Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day to all our wonderful family and friends. We started our day off at Church listening to an amazing message about LOVE and then had a great lunch with Grandma and Poppy...may we always remember why we are able to LOVE...because Jesus gave His life for us. We love you all!!!!!

We love you Shaelyn and Carson!

Peace, LOVE and Silly Kids!

GINGERBREAD FUN!!!!!

The kiddos had a half day of school today and while Shaelyn went to the movies with the entire Middle School, Carson had a BLAST decorating a Gingerbread House at his friend Ainsley's. Thank you so much Mrs. Ebert for hosting another great year of decorating FUN, FOOD and of course, MUD FOOTBALL! You are the BEST Denise...we love ya!

Carson's AMAZING house!!!!

Spelling Bee

Carson participated in the school Spelling Bee and was 1 of 3 First Graders who won!!!!! He will be advancing to the District Spelling Bee in January. That means lots of spelling words to practice over Christmas vacation. I am one of the school coordinators for the Spelling Bee, so watching him at the competition yesterday added several gray hairs to my head. He was amazing and didn't miss one word. We are so proud of you Carson...Good Luck at the District Competition!!!!!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving to our wonderful family and friends! We all have so much to be thankful for...faith, family, friends, love and most importantly our Savior! Enjoy your day...we love you!

Thessalonians 5:18 -

"In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God."

Our sweet Stetson!

After bringing great joy to our family for the past 16.5 years, our sweet Stetson passed away. He truly was an amazing Cocker Spaniel who loved opening presents on Christmas morning and never missed a cookie from "daddy" in the mornings. He had his favorite shredded toy that he received one Christmas...a stuffed Santa Claus! We know that he had a very special and spoiled life (he even had his own baby book that included a few of his baby teeth) and we are going to miss him so much!! We love you Stetson and will never forget our years with you!

Posing with his shredded Santa Claus

ACSI Speech Meet

Shaelyn and Carson both competed in the ACSI District Speech Meet in Tucson. Their first round of competition was held at their school and they were both chosen to move on to the District meet. Carson memorized a sweet poem titled "The Little Turtle." He did an amazing job with his voice and hand motions and received an EXCELLENT ribbon for his speech. Shaelyn again this year chose to write her own speech titled "Letting God Guide Your Paths." She had several guidelines to follow and had to have the speech memorized. She is such a delight to watch speak...she received a SUPERIOR ribbon. We are so proud of both of them and wish them the best in their future public speaking. We love you!

Before the meet started!

So happy with their ribbons!

Children of the World!

We were so blessed to have been asked to Host 2 beautiful boys from the Children Of The World Choir. Gideon is 9 years old and is from Uganda and Christian is 10 and is from the Philippines. What makes these boys (and the 13 other children in the choir) so special is that they are orphans, and many of them have suffered in ways that we could never imagine but yet, their hearts are filled with Jesus and they LOVE unconditionally. In the 3 days that they stayed with us, our house was amazingly blessed and our hearts were touched in ways that we never knew was possible. The choir is touring for 10 months to bring awareness to all of us of the HUGE need for clean and safe water in other countries. Gideon and Christian both have American sponsors (otherwise, I think we would have adopted them) who help provide them with food, water, clothing and education. Please visit worldhelp.net to see how this organization is making a difference...one child at a time.

Sunday was one of the hardest days ever when we had to say goodbye to these boys. However, I truly believe that although Gideon and Christian's families could not care for them, there are NO orphans of God!

Our last day with the boys! We will never forget their sweet voices calling us "Auntie" and "Uncle" They both have the greatest smiles and we just love Gideon's pearly whites!

Some of the choir members. Gideon and Christian are on the left!

Our boys!

They LOVED trunk-or-treating at Joy! Gideon had never been trick-or-treating before.

Their first night with us at Carson's football game. They love sports!