My King

He really is my KING and He never stops amazing me! He has supplied like He said He would and still I am amazed and in awe of HIM! Merry Christmas my KING! I leave you all with this wonderful and uplifting video. Rejoice with me as you watch and remember your King on CHRISTmas.

Christmas Cookies

We had a really good family time tonight! We watched Narnia and then made our annual Christmas cookies. This year it was a little more fun because the kids could be more involved.

Here is a finished product of one that I made with extra dough

The "boys" decorating the cookies

of course it would not be family time if someone does not cry!

rolling and cutting out our cookies

Jordan just made a mess and ate the dough! She loved it!

I hope that you are busy making family memories with your children and enjoying every moment of these precious times. Did I mention that Christmas time is my favorite time of year! LOL

Our Tree and some decorations

I hope this post finds you warm and toasty wherever you are in the world. I thought I would show you some of our Christmas decorations and our tree. Notice the fake fireplace/heater next to the tree. It really does keep the room warm, behind all those curtains are windows so it stays cold in there in the winter and hot in the summer, but it sure is a beautiful view to sit and look out at! We made Christmas cookies tonight and they turned out great! I have some pictures to show you and I will send them in the next post.

Let it Snow, Let it Snow

We have experienced something very new for us, SNOW on the day after Thanksgiving! Being from Louisiana I have only seen it snow a handful of times there and it is usually in January or February, if at all. We went to the store and while we were in there is started to snow and by the time we came out the parking lot was covered and the boys were throwing snowballs they had made from the top of our car. The snowflakes were sooooo big and beautiful. I have to say that I was a little nervous on the car ride home because one spot we were at must have been a little slick because when Jon applied the breaks ever so lightly we wobbled and wiggled a little back and forth, good thing we were almost at a stop at the red light so we were not going fast. So instead of breaking we just downshifted and the rest of the ride home was fine. These pictures are of the kids when we arrived home. Jordan is just too cute she wanted to say that she had some snow but she kept saying, "look I got a snowman" :) Soooo precious. We have all of our Christmas decorations up (which is not a lot, at least not to my normal liking like we had in the states). It all looks great and the kids had a blast. They talked Jon into getting colored lights for the tree (we have always had white because he prefers it that way). I did not really care on way or the other about the lights, I grew up with colored lights but I also like the elegance of just the white. I can see why the kids like the colored ones though, it is more kid friendly tree this year. Hope you all enjoyed your day of shopping and resting or whatever you do the day after Thanksgiving. I did feel a little sad about missing the time with my mom to shop but I have to say that when it snowed I felt a lot better. There is definitely give and take about living in a foreign country. I do not get to go out shopping but I get to have SNOW!!!!

Thanksgiving Traditions

Well, if you know me then you know I am really big on traditions. I guess that comes from being a part of a family that was big on traditions. It makes you feel like you are a part of something and the memories of the year before can be brought back again because we are doing the same things that we hold dear. Well, this year things are a little different for us. We are an ocean away from family and the things that we are used to on Thanksgiving. We had Thanksgiving dinner with just us, Jon, and I and our three children. It was really nice. Although I did all of the cooking and it took all morning, I felt accomplished when we sat down to a wonderful meal and my husband says, "this is the best Thanksgiving meal I have ever had". That means so much to me. The kids and I made a Thankful Tree. We gathered real leaves and then made ones that we could write what we were thankful on. This is a new tradition and one that we will be doing again next year! I found a website that showed what pilgrims and Indians would have looked like and lived in and ate. The kids had fun with that. I hope that all of you had a wonderful day and enjoyed old traditions and started new ones.

Catching up

We got a box in the mail today from my mom (thanks mom). She mainly sent it because I needed some thyroid medicine from the states and was running out but she always fills it and stuffs it as much as she can and the kids love opening them.

Jordan sporting her new "priness" stuff from Grammie!

(Notice the pj bottoms and socks) We got the packages this morning!

Logan eating a fruit by the foot he got today!

Hayden showing off the new car that he got in the box!

We took the kids to a duck pond at the base of the mountain to take their pictures today for our annual Christmas card and they loved it. It is cold here so that was funny for us because normally when we are taking out pictures for our Christmas cards it is hot and we are sweating in our outfits!

After getting some good shots (which I will post at a later date) we went shopping for the Thanksgiving dinner supplies! I will be making cornbread dressing for the first time (my mom makes to best ever, it is my grandmother's recipe that we have been having for Thanksgiving/Christmas since I could eat! It will be different this year because it will just be our little family around the table sharing what we are thankful for and eating a grand meal. I think the thing that I will miss most is the day after Thanksgiving shopping sales. I know you say that sounds funny but I am not so sure it is the shopping or the sales but it is the special time that I share with my mom that I am missing the most. We will just have to make up for it when she comes to visit in December!! Yep my mom, dad, sister and Brad (soon to be brother in law) are all coming on Dec. 26th. I am soooooo excited. I really do miss my family a bunch. They are so much fun to be around.

Well anyway, I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving no matter where you are in the world. There is so much to be thankful for. I know that I have been blessed beyond measure!

