Happy New Year!

It's 2009, can you believe it?! My friends and I celebrated and brought in the new year together :)

Already this year has started out with exciting things :) An answer to prayer - I was able to get on great insurance for medical coverage this year! Praise the Lord, such a blessing! This past week I was able to meet Kerry & Katelyn's new puppy, meet Allie & Garrett's new baby girl, and receive the call that my friend Katie is getting married to Mikey this summer! I love how every year we can look back and see how we have grown, and look ahead with faith at what is yet to come as God leads and guides.

I was on Whidbey Island for a day this last week. I had three awesome dogs by my side that day; Winston, Rocky, and Chance. While I house sat I spent my time looking out at the water, reading, setting up for the party later on that afternoon, and then I decided to sit and play the piano. After I finished playing I looked through the many books and sheet music that were beside the piano. I picked out a hymnal book, and found that there were prayers included, so I took some time and read some. It was a Lutheran Book of Worship, and it had specific prayers for different events. The one for "New Years" is great! It reads...

"Eternal Father, you have placed us in a world of space and time, and through the events of our lives you bless us with your love. Grant that in this new year we may know your presence, see your love at work, and live in the light of the event which gives us joy forever - the coming of your son, Jesus Christ our Lord."

May God bless you this year as you seek and serve Him!

Merry Christmas!!

Well, ok it's past Christmas but its still the season, haha! Christmas Eve and Christmas day was spent with my family cozy in the house eating Christmas munchies, watching Christmas movies, making sugar cookies, and playing in lots and lots and lots of snow, oh and the power went out for two hours but thankfully came back on!! Yes we had a full 14 days of snow and a white Christmas :)

Snowed In

So today we are snowed in, well for the past week we have been snowed in, haha. Sarah and I walked to town yesterday and met up with our friends Tiffany and Melissa! It was so great to see them and have coffee and walk around Molbaks together :) We then went to the store and had about 4 bags of groveries to carry back up the hill - oh man was that hard, but we made it :)

Being snowed in was a little crazy, and Sarah and I spent most of our days playing in the snow. We went sledding with friends, made two snowman, lots of snow angels and a snow fort which later turned into a snow cave. One night we managed to put Christmas lights on a little tree in the front since it looked so pretty in the snow last year with lights. After that we started hitting the snow off the trees with brooms sice the branches were touching the ground with the heave snow. It was crazy fun and I managed to get a broom stuck in my neighbors tree twice, oh man...haha!

The Bishops Wife

Tonight my family and I watched a Christmas movie, The Bishops Wife. In the movie the Bishop and his family are visited by an angel. It's a great story and in the end the angel ends up writing the Christmas Eve sermon for the Bishop. I liked the message and wanted to share it with you. Here is the text of the sermon:

"Tonight I want to tell you the story of an empty stocking. Once upon a midnight clear, there was a child's cry, a blazing star hung over a stable, and wise men came with birthday gifts. We haven't forgotten that night down the centuries. We celebrate it with stars on Christmas trees, with the sound of bells, and with gifts.But especially with gifts. You give me a book, I give you a tie. Aunt Martha has always wanted an orange squeezer and Uncle Henry can do with a new pipe. For we forget nobody, adult or child. All the stockings are filled, all that is, except one. And we have even forgotten to hang it up. The stocking for the child born in a manger. Its his birthday we're celebrating. Don't let us ever forget that.Let us ask ourselves what He would wish for most. And then, let each put in his share, loving kindness, warm hearts, and a stretched out hand of tolerance. All the shinning gifts that make peace on earth."

Snowman Fun!

Last night Sarah and I built a snowman!! As I woke up this early morning it was dumping snow! It's so beautiful, and what a way to wake up :D

Let It Snow!

Today the snow has come and is still falling!! As I see it stick to the trees and all around, I'm taken back at the beauty that it creates - God is so creative! I found this quote on an e-card I was looking at tonight and thought I'd share it with you...

"Every new snowflake comes to the earth as a picture of our saviors birth, because they are sent from up above and remind us of God’s care and love. Each on is so intricate and small because Christ sees the details of us all, and just as two are never the same the Lord knows and calls us each by name. Snowflakes gently cover the world in white and hide what’s unlovely from our sight, showing us how He covers our sin and gives us His grace when we come to Him So may every snowflake bring Christ to mind and in every bit of white may you find a reason to celebrate anew and a reminder of His love for you."
~ Holley Gerth

This is a picture taken in last years snow - more pictures to come for this round on snow!

Happy Birthday Max & Bailey!

Today is Max and Bailey's birthday!

They are 5 years old, 35 in doggy years :D

They are such a cute blessing in our lives and always full of loves!