Merry Christmas

A Brandon Story for Grandpa and Uncle Bryan

Brandon has had a love of flying ever since he was a baby.  Particularly the last two years he has played with some airplanes that his daddy had as a kid.  We have gone flying in Grandpa's airplane several times and he has eaten it up--not a single ounce of fear.  Yesterday, while sitting in the doctor's office and pharmacy he decided he needed to be a "real" pilot.  No more of this putting his finger in the cockpit and pretending his finger is the pilot.  Nope!!  He was the pilot.  He opened the "door" and very ungraciously told me I needed to "go inside".  Then he took hold of the yoke and pulled back HARD.  If we had been in a real plane that sucker would have gone straight up.  That was his game all afternoon yesterday.

Yes, we are going on a "BIG" airplane today.  (Now, you have to imagine Brandon saying it this way: his eye brows go all the way up, his hands go all the way out, and his back arches backwards as he says "big" in his deep manly voice.)  Let's just say we have one very excited little boy to go flying today.

While we waited in the pharmacy I told him he had "one more sleep" and then we would be going on the big airplane.  He looks at me very seriously and says, "Mommy, I can't sleep."  "Why not, honey?"  "I'm tooo happy!  I can't sleep."  "Do you mean your too excited about going on the airplane?"  "Yes, I'm too esssited, I can't sleep."

Thankfully he played airplane so hard he did sleep very well and very deeply.

Now to see and experience the REAL thing....

Fear and Wonderment

Our pastor has been preaching from Isaiah this Advent season and encouraged us to read through the book on our own.  So I have been.  I must admit, I have been very tempted to change books several mornings.  With so many sections in the beginning that are Prophecies Against... towns and nations...how depressing and discouraging.  It has filled me with fear for the United States beacuse I see so much reflected in these chapters that we too are guilty of. I've never been so tempted to quit, though, as I was this morning.  I read chapter 24 entitled The Lord's Devastation of the Earth.  How awful!!  This is CHRISTMAS for crying out loud.  Christmas is about aniticating new birth, the Savior of the nations, and I'm reading about the devastation of the world?!?!  It was all I could do to finish the chapter. 

But God knew my heart was in anguish and he gave me the perseverence to push through and the title of the next chapter was Praise to the Lord.  What a contrast those two chapters were.  Verse 9 really struck me: "Surely this is our God: we trusted in him, and he saved us.  This is the Lord, we trusted in him; let us rejoice and be glad in his salvation."  I don't know about you, but we have had to do a whole lot of HARD trusting this year and especially these last several months.  What joy, what relief, what peace to read that God will reward our trusting with his salvation!

Then a verse from "O Little Town of Bethlehem" ran through my head over and over again.
How silently, how silently,
the wonderous gift is given.
So God imparts to human hearts
the blessings of his heaven.
No ear may hear his coming
but in this world of sin
where meek souls will receive him still
the dear Christ enters in.

Now THAT'S the wonder of Christmas!!

Brotherly Love

The other day Bryan was getting the boys ready for bed.  Micah has become quite picky about being part of the party, especially for Bible story time.  He must be there!  Anyway, Bryan laid him down next to Brandon and he (Micah) took Brandon's "teddy" (the blue dog thing in the picture) and hugged it tight.  So, we got "ducky" out and now Micah has his own cuddly.  Brandon and Micah are really starting to become buds.  Micah laughs at Brandon and watches him constantly, Brandon, of course, loves the attention and puts on great shows for Micah.  I love this pictures because it shows their relationship so well! 

Have a fabulous day!

This post was linked us with Sweet Shot Tuesday.  Click on the link above to see more great shots.

The Whirlwind Trip

Some background...Aaron and Stacey were married July 10 this summer, but since Micah's due date was July 15 and because of all the complications I had with Brandon, my doctor vetoed the idea of us going to the wedding.  One of their wedding gifts, from someone in Stacey's family, was buddy passes to fly to Washington, since her parents live around Olympia.  Since they were on this side of the continent visiting her family, they graciously said they would come see us as well.  We picked them up in Lynnwood Wednesday night, spent Thursday goofing off, and I took them to Seattle to fly hom early Friday morning (as in, we left home at 2:30am).   Here's their visit in pictures--cause these pictures say so much more than words ever could!!


