Hmmm.........

......looks as though the blog writer has been SLACKING! :( So sorry! I feel terrible. No "real" excuse here, so without further ado, here is what we've been up to since um............December 15! :)

December 19 we left for a nice 9 day trip away from home to Colorado! We rented a cabin there and got an opportunity to be ALONE! Just the five of us! IT WAS FABULOUS! Nothing wrong with be with friends and family, but we had had SO MUCH going on these last few years that we needed a break away with just the five of us! True bliss! It snowed (we were really praying for that), we were cozy, we all slept well, we went to Focus On The Family (VERY COOL), road the Pikes Peak Cograil, these were a few of the fun things we got to do while we were there. We did also get to see some very special family friends while we were there. They were gracious enough to open their home to us for a very yummy dinner! :) THANK YOU, McCraleys!

Upon returning, we brought in the new year! No huge celebration, but I am always happy to close off a year and open a brand new one! :) :) So far this year, we've almost all gotten sick with something (except Laine), but are on the mend, Laine just started his ORANGE belt karate class, Ezra starts another round of Gymnastics tomorrow morning, I've started my new Bible Study "Living a Life of Balance" which I'm already learning TONS from, Benjamin went back to work after a nearly 4 week break/time off. So far, that's about it! Things seem to be quieting down some for us this year. We have taken a "sabbatical" per se, from foster care and are still licensed, but not taking any placement phone calls, probably until end of March! Just needed a break from the craziness of things to really get our "official family" on our feet in the right way!

We DO plan, however, to relicense at least one more year! This has been a REALLY tough decision for us this year! We're due in March, so we really needed to decide and get moving if we were going to do this again. We'll see what happens. Still following the Lord on this to the core, and we're open to what He'll show us this year!

Not much happening this month! That'll be nice.

Next month, however, my sister is GETTING MARRIED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Truly amazing! We will ALL fly back to Iowa end of March for about 5 days! Not a very long trip, but the point of our trip is to be there for Anissa and MARK! We absolutely LOVE Mark! He is PERFECT for Anissa! They will tie the knot on March 27! More on that to come!

I hope this helps catch everyone up! I'm hoping to stay more diligent. I have to be honest, I felt like I needed to "catch up" and therefore I had been procrastinating FAR MORE than I should've. I won't necessarily be having tons of pictures with every post, but I will try and document more of our every day life when I can and throw in pictures when I can! Thanks for your continued interest in our lives!

Love to you all!