Today is the last day of 2009 and with that comes the desire to take a moment to reflect back on the treasured events of this past year.  We are thankful for the Lord’s many blessings!  He is always so faithful to provide for our needs and bless us with delights along the way.  Even the difficult times are a blessing from Him, since they cause us to draw even closer to the Lord Jesus Christ.

Here are a few of our memory highlights of 2009:

Brian

• Bed & Breakfast weekend getaway gift given to Mandy and I from students in the ministry
• Summer vacationing in the Adirondacks for the first time…being blessed with an incredible campsite
• Speaking the full message from 2 Peter for the Calvary Church main service the day after my birthday
• 24 hour Junior & Senior guys wilderness retreat this past November.  The outdoors is a great place for getting to know others and growing deeper with God.
• Getting a bow and arrows, something that I have wanted to get for years…now to keep practicing and learn hunting to get my first deer (hopefully a 2010 highlight!)

Mandy

• Watching Addie play soccer!  That girl just headed the ball   GOAL!!!
• Hearing Emma tell all about her day at school.  She is so animated in her stories and just loves her teacher Mr. Gillis who is SOOOO funny
• LISTENING to Isabelle bloom!  This last year has brought more and more words from our sweet Isabelle.  It has been a delight to hear her sing her first songs and begin to make jokes and tease.  She is changing so much right before our eyes.  As the Lord gives her the gift of speech we are getting to see more of her personality and the special way God has made her.
• Learning what a backhoe is and how cool trash trucks are!  Having a two year old boy is wonderful!
• Teaching at Study & Share, the woman’s Bible Study @ Calvary Church, in the spring.  Leading a Bible study in my home with four other mom’s.

Addie

• Family vacation in the Adirondacks!  Bike riding and Kayaking
• Going to High Point Summer Camp
• Starting fourth grade!
• Playing U10 girls soccer and winning 2nd place trophy.
• Nancy Drew Mystery Books
• Playing softball for the first time & pitching

Emma

• Going to Woodcrest Summer Camp
• Fishing on vacation
• Having Uncle Mike and Aunt Kristi here for Thanksgiving
• Starting the second grade!

Isabelle

• Fancy Nancy books and horses!
• Being in Mrs. Long and Mrs. Hiatt’s five day preschool class.
• SINGING!

Owen

• Watching fire works on the Fourth @ Long’s Park
• Riding with Daddy and Andy in the Trash Truck!
• making friends! Morgyn, Judd, Jake, Thomas…

You can check out our 2009 photo highlights in our gallery.  (click here to go straight to the slide show)

We look forward to the new year and all the wonderful blessing the Lord will bring along the way!  In a few days we will be writing about what God has directed us to focus on in 2010 and what some of our goals are.

Every year we say we wish we could spend many many days in the Dallas area, and there are several reasons for this! We have some great treasured friendships there that we would love to spend a lengthy time with. It always seems we are there for less than 24 hours and get to see only a few. Someday it may be different. One of our treasured Dallas friends (whose friendship goes back to high school for both Brian and I) are the Risleys!! We stayed at their house is Euless and soaked up all we could of being together with them for such a short time. It was GREAT!

The Risley’s took us out on their boat and Brian got to ski. Addie really wanted to and started trying to get up when the weather turned stormy and we had to call it a day It would have been super to get to see her skiing…it will have to be another time!!

The girls enjoyed playing with Katie and even left her a scavenger hunt in the house to follow and have fun with to find treasures of pictures they had made her.

