Catch Up!

So...I keep putting off blogging because I intended on putting up a little something from each major event from our summer and so on. After a period of time that becomes too daunting of a task ... so as I am so quick to do on such things, I put it off for another time. I really think about a lot of things to blog, but pass over them because I have too much to catch up on. You get the idea. So, I have decided to just dive in. Some catching up here, but much more concise than if I had taken a bit of time over the course of the actual events.
In June we had the McGinn clan and then shortly after they left John Kirklin came for a visit. July was full of VBS, a trip to Dallas for Justin's grandparent's wedding anniversary, then home for a few days. Middle of July took Justin to Pasadena California for two weeks of grad school and it took the girls and I up to Coeur d'Alene to hang with Papa and Grandma. Justin's parents joined us on the last night of VBS and Allyson, Lauren and I were with them pretty much the entire month of June. It was fun month full of travels and adventures. The highlight for Allyson was talking to Justin on the computer with Skype ... she brought it up again yesterday! At the tail end of July my parents arrived to spend my dad's 6oth birthday (August 1) with us. We had a really good week with Grand dad and Gran Jan. We traveled all over the place and showed them lots of things. Sometimes when we drive through down town Glenwood Allyson asks me if we are Aspen Vail. She doesn't realize these are two different places we visited on two different days! Also in August we had a visit with some friends from College - Rusty and Laura Campbell and their sweet boys. They were traveling through on part of their fundraising tour. We had a wonderful visit with them learning about their future mission plans in Angola, Africa.
At the end of August Andrew and Aimee Jo Martin and family came to visit us. They are currently on furlough from their mission work in Fort Portal, Uganda. What a blessing it was to visit with them for a few days and hear all about what they are doing and spend time getting to know their sweet kids.
One of my favorite parts of the visits we had throughout the summer was watching our kids play with the children of people who we have known over the years.
August ended and September began somewhat slowly. My cousin, Paige, was married on September 12th in Puyallup so the girls and I were able to travel home for that! It was a beautiful wedding and we had a really good visit. I thought it was rather nice of Paige to plan her wedding during the Puyallup Fair so we could do that while we were there :)
At the end of September I attended Women of Faith with some of the ladies from Church here in Glenwood Springs. I have been in the past, but it has been a while. It was so good to go again. If you have never gone (and are a woman) you need to check it out!
This fall Justin is leading a Financial Peace University class at church and we have been learning a lot from that.
Fall has settled us into a nice routine. Life groups have resumed. We're hitting story time at the library once a week. I am watching our little friend Samantha again on Wednesdays. Teaching wednesday evening bible class, helping out with the nursery and chidren's church, etc ... Life is rolling along. I have applied for a part time early morning shift at the community center here in town and have an interview on Friday morning.
The girls are getting so big. They are little playmates now, each with their own opinion on life and how things should be, but they do love each other so much. Now that we are on the other side of the baby thing, I am so glad to have them so close in age. Girls are fun! Lots of baby dolls and dressing up as princesses around here. Lauren LOVES Dora and Allyson is really into Snow White (this couple of weeks anyway). Justin keeps busy with church and school and hanging with his ladies.
We continue to feel blessed to be a part of the congregation here in Glenwood Springs. Colorado is such an amazing place to live and we are trying to soak it all in.
Blessings on each of you this week! There will be more to come and much sooner, I assure you!

Beautiful

While the McGinn family was here we visited Red Stone. Our family went last fall and I got some cute pics of the girls. Here are a few more of the beautiful girls that God gave me. Also, the picture that is now the header to this blog was taken there. It is a beautiful place!

Okay Mom ...

The title of this blog is in response to my mom's facebook message to me yesterday, "It's been a month, update your blog." So, being the sweet and obedient child that I am, I am going to do what I am told :) Love you mom!

