~Prayer Needed for ME~

Thank you for your sweet comment on Baby Mary's pictures.
I would appreciate your prayers as I try to heal from a serious kidney infection. I spent over 5 hours in the ER last night, (a fever of 102.8, vomiting, sore flank (kidney area), etc.) and was sent home with meds and strict instruction to REST!!! I've already decorated our own home in Cinci for Christmas (the walls are still studs) but my heart had to decorate for Christmas anyways. Phillip has been/is working HOURS and has done TONS, but fixing up an old home is LOTS of work.
Please pray that I can completely mend from this infection. When I feel better I'll post more pics.

~"Mary" Christmas~

~My friend Deanna gave me this cute sleigh and I decided to take some of Mary's Christmas pictures in it. Jesus helped me and I'm happy with how they turned out. =)~
~"Mmmm...I wonder when this thing will take off?"~
~"WAIT...Not sooo FAST!" =)~

~"Pardon me as I yawn!"~

~"Am I cute with my grumpy face too?" =)




~"If I smile for you...can we be done with these pictures?" =D

~Catching the Gratitude Attitude~

Counting my blessings and naming them one by one:
1. Jesus dying on the cross for me.
2. Jesus forgiving me of my sins.
3. Jesus cleansing my heart of inbred sin.
4. The wonderful husband that Jesus gave me.
5. Our first 4 sweet children that Jesus gave to us.
6. Our PRECIOUS baby Mary that Jesus sent us. He knew that we needed a surprise miracle in our lives named "Mary Grace".
7. God's help to us in Costa Rice (language school), and Colombia the last 5 years.
8. God supplying a fixer-upper house for us in Cinci.
9. The NEAT answers to prayers that Jesus has provided for us for our house...and here is one of them. (I plan to share other answers to prayer later.)
10. A FEW WEEKS AGO IT REALLY RAINED HERE. THIS WAS THE FIRST REAL RAIN THAT WE HAD HAD SINCE WE HAVE BEEN HERE. PHILLIP WAS WORKING ON OUR HOME IN CINCI AND THE RAIN POURED THROUGH OUR 3RD FLOOR, TO THE 2ND FLOOR, THROUGH THE FIRST FLOOR, ALL THE WAY TO THE BASEMENT!!! UGH!!! TALK ABOUT BEING SAD, WE WERE!!! WE KNEW THAT WE PROBABLY NEEDED TO REPAIR THE ROOF, BUT COULDN'T SEE IT, SO DIDN'T KNOW HOW BAD IT WAS. NEEDLESS TO SAY WE STARTED PRAYING THAT GOD WOULD CREATE A MIRACLE AND HELP US TO GET OUR ROOF FIXED. WELL LAST WEEK A CHRISTIAN BROTHER WHO HAS A ROOFING BUSINESS FIXED THE ROTTEN SPOTS ON OUR ROOF AND PUT A NEW ROOF ON IT AND GAVE US A GREAT DEAL! =D THANKFULLY WE HADN'T DONE THE FINISHING WORK INSIDE OUR HOUSE YET, FOR IT WOULD HAVE BEEN RUINED. WE PRAISE THE LORD FOR PARTING THIS RED SEA AND GIVING US A NEW ROOF!!!
~Some pumpkin muffins that I made to pass out at our Christian Nation church.~

~I trust that you are Thanking Jesus for His blessings to you. I hope that you and your family have a Happy Thanksgiving!!

~Visiting with our family~

~Elijah LOVES music and loves to sing! One day he was using an empty toilet paper roll as his mic. Then later he put the "toilet paper mic" on baby Mary for her to use and told her to sing, then grabbed another mic so he could sing too. =D~
~A couple weeks ago we enjoyed getting to meet up with Michael and Beth and their children, and Amy and Kinsey. This was the first time they had seen baby Mary so Amy and Beth were "fighting" over who was going to get to hold baby Mary first. (Aunt Beth won 'cause I handed baby Mary to her, but I dooo still love you, Amy. =)~~Kinsey and Kimberly~
~Sofia and Elijah sippin' and sharin' a shake.
~The kids~

~I thought this was a cute picture of Uncle Michael and little Mary.~
~We had a fun visit...until Burger King closed and we had to say goodbye. =(~

~Missionary Convention~

Thank you for your nice comments on our family picture (above). Janie Eisenhart took that picture for us for our new prayer card...Thanks, Janie!
And Thank you for your sweet comments on baby Mary and Elijah's pics that Jesus, (and Kimberly, and Sarah) helped me to take.
~Things can build up when a Mommy gets busy. Between taking care of a new baby plus 4 other children, doing some deputation traveling, working on our fixer-upper home in Cinci, home schooling, keeping up with my blog, making treats for church and other people, having company over, etc...it doesn't take long until my dirty laundry pile looks like this. =)~

