Bethers

As we got ready to celebrate Christ's birth on Christmas day, I got a devastating call that my good friend, Beth, had passed away. I've known Beth for as long as I can remember. She was such a fun youth group leader I got to have. She was a servant who loved the Lord, she desired to share the Gospel with those that didn't know Christ personally, and she had the sweetest, most kindest heart. Beth had a great smile and would laugh so easily when I was being weird and most likely being obnoxious towards her! She was easy going too. But, what I remember the most about her, is no matter how she was feeling or what was going on with her life, she lived for the Lord. She gave Him glory and praised Him no matter what she was going through. She was such a great teacher and leader to me while I was in the youth group. And as I grew up and out of youth group, she was still a great friend to me. As my heart filled with sadness and mourning on Christmas day, I needed to remember that while we were here on earth celebrating Christ's birthday, Beth got to say happy birthday to Jesus' face in Heaven!

My sweet Bethers. Here she is as our cabin leader when our youth group went on mission trips to Mexico. The left picture is when I was a junior (I think!) and the right one is when I was a senior. She was brave for putting up with us crazy girls! I specifically remember one night seeing a GIANT (I'm not kidding!!) icky, weird looking bug/creature. All of us girls were freaking out-except for Beth! She was the calm one. She bravely got a broom and smacked the bug creature out of our cabin. She was our hero! :)
Beth was a bridesmaid in my sister's wedding, so she got to be a part of all those fun activities! Here we all are at PF Changs.

Beth is in front row with the hat. She has the best smile!

Oh Beth. I miss you so much already. I still can't believe that you are gone and I won't get to see you anymore. But, this I do know: I can cling to the promise and hope that you are in Heaven! You are pain free and worshipping God! And you've left such a great legacy behind. Thank you for your great example of truly living for and serving our Great God. I look forward to seeing you again in Heaven! Love you Beth.

My Little Singer

A couple of weeks ago, Lily finally got to participate in the pee-wee choir at church! I had been waiting for this since she was born! I'm pretty sure I was more excited than she was! They had to learn 3 songs; Go Tell it on the Mountain, Jesus Loves Me, and Love Came Down at Christmas. She knew the songs and seemed to have lots of fun performing!

Practicing before going on stage. They are singing "Jesus loves me" and they had hand motions for the song. This is when they were singing "they are weak but He is strong." Too cute!
She has such a serious face while performing-but the other kids do too!

Lily with some of her friends from church. I love all the Christmas dresses!
Lily did wave to me as soon as she sat down on the stage. And at one point during one of the songs, she kept turning around and staring at some of the boys behind her right in the middle of the song! Oh well. It wasn't that distracting :) She seemed to have a lot of fun and was pooped after it was all said and done. They performed before the kids production (1st-5th grade kids) on Saturday night and then before 2 services on Sunday morning. Both her and I were exhausted on Sunday afternoon! But it was worth it!

Dedication

A week after Jameson turned 1, our church had a baby dedication. What's a baby dedication you ask? Well, it's basically a public declaration that we (as Jameson parents) accept the responsibilities before God and our church to raise him in the ways of God by guiding him to the Word and by being a living example in our Christian walk. (And yes, I took that information from the Certificate that the church made. I'm cool like that :) Anyway, we did this with Lily too when she was a baby.

How cute is he?! I just love his fake tuxedo shirt and his belly sticking out! Here he is watching the praise team sing some songs.
Not the closest picture, but you get the idea! :)

I tried to nudge AJ to look at the camera, but he didn't. Oh well.

Most of the whole family! We missed AJ's brother and sister in this one!

Ah, I love his pin-striped pants too! Thanks to my mom for purchasing this outfit for him!
We love our little man! And you better believe I put some gel in his hair to make it curly!
I just had to include some almost naked pictures of him too. These were taken right after a bath one night and he was just being too funny and making the most silly faces. He kinda looks like a sumo wrestler to me!!
He stands really well on his own, but has yet to take any steps on his own! I think he wants to walk, he just doesn't have the motivation to do it. He is definitely fast at crawling though!

