A busy Thursday

Yesterday was so fun.  We started out Christmas caroling with our homeschool group at an assisted living residence.  It was really fun.  Later that afternoon, we went down to Shell beach with our homeschool group.  There was a negative tide so there were tons of tidepools that we were able to get to since the tide was so far out.  The older kids in our group are really good at finding all sorts of sea animals.  We got to see brittle stars, sea cucumbers, little eels, a little dark red octopus that inked, a cuddle fish, tons of hermit crabs and star fish.  It was really cool.  Caleb kept picking up the eels and the octopus.  That boy is fearless.  My camera batteries were dead though so I don't have any pictures :(  

Just for fun

While Diane was here at Thanksgiving she took a family pic of us.  Its crazy that we are a family of five.  I guess I dont think about it much, until I see us all together like this. 

This is from the Christmas parade in the village from last Sunday evening.  I didn't get any good pictures really, but Matt took this one.  Weston loved the parade he clapped a lot and was excited.  The village was all decorated and cute.  When Caleb saw Santa come by he was so excited because it was "the real" Santa.  We've always told the boys that Santa was just a story but they somehow still decide to believe in him.

Comfort

Homemade rolls, gingerbread cookies, a warm fire, spiced cider, cute kids...its been a nice long weekend and its not quite over yet!  Its been so nice to have Matt home all weekend.  I don't think he's ever had a job where he had paid vacation days.  When we were making gingerbread cookies yesterday I started to think about comfort, gingerbread is a kind of comfort food so maybe thats why.  Anyway, today I feel comforted in my heart.  It's hard to explain.  Sometimes life is hard, we have to go through so many things, so many choices to make. Questions that remain unanswered, friends come and go.  Yet God remains true to us, He remains our comfort in times of trouble.  He is the only one who sees our true heart, knows our intentions and has a plan for us in spite of ourselves and how we get in the way.  In the bible its says that He is the God of all comfort.   Thats cool, the God of all comfort and he is able to comfort our hearts.  So be comforted today my friends, let your hearts be comforted by the Lord.   

Happy Thanksgiving!

We had a nice visit with cousin Diane this week.  Since she had to work on Thanksgiving :( we had our Thanksgiving dinner early on Monday.   That day we made pinecone turkeys and placemats with the boys.  It was really fun, my boys had a great time with Diane and so did we of course. Its always nice to have family around! We have so much to be thankful for today. Hope you all have a great day back east today, we love you!

The heavens declare the glory of God

The sunsets have been so beautiful this week.  I couldn't capture the fullness of it in this picture but it reminded me of a Psalm so I thought I'd share....

Psalm 104

 1 Praise the LORD, O my soul. 
       O LORD my God, you are very great; 
       you are clothed with splendor and majesty.

 2 He wraps himself in light as with a garment; 
       he stretches out the heavens like a tent

 3 and lays the beams of his upper chambers on their waters. 
       He makes the clouds his chariot 
       and rides on the wings of the wind.

I wish it was snowing...

Yesterday it was hot and sunny so we went to the beach again.   Its November, cant it just be cold and overcast and snowing? I guess I'm excited for Christmas and to see my family.  Today I'm sick of this heat though.  But look at those 2 front teeth Weston has now, so cute.

Jack!

Jack won a coloring contest at Trader Joe's for these two pictures.  He worked on them for a long time and we kept forgetting to take them back into the store.  Finally we did and a week later someone called from the store and said that he had won.  They gave him a bag of Trader Joe's snacks as a prize.  He wasn't really excited about the snacks because they were all healthy snacks ;) but he was so proud when we were at the store. Everyone there is really nice, they all asked to see his picture and congratulated him.  Jack also had his last soccer game today which they won 5 to 4.  Jack made an amazing save during the quarter that he played goalie.  Next Wednesday night is his team party at a local pizza shop.  It was a fun season, Jack has really improved on his skills and it was fun for us to go every week and watch him and get to know the other parents.  We will definitely have to do it again next year!