Hello, 2009!!

So, in 2008 God had us pack up everything, leave our friends and family, and relocate to the other coast- some 3,000 miles away...
I can only wonder what He'll do in 2009!
But, I can say this: if I learned ANYTHING last year, it was that my God is bigger than a U-Haul, 3 months of living long distance from my husband, loosing 1,000 sq. feet, squeezing all my earthly belongings into a 9'x9'x16' POD, saying good-bye to life-as-I-knew-it, not seeing my mom for months on end, trading in a 10-drawer kitchen for a 3-drawer kitchen, pulling my kids away from their grandparents, and leaving the job (and closest friends) I'd known for years.
My family has learned so many lessons and is, undoubtedly, closer to each other and our Lord than we've ever been!
Thank you, Jesus, for 2008 and the glory it brought to You! Bring on 2009-- and where ever you are taking us from here!!

Happy Birthday Jesus

The kids are playing with the Nativity Scene from the What God Wants for Christmas story... we were trying to take some Christmas pictures...

Below, can you tell we were more than hyped up on Christmas Cookies-- Santa's coming to town! After donning our Christmas pjs, the kids selected the cookies to leave for Santa, poured him a glass of milk, and sprinkled the Reindeer Food in the backyard...


We celebrated the birthday of Chirst in style. Christmas Eve we spent a few hours (hours for me... minutes for them...) in the kitchen baking some cookies, frosting, and then decorating them. We had planned on also making Jesus a birthday cake, but the cookies were as far as we got.



We cleaned up, packaged our goodies, and headed off to church for our Christmas Eve Service where the kids sang a few songs.Will and Em shared their cookies with everyone. Scott led a great Christmas acoustic set, and we praised God for the greatest gift ever.




After the service, we had an "intimate" dinner with 20+ of our good friends from church (and a restaurant full of stangers) at Wonderful Chinese where we sand Fra-ra-ra-ra-ra...ra-ra-ra-ra..
Back at home we read the Christmas Story and exchanged a couple presents. Will gave Em a Sleeping Beauty Doll, complete with the bed and pillow. She had bought him a Walle toy. They also opened their Christmas pjs.
Photography by Will...

Christmas morning brought more fun; Santa was generous this year. We also saved all our gifts that had been shipped to us- fun stuff from Aunt Debbie, Nana and Papa,
Aunt Brenda, The Bassetts, The Lees. Em was a bit confused as to why Santa left her a kitchen set...especially since it was not Princess... and she had only asked for Princess things... Will loved it all, and with each present he opened he told us that he'd "always wanted this... it is so cool," no matter if it was a car or a pair of underware.
After opening gifts, we ate some Christmas breakfast (traditional cinnamon rolls, sausage cheese balls, and grapefruit), watched our Christmas movies (Home Alone, The First Noel, Sleeping Beauty, 101 Dalmations...), and had a quiet (except for a couple brother-sister disagreements) day and acutally got some rest!





Even though we didn't get to spend the day with our families, we spend a lot of the day on the phone, and we never got out of our pjs! A quiet Christmas wasn't so bad after all! All we needed was a little snow!!

Merry Christmas 2008!!!

The Things Will Says

Will told me the other day, as he walked out the front door, that he needed to "go get some exercise". He very matter-of-factly stated that his heart need to be "beeping" for him to be alive....

Will assisted Scott with the Pulse (the announcements, pre-recorded-video-style) for church Sunday. Will's particular job was to let the congregation know about the Christmas Eve service. Scott let Will know the details that he'd need to communicate, like the time and the fact that we'd be having communion and candling lighting. Will responded, "So, we'll be lighting the kanorah [translation: menorah]..."
(Big thanks to public school and Handy Manny on Disney for the education on all the different holidays. That took a bit of explaining...)

Em is into Alice in Wonderland lately. Will walked into the room, stopped, looked at the TV screen, and said, "Boy, that's a curious place." Then he turned around and left the room.

And then there are the big questions...
"How big is God? What does God look like? Can I write God a note? How can Jesus be God's son?"

A Roseville Christmas

BCR was in the Roseville Christmas, I mean Holiday, Parade. Here are a few fun pics from that day... Merry Christmas from all of us!

The CA Ivey's shout "Candy!" That's what the back of the truck is LOADED down with!

It's Nick- the Road-Blocker-Hurderling Elf. He's on Santa's track team.
The BCR staff: Heather, The Grinch, and Scott. Where's Leonard?

Rudolph, Will, Em, and a pick-up truck.

Thankful

Things I'm thankful for:

- DVR- how else could I watch TV- I mean, can you say FASTFORWARD commercials..

- warm sheets right out of the dryer

- healthy, happy, self-entertaining, funny to watch and funnier to play with kids

- good books, like Ruth or James or Ecclesiastes, or anything by Francine Rivers, or this new book I'm readying Girl Meets God

- The Disney Channel, Hot Wheels, and American Girl

- Scott. EVERYTHING about him. Even the way he exaggerates.

- a job, even though I gripe from time to time about it, I have a great job with great people.

- food. specifically chocolate food.

- my Central Perk team

- my family. I love my parents and little brother and sisters and brothers-in-laws and in-laws, and nephews and nieces and grandmother and aunts and uncles and cousins...

- shoes. No matter how big I get, those are the things that always fit.

- friends. who else invites you over for thanksgiving when you're 3,000 miles from home, entertains you while you're in line at Toys R Us for an hour and a half, leaves you funny texts, makes you laugh, helps you remember, and knows how to comfort you before you even finish your story?

- Campfires and scarves

- little brushes to clean under your fingernails

- lip gloss

- a God who loves me; who knows my past, present, and future and died for me despite it all.