Christmas Letter 2009

Merry Christmas! 2009 sure did fly by, it seems that we were just preparing for Christmas 2008 yesterday and now here we are, a full year later! God’s grace has been poured out on us so immensely in 2009 and we feel so grateful to Him and we both feel it so strongly. We pray that our friends and family could experience the joy that we have felt this year-- through trials as well as blessing. And we surely have been blessed a lot. Praise God for choosing to love us when we continue to be so unlovable and sustaining our faith in Him when we would surely lose it if left to our own devices. Our feelings could best be summed up in a verse from the hymn “Come Thou Fount”:

O to grace how great a debtor
Daily I’m constrained to be!
Let Thy goodness, like a fetter,
Bind my wandering heart to Thee.
Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,
Prone to leave the God I love;
Here’s my heart, O take and seal it,
Seal it for Thy courts above.

Probably the most significant thing to happen for us this year was our baptisms. The baptism was an outward expression of an inward miracle that had happened for both of us. Baptism symbolizes how we have died to our old life of sin (going under the water) and are raised with a new heart that now loves and wants to serve Jesus (coming up out of the water). (Romans 6:4) Neither Jeff nor I had done this as Christians, though we’d both been baptized before.

The greatest blessings in our lives (besides being loved by Jesus) continue to be our beautiful children. Lincoln (6), our smart, silly, hard-headed, creative, musical, analytical, inquisitive, engineer; Jackson (4), our dramatic, hilarious, loving, rough, helpful, heroic, mediator; and Miss Lola Marie (2), our precious, girly, tough (yes—girly AND tough), lovely, motherly, sassy, snuggle bug. What gifts! Pray for us that we honor God by raising up these whom He has entrusted to us the way He has commanded in His Word!

Remembering to do everything for God’s glory has been a motto lately, which is why that verse was included on our Christmas card. What a sobering concept! How often we find ourselves doing things that do not bring Him glory. Yet He graciously gives us another chance and calls to mind His Word which is there to guide and convict us. It is an important concept to remember when days seem monotonous; that we are to do the jobs God gave us to do to the best of our ability and for His Glory. SoJeff goes to work and take care of his servers for God’s glory and I work in our home and with our children for God’s glory. And we remember to be thankful to God for giving us the jobs He gave us and creating the roles we’re in perfectly and for His glory. “So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.” 1 Corinthians 10:31.

We are also thankful for you, our family and friends, whom we are constantly blessed by and love very much. We pray that Jesus Christ would be real to you and working in you this coming year. That He would give you faith and would call you to Him or continue to grow you in Him. We love you.

“For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.” Romans 11:36

Thanksgiving

What a gorgeous Thanksgiving Day we had this year! It was hard not to be thankful. We try to be thankful all the time for blessings and trials, for we know that it is all God's will for us. (1 Thessalonians 5:18) How often we forget to thank God for simple things like breath in our lungs, sunshine (or rain), or the children who are able to be loud in the back of the car (because of the breath in their lungs)! We often pray in the car on our way somewhere and as we drove to Jeff's sister's house in the early afternoon, Jeff lead our family in thanking God for all our many blessings and the kids each prayed their thanks themselves. Mostly we thank God that though we are wretches who so often sin against Him, He continues to love us, so much so as to give His Son to pay the price for those sins. (Ephesians 2:1-10)


We are also thankful for getting to spend time with the Phelps, Grandma Cheryl, Aunt Emily and Grandpa and Grandma Fuller and later in the day with the Bouteries, Harrises, Smiths, and Mussos. We are blessed to have such a large family.

Apple Hill

Lincoln and Jeff both had a Friday off in the middle of November in honor of Veteran's Day. We took this rare opportunity of having both of them home on a weekday to take a family outing to Apple Hill. It was freezing! But totally worth it. First stop, High Hill Ranch for apple doughnuts. Yes, doughnuts! Oh man, they were so good and so worth the carbs. Ha! We also enjoyed Abel's Acres and Honey Bear Farm. It was such a lovely, quiet, leisurely day. Not many people around and we had no reason to hurry, so the kids ran and played, we had a picnic and took lots of cute pictures.

Halloween

To give the kids extra opportunity to wear their costumes and because we had a party to go to on Halloween, my mom (Manamana) had a Halloween party on October 30th. The kids had fun wearing their costumes and even Mommy and Daddy dressed up a little.

On Halloween we went to friends' house for a Halloween bash! It was so fun. The kids got to play and trick-or-treat with their friends and they had a blast. There was lots of good food too (always important). Thank you Phelans for opening your home to everyone so that we could have a super fun Halloween. We're looking forward to next year! :)

Fall Fun!

Saturday, October 24th we had a day full of fun! We went to cousin Roman's birthday party out in Clarksburg. We only took the boys since we were going to be gone most of the day and Lola would miss her still essential nap. The boys had a blast at Roman's party, the highlight of which was pony rides! Lincoln and Jackson loved it! It was a great party.

The birthday boy--Roman Musso.

After the party, we went to Silver Bend pumpkin patch which is right down the street from the Musso's house. The highlight of the pumpkin patch is a train ride including a hold up and train robbery, including a gun fight! The boys were into it! It was fun!

A Walk in the Park...

I love the fall! Sunday was a beautiful, cloudy, warm day. It was a great day for the park. The boys rode bikes, played basketball and baseball with Jeff, and climbed on the park toys. Lola did a little sliding and then just wanted to slowly swing on the "big girl" swings. I think we all had a nice, leisurely time enjoying God's great outdoors.