauren Edwards this afternoon! We got to see him at the hospital tonight, and he's absolutely perfect. Lauren looked amazing, and it was fun to see their new little miracle!
Welcome to the world, Carter!

· sylvia ·

Thursday, September 6, 2012

house tour {before}

In July, we moved to Temple, TX! Ryan started his residency at Scott & White, and he's loving it so far. He works a lot, but he loves his patients and the people he works with. So far, we are very happy with our choice! (It is also fun that Jeffrey & Lauren Edwards and Chase & Taryn Cawyer moved here as well!)

Once we found out we were moving to Temple, we decided to buy a house here. We looked at a lot and changed our mind many times.... and we found the perfect house for us! Here are all of the "before" pictures. These are the pictures that the previous owners posted online to show the house. (Sorry for the poor quality!) I'll be pointing out all of my least favorite things about the previous decor (in a loving way, of course), and I'll be periodically adding updates to the blogs with changes we're making! We're trying to take it slow and make smart choices about what we change. Which is hard for us (or me), but I think we're doing well!

Here we go....

 Cute little one story house - perfect for us! :)
 This is the living room which you can see as you walk in the front door....
Goodbye yucky red curtains hung at an awkward height!
We have already painted our living/dining area. (Benjamin Moore Grant Beige)
It is a more neutral color (the old color was sort of yellow-y), and I love it more everyday!
Grant Beige Benjamin Moore
{Benjamin Moore Grant Beige}


 This is the view from the living room into the kitchen/dining area.
We love how open it is!

 Our kitchen!
Goodbye rooster decor and ugly shade over the sink.
We will be painting the kitchen soon, and adding knobs to the cabinets!
My dream was to paint the cabinets, but this isn't our dream house. So we're sticking with the oak.

kitchen window alma project {not our kitchen}
One of my favorite bloggers, Centsational Girl, re-did this kitchen for a woman who helps foster children who are transitioning out of homelessness. (You can read the story here.) 
I am inspired by 1) her, in general, and 2) how she took a "normal" kitchen that you can find in a builders grade home and made it pretty... or less of an eyesore, depending on your perspective!
(We can't all have BHG kitchens, people. I've accepted this. It felt good.)
You should also check our her blog! She has tons of great idea for decor on a budget.
So this is sort of my kitchen inspiration... now, if I can just talk R into a fun back splash! :)

 Master bedroom!
This room will be painted. Soon, I hope!
And we love the window, it actually goes almost all the way to the ceiling.
And we're so thankful for the blackout shade that the previous homeowners (also a resident family) left for us! It has really helped Ryan when he sleeps during the day and works at night!

 Master Bath

 Guest room. Many changes here... someday! :)

 Office... you can't tell, but the walls are seriously the worst color ever.
Pink? Beige? I like to call them flesh color. Just trust me, it's not pretty.
Unfortunately, the office is at the bottom of my priorities,
so it will have to stay this color as long as I can stand it!

And the guest bath! I have a pretty little makeover in mind for this room as well. :)

 Aaand.... the crowning glory! Our enormous backyard!
Can't wait for a little puppy to be running around here soon. :)

I hope you enjoyed our house tour!
I'm just glad to live in a home, no matter what it looks like,
with the one I love the most!
(And the one who just laughs instead of getting mad when I accidentally go to Target and accidentally buy a bunch of stuff I didn't mean to for our house....oops! Love you, honey!)

· sylvia ·

Monday, September 3, 2012

welcome to our blog!

Happy Labor Day Weekend!
We got back from Ryan's annual family retreat in Grapevine, TX, today
and I thought, "Hey, why not start our blog?"
So here we are! (This is a big week for me, new blog + instagram! Fun!)
I plan to post lots of pictures, ramblings, rantings, and bits of inspiration.
(If you can't tell, I'm totally new to blogging, so feel free to pass along any advice you have!)


 "Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God."
Colossians 3:1-3

· sylvia ·