Long time to post

Well, hmm again it has been too long between posts. I do have a new blog though were I post my digital scrap artwork with freebies and links to a store that I sell kits in. You should go check out my new blog here.

In other news we went to a friends farm to help him harvest apples a few weeks back. When I say harvest I mean we, the whole family, was there from 9 am to 5 pm. We were on our knees picking up apples that had been shaken out of the trees. We harvested a total of1 and a half tons of apples!!! Our farmer friend presses them and makes fresh juice that he sells. He was able to press 800 liters from the apples we picked. Another family, the Bells was also there. We had a good time but our legs and back were sore for days :)

I was also able to go to an Opera premiere of Madam Butterfly. It was my first time ever attending an Opera. Yes, it was in Italian and the word's were put on screen in Slovene but it was still wonderful. My good friend Mateja's husband Robert works at the theater with the choirs and her son Zak was actually in the Opera as Madame Butterflies son. He is only 8 and he did a great job. I really did feel out of place though with tv cameras and high society people like doctors and people such as that all around. It was a unique experience that is for sure.

We had two friends over for dinner on Thursday of last week, both of who are lost. Jon got to witness to Edwin again and he is without excuse before God and now we just must wait on the Holy Spirit and Edwin's heart to be softened. I got to have an hour conversation about spiritual things and the Bible with Nina. She has been burned by the Catholic church and is skeptical of anything religious. She is really a post modernist because her view of things is that if I believe that a rock is my "god" then who am I to say that it is not. She said that whatever it is that helps you to be a better person is okay. I am praying that God would melt away the hard shell over her heart. I gave her some literature and one of my english Bibles. I think that she was touched that I would give her something she knows I value so much.

Last night, Sunday, we had our friends the Bells over to watch the cowboys game live. It was our evening and Randy Bell has bought the season. We had chili, cornbread and carrot cake. We had a great time with them although we were sick at how they played. During the game right after half time I was just sitting there watching the game and all of the sudden. I started to choke on what I guess was my own spit! I did this once last week as well but was able to get it out last week. Last night however I did not ever get it out because I had a horrible nights sleep and I woke up with my chest really tight and feeling horrible. I am not sure what is going on. I do feel that satan is attacking us and using my health. Jon is worried about me so he is doing the only thing he knows how, fasting and praying. I feel so humbled that my husband is taking me before the Lord in such a way.

On another note, the boys are going to start going to school two days a week for a couple of hours. You have to know somebody to get around all the red tape and my friend Mateja wanted to get the boys in school so they could be around Slovene kids. Pray that it will be a good experience for them and they will learn the language.

Sheep Shearing Contest

Well, what more can I really say!! They have an annual sheep shearing contest and we happen to know a top sheep shearer in Slovenia. His name is Ron Metts and that is him in the middle in green in the picture shearing a sheep. They had sheep and goats for the kids to look at and pet and music and cotton candy that we paid 3 Euro for. We had a good time with fellow missionaries and our Slovene friends.

Oh and the picture at the bottom is just our resident clown Hayden who thinks he is looking pretty cool with his spiky hair, too cute!

pictures

I forgot to post the pictures that I wrote about, so here they are!

Fall Colds

Well, all three of the kiddos have colds. It started with Jordan. One morning we went to get her out of bed and with mouth breathing she pointed to her nose and said, "my nose broke". We had a real long laugh at that. She could not breathe through her nose and she saw that as her nose was broken. Then the other two started getting stuffy. Just a regular old cold but Hayden has had fever for the last two days. He is the one that always gets a fever. Logan is coughing a bit at night. It is funny how the same germ can affect them all differently. I took the above pictures a few weeks ago. We were having our noodle lunch and this bunch loves them. Of course Logan did not want his picture taken while eating.

On a different note, our dryer is broke and we are having a repairman look at it. We are not sure how much it will be to fix. If it is too much we will just have to buy a new one. We do not want to pay a large amount to pay for a broke one when we can buy a new one for about the same. Pray that this all works out. I like having my dryer and not worrying about the weather to hang clothes in and waiting for them to dry. Just little things but they make life a lot easier on a homeschooling mom.

Homeschooling is going a lot better. We have reward system that if they accomplish tasks at certain within a time limit they get a bean and at the end of the day they can use their beans to trade for candy. Logan loves it and was done with school before lunch and is begging me to let him to schoolwork on Sat. Hayden was sick so I am not sure how it will work with him when he is well. He watched tv on the couch all day.

Fall is here and with it is such lovely weather. My Slovenian friends however think that my children are sick because of the weather and my children not bundling up like snow bunnies all the time. Just a cultural thing around here. It is funny though. :)

My first one on one Bible study!

