New Years in Texas

Saturday we headed down to the wonderfully warm state of Texas to visit Brian, Leann & Landon and meet with a doc at Lackland Air Force Base. Considering it was freezing with a foot of snow in Denver, we acclimated well to the 70 degree weather. Our favorite activity of the weekend was the "African Safari" we went on. I have seen nothing like it! Not too far from New Braunfels, there is a Wilderness area that we drove through that has African wildlife like African antelope, zebras, ostriches, cape buffalo, a rhino, etc. and of course a Texas longhorn. ( I took some pics for Sam, Joni) The zebras were hilarious! One came up to Brian's window and tried to stick his mouth in and then before we knew it another one was trying to stick his mouth in on our side of the van. As we tried to roll up the window, his horselike mouth almost got stuck. Who knew zebras were so friendly?

We also enjoyed the town of Gruene, the oldest dance hall in Texas, home of George Strait (correct me Leann if I'm wrong) and a really cute town.

Though we started on a medical note with Landon being sick and Leann cutting herself pretty bad on a food processor blade, we had a blast. Brian and Leann were so gracious and spoiled us with breakfast and dinner everyday (except for visiting their Thai friends and having them make us dinner:)) Now real life starts...no more family visits for a while and no more 70 degree weather.

Christmas Pics

I wanted to blog some fun Christmas pictures. We had a great time with lil' Santa, Bethany (and Mike) making a snowman, hanging out and visiting the salt mine in Hutchinson. We are holding salt we "mined". What a wonderful Christmas!

Merry Christmas

Oh man, I really wanted to post pictures of our fun Christmas weekend in Kansas, but left my camera there. I love hanging out with family! We mostly hung out, ate wonderful food and played some games. Mom and dad babysat while Brian, Leann, Mike, Tina and us went to tour the Salt Mines. It was interesting going 650 ft. below the ground and learning about what is stored in the mines as well as how they mine. We enjoyed Christmas...watching the kiddos get excited about their gifts. Tina and I tried to play Christmas "duets" on piano, but I think everyone was tired of hearing us:) Our newest nephew is adorable. He was Santa this year with his costume. We had so much fun with all of the nieces and nephews! Wish we didn't have somewhat blizzard driving conditions coming home and wish Christmas was not over already!

Celebrating the season

We haven't blogged for a little while, because we have been busy enjoying the season. I guess busy is the operative word. A week ago we went to see "White Christmas" at the Denver Performing Arts Theatre. It was amazing! The actors/actresses dressed in fur with snow falling from ceiling in the whole theatre as well as LOTS of snow falling outside, too. White Christmas was the first movie we watched together.

This last week Paul's parents visited. As always, we had fun visiting antique shops and Paul's dad took a stain glass class and made a beautiful bowl. We enjoyed seeing the lights at the Botanicals, too.

Saturday I had my wonderful "brunch bunch" over (friends from college and surrounding area) and we had a great time talking and catching up. So cozy to spend time with friends and family this time of year especially.

Winter Wonderland

This weekend we experienced December's winter wonderland in the mountains. Our neighbors, Jenn & Mike and us went up to the mountains and enjoyed skiing, scrapbooking and hiking through the snow. I even learned how to cook vegan. We had a great time and we are so glad for wonderful neighbor friends!

His Page

Lately my prayer has been that Paul and my desires would be the same as God's. I know He says, "My ways are not your ways", but I want to be on the same page with God especially regarding children. As we have walked out decisions regarding building our family, I feel like we have walked it out "His way" and let Him guide us, yet nothing comes to fruition. Last night I was truly discouraged with it all and cried out to Him again to show us His ways!
This morning Paul turned the radio on to Focus on the Family and there were guests from Global Action, a ministry to orphans. They were talking about the horrible conditions orphans live in in India. Kids live literally in the dumps with swollen bellies and lice bitten faces. These guests have gone in and started a Hope Center for orphaned children as well as recruited Indian couples to take these children in as their own. As Paul and I listened to this this morning, we were both teary-eyed. It has taken all of this brokenness in our lives to start to get on the same page as Jesus' heart. We became so excited for the years to come, in a little over 2 years Paul will probably be retired from the Air Force and we can be a part of ministry to orphans like this! Yes, God has heard our prayers for a family, but I think he has heard the cries of his orphan children as well and will do what it takes to get us out of our comfy cozy home and change our thought processes to be more in line with His. Thank you, Lord, for letting us go through this pain of wanting something so bad, so that our hearts will be broken to see your bigger picture.

Thanksgiving with the Houge Crew

What a fun celebration weekend we had with Paul's fam in Minnesota. We have 11 Houge nieces and nephews and they are all growing up! oh my! I haven't been to Minnesota since last New Year's and in the meantime Austin's (6th grader) voice has changed and he is quite the hockey player. We got to see him play on Friday. The 2 year olds, Greta, Noah & Cole are little talkers. Lauren and John are amazing swimmers and I didn't even recognize Madison...I thought she was her older sister. Needless to say, it was a great trip catching up with everyone. I even met a lot of Paul's cousins. I wish miles didn't keep us so far away. Pictured is Greta, our Goddaughter.