Meeting Micah for the first time in Lynnwood--they're buds.



I looked over Thursday morning and it struck me hard for the first time:
"I see my little brother, but he looks like such a grown up man." 
(Notice I said "looks"--he'll always be my LITTLE brother at heart!)  :)

 

Auntie Stacey is GREAT at reading books!

 

Oh my!



This little guy carried the 10lb balls without even trying--amazingly strong!

 

Micah in Uncle Aaron's cowboy hat.



Good times!

 

Just hanging out with Auntie Stacey.



Brandon and "the Farmer" (as he referred to Uncle Aaron often) having a heart to heart chat.



The two cowboys getting it done.

Brandon trying to put Uncle Aaron's "boats" on his feet.



Ready for a walk.  I love the look in both their eyes--"You're trusting us together?"

Lots of fun bonding time for both boys with Uncle Aaron and Auntie Stacey.



Uncle Aaron's belt is just a tad oversized!



And of course, no visit would be complete without Uncle Aaron's antics! 
I have a great shot that will come out at some other oportune time. 
Unfortunately (or fortunately for Aaron) it is not blog appropriate.  :)

Thanks for coming, Aaron and Stacey!  We are looking forward to seeing you again in 10 days.  YIKES!!  I'd better get to work.

Scavenger Hunt Sunday

What a fun and exhausting week!  I realized last night that I haven't posted almost all week...testament to what it's been like around here.  My brother and his wife came for a whirlwind visit and we had a BLAST.  But more on that later.  For now, here are my entries for this week.

Holiday Colors
I was playing around with bokeh (the round circles in the background from the lights) with this picture, but realized it was perfect for holiday colors because the carolers are wearing red and green and there's a Christmas tree in the background.

Winter/Holiday Icon
Our Christmas tree. 

Brandon was SOOOOOO excited to help put ornaments on the tree he could hardly stand still long enough to get them on.  He did really well, though.  One of his ornaments has his name on it and he is very proud to point it out to anyone who will look at it with him.  :)

A Tree
This tree gets me every winter.  It's a magnolia tree that has these buds on it all winter long.  Buds mean spring is around the corner--not for this tree, though.  For those of you who know me, Spring at the end of Winter is the light at the end of the tunnel for me.

Quiet
On our late night drive home this week, from picking up my brother and his wife, it got very quiet in the back seat.  I turned around a saw that Brandon had pulled his hat way down over his eyes and fallen asleep.  So precious!

Your Favorite Color
BLUE sky!  This picture really is perfect to describe the weather in this area, though.  I've experienced drastic changes from rain to a clear blue, sunny sky within minutes. 

Praying your Sunday is one of resting in the Father's presence.


Click the button above to see more entries for this week.

Helpful Friends

As I said in my last post, Saturday was the Christmas Light Parade.  After rushing home from taking pictures, having 20 minutes to make and eat supper, and rushing out the door to watch the parade at our friend's house, somewhere in all the craziness we forgot to grab Brandon heavy winter coat!!  Let me just say IT WAS COLD!!  The wind was blowing, which made it feel even colder.  So when we got to our friend's house I asked them if they had an old jacket or blanket we could wrap Brandon up in.  Here's the get-up they came up with--I think maybe he was the warmest one out there!!  Ha ha--it was great.

I know I didn't need three pictures to show you the outfit, but I love his expression in all of them. 
Hope you're having a wonderful week.  Prayers for the rest of it.

This post was linked up with Sweet Shot Tuesday.  Head on over to see some more Sweet Shots.

Christmas Light Parade

Saturday was the Christmas Light Parade.  That means for the entire day there are a group of guys who work on decorating a Len Honcoop truck for the parade.  Last year was the first year they entered, with Allegiant Air.  Allegiant does all the paper work, Honcoop gives them a trailer to decorate and then a Honcoop truck pulls the trailer through the parade.  This year they won "Best in Commercial".  Several people have asked what that means, but it pretty much is just a bragging rights thing--they don't get any prize, as far as I'm aware.  Anyway, this year I decided to get some pictures at the fairgrounds before they lined up for the parade, because I knew with it being dark and the truck moving there wasn't any chance of getting a good picture.  This experience taught me I definitely need more tutelage and practice in low-light shooting situations!!  I did get a couple good ones, but the majority of them were blurry.  It wasn't completely finished at the optimum picture time with the sunset for lighting and the wind was blowing so there were factors I didn't have any control over.  It was really just a fun experience, though.  Here are some pictures to give you an idea.