Gosh, I LOVE his curly, red hair after a bath! I so wish it would stay curly when it's dry, but it doesn't! And this boy turned 13 months last weekend! He's usually his happy self when we're out and about, but at home he has turned into quite the whiner! It's driving me nuts. He has this weird scream/cry he does when he's trying to get our attention. It sounds like a combination between a screeching bird and a Whistling Pete firecracker. Doesn't that sound like a joy to listen to?! Well, if you're curious as to what it sounds like in real life, just come to our house between 3pm and 5pm. That's usually when he's grabbing at my legs while I'm trying to get dinner ready and all the while making that sound. Awesome. But, I still love this boy SO much-even if he's a loud, bird screeching, Whistling Pete boy! :)

The Great Christmas Tree Adventure

Ok, so I realize the last post and this one both start off with Lily peeing!!! I just think it's hilarious and I have to document this time in her life. She'll thank me, er, hate me later! :) We had quite the adventure to get our Christmas tree this year. We usually make my sister go with us, but her and her husband opted not to since it was pouring out. Good decision. We loaded up the gang and went to our favorite, cheap tree farm! Again, it was POURING out. We had put off getting the tree for a few days and both realized it was now or never. I was just praying we'd get enough of a break in the rain to go hunt for a tree. Anyway, as we're driving around the big tree farm, Lily says, "I have to go potty." Of course she does. We try to distract her and kept talking up how fun it was going to be to get a tree. It didn't work. She had to go potty NOW. And this time we didn't have the potty chair with us for some odd reason. So, we sat her on the side rail of our car and let her do her thing. Or so we thought!

She really did try to go. Do you think I'm weird that I keep taking pictures of my daughter going to the bathroom?! But really, look at the concentration on her face. She really did try!

After the potty incident, we headd out to find the perfect tree. And look! It stopped raining! Praise Jesus! Since my sister didn't go, AJ isn't in the family picture this year. Yup, that's a guilt trip on you Leandra! J/k :)

After finding our tree, we put the kids in the car to play so I could help . . . who am I kidding? I mean watch AJ cut down the tree. As we're outside, I hear Lily yelling from the car, "I have to go potty now!" I helped her do her business and she went! That girl is a pro. The other incident was Jameson fell while in the car and bumped his head on the door. My bad. We were parked at a slight incline and he must've lost his balance and fell against the door. He was ok and everything, but I felt horrible.
I had to document that AJ really was there. See?
Jameson loved playing with those lights! Or maybe I just wanted a cute picture of him with lights so I kinda wrapped them around his body. Or maybe not. I guess you'll never know. :)

Ta-Da!! AJ and I take turns on the color of lights that go on the tree. I'm a sucker for white lights. I love them. They are classy, elegant, and pretty! AJ loves colored lights. We were super smart in figuring out how to eliminate arguing by taking turns early on in our marriage on what lights to use. Yay, go us! This year was my turn and it makes me so happy to see my white lights on the tree. In AJ's defense, he really wouldn't care what lights ended up on the tree. He would do what makes me happy. Isn't he the best? But, I feel bad, so I gotta let him have fun too.

Geesh, this is the weirdest blog post I've ever written. I'm thinking it might be one of those things where I write something and it sounds really funny in my head, but when I wake up tomorrow and go back and read this, I'm sure I'll be saying, "Did I really post that for the whole world to see?" Yup. Oh well.

Anyway, that was our Great Christmas Tree Adventure! Hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing about it!

Lazy!

Yup, I'm a lazy blogger! I've just been busy and haven't made the time to put anything new on here! But I've got some fun pictures to share from our recent adventure to Klamath Falls! AJ's sister and her husband, Andrea and Jeff, recently moved from Salem to K. Falls because Jeff got a new job. We were sad to see them go when they lived only 3 minutes away from us! But, thankfully 4ish hours isn't that far away!

Well, 4ish hours is far away if you're a 3 1/2 year old who needs to go potty right now! Our motto is, "have potty chair, will travel." The beautiful lake as you are heading into K. Falls. Wish I knew the name of it! It's probably called Klamath Lake or something like that :)
Us girls went to a fun little shop and Lily was loving this little apron.
It was such a beautiful weekend while we were there so we took advantage of it and went to this awesome park near Jeff and Andrea's house! It had tons of play equipment that all of us (including the adults!) enjoyed!
Jameson loving the swings
The GORGEOUS view from the park.
So, there was this play rock wall at the park. Personally, I think it's kinda dangerous for a park with kids, but, that's just me! Well, Andrea and I thought it'd be fun to climb it and have our picture taken.
Then I got the not-so-bright idea to climb over the other side of the rock. Let's just say I'm not as young as I used to be! I couldn't find any foot holes to put my feet into and I got stuck. I basically dropped to the ground while laughing with embarrassment!
Auntie Andrea with Lily!

Andrea and I "playing" some more. By the way, my arms were SUPER sore the next day from doing this! Man, I'm out of shape!
I love my Lily Mae!
I love AJ. He's the BEST daddy! After the park, we drove to the Running Y, a resort in K. Falls, to look around. Of course the kids had to try that playground out too!
Jeff took all of those pictures-he's quite the photographer!

Uncle Jeff being silly with Lily!
Bath time!

We also got to visit the school where Andrea teaches because they were having a carnival. We had such a great time and look forward to going again since they have lots of snow now!