Praise Reports and More Prayer Requests

- My cousin Mary's daughter is doing great. She is well on the road to recovery. Thank you to everyone who left a comment, or went to their blog to leave a comment. I know it means a lot to know people out there are praying.

- Which brings me to another friend, Angie. She is undergoing treatment for thyroid cancer recurrence. This treatment includes radiation and isolation from her loved ones including her children. I can't imagine what it would be like going through what she is, but she is able to look to God for strength.

- Please pray for Sharon as she is undergoing Chemotherapy. From what I understand, it is very tiring and wearing, especially when you have a family and have to push yourself on some days to keep going.

- My dear friend Vera and her husband Danny are welcoming their 2nd child. He was born on Monday. I love his beautiful name. Joshua Ethan Oliver.

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"Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn."
Romans 12:15 reminds us as Christians, we do not rejoice or grieve alone. We are to bear one another's burdens. There's a beautiful song we sing at church that reminds me of these sweet friends. Some are rejoicing for healing or a new birth, some are grieving and praying for healing. Some are walking in the land of abundance and some are walking in the wilderness. No matter what situation we are in, we can still see the work of God in our lives and seek to glorify him with our life. This is why we say "Blessed Be Your Name."

Blessed Be Your Name
by Matt Redman
- - -
Blessed Be Your Name
In the land that is plentiful
Where Your streams of abundance flow
Blessed be Your name

Blessed Be Your name
When I'm found in the desert place
Though I walk through the wilderness
Blessed Be Your name

Every blessing You pour out
I'll turn back to praise
When the darkness closes in, Lord
Still I will say

Blessed be the name of the Lord
Blessed be Your name
Blessed be the name of the Lord
Blessed be Your glorious name

Blessed be Your name
When the sun's shining down on me
When the world's 'all as it should be'
Blessed be Your name

Blessed be Your name
On the road marked with suffering
Though there's pain in the offering
Blessed be Your name

Every blessing You pour out
I'll turn back to praise
When the darkness closes in, Lord
Still I will say

Blessed be the name of the Lord
Blessed be Your name
Blessed be the name of the Lord
Blessed be Your glorious name

Blessed be the name of the Lord
Blessed be Your name
Blessed be the name of the Lord
Blessed be Your glorious name

You give and take away
You give and take away
My heart will choose to say
Lord, blessed be Your name

Sledding is so much more fun when.......

....Papi is pushing!!

Over night, the temperature got way low and all the ice we had was slippery. Yesterday, the temps were much higher (hence no hats!) and everything was starting to melt. The ice definitely made sledding on our little hill much funner.

Dashing Through the Snow

Finally! We have been waiting for a snow day for a very long time! The kids jumped out as fast as they could because we knew it would be changing over to ice/sleet later. Unfortunately, it wasn't good enough to make a snowman. But it was great for sledding!!

Now after some hot chocolate, we're all warm back inside!

Asking for Prayer

I wanted to post asking for prayers for my cousin, Mary and her husband, Jeremy. They are facing some hard decisions with their infant daughter. She is having severe muscle weakness and doctors are still trying to figure out what is the cause. They are holding onto the promises of God that He is faithful and takes care of His people. Please pray for their family during this time, healing for their daughter, wisdom for the doctors, and caring for their young son as well.

Please click over to their blog and leave them an encouraging note. They are fairly new to the blogging world, so lets show their family some lovin'!

"And he shall give His angels charge over you to guard you in all your ways."
Psalm 91:11

Just For Kids (2)

Last year we started a tradition that before the kids go back to school, we like to try to squeeze in some more fun. Although, with everything going on with the holidays, we were ready to spend the weekend winding down and getting back into routine. Well, we held off on routine and decided to go for it again. Since we were already in Winchester for Olive Garden, we decided to make a get-away out of it and stay up there the night.

The kids getting all cozy:

Alisia and I got hooked on Mancala :

And had to do some swimming while we were at the hotel:

The next day we spent the day at Fun Expedition. This place has tons to do! The kids loved lazer tag the most! I thought Caleb would be too little, he even raised his hand that he wasn't going to do it, but he ended up playing twice.

