Fun With the Family...

All Dan's family came over to our house to eat today. We took a couple pictures of the kids. Darren loves his cousins. He also LOVES to have people over to the house! We enjoyed a nice time of family fellowship! We take turns eating at different houses each Sunday afternoon. Here are a few pictures.



Liberty Nicole...



Faith and Darren...






I hadn't seen Darren for a little while...I looked in his bedroom and there he was...hiding in his toy box...doing "his business!" Luckily I had a pull-up on him at the moment. Potty-training is SUCH a joy! (nice hair, huh?!)



Great Sunday in our teen department today...over 25 teens. Great morning service with an excellent message from pastor about keeping the Christian life fresh or "sweet and new" every day. Great truth.

Tip for the Day...

Cooking Tip of the Day...Do NOT substitute brown rice for white rice in a crock-pot recipe unless you like meals with the texture of glue! Even with added liquids, the texture and flavor was...not very desirable!

I think this is the 2nd time in my married life that I have thrown away a meal. Want to know what a penny pincher I am? I picked out all the chicken pieces before I threw it away so I could make something else and not waste my expensive meat! HA!

Ah well! Good day today. Darren and I are on the mend from our "delightful" cold. I had a fun meeting with my teen girls, LOVE them! Pastor preached a GREAT message tonight derived from the Life of Saul and what we can learn from the mistakes at the end of his life. Good truths! It truly is GREAT to be in the house of the Lord!

Fun in the snow!

We had a great time with the teens in the snow in South Lake Tahoe on Saturday. There was LOTS of snow this weekend, great for sledding. I got some beautiful pictures of the snow.

One of the girls took some pictures of the teens sledding for me. We had 20 of us all together. We had a great time and no one broke any bones, which is a great thing!

In one of the vans ready to go....

Snowboarding on a sled?!

Jack Frost...


Whew! Not easy getting back up that hill...


Ready for the snow...


Dan's brother came along to drive the other vehicle...


Our youth department dare-devil...having fun...


Helen and one of the teen girls covered in snow after a trip down the hill...


Somebody get me out of here...

Newsy bits...

Well, lots going on this week, mainly preparation work! I feel I haven't had a chance to post much news.

Our guys did a good job at the basketball tournament on Monday. They battled hard for the championship game, but barely missed it! They took 3rd out of 7 teams, I think? So did good!

I am posting a picture of the 2010 League All-Star Team. 3 of our guys are on the team.

Our league is made up of several other Baptist churches with smaller Christian schools. Makes for a good evenly matched season. Our guys did really well this season. We have an advantage, none of our basketball team members are graduating this year. Hopefully we will have a great team next year!

2010 All-Star Team (A few members were missing!)

Dan and I enjoyed a nice meal and stroll around IKEA tonight looking for kitchen table ideas. Nice and relaxing. That is a really neat place! If you have never been there, check it out! Even if you don't buy a thing you can get some GREAT home decor ideas! There items are very reasonably priced, I might add!! Love date night with my Babe!

Darren enjoyed an evening with Grandma and his girl cousins. Poor kid, whenever they watch a princess movie, he inevitably becomes the prince in all their "pretends!" He has SO much fun playing with his cousins! Thank God for wonderful Christian family!

That's all the newsy tidbits for tonight!

...Oh, and I only have 7 more pounds to go till my wedding weight! YAY!! Then I think Dan said something about buying me a new wardrobe...right, Babe?!

SNOW!!!!!!!

We are off to Lake Tahoe for our annual teen snow trip on Saturday. The kids are so excited and SO AM I!! Since I am an Indiana girl, I have to get my "snow fix" at least once a year!

I posted a picture of Beautiful Lake Tahoe in the winter where we are headed. It has been raining ALL WEEK here, so you know what that means...SNOW in Lake Tahoe! We are going to have some serious sledding this year!

Pray for good driving weather. Pray our ol' bus will make it fine in the snow. Pray for safety for all the kids.

I was just thinking as we went visiting in the nursing home with the teens today... I LOVE our teens! They are a great group. What a privilege to serve together with them for the Lord. Why do we need rewards? Looking at the changed lives and sweet spirits of our young people is enough for me!!

THANK YOU, God, for using me to help others. As my preacher, Bro. Hyles, used to say, "Isn't it great to be used?"

Great Sunday!

"The Bible is the WordaGod!"...Darren's interpretation! He was proud of himself for having his little new testament in Sunday School. He even got a dollar for bringing it to Sunday school today so he is proudly displaying his Bible and prize!

I am glad my son looks forward to going to church!

We had a great Sunday at church. Good crowd this morning and tonight. We had 18 of our teens back at church tonight and in SNAC played a game of "C'Mon Fill the Bowl!" Teens had to pass a spoonful of cheerios from spoon to spoon from a full bowl to the empty bowl at the other end of the table. Whichever side of the table had the most Cheerios in their bowl by the end of 3 minutes won. Very entertaining since they ALWAYS cheat! Ha! Then we all sat around the table and ate cereal and milk. Fun! LOVE our kids!

Excited about our snow trip to Lake Tahoe this coming Saturday! Teens are excited too.

