What a trip!

Well, we are back here in Dampville, OR. It was a crazy roller coaster of a vacation, but we loved every minute of it. Our families are incredible and we wish we could have spent more time with them. We saw very few of our friends, but cherished every moment. We got into town on the 21st and spent the first 4 days with Brandon's side of the family--2 grandmas, mom and dad, 3 brothers, 1 sister-in-law, 2 nieces, 1 nephew, 1 girlfriend, and two cats. Needless to say the house was bursting at the seams. There was never a dull moment and the earliest Brandon got to bed was at 2:30...much later than our normal bedtime (9:30)!!! We also attended Phil's wedding (one of Brandon's best friends). It was a beautiful ceremony and gave us a chance to connect with some other best friends. At noon on Christmas day, we made the trek down to my parent's house in Monument. There we were greeted by 3 brothers, mom and dad, 3 dogs, a TJ, and a random house guest. My family was glad to see us and had the next 4 days jam packed with things to do such as seeing the girls I used to nanny for, driving through a snow storm to see my brother, and shopping at the outlet mall. We did have several miracles such as surviving an almost deadly car accident (if you're curious, you can ask us about it later) and Brandon finding his lost wedding ring in the snow. I think the highlight, though, was just being able to have coffee with my mom and relax for a minute:)
It was a great getaway and we were sad to say goodbye, but it's good to be "home" again (even though we arrived 2 hours later than planned and sick from the worst turbulence ever).
Appropriatly, the rain was here to welcome us home along with our foreign cab driver who made us listen to ricky martin on the drive home. we have spent the past few days cleaning out the suitcases, enjoying the quiet of our little apartment, and looking forward to the next trip home.

this is Brandon being "santa" on Christmas morning--handing out the gifts for his family...he did a great job of keeping everyone on schedule so we were able to leave for the next house on time:)

these are the cherry pies that my mom made on Christmas day....i decorated them:)

our attempt at the annual family picture. (brandon's side of the family is coming soon)

these next three pictures are of my girls. i miss them so much and it was so good to hang out with them. and for Christmas they got me a scarf, two coffee mugs (which they decorated themselves) and a starbucks card...i think they know what i like:)

Blessings of all kinds...

...and here are a few. Right now Brandon is feeling the relief of finishing his first semester at seminary! Praise God! This last week was filled with lots of papers and final exams. He did an amazing job balancing class, work and me for the past 5 months. I am so proud of him!

So, we are now sitting in a local coffee shop a couple of miles from our house and while Brandon is sipping his coffee acutally reading a book he wants to read, Screwtape Letters, and I am enjoying this beautiful latte! What a work of art:)


This may look like a boring freezer to most of you, but to us it is an amazing blessing. A meat company in Portland has been donating boxes of meat to needy seminary students at Christmas time for many years. It was 25 lbs. of beef, pork, steaks, chicken, etc. We were lucky enough to be one of those families. There are no words to express our thankfulness to this family-owned company.


This morning we were able to be the blessing! Our church teamed up with Angel Tree ministries to buy, wrap, and deliver presents to kids whose parents are in prison. So we met at the church, divided up gifts, and found our way around town...playing Santa:) We were able to give presents to 73 kids! AWESOME!









And, as you know, this upcoming week will be my last with Adeline. I thought I would take a couple of pictures to show y'all how much she's grown. I love this little girl very much and am sad to say goodbye, but this job was a huge blessing and even though the opportunity is ending We praise God for the time I was able to be there.

It's beginning to look a lot like CHRISTMAS!!

We're really excited about our tiny Xmas tree, especially compared to last year. This is what you can afford when you are flying home. Plus what do you want to spend money on when you won't be there the whole time. I hope you enjoy our fun with the tree. We can't wait to see you all soon!

too good...

...to keep to ourselves. let me explain. about a month ago brandon and i had to take our one-and-only car into the shop to get the brakes fixed. while repairing the brakes, the mechanic (recomended to us by one of brandon's professors) said our transmission was leaking VERY bad and wanted to fix it. well, we needed our car at that point and so we said we would bring it in within the next week or so. obviously we were thrilled for another pocket-emptying trip to the mechanic so we got it in yesterday. here comes the good part. the mechanic called us a few hours after bringing it in and said THERE WAS NO LEAK!!! when brandon relayed the message to me, i yelled "God fixed our car!!!". we dont know why He chose to bless us that way, but we are so thankful as the holiday season is upon us and our budget is tight. we serve an amazing and caring God. Jehovah Jireh.
also, here are pictures from my second day at work with Mo.




ps...newborn babies smell SO good:)

well, it snowed in portland this weekend. not the stick-to-the-ground kind we get in colorado, but i still saw flakes falling from the sky. and for those of you who read Emi's blog (link to the right) just know that i was not as excited as she was. :)
besides the fact that i froze this weekend, we had a lot of fun. on saturday we volunteered with our chuch for the prison ministry. brandon and i went shopping with another couple for presents for kids whose fathers are in prison. we also got to help with the wrapping team after that! this ministry is close to our hearts and we were ecstatic to participate.
brandon worked on homework all weekend and is beginning to feel the crunch before the end of the semester. i sat on my rear end and watched him:) i mean, i kept him on task...riiiight. we are both soooo ready for our Christmas break and for a chance to go home for vacation.
it's also about time that i shared about my job change. God works in mysterious and sometime unexpected and confusing ways sometime...ok, most of the time. this was one of them. i was not looking for a new job or looking to work for a new family, but starting in january i will be watching a little 2 month old boy for a family in the northeast part of town(much closer to us) instead of keeping adeline. it has been a hard thing to understand and to accept, but we are trusting that God sees the big picture much better than we do. it's actually a huge blessing, as well, because it's a pay raise with many benefits. so there you go!
thanks for everyone who continues to pray for us. we definitely feel your prayers and God continues to bless our socks off everytime we turn around!