A year of putting down roots!

At 6:30pm we poured the sparkling grape juice, passed out cups of M n M's and party horns, and watched last year's New Year's Eve countdown on Youtube.  We ran around outside screaming HAPPY NEW YEAR and then my kiddos were in bed by 7:30!  I'm hoping they'll sleep through the actual ringing in of the new year, but it's unlikely with all the fireworks!  Either way, I'm glad we celebrated early and got a few good hours of sleep in before the fireworks begin.  My five and four year old just aren't ready to party til midnight.  (Neither am I for that matter!)

Andy has been gone for five days now and we are all eager to get him home tomorrow!  God has provided for me through friends from church. I've had play dates and help putting kids to bed and friends to cook for us and friends to spend the night with me.  I got a break and sat by a lake for an hour!   And I even had a stranger buy my groceries...which is a post of it's own!  I'm so grateful for how well it went...cause let's face it,  I AM NOT GOOD AT SINGLE PARENTING!!! I get frazzled and angry and overwhelmed.  Much help was needed and much help was provided!!!  The Lord was very kind to me.  

I've been thinking about this past year and it's been a year of putting down roots.  2012 was our first full year in our house.  It was first full year as members of our church.  It was Andy's first full year at his new job.

Andy working, well sorta

 It was our first year to have a season pool pass and to attend all the town's holiday events-The Easter Egg Hunt (which involves a helicopter and marshmellows!), Fourth of July Fireworks, and The Santa Drive By (which involves getting pelted with peppermints!) 

My very pregnant Fourth of July with the Aragones Family!

Marshmellows for Easter with the Wilhoits! 

 It was a complete year-and God has richly blessed us with friends this year.  We are known and loved.  We have friends over for lunch after church and friends who babysit our kids and neighbors we carpool to school with. 

Silliness at our Christmas Party with our Gospel Community

We love our little school

 In 2012 we were able to get the 4 plus years worth of leaves off our lawn so that grass can begin to grow.  That was upwards of a 70 bags of raked leaves.  Things are taking shape and we are starting to have a yard and a life here.  Through it all, God has been faithful.  From the days of intense transition where everything was in chaos to our more settled and normal life this year, he continues to show us his heart of love for us.    We were given a grapefruit tree recently and I think it will always remind me that as 2012 was the year it took root in our yard, so it was the year our family began to take root in this town.  

 My favorite moment of the year was having a baby!!!  Judah is precious and I am so thankful for him.  He seems like he's going to be a fun kid.

Blessed with two healthy boys!  

And I have loved how I am learning to walk with the Lord this year.  Deeper trust in him. Seeing how much I need him and learning to look away from myself and look to him for what I need.  The wreath above my desk says "abide."  That was my word this year-to abide, or hide myself in his love for me!  And as I have done that, I have experienced great joy this year.   There have been some really hard things this year for us, and I am so thankful for how he is shown me his deep love and commitment for me, in the midst of those hard things! There has been real joy in connecting with him, especially in the midst of the harder parts of our life.  So I can walk confidently into 2013, knowing he will walk with me, no matter what the year holds! 

Enter Beth

We've had the pleasure of hosting this sweet friend for a couple of months now!  Beth moved in with us in October and will be staying til February 24th-we're counting down the days  til then (notice the countdown chain above her door)...  But not because we want her to leave but because on February 24th SHE'S GETTING MARRIED!!!

Danny and Beth are in our small group from church and we are really excited for them to start their life together soon!  She's a delight to have in our home and hopefully our chaos isn't too much for her.???   The kiddos really love her and I love hearing them say things like, "Ms. Beth is a part of our family too!"  I'm so thankful for the body of Christ and how we can love and serve one another.

As a busy mom of three, I've been thankful for moments to connect with her over doing my regular job-cooking, folding laundry, helping my kiddos.  It's hard to get to know new people well at this stage in my life when so much of my time goes to my family, so having her in our home has been a treat for me.  So thankful for her.  With each chain we take off her door, we're praying God would bless their marriage and their future together and draw them to himself and each other everyday of their lives!

Merry Christmas Indeed!

Merry Christmas from the Huffmans!  This year we decided to stay home so we were far from those we love most. We love being in our home and enjoying our family's traditions, but it also leaves an ache in my heart not to be in North Carolina or West Virginia.

