From our Family to Yours...Merry Christmas!

Our family is celebrating the greatest Birth in Earth's History.............

The Announcement delivered by Angels proclaiming the Birth of Jesus.......the Messiah, the Lord

“Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. ¹¹ Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. ¹² This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”

¹³ Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying,

¹⁴ “Glory to God in the highest heaven,
    and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.”

From our family to yours..........
Merry Christmas!!

 

Luke 2

New International Version (NIV)

The Birth of Jesus

2 In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. ² (This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.) ³ And everyone went to their own town to register.

⁴ So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. ⁵ He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. ⁶ While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, ⁷ and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no guest room available for them.
⁸ And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. ⁹ An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. ¹⁰ But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. ¹¹ Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. ¹² This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”
¹³ Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying,

¹⁴ “Glory to God in the highest heaven,
    and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.”

¹⁵ When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.”

¹⁶ So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger. ¹⁷ When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, ¹⁸ and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. ¹⁹ But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. ²⁰ The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told.
²¹ On the eighth day, when it was time to circumcise the child, he was named Jesus, the name the angel had given him before he was conceived.

Thank you for this picture Treva

 

A Little of Him....A Little of Me

Matt and I were able to spend a couple of nights away this week- All summer long I go camping with my boys..........during the winter Matt will take at least one trip (sometimes two) to the city (about a 4 hour drive away- or 45 minute flight:) ) with me.
The city is not my man's ideal way to spend a vaca BUT staying 6 weekends out of 13 this past summer in a travel trailer is not my ideal way to spend a vaca either- Somewhere along the 20 years of being together we have found our Medium.

Give and Take.................
A little of him a little of me......

Thank you babe for taking me to Cabela's- for the laugh we had while there when we walked behind the silent farter (only to both grab our noses and struggle for air as we were laughing so hard we could hardly walk straight)
Thank you for holding my bags as we went from store to store
Thanks for watching 2 Halmark movies in a row as we sat on our bed eating pizza smothered in ranch
Thank you for the great talks about 'life' as we drove
Thank you that you have not allowed our marriage to be all you or all me-

I love you Matthew Benjamin and thank you so much for stepping out of your comfort zone into mine.  Thank you also for including me into your comfort zone- For the times you have insisted I 'join in' instead of sitting curb side..........

Your my heart babe
deep down my heart
and I am so grateful for you

p.s. I took the camera out once on our trip- I jokingly took a picture of Matt waiting for me as I was trying on clothes- He grabbed the camera and took a pic of me in return- The camera never came out again

'Don't Duck..'

Thank you for this picture Alliance Defending Freedom

 

 

 

Right Now......Camo or Coach

4 Things going on right now

• I am watching a show called 'Nitro Circus' with my boys right now.....While I am cringing every time someone crashes on their bikes my boys are cracking up thinking it's awesome
• My house has a faint tinge of cow poop smell right now- Boots were not washed off before walking into the mud room- BOYS!!!
• Going back to the Nitro Circus I am watching right now, what kind of life did Travis Pastrana have growing up to make him such a dare devil adrenaline junkie?  His poor mother was probably beside herself....or his mom was like my friends Bonnie and Val- They would be cheering their boys on when they did all the crazy stunts
• Right now, on my Ryan's back, he has a camo Band-Aid covering a cut- Camo's a big deal in our house- Camo Clothes, hats, jackets, Bog Boots, under-wear, blankets, you name it we've got it in camo...........my boys love them some camo p.s. I don't prefer owning camo- If it's starting with a C I'll go with Coach :)

Hope you all have had a great Tues..



Well Would you look at that- Coach has camo!!

两个半 & A Prayer Request

TWO AND A HALF!!
2.5
2 1/2
两个半 (Mandarin for 2.5)
dos años y medio (Spanish)
deux ans et demi (French)
tweeënhalf (Dutch)

The day after tomorrow Ellie will be two and a half....
Two has been equivalent to a sweet/sour sauce- One minute Elle's is as sweet as can be and in the next breath she has thrown a fit that will floor you!