Dallas … to be continued on some other tour

One of the fun things that I was able to do in Rockport was do some night fishing. Since the kids were all in bed, each night I went out to the end of the pier and set out a few rods with various baits and waited. Well, not just waiting, one night I enjoyed talking to Mandy who was out there with me and the other nights I spent talking with God about life and family. Actually I usually wasn’t alone because a Blue Heron would land on our pier and sneak up behind me to see if he could get a bit of my bait or waiting for a catch.
It was a wonderful time, but I didn’t catch anything worth keeping UNTIL the last night. I didn’t ever take a watch out with me and time was not a concern, so I didn’t know how late it had gotten, but…later I figured out that it was at about 1:45a.m. that one of my rods started twitching, so I picked it up and let the line out a bit…waited…and then set the hook for the catch! This was extra fun because this reel was an old little zebco closed faced reel on a smaller pole…no matter what the drag was set at the fish kept pulling it out while I was trying to real it in. It ended up being a gafftop catfish, 22 in, 3lbs. SO everybody was asleep and it had been YEARS since I had cleaned a catfish. But I got my knife and went at it…took me awhile, but got some good fillets! Then I checked on what time it was and saw that it was 2:20 a.m. so I went to pull in the other rods, got to the end of the pier and saw another one of my lines going off in to the darkness. So I picked up the rod and began to reel in what was another gafftop catfish, slightly smaller that the one before, but a keeper with some good meat. (the second catch is the one pictured above, for a picture of the first one, click here) I decided that it was too late for me to try cleaning another fish, put it in a floating buoy thing and went to bed, leaving another baited line still out in the bay.
In the morning I checked the other line and it was wrapped around a post on the pier and snapped off, so I guess if I would have just stayed out all night I could have caught another! But then what good would I had been to drive to Dallas the next day?? Grandad and James helped me clean the fish that next morning and I got to tell everyone my fish stories from the night before! I don’t get to fish very often, so it was great fun for me!!

Our next destination was Rockport, Texas where my Mom and sister (and family) live as well as where my Grandparents have a bay house. I have such fond memories of weekends at Rockport from growing up! I can remember fishing with the family either sitting beside Grandma Bell during the day half way down the pier, or sitting all the way at the end in the dark night hours fishing and talking with family members. I always enjoy my time at the bay house, and this year was no exception! My niece Swan was celebrating her third birthday so we were able to have a big family party with all sorts of fun things thrown in such as swimming in the bay, chalupas (YUMM!), blow up kiddie pools, beach chairs, tents, balloons, cake and Blue Bell ice cream!

We had brought our kayak on the trip and were able to get it out in the bay. Brian took the five cousins for a ride in the kayak and got to see porpoises! He quickly paddled toward them to get closer which made a few people on the shore nervous but delighted he and the five girls! It was at the end of this day that Emma delivered her precious quote “I wish this day would never end!” It was a great day!

The night before we were to leave Grandma Bell said that no one asked her but she would have gone kayaking if she had been asked! So you guessed it Brian took her out the next morning! And Grams decided that was a good idea and took him up on the chance as well. “Grandma Kayaking!”

Owen started a nasty habit of waking over and over in the night while we were doing all our travels this summer. And then he has established 6:30 am as the time to be done with sleeping. So while at the bay I took him out on the deck several mornings at 6:30 wishing I was still sleeping, but discovered something wonderful.
Each time I took him out in my sleepy state I would sit and rock him and the two of us would listen to the sea gulls, ducks, geese and other birds as they began their day. We could look out and see the fish jumping and watch a duck family waddle around. If you have to start the day earlier than you want I can’t think of a better way than ’sit’n on the deck of the bay waisting time’ eavesdropping in as creation awakens.

Check out our gallery page for additional Rockport pictures

As usual, it is very difficult to get out of town. But even more difficult this year we were to leave the day after I returned from leading the Jr. High Philadelphia outreach trip. So instead of leaving Monday, we left Tuesday afternoon. The girls were very excited to get packed up and head out.

Two nights on the road and then we were in Orange, TX at my “Pom’s” house. This is one of my favorite memories growing up, with lots of fun times had…so it is always fun to have those memories be passed on to my children. The kids enjoyed a very brief time with Pom and Aunt Nancy. And a big thanks to Pom for remembering my favorite drink to stock in the fridge!

Aunt Nancy knitting with Addie and Emma.

Well we arrived home yesterday afternoon after our 2007 summer tour!! And when I say tour I really mean it! Since we live miles and miles away from family we make an extra effort to travel to see them in the summer. With this decision comes long hours in the suburban and many interesting stops and mishaps along the way. This year we traveled 4000 miles in the car and stopped to stay awhile in Texas, Oklahoma, Missouri and West Virginia. We hope to share a few of our vacation moments in the next few days, so check back. You might want to read about things such as Emma’s deer, crazy cousin time, Brian’s fish, the many medical needs that occurred and Grandmas kayaking! I think one of the best quotes of the trip came from Emma at the end of the day in Rockport, TX after celebrating her cousins birthday with a family party at the bay she said “I wish this day would never end!”

To be continued ….

Here is a peek at our journey…