In the morning we enjoyed some really fun family time with Nerf guns and a baby stroller as the big hits for the morning.  We continue to make good use out of the second-hand china cabinet we bought from a family friend.  While the bottom half is still home to all of our craft supplies, the top half has now been converted into a target board!  There are Nerf darts all over the cabinet and my house!   As we love to do on Christmas, Andy and I got up early and enjoyed some quiet with the Lord before the day got rolling.  That's definitely my favorite part of the day.  In the afternoon and evening, we spent time with some friends from church as well as some Chinese friends.  Waffles, Wassail, and Wii.  (which was hard for our Chinese friends to pronounce!)  It was really good to be with people we love here.

This was maybe my favorite Christmas ever.  Not so much because of the day itself, though it was fun.    But mainly because this season gives me reason to really reflect on  the Christmas story.  And my heart needs to be reminded of the reason I can celebrate.  With each passing year, the meaning of Christmas becomes clearer and richer and deeper to me.  This week, I've been thinking about the phrase in 2 Corinthians, that says, "sorrowful yet always rejoicing."  I think it best describes how Christians in the world are supposed to live.  It's a description of our pilgrimage on this earth that touches both the pain of living in a fallen world and the HOPE we have in Christ.

Sorrowful-I do not need to look farther than my own heart to see the damage my sin causes.  And if I look a little father outside myself, to those around me, I see the pain and bitterness of living in a fallen world, where friends  and family are grieving losses this year,  unspeakable pain of losing children, battling things like spina bifida, being unemployed, losing beloved pets, pain from broken relationships.   The world I live in is broken.  I've been thinking a lot about the passage that says, the WHOLE CREATION is groaning, eagerly awaiting it's redemption. .  We too await our adoption as sons and the redemption of our bodies.  It's so true that every aspect of creation is subject to death, until something undoes that...

The reason we can and SHOULD celebrate on this day is because Jesus came into the fallen, broken, sinful world to change everything.  He has undone what our sin has done.  "The weary world rejoices!"  We are weary from the affects of sin but he has come to save us!  We can rejoice!!!    I have real hope and joy in this world, not because I pretend the pain isn't there but by looking it square in the face and seeing the Savior who has overcome all of it.  This is why we rejoice!!!    And Christ is with me, each day, speaking his love to me, guiding me, reminding me of the forgiveness I have in him and the welcome I have with the Father because of him!

So for now, I live as one sorrowful, yet always rejoicing.  And on Christmas we can take time to really celebrate for we have a great hope-Christ with us today, and the promise of the day when every knee will bow to him and when he will wipe away every tear from our eyes!

MERRY MERRY CHRISTMAS INDEED!

Trying to catch up!

Trying to do some retro blogging over the next week so scroll down to see some late in coming posts from November and December!

Grandparent Love

 My kiddos L O V E their grandparents! Lots of homemade goodies from Emma Grace to go around this year! 

WE HEART YOU, Tim and Kathi! 

Candy, Candy Canes, Candy Corn, and SYRUP!!!

 We had a really fun visit with Tim and Kathi this past week and we celebrated both Jack's birthday and Christmas.  It was a weekend full of the four basic food groups (according to Elf and to Jack): Candy, candy canes, candy corn, and syrup!  Syrup on his breakfast waffles, lots of candy and candy canes for the ginger bread houses and then Jack rummaged through the Halloween stash and dug out some candy corn.  The food pyramid was complete.  (Read:  eating vegetables and healthy food happens at our home, some participate in vegetable consumption willingly...others by force) 

I was sooo soo glad Kathi and I worked together on the Gingerbread houses.  2 kids and a lot of icing is stressful on just one adult.  But with two it was really fiun.  EG covered a gingerbread man in frosting and said he was "Frosting the Snowman."  She definitely gets her silly humor from her dad who loves play-on-word kind of jokes. 

I kept the icing for a week just in case we needed repairs and the day I threw it away, the roof collapsed on Emma Grace's house.  Oh well.  It was fun for a week! 

Happy Birthday Jack

"J    A    C    K 3 that's me" is now a four year old!  We had several celebrations along the way. First a birthday breakfast with Tim and Kathi...

 Then a family breakfast birthday celebration on his actual birthday

 And a birthday dinner with our dear friends, the Wilhoits! 

