FOUR YEARS

I have such a good man. Our wedding anniversary makes me think back to that crazy courtship of ours, and what a miracle it was that we ended up together. (I'm not going to go over our story now, but you can read it HERE.) It was absolutely meant to be.

This song makes me think of that time. Everything was so full of unknowns and uncertainties, but two things helped me through it:

1.) I had distinctly felt that marrying him was what the Lord wanted. I was assured that Andrew was a good person, and God's word was good enough for me.

2.) My family supported me in the decision. I can only imagine the fears going through my mother's mind upon learning I was to marry a man neither of us had known more than a few weeks. But she stuck true to her promise: After expressing her concerns once, she went forward with 100% support and trust. There wasn't even a hint of dissatisfaction coming from her during that whirlwind engagement.

But I'm sure it also helped that Andrew's good heart became increasingly evident the longer we knew him. We all fell in love with him fast, because he is good. And I feel blessed to have had the Lord be out matchmaker. God knew what He was doing.

And doesn't Carrie Underwood sing this song so beautifully? Listen to those high notes!

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OUR LITTLE SPRUCE SPROUT

Andrew and Rachel. Beginning of December. Red pickup truck. 

The Mission?   

Drive for hours in a southerly direction in search of the perfect Christmas spruce to adopt and take home. 

It snowed the entire time. 

When we finally arrived at the mountaintop...

We began our tramp into the forest. A heavily blanketed forest.

It was all great fun wandering through the magically falling snow until...

...our need for snow shoes became emphatically apparent. Here, we had only sunk to our thighs. Not many moments later, I fell in past my belly button, and had to rely on Andrew to rescue me from certain death. 

If I had been alone, my legs would have remained rooted in their glaciated tomb until I starved or froze, whichever came first. And then I probably would have been eaten by wolves.

Have I ever mentioned how I love my Andrew?

As pressure mounted to find our tree before darkness completely fell, there were times we were literally swimming through the forest. This picture was taken just after Andrew advised me to "think light like a ballerina."

Apparently, this tactic doesn't work.

Finally, after excavating a tree from the snow that looked promising, we cut it, dragged it out of the forest, and loaded it into the truck.

And by 1:30 am back at our warm, dry home, the tree was set up and adorned for the holidays marking our mission a success! We are very happy with the addition to our family. But now, I must go and tend to the little sprout. He is in need of some water and many more hours of admiring. 

HAVE YOURSELF A MERRY LITTLE CHRISTMAS

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I want to share with you a favorite Christmas song. It never meant much to me until I saw Judy Garland sing it on Meet Me in Saint Louis.  Nothing compared to the exquisite, humble manner in which she performed it. I think I may have even cried. So sorrowful! Yet, filled with an aching hope for the future.

The first video is just the song. But if you have a few extra minutes, watch the second video. It includes the scene with her ADORABLE little sister, Tootie, and makes the song even more meaningful.

Happy Holidays, blog buds. 

See you after Christmas.

Memory Monday--Christmas past

December 1997. Seventh Grade. Gilbert, Arizona.

What happy times. My biggest problem of the day was the angst of Junior high life. A Josh something-or-other had had just "broken up with me." Ha!

I wish I had been able to look past this tragedy long enough to realize how happy life really was. I love the pure joy on little Becca's face. =)

A LESSON LEARNED

Andrew learned an important lesson today.

The success of our marriage and family is based on *principles of faith, prayer, repentance, forgiveness, respect, love, compassion, work, wholesome recreational activities, and...NOT EATING RACHEL'S ONLY LITTLE DEBBIE CHRISTMAS CUPCAKE.

It's good that he learned this early in our marriage, I guess. But he still has to learn not to laugh when I get angry. 
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I don't care how cute he thinks I am. 

*Refer to THIS.

DECEMBER

This is the busiest of months. So much goin' on!

