I just love this picture! I got a great underwater shot of Sara and tweaked the colors a bit (obviously).

Okay, so I've been officially chastized for not posting... It's a new year, so I'm starting off on a new foot.

Last year was great!! Finalizing the adoption, getting new dogs, celebrating 10 years of marriage, starting a new ministry, and seeing a good friend FINALLY get married are jst a few of the year's highlights! I'll include some pics, don't worry.

I hope this year is great for you all!! May God use us all to His glory daily!

Here are our two cute pirates!

This is Annie...

and Otis (Odie)

Here is Jim & Patricia leaving their wedding... I love the reflections off of the bubbles.

One day closer...

For those of you who have not checked out "Little Lincoln's Blog", you should. He is the son of some great friends of ours. And he has been through a lot in his short life. I won't go into all the details (as you can see everything for yourself on their blog), but a couple of surgeries and a heart transplant later... He is proof that God has things quite in control!!

It is amazing how God sets things into motion (and lets us think we did it) to reveal His glory in His perfect time! I have had the wonderful blessing of being surrounded by christians at nearly every job I have had. At my current job, however, I work with non-christians and have an opportunity to witness to them. And it seems amazing to me that God has placed me here at this job, now, at a time when I really feel God is calling me to be bold about my faith.

I've never been one that denied his faith, or tried to hide my beliefs. It is just that I feel a nudge to be more outspoken, to see those around me as people that God wants to save just the same as He did for me. It is all about changing my perspective to be more eternal. To see all that really matters is people's hearts and souls. Not what they think of me, whether or not I get embarrassed, none of that matters.

Now, I realize none of this is revolutionary or even novel. It just seems that God's proverbial 2x4 has finally penetrated my thick skull. I was doing some research this week and ran into a hymn I hadn't sung in years, but was hit by the reminders within that speak to where I am right now... Enjoy

Be still, my soul--The Lord is on thy side!
Bear patiently the cross of grief or pain;
Leave to thy God to order and provide.
In ev'ry change He faithful will remain.
Be still, my soul--Thy best, thy heav'nly Friend
Thru thorny ways leads to a joyful end.

Be still, my soul! thy God doth undertake
To guide the future as he has the past.
Thy hope, thy confidence let nothing shake;
All now mysterious shall be bright at last.
Be still, my soul! the waves and winds still know
His voice who ruled them while He dwelt below.

Be still, my soul! the hour is hastening on
When we shall be forever with the Lord,
When disappointment, grief, and fear are gone,
Sorrow forgot, love's purest joys restored.
Be still, my soul! when change and tears are past,
All safe and blessed we shall meet at last.

Have a great day!!

ODC

So, I start with a picture of the kids with their cousins, Ellie and Clark. They got matching pajamas for Christmas and love to wear them when they get together.

Yeah, yeah, I know I haven't blogged in forever. But who really has the time? Well, okay there are millions who make time for it... I do think it is a great way to communicate with those you might not get to otherwise, I just don't want to make that much time to do it. I love my family, I love my job, and everything else seems to fight for the remainder of my time.

I spent some time today reading the blogs of friends I have not talked to in probably a decade. I miss old friends... Isn't funny how a smell or a picture can bring back a flood of memories that are just as real as they happened yesterday? I am glad to see where God has placed me and to see some purpose behind each placement in my life. Each step along the way preparing me for what He has laid out ahead of me. How great He truly is!!

I've decided to take a new step with this blog. I am going to use shate how God is working in my life. If He is truly as big a part of my life as I claim Him to be, I want to share it with the world!!
So here goes nothing:

God's Hand is in EVERYTHING!!

I've known this for a long time. Pretty much my entire life. My parents, my grandparents, and countless others have told me this... I see it as I read His word. Yet, sometimes I forget it. God is sovereign. He is in control. He knows the big picture. I don't. I act like it sometimes, but man am I wrong. Even when you don't see it, God is putting things together in your life to lead you where He wants you to be. I am constantly amazed at how God is orchestrating things together for His glory.

Well, I am going to get going. We'll see how how God hits me next.

ODC

So, trying to put all of the pictures that we have is just not going to happen. We take a lot of pictures... Any way, a couple of weeks ago we went to a llama farm with some friends to pick pomegranates. We went with some friends that Kim teaches with in Caruthers.

A baby llama was just born the day before we visited, so we got to get up close and personal with the little guy. He was quite a cutie!!
I love this picture of Sara, her face is hilarious!! Not sure what she's thinking.

We have cute kids!! I love pictures of them!!! Here are the rest of us who went. From the left are Diane, Sharon, Lanette, Craig and Matt.

Kellen and Alena and kids semi pose for a picture.


That's all for now. In the next few days I'll post from our Thanksgiving trip to Morgan Hill/Gilroy with Kim's family. See you all later.

So, here are the pictures from the events I started listing off in the last blog... I can't figure out how to put more than eight or so pics in a blog, so I'll break them up.

We went to a 4th of July fireworks display in Clovis... it was a lot of fun!


The next week we went camping in Morgan Hill, with daytrips to Monterey and Santa Cruz

Well, June and July were crazy fun summer months!! We went to a Fresno Grizzly's game (AAA club for the Giants), went camping, visited family in SoCal, and tried to do some relaxing at home.

Here are the kids dancing!

Here are just some fun pictures from the house:





My Cute Cheeseheads!!!! They love playing dress up!!

Memorial Day weekend, we went to my (Matt) folk's house in Auburn and celebrated all of the grandkids birthdays. Nate and Melissa's two share a birthday on the 31st of May (one year apart) and with our kids being twins, my parents have four grandkids with only two birthdays! Here are some pictures of the party and kids...




As you can see by the pictures, we had two parties in one. Princesses for the girls and Superman for the boys. They all got dressed up (if you can call Superman pajamas dressing up) for the party and we had a slip'n'slide afterward.


I love the picture of all four of them waiting to use the slip'n'slide. They are so cute!!


My parents also got bikes for the kids... We opted to leave those at home and let them have them after the party.

Here are some pictures of the kids from the last few months... I'll start with the older ones and post the newer ones in groups.

The first one is the two of them with Emily and Claire (Kim's brother Jeff's daughters) at the Easter Egg Hunt.

We had fun dyeing Easter eggs with them. They had never done this before, so it was a lot of laughing and amazement!!

Well, we've done it... We now have our own blog! Our family has doubled this year with the edition of seven-year old twins!! We are very excited to see what God has planned for our little family. For those of you who might not know the story, let me fill you in...

Kim and I decided to head down the road to adoption about a year and a half ago. We started the lengthy process that CA requires for adoption (classes, fingerprints, background checks, home studies). As we were beginning, our dishwasher leaked which ruined the flooring in the kitchen, dining area, and entry way. So, being as we were getting new floors, we decided to get new kitchen cabinets first... :-) Oh my! Well, we finally finished (enough for the state of CA any way) and were cleared to have kids in our house. This all culminated at the beginning of April, the end of tax season for me. We were thinking we would have some time to finish up a few little things before being introduced to prospective kids, but God's timing is very different from ours... We ended up meeting the kids on the 8th of April and bringing them into our home on the 14th!

Their names are Selina and Mateo... (You may notice his nametag says "Diego", we have since changed his name.) This is a picture of them at the Easter Egg Hunt at our church the day before Easter.

We have had a blast with them the last four months!! As time allows, I hope to have pictures from the last few months up, so you can see just how cute they are!!

Leave us a comment or drop us an email, we would love to hear from you. We hope and pray that all is well with all of you.