When I grow up...

I was talking with Hope and Josiah this morning about what they want to be when they grow up, here was the dialogue:

I asked Josiah, "What do you want to be when you grow up?"
Joey exclaimed, "A firefighter man!"
Hope said, "Yeah so you can save people. Well, I want to be a cowgirl."
Joey then asked me, "What do you want to be?"
I said, "Your mommy."
Joey said, "Noooooo, you'll be a coffee maker."
Then Hope piped in with arms raised in the air, "Ya, and Daddy will be a preacher man and Livia will be a mommy when she grows older."

It will be so fun to see what God does with each of these special treasures and their dreams!

Time for an Update...

Well the New Year is in full swing and I'm finally feeling like I am back in routine since the holiday's. I haven't taken any pictures or videos of the kids since Christmas. It seems like the camera was attached to my hand the entire month of December and I just needed a break. Now it's time to do some updating:

Hope was the cutest of cute as a little mouse in her ballet recital in December. She has just recently been moved up from Pre-Ballet to Ballet I, she is very excited and I am so happy that she enjoys dancing as much as she does.


Here are the Weeda kids on Christmas morning. We had such a blessed Christmas together this year. We got to enjoy lots of family time and reflection time of Christ's birth and His purpose for coming to the earth to save us from our sins. A song that Hope sang at her Christmas program at church had a line that said, "The gift of Christmas is God is with us, Emmanuel... Emmanuel" and the simple song was such a reminder in our home of what a wonderful gift Jesus is to us!


Here is Livia by the Christmas tree. I just really love this picture of her, she just looks so annoyed to have ONE more picture taken!

I can hardly believe Livia is 1 now! She is officially a toddler now, as she is walking (almost running) everywhere! She is no longer our baby. Her vocabulary is expanding as well. Some of her words that she can speak clearly are: Baby, Please, Cheese, Teeth, Bye Bye, Hi, Hello, Mama, Dada. For Milk she still signs it, but also says, "Mi" and for Hope she says, "Bope" and Joey says, "Jjjj" and for grandma says, "Gaga". It's so fun to see her grow and develop and just be a little person in our home. What a blessing she is!

Livia Mae is 1 Today!

Livia Mae is one today! We had her birthday party last weekend. It was a Winter ONE-derland theme. Here are a couple pictures from the event!

Livia with her snowman cake.

She LOVED her cake. She knew just what to do! When she was all done, she continued to sign "more"!

Happy Birthday precious little girl!

Joey's Prayer

After telling a lie this morning Joey and I prayed together so he could ask for forgiveness, here was the dialogue:

Mommy: Dear Jesus
Joey: Dear Jesus
Mommy: Please forgive me for lying, it was a sin
Joey: Please forgive me for lying, it was a sin
Mommy: Dear Jesus
Joey: Dear Jesus
Mommy: Please help me
Joey: Please help me
Mommy: Be an obedient little boy
Joey: Be an obedient man.

Thanksgiving and 9th Annual Christmas Tree Hunt Extravaganza!

I know these posts are very overdue, BUT better late than never, right?! We had a very special Thanksgiving this year, we have so much to be thankful for! God has continued to prove Himself so faithful to our family and in the midst of what seem like extreme trials we have also experienced extreme blessings. I cannot wait for a day to post on our blog all that God has done in this season of our lives (I feel like it would be premature to write it out now, so stay tuned...).

We spent the morning of Thanksgiving day at Sunrise Baptist's Thanksgiving service. It was the first we have attended and was a wonderful way to start our day. We then spent the afternoon at our Uncle Tommy's house in Anacortes. He put on a wonderful spread of delicious foods and it was a fun day to also celebrate Livia's 1st Thanksgiving!

Our Family of Five

My sister Wendy (or Aunt Woo as the kids call her) and her dog Roxie Jo

Grandpa and Grandma Dennis with the kids and their turkey hats grandma made them.

Josiah, Livia and Hope:: Three blessings in our lives that we will be eternally thankful for!

Every year after Thanksgiving, on the Weeda side, we go to the Hovde Christmas Tree Farm out in Sudden Valley. The tradition started 9 years ago (the year Andy and I got engaged) and since then we have added 5 kids over the years! Andy's brother, Matt, started this tradition and we call it our Christmas Tree Hunt Extravaganza!

The whole Family (Left to Right in a circle): Kim, Julian, Natalie, Mom (Darlene), Tabitha, Livia, Amy, Andy, Hope, Josiah, Matt, Daniel & Rebecca

The Weeda Family in front of the Hovde Haus hollowed out tree.

We found our tree!!!

Joey helped daddy cut the tree down and carry it down the hill! Good work boys!

All the cousins, eating candy canes, cookies and sipping on hot cocoa

Trip to Portland

Last month we took a family vacation to Portland, OR on the weekend when Andy had class. The kids were able to go back to Western Seminary's campus and see where we use to live and visit some old friends on campus. The picture below was taken about 20 minutes before Joey fell into the pond on campus. Luckily it wasn't very deep and his head was above the water and Andy snatched him up pretty quickly. We were all given a bit of an adrenaline rush though!

Hope and Josiah were REALLY excited to go to the zoo (even though it was rainy and cold)...so we bundled up and explored for a couple of hours. It was actually a perfect day and we had SO much fun. It wasn't crowded at all (go figure) and the animals were out and active.

While we were in Portland we got to visit and stay with our friends, Ray and Marietta Roy. When Ray started a fire in the fireplace Hope sheepishly asked, "Are we going to roast marshmallows?" Ray and Marietta were so incredibly sweet and immediately went through the cupboards and found the ingredients needed and the kids roasted marshmallows in the fire place and made s'mores!

The Roy's with the kids

We also had the great chance to visit with our dear friends the Thomas' down in Corvallis, Oregon. (Thank you again for hosting us even though you had only been in your house 2 weeks, and for being so brave to have 6 kids running around your house!) We had so much fun catching up and the kids all had fun playing together. In the picture below is Colton, Austin, Eliana, Hope and Livia (Joey didn't want to be in the picture).

Thankful

We have so much to be thankful for! I may be a week late making a Thanksgiving post on the blog, but as a family we are trying to have a mindset of Thanksgiving all year long.

Here is a picture of our sunrise this morning:

This sunrise reminded us of God's faithfulness. God is faithful in giving us a sunrise every morning. This sunrise also reminds us of our church body, Sunrise Baptist Church, which is made up of people who are faithful to doing God's work. We have been so blessed by the people in our church, in their encouragements, their love, their gifts, and their dedication to teaching our children. We are so thankful for our church and where God has us now.

Psalm 36:5 puts words to the picture above: "Your love, O LORD, reaches to the heavens, your faithfulness to the skies."