Happy New Year!!!!! 2009

As another year rolls in we return to where we started the year, back in our home celebrating the New Year with dear friends and family. Every year we celebrate with 4couples who have known each other since college. We figured out we have known each other for 28 years. We have not always been together. We have had moves, hardships, and health issues but it is something we look forward to every year. This year we were blessed to have everyone here. There is no greater joy than the bond of friendship that can only be made through our common bond of loving and serving the Lord Jesus Christ. We have our ups and downs but when we come together on New Year's each year it is a time of celebration, laughter, fun and general silliness. Here is a sneak peek into our celebration....
The Faces of New Year's
Who is that Masked Woman?

Relaxing as we wait for the clock to count down.

Can't wait to celebrate!

Even our nurses join in the celebration.

Captain "Dad Pants"!

Live Long and Prosper.

A smile that will steal your heart.

Grandma Jo waiting to bring in the New Year.

Aubrey does not want her picture taken!


Ringing in the New Year
Laura is ready to snap a picture as the New Year comes in.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!!!



G blowing her horn!

Wendall all dressed up and bringing in the New Year. G's nurses have always been a part of our New Year's celebration and are such a blessing to us all.


Toasting the New Year (It's Ginger Ale! LOL)
After ringing in the New Year we lift our glasses in a toast to the many blessings the Lord has brought to us. Not the least of which is the promise of eternity with our dears friends and loved ones.

Marc and Laura were able to join us again this year. We were so blessed to have us all together again! God is good!

G was able to enjoy some giner ale too!

Our "children" are not so little any more. They are growing up to be such wonderful young adults.


Relaxing took many different forms after we rang in the New Year. Reading, uploading pictures to the computer and general snacking and conversation could be found in all corners of the house.

Enjoying Tim Hawkins "I'm No Rockstar" This picture was taken just as it was starting. Once it started we were all laughing too hard to think about taking pictures. LOL!

After our big celebration, laughter, eating and fun...All is calm....


The Next Morning we were treated to a wonderful breakfast of quiche, cinnamon rolls and caramel rolls compliments of Laura. Many sat down to a relaxing game of "Electronic Monopoly". They use Credit/Debit Cards and transfer money electronically. There is no cash! The pieces are an LCD TV, a Segue, a puppy in a purse, altoids, the space shuttle and a baseball cap.

They use Credit/Debit Cards and transfer money electronically. There is no cash! The pieces are an LCD TV, a Segue, a puppy in a purse, altoids, the space shuttle and a baseball cap.


The New Year has already started out as a wonderful blessing. We will continue to thank the Lord daily for the blessings He gives us throughout the year. May you all know the Lord and the blessings that He offers.
Have a blessed New Year!

Allergy Testing

12-29-08
As the year came to an end we did a lot of end of the year check-ups. Dental appts., eye appts. and finally allergy testing. J was tested first and is allergic to 59 of the 60 allergens she was tested for. We knew she had allergies but now we can start her on allergy shots. A week later we took the 2 boys. The both reacted pretty severely to many but not all of the allergens.
Here you can see how badly they reacted.


Gameboy helped keep their minds off the itching as they waited for the final test results.

They, too, have started allergy shots and we are praying this will help them not only ease their allergies but that it will also keep their asthma from being triggered. The doctors are very optimistic and encouraging.

Christmas Poem

One of the gifts we received was a poem that C wrote for us all.

Presents and Christmas

Christmas is a special time for celebrating fun and cheers,
Because we know that Jesus Christ was once born in flesh here.
Thus God gave us the first Christmas present ever
that we should treasure for ever and ever
Presents symbolize this every morning,
like bicycles or lions that are roaring.
It's time for me to leave now and I tell you this with love,
that God up in Heaven is looking down in love from up above.
It was signed, Love, Mystery Writer.


Here he is after he finished reading it to us.


What a joy it is to see our children's desire to give on Christmas and to use the gifts and talents God has given them to bless us.

Christmas Day 2008

12-25-08
Christmas Morning. As we celebrate the birth of Jesus we sing Happy Birthday to Jesus and enjoy birthday cake for breakfast.

After breakfast we sit around the fire as Phillip reads our Christmas Day reading from our advent book. This year it was Bartholemew's Passage by Arnold Ytreeide. First we light our advent candles and Phillip lights the Christ candle that is white and represents the purity of Christ in His sinless nature that brings us the promise of salvation to all who surrender to Him as Lord and Savior.

We follow our advent reading by reading the story of the birth of Jesus in Luke Ch. 2

The kids enjoy the fire as we listen to the Christmas Story.


After our devotional time we open up our stockings. Chocolate Oranges are a Christmas treat in every stocking.


We love listening to Christmas Music as we open our gifts. Here Phillip and I stop for a quick dance.

Seeing the joy on their faces definitely proves the adage it is more blessed to give than to receive. If we who are sinful love to bless our children with good gifts how much more does our loving God love to care for us.




We enjoyed the rest of the day relaxing at home until we went to dinner at my Sister-in-law. We ate, played games and just generally enjoyed each other's company.
Merry Christmas!

Christmas Eve

For some reason this year we were down to the last minute for everything. So we wrapped gifts and made our Birthday Cake for Jesus on Christmas Eve.
Wrapping gifts gets easier and easier every year. Here are the kids wrapping their gifts to each other. We would send one child out of the room while the other three wrapped and rotated until we were all done. Then, after we sent them all to bed Phillip and I finished our part.


J is measuring very carfully.

As usual, A is all smiles.

R is really concentrating on what he is doing. He did a great job!

Look at that concentration on C's face!


Our Jesus cake is always chocolate to signify the sin we all carry. It is then frosted with white frosting to show how Christ covers over all our sins and makes us pure and therefore worthy to enter the kingdom of Heaven and see God. We have an angel on the cake to herald in the birth of Christ and a star that points the way to Him. The evergreen tree represents the everlasting life we are promised if we accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior and the cross it the price our Lord had to pay to make this possible. The drops of red represent the blood that was shed as a sacrifice for our sins and the 12 candles are to show that His light shines 12 months of the year. We must remember to keep our focus on Christ always and not just at this Christmas time.

Each kiddo got a turn at decorating a part of the cake. Here R is doing his part.


Here are the kids with their work of he"art".




The finished product.

Visit with the Kansas Sandlins

I have one sister-in-law who does not live in TX. So, we do not get to see her very often. They came in for the weekend and we got to spend a little time with them. We had a wonderful lunch together and then the kids and Aunt Cleta played Nertz.



The "boys" had other ideas.

Uncle Greg "watching" the football game.

Phillip making sure Snickers is comfortable.

Baking Cookies!

We did get a chance to make cookies this year. We went over to Kimberly's to make cookies and were able to make quite a few. The girls did most of the work.


We were supposed to have another day of cookie baking but the best laid plans.....maybe next year. After all, it is only a few days away!

Cranberries

Hey Sis,
Remember those cranberries you sent home with us that we had no idea what to do with? Well, A figured it out. She learned how to make jellied cranberry sauce and she even made cranberry juice! She truly is going to be the next Martha Stewart. She loves this stuff!