Wednesday, December 26, 2012

Our Christmas letter and more fun pictures

Greetings Dearest Friends and Family,
This year has been a very busy year for us, but as always we thankful for God’s provision and His amazing grace. The biggest news for us this year is that we have decided to head toward this mission field in 2013. Our goal is to go to the Dominican Republic by next fall. If you would like to know more or receive our support letter please let us know!
Randy has continued to work at the post office this year. He works 6 days a week and about 9 to 10 hours a day. This continues to be a huge adjustment for us, and at times is beyond exhausting but we are exceedingly grateful for God providing him with a job. Being a postman has allowed Randy a lot of i pod time. He has been able to listen through several seminary courses and countless sermons. It has been a year of learning and growth for Randy.
Emilie continues to be at home with the  kids and is homeschooling Autry and Clarabelle. It is a joy for her to be able to spend so much time with our children. She also has learned to sew and has thoroughly enjoyed using this creative outlet in her spare time. Randy and Emilie also started a new program at our church called Kids Corner. It takes place during the second service and is for visiting kids ages 6-8. We have both enjoyed developing a curriculum that preaches the gospel through every story in the bible.
Randy and Emilie were able to go to the Dominican Republic this year and although the first part of the trip was to explore different options for the mission field we were also able to go to the beach for a small vacation. It was  a great time of relaxation and rejuvenation for us after a long year.
Autry continues to be our adventurous, fun loving boy. He will turn 7 at the end of  December and is an avid reader. He is a boy’s boy in every way but he still loves cuddling which makes a mommy’s and daddy’s hearts glad. He loves Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, and anything else that includes knights and fighting. His favorite activity besides reading is dressing up in all his knight gear and fighting bad guys in our backyard. He played both baseball and football this year and enjoyed them both.
Clarabelle is 5 and is our resident mother of the house. She takes care of everyone in the house even when they don’t want to be taken care of. She is a very content girl, that loves all her dollies and plays with them for hours daily. Clarabelle  is a kind hearted girl and is passionate about telling her younger siblings about Jesus. She is doing gymnastics this year and is becoming quite the athlete.  
Adelaide turned 4 this year and is our sweet girl or Daddy’s baby as she likes to be called. Adelaide loves to be with her family and loves playing with her big sister and doing everything Clarabelle does. She is a joy to be around.  She loves crafts, puzzles, and playing memory. Adelaide also is doing gymnastics this year and loves it.
Gibson enjoys being the family’s comic relief. He is 2 and constantly makes us laugh with his antics and funny personality. He is a bundle of energy and loves playing with his brother and sisters.  He talks non stop and loves telling knock, knock jokes.
I hope this letter finds you well and it is our hope and prayer that you may all know and cherish the sweet grace of God in the upcoming year.




Christmas cookies!



Gibson wanted nothing to do with getting in the picture

Santa snuck in

Getting our tree



Waiting to  go find their stockings


HOoray, we are looking for our stocking

Addie found hers

Autry's was in the dishwasher

Yes! A Russel Wilson jersey!
(This was his favorite present, like father like son)

We went to the new aquarium on Christmas day. Claire is not
to sure about the Moray Eel. 

Trying to pet a sting ray

Gibson was trying his hardest to touch it

and he finally got it!

Wednesday, November 14, 2012

Saturday, March 10, 2012

Running

Last summer I started running and I have become addicted. I decided I need to start chronicling my running experiences a little more. In 8 days I am going to be running the Portland 15k (9.3 miles) shamrock run. This is a crazy course, where the first 6 miles are pretty intense hills. I am super nervous but I feel that if I can run this I can do anything. I am running my first half marathon on the 4th of July with my friend Heather and my sister. I am super excited about that. Even as I write this I can't believe it's true. Anyone who knew me in high school knows how much I hated to run. I would do almost anything to get out of running. In high school I decided to switch from soccer to volleyball because soccer required to much running (not that I was any good at soccer anyway). Needless to say until the last year I have always HATED running and convinced myself that I just wasn't made for running. Now I finds myself addicted to it and always looking forward to my next long run. In conclusion to all of this if I can turn myself into a runner, anyone can. It is always hard to start but once you do you won't be able to stop.

