Best Thing Ever!

Last Thursday evening, I was tucking Lily into bed.  She suddenly started crying so I asked what was wrong; she replied that she was worried she was going to go to hell for being mean to Mia.  I sat down so she could curl up next to me, and we started talking about how we can have a relationship with Jesus and know that one day, a long time from now, we can be in Heaven with Him.  At one point, Ryan walked by, and I motioned for him to come in and join us which he did.  We continued to talk for awhile longer about what exactly sin is, how we deserve punishment for it, but that God sent his son to take that punishment for us.  Even though that doesn't mean our sinful actions don't have consequences now, we can be assured that Jesus will take the eternal punishment for us.  At one point, Ryan said how when God looks at us, He sees Jesus who is holy, blameless and perfect, instead of seeing our sins.  Lily paused and replied "I think I have a catechism question about that.  It's called justification.  What is justification?  It is God regarding sinners as if they had never sinned."  Our mouths just kind of dropped for a moment before Ryan said "well, yes, that's exactly what it is."  We talked for a bit longer, and when we asked Lily to explain something to us, she was able to in her own words.  I truly believe she understands that she is a sinner, and she needs God's grace to forgive her.  After our conversation, we asked if she wanted to tell God about her understanding and decision which she did.  She then slept very well that night.  She was so excited to go to school the next day and share her decision with her teachers and friends!  We are very thankful for a school like ACCA that partners with us in raising our children to love and honor God.

What an incredible feeling to see our child come to a saving knowledge of God!  We are so thankful for her decision.  I can't think of any better evening than this one!



Randomness

This girl is awesome whether sleeping or building with Legos (or anything else for that matter!).

 We were so glad that David was able to come visit for a few days at the end of December!

 Mom and Dad ordered three months of Kiwi Crates for Mia for Christmas.  The first one arrived, and it is so cute!  She is going to love getting two more of these.  They have several really cute crafts and projects in it.  The December one was about winter, and one of the crafts was making these sticky paws and headband.  You throw a "snowball" at the paws and can catch it!

 The Kiwi Crate also had a snowflake sugar cookie recipe, so the girls made those with Liz while we were in Asheville.

 One of my favorite things to see is Lily reading to Mia.  Thankfully, she does it fairly often.  Last night she let Mia pick a book ("Read to Tiger") and they sat together and enjoyed this book.

 Mia made this cool gumball machine project at school.

 On the left is one of Lily's fashion designs.  One the right was the cover of her music book that she made.  It is her playing the piano on stage.

 Lily's class studied flowers recently, and each child was assigned one to draw.  Lily's was a Lily of the Valley.

 This note came from Lily today.   Hmmm, what should we answer?

 This is Lily's drawing of a computer.  I love the beach scene on the screen!

 I love any kind of hand and footprint art!  Lily's class used their feet to make ravens as they study Elijah.  I couldn't get this to turn sideways, but I thought it was really cool.

The girls' report cards came home today, and we were very pleased with them.  They are both doing great!  Ms. Messer said that Mia is "always very engaged and loves to learn."  Mrs. Barbelescu said Lily "blesses us with her gentleness.  She learns things very quickly and easily.  Lily has great academic potential!  She is working hard and excelling.  I appreciate that Lily asks many questions in class."  We are so grateful that the girls are at ACCA and have these wonderful teachers.

Happy Anniversary!

Ryan and I celebrated our 12th wedding anniversary last weekend.  Hard to believe it's been 12 years!  Thankfully we were able to take a long weekend getaway to celebrate.  This year we headed Asheville which is such a neat city.  After dropping the girls off at school, we stopped at a bistro to enjoy a lovely French breakfast and pick up some delicious macaroons for the weekend.  Then we headed up to Asheville which was about 3.5 hours away.  We walked around the city for a little bit and stopped in at Tupelo Honey for lunch.  So delicious!

 After that we headed over to the Grove Park Inn.  It was gorgeous!

