How He Loves Us

I love this song and had to share it with everyone. This song always seems to move me. He loves us so much and is so faithful. I cannot even think about this truth without getting choked up. I am so undeserving, so sinful, and so unfaithful. How did I deserve for HIM to die on the cross for MY sins?

My little brother wrote a beautiful post that really touched me. Go check it out: Entitlement or Thankfulness I am so proud of my brother and his incredible faith.

Living an Uncommon Life

At church last night, I was moved by the sermon. The idea was that in order to accomplish uncommon things in your life, you must be willing to live an uncommon life. Jesus was the truest example of this notion. He did not do things the way people around him did things, he didn’t speak “safe” speeches, he didn’t speak them at the “appropriate” times, and he didn’t give these speeches to the people you would have suspected. He lived an uncommon life in order to accomplish extraordinary accomplishments. What a perfect role model for us in every aspect.

Sometimes is hard to do the uncommon instead of the common or popular thing to do. Sometimes I feel isolated in our group of friends because of our choice to spend Saturday nights at church, refrain from using bad language, to limit our alcohol consumption, etc. It makes us the “uncool” ones. I struggle with all these things and occasionally I fail. I am a sinner, but I have a desire to grow to be more and more Christ like. I want to live an incredible life that inspires hearts to soften and unbelievers to believe and this takes stepping outside of the box and saying and doing uncomfortable things. It may even mean being an outsider sometimes most of the time.

The pastor gave three steps to live an uncommon life:
• Say uncommon truths
• Go at uncommon times
• Have uncommon targets

I didn’t sleep very well last night, I was in deep thought. What do these steps mean and what would they look like in my life? I can tell you about a time in the past when I invited an ex-boss who was as vulgar and nasty as they come, to Easter service at our church, while I was at work. What was the outcome? He didn’t say anything at the time. The day I put in my resignation, he came to me with huge tears in his eyes and thanked me for caring about such a jerks salvation. He said that it meant the world to him. Wow! What a risk to invite him but such an amazing outcome.
I wish I had more stories about when I took a risk, but sadly I don’t take that leap of faith very often. I am usually scared that I will offend someone. I prayed last night that God would give me the courage to live this way more often and the faith to continue to do so even when faced with rejection and isolation. We were created to live an uncommon life!

Merry Christmas

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas. I have had Jesus on my mind all day and what His birth meant for us sinners. What an incredible thing to celebrate and be mindful of! I have never felt so blessed in my entire life. God has been so wonderful to our family and we are so thankful for everything we have including each other, our families, our friends, our health, and so much more! Thank you, Jesus! :)

Hunter and I had a wonderful day. Hunter slept in until about 8am. His room was dark so I crawled into his room until I was right at his crib. And whispered "Merry Christmas, baby Hunter!" He was a bit startled but soon had a huge grin on his face. Yes, I understand that I sound like a creepy mom... but Hunter and I love to play the sneak up game! So yeah, he doesn't think I'm crazy!

We went downstairs where Hunter's stocking was waiting! It took him a minute to understand that there were presents in the stocking for him, but he soon had so much fun pulling everything out!














We then had breakfast and got ready to head to my parent's house. We hung out there for awhile with my parents and a few hours later the entire family showed up. We now have 18 people at family gatherings! Jesse was the only one missing today.

We ate lots of good food, including: prime rib, macaroni and cheese, salad, and jello salad. We then opened gifts. There are 5 of us siblings and for the second year we decided to just exchange gifts for the kids. It is so fun to see the six kids opening up their presents and the excitement in their eyes! We had some yummy dessert that I had made: chocolate glazed almond cheesecake and a peppermint fudge pie.

Us siblings decided to do a funny white elephant gift exchange this year for the first time. I ended up with a mini pink Christmas tree that was made complete with matching pink ornaments. Oh goody! (I set it up in my mom's bathroom before I left as a funny.)




















My parents got me some amazing gifts! I got the Timbuk2 DSLR camera bag, countdown until daddy comes home blocks from etsy, and also the Creme de Colarado Cookbook! I love them all! :)

It was a fabulous day spend with tons of people that I love so much. I wish Jesse could have been there to share it with us, but we made light of the situation and had an amazing day!

Christmas Eve

Hunter and I had a wonderful night celebrating with the Hawe/Potts family! Joe & Nicole are some of our bestest friends and we were so blessed to be able to spend Christmas Eve with them and their family. Hunter loves his godparents so much and begged to please, please, please go over there. :)

We laughed a lot, ate a lot, and just plain had a great time. Hunter played with their Bernese Mountain dog, Camille, for the majority of the night. I decided to start the tradition of getting Hunter a new pair of pajamas to open on Christmas Eve, this year Spider Man it was!

A Day Off!