• Dad's birthday
• Obtaining a Christmas tree
• Family Christmas party
• The elementary school's Holiday Program
• Andrew graduating from college!!!!
• Family coming to town
• Christmas!
• Our 4th wedding anniversary
• A Sun Valley Ski resort vacation
• Becca's birthday
• Cousin's mission farewell

Usually, I spend a few weekend hours typing up and scheduling posts to appear automatically during the insanity that is Monday-Friday. I can get as far as two weeks ahead in a Saturday afternoon! That was until December came along. Recently, my weekends have been taken up with other obligations. So, sorry about the neglect.

But I am anxiously awaiting Christmas vacation, and the time it will provide for not only blogging...but sleeping, putting gas in my car, vacuuming pine needles from my living room, shaving my legs, and feeding my husband something other than frozen corn dogs and Little Caesar's pizza. It is definitely a time to look forward to.

Until then, here's a snapshot of just about the happiest part of life right now. Isn't it lovely?

That's another thing I'm excited for over Christmas break: staring dreamily at this tree for unreasonable lengths of time. I haven't had nearly enough of that yet. 

LITTLE TURKEYS

Our second Thanksgiving  celebration began with a family turkey bowl game at the high school stadium. This was Aurora's first year as a participant, and she sacked our quarterback! Not bad, eh?

We enjoyed our feast back at Grandma's house, before Utah's incredibly warm weather beckoned me outside. 

Colorful Becca and I herded the little ones outside for a snowball fight...with what little snow was left.

Utah still looked appropriately autumn-ish, while the Idaho we left behind looked like it was ready for Christmas. 

 My baby sisters. 
Aurora, look at me. 
Aria, scoot over so your face is in the sunlight. 
Belle, smile pretty, please. 
Aurora, hold still. 
Aria, stop talking for just a second. please. 
Say cheese!
Aurora, look at the camera!
Belle, will you please open your eyes?
Okay, ready?1...2...3!!!


That's basically how it went down. 

We all played with our beautiful, little cousins until the last of the snow had been scraped for Grandma's back lawn. 

I mean really. Aren't they the sweetest?

Little turkey...

MEMORY MONDAY--our funny

July 1997? Camping in Arizona.

That's me in the trunk and Becca in the backseat. We thought we were so funny. 
(Get it?)
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JONAH AND THE WHALE

The story of Jonah from Corinth Baptist Church on Vimeo.


OH. MY. GOODNESS. You MUST watch this video! My Grandpa Brown e-mailed it to me, and I can't stop watching it. It is just about the cutest thing I have ever seen. NO JOKE! Her expression...her lisp...her confidence...and her big white bow... 


I DARE any of you to disagree. 

OUR FIRST

We have never hosted a Thanksgiving meal before, that the preparations weren't carefully supervised by a more experienced mother figure. This time we were on our own. There was no one to ask how to roll out a pie crust, to share the best fruit salad recipe, or provide reassurance that the turkey is in fact, cooked through.

Okay. I got it into the pan. Now what?

We tag teamed the pie. Andrew handled the filling while I conquered the crust. Ready to bake!

Our makeshift place settings. We took our tiny kitchen table built for two, pushed it up against our skinny hall table, and covered it with a spare window curtain. We didn't have enough matching place mats for our three guests, so I just went with the mismatched look. Not only the place mats were different, but so were the chairs, and all of the dishes. Apparently, we're not set up very well to entertain.
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And I'm still wondering why I took a picture of the table...and not the people.
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But we enjoyed a lovely meal with belching Becca, her Canadian roommate, and Andrew's crippled Canadian business partner (ha!). Then we played card games, ate pie, and kicked our friends out, so we could hit the icy road. We were off to Utah for the next day's Thanksgiving dinner!

(The camera doesn't capture it, but imagine a whirling blizzard out that window.)

THANKFUL THURSDAY--I Scream

Dreyer's holiday ice cream flavors. Absolutely delicious. Even better with a warm brownie.
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My gratitude knows no bounds for these rich, creamy, festive desserts. Especially that of the Egg Nog variety...
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