I'm thankful...

God has given me this man to share life with...
...and to help raise these two boys...
We have so much to be thankful for this year. God answered so many prayers this year. We're especially thankful that Eagan became a part of our family in 2011.

We had a great Thanksgiving. Even though we didn't get to spend it with extended family, we had a great time celebrating with our church family and just the 4 of us. On Thursday we had a lazy morning, then went to the church to eat with other families who are also "displaced" and don't have family here. There was a lot of yummy food! That night (around 11ish), I ran to Walmart to join in on the Black Friday madness. I got a couple of Breeson's Christmas gifts and also got a much needed printer. The only sad part is that I decided to wait 'til midnight (electronic savings started then) so I could get the printer - only to have Jamie tell me later that I only ended up saving $5. :( Booh. Then on Friday morning we went as a family to KMart to catch the last minute deals (air mattress for when we have guests - now that was a great deal!).

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Today we jumped back into our typical routine of life. I ran to the grocery store and did some laundry. Jamie went to the church and did some prep work for an upcoming event.
Except tonight we did take the boys to the Bass Pro Shop to get pic's with Santa. Originally we were going to take them to the mall, but when I looked at prices online, they wanted $30 for a picture and CD. Um, no thank you. So I shopped around and remembered someone had said Santa visits the Bass Pro Shop. Now, I can imagine what you're thinking - especially if you've never been to one. But let me tell you, these stores are huge and there's a ton to look at. And no, Santa was NOT in camouflage. In the end, we were so glad we did it there and not the mall. Why?
a. there was no line - well, not really. You were given a card telling you what time to come back and get in line. I didn't have to wait long. Jamie took Breeson around and jumped in line w/ me when we were close.
b. ton of free stuff for kids. There was even a carousel that they let the kids ride for free!
c. the pic's w/ Santa was free and they even gave us a free 4x6. At the mall, the only thing that was free was seeing Santa.
d. we were able to go eat while we waited for our turn.



I had to include this pic of Breeson. It cracks me up!! I'm not exactly sure what he's doing. But I like how I got his reflection in it.

January 1

...is when Jamie starts his full time position at the church we are at, The Light of Christ Anglican Church. We are so excited for this. We have been praying about this opportunity (for Jamie to be in full time ministry) for a long time now. Thanks to all of you who have been praying alongside us. We have felt your prayers!
We had another opportunity in which we were praying about, but God has made it clear that He wants us to stay where we are at for now.

This hasn't been an easy journey though. A year ago we were one of the few young families there. In fact, Breeson was the only one in the nursery for a while. But now, we are happy to have more young families there and to see Breeson running around the church with more kiddos his age makes me smile.

And even though we have a strong peace that God wants us there, we understand that it's a financial burden on the church. Some had to take pay cuts, and some lost their paid positions all together. But the church believes they have to make some changes, which means bringing Jamie on full time, in order to help this church grow. We know that it's not us - it's all God in this.

For now, Jamie is home with the boys 3 days a week and I went full time at work. Life has been pretty busy in the last few months. One upside to this is that Jamie was able to quit CFA, in which he was VERY excited about. We will swap our roles after Christmas. He'll go full time with the church and I'll go part time at my job. It actually worked out because my job has been going through a ton of changes and they needed me full time, which is why I accepted it. I'm grateful my boys get to spend some extra quality time w/ Dad before he goes full time. We both realize not many Dad's get that opportunity. And I just have to brag for a bit...Jamie does a great job w/ them. Plus, he usually has dinner either already started or ready to eat by the time I get home. I'm pretty spoiled!! :)

Ordination

Well Jamie is officially ordained (or "ordinated" as I like to call it). My family came out last weekend, along with Jamie's mom to witness this big event in our life.
We're thankful to so many people who have been supportive as we have moved forward in what we have felt as God's calling to ministry.

In case you didn't already know, we are part of the Anglican Mission in the Americas (AMiA).
We joined about a little over a year ago.

Here are a few pic's from the service...

So my husband is now a Pastor (or Friar George, as I like to call him!), which means I'm now a Pastor's wife. Scary. As a kid I used to say I never wanted to marry a Pastor. Whoops, so much for that.

October...already!?!

I can't believe October is here, much less that it's already half over. Time flies when you're...working full time and have sick kid's!
Thankfully we're all on the mend.

