Our December

Joel was installed as Rev. Joel Davis at Bethel LB in GF

On the 18th, Corbin and Elias (amazingly) went up for their first Christmas Program together here at Bethel!

We had several "christmas"es!

We celebrated Christmas with my family (and NINI got in on the picture too).

NiNi got a little girly dress for Christmas!

This December, Emily also got to have surgery!

So most all of our Christmas was spent in our home...people had to come to us this year.

As always we are grateful for the gifts and blessings we received!

Merry Christmas 2011

First Post since July!!!....We moved!

Lets start in the middle of nowhere...Grandpa George retired from Faith and Silverton Churches. So we got together and had a big party for him and to go to church his very last Sunday there.

So much has happened since July! SO MUCH! So I am just going to catch up on photos and then tell you what all has changed for us.

On 11/11/11 we built a tree fort for the boys!

Corbin is bummed that we have to wait until spring to paint it, but otherwise he is very excited about it!

We spent some time with Emily's family. Uncle Simon made time to take the boys for rides on the three wheeler. He even let Corbin drive! (This I was not aware of until after the fact.)

We moved.

Elias got stitches after falling off the furniture. He got 4 little stitches that you would have thought were going to kill him. And Emily was in tears, just like Elias, from the traumatic event!

He got his stitches out on a Monday, and guess what he did right away Tuesday morning....busted it open again. But we just butterfly stripped it and called it good. And then he made sure to bust it open two more times. 5 weeks later it is finally closed shut.

Superman and Darth Vader

Visiting Grandpa during harvest.

Oh, and did I mention we moved?

Went to a pumpkin patch and went through our first ever corn maze!

We have tried to be joyful through all the craziness that has occurred in our lives this past year! I will be the first to say it is not always easy to praise God in all circumstances...but it is what we are called to do. So we are continually praying for attitude changes (at least I, Emily, have been).

The Lord made it very clear to us that our call in Rolette was up. We prayed long and hard about it and in July Joel resigned as pastor of Ebenezer LB Church in Rolette.

In August, Joel and I took the youth group to Youth Convention in Estes Park, CO. It was a great time! So much fun getting to know the youth!!! They are a great group! And we really miss them all!!!

The end of August, we moved to Joel's parents farm house near Larimore, ND. It took us several trips to get our stuff here, but we are finally feeling like we have a home.

Joel has been called to serve as youth pastor at Bethel LB in Grand Forks. Emily works at The Scoop (a restaurant like Dairy Queen...with pizza and subs too). We are both really enjoying our new positions! It has been ALL God that things have been working out the way they have been! Thank You, Lord!!!

We have really been enjoying country life! The boys love riding their bikes out to the mail box (1/4 mile)! NiNi (our dog) loves running all over the country side!!! We have been enjoying having more stability and a better schedule than we have ever had before!

The boys are loving Sunday School (but still talk about their old SS class and teacher). We have been making "Tuesdays trips" into Grand Forks for appointments and grocery shopping.

We honestly feel like we have been blessed with a fresh start. God has really blessed us!!!

So hopefully I will get into a routine of blogging on Tuesdays (being we don't have internet at home...and we come to GF on Tuesdays). Hopefully everyone hasn't giving up on this blog! :P

God is good all the time! All the time God is good!

AMEN

We must be crazy!!!

First I let the boys paint my face...kept them occupied and I got to sit and relax and get a face massage!
Then I shared the fun!

Elias was laughing.
Corbin was NOT!




The boys eventually decided they wanted to do it too!
First Elias, then finally Corbin.
Corbin ended up wiping half of it off because it was too close to his eyes, ears, mouth, nose, chin, etc.




Next we roped Daddy into getting his face done!
He is the sun.
Mommy is a leopard.



We must be crazy!!!

...or are we the coolest parents in the world?!?

Our little fish

Although he was not sure at first...
Corbin has really become a fish!

He loves practicing his flutter kicks with his board.

And going under water to get the rings!

But his favorite was swimming on his back WITHOUT any help!!!

He is one of the youngest and definately the smallest in his class of 8. He can't even touch the bottom of the pool, so he is doing pretty good considering.

1st trip to the Dentist

Corbin did amazing! He took a few minutes to get up the courage to get on the chair, but once he was up there he was all game!

He got to pick out prizes and got a toothbrush, toothpaste and floride rinse! Plus gloves and a "cough cover" to play dentist when he got home!

Elias wasn't 100% sure. He did all but open his mouth for the Dentist.

Both boys LOVED the suction thingy!

And Elias was very willing to open wide to have all 20 teeth counted!

Corbin has 20 teeth too!

I still can't believe how good they were!

3 and (almost) 5 year pictures

Elias is THREE!

Elias got a pirate ship water table...so we went with a pirate theme...
a pirate cake

oh...and there was a tornado warning, so we went into the basement on the night before his birthday and watched movies...

Elias loved the sweets!

and he got to play mini golf!

The last THREE months!