Thursday, January 29, 2009
Getting Ready For Disney...
On Monday morning we, except for Melody :(, will be flying to Florida to enjoy a twelve day vacation with the whole Downs clan. There will be 17 of us in all! The kids are retrieving their independent study work from school, I am highlighting my hair as I write this....quite necessary...Brian is...o yes, taking care of all the details like where we are staying, purchasing a GPS so we can go geocaching while we are there, bought a camera. You also have the privilege of hearing the day by day accounts of our trip via Brian, the awesome writer, so prepare yourself for fun. You can go on our trip with us via the blog. It would be "great fun" (as Laurie Lamb would say), if you all could join us.
Thursday, January 15, 2009
Quick Recap of Thanksgiving Through Christmas
So, I just published this post and the layout is doing weird things...hmm.
It has been way too long since my last post and there is so much to say, but since that would take pages and pages to write, I will stick with the basic happenings in November/December.
We traveled to Washington State to visit the Downs family for Thanksgiving week. We had a blast! Craig, Brian's brother took our family pictures. The canoe you see above is some 15 years old. Brian carved it out of a tree in high school. He had the option of writing a report or doing a project. He opted for the project which took him at least twice as long as writing a report, but who knew we would all be needing fun family pictures this many years later. I love my catalyzer, dreamer husband.
Charlie is the newest addition to our home. Brian found him in the backyard lost and sick. We decided we needed to adopt him. He loves to be cuddled and Julianne gets a gold star for taking great car of him.
Brian worked Christmas Eve, so John, Julie, Royce (my brother, bro-in-law, and sis-in-law), and the Downs Fam headed to the Fire Station for dessert. Kylen got to put on Brian's turnouts and the kids enjoyed sitting in the engine.
Julie and I on Christmas.
Every Christmas we act out the Christmas Story. Ashlyn is a heavenly host. Quite heavenly I think. Julianne is Mary. Charlie is Jesus. Kylen is the donkey. Oh...the fun of celebrating Jesus!
We so enjoyed some family time and lunch with Grandpa on Christmas Day.
The day after Christmas--The Paris gals took Mom to High Noon Tea in Clovis to celebrate her 60th birthday which was last February. What a special time!
My mind is completely blank at the moment, so I think I will just post this and share this part of our lives with you. I am off to hang clothes and go visit Grandpa with Ashlyn and Julianne and have an early dinner with him. We look forward to hearing from you all...the ones we love. What is going on in your lives?
It has been way too long since my last post and there is so much to say, but since that would take pages and pages to write, I will stick with the basic happenings in November/December.
We traveled to Washington State to visit the Downs family for Thanksgiving week. We had a blast! Craig, Brian's brother took our family pictures. The canoe you see above is some 15 years old. Brian carved it out of a tree in high school. He had the option of writing a report or doing a project. He opted for the project which took him at least twice as long as writing a report, but who knew we would all be needing fun family pictures this many years later. I love my catalyzer, dreamer husband.Charlie is the newest addition to our home. Brian found him in the backyard lost and sick. We decided we needed to adopt him. He loves to be cuddled and Julianne gets a gold star for taking great car of him.
Brian worked Christmas Eve, so John, Julie, Royce (my brother, bro-in-law, and sis-in-law), and the Downs Fam headed to the Fire Station for dessert. Kylen got to put on Brian's turnouts and the kids enjoyed sitting in the engine.
Julie and I on Christmas.
Every Christmas we act out the Christmas Story. Ashlyn is a heavenly host. Quite heavenly I think. Julianne is Mary. Charlie is Jesus. Kylen is the donkey. Oh...the fun of celebrating Jesus!
We so enjoyed some family time and lunch with Grandpa on Christmas Day.The day after Christmas--The Paris gals took Mom to High Noon Tea in Clovis to celebrate her 60th birthday which was last February. What a special time!My mind is completely blank at the moment, so I think I will just post this and share this part of our lives with you. I am off to hang clothes and go visit Grandpa with Ashlyn and Julianne and have an early dinner with him. We look forward to hearing from you all...the ones we love. What is going on in your lives?
