We are Back!

...We have been out of town if you have wondered why there were no new posts or pictures this week. We spent the past week in the Los Angeles area at Disneyland! Had a GREAT time with Dan's family.

Had our family Christmas on Monday, December 21st here at home. Left Tuesday morning to drive to Disneyland. Spent Wednesday, Thursday and Friday there.

Saturday, Dan's family drove back home taking Darren and leaving Dan and I to enjoy a few days to celebrate our 6 year wedding anniversary! It was nice to have a few extra days to relax. We spent our Saturday shopping in the Disneyland area and a nice dinner at the Old Spaghetti Factory.

Enjoyed attending church at Lancaster Baptist Church on Sunday. Dan and I enjoyed a brunch in Newport Beach area on Monday morning and then headed home. Arrived home Monday evening. Happy to give our little man hugs again!

Great vacation time and now we are happy to be all snug in our very own home again! Home is a wonderful place.

Here are some misc. pictures of our vacation. Enjoy! We love you all!

Darren and Mommy with Mickey (Darren's a bit apprehensive! But he begged to go see Mickey!)

Darren and Lightening McQueen...

With Tigger...

Dan and Helen in Santa's Sleigh, Disneyland...

By Mickey Mouse outside of California Adventure park...

Dan and Darren in Bug's Land (Where everything looks huge as it would to a bug!)



Darren and Daddy bein' silly!

Hooray for Bug's Land...



All wearing our 3D "Bug Glasses" before the Bug's Life show...

By the beautiful tree in the Grand California Hotel lobby (We ate there at Storyteller's Cafe for Christmas dinner. Saw Jennifer Lopez the actor, Ha!)

The three cousins...Faith, Liberty (Dave and Angie's girls) and Darren

Dan and I stayed at the beautiful Hyatt Regency Hotel in Newport Beach, CA...

The beautiful lobby fireplace...

Dan and Helen, still very much in love after 6 wonderful years of marriage and looking forward to many more!

Great Play!

Our Christian school held its annual Christmas Extravaganza tonight. We held the dessert auction fundraiser first and made some good money for the school. My Chocolate Chip Cheesecake sold for $80!!

Then the kids put on a great Christmas play. Lots of good talent amongst our kids!

I will post pictures tomorrow from our Teen Christmas Party. We are taking our kids to Panera Bread, going to see Christmas lights with our hot chocolate and candy canes, and then finish off with an hour or so of games in the gym. Love time spent with the kids! Teens are a blast!

Rainy and Chilly...

Rainy and chilly outside. Makes me appreciate the nice, warm, cozy home God has given us! We have some presents under the tree now from Nana and Papaw Shepherd!

Had a fun time singing with my Mom-in-law and Sis-in-law at Victory Baptist Church in Brentwood last night. They had a ladies' Christmas party and asked us to sing. We had a good time together! Dan's sis, Karen and her friend came with us as well. It is wonderful to have fun fellowship with other Christian ladies. And the food...AMAZING! A sweet lady in their church made all the food, home-style southern cooking...Pot Roast (Fall apart tender, I might add!), peas and greens, mashed potatoes and gravy, homemade biscuits and homemade apple butter, homemade hot apple cider and an apple-pear-cranberry crisp! WOW!! It was such a treat. I LOVE to cook everything homemade also, so it made me feel I should go home and cook! Mmmmm!!

Darren was being cute, as usual; so here are a couple cuties of him. Enjoy!

Reading his Winnie the Pooh Books...

Reading one of his Franklin books. Those are his FAVORITES!

Isn't God Good?!

WOW! Great weekend! God is good!

One of our teenagers, who has been involved in our ministries for 7 years and is currently a senior in our Christian school, finally got his mom to attend our church service for the first time 2 weeks ago. Yesterday, she accepted Christ as her Saviour, walked the aisle and got baptized! How exciting! Gives us the reassurance and reminder that we should never stop praying. We never know how long an answer to prayer may take. What a privilege to pray! May we never lose sight of this privilege and daily take advantage of the gift of prayer.

We also had our church-wide adult Christmas party this past Saturday evening. We had a great group of people there and LOTS of food! It was potluck, so we had a very yummy variety of foods and a fun time of games and fellowship. "Church Family" is a wonderful extension of our own family.

Here is a picture of Darren "deep in thought" yesterday. he is just the cutest thing! Enjoy!

SHOPPING!

YAY! Dan and I had a "Christmas shopping date" tonight and we were able to purchase a few goodies for my family!! How fun! We will be putting out little box in the mail on Monday. For my family reading...wish we could see you all, but we are already looking forward to next Christmas!

It is very chilly and rainy here tonight. I am enjoying the sound of the rain outside the window. We are now entering the Bay area rainy season, but I don't mind it since we don't hardly get rain at all the rest of the year. Too bad it isn't a few degrees cooler, we might get SNOW! It snowed in the hills of Santa Clara and Napa, I believe! I am pining for a snow trip! We will be taking our teens next month to Tahoe as usual, so I will get my "snow fix" then.

