Family fun!!

Despite the many gatherings and parties we had while the boys were home, we did manage to have some time just as a family. One of the fun (and slightly hilarious) things we did was to decorate Gingerbread men. Some of the results were quite amusing.

Here is the base. What will it end up looking like?


Well it being Josh's man, and he just wanting to eat the thing with his hot chocolate, it kinda ended up looking like it was wearing a large lumpy knitted sweater. But hey, it tasted good.


John, never has been the creative or artistic type, so his looked like....

himself. Complete with a stubbly shaved head;)

Faith was extremely neat and meticulous, and hers, when it was finished, resembled Frank Sinatra.

No seriously. Doesn't he?


A pair of dancers!! We had a wonderful time and lots of laughs over the many creative, strange and slightly disturbing gingerbread men we created as a family.

That night Charity made this beautiful Andes Mint cheesecake.

Gorgeous, delicious, mouthwatering, beautiful, decadent, and rich.

Another special once a year thing, we were able to accomplish was our special new years eve dinner.


Out came the fancy teacups, pretty lace,


and delicate crystal, to make the meal special.


Complete with the extravagant fare of Ham, Au Gratin potatoes, Broccoli with cheese sauce, and cinnamon hot canned apples. We are so thankful to God for the time we were able to spend with the boys while they were home, and are praying for their safety. They both left on January 2nd Josh we took down to the airport to fly back to basic, and John and Grace drove down to Texas. Please pray for Josh especially , as he continues his training.

~Chs

More Family and Friends.

Monday morning rolled around and more visitors arrived. The Kinne family (or most of them) came up for a day of fun and frolic.

Immediately after our lunch the boys raced out back to explore and us "ladies" followed in a more leisurely fashion.

Hannah found a icy spot under the snow and cleared it off for her very own ice rink;)

After a few rides on the tire swing, always a necessary part of a trip to the Sauve's house, we packed up into our vehicles and headed out to Mr. Reiches sled run. (which I informed you of in a earlier post)

We were dismayed to find upon our arrival that the snow was still a bit sticky from the recent warm up, and the sledding was not at its' peak, so some of us started by walking around the trail that Mr. Reiche has blazed around his property.

Despite the slight slushiness of the snow, some of the younger, more persevering ones continued to travel down the slope as far as they could.


The more traffic that went down the run, packing down the snow and solidifying the ice, the better the hill became, and soon everyone was lined up waiting for a turn.

Sam had brought his new snowboard along and did amazingly well for his first time, almost always making it all the way down the second hill.


Though the snowboard was his preferred means of transportation, Faith did persuade him to try going backwards down the hill on the "silver streak" with her.


Josiah and Noah tried racing, but they somehow ended up crossing paths and Noah met up with his "friends", the tires, that were piled up against Mr. Reiche's garage, (Noah met with those tires quite a few times during the afternoon;) while Josiah went off track in the other direction and ended up between two trees.

We had a blast that afternoon and were very glad that some of the Kinnes were able to make it up to play in the snow with us.

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The next morning found us all very busy preparing for our Thanksgiving meal take 2. Josh having missed thanksgiving dinner with our family since he was at boot camp, requested to have one while he was home. So Mom and I got up and stuck him (the turkey not Josh;) in the oven.

Faith, the expert pie maker set to work as well.

We were delighted when we learned that Eldita's parents who had arrived from Mexico the night before, were going to be coming as well. One of the first things done when they had all arrived was to go down our newly finished snow slide!

Levi was the first one down.

Go Aunt Carmen!!!!!

The boys even got Eldita, their mom, to go down.
Unfortunately I did not get any pictures of the rest of the evening, which was absolutely wonderful. Dad was able to have a great conversation with Enoch, Eldita's father who is a pastor, about his work in Mexico, through Al who acted as interpreter. Then we had a singing time, some of us sang in English and some in Spanish, it was marvelous. We were so grateful for the fellowship we were able to have with believers even in another language.

~Chs

John and Joshua's last week in Michigan!