Sunday, December 21, 2008
16th Anniversary & Julianne's 13th Birthday Celebration!
I love my man! Brian and I have been married 16 years today! I am more in love with him now than ever! What a joy to grow in the Lord's love together. May we be a tangible representation of Christ and the Church, one that reflects this relationship with purity and grace so as to draw men to Jesus Christ.Our baby is now 13 (well, almost...on the 29th). We just returned from our trip to San Francisco with Julianne and had a wonderful weekend. Our trip in brief--Julianne picked out the first ring she laid eyes on (her purity ring), rode a cable car, got make up, stayed at the Westin, read all the amazing letters to Ju from beloved family and friends, ate a lot, shopped a bit, saw the Bush man, laughed together, relaxed, watched some TV, stayed on the 4th floor because Brian is a conscientious firefighter now (ladders can only go up to the 8th floor in case of a fire), and witnessed a riot with our friend, Beth, at the Westfield Mall.
Monday, December 8, 2008
Our Covenant God
I haven't checked in for awhile, and this will be a quick post, because Brian is taking part of his 12 month fire test right now and when he is done, we are going to meet up and celebrate at Chick-fil-A...because it is always, "a wonderful day at Chick-fil-A". (That is what we say at the drive through.) Another reason to eat there today--Brian is in his uniform and any "service person" gets their meal for half price.
I am in awe of the Covenant Keeping God to whom I belong. All morning long, actually for years now, I can't stop thinking about the Lord's faithfulness. He is completely trustworthy! What a gift He has given us in the New Covenant, the promise of Jesus, our Redeemer, Messiah, Savior, and the Holy Spirit's sanctifying work in our lives! I just have to shout Hallelujah! Hallelujah! No one can set aside or add to this covenant that the Lord chose to bind Himself to. He has done all the work. I am a recipient of His grace and am oh so thankful. May He enable us to believe Him each moment today because He has given us a clean heart and we are pure and holy because of Jesus' finished work on the cross. O, I am getting way to excited to be sitting in my seat. Let us, as followers of Christ, glory in Him.
I am in awe of the Covenant Keeping God to whom I belong. All morning long, actually for years now, I can't stop thinking about the Lord's faithfulness. He is completely trustworthy! What a gift He has given us in the New Covenant, the promise of Jesus, our Redeemer, Messiah, Savior, and the Holy Spirit's sanctifying work in our lives! I just have to shout Hallelujah! Hallelujah! No one can set aside or add to this covenant that the Lord chose to bind Himself to. He has done all the work. I am a recipient of His grace and am oh so thankful. May He enable us to believe Him each moment today because He has given us a clean heart and we are pure and holy because of Jesus' finished work on the cross. O, I am getting way to excited to be sitting in my seat. Let us, as followers of Christ, glory in Him.
Monday, November 3, 2008
October in an Acorn Hull (ie: a nutshell)
October came and went and it is now the eve of the Elections. Here is a glimpse of the last month.
Melody arrived in our home toward the end of September and cleaned the pantry and reorganized it! [What I'm pointing at in the picture is a U.P.P.- an Unidentifiable Pickle Product, Date of Orgin: unknown. -Melody] Praise the Lord for those gifted with organization and love doing it. I think this was taken in September, but I don't remember, so it is now in the October bunch. This was such a gift of love to me.
Julianne and Will, my nephew, dipped Nutter Butter cookies in white chocolate and made ghosts, thanks to Grandma for supplying the ingredients. We assured Will they were the Holy Ghosts...so I know there isn't more than One, but we didn't want to scare him. :)
This is Clint Walbeck, and I had to include this picture because it is priceless, or should I say, the priciest bucket of ice cream ever. Clint and Erin are so sweet to bring dessert to Taco Tuesdays and Clint stopped by Ben and Jerry's on the way home from Men's Fraternity, so we could enjoy some sweets. There is a huge story behind it, but to sum it up, the bucket you are looking at cost Clint $30. It was memorable. 