Darren and I had a fun morning, just some good fun. He will let me take a video of him as long as he gets to watch it on my camera afterwards! I tried to post a couple little clips, but couldn't tonight?! Oh well. Here is one little picture of Darren...alias the villainous Captain Hook! He LOVES to play swords.

Can't wait!

To mail out our Christmas cards! I am hoping to get those in the mail in the next couple of days. Once I mail them, then I will post our new pictures on here. Just hated to post them here before anyone even got the Christmas cards!

We had a "stay around the house" day, which I enjoy! I am a homebody!

Here is a Darren funny for the day...

Dan always takes a nap from about 4:00 - 6:30 pm each afternoon, since he only gets somewhere between 2 hours to 3 1/2 hours of sleep at night. I wake Dan up when supper is almost on the table. I always let Darren go with me to wake him up. That is one of his highlights of the day, snuggling in the bed with Daddy! Today, I had supper almost on the table at 6:30 as usual, but I needed to take something out of the oven. I told Darren it was time to wake Daddy up, but today Mommy would let him do it all by himself! He was excited, so off to the bedroom he went to wake up Daddy.

I heard..."Daddy...Daddy...Time to wake up, Daddy." No movement from the bed.

Once again I heard..."Daddy...Daddy...Time to get up, Daddy. Supper's ready!" Still no movement from the bed, so Darren tried another tactic.

Next I heard..."Babe...Babe...Get up, Babe!"

Oh, how I roared with laughter!! I guess he figured "Babe" was the magic word! Ain't he the cutest thing?!

I will try to remember to take a new picture to post here tomorrow.

Nice family evening!

Nice evening! We ate supper and then headed over to the Patriots last home basketball game. The guys tried hard, but Heritage really has a LOT more players; plus one of our best players was fouled out on a REALLY bad call! Ahhh well, such is life, huh? Guess we will take 3rd place instead of second. He was a pretty good Christian about keeping his mouth shut on the call though, so that's good! Also had a good group of fans to support!










Then it was home for a few rounds of basketball on Darren's hoop and an old goofy cartoon with a snack. Milk and a Franklin book and off to bed for Darren. Dan and I were able to enjoy a nice cozy fire in the fireplace by the Christmas tree! Home is a WONDERFUL place!! Thanks, God, for the founding of the home and the amazing husband and son you have given me!








Darren LOVES to play his guitar and sing along with CDs. He AMAZES me by knowing the words to almost every song on my CDs! Today the Hooker Family's CD "Through the Storm"
was playing. He loves the songs "Glory, Glory (he calls it Cory, Cory!) and "God Give Me Faith" (since that is his cousin's name!). He began strumming along with "God Give Me Faith" and singing so I recorded him. You can't hear him too loud but he was singing almost every word of the chorus! Cutie pie. He melts me when he says "Fweeze, Mommy?!!!" (being interpreted... Please!) It's only about 45 seconds long. Enjoy!

A Sweet Service...

I just finished watching online the "Heavenly Graduation" service for Dr. Don Boyd, my high school principal. It was a very sweet tribute to the life of a truly amazing and exemplary Christian. There were some tears, some laughter over sweet and fond memories, and a time to give God solemn thanks for the time we were privileged to spend under the influence of Mr. Boyd's life. The music, as always at First Baptist, was sweet and appropriate.

I tearfully watched as his family said their last goodbyes to Daddy, Sweetheart, Grandpa and beloved relative. Mrs. Boyd left her husband with a sweet kiss and a long hug. The actions and composure of the family were a wonderful testimony of their trust in God . There was not a spirit of despair; sadness, yes, but an obvious faith and trust in a God whose strength is bigger than our hurts. Even in death, Mr. Boyd's unwavering faith in God was evidenced by the sweet testimony of his family.

I wish I could have been there to stand as an alumni who was privileged to be under the leadership of Mr. Boyd while in my high school years. But, as stated in my last post in tribute, I will strive to say my thanks by serving God with my life and pass on the legacy of Christianity Mr. Boyd handed down to us. he was truly a friend to all he met!

Thanks, Mr. Boyd! I have so many precious memories from my high school years! Your life will not be forgotten. We love you!

Darren and I are home from church tonight staying out of the nurseries since he still has "the yuckies." We are watching church online at North Valley (nvbc.org). Always enjoy hearing and seeing their church services; they are always very upbeat and encouraging. Bro. Trieber is a very uplifting person and I love all the music they include in every service!

Here are a few pictures we took of Darren for fun. He LOVES to get his picture taken, except when I WANT him to!

Enjoy...

Notice the shoes...

Our pretty Christmas tree..

We watched Polar Express (only the parts that didn't scare him!) So he came out of his room with his Santa hat and his "robe" and sat in his "sleigh" He said "Ho, Ho, Mar Chrismess!" He is the cutest!!

A Tribute...

Visit my Youth Pastor's Wife Blog for a tribute to a great man...Dr. Don Boyd, late principal of Hammond Baptist High School, who went to Heaven this past Sunday evening after a battle with cancer. He is an amazing man who will be sorely missed. Just click on the link below...

http://helenscallaghan.blogspot.com/