This last week has been a wee bit hectic but very fun and exciting! As the time of the boys visit shortened we were able to have many people over, to see the them (and us) before they departed.

Wonderful food, and no less wonderful fellowship and friendship, were a huge part of our last week.

We enjoyed an evening with our old friends the Shepherds eating, having good Biblical discussions, playing taboo and empire (a new game John taught us) and...

being shown how to make proper paper airplanes and...

perform mysterious card tricks.

We had a wonderful evening!

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On Sunday evening we held our own premier of..........

"The Mysterious Islands" !!

The Hayse family and Mr. Rechie all piled down into our newly renovated basement, to enjoy the movie and refreshments with us.

We all enjoyed it very much as it was not only very interesting but informative as well.

I don't know if this happy little baby got much out of the movie, as he spent most of his time crawling around to different people asking to be held:)

We had a wonderful time getting together with brothers and sisters in Christ. John and Joshua lived through 3 more gatherings of friends and family. Pictures of those will be upcoming on the next blog posts.

~Chs

The Resolutions of Jonathan Edwards

(These resolutions were made by Jonathan Edwards during the years of 1722-1723 when he was about 20 years of age.)

Being sensible that I am unable to do anything without God's help, I do humbly entreat him by his grace to enable me to keep these Resolutions, so far as they are agreeable to his will, for Christ's sake.

Remember to read over these Resolutions once a week.

1. Resolved, that I will do whatsoever I think to be most to God's glory, and my own good, profit and pleasure, in the whole of my duration, without any consideration of the time, whether now, or never so many myriads of ages hence. Resolved to do whatever I think to be my duty and most for the good and advantage of mankind in general. Resolved to do this, whatever difficulties I meet with, how many soever, and how great soever.

2. Resolved, to be continually endeavoring to find out some new contrivance and invention to promote the aforementioned things.

3. Resolved, if ever I shall fall and grow dull, so as to neglect to keep any part of these Resolutions, to repent of all I can remember, when I come to myself again.

4. Resolved, never to do any manner of thing, whether in soul or body, less or more, but what tends to the glory of God; nor be, nor suffer it, if I can avoid it.

5. Resolved, never to lose one moment of time; but improve it the most profitable way I possibly can.

6. Resolved, to live with all my might, while I do live.

7. Resolved, never to do anything, which I should be afraid to do, if it were the last hour of my life.

8. Resolved, to act, in all respects, both speaking and doing, as if nobody had been so vile as I, and as if I had committed the same sins, or had the same infirmities or failings as others; and that I will let the knowledge of their failings promote nothing but shame in myself, and prove only an occasion of my confessing my own sins and misery to God. July 30.

9. Resolved, to think much on all occasions of my own dying, and of the common circumstances which attend death.

10. Resolved, when I feel pain, to think of the pains of martyrdom, and of hell.

( to read the rest of Jonathan Edwards resolutions, he wrote 70, please visit this site)

Sledding!!!!

It was a cold and dark night, as part of our family traveled to one of the most famous sledding runs in the county. The Reiche run! A very good friend of ours, has for the past 4 to 5 years created an ingenious sledding run right in front of his house. As soon as weather turns cold he ices down the 300 foot long run with his hose, then gives us a ring to let us know its is ready.


The run starts on a ramp at the top of a small hill, goes across his driveway and past his house, then dives down a second hill and shoots into a path that takes you through a sparsely wooded area.


This section of the run has always been lit in interesting ways, from floodlights to kerosene lamps, but when Mr. Rechie called this year, he told us that the lighting was quite different this year.

This is what we saw!

He had strung Christmas lights all down one side of the run, hanging them from the brush and branches.


The result was breathtaking.

Faith calls this shot, "The Aroura Borealis". =)

We had piles of fun zooming down the ramp past the house, shooting into the "tunnel" and watching the lights flash past in colorful array!

Here's a video I took riding behind Josh on the "silver streak" the fastest sled around. Sorry its a wee bit fuzzy.

So if you are in the area and have not been to the Reiche run this year, or at all , give us a call and we'll take you over. This is something you don't want to miss!

~Chs