We also did some blowling.

Video Games:

Black Light Mini-Golf

After all that going on, getting back into routine was rough. But that's where were at now! The Lord has been gracious and we look forward to what this year will bring.

Welcoming 2009

New Years Eve, New Years day and Jan 2nd all seemed to run together.
We brought in the new year with some friends from church. This is Johanna and Sandy with Caleb and Alisia at about 2 am on Jan 1st. I knew the kids would love staying up, but I didn't think I'd last. We ALL slept in the next morning till noon.


New Years day, we headed to my parents house for dinner and more fellowship. We had a nice time with my grandparents, Reba, and my Aunt Barbara and Uncle Mike who we don't get to see very often.

Here's a picture of Mike showing his "C-cup" to Caleb. Lots of laughs. Although Caleb wasn't sure why.

On January 2nd our family gathered at Olive Garden in Winchester to celebrate some more. Olive Garden is always a treat since we don't have one close.

With all the hardships we face, my prayer for the new year is that we do not fear what lies ahead, and faithfully serve the Lord in any situtation we are in. May we always remember stories of how the Lord has protected and provided for us and pass these down to our children.

"Only fear the Lord, and serve him faithfully with all your heart; for consider what great things he has done for you."

1 Samuel 12:24

Crossing Cultures

Fiesta Navideña
Celebrating the Holidays is always a big deal, and for our family, we have the blessing of celebrating with a taste of Latino culture. We've struggled with balancing both cultures and have ended up making our own traditions that don't quite fully represent one culture or the other. The mix is great and helps Angel feel at home. This year, we helped our church plan a special outreach service for the Latino community. It was our first time doing something like this, and was a great success.
Interrested in how Latinos celebrate? Well, a few things are essential for a real Latino flavored Fiesta!
1. Patience. Usually there is a beginning time, but typically the fiesta never begins at that time. And there's never really an ending time. People come when they want and leave when they want.
2. Food. Tamales, Mole, Tinga, Flan, Galletas, Pan Dulce. Yum, yum, yum! This is typically done potluck style and there is usually enough to feed an army! When word gets out about a fiesta, people bring their family, and their in-laws, extended families, abuelos, primos, neighbors, and the list goes on. So a lot of food is a good thing.


3. Piñata. Not just the piñata, but people for crowd control, someone to control the piñata, someone to do the blindfold and spinning. Someone to call 911? You know, just to be prepared. Here's Alisia and Caleb taking their turn at a swing. Angel was the pupet master controlling the piñata. That's usually his job. And notice he's wearing a Santa hat? Not very Latino-ish. That's part of the crossing-cultures thing.

Christmas Update

Finally! A long over-due update from our Christmas! The kids are back in school and hoping for a snow day! We are finally getting back into the swing of things, but boy was that a struggle!

We were blessed this year with two amazing Christmas program from the kids school. This was Alisia's first year playing the bells with the older grades. This was Caleb's first Christmas play and seeing him on stage raising his hands and lifting his voice to celebrate the birth of our King deeply touched my soul!

Alisia and Caleb helped me deliver gifts to families I work with. For many of these families, it was the only gift they recieved for Christmas.

We spent Christmas Eve with family.

Our Tree looked soo pretty when every thing was finally ready and wrapped and Angel and I headed to bed for a few hours before the kids woke up. Actually, Angel was the first one up!

Christmas Morning - Santa's Gifts:

Nativity Story:

One of our traditions is to read the Christmas story and act it out with the Nativity set.

Stockings!!

Caleb was so excited to give Papi his present that he wrapped all by himself.

Alisia was psyched about her new MP3 Player!

finally playing the new Scene-it game! Soo fun! We love board games!

We enjoyed tons of family time over the holidays! It's still hard to imagine how our Christmas next year will be so very different from this one with a new little one! Come back soon, I hope to update more this week before I get too behind! We had lots going on before school started back.