Rewind...June 10th

Lincoln's school put on an abridged version of the musical "Joseph and the Technicolor Dream Coat". The Kindergarteners were part of the chorus. Lincoln is in the front row, second from the left.

Here's that cute boy in his costume after the show.

Since Lincoln had been singing the songs for weeks and had basically taught the whole misical to Jackson in the weeks prior, we thought Jackson would enjoy seeing why his brother had taught him these silly songs. Afterward, we went to Mirabelle's for dessert. Its fun to go have a treat once in a while. Grandpa and Grandma Nichols came to see Lincoln's performance and Grandpa and Grandma Bouterie did as well and joined us for dessert!

Silly Lincoln has decided that its funny to ruin pictures with goofy faces. Hopefully we'll be able to remember how cute he was at 6 1/2 without the help of photos. :) Here we are with Lincoln and his crazy face...but missing our cute Lola.

Kindergartener no more!

June 11th rolled around and Lincoln Jeffrey Nichols completed his final day of kindergarten. I can hardly believe it! It was a great year. He was blessed with an awesome teacher, Mrs. Soto, who had grace, patience and love for her class of 12 kiddos. Lincoln had his moments of struggling with sitting still and not being too silly, but those trials just helped him grow all the more. Best of all, he now knows how to read! I am always amazed how children learn to read. Lincoln also finished out the year being in the top reading group! By God's grace, he was focused enough to accomplish such a feat. So, onto first grade, though where he'll go we have not yet decided. Praying for God's wisdom in what continues to be a big decision for us.

We love you Lincoln-boy!

Buh-Bye Golden 1!

Jeff got a new job. His last day at Golden 1 was Friday, February 26th. After a little more than 7 years there, it was sad to say good-bye, but definitely time to leave. He'll now be working for a company called Entysis which provides enterprise-level I.T. solutions (his words...I have no idea what that means). What I do know is that he will get to go to lots of different companies doing what he calls "the fun stuff" and then he gets to move on to the next project. We were so blessed by God placing Jeff in the job with Golden 1 where he learned and grew so much. We continue to be blessed now that God has provided this new opportunity for him so that he might learn and grow some more. He is excited to start this new chapter and we are excited to support him!

And the Grammy goes to...

Miss Lola loves "Sleeping Beauty" and especially loves to sing the song from the movie. She's been walking around singing it for weeks, so I thought it was about time to capture it on video. These are the words she's singing (more or less)...

I know you, I walked with you once upon a dream.

I know you, the gleam in your eyes is so familiar a gleam.

Yet, I know its true, that visions are seldom all they seem.

But if I know you, I know what you'll do,

You'll love me at once, the way you did once

upon a dream.

It Wouldn't Have Mattered...

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.