January 1, 2012

Happy New Year!  The weather has been insanely gorgeous the past couple weeks, so we decided to go for a nice walk along West Cliff drive on New Year's Day. It was close to 70 degrees out and clear blue sky, doesn't get much better than that.

Andrew being a boy

The family

"pick me up mom!"

Andrew under the surfer statue

Collage of pics from the day

We live in such an amazing place!

Christmas Day

Christmas morning the grandparents came over bright and early to celebrate with us. We opened presents, ate a delicious breakfast and then visited and played with Andrew's new goodies. Later in the afternoon the three of us went and saw "The Chipmunks 3: Chipwrecked", as part of our newer tradition of seeing a movie on Christmas day. It was a busy day, but definitely one filled with lots of love and fun.

Andrew leaping with excitement!

Gram had run out of wrapping paper so she used grocery bags - the ultimate in recycling ;)

Lola was very festive

Me reading Jingle's book to Andrew

Grammy got Lola a present

The sunset Christmas Eve, can you believe how gorgeous it was?

Christmas lights

After returning home from Walnut Creek we stopped at Verve (of course) for hot chocolate and coffee before we went and checked out the Christmas lights around Santa Cruz. It's a tradition Randy & I started before we were even married, and continued to do once Andrew was born. It's definitely a family favorite!

Downtown Santa Cruz

Decorations inside of Verve Coffee

A GREAT house a friend told us about on the West Side

Hereeeeeeeeee's Andrew!

Merry Christmas!

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve we went up to Walnut Creek to visit my grandparents. It was really great to see them and to have Andrew hang out with his great grandparents. My grandma definitely seemed to get a kick out of Andrew's energy and zeal for life, which was such an awesome thing to see.

Andrew showing the great grandparents games on the iPad 

G.G. was really concentrating!

Their cute little tree

Grandpa opening the calendar we made for them

G.G. opening her chocolates

Andrew helping out

Happy New Year!

2010! Hard to believe it's already four days into the new year. I'm not big on making resolutions, but there are a few things I want to accomplish this year:

Get back into shape (lose the post transplant gain)

Be more intentional about my quiet time

Spend more quality time with Andrew

Spend more quality time with Randy

This is a big year for our church, as we are launching from a service at an established church into a full fledged church of our own. Please pray for Elevation when you think of it, there are many needs to be met when it comes to planting a church and God has it under control, but your prayers are always appreciated. Please also pray for other church planters in the area, especially our friends Bobby & Rachel as they will be leaving the "safety" of his worship pastor role at CLC and starting their own church to reach the unconvinced of Santa Cruz.

We're looking forward to and praying for a hospital free year (the first in at least 3 years), planning a trip to Ireland in the summer (the first time overseas for Andrew & Randy) and praying for constant work for Randy, construction was very slow and difficult this past year.

Wishing you all the best for 2010!

Merry Christmas!

So obviously it's been a while since I updated my blog, hope everyone had a great Christmas with family & friends.

We had a fairly relaxed Christmas, none of the normal driving to a bunch of different cities to celebrate with various relatives this year. Christmas Eve we invited R's and my parents over to have dinner and share gifts with Andrew. He loved being showered with all the grand parent attention!

Christmas day we spent by ourselves as our little family unit. It was a fabulous, blessed day. Andrew opened gifts in the morning, we had a family breakfast, then went to see "Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel" (the boys pick...I tried for "The Princess & The Frog" ;). It was a new experience to see a movie on Christmas day, but something all 3 of us really enjoyed.

After the movie we went up to UCSC to walk around and enjoy the gorgeous December weather. God has truly blessed us with a fantastic place to live! The pic above is from our time at the Upper East Field. R and I didn't do presents this year, but gifted each other with the gift of presence. It really was nice to have a simple Christmas where we could focus on what is important: The birth of our Savior.

This Christmas was especially poignant for me, and quite honestly the first time I've really "gotten it" as far as celebrating Christ's birth and what that meant for His life. Going through the medical crisis last year just really put me in a different place for being thankful for the time we have together and for the "little things" we normally take for granted.

3 Days Before Christmas Eve

Last night I was in the kitchen making dinner and Andrew was talking with Randy about how it's almost Christmas Eve when suddenly Andrew blurts out "you know there's no such thing as Santa.....Or reindeer.....Or sleighs." Randy and I both respond with "yes, sleighs are real and so are reindeer." And I ask "where did you hear that Santa wasn't real from." No response. So I ask again, and his response was "from TV."

Obviously there are lots of places where he could hear that Santa isn't real - school, church, friends, TV, but it makes me sad to think that small piece of childhood might already be gone. He's growing up so quickly as it is. Obviously Christmas isn't all about Santa and the gifts, but there is something special about that Christmas "magic" that a child has in their heart.

Does Santa visit your house? Do your kids still believe?