What a weekend it has been. Of course Christmas day was full of the usual driving around to family and having fun with presents. Then of course since then i caught a cold so i have not been much fun to hang out with. Still trying to get over it though. All and all it was fun and i will get some pics up here soon enough of little Avery and all her excitment.

Of course I am awake. Its CHRISTMAS!!! Now the trouble is getting everyone else up so we can get to the tree. Santa did his work last night, ate the cookies and milk, enjoyed putting out stockings and presents for all. Quite the amazing sight, a tree with presents under it. Its a reminder of the ultimate gift given to us 2000 years ago in a manager. We cannot forget the meaning of this season is Jesus coming as God in the flesh to save all mankind. I wish my own words were as eloquent as some who can describe it all so much better. My message is simple and my words do not carry overtones of vast English knowledge. I only know one thing Jesus Christ came down to earth as the one and only answer for the sinful nature of mankind. He is the cure to our dark hearts for His light will fill us up and bring us life. Jesus my savior, my friend, my Lord and my God. He came and we celebrate by giving what little gifts we can to one another. When the whole meaning is the message of Jesus coming and humbling himself into the worst of the world's governments, in a terribly cruel time. Still we praise the Lord for all that He is and all He does. Praise His Name!

December 23rd 2008 has arrived and is nearly ended at this point. Quiet now the house was just a while ago full of busy children and birthday fun. But we will go back to this morning to recap as it always starts somewhere. We woke up an hour earlier and dropped Avery off with grammy. Then we headed to get a quick breakfast together and off to work it was. I made sure to send Holly some flowers for her birthday and also for Christmas, though they were not supposed to show up on the same day. Anyhow they were very beautiful...and are since they are still here on the table.

After work i picked up the cake and the baby and rushed home. We enjoyed an evening with friends and family.. mainly Lindsey, Isaac and the children. Avery loved playing with them and was on a sugar rush most of the evening. Now she is fast asleep as well as my birthday girl and wonderful wife. I bought her a braclet for her birthday. From Avery she got a snowglob from precious moments which has a mommy and daugther theme, very pretty. We had pizza and watched Top Gun which is Hol's favorite movie and of course has nothing to do with Christmas. I always try to keep the two separate. However tommrow is Christmas eve and for the first time in a long time I have the day off so that will be nice. I will let you know how things turnn out from there.

Christmas, less than a week away and still so much shopping to accomplish. Such a short amount of time for that matter. As for this morning after nearly burning the house down by leaving the stove on, and burning my cookies in the process, i cannot get back to sleep. I left them in and forgot about them so now i lost a perfectly good backing sheet for that matter. Life goes on though, as they say. It seems.

Work has been going good, pretty busy this time of year. At least we are getting Christmas eve and Jan 2nd off. This only means of course i need to take two unpaid days off to save the vacation hours and try making up the time in other places during those two weeks if possible. Since it is only five working days i dont think i will have much luck with that. Shall see though. I love the holidays though. This year we wont be traveling out of the state though just to a few places here in the state. At least we get to go to CA in Feburary so i look forward to that.

It is in this time of year we rejoice in the birth of our Lord Jesus. Celebrating with lights and lots of food. Its a good time. Much better than last year with the ice storm. I wouldnt mind some snow though, not sure its going to happen. But at least we can enjoy what we have and be thankful for all the Lord's blessings.

Avery is putting words together more and more. She never leaves the house or anywhere without her puppy and her blankets. She calls the blankets mimi. She also calls grandma mimi. And of course when grandma comes over to visit she says, mimi's at the door. She is a good little doorbell for us. To cute. Ever growing. She may not understand all about Christmas but she will get it soon enough, at least we can work on the memories of the season. All the good ones.

Friday evening we all got in the car and went to the Bible college in the city. They have a massive display of lights to enjoy and walk through. We went with Holly's bf Lindsey, her hubby and their three kids. Avery is just the right age to play with those three and they had a blast running around enjoying the lights. We all did very much enjoy the time. Here is a pic of us, of course it was hard to keep Avery on target with taking a picture, way to much to do and not enough time to do it. We had a great time though and have made it a tradition for our families to enjoy together.

We arrived home yesterday from our little family vacation. What a trip it was, of course we didn't really go that far from home but still got to enjoy ourselves. Carthage is a nice city and the Precious Moments is beautiful, though i can tell its fading a little. We got to paint some figurines. Holly's and Avery's looked very diffrent. You can see Avery had fun with the one they gave daddy. She is also into this teeth bearing smile these days. She does know what smile for the camera is though.

We also enjoyed a light display at a local monestary which was rather fun. They had everything up to the birth of Jesus, however they left out the most important thing which we noticed was odd. There was no cross or any mention of Him dying for our sins and being raised again. The stories portrayed in the lights were great, but they lacked the vital piece.

We had a silent auction of figurines and bingo. Avery caused such a chaotic time in bingo i finally had to drag her out. One of the guys in charge handed us a figurine on the way out. Its called Rasin' Cane on the Holiday's. Its adorable and it seemed to fit right. Avery had a good time with Mommy and daddy all weekend and will not enjoy going back to school today, but alas she must.