 We were a little frustrated that the Inn messed up our room reservation.  However, they made it up to us by upgrading us without charge to a suite.  We were quite surprised and pleased with that.

 This was the view (though the balcony looks weird on the panoramic setting).  It was a little overcast when I took this picture, but once the clouds moved away, we had a beautiful view of the mountains.

 We spent almost all of Saturday in their fantastic spa.  We both thoroughly enjoyed our hot stone massages.  Then we were able to spend some time in their various grotto pools and hot tubs which was wonderful.  It was a great way to spend the day.

On Sunday, we had a fantastic brunch at the Inn.  It was a buffet with so many delicious items to choose from: fruits, salads, meats, cheeses, breads, omelets, biscuits, gravy, bacon, grits, potatoes, scrambled eggs and probably about a dozen different desserts.  Fabulous!

In the afternoon, we enjoyed walking around the inn and sitting by this gigantic fireplace.

 In the evening, we saw this beautiful sunset before having dinner at Edisons which is one of the restaurants on site.  We topped the evening off with some of the best hot chocolate ever.

This was a wonderful weekend getaway to celebrate our 12th anniversary.  We are so blessed and look forward to many more years together!

2013 Coming to a Close

It's hard to believe another year has passed.  What a wonderful year it has been too.  I love to reminisce on the 31st and think about the blessings that have been in my life over the last year.  Truly, more than anything, I think of all the fun times I've had with my family this year.  I always love time spent laughing with Ryan and talking with him about our hopes and dreams.  Ingrained in my mind are the looks of excitement as the girls heard and then saw the ice cream truck coming down the road in NJ.  They couldn't wait to get a treat!  At 7 and 5, they are at great ages; they are just lots of fun!  They are such precious gifts to me, and I thank God daily for them.  We have such great times playing board games, telling jokes, making art projects and cooking together.  They are pretty easy to travel with now too which of course we love.  We had such fantastic times in NJ and PA visiting the Douglas family, Philadelphia, Sesame Place and Hershey Park.  We also traveled to New Smyrna Beach, Gulf Shores, Chattanooga, Jefferson City and Birmingham a few times.  I absolutely love saying our prayers together as a family each evening.  It makes my heart burst when I hear their sweet voices asking God to bless people in China, Africa and Alaska and thank Him for His blessings.

Of course, I consider myself very fortunate to have visited China this year.  You can read about that trip by clicking here.  I can clearly see the faces of many people I met along the way.  It was amazing, and I hope to have the opportunity to go back.  Ryan was blessed to go on a teaching trip to North Africa for a week, two mission trips to Alaska and one conference in Alaska.  I know he is anxious to return to each area next year too.  We were excited that the girls had their first mission trip to Clarkston, Georgia in April; that was a great experience for them.  I pray our family has many other mission opportunities.

I tend to not make new year's resolutions.  In all honesty, I know tax season will be in full swing very soon; it's nearly impossible for me to stick to any changes during those months.  Knowing that, I've decided to work on an attitude adjustment this year.  I want to intentionally create more joy and gratitude in my life.  I have so very much to be thankful for, and I know I often take it for granted.  I intend to take the time to notice the people, things and opportunities that make my life better and recognize it.  Additionally, I think this will help me keep an attitude of joy.  I really don't think I can thank God enough for this life and His blessings.

I pray that 2014 will be a wonderful year for your family as well.  May you always see the blessings!

Tennessee Time

I always love getting to visit with my family in Jefferson City.  This year though, there was an added bonus.  Granny turned 90 while we were there!  We drove up the day after Christmas and went to dinner that evening to celebrate.  What a fun evening!  We all enjoyed catching up with one another and a delicious dinner at The Chophouse.  It was great to see Deanna, Matt and baby Haleigh who had flown in from Washington state!  We took a few family pictures while we were there, but I haven't had a chance to upload them from Ryan's camera yet.  Hopefully I'll get that in soon.