God's house is a great place to be!

Creative Minds...

Isn't he cute? Little people have such creative minds! I finished folding my laundry and went to put it away. When I came back out from the bedroom and walked into the living room this is what I found in my laundry basket (He LOVES our little mini yorkie named Belle)...

HOME! What a great word!

The soft pitter-patter of the rain outside is such a nice background for a comfy evening at home! I LOVE rainy evenings; they make home such a snug and cozy place.

I just wanted to stop and make note of the wonderful, relaxing, comfortable haven a home can be when Christ is the center! How I thank God for the wonderful godly husband He has given me.

The standards and guidelines Christ has set up for us are not to hinder our happiness, but rather to further it! Just as disciplinary rules that are set up for a child will give him security in knowing his boundaries, so guidelines from our Heavenly Father will give us security in our daily lives. Following God's Word will keep us from ways of life that could lead us to wrong and dangerous decisions.

Thank you, God, for one of my favorite words and favorite places...HOME!

Great Sunday and...VICTORY today!

(You can see the link for my Youth Pastor's Wife blog post towards the bottom of right column)

Good number of teens in Sunday school with a good spirit. Had a group of our young people sing on Sunday evening!

As for...VICTORY today...that would be concerning potty training! Darren has been potty trained for months in every area except, #2! He finally went to the potty and did this all by himself today. Which is, of course, a HUGE victory for mommy!

Need a funny today? One of the areas I am working on this year is my organization in all areas and planning ahead for everything. Here is a cute "Garfield Funny" along those lines that I enjoyed! have a great day!

Family is FABULOUS!

Fun family night...Nice dinner at home (grilled chicken breast, mashed potatoes and green beans, Mmmmm!) went to Target for a few items, then Ice Cream Cones at McDonald's! (Hey only 150 calories and it's SO good! C'mon now! We have been real good this week!)

I took several little video clips yesterday of Darren playing his new guitar and singing. They take a little longer to post, so I am just going to upload one right now.

This one is Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star. He is just TOO CUTE!! No, you can't have him; he's ours!! Enjoy...

Also, praying for the Kalapp family as they said their final goodbyes to Husband and Dad today. What a sweet service and a great tribute to a great and godly man!

A Good Wednesday...

Great time out Teen soul-winning today! I went with Dan today. (my favorite soul-winning partner!) Our last house was a young man named Eric. Seemed he had just been sitting there waiting for us to come...SO open and receptive to the Gospel. Dan sweetly led him to the Lord. It NEVER ceases to amaze me when I see someone bow their head and hear the words from their lips! Isn't God good to use us like that?!! I just love it! Good church service tonight, good number of teens in attendance.

Our snow trip to Lake Tahoe is in 3 weeks. We are excited! So are the teens! Looks like we will have a good group. 2 snow "first-timers" this year! That is always so much fun, and beyond my comprehension! I cannot imagine NEVER seeing snow until I was a teenager?!! Weird!

Quick funny from today...

OK, so here is another little funny from today...

We were taking down the Christmas tree. I gave Darren the job of taking all the plastic candy cane ornaments off the tree and putting them in a box. He did a great job taking them off of the tree. He was quiet so I looked behind me and there he was putting them on my little decorative pine tree by the piano! This tree stays up all year and is part of my living room wilderness decor, but it looked the same to him!

Cutie pie! He was SO proud of himself! I snapped this cute picture. Enjoy!

Back to Schedule...

I LOVE the holidays, but I am also happy to return to normal schedule. (I do hate to see Dan begin his "Lack of sleep" marathon at UPS again, though!)

We had lots of fun on New Year's Day. Darren and I had a pretty yucky cold the days before, but felt better by New Year's Day. Dan's family all came over to our house for a late lunch and we played a bunch of games and watched the Bowl Games. We love to watch football, even though there was no team we were particularly interested in this year. Dan and his sister, Karen were fooling around, celebrating a New Year's touchdown. Their personalities are so much alike! Thought you might enjoy this fun little video clip...



Also, taking down and putting away the Christmas things today. Darren was helping me with a few things, so we were talking about Christmas. Took a picture and little video clip of our chat. He enjoyed this Christmas SO much.



Here is a short little video clip. Sorry it is kind of sideways and up and down. I was taking the video and couldn't really tell what I was getting!



Have a Great Day!

Miscellaneous Christmas Pictures...

I am taking a while to sort through all of our pictures from the week of Christmas. Here are just a couple from our family Christmas on Monday, December 21st, the day before we left for Disneyland.

(Sorry if you see lots of "stuff" in the background! Trying to separate presents for 3 different families in one room is challenging! Especially with 3 active children running around and playing in the midst!)

Our "meager fare!" Ha! We are spoiled...(Grandma finds all the good bargains for the kiddos!)

Darren likes his new 'Niners shirt!

Helen got a new cookbook! Woo Hoo!

Darren Paul the Fireman! It lights up too!

Darren LOVES his new guitar!

Dan got what he ALWAYS wanted!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

Happy New Year, Everyone!! Hard to believe it is 2010, the start of a new decade!

Enjoyed a nice cozy family evening for this New Year's Eve.