Monday, February 20, 2012

Snow day

This weekend Randy has a two day weekend...hooray! He hasn't had two days off since January 1st and 2nd so this was some much needed time. In the morning before church Autry and Randy called us girls into the bedroom and told us they had a surprise for us. "We are going to the mountain!" Autry yelled.
I was very excited but realized we now had 45 minutes to eat, get ready for church and pack all our gear up do the mountain. This may seem impossible ( I thought it was) but thanks to Randy we did it. At 12:30, after church, we headed up to Mt. Hood to play in the snow.
The snow was so much fun. Gibson at first was unsure. After awhile he was walking through the snow like a pro. As he walked he constantly said, "woah, woah, woah." Addie was pretty timid but looked super cute with the hat of her Halloween costume and afterward exclaimed, "Snow is fun mommy!"
Claire was by far the biggest shock! She was so adventurous in the snow and at one time was up to her waist in snow, she just kept trudging on through. When she walked through the snow she would call it her adventure. At one time when her, Autry, and Randy were trudging through some pretty deep snow she said, "This is sure our adventure in Odessey."
Autry of course loved the snow and was his normal boy self jumping of show drifts and sliding down hills.
It was a very fun day and of course there was a lot of talk of being in Narnia as we drove through the snow covered trees.
The night was capped off with some delicious pizza in Sandy and then a drive home with sleeping children. And do you know the best part? Randy still has another day off.

Tuesday, December 06, 2011

Day 6- St. Nicholas Day

I told the story of St. Nicholas the night before so the kids would leave out their shoes. If you don't know about St. Nicholas and the traditions surrounding him here is a brief synopsis.

The true story of Santa Claus begins with Nicholas, who was born during the third century in the village of Patara. At the time the area was Greek and is now on the southern coast of Turkey. His wealthy parents, who raised him to be a devout Christian, died in an epidemic while Nicholas was still young. Obeying Jesus' words to "sell what you own and give the money to the poor," Nicholas used his whole inheritance to assist the needy, the sick, and the suffering. He dedicated his life to serving God and was made Bishop of Myra while still a young man. Bishop Nicholas became known throughout the land for his generosity to the those in need, his love for children, and his concern for sailors and ships.
NIcholas Day
One story tells of a poor man with three daughters. In those days a young woman's father had to offer prospective husbands something of value—a dowry. The larger the dowry, the better the chance that a young woman would find a good husband. Without a dowry, a woman was unlikely to marry. This poor man's daughters, without dowries, were therefore destined to be sold into slavery. Mysteriously, on three different occasions, a bag of gold appeared in their home-providing the needed dowries. The bags of gold, tossed through an open window, are said to have landed in stockings or shoes left before the fire to dry. This led to the custom of children hanging stockings or putting out shoes, eagerly awaiting gifts from Saint Nicholas. Sometimes the story is told with gold balls instead of bags of gold. That is why three gold balls, sometimes represented as oranges, are one of the symbols for St. Nicholas. And so St. Nicholas is a gift-giver.


In several countries around the world children leave their shoes out and their shoes are filled with treats in the morning so we filled the kids shoes with a little toy, an orange, and chocolate coins. Autry received a little flashlight, Claire a little unicorn, and Addie a little bunny.

Around 10 we headed over to a new friend from Southwest's house and we made Christmas cookies. Since we first came to Southwest Bible Church Autry has become friends with a boy named Micah. Their friendship has been such a blessing to me. Leaving our last church was so difficult for us , leaving our friends and community has been the hardest of all, but from the beginning seeing Autry form this friendship with this little boy made me feel hopeful. I do feel hopeful now of starting over in a new community and thankful for the new friendships we have and the new friendships that will continue to form.

Monday, December 05, 2011

Advent day 4

I realize this is out of order but we just hung up the star ornaments and I didn't want to post until we had a picture of them. Sunday we read verses that refer to Jesus as the Morning star and then we made star ornaments to remind us of Jesus. One of the ornaments even comes complete with a Jedi, I wonder who made that one :).

Advent day 5- plum pudding

Today was Randy's first day of postman class. After a month of having him home I was a little nervous that I wouldn't get anything done today but it was actually a super productive day. We even were able to have a little fun.
I forgot about doing the verse today put the activity was make plum pudding and that's what we did. We listened to Christmas music, learns about Christmas in England, and Plum pudding. I even put a coin in it wrapped in foil for someone to find and receive something special. Claire's piece had it in it and she was thrilled. The pictures arn't in order but you can still see the fun we were having. Mixing, stirring, and a cute little Gibson yammering away. We had a lot of fun and the plum pudding was good too.