Friday was beautiful.  The girls had a blast playing in Granny's huge front yard, exploring and climbing her big tree.

 Nancy also took all the kids and me up to her school.  She has done such an amazing job there!  This looked like the most fun place to be; there were all sorts of cool centers for them to play in.  Everyone liked putting wax paper on their shows to ice skate like Lily is in the picture below. 

 The construction zone was really neat.

 McKayla, Molly and Lily spent lots of time up in the reading area.

 Mia and Zac put on a puppet show and explored all the other fun areas together.

 Everyone was excited to go outside and play!  The swings were a big hit, of course, but Mia also loved riding a scooter around the little track.

 On Friday night, our family had its Christmas celebration which was really nice.  We did a laid back dinner and then opened presents together.  The girls gave Granny big hugs for their awesome presents: Minnie Mouse walkie talkies for Mia and an American Girl gymnastics set for Lily.

 The flowers we sent to Granny to wish her a happy 90th birthday.

 I enjoyed spending time talking with Granny.  She told lots of great stories about her time at Oak Ridge during the war; that's where she met my Granddaddy.  She is such a wonderful lady, and I am so thankful for her.

Christmas Day

We had such a wonderful Christmas Day, and I hope your family did too!  The girls slept in our room on Christmas Eve, so we would know when they woke up.  This was honestly the one night in the past year that they chose to sleep in!  They both stayed asleep until about 7:45 which was awesome; they are typically up at 6:30!  When they came out, they were thrilled to see Santa had stuffed our stockings and left a few gifts by their tree.

 Examining their new toys.  Lily was excited to receive a Princess Anna costume, purple desk lamp and turquoise lap desk.  Mia was thrilled to receive an astronaut costume, talking Toothless and a Viking costume (both from How To Train Your Dragon).

 Showing off their new costumes.

 

 Ready to open their stockings.  Both girls received Tervis Tumblers which they loved and have been using nonstop.  They had a few other similar items too: Bandaids (Jake and Monsters Inc), owl coin purse, chocolate reindeer and stickers.  They had some unique items too: Lily had Lego Minifigures and Animal Sets, M&Ms, Rainbow Loom glitter bands, bookmarks, pen and journal.  Mia had Octonaut figures, VeggieTales CD, Despicable Me 2 DVD and Pez dispenser.

 After stockings, we all opened presents which was fun.  The girls each received 3 gifts.  Lily received the Lego Dolphin Cruiser, Mandala Designer and Goldieblox and the Spinning Machine.  Mia received a remote control car, Disney Junior Puzzle set and Hungry, Hungry Hippos.  Both girls also received a new book: Mercy Watson for Lily and Mr. Magee for Mia.

 Next up was opening gifts sent down by Grandpops and Grandma Jan.  They are always so generous, and we appreciate all they sent.  The girls were excited to receive lots of new American Girl items (several different types of clothes, a scooter for Mia and roller blade set and piano for Lily) and Legos.  Lily was also thrilled to receive a voice-activated password protected journal; she loves it.  Mia received some fun goodies as well that she is enjoying.

 

Ready to start putting together the Dolphin Cruiser; she has been dreaming of this for months.  It turned out really cute!

Daddy and Mia started putting together the Lego train set.

 Once all the presents were opened, we all relaxed, ate some homemade peach bread and the girls started playing with their new toys.  Though there was lots of excitement, it was pretty quiet and relaxing which was just nice.  After a little while, I completed getting food items ready for our get together with my family that afternoon and evening.

 

I always love this family time together at Mom and Dad's house.

 Lots of fun to open more presents!

 After opening gifts, we enjoyed a delicious meal: our traditional brunch which is simply awesome.  I look forward to this all year!  After eating, we enjoyed being with one another and Mom had fun reading The Day the Crayons Quit to 4 of her grandkids.

What a wonderful Christmas day!