It's Been A While

It's been really busy around here, but now things are starting to wind down...sort of. I can't believe how quickly Christmas and New Year's went by. I guess it seems that way every year though. We had a really great holiday and shared some really good times with friends and family. Now, we're heading into new things, like Gavin starting up Salvation Army basketball. He's excited and so are we. That's the only new thing on our weekly schedule and I think that's good because our family doesn't seem to do real well if there is a ton going on. I think we like more down time than we like to be running off to several things, so this suits us just fine. Life is really good and God has blessed us so much. We have seen some major things happen in our life lately that just confirms our faith and is making it grow more and more each day. 2009 looks like it's going to be a great year!

Here are some pictures from Christmas ;-)


Asher wishing you a Very Veggie Christmas


Gavin, Riley, Asher and Payton on Christmas Eve with their new blankets from Grandma.


Asher with George, that he got from Grandma (he hardly ever puts him down)


Riley with his new Ben 10 Alien Force guy from Aunt Delyn


Gavin with some of his new Legos

Thanksgiving, Christmas Tree Day and Potty Training All Rolled Into One!

Well, as it is for most people, we have been crazy busy kicking off the holiday season. Amidst the usual holiday stuff, Asher is finally potty training. I could not be more blissfully happy about the idea of not having to buy diapers or change poopy pants in the near future. Other than that little process we have going on, we are just busy being thankful for all that we have. Our kids have said some really profound things over the past couple weeks and Riley even asked if he could pray before Thanksgiving dinner at my Aunt Cindy's house (which he did and did a really good job). Our kids are really starting to see God working in their lives and loving Him and there is nothing I want more than that. Gavin even made a big cross out of sheets of paper that he colored and taped together and wrote "Jesus died for me" on it and stuck it on his bedroom door. Now, I'm not usually a fan of things being stuck on bedroom doors, but you better believe this Momma is leaving that one up! We also started (about a month ago) reading a Bible story from the Beginner's Bible every night, as well as doing a devotion from the devotional book that Asher got at a Family Journey In Faith event at church. The kids have been responding very well to it and like to take turns reading the stories, then we all discuss the story and pray. It's been really great for our family. We're taking a break from that for a while because we just started a family Christmas devotions book that we are doing each night and when we're done reading it and discussing and praying, the kids get to have their chocolate from their advent calendar. It's a fun way to end the day. God has been very good to us and it's good to see the kids realizing that and wanting to thank Him. I think this is going to be our best holiday season yet, now that we're really focusing on the true meaning of Christmas.
Now, without further ado, here are some pictures from Thanksgiving, potty training and Christmas tree day! I may add more later, but this site uploads pictures so slowly that it drives me crazy!

Scratching The Creativity Itch

I was just going crazy wanting to do something creative the other day, so I thought about what materials I had available to me and remembered that I had a ton of different fabrics and black fleece in my sewing cart. I decided that I would do something practical that we could use, and I made new stockings for our whole family. I let the kids pick the fabric they wanted theirs made out of and made Brian's with Lion's fabric and mine with a toile fabric that I had bought a long time ago (because I like it so much) and never did anything with. Everyone was really excited to see the finished products and the kids stood around waiting for each of theirs to get finished. It was really cute. So, I scratched my creativity itch and made something practical that we're all excited to use at Christmas this year. Now, what project to do next?



Asher picked a Sesame Street fabric for his stocking.



Riley picked a fabric with dogs playing baseball and Gavin picked a Spongebob fabric.



Here's mine!



Brian's Lions stocking.



They are all completely lined with fleece, so they can hold a pretty good amount of weight and are warm and cozy in case you want to wear them. LOL They all have a sturdy fleece loop to hang them with too.

My All In All

I am just so in love with the Lord and He is showing me day after day that He is here and that He loves me. Just last week, I had a situation that was causing me much heartache and really bringing me down and I was praying diligently about it and asking God to help me know how best to deal with the situation. I listened hard for His answers and did what I felt He was asking me to do. On Saturday night, my prayers were answered more specifically than I could have ever imagined. I won't go into detail, but words that I spoke in prayer literally came out exactly from one of the people it was concerning. Brian and I both were so in awe of just how amazing our God is. We know He answers prayer, but for Him to do it in such an exact and precise way was just incredible. He really is my All in All. Thank you, Lord. You're all I need.


We sing this song in church occasionally and it is just exactly how I feel.

Girls' Shopping Weekend 2008

As usual, there was fun, laughter, arguing, tears...but all in all, lots of love and memories being made. Afterall, what do you expect when you get a group of women together for 3 days straight? Anyway we shopped our butts off in Birch Run, stayed in our favorite hotel in Frankenmuth (The Drury Inn) and finished the weekend off with shopping at Genesse Valley Mall, dinner at a wonderful Italian restaurant that we stumbled upon by accident called Ruggero's and last but not least, a trip to Kohl's. Probably one of the most fun parts of the weekend is when all of us young girls got back to the hotel on Saturday night and went in our room and put on mustaches and waited for our moms to come over to our room. It's amazing how much fun a group of people can have with some fake mustaches that only cost $3.99! That's a heck of a deal for so much fun if you ask me. Anyway, here are some pictures from our weekend. Enjoy!

What do a dude from the 70s, a monkey and The Thing have to do with each other?

Not anything really, but that's what my kids were for Halloween. Asher wore the monkey costume that Riley wore in 2005 (the year Asher was born), Riley's costume was $10.00 new from ebay and Gavin wore a suit my uncle wore to a wedding in the 70s when he was a kid. All we did was buy him an afro wig and he wore a pair of my shoes and we were good to go! What a fun night! We did Trunk or Treat at church and the kids really had a lot of fun. Here are a few pictures.


The boys getting ready to go out to Trunk or Treat.



Gavin as a 70s Disco Dude.



Asher as a monkey.



Riley as The Thing.



The boys and I walking to church for Trunk or Treat.

Life or Death

Isn't the choice obvious? To God it certainly is.