I had to take this pic of Breeson the other day - I woke up to this!! It cracked me up.


And check out this monster!! He's already 5 months old and weighs in at a whopping 15+ pounds.

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We carved pumpkins and this is what's left of them - stupid squirrels. The same thing happened last year. Jamie wanted to take them out, until we saw the mama and her babies the other day.

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So we did it!! As a joint 30th birthday bash - several of us girls celebrated by going to The Grizzly Rose to go two-stepping/line dancing. It was a lot of fun!!
All of us turned 30 this year:

this pic cracks me up b/c this random guy came over and asked Theresa to dance - for those of you who know Theresa, I'm sure you're laughing too!! But she didn't skip a beat, she jumped up and said yes and he whisked her off! Clint had a good laugh about it too. The guy was harmless - he just needed a dance partner!

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We had a little Whitewater reunion the last couple of nights. Justin and Kirsten (Ensz) Eck came to Denver for their vacation and we caught up w/ them while they were in town. We had a great time catching up.

Waiting....

Joy usually updates our blog, but today I felt like it might be good to add my own post for a change. Life in Colorado is good, but we find our selves in a place that we never expected, at least I didn't. For some reason, I always believed God would make it crystal clear where he would want me to serve, but at this point I only know that I am called to serve in the Anglican Mission in America. So I find my self circling the airport waiting for God to tell me where to land this plane. For now that means continuing to serving as the Young Adult Coordinator at TLC until the Lord leads me else where, which we are willing to do once He makes it clear where that may be.
We currently have a lot going on and I am so grateful that my wife is willing to take care of the boys so I can seek direction from the Lord. This weekend I plan to spend a lot of time in prayer and look forward to spending time alone with my Lord. For those of you who read this I would ask you to be in prayer for us as we seek guidance from God.
In other news, I will be getting ordained to Presbyter on October 29, 2011, Lord willing. My mom and some of Joy's family are coming to celebrate God's calling me to serve as a pastor and I am looking forward to our time together.
At the end of the day, I am blessed to have such a loving wife and two wonderful boys to share this life with and for that I am very very grateful. Thanks God!!!

Finally!

I finally did it. After over 15 years of wanting my nose pierced, I finally did it for my 30th birthday!! Thank you husband of mine. ;)

I'm not gonna lie, when I was sitting in the chair waiting on the guy as he prepped everything, my heart was beating really fast. I joked that I might cry. I was kinda serious.
But I didn't. It lasted only a second - just like he'd promised.
My good friend, Theresa came with me.

I had a wonderful 30th birthday. Thank you all for the sweet well-wishes on my FB page, phone calls, and text messages. I feel loved.

My husband did a great job of making me feel extra special this year. He got me just what I wanted (from my piercing, to a small get-together with friends, to ordering a homemade pie from Marie Calendars). Then to top it all off, I asked if we could go line dancing with friends and he said yes. A few other girl friends (like Theresa above) are also turning the big 3-0 this year, so we're all going to go dancing together later in October and do one big birthday hoo-rah!
Should be fun!! It's going to be a fun excuse to wear my cow-girl boots. Now I just need to find Wranglers for Jamie and plaid shirts for both of us!

Overwhelmed

Feeling overwhelmed has been the theme of my life in the last week or two. I've been feeling overwhelmed with...

• the whole process of potty training
• work and the all of the changes we've been going through - having to change shifts here and there, and more changes to come...
  
• the thought of saying goodbye to my 20's (a little harder than I thought it would be?!)
• juggling 2 kids -my patience level has been at a 2, maybe even a 1 on a scale of 1-10
• trying to figure out possibilities that deal with the future

Speaking of feeling overwhelmed...for those other mommy's out there, do you feel like your house gets overwhelmed with baby stuff!?


At least we're getting some good use out of some of the stuff...


This guy finally went to his 2 month apt, even though he is now 3 1/2 months!! He weighed in at a wopping 15 lbs and is now 25 inches.
While there, I had the Doc pay special attention to the shape of his head. Come to find out...if at 6 months his head is still mis-shaped, then he'll have to wear a helmet. Bahaahaha!! Yes, I said a helmet!! Poor fella - he could have some bad blackmail photos for later on life. So we're working on changing his position of sleeping, playing and doing some muscle exercises for his neck so he'll be flexible in turning/sleeping either way. I just can't even imagine him wearing a helmet at 6 months 24/7.