Thanksgiving 2010

We had a wonderful time with friends and family. The kids really enjoyed the snow and Jeremy got some excercise getting some firewood with my dad. I sat around as MUCH as possible. I finally got my fill of my nephew phillip, so he has my permission to continue growing for a while. Dinner was scrumptious but the laid back few days "snowed in" at the parents was my favorite. The traditional Laura/Lenore snowman was accomplished in dazzling style with a few extra helpers this year. We are no over twenty years making a snowman don't you think Laura? Now begins the true holiday season and I am feeling the stress already. However, online shopping will be my best friend this year and baking will consist entirely of only my favorites. The house is half decorated and the tree still needs to be put up but I wanted something to look forward to upon our return. The christmas cards are in the mail. . .bring on Christmas and all the great things that go with it! Especially celebrating the birth of our Lord and Savior, my favorite part of the holiday season. As I've always said, what other time of year do you get to sing songs about Jesus to WHOEVER you want to WHENEVER you want to and they don't mind???

 "bart" short for "Bartholomew the sleepy Bard". We had to make our snowman in repose as the powder was not quite packable enough to stack. "Jay-Z the Lazy" was also suggested.

 basically her favorite thing was to fall over into the snow

 yes, that is ME pushing her down the hill. I CAN be outdoorsy and winter brings it out in me like no other season. Years of afternoon sledding/skiing are hard to let go of but I will say I'm good with an hour now where when I was trin's age I would have been out all day.

 I must make mention of the sled "old reliable". Still the best runner sled ever even after YEARS of abuse. (I am talking four to five college age kids stacked on a three foot sled careening down icy hills.

prince phillip. squish!

 cousins.

 blake and my dad. everyone say "awww. . . ."

making the turkey place cards. have I mentioned my mom has killer housplants? well not really killer, but BIG. I'm sort of obsessed with them and managed to snag the one off her hutch top left. mwahahahahha!

 the fam, plus coralee and johnny, which are really just fam.

 nice look natalie!

show them off girls! 

First Snow

Tomorrow is trinity's first ever SNOW DAY from school. She is totally excited to stay home and play in the white stuff. Our neighbors are coming over for lunch, I am packing to leave for my moms, and I got a head start on getting christmas stuff out so tomorrow should be a great day! Here are a few pics of the kids playing with our friends kota and mie. I can't get over how much kota looked like one of santas elves. So mischevious and cute! Blake is subjected one more embaressing year to trinity's old pink snowpants. After an initial conversation (more like argument) about them being okay to wear he has been good to go. The first response was "those are NOT mine, those are sister's". well now they are yours buddy so get used to it. He should just be happy his new coat and boots aren't pink as well. It's not like I force him to wear all her hand-me-downs. In fairness, I did force trin to buy new black pants instead of pink so that when blake does grow into them, it's not such an issue. So. . .fair is fair right, but they do look like I put the wrong pants on them in this first picture. lol.

snow angel

love his expression

the christmas elf

isn't she adorable?

um, yes I can still see you. . .

getting chilly mom.

christian music summit

Here is a video of our friend from this past weekend. yeah that's right, he just dropped tuned twice in a row and in perfect pitch. He's a wonder! I was raised on this guy, his voice is like a lullaby of everything familiar from my childhood. hee hee. Let's just say Natalie was drawing hearts around his face on the bulletin like a gradeschool crush. Mwahahahaha! Here is a pic from a different part of the day but it basically sums up her feelings about Mr. Phil.

The weekend was amazing. The songwriting end was eye-opening. Let's just say there will be some rewriting going on! It wasn't all bad feedback though and even if I experienced a litte bit of "tearing down" I had the DISTINCT impression it was so the Lord can build me back up again with a new perspective on my songs. What I loved about the the workshops was that they all encouraged you to make the most of the spheres of influence you are already in and that is really where nat's and my heart is at. Ministering to the body of Christ and meeting needs in the community through the gifts God has given us.

This has always been easy for me vocally but more challenging in my songwriting and I was grateful to have my sights expanded a little to the possibility of ministry my songs could have.