Hunter and I had such a good day together, yesterday. I had nowhere that I had to be and no huge projects that had to get tackled. Hunter slept in, we watched some Little Einsteins and Mickey Mouse Clubhouse together, ate breakfast, and did some laundry.

Hunter decided he wanted to take on a bigger role when it came to laundry. He jumped right in...








We started to get a little antsy to get out of the house at about noon. So, I decided we should head to Bellevue to go to Children's Quest Science Museum and to Whole Foods.





We had a good time and left just in time to get caught in rush hour traffic. That was alright, it gave Hunter a good opportunity to get his afternoon nap in. When we got home, Hunter watched a couple cartoons. He danced to Dance-a-lot Robot's Choo Choo Dance and patted his thighs during Little Einsteins. It was so cute!



We then finished the night by playing with Henry.

Best Friends

He May Look Like Mommy...

He may look like me, but there is no doubt about the fact that he is just like his Daddy. Hunter loves ducks. He brings me his animal book several times a day and usually points at the duck 90% of the time. He loves to blow on duck calls and now Jesse has got him holding dead ducks! Ick! Oh well, I insisted that Jesse wash his hands immediately.

Here is our little duck "Hunter":

Halle turns One!

So I'm pretty behind in blogging! But...better late than never, right? Our friends, the Yarton's, had a birthday party for their little girl, Halle. I can't believe how fast time flies!

Halle is such a precious little girl. She is so laid back and such a petite little one. The Yarton's are moving to the east coast at the end of January. We're bummed but wish them the best of luck!

Here are some pictures from her 1st Birthday Party!

And He's Gone....

Jesse left to go on a trip to New Zealand and Antarctica on Thursday evening. He will be gone until the 9th of January. It's not that much longer than a normal trip, but it just stinks that he's going to be gone for the holidays.

I think I mentally prepare for the worst because I don't deal with disappointment very well. When he goes on a 10 day trip, I always tell myself that he will be home on the 12th day and somehow am genuinely surprised when he comes home on the 10th day. Or when a holiday, birthday, anniversary, or event is approaching, I just assume that he won't be around for it... and once again am just really happy when he is! I feel like that's the best way for me to deal with having a husband who is gone so often. I am never disappointed this way and am often getting an added bonus when he is home for important things.

I kind of feel like I have this mindset also to protect Jesse. I don't want him to feel guilty or that he's letting me down when he leaves. I put on my big girl pants and smile through his departure. I did this again on Thursday night. I gave him a big hug and acted like he was going to be back later that evening... just having dinner with the guys or something. And then I walk back to my car, shut the door, drive 10 feet, bite my quivering lip, and then.... the waterworks start. I don't think Jesse knows this about me... so this probably is news to him as he is reading this.

So here's the secret: I put on a pretty convincing tough girl front. It goes like this: it doesn't bother me that my husband is gone over half to time, that he will be deploying for four months at the end of April, that he will be missing my brother's wedding, that I am a single and working mother half the time, and I can do it all on my own plus some. I miss my husband dearly when he leaves, but rarely show it.

But, it's worth it. He is able to do amazing things for our amazing country. If wives and mothers have to make this sacrifice, it might as well be me because... I'm good at looking like a tough cookie. :)

Here is a picture that Jesse took last year while doing an airdrop over the South Pole in Antarctica:

Christmas Ornaments

Every year, I look forward to putting up the tree. But... the truth is that I mostly get excited to pull our ornaments out one by one and remember the memories that go along with them. Jesse and I have been pretty good about picking up ornament on vacations, big events, etc. So, I thought I would share some pictures of our special ornaments that bring me to memory lane!


This is the ornament that my grandmother got me for my very 1st Christmas. My mom handed it down to me a few years ago to put on our tree.



Jesse proposed on December 28, 2006. His sister got us this ornament that Christmas, I remember being so thrilled when I saw it. It truly brings back wonderful memories of that Christmas in Minnesota.



This is a wind-up ornament that my mom got us to represent our 1st Christmas together. It plays Trumpet Voluntary which is the song that I walked down the aisle to.



We've also gotten into the habit of getting Henry is own ornament every year. This is the one from his 1st Christmas.



This pirate is from our vacation to St. Thomas, USVI in May 2009 with our good friends, the Hawe's.



This one is from our trip to New Zealand, last November.



This Twins ornament was given to Hunter last Christmas. It has special memories for us because Hunter's nursery theme is Minnesota Twins and he was born during the playoff games between the Twins and the Yankees. (Yes, Jesse was watching the games in the delivery & recovery rooms)



Grandma Kim got Hunter this ornament for his 1st Christmas. As you can see... Hunter was a very large newborn. Haha.



I had this ornament made last year to represent our 1st Christmas as a family.