Working hard to tape literally hundreds of lights to the truck.



Have a great week!

Scavenger Hunt Sunday

In My Home
Are these two cuties!  Brandon decided he and Micah both needed to wear hats the other day.  After putting them on right and we took some pictures, he turned them around backwards.  Unfortunately, he moved on too quickly and I didn't get any pictures.  It was quite amusing, though!

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like...
Christmas!  While Bryan decorated the Honcoop truck for the Christmas parade yesterday, Brandon and I decorated the house.  (Brandon was VERY helpful in measuring all the couches for me.  :)  )

Sweet Treat

Time
Time is so precious and goes so quickly. 

Everyday
Brandon lines up his cars in one way or another every. single. day.

Head over to Ramblings and Photos to see more photos for this week's Scavenger Hunt.


Blessings on this Sunday.

Micah's Laugh

I'm not sure if this will work or not, but figured my hard studying sister Rachel and sister-in-law Cheryl could use a good chuckle right about now.  Hopefully it won't be too hard to view for Grandpa and Grandma in Nigeria, either.



Have a wonderful day!

Move On...Or Stop to Wonder

It started driving home the other day after a quick trip to Safeway.  I decided to check out the Christmas music playing on our Christian radio station.  The song they were playing was one of those that had been "played to death" last year and my first thought was, "This is the first time hearing it this year and I'm already sick of it!!"

Yesterday, December 1st, at breakfast I opened up the Bible and looked at the devotional for what passage to read.  "Luke 2".  I said to Bryan, "May as well leave the bookmark in Luke 2 cause that's where everyone's going this month, as usual."

A nagging in the back of my mind...Where is the wonderment, the joy, the anticipation that is supposed to come with Christmas?  Not just the Christmas shopping, gift giving, and fun decorations...why am I not enjoying CHRISTMAS anymore?

Yesterday at Bible study, Beth Moore was talking about becoming "bored" with God and it struck me that I have become so used to the Christmas story, have heard it so many times and in so many different ways, that I've forgotten to enjoy it.  I've heard and know it, let's move on.  It happens every year, let's move on. 

But Bryan started me thinking, after my comment about Luke 2 yesterday.  After reading the passage he said to me, "Can you imagine what it was really like for those shepherds?  They're resting peacefully and all of a sudden the sky is bright and an angel is standing there?  They must have been really scared at first!"  (That was a paraphrase, by the way.)

So this year I'm challenging myself to look at the little details and think about the Christmas story in a renewed spirit of wonderment.  What must have been going through those shepherd's minds?  They were ordinary people, too.  I'm sure it was a story they told for years...an angel had appeared to THEM!!!!

Praying you too will find renewed wonderment and joy in yet another season of Advent.

November Photo Hunt Challenge

At the beginning of the month I wrote that there were two photo challenges I was trying out.  The first was Scavenger Hunt Sunday and the second now is Photo Hunt Challenge.  Usually there are a list of 20 words/descriptions to interpret through photography, but for November and December there will be only 10 so this was a perfect month for me to try it out.  I had a blast, but it was a challenge taking different pictures for both Scavenger and Photo Hunt and not reuse them for both.  (A criteria I set up for myself, although I did allow myself to double up on two photos.)  Anyway, here are my entries for the November Photo Hunt Challenge.
Enjoy.

1. Home Sweet Home (archived photo from October)

2. Thankful

3. Family
I don't really like this picture, but I wanted to save the one that turned out really well for my Christmas card.

4. I Ate This
(I also made this for our Thanksgiving dinner.)

5. A Turkey
This is an antique turkey candle that was passed down to me from Bryan's grandmother.

6. Something Hand-Made
An afghan I'm in the process of making.

7. Something Hot
A steamed up window after a HOT shower on a cold morning.

8. Something Cold
'Nuff said!

9. Something Orange
One of the most orange sunsets I've seen in a while.

10. Anything Goes
An old kerosene lantern Bryan's grandfather used to have in his shop. (I used CoffeeShop's Vintage Newspaper Action on it.)

Head on over to Photo Hunt Challenge to see some really amazing photography!