This is a picture of Robert and Mateja. Mateja has become a very good friend. She is very sweet and I have come to enjoy her company very much. She is not a believer in the true Gospel but she does believe in the God of the Bible, she is Catholic. I am using her belief in the Bible to witness to her. I gave her a Bible and she began to read it on her own. She brings her daughter to Tae Quan Do on Wednesdays and the boys are now attending it also. I mentioned to her on Monday that she should bring her Bible and I would bring mine and we would compare the English and the Slovene. To my surprise when I showed up to Tae Quan Do she asked me if I had my Bible. We opened them up and had a Bible study right there at the table. People were looking and wondering what we were doing and we were intently studying the Word of God. She ate it up and is very interested. I am so very excited that God is using me!!!! I have never felt this way about ministry. I am more of a firm believer in getting among the lost than ever before. How can we sin them if we do not know them. God has broken my heart for her and I am crying out to Him for the salvation of her soul. Please pray with me and for me that she will see the truth and I will be affective in giving it.

Hayden's Birthday

Hayden had a wonderful birthday and a very big birthday party. We had a mixture of American missionary friends and some Christian Slovene friends and some non Christian Slovene friends. We have made new friends that do not know the Lord personally. They know of Him but do not know Him. They are very Catholic and worship Mary (Maria) very heavily. Mateja and I have become fast friends. We spent last weekend at their home for their 8 year olds birthday party and they came here this weekend. Next weekend we have been invited to their home again. I am very glad to have met them because their son Zak (Jauque) and Logan have become fast friends also. This is the first friend Logan has made. There really have not been any boys his age up until this one. They seem to play very nice together as well and are already talking about sleepovers. I hope you enjoy the pictures that I have left you. Tomorrow I will put a slide show up with all of the birthday pictures. For now I am off to bed. It has been a very busy and hot day.

Jordan's 2nd Birthday

I thought you would enjoy seeing pictures from Jordan's 2nd birthday. She enjoyed her presents very much and did not enjoy us singing happy birthday (hmm I wonder if it was our singing)! She is a precious gift from God and a delight to have as a child. God sure knew what He was doing by putting her on the end of our little family (it is like the cherry on top). I am really tired after a very long day of homemade cooking and decorating and wrapping presents, plus the heat is getting to me (the news said that it was going to be an "Indian Summer" the next few days), so I am going to head to bed right now and try to cool down and get rid of this never ending headache that I have had for several days now. It really was a great day and I am so glad that I get to share the pictures with you.

Tired

Hello all, I am sooooo tired. I am making myself write in my blog because I have been slacking again! We had a get together for Jon's 36th birthday on Friday. It was great and we had a lot of fun with friends and a full house. Thursday was our ninth anniversary and we went out to the city center and ate. It was very nice and we have been reflecting on our past nine years together and I have to say that they have been quite wonderful. I do not think that there is any other man on this earth that could make me any happier! Ok back to why I am sooooo tired! Well, Jon got sick Friday during the middle of the night. He started running fever and aching all over. It has been that way ever since and he has had severe chills and stomach issues. Jon has not been this sick in a very long time. He would wake up shaking. I feel so bad for him. Not sure if it is a virus or food poisoning, all I know is that he feels really bad. I hope that he feels better soon. I do not mind picking up the slack but I am not getting much sleep. :) Please pray for him and me and the boys (they are starting the school of mommy)!!! I will try to keep you all up to date. He is feeling some better today. Well, I am off to put the kids to bed (it is 8pm and I have been staring at that clock wanted to put them to bed since 6:30 but it was still light out and I couldnt get away with it, the kids are too smart). I usually read at night but I do not think that I will be able to keep my eyes open tonight.

Katja

This is Katja. I tutor her in English every Tuesday at 1pm. She is 15 and a very sweet girl. She is Catholic and I am praying for her salvation. I have given her reading assignments and they are Christian stories and books. I have given her a daily bread to read everyday as practice and I have given her a tract in her language and a picture one. I will continue to tutor her throughout the school year. Please pray for her and for me as I find new ways of communicating the gospel to her.

KIDS

This is what I found one day when the boys had been playing in Hayden's room, not to mention the bathroom, the rug in Hayden's room, the wall downstairs where someone had touched it. It is fake blood and it was very difficult to remove! Needless to say I was not happy but I had to laugh and take a picture to document it. They are so silly and very messy sometimes.

Storm

We had a storm last week that kept me up to the wee hours of the morning. It hailed twice for five minutes each at least. The lightening lit up the sky. Everyone else in the house was asleep except me. I snapped this picture during one of the times it was hailing. Tornadoes are not common to Slovenia but a friend said that there was one and she saw pictures on the internet that people had took of it. I am just glad that it was not near us.

Busy

I have been busy these last few days working on Geoffrey's and Jessica wedding video. It is sad that I will not be able to be there but at least I feel like I am a part and helping out by doing this video for them. All of the engagements and weddings going on with my siblings it has made Jon and I sit and have a remembering party about our courtship and marriage. This month will be nine years! We have grown up so much during that time. God has brought us closer and stronger in Him. It is only by the grace of God and His leading in our lives that has made our marriage a success. I look ahead at my siblings marriages and I know that there will be some trying times and some growth that God will do in their lives as well. I am so excited to see them grow and mature and start their own families. Here is one picture I have done comparing the two of them at their toothless stage in life :), too cute. I am enjoying doing this video for them!

More water park pictures