Christmas, Suncadia & Haiti

Wow! Has it really been over a year since I've posted on my blog? Looks like it was November 2009 . . . well, the good news is I can still use the same wallpaper cuz it says "Happy New Year" on it, and now it is New Year's Day 2011. HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

What a blessed and memory-filled Christmas for our family!! All 8 of us gathered at home for a relaxed family Christmas, not forgetting that Jesus IS the Reason for the Season, and enjoying the blessings of family! One of the highlights was building a GIANT family snowman in the backyard with everyone's help - first snowman ever for Dylan who was pretty excited to use the ladder to put on the snowman's hat.

On the 26th-29th we spent the time together at the beautiful Suncadia Lodge in Upper Kittias County. Marie Doyle, Justin's girlfriend joined us there for tubing, ice-skating, swimming, cross-country skiing and family games . . . not to mention the amazing dinners at the restaurants there. Definitely a memory-making holiday!


It's been a beautiful, COLD, sun shiny day in Ellensburg for the first day of the new year. We're having a lazy day at home, watching football on TV, catching up with emails, working on pharmacy bookwork, and organizing our thoughts for Haiti . . . that's right - Roger and I are both scheduled to go to Haiti on short-term mission trips this month. I will be going on the 13th with a group of amazing ladies from our church to serve at the Apparent Project in Port Au Prince. We will be teaching sewing to some ladies there in hopes of providing a marketable project they can sell to earn money to keep their children. Roger and Justin will be traveling on the 21st to work with Child Hope International (also in Port au Prince) to rebuild a guest house for their orphanage. We are SO EXCITED for all that God has in store for us! We'd appreciate your prayers!

More Pics

Here are the other two pictures that I tried to post at the end of my last blog . . .

A Dragon and a Recon Commando

Halloween with the boys and OUR LAST TRIP TO VEGAS . . . Whoo Hoo!! POPS and I flew to Vegas to go trick-or-treating with Dylan and Seth and then to bring them home with us on the next day! Yea! They have finally moved to Washington and are getting settled at Fairchild Air Force Base. We feel very blessed to have them so much closer and we look forward to spending lots of time with them!

Our four days together in Ellensburg were glorious, especially God providing the beautiful sunny days when we could go for walks and play in the leaves!! Just the beginning of many wonderful Washington memories with the grandsons! Thank you God!

Uncle Aaron and Aunt "Bawie"

Taking Seth and Ryan to Eastern Washington wouldn't have been complete without a visit to see Uncle Aaron and Aunt Bonnie or "Bawie" as Seth pronounces it. It was fun to meet up with Bonnie in her kindergarten classroom and then have dinner with the two of them (and the red bird) at Red Robin. To top it off, we got to spend the night with them in their apartment. Ryan and Aaron took Seth to the swimming pool in the apartment complex to wear him out a little bit. It worked . . . Whoo Hoo! Thanks Bon and Aaron for a great visit!

GENERATIONS

Visiting Great-Grandma Bonnie



One of the highlights of the past two weeks was a trip to Colfax to visit 92 year old Grandma Bonnie. Unfortunately she had recently been transferred to the hospital but she was excited for our visit and was totally blessed by having her grandson, Ryan, and Seth, her youngest great-grandson there for a visit. It took Seth a little while to warm up to Grandma Bonnie, but once he did, they had a great time . . . he even got her involved in a game of "invisible catch" which was so cute. By the second day, Seth was anxious to get to the hospital to share his cookies with Grandma Bonnie. Priceless memories for Ryan and I, and great pictures forever!

My Daddy's Sending Me a Hug

These are four of my favorite pictures from this summer, maybe of all time! Ryan and his future brother-in-law secretly put together a DVD from Ryan in Qatar that was shown at Bonnie and Aaron's wedding reception. It was definitely one of the highlights of the day, and a very emotional experience for us all. (Aaron really made some points with the family for that one!)
In one segment, Ryan gave his family a hug on the DVD and talked specifically to Lainey and the boys about this long-distance hug. Aaron gave us a copy of the DVD after the wedding, so when we were babysitting Seth and Dylan for two weeks in August, we watched their dad on the computer screen often. I happened to have my camera one day when Seth was watching the video and listening so intently to his Daddy sending the hug. Hence the picture sequence (Look carefully at the computer screen.) Just wish I had taken one more picture when Seth was doing the hug motion. It was priceless!!! We thank God that Ryan and Seth's hugs are all in person now!

Serving Our Country

In May of this year, Ryan was sent on a four-month deployment to Qatar. It was kind of a scary thought at first, but we all adjusted to the idea, and by the time he left, he was ready to go. Now that he's back, Ryan says it's the best experience he's had so far in his 6 years with the Air Force. Qatar was a relatively safe place but it is still in the Middle East. He was a TCN Escort and there was one security situation that arose while he was there that he didn't share with us until he got home. Being the mom, I thanked him for that . . . his dad and I prayed him through the whole four months and have been blessed by how God worked in and through Ryan while he was there and protected his wife and two little boys at home.