Happy Birthday J A C K 4!  You are so loved.  This year you learned to swim, to use the potty (swimming with no life jacket actually came before learning to use the potty...you're just really athletic and your mom is a slacker...thus the order of those) and you learned to ride your bike with no training wheels!  You are learning your letter sounds now and I have a hunch you'll be reading this time next year.  I've enjoyed watching your friendships develop.  You're a kind friend and God has given you a generous and loving heart.  My deep prayer for you, sweet Jack, is that you would trust in Jesus and that he would grow you, year by year, into the man he wants you to be.    He loves you.  He sees you.  And he gave his life so that you can truly live.  Happy Birthday to my oldest son, a boy who brings  much delight to his momma! 

long lost Judah

This post may or may not be in response to pressure from one of my BFFs to get some new pics up of Judah.  (By the way, EG loves to use the acronym BFF.  She says it stands for "very best friend".  We're still working on our letters, as you can tell!  She walks around the house saying, "BFF, very best friend, BFF very best friend."  Now Jack has started as well)

Life is fast these days, way too fast for me.  When I look back the four months we've had Judah, I'm amazed at all we've done since his birth...no wonder I'm tired and my blog has seriously taken a back seat.  Andy and I are really hoping for some slower days and we're trying to rework some things to slow down our pace of life...but I also think having three kids is JUST A LOT...in a good way...but it's busy busy.  I think we thought we could just keep going on with life like nothing had changed and now we're four months in to life with three and realizing that's not really feasible at all!  We tend to learn by mistakes, me and Andy.  Oh well.  So for my BFF who requested these, here ya go!  Sorry so they're so late in coming.

Isn't he cute?  He's fun, really fun.  And LOUD!!!  He squeals all the time.  He's strong too.  Trying to sit up these days.  And he still loves to snuggle with me for a part of night.  That's how we roll these days. 

Maybe I'll get back to the blog before 2013.  We'll see. 

It's beginning to look a lot....

We got back from North Carolina and we were READY to decorate for Christmas!  Here's Emma Grace setting up our Navity Scene, handmade by women in our city in China.  Such a treasure to our family.  

 And the kiddos opened their ornaments for the year!

 This year we chose something other than an ornament representing where we live!  (Each of the past for Christmases have been in different locations!) We were thankful that 2012 included no moves! Our theme this year was about who God has created each of these little ones to be!

 We chose a cowboy for Jack, as he LOVES to dress up like a cowboy.  Most days he can be found sporting cowboy boots and a cowboy hat.  Like a cowboy, this little guy loves adventure and risk!  I love this guy in his boots and hat.  Oh I hope he doesn't outgrow them too soon!

 And our Grapey Girl-she's fancy and girly and loves all things pink.  Ballerina slippers for our little dancer girl!  She's dancing this year at the most precious little dance academy.  She's learning about glorifying God with the arts.  And she was made to be an artist!  We tell her The Designer designed her to design!

 And for his first Christmas with us, Judah got a lion.  This is less about his unique personality, which we are excited to discover, and more about his name and our prayer for him.  His name means praise and it's also the family name of the tribe that Jesus was born out of.  Jesus is referred to as the Lion of Judah.  HE IS OUR CONQUERING KING!!  Judah, your name constantly reminds me to praise the Lord.  He is so very very kind to his creation.  And his kindness is seen most clearly in sending the Lion of Judah to give his life up, like a sacrificial lamb, for us.  He's the Lion and the Lamb.  It's our prayer that all of our kiddos will trust in the Lion of Judah, Jesus Christ!

 This little trees holds all our super special ornaments and here is Jackie boy decorating our big tree!

 Danny and Beth were around to help too.  Definitely fun to include them in this time.  We got an ornament for them as well, as they are becoming like family!  A funky bird and a burlap star for them...they are funky like that and we are enjoying getting to know them.

Looking forward to this Christmas season!

Women I Love

The Backyardigans

There's a lot of fun to be had in a back yard like this!  

 We enjoyed a lot of good time with Mom and Danny over Thanksgiving, as well as catching up with other NC family and friends.  I neglected to take any photos of said fun.  But here are a few my Aunt and Mom took!

North Carolina Fun

Growing up with a cousin only 6 months older than me was awesome.  Rednecks (like us) say "cuz" instead of cousin.  While we were in NC, my Emma Grace got a taste of how I grew up...in the country with cousins!  We loved our time with Brandi and her crew...just wish we lived closer!  

I taught the girls about doing cheers, like Brandi and I used to do!  I decided not to include photos of me jumping on the trampoline and subsequently peeing in my pants!  Those moments will just have to be treasured in our hearts, Brandi!!!!  I LOVE YOU...and your girls!!