~In October our family got the privilege to go over to Indiana and attend the Missionary Convention at Union Bible College. We haven't attended this convention since 2004. This is the nice fruit basket that the missions department gave to our family. (The other things are in the guest bedroom at my parent's house.)~~My Moma made this sign and had it on the crib where baby Mary was to sleep. It says, "Welcome! Baby Mary! We love you 'Wee One' Gram and Gramp."
~On Thursday morning at UBC they always have a missionary booth session during chapel. They divide all their students into age groups and they walk around from booth to booth and listen while each missionary has 8 minutes to talk to each group. It is a neat idea. We enjoyed being at the missionary convention. In this picture Phillip is talking to one of the groups.~
~The kids enjoyed the playground there at UBC.~
~Then on Saturday we got to attend the conference on the home that my Daddy held at his church across from UBC. There were 5 interesting speakers. Dennis Joslin, Bro. Dahler, David Evans, Daddy, and Bro. Gene Hood. Daddy asked our family to sing and so we sang, "The family that prayers together stays together." In the verse there is a line that says "Sweep the floor and do dishes, Give the baby lots of kisses". So when Sarah sang that part of the song Noah and Elijah leaned over and kissed baby Mary. (Whom Kimberly was holding in her arms.) =D
(Notice Elijah's "mic" that Gram bought for him to use.)~
~Joanna and Kimberly watched all of the children during the sessions on the home.~
~Enjoying lunch with our friends the Evans. It was an enjoyable educational day and made us want to do our best to maintain a Godly home!~
~We thought this was so cute that baby Mary (only 4 weeks old) was looking at Gramp.~
~Grandma Bryan (103) holding baby Mary (1 month).~
~Our family and Grandma Bryan~

Please pray for us as we leave tomorrow to do a few deputation services. On the way to one of our services we plan to stop by Tennessee to see my Grandmother for a couple days. We don't plan to do many services while we are here this time...what with having a new baby, trying to rest some and trying to get our home liveable...but there are 3 churches we feel we need to visit and thank for their support to our family. Thank you for your prayers.~

~Baby Mary's 6 weeks pics~

~So, I decided to snap some pics of Baby Mary (to save spending money at JCPennies.) And then I decided to throw Elijah in there too. It wasn't as easy as I thought it was going to be. I had pictured that I would simply get Baby Mary to sleep, snap a few pictures and Voila...I'd post them on my blog. NOT! It was a 40 minute affair, with lots of interuptions, a hair dryer going some of the time (to help distract baby and keep her calm, Thanks for the idea, Janie), one girl helping arrange Elijah and Mary, the other girl holding onto the white sheet so it wouldn't fall...and lots of trying to get Elijah to be still and Baby Mary to lay the right way, etc. =D But, Jesus helped and I'm happy with how these turned out. Enjoy!
~This is One of my favorites. Every time we'd ask Elijah to kiss baby Mary...he'd give her a quick peck and pull away. So, it is a miracle that we finally got this one. =)~
~I was going to lay Mary on his back ASLEEP and all would go smoothly...but she never would fall asleep. So, we tried it with her awake and she kept moving around and falling. But, I thought this one was still cute so I'm posting it.~
~WeLove our Baby Mary Grace~


~And did I mention that Baby Mary is sleeping anywhere from 5 to 9 hours straight through every night?! She's a keeper!! =)~
~Precious~


~My Favorite!~

~Heather's Birthday pics~

I had a Happy birthday...and as my Moma would say, "It's still my birthday week!" =D Mary and I went to a baby shower for a friend in the morning, then I took lunch down to Cinci and had lunch with my family in our home there. (The kids helped Daddy on our house while I was at the baby shower.) Then on Sunday we invited the Hausmans over to the house where we are staying for a Skyline Chili lunch. Here are some pics.
~We unwrapped Little Mary for a qucik outside picture of her and I on my birthday.~
~Here is chubby cheeked little Mary Grace at the baby shower of my friend Deanna who is expecting twins soon.~~My sweetheart and I in front of our home in Cinci. Phillip is in work clothes for he is working HARD on our house so we can hopefully move into it soon. It still needs LOTS of work, but God is helping us. Please pray that things will go smoothly so we can get into and enjoy our home for a few weeks before we go back to Colombia in January, Lord willing! Thank you!~
~My snickers birthday cake. Kimberly and I melted choc. chips and she made this "H" for my cake.~
~My sweet sister and I. Something that Phillip said got us to laughing.~
~Phillip and I~
~Here are some random pics from everyday life. Sarah doing her schoolwork.~
~Noah and Elijah playing outside on a warmer day.~
~Mary's sweet little feet inside Daddy's hands.~