Before we knew it, New Year's Eve was upon us and it was time for another game night! We began the evening off with some prayer time, and then played games! It was a small turnout, but still a fun night!
Playing catch-phrase.....
Sometimes the words were pretty tricky....:P
Having fun with the timer!;)
a quick selfie in between rounds here.;)
Playing the concentration cup game.....
With the stroke of midnight, January 2015 dawned on us, leaving us with another wonderful year of blessings and memories!
The following Sunday, was Joshua's 9th birthday!!!;) After evening service,we invited Uncle Paul to join us as we hurried home to start the celebration!
Mom wasn't totally sure what we would be doing to celebrate, but it was super neat to see how the Lord brought everything together so perfectly!
Daniel likes to draw something special for each birthday person on their special day.:) Sometimes it hs a joke, or something characteristic of the person. For example, the phrase "You guys, everybody knows..." is one our Joe-bo loves to use around here!
Mom was our game coordinator and first up was a relay race filling buckets atop some unfortunate person! Daniel and Isaiah were the chosen victmns, but thankfully the water was warm!
Whose bucket will be filled first??;)
Poor guy......all over his Sunday clothes too!
Isaiah's team definitely won, but Daniel was the dryer of the two guys!:)
Next was building a spiders web anchored to each of the players......
We had to wrap ourselves with the yarn then throw it to the next person. All was fine as long as everyone caught and threw well, but when we missed, everyone HAD to work together to get the yarn picked up and going again, without wrecking the web-talk about team building!
Getting more complicated.....
Looking like a web maybe? :) Mom said both teams did a good job with their designs, and this was declared the winner!
It's always good to just enjoy games, whether you win or not, and we certainly did!
The fun, but nerve wracking egg toss!
Uncle Paul and Caytlin won this game!
We ended the fun evening by singing and presenting Joe with his cake and then snuggling in the garage to watch a movie with blankets! Happy Birthday, Joey!
Two weeks before my birthday, Mrs. Weston and Emily, took us three ladies out to celebrate early at Souplantation!:) As often happens, it was all rather last minute, but even so, the Lord's timing is always perfect and this occasion proved to be so too!:)
Starting off with the Salad bar...:) It was really fun, but a challenge to concentrate on serving our plates and not talking too much while we were in line!;)
We had a good time of fellowship, sharing stories of God's goodness and catching up!:) What a bond we Christians can have as we recount the Lord's faithfulness throughout the joys and trials of life!:)
The mothers....unknowingly they matched for the afternoon!
The daughters...;) We three had a wonderful time visiting together!!:D Caytlin was the photographer of the afternoon, so we needed to get at least one picture with her!:)
The following few weeks, the city was doing some long needed construction work on the alley, out behind our house. All the residents had to park on the street and we couldn't access our garages, but we were all excited to see how nice it would be, once they finished.
It was fun to have a dirt road behnd our house for a little bit......:)
The construction work couldn't have been timed better as we were off for the week to Irownwood (the place Ryan worked at last summmer) for Nehemiah Work Week! This is a volunteer camp which takes place every year in January. Families and individuals are invited to come work on projects at the camp and give of their time and energy, in exchange for warm fellowship, hearty meals and cozy cabins to sleep in. The whole family went again this year, for the third time, and really enjoyed it!
A friend the boys found while working....
The week started off with several projects, one of which was replacing carpeting in the Rivertown meeting hall....
This year we had several large familes there and had alot of fun meeting them! The man in the above picture is Mr. Bailey, who is father to nine children as well! Dad and the guys enjoyed meeting them and working together.
The schedule for the week......
We especially enjoyed mealtimes as it gave us a time to share with one another about what we had been working on that day or were trying to accomplish.
Work stopped every evening at 5 and enjoyed playing games after dinner and relaxing!
Morning smiles...;)
It was always so neat to see the sunrises as we walked to breakfast!
Having a cup of cocoa before breakfast was a fun treat for the little ones!
Dad preparing the floor to lay down the carpet......
Every meal people volunteered to help with dishes, except the little ones...This particular night it was Dad and I. Daddy looked pretty cool in that apron!
Caytlin, Rebecca Bailey and Hannah Reese getting ready for Wednesday night service....
A few days found me in the Washboard with Mrs. Blum cutting old towels into rags! I was especially glad to cut this one up-goodbye Mr. Shark!
Playing games after a good day's work! Everyone was running on adrenaline here!
Dad at work again....
Before dinner, we had our report meetings! These were always so entertaining and fun as people cme up with such creative ways to keep track of how many feet of wall they'd worked on, how many grains of sand they'd shovelled, how many loads of brush they had delivered and so on! This was also the time that people could share spiritual applications that the Lord had been giving them during the day as they worked.:)
A fun evening, playing a game of 9 Square......
Saturday morning came all to quickly, and it ws tim to say goodbye! Here the hospitality crew was getting a group picture. As we headed home, we were grateful for a good week, with lots of projects completed, new friends made, and another opportunity to be together and serve as a family!
That Sunday was my 22nd birthday, which I enjoyed spending with Ryan, after morning service, having lunch at Souplantation before heading back to church for the evening!
After the evening service, we had a birthday fellowship for the November-January birthdays! Left to right: Ryan-Novemeber, Phillip-December, Nathaniel and I-January.....
Emily and Ricky Weston came for the evening which was a special treat! Though we look quite pale, we had a wonderul time visiting!
By this time, the alley was almost done, but still drying!
And here it is, dried and ready for use! We are very thankful and happy for such a smooth alley and the kiddos love to ride their bikes out there with supervision for fun!
Another project we started on in the new year was fixing up this house!
Painting and laying down new flooring in the kitchen!
All finished and we finally have a table in our dinning room that fits us all...:)
Since we hadn't been to the beach in awhile, Daniel requested an early morning excursion.....
So off several of us went the next morning, taking our usual walk along the beach from one end to the other, and up to the look-out hill.:)
A group selfie...;) Our family loves the beach and we are grateful to be so near it!
A neat picture Isaiah got.....
There's nothing quite as fun a having breakfast on the beach with your best friends!;)
Yep. We went swimming and it wasn't too bad once we got used to the water!
Getting ready to brave the cold water!!;)
One of those cute moments....Evie loves to wear her rain boots and so far, I don't think she has actually used them for any really wet weather yet!
Another weekend in January found Dad, Mom, and the kiddos visiting the new Dutch store location. It moved some time ago and Dad had been wanting to go there ever since.
Although it's smaller, it is in a really nice area and much closer!;)
The last part of this month, we began working on another one of the bedrooms painting and rearranging furniture!
With the new year comes new responsibilities, new changes and new adventures! It can be exciting and yet scary to wonder what happens next some days, but what a comfort it is to know God has everything taken care of, before we ever thought to worry about it, and will always do us good??;)
Thou openest thine hand, and satisfiest the desire of every living thing. The Lord is righteous in all his ways, and holy in all his works. The Lord is nigh unto all them that call upon him, to all that call upon him in truth. He will fulfill the desire of them that fear him: he also will hear their cry, and will save them. The Lord preserveth all them that love him: but all the wicked will he destroy. My mouth shall speak the praise of the Lord: and let all flesh bless his holy name for ever and ever.
Psalms 145:16-21
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