Kylen is running in his first championship cross country race ever and got a personal record. This picture was shot around a mile into the run. We are so proud of Kylen's diligence and perseverance.
[We are such a good looking family! -Melody]
Ashlyn and Melody are Greek Goddesses, of course. They got ready in about 10 minutes and their costumes turned out great. They all dressed up for a youth group activity last Wednesday and played a game throughout a neighborhood called, "Bigger or Better". The teams began with a business card from church and the goal is to go to houses and get people to give you something bigger or better than what you have. Melody and Julianne's group came back with a fully fuctioning air hockey table that they carried back to the church from two blocks away, all in their costumes.
Kylen, the mechanic
Julianne and Hannah...Hershey Kisses...picture them carrying the hockey table in those.
Fun pumpkins...Brian was working this year and he has always been the one to carve with the kids, so we missed him but had some help from Josh and Melody and it's hard to believe, but the kids are big enough to carve all by themselves.
Melody arrived in our home toward the end of September and cleaned the pantry and reorganized it! [What I'm pointing at in the picture is a U.P.P.- an Unidentifiable Pickle Product, Date of Orgin: unknown. -Melody] Praise the Lord for those gifted with organization and love doing it. I think this was taken in September, but I don't remember, so it is now in the October bunch. This was such a gift of love to me.
Ashlyn, Melody, and Julianne decided to wash the car and soak each other in an all out water war. I have no idea who won, but they were all happy and wet by the end.[And there was a clean car! -Melody]
Julianne and Will, my nephew, dipped Nutter Butter cookies in white chocolate and made ghosts, thanks to Grandma for supplying the ingredients. We assured Will they were the Holy Ghosts...so I know there isn't more than One, but we didn't want to scare him. :) This is Clint Walbeck, and I had to include this picture because it is priceless, or should I say, the priciest bucket of ice cream ever. Clint and Erin are so sweet to bring dessert to Taco Tuesdays and Clint stopped by Ben and Jerry's on the way home from Men's Fraternity, so we could enjoy some sweets. There is a huge story behind it, but to sum it up, the bucket you are looking at cost Clint $30. It was memorable. Kylen is running in his first championship cross country race ever and got a personal record. This picture was shot around a mile into the run. We are so proud of Kylen's diligence and perseverance. [We are such a good looking family! -Melody]Ashlyn and Melody are Greek Goddesses, of course. They got ready in about 10 minutes and their costumes turned out great. They all dressed up for a youth group activity last Wednesday and played a game throughout a neighborhood called, "Bigger or Better". The teams began with a business card from church and the goal is to go to houses and get people to give you something bigger or better than what you have. Melody and Julianne's group came back with a fully fuctioning air hockey table that they carried back to the church from two blocks away, all in their costumes.Kylen, the mechanicJulianne and Hannah...Hershey Kisses...picture them carrying the hockey table in those.
Fun pumpkins...Brian was working this year and he has always been the one to carve with the kids, so we missed him but had some help from Josh and Melody and it's hard to believe, but the kids are big enough to carve all by themselves.By the way, Melody is the witty one...she came up with the whole Acorn Hull idea in the title...I thought it was cute.
...And now this is Melody signing out for Yvonne. She had to run (well, more drive) to pick up Julianne and Kylen from 4-H stuff (I'm not really sure what exactally they're doing, but I'm sure they had a good time!). Ashlyn is already asleep [I've heard that daylight savings can make your body tired, but really? 7.30 bedtime for a 15 year old? Come on Ash! --just kidding, I love you!]
Anyway, October has been a great month for me loving my new fam and getting set in some holiday traditions already with them- home-brewed spiced carmel apple cider with whip, anyone? I feel that I can say October was overall a pretty good month for all of us, busy though we were, and that we're all looking forward to the holidays to come [yeah, maybe we did already listen to some christmas music on our family outting to the library]! So there you have it:
Goodbye, October;
Welcome November!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)