Here is natalie and sarah talking to an industry grunt about what is expected of a full time songwriter in the real world. lol. 12-14 songs a year seems to be the standard but if you co-write it only counts as half a song so that would break down to 24 co writes and up in numbers as writers increase.

I learned the pros and cons of working with publisher vs. independantly handling your music. All good stuff but as I said I was more inpsired by the vision the keynote addresses gave me as to the future of my ministry in the imeadiate world around me. Tom Jackson's workshops were the best and funniest; probably the highlight of the weekend after the amazing sermons and concerts. Isreal Houghton and his band seriously grooved Friday Night. Loved him live. Okay, the rest is going to be pictures of our friend Phil. . .because He rocks my world. One of the most humble performers I have ever come across.

oops, I lied. Quick shout out to Flying Saucer Pizza. AMAZING! GO EAT THERE!

the gang: natalie, sarah, the back of Jolene (whoops), and darren.

Beth Moore worship video

HAPPY HALLOWEEN

okay, hopefully this isn't too late, I mean it IS two days post halloween. lol. Here are the few good shots I got of the kids. Mom and I took them around quail loop in newport, wa. Some of my old stomping grounds. We stopped at the Shavers' house and lee answered the door. You should have seen Trin's face when I explained that he was MY third grade teacher. lol. Good stuff. Trinity was a witch, which I hesitated on but gave in as it had been my favorite costume when I was her age. I said nothing yucky though so she wasn't green faced or warty or anything. Blake was her "helper bat". Shout out to Kerri Wissink for the AWESOMe bat wings we borrowed and to nee nee for the rocking sweatsuit. All in all a good night of trick-or treating, I was of course impressed with how trinity politely thanked every person that gave her candy and also a little amused by her "fake excited" laugh that she did every time she skipped down a driveway with more candy. what a ham. If you heard it you would know why there was much eye-rolling from the mother.

Beth Moore and Fall Shots

No, we did not go drinking after the beth moore conference. = ) we did however help granda rake the leaves and I managed to get some good shots of the kids so enjoy! the Beth Moore event was AWESOME. I can't believe God's never ending faithfulness to bless me in big ways for such small things. Who would have thought that when I was sixteen and memorized Ephesians chapter 4 on a missions trip because our leader asked us to that God would so faithfully bring it to the forefront time and time again in my life? It's really my life chapter. Wouldn't you know, that from the whole bible beth would choose ephesians 4 for the Spokane event? that is just a God thing and I'm going to shout it out! They had a huge jar of shells on the stage when we got there and when beth explained that there had been a prayer team praying for us for NINE MONTHS and that for each hour they prayed they put a shell in the jar I was completely blown away. Do you know how many hours it was? about 80 women prayed 100 hours for us. that makes 8,000 hours! wow. knocked my socks off. Praise God.

that's what you get when I'm around my sister.

she liked to sit on the stage or kneel fairly often

you go girl

(so sorry, the video ended up two posts up cause I couldn't figure out how to edit it into this post)

a little video to help you get a feel for it. this was from the ending worship set. I thought it was really interesting that they started us on well known songs like "your name" and then they just walked off the stage and let us finish it accapella. it was an interesting experience. we came as 5,500 and we left as ONE. ha ha (that was the theme: the sum total of every divine equation is ONE)

and now the fall shots:

this is the "cheese" expression I am afraid I will get from blake at family photos this weekend. . .

trinity playing "goalie" in front of "the mine". I mean how many grandparents do you know have a mine, a cave, and a waterfall???

pumpkin spider

so I am running behind because fall is crazy busy this year and my little bean won't let me be as active as usual (le puke). So I spend much of my time either taking care of what I absolutely HAVE to or sitting on the couch doing as little as possible. It's an interesting dynamic. Here are some pics of trinity's pumpkin she decorated for awana. Daddy did most of the scooping but I was dying laughing at how CAREFUL he was about the carving. So of course I took the tools from him and slashed that baby up in about ten minutes flat. mothers don't have time right? trinity was very proud of herself even though all she really did was stuff the legs in the holes. hee hee

blake "reading" the instructions and telling me what to do

the big and little experts. . .

the two baby spiders on top with table spider overlooking. . .

the finished product. of course it has a happy face.