So just a couple more weeks till Holly's birthday and Christmas are here. Hard to believe how fast time goes but we always look forward to this time of year, lots of good times ahead. Even with the world as crazy as it is we have each other.

Morning and welcome to Carthage MO! Home of the Precious Moments and Chapel. We left Hollys Christmas party last night and hit the road for a much needed vacation. So Avery, Hol, and daddy are enjoying some time away and time to relax. This morning we woke up and got breakfast and that is about where we are at this point. Today we have several things we plan to do, but the most important part is to have fun and enjoy this weekend away from all the choas of life.

Avery, ever growing and learning new things. She is quite the lady. Last night she learned to walk backwards at walmart, not sure if she already knew how, but its a first for us to see it! She doesn't do well with shopping since she wants to be all about running and throwing everything she can into the cart! Still our little lady. Here she is in her birthday dress. Hard to believe Thanksgiving is tommrow. We will have more photos for you to see then i am sure.

Avery and her third Halloween! Cannot believe how fast time goes by. Here we have our baby girl in her OSU outfit, sparkling of course. She was a bit nervous about the whole going to peoples houses and getting candy from them until she realized these people were handing her bowls of CANDY! So of course she liked it after that point, only made it to a few houses though before we were all tired out. Good though, we didnt get any trick or treaters at our own house. So we have a lot of left overs! Oy.

Another bit of excitment is that our little one is working on potty training and doing a great job at the process. She has already gone several times in the big toliet like mommy and daddy and knows how to tell us she is ready to go. Hard to believe but we know our little Avery is brilliant beyond her years! Our little princess :) We love her so much.

A week goes by faster than we ever expect it to. And as soon as another Sunday morning gets here i think about how the past week just flew and now its another week to begin. It was a good week though. We all have been busy. But for starters lets recap since i have not posted since before the birthday!

Avery had a blast of course with all the games and active fun. We started off with the games which we had two good ones to play. I had to herd the children away from the presents they were all eager to open and get them outside for a Thomas the Train pinata. It was one of those where you pull the strings and the candy falls out. It was fun. Then we played pin the number on the train engine which of course was another Train game. Somehow our lady bug theme was altered into a train theme. But its okay. Holly did make some adorable head band lady bug attenas for the kids. After games we went in for cake and presents! This time we did not have Avery tear through her own cake, she got to blow out the candle though.

She made off with a lot of clothes and toys as all children do after a birthday. There were so many guests, family and friends. We had a great time and Avery enjoyed her presents greatly. Still is too, of course the house has not recovered from the chaos just yet!

The week went by pretty fast along the way it always does. Thursday we went to a great Christian concert which was a lot of fun. I cant wait to take Avery to those someday. When she gets older it will be the right time. Then this weekend we had our family pictures done which i will share once they are ready. And today after Church we will carve the pumpkin! Sould be fun.

This morning two years ago, we were all filed with such excitment and anticipation for Avery's arrival into this world. Little did we know how much was on its way. Not only with the extended stay and anguish waiting for her to be well enough to go home, but with everything that has come since. This morning as i look at my little princess sleeping peacefully, all i can think about is how wonderful our Lord is for keeping her and making her better. She came out sick and had to be given air and food through tubes for so many days before she finally got better. Oh she did of course recover quickly and i said then what i know even better now, she is a tough kid and a fighter through and through. Still it was the worst kind of pain anyone could ever go through. I feel deeply for all of those little ones still there. We know the Lord is with each and every one of them.

So it is wonderful to Praise God on this Sunday morning and Avery's second birthday. Last night Hol and I stayed up and wrapped all her gifts from us, and from family out in California. She has a lot already which will be added to tommrow. I cant wait to get pictures! This kid has more pictures then anyone. I just havent gotten around to printing them like i should. Pappa Jim and grandma Joey came by for dinner last night and brought their gift. Its a little playset slide and whole thing. It has a basketball hoop too. She loves it of course. Its important with all the gifts she is getting to understand its more important that she has people in her life that love her then anything. We should be looking forward to family and friends celebrating more than anything. She is so wonderful and God is wonderful for blessing us with her.

We are ready with her lady bug slash thomas the train engine birthday party. Seems we have bought just a few things like a pinnata, and pin the number on the train engine. Anyway its all cute stuff, cant wait! Its going to be a fun day for Avery.

Birthday madness! With all the planning we are doing it still seems like there is more to do then we have time for at this point. Between the ballons, decor, gifts to wrap, and of course the house to clean. We just spent last week cleaning and now we have to do it again. The irony is keeping the house clean is pretty much the same kind of work i do all day anyway. Except i focus more on receiving parts and getting them to different assembly areas. But just the sames its all about putting things away. Avery is going to have the best birthday, should be fun for all. Seems like the list keeps growing of who will be there. A lot of kids of course, we have that to look forward to. Children are so much fun, they always have something to say. Avery with her cute little baby voice is learning new things everyday. I cant wait to give her all her wonderful toys and see what else she gets. Look forward to Sunday.

