Christmas

We spent this Christmas with just the 4 of us in Casper. Even though I was a little sad this morning that we were not with any extended family, I am glad we had the opportunity to do be in our home. Because our lives become so busy it is nice to have the relaxing time together, and appreciate it since we know Rob will be gone to Kuwait next year.

Since we did not have any picture to send out in our Christmas cards I thought we could share our Christmas eve picture. We had our Christmas eve service at church, full with children's pageant and all. That is the first time we have done any kind of Children's program since we have been here. We has almost 20 kids there, and about 60 people in church, the first year we were here it was about 15 people and the second year it was about 20 with with 6 of them being my family. It was a blessing to see, even though we do not measure God's work by numbers. It actually threw Rob off having so many people. We were very blessed to have our new neighbors, Brooke and Cody come. Cody told us the night before that he had only been to church maybe 5 times. So we are excited to see if in this next year we can share with him more who Christ is and how he can be saved.

The new wagon that Emma and Garrett received from my sister and her husband was a big hit. They spent about 2 hours in it after Rob got it set up. I don't know if you can tell or not but it is windy out here today, and for the last several days it has been too. It blew all our snow away. So no white Christmas.

But we are very blessed with how God loves us and cares for us, and for the gift of Jesus Christ and eternal life through his death on the cross.

Christmas blessings to you all!!

Rainbow over a "big rock"

A friend of ours took this picture near Independence Rock, which if you did not know is about 70 miles from Casper. Those who were privileged enough to grow up playing Oregon Trail on the old Apple Computers in school, will remember it was beneficial to make it to Independence Rock by the 4Th of July so you could make it through the mountains before the snow began to fly. Whenever we have visitors they usually get to go out to "the rock" on their first visit here. Seems like we have not been out there in a long time, guess we need some new first time visitors "lol". But to sum it up this is not a picture of Independence rock, but it looks similar and is near by, and has a really cool rainbow coming down over it. Some time when I can find one of our Independence Rock picture I will post it too.

Just sharing pictures

Life has been good. God is always blessing us and with us. I have not put much effort into my blog lately, but I did just get my Christmas cards send out. So I thought I would share some photos. The first one is Emma and Garrett with their cousin Jackson, Jared's little boy. Then the next one is Thanksgiving day and the kids with Rob playing some annual Thanksgiving day football. Then Emma and Trisha, making some cookies Finally Garrett getting his hands in the dishwater, he just loves to do this and I had to finally capture it. It is adorable how he rolls up his sleeves as soon he gets his chair up to the water.

Emma's prayer

Emma has been coming to church with me about since she turned 3, in June, and she loves going up front for the children's message. We have a college student (Josh) who does the message and he is very fond of Emma. He always asks if one of the kids would like to pray to close their time and this time Emma volunteered. Josh made a big deal of it and announced something like this: "OK everyone can I have your attention, the pastor's daughter is going to pray." Emma did a great job, although I could not hear her very well, she mentioned being thankful for her dad and her friends. We had just studied David and Saul being friends in Sunday school, so I seemed like she had really caught on and was thinking about that. It was on of those moments that melted Rob's and my heart.

Mmmmm...oatmeal (don't look if you are queasy)

Sorry this was just too funny not to share. This is typical Garrett eating. If you know Garrett you know he really likes to eat, but as much as he likes to eat he also likes to play in his food. If I do not take it away and he is done, he decides to make a masterpiece of it.

We like to pose...but not always look at the camera

Emma just waned to have her picture taken with Garrett. She is sporting her undershirt. Lately she has wanted to have as little clothes on as she can. Usually when I go in her room after her nap, she is in a swimsuit or gymnastics outfit. Then Garrett is holding onto his "maymay," we are not sure what that comes from, but it means his blanket. That one is his favorite he loves to rub the raggy ends between his fingers, but he will usually take whatever is available.

Our trick or treaters

Emma "Supergirl" and Garrett "Lion" in front of a store, downtown Casper.

The Saturday before Halloween we took the kids to "downtown Casper". The business pass out candy and there are hundreds of children and parents/grandparents on the sidewalks/inside stores. Even though it sounds rough, it is really quite fun, seeing all the kids in costumes, our kids really enjoyed it. Garrett learned to hold his basket out and candy would be put in it. He got to ride in the stroller since he is not real fond of walking around yet, trying to train him more before the baby comes. Espically since Rob will be gone come March.....but anyway.

Then on Friday we had "Trunks of Treats" at church and we all dressed up like biblical characters. We were then able to share a very quick version of that story from the Bible and passed out gospel tracts. It was an awesome opportunity to reach out to our community. Again the kids really enjoyed it but they were able to pass out candy this time. Later on they went around to the trunks and got some for themselves too. Garrett again showed how he knows how to hold onto his candy basket, I think we had to tear it away when we got home, to be able to get his PJ's on.

Emma "angel"and her friend Colbin "shepard" visiting with Noah, they were in his "boat".