We have had an eventful end of April/May. Our family flew up to participate in the final Cascade College graduation weekend. It was a great weekend with many happy "reunions." We were able to catch up with so many we haven't seen for so long. The girls were troopers and managed to enjoy being around a bunch of people they didn't know. I think part of this was due to all the ring-around-the-Rosy that their grandad played with them and their cousins outside of the events!

This first few days of our trip up north, my brother Aaron and his family were also up. Aaron and Amy have 3 kids - Grace is 4, Noraa just turned 3, and Sammy is 8 months. So, all of the girl cousins had a blast together and had a slumber party on the floor of my mom's office every night. Grandad told lots of Betsy stories and the words, "no boys allowed" could be heard at any given point in the day from all 4 girls. There was Princess Polly Pocketing to be had as well as the singing of "I know you, I walked with you once upon a dream" from Sleeping Beauty. Also, Allyson was quite taken with Sammy and wanted to hold him all the time. She has been asking me regularly since we've been back if I have a baby in my tummy. When I tell her no, she replies, "Aww man, mom!" The girls seemed to really enjoy each other and Allyson really didn't want them to head back to California.

Lauren and Noraa both have a May birthday so we had a little birthday party for the two of them. We also got a picture of all the second cousins together - except Grey, but we got one of him with all the second cousins later in the week.

Justin was only able to stay for the weekend, and then he headed back home to work. Then a few days later after Aaron, Amy and family left Tana and Grey joined the fun. We picked them up late on a Wednesday night and Grey was ready to roll as if it were first thing in the morning.

Allyson and Lauren enjoyed playing in a whole different way with their boy cousin than with the girls from a few days before. They had a lot of fun with him. There were lots of hugs, more Betsy stories, lots of playing in Grandad and Granjan's backyard, cars to push around, balls to chase!

One of the highlights of Grey and Tana's visit was a day trip to Seattle with a trip across the Sound to Bremerton on the Ferry. We enjoyed watching the kids on the ferry, feeding the seagulls at Ivar's after lunch, and walking around in Seattle.

Over all the trip was very nice. We saw all of my family and the girls got good time with grandparents and cousins. Here are a few other pictures of the trip!

My Blankie and My Grandma

So, this morning on the way to church I was listening to the Christian radio station. They were talking about God and creation, and quite honestly I don't really remember what specifically they were saying. But, Allyson was paying attention and piped up with, "Did God make my blankie?"

I went into the explanation about how God made many things but also he knows us and provides for us - things like her blankie, our home, food to eat, grandparents, etc... I was telling her that God knows what we need and what we like because he made us. To this she replied, "yep, God knew just what Grandma I would like and gave her to me!"

She says things like this on a daily basis and I really need to be writing them down. What a joy to have these sweet little girls!

The Move

I am so excited about our new place. God has really blessed us with this home. We are now in Glenwood Springs (same town as the church) and are enjoying the benefits of being "in town." Silt was a great place for us for the year we were there, but I am glad to be where we are now. We had lots of help from people at church with the move particularly all the moms and kids the girls and I spend time with each week. What a great church family! It took a week of bringing one load over at at time and putting it away and then one day of furniture moving and we were in and already unpacked. I much prefer across town moves to across the country ones, that is for sure.

We are still renting ... but there are some benefits to that. Now we have plenty of room and a great view from every window in the house. The picture with the mountain in the background was taken from our front porch so the house you see is across the street from us. The picture that is all house is where we live. We have a full basement and lots of room for the girls to play. There is also a deck and a full back yard. We've got more than enough room for company to come and visit (hint, hint) and are really just glad to be in closer to the church building.

In addition to the new place, while Justin's parents were here over spring break they bought us a dining room set - something I have wanted for quite some time now. Thanks again Papa and Grandma!! (Kind of an upgrade from the $25 garage sale find from our first year of marriage!) So not only do we have room for you to come and visit us, we also have room to feed you at our table!

I know we have been blessed in order to bless others. My prayer is that we use this new home to God's glory and for his ministry!