She is really developing the likes/dislikes of her personality:
'I NOT like that' is one of the most common phrases she says
She loves to watch the Disney Movie Nemo, color, go to her 'class' (Sunday School) at church, & eat bean burritos.

She thrives in routine:
'I go to nana's (my mom's) on Turs-day' (Thursday)
She always wears her Hello Kitty goggles when sitting in the bath tub (and despises washing and combing her hair)

28 pounds
33 inch tall
18-24 months clothes
size 6 shoe
She gives some of the best squishy hugs a mommy could ask for and melts our families heart every second of every minute of every day

Happy two and a half to you Ellie Marie
I LOVE YOU!!

p.s. Please join me in praying for a local mom of 4 (April) who was in a car accident this morning- She was driving on our icy roads (we've had snow and ice for over a week) and hit a tree.  Praising the Lord that her 2 daughters (that were in the car at the time) were not hurt.  As I 'post' this April just headed into surgery to repair a broken Femur and some other injuries.
God Bless and Keep you April- It was some precious moments spending time with your girls this morning- it was also neat to see how much they adore 'Miss Becca'.  Praying for you friend

35 Years!!

In a nation that has news sources contending whether our divorce rate is 53% or 67% AND living in a valley that has gained national attention as being 4th in the nation for the highest divorce rate, it seems important to recognize marriages that are in the minority.........
Our Pastor Pete and his wife Kathy are quietly celebrating 35 years of marriage today (Pastor Pete wouldn't shout it from the pulpit today because he said it was self promotion.......Nope- It's encouragement..........it's life breathing words that it's possible in our divorce driven society to stay married, it's living testimony!!)

Thank you Pastor Pete and Kathy for living your marriage out loud for your church congregation and for our community to see
Thank you for choosing to let the Lord lead both of your lives as you minister and encourage others
Thank you for honoring each other both in public and private
Thank you for letting us see God's love in and through your marriage...........

From all of us at CBC....
HAPPY 35th ANNIVERSARY!
We Love you!!

Moooing & Moo-ving

This post is a couple months old (9/30/13) and was written the night before we moved to the ranch we live on now- It has been tucked away in my blog drafts- Just read it over and thought I would publish :)

I have a million different ideas running through my brain to share some fairly big news but my brain is so tired the only thing I can communicate from my brain to this blog post is this....
I posted a little over a month ago that we put our house on the market.....
Almost a month ago our house went sale pending and is set to close in mid October....
We bought a little piece of property that was filled with trash so that we could clean up all the trash (which was completed thanks to a fellow who cleans up trashy property for a living- I will take pics soon and post- It turned out GREAT!!) build a house on it and move there.....
Recently, my Matt was called by a family who has a cattle ranch in a small town (like 450 people small) about 45 minutes away from our hometown- They were looking for a ranch manager to manage their property and their cattle....

• Sale Pending House
• Matt has a knack for managing large ranches and has extensive experience with cattle (he grew up on a dairy farm)
• 2 Teenage Boys that LOVE living in the country (we spent 2 years living on a large ranch in Hawaii and they loved every minute of it)
• The trashy property that was cleaned up has a small house on it that will make a great rental- the rent will more than make the payment for the property (instead of us building on it right now)

What does all of this equal?

I will be waking up to the sound of mooing every morning starting the day after tomorrow....

We're moooooving to a cattle ranch :) :) :)

and...
not to change the subject BUT
When I got home from the ranch tonight (I was starting to unpack the first load of stuff that had arrived) I was looking around my house- telling myself that I should be way more stressed out about how dirty it is- I shrugged it off and walked up to my room to get in bed...I stopped at the door and looked around- busted up laughing and thought to myself....
What a Mess!! While the thought passed my mind that before I got in bed I should pick up all the stuff off the floor and fill those boxes you see....instead, I choose to lay down in my unmade bed, grab my computer, ignore all the mess and talk to you guys instead :)
Hope you all had a great Tues.- I am looking forward to sharing stories about what it is like living on a cattle ranch......





The boys and Elle's playing with moving boxes :)