Happy New Year!

I should be packing right now because we are going away to the beach for a whole week!!! I'm very excited. We're going to our friend's beach house with my family for a week of relaxing, reading, playing, beach combing, and celebrating Mom's Birthday. I'm hoping to have Internet out there so I can post. If not, I'll be back on Friday! Happy New Year!

SuperMillers

As I was writing that last post and bragging to Ryan about how big my blogroll was getting, I got an email from Chris and Angela saying they have started a family blog! You have to check it out to see the adorable pictures of new little baby Truitt!

Lest Old Acquantaince Be Forgot. . .

I recently found an old friend of mine on Facebook. Molly and I were best buds in third and fourth grade. I still remember her Mom's homemade frozen applesauce, our many discussions about Anne of Green Gables and of course crushing over Bo Duke! I remember the sadness of returning to school after Christmas break and finding out that her Father had passed away. She was a great friend, but over the years we had completely lost touch, until now! It is very surreal to read her blog and see my little girl friend as a Mom and a Wife, and from what I hear a prolific writer! Here's to old acquaintances renewed!

Rylieisms

"I know that's a girl because she has eyelashes, boys don't have eyelashes."

"My ears don't have eyelashes."

Rylie: "This music is old."

Ryan: "But it's good music."

Rylie: "But it's OLD."

Ryan: "Are we having this battle allready?!"

"But, I wanted to be Jesus!" What she yelled out in the middle of the night.

Truitt is here!

Our friends, Chris and Angela had their precious baby boy this morning! Truitt James was born at 7:48 am, he was 7lbs, 14 oz and 21 inches! His body temprature was low as well as his blood sugar so he's been under the heat lamp and had to have some Similac. He is stable now. We were able to go see him this evening and give him all our snuggles! Welcome to our church family Truitt and congratulations Chris, Angela, and Keegan!

Christmas

I was going to write a deeply moving profound post for Christmas, but never got around to it, what with four Christmases in two days! (That, and the lack of profoundness in my Mommy brain!)

Christmas started on Christmas Eve morning. This was the only time we had to have our own family Christmas. It started with Ryan making us our new traditional Christmas waffles, then the retelling of the Christmas story so that we would remember that it is really all about Jesus' birthday! After that came presents. This was the first year that Rylie could open her own gifts and really understand what was going on. It was also the first year that we took her shopping and let her pick out presents for us. (I got a bright pink stuffed pig!) We had a lot of fun and a special family time (and I got an Ipod! Rylie got a princess "Ipod" as well but decided she liked mine better so she pulled my headphones out and plugged hers in. I never thought my Ipod would get jacked by my two year old!)

That evening we had my family Christmas at my parents. My "adopted" Grandma Pat was also able to come, which made it even more special. We have a few traditions that we do as a family and then we opened more presents.

After that we went to Ryan's Mom's house and spent the night. Christmas morning the kids woke us up bright and early so they could rush downstairs and open their presents. By the end of it, Rylie was in a little bit of a stupor, tired and overwhelmed by all of the present chaos. Then we had our traditional breakfast of homemade strawberry crepes with whip cream! They are so good, I don't know why we only have them once a year!

That afternoon we went to Ryan's Dad's house (he has his own ranch). Rylie was so excited to see the horses and then even more excited when she got to sit on one! Imagine her excitement after that when her gift from Grandpa Jim was a rocking horse that made horse noises and moved his head and tail (she's named it "Fafa")! We only see Ryan's Dad once a year, so Rylie didn't remember him from last year. I was thankful that she wasn't too shy and he could see how adorable she is (I know I'm biased!)

Today we were supposed to go down to Oregon to visit my Aunt, my sister, and then my Grandparents, but after the severe contractions I had last night, we decided it was better to stay home and rest today. My wonderful husband has been doing housecleaning (our house is full of presents!) and taking care of Rylie all day, so I can rest. Thanks hon!

I can't forget to mention that I'm writing this post on my very own laptop! Ryan asked our friend Aaron to put one together for me (he's a computer whiz) for Christmas! I love it! Now I can use it whenever I want, I don't have to wait for him to be done.

Click here to see all of our Christmas pictures!

Leadership Christmas Party

We had our annual Church staff and leadership Christmas party this evening. It is always quite the exciting evening with our gift exchange. We play that you can take gifts from other people which can sometimes get a little rowdy. This year my pride cameth before my fall! Ryan and I sat next to one of Deacon's (Jerry) and his wife (Ginger, who is also on the Women's Ministry Board with me). I have known them since I was probably about ten and they are veteran Christmas party gift exchangers. I thought it would be quite advantageous to make an "alliance" with them so that at the end we would all end up with the gifts we wanted. There were three coveted gifts that received a lot of play. It was us veterans vs. the newbies, a new couple came to our party for the first time and they weren't shy about jumping in and fighting for the same gifts. As the evening wore on, I grew cockier and cockier because my alliance knew what it was doing, these other people were new, they didn't really know the subtleties of the gift exchange. We had it down until the last round and then, crash and burn! The new couple (well, actually just the husband, his wife left to relieve the babysitter so he was playing both of their parts) with the help of another veteran couple, retrieved the coveted gift and I was left to open the gift that I brought to the exchange! A good dose of humility with a lot of laughter thrown in!

Before this materialistic feeding frenzy, my Dad shared a devotional with us that was excellent. He talked about how exhausting it can be at times living the Christian life, especially if you are involved in ministry. He used the phrase, "letting your soul catch up to your body". I have felt like that often! He read us the first few verses of Psalm 23 and reminded us that God is our Shepherd who desires to have intimate time with us and that He will make us lie down in green pastures to get it. He pointed out that the pasture may not seem green to us at the time, but from God's perspective it is green because He knows the good that can come out of any situation. Whatever situation you are in, God is there and He desires you to look to Him and to spend time with Him. He talked about how God leads us to still waters. He likened that to the deep drinking from God's Word. It's opposite of the "read a quick Bible verse and then I'm done" mentality. He challenged us to get alone with God and spend real, quality time with Him, and then our soul will be refreshed. He said this all much more eloquently than I did, but it was a great reminder that I thought should be shared with everyone.