Avery had her first fall festival pumpkin patch and hey ride experience this past Saturday! We had a blast. It was daddys first hay ride too for that matter. Avery loved running around through the grass and finding her pumpkin. She is growing so fast and we cant wait for her birthday Sunday. Its ladybug theme. However she loves Thomas the Train Engine so much it would have almost been a better one. We will have to do that next year!

Adventures in the grocery store. I took Avery to get some food items we need at home, just me and the little one. Since she did not want to get in the cart i offered to push her around in one of those little kiddie carts shapped like the front of a car with a smaller basket. She enjoyed being pushed around. Though after a short while she decided she would have more fun getting out of the car and pushing it, then after she had it good and rolling she would jump back in. I am not sure but mommy thinks she is practing how to hot wire a car, a little early for grand theft auto. Anyway she was adorable as always. No pictures of this one though since for once i didnt have the camera.

Avery had moved up to the next room at her daycare. We have noticed since that change, we have a daugther who comes home with dirt in the strangest places. I guess she gets out into the sand more now and is learning how to potty train. Not that she is quite there yet, but she knows about it at least. The other problem we have had since moving her into a toddler bed is not being able to keep her in her room. No matter how tired she is once i lay her down on her bed she starts crying her head off and running into our room. Its so hard to not give in and let her sleep in the big bed. But its bad for her and she needs to learn. She climbs the gates i have put up so i really do not know what i should try. We will see what is ahead.

We bought a new computer which has the latest system on it so its pretty cool. I just like having a new system finally it seems like its been a while. I woudnt mind getting the other one fixed still but i wont make it a priority. At any rate its time for sleep so i will be getting to it now.

I turned 27 yesterday! I don't really feel too much older. Its good though to have a birthday every so often to remind you how precious life is. Life and people in it of course family and friends. I have my loving wonderful wife and daugther. They went through a lot of trouble getting a hold of the Kids Left Behind Audio Drama. Apparently it is out of print so they had to go through a website that sells out of print material. With the help of my sister in law and her hubby they got them downloaded to CD's. We pay for copyrights and everything. Its just so awesome i have wanted to listen to them for a long time. I never finished reading the kids series and since i have so much driving time, it works out great. Im going to start this morning! Avery also bought daddy a backpack for school since he needed a new one. The colorful bag just wouldnt do! I got a few other things and family came over to celebrate. All in all good. Other than the stomach flu but this morning i feel much better so I am going to enjoy a lot of cookie cake. Holly had them put an Ace of Spade's card on the cookie cake! Makes me smile. Wish we could get out to California and visit everyone. Well the time will come soon enough. For now we have the weekend ahead and a new job for Holly come Monday. So more stress to begin.

I finished Matthew in my Word of Truth and will begin James on Monday. I have been listening to the book in my car so i would have a general taste of it, now its time to start going through it more. Im off to get ready for the day...

Those words have finally left my mouth. Not only the words but the whole standing in the hall way pointing toward the room and expecting my daugther to walk her own two feet down and sit on her floor. Temper tantrums are not good, but they do happen. We have a kid of our own running around here now. After Church today she was holding her little frog and growling, makes me wonder what boy she hung out with at sunday school. Too adorable though, even if i had to send her to her room for time out. She came out on her own later and better behaved, for Avery. I bought her a new pet net to throw her animal toys into, its pretty heavy. Momma and daddy are so very loved. She gets so excited to see us, throws her arms around our necks, gives lots of kisses and just enjoys us so much. I love my daugther!

A new week begins, i believe my ninth week at my new job. Its actually working out nice, i enjoy walking around stocking, storying, logging all the material that comes in. Sure its a lot to do, but its all good. Plus i get home at a good time of night and actually see my family. Except for my class night and my Saturday class as well. I am talking Operating systems midweek and Strategies for Technical Proffessionals on Saturday. I am remembering how much work college life really is. I did it for five years, still it seems like its more. I was also madly in love with my new girlfriend which eventually became my wife. So i think i spent my first few years of college on cloud nine. Now i have Avery along with my Holly, so is there a cloud way above nine somewhere... I am there.

We went to a partnership class last night at the Pastor's house. It is all a part of our Church trying to get the people to know the church and what things about about. Its important to be a family of believers working in the community to serve. I like it a lot, everything about the church. Now its morning and my new day is starting. Holly is off this week in preparation for her new job which starts next Monday. Other than that, i turn 27 in a few days! Anyhow i best be getting ready now.

Exciting weekend for us all. We finally had our vacation and enjoyed a little time away. Since we are in the middle of so much job change and life stress it was a good plan to get away. So we left Avery with Grandma Joey and headed out to Branson. Holly and I were able to celebrate out five year anniversary, a few months late but still. We went to Silver Dollar city, got rained on, went shopping, saw a very funny Russian comedian. We also went to the Showboat, took a tour of the Titanic museam. So much to see so little time. All in all a great weekend. Avery had a lot of fun as well, she had her nails painted, made cookies, played in the yard, and started sleeping in a toddler bed. Our little darling is growing up so fast. Now we are here onto a new week and see what is in store.