This is Mount Sopris which can be seen from our back yard:

Conviction

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Lately I have been thinking more and more about the responsibility that God places in our care when he gives us our precious little ones. We are given a small child to mold, sculpt and lead into a mature, God following adult. I don't know about you, but for me this is something that I am aware of more and more as my girls get older and begin to mimic the behaviour of those around them. I watch them as the live out their day and I want to help them become who God created them to be! As I was on Facebook yesterday (One of my newer addictions!) I came across my sister-in-laws updated status of a verse she was praying for her kids that day. She sent me a link to a calendar that has a month's worth of scriptures to pray through each day for your little ones. Prayer is so important. God gives us these children, but he is there with us. He is our greatest resource when we want to raise these precious little things into Godly adults!

I have posted the link above and am printing this for my fridge. Blessings on your prayer time.

Go-Gurts

I am sure all you smart moms out there already know this ... but as my girls sit at the kitchen table having their after nap snack I thought I'd share - just in case! At some point in my past someone told me to put Go-Gurts in the freezer and tah dah - frozen yogurt. My girls call them Popsicles ... they like them much better this way. Also, if you are ever doing weight watchers - they are one point each. A nice little treat.

All I do is pull them out of the freezer, run them under warm water for a minute (to loosen them from the wrapper), snip the top off, wrap a paper towel around them - for the girls because they are cold - and there you go.

So, like I said, I am sure many of you already do this and aren't overly impressed at this moment, but for those of you who haven't tried this yet - now you know!

Great Blog

Last Friday evening Justin and were invited over to some new friend's home for dinner. Justin participates in a monthly area wide minister's meeting. Last week he met a guy named Zac who works with an organization called Youth for Christ. He works with the teenagers in Rifle (the next town to the west of Silt). Anyway it was his family's home that we had dinner at. As I often do, I asked for a couple of the recipes from dinner. One of them came off of this blog and as I was exploring around it I decided it could be a good resource to share. So - check it out!
http://www.passionatehomemaking.com/

Bad Blogger

One of these days I will be really consistent with this! In the mean time you will just have to be patient with this lady. Christmas was a wonderful blessing to our family. We drove to Idaho, and by "we" I mean Justin. He drove the whole way there and back. Secretly I think it is just his way of not having to deal with the children in the back seat! The girls actually did really well on both drives. Not much of a complaint out of either one of them. While we were there we did lots of festive things and the girls played and played with Papa, Grandma, Aunt Jessica and Uncle Michael. They had a blast.





















Also while we were there Allyson had her third birthday - I can't believe my little baby is a big girl. Where did the time go? Much to her pleasure it was a Tinkerbell birthday party. Tinkerbell is the big thing for her these days. We watch the movie basically every day.

Lauren loves Barney. Santa brought her a stuffed Barney for Christmas and she calls it "i love you" - I love you, you love me, we're a happy family ....













Our girls seemed to have hit a growth spurt over the past month or so. Not only are they bigger, they seem older. Those of you with the little ones know what I mean by that. Since being back we've kept pretty busy. Our last week's play date was to an indoor pool at a hotel in Glenwood. They only charge $5 per person and you can stay as long as you want. They have a great kiddie pool and a long, curvy slide for the bigger kids. I took Allyson down it a couple of times and she loved it. The water was a touch on the cool side, so both of the girls wanted to be in the spa part a lot of the time. They really enjoyed the water. Allyson cried when we left - so you know its good!

We are busy building great relationships here. I feel that God is really blessing me with some of the mommies here. Friendships are such a precious thing to not take for granted and such an important part of this Christian life we are all living.

Justin started back up with Grad School this semester, so that will keep him busy along with everything else. He's taking two online courses and just got started last week.

I am on Facebook too much these past few days, but I really do love all the connections I am making on it - every week I think I've got to have come across everyone I know only to find more and more people.

God is blessing us. I am often reminded how great my life is! I'm posting some Christmas and Birthday pictures on my facebook page today. Blessings until the next update!!!