Matt & Katie's Wedding

Matt and Katie's wedding was the night before New Year's Eve, and I can honestly say it was the most elegant and fun wedding I have been too. Here are (lots) of pictures.

Andy and I with Matt and Katie at the Rehersal Dinner



Hope with cousin Becca







Grandma (the Mother of the Groom) with the flower girls



Family Pic



Brothers



One of the only pictures I got of Matt and Katie. I was too far away for it to turn out good, but they were just about to cut the cake...



That's my boy



Pictures of the girls with their flower "balls" that they carried down the aisle




Hope and Becca



After Andy's Best Man speech- brothers hugging



There was a live 20 piece swing band! So much fun, so much dancing...I even got Andy on the dance floor with me and I have a picture to prove it!



Josiah LOVED dancing... he danced with his mama...and any other girl he could find...



Kim and I



Livia and cousin Ariana (SO CUTE)!!



Andy with Hope



Andy with Livia (she was SO tired, this was taken at about 10 at night)!

Christmas Eve and Christmas Day

Our Christmas Eve tradition is to spend it with Andy's side of the family. We go over to his mom's house and have an amazingly delicious dinner and exchange gifts.

It's always a trick squeezing everyone around the tables and then getting a picture...this is the best we got this year.



A tired Livia with her Rapunzel doll and dress



Josiah with his Cars2 jet!



A great shot of Rebecca after she read the "gift certificate" for a sleep over with Hope sometime in the near future (I promise Becca we will do it soon!)!



Hope with her Craft Box filled with all sorts of fun



Christmas morning tradition for our family is to open our gifts together before we head over to my parents' house for the day with extended family. This year we started our morning with the kids opening their first gift, the most important gift, the gift of Jesus. Andy and I had wrapped up baby Jesus, from the manger, and had the kids start the day remembering the real reason we celebrate Christmas, because Jesus came to earth as a baby to live a sinless life so He could die on the cross for our sinfilled lives that we may be forgiven and have everlasting life with Him in heaven someday... All that to share, but I have no pictures...

Then onto opening our family gifts:

Hope with her first sewing kit



Livia and her new Pond DVD



Additions to Josiah's Thomas the Train collection



Andy enjoying his new book on Sea Glass



We gave Hope her first "real" Bible, she is thrilled! It is such a joy watching her find verses, read and underline that which she is learning.



Love that Andy captured this pic with my mouth wide open, but hey, I was excited! Hope had thought to get her and I matching Hot Drink cups for when her and I are just hanging out. Love that girl and her creativity!!



Josiah wearing his Woody hat...YEE HAW!!



The 3 kiddos dressed in their Christmas morning church clothes in front of Grandma and Grandpa's tree



Josiah and Grandma Dennis with his new Cars pillow she made him



New Bike Helmets, we can't WAIT for spring!!



Auntie MA spoiled Hope with a new slap watch, it was even purple, Hope's FAVORITE color!



Andy's new Biblical Art print for his office at church



Cars 2, YAY!



The family at dinner (not the best pic, but it's what we got with everyone)

Livia's Birthday/Christmas Eve

Livia's Birthday Morning

She is 3!!!





SO EXCITED!!




It's her Dollhouse RV



Birthday Breakfast at Bob's


MMMmmm Hot Cocoa!


Looking So Big!!

Livia's 3rd Birthday Party

Livia's Princess Birthday Party!






Some of the family listening to the devotion I got to share


The rest of the family


"More Clothes!"




Sitting with Uncle Matt and Almost-Aunt Katie with her skirt and wings and wand they gave her!

Bridal Shower

We only met Katie 6 months ago, but at times it seems so much longer because her and Matt (Andy's brother) are a perfect fit that only God could plan and put together. It was so much fun to celebrate at her bridal shower, and it was so great that Hope got to come with me!


Mom Weeda with Katie and the beautiful cake!


New soon-to-be Sisters (Me, Katie, and Kim)


Hope and Rebecca- sweet cousins, and 2 of the 4 flower girls.

Josiah's Preschool Christmas Program

Josiah as a shepherd (costume made by Grandma Dennis)



Josiah, the shepherd, bringing his sheep to the stage


Singing

Thanksgiving 2011

It has been a quiet Thanksgiving morning so far around the Weeda house. We ate a delicious breakfast of Andy's "famous scrambled eggs" together and then promptly sat down to write out our "Thankfuls" for the year. It has been tradition to write 5 things we are thankful from the past year and to share them with our family. I have to admit this year it was VERY difficult to only write 5, I could've filled a whole page (or two). I believe this is true of me because I have been practicing thankfulness daily now for a while since I have read Ann Voskamp's One Thousand Gifts book. After sharing what we were thankful for, I got some quiet time to drink my coffee and read out of my new top favorite book, The Rest of God, by Mark Buchanan. I couldn't believe what I was reading this morning...it was all about Thankfulness, it couldn't have been more perfect on Thanksgiving day.

"The best way I know to embody this Godward orientation [to train ourselves in God's goodness and His sovereignty] is thankfulness. Thankfulness is a secret passageway into a room you can't find any other way. It is the wardrobe into Narnia. It allows us to discover the rest of God--those dimensions of God's world, God's presence, God's character that are hidden, always, from the thankless. Ingratitude is an eye disease every bit as much as a heart disease. It sees only flaws, scars, scarcity. Likewise, the god of the thankless is wary, stingy, grudging, bumbling, nitpicky. He's by turns meddlesome and apathetic, suspicious then indifferent, grubbing about in our domestic trifles one moment, oblivious to our personal catastrophes the next. But to give thanks, to render it as Scripture tells us we ought--in all circumstances, for all things, to the glory of God--such thanksgiving becomes a declaration of God's sovereign goodness. You cannot practice thankfulness on a biblical scale without its altering the way you see. And the more you do it, the more you can find cause for doing it. Inherent in a life of thanksgiving is an ongoing discovery of God's sufficiency, His generosity, His fatherly affection and warrior protection. 'To the faithful,' David said of God, 'you show yourself faithful' (2 Samuel 22:26)."

It's a beautiful reminder that it's not just a day we celebrate but a lifestyle we live, out of trust in God, in all circumstances.

"Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you." 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18