Winter in PA

Kaitlyn learned that January snowflakes taste better than December's from Lucy while watching "The Charlie Brown Christmas Special."

Lauren's favorite thing to do (next to sledding down the hill) is to make snow angels.

Presidential Prayer

Heath wrote a blog for our church's website. I want to share a link to the blog here on our family blog. I encourage you all to go and read it.

Presidential Prayer: a meaningful moment or worthless words.

Heath also blogs at Heath's Tidbits. This is his devotional blog that he hopes will help people go through the Bible from Genesis to Revelation.

Fun While it Lasts

We woke up to a little bit of snow Thursday morning. The children were very excited. I even let them go out and play in it before they completed all their school work and chores for the day because the sun was starting to melt the snow from our back deck! You've got to have fun while it (the snow) lasts! T thought maybe we were going to get that 6 inches the weatherman forecasted this past weekend. No such luck though. It is just cold here, very, very cold. The weatherman got that right.

T's Recollection

A few months ago, the children had to share a recollection with me for their creative expression assignment. Yesterday I spent some time looking through our notebook, and this entry made me smile. It reminded me of all the good times we had in our "vacation" home from February-September 2008.

Hope you enjoy T's Recollection

Riding my Bike

Blane taught me to ride my bicylce. I can ride in the grass now. When I had training wheels I could only ride on concrete. Riding my bicycle is a lot more fun than running, because it's a lot faster. I can ride it on concrete and grass with those big wheels. Concrete gives me a lot more speed, and hills give me the most speed of all times!

Blane, thanks for teaching T how to ride his bicycle!

More about our visit to Grandma's House

The children enjoy riding Miss Kitty while we're at Grandma's house.

This is our cat Lolly. Grandma kind of adopted her when we moved to PA. Mom wasn't too thrilled about the idea of driving in a mini-van with three children, and a cat nearly 1, 000 miles. So, Grandma took Lolly home with her. The children couldn't believe how much Lolly had grown in 4 months!
Grandma has a really cute dog named Cody. He is great with the kids! The children keep reminding Mom and Dad that we promised them a dog once we moved to PA (since we had to get rid of our other pets). Maybe this spring...if our landlord gives us permission.

CA Cousins

We made a last minute decision to travel to Southern MO to visit Heath's sister and her family before they move to Southern CA. According to mapquest, once they move we will be 2, 634.17 miles apart!

My sister-in-law has always been like a sister to me, and I am also thankful to call her my best-friend. Her children are sweet-natured, well-mannered, well-behaved, and truly a delight to be around. We love them! Jess and Don (the mom and dad) are wonderful parents who strive to point their children to Christ in all they do.
I am certain they will have a wonderful, happy, and healthy life in sunny Southern CA!

So, Uncle Don, Aunt Jessica, Allison, and Carter, we love you and we will miss you greatly! Let's promise to meet up at Grandma's house in MO from time to time. We promise to come to CA and visit so we can go to Disneyland, and build sandcastles at the beach!

Bring on 2009!

Christmas is over, and 2009 is right around the corner. We enjoyed our first Christmas in Pennsylvania. We made a lot of precious memories together as a family. We witnessed joy and excitement in our children as they opened their gifts on Christmas morning. We also experienced joy in giving to others this year through participating in Operation Christmas Child, and have been praying for boys and girls all over the world who received the special packages this Christmas season. It's so easy to get caught up in the "I want, I want" mode at Christmas. I pray our family will be able to give more to others each passing year. 

As 2009 approaches, like many, I have been thinking about New Year's resolutions. This year I want to get a piano and start playing again. I also want to play with my children more. Sometimes I don't say "yes" enough to their requests because I think the laundry or dishes are more pressing. I want to say "yes" more in 2009, and I think I'm going to have a lot more fun! I want to read more classic literature. This has been a goal of mine for the past couple years, and I'm making some progress. In 2008, I enjoyed reading books by Louisa May Alcott, Charlotte Bronte, and John Bunyan. I also want to learn a little bit of Spanish before I leave for my 10-day mission trip to Peru in July!

So, what are your New Year's resolutions?

"Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart." Psalm 37:4

May 2009 be a year when you truly "delight yourself" in Him!