Happy Anniversaries

Happy 37th Anniversary to Kathleen's parents.
Happy 8th Anniversary to Kathleen's brother Stephen and sister-in-law Terri!

Christmas in Oregon

Tuesday night, our friends Eugene and Christie came over to our house and we enjoyed talking to them and catching up with them. We had a lot of fun seeing them and enjoyed hearing how they were doing as well as Abby, their little girl. Christmas Eve we were able to spend with the Finch parents at our house with some delicious steak and mashed potatoes, opening gifts, and checking the status of our flight. Originally our flight was delayed until 9:40, but it continued be drop lower and lower and we finally were able to fly out at 7:00pm (original flight at 5:45pm). Not too bad since some people had their flight cancelled more than one time through the snow storm. God provided in this way for us. We spent Christmas Eve night through Monday morning in Oregon. We had a lot of fun with family, enjoyed the snow, shoveling the snow, playing the Wii (Kathleen's parents even got into after coaxing), and celebrating Kathleen's birthday early with family. We were able to come back Monday morning to Sacramento and be blessed to spend more time with Kathleen's brother, sister-in-law, and two nieces as they stayed at our house Sunday and Monday nights before their final destination of Portland, Oregon (drove from Florida). We were also able to spend our niece's fourth birthday with her. Here are a few pictures of how our long weekend went.

Please Pray...

Andrew and I are in the grieving process right now as we lost a dear friend of ours. Please pray for the family that is grieving and also rejoicing as we know in confidence our friend is in Heaven celebrating with our Father!!! We are extremely thankful for our friend and all that they have done in our lives to honor and glorify God in all that they do! Thank you Father for taking away the pain and allowing this person to be in Heaven to rejoice with you.

Hopeful

2 more days until we are Oregon hopefully! I am checking KGW.com and Weather.com on an hourly basis. I am hoping that Oregon gets there act together and gets more de-icer for the airport. I am hoping Southwest Airlines does not wuss out and cancel our flight. I want to be with my family for Christmas!!!!! =)

No Snow!!!!! =(

So, if you live in Sacramento, California we don't get snow! It isn't very fun to hear from my parents on a daily basis that they are getting more and more snow. I hope by Wednesday evening there is some snow left for us to play in, but not enough to close down the airport or cancel our flight up to Portland! We are praying real hard that we will be able to fly in because we really want to spend Christmas in Oregon!

Too Much Heat!!!!!!

Just received our heating bill.......$145.00!!!!!!!! Ridiculous!!!!!! We don't even have our heat on that much! We keep it at 69/70 degrees. Time to put on more clothes...I guess that means I can't be walking around naked this time of year.

I'm Addicted!

Our friends Bryan and Angeline invited us over a couple Sundays ago to watch a movie at their house which they live about 6.5 minutes away from us. Well, after the movie was over which I fell asleep to, we played on XBOX360. We played this game and it is so awesome! Awesome to the point that I am now addicted. Andrew had points saved up with XBOX360 so he bought the game last week so our friends could play it if they wanted or to feed more of my addiction.

Eight more days until we are Oregon! I am getting excited and I am glad to see all of my family except one brother and his family. But good news....the day we fly back to Sacramento, he will be picking us up from the airport and staying with us that night as they drive back to Oregon from Florida!!!!! =) See you soon family!

Christmas Party, Christmas Party, and Wrapping Party

Andrew and I have been busy the last few days with planning parties and attending these parties.
*Thursday night started off the busy weekend by having two other couples come over for dinner and cookie making. We made three different types of cookies and had fun just decorating cookies and relaxing.
*Friday night is youth group night at our church and since we help out, we were very busy planning. We (with other sponsors) had planned a "Great Snowman Chase" for the students as well as a White Elephant gift exchange all in the same night.
*Last night (Saturday), we had a young couples dinner. The young couples are newly married (3 years or less) and I was the cook once again (which I love)! I love cooking and enjoying having people come together and fellowship. This dinner was at our friend's house, but they let us have control of their kitchen through the day as they ran errands. This was very fun to cook dinner and by the time they got home and the other couples got there, the crock pots were cooking and the food was almost prepared. I made minestrone soup for an appetizer, beef roast with plenty of veggies, and homemade buttermilk biscuits. To top it off we had popcorn balls for dessert.
*Today, we had the youth come over to our house after church to wrap gifts for the "Giving Tree of L.I.F.E." that our youth organized. Once again I made the food, this time I made french bread pizza, but this time I put the pizza on hoagie rolls (not loaves of french bread) from Winco. This was a lot of fun as the students wrapped presents and watched Elf (the number of times watched just this season, I can't remember) all at the same time. Hope you enjoy the pictures from all these events!

Peanut Butter Bottoms

Double Chocolate with walnuts

Our friends Angeline and Sharon baking cookies.

Andrew, Hau, and Bryan (the husbands) playing Rummikub while us girls bake.

The youth group's white elephant party gifts.

A group found the Snowman!!!! (Right side of picture...it talks too)
The students intently involved in their white elephant game.

Some youth and some sponsors wrapping gifts for the Giving Tree of L.I.F.E. We had two rooms full of youth wrapping these gifts! The gifts will be delivered to two families on Friday and then the other family on Sunday!

Happy 1st Birthday Augustine!!!!

Happy Birthday to our nephew Augustine!!! He turns 1 today!!!! WE love you and wish we could celebrate with you! We will see you in 16 days!!!!!

This is Augustine's first few days being born.

Trent, Augustine and Saundra at a friend's wedding. He was just shy of 7 months.

Augustine and his mom during swimming lessons. He was unsure at first, but loved it!

Augustine (11 months) playing at Grandma's house in her bag!

Saundra and Augustine at Thanksgiving time!

Christmas Tree

If you said we were not in the Christmas Spirit....the Finch's actually had all their Christmas decor around their house including the tree on November 1, 2008! Enjoy the pictures!

The tree with its lights on!

This is for all you Sacramento Kings Fans....I know there are only two!

Andrew being a poser with our tree (He did all the work decorating)!

There can't be a Christmas Tree without Star Wars ornaments according to Andrew.

This Snoopy Ornament we bought a couple minutes after we got engaged at the Snoopy Museum in Santa Rosa, California on January 5, 2008 (Michael and Kim's Wedding Day)

Mickey and Pluto ornament we bought for half off at Mervyn's.

Our mantle decorated with wedding pictures and stockings. By the way, if you wanted to see wedding pictures, take a good look! Double-Whammy!

Christmas Time

We have watched this movie about four times already this Christmas season and it is only December 5th! Today, we are busy making Christmas cards to send out and we are excited that only 19 more days until we are up in Oregon to spend Christmas up there! Remember if you wrapping presents: "6 inch ribbon curls...6 inches!"