Dear Family & Friends

Happy New Year!!!!! Wow, it is so hard to believe this is the last year of 2008. Time certainly goes by quickly and days turn into seasons it leaves us wondering, where did the time go? This past year has been a challenging one for my family and I. We certainly had our ups and downs and made many mistakes but thank God for his mercy and forgiveness. He is so wonderful to pick us up when we are down and bring us back to a road of peace and happiness in Him. He is a loving God and I am so happy to know him in such a deep and intimate way.

As I look over the past year, I realize I am BLESSED. Truly Blessed. God had brought so much joy into my life. I am excited about what the new year holds for my family and I. We have made a lot of changes in the past few weeks and have seen some tremendous results. We have grown closer and are now making God the center of our home on a daily basis. I am so thankful that I have a loving, caring, forgiving Husband and such wonderful children. They are so precious to me and with each passing moment I grow to love them more and more. I still try to find those teachable moments with them and take the time to spend individual time with them as well.

I have to say. I am so glad 2008 is almost over with!!! It was a rough year and I don't care to go back there! I am choosing to leave it in the past where it belongs and start fresh and new. I am determined to learn from my mistakes and not repeat them. We all make mistakes, we all fall and do things we shouldn't do. The important thing is to go to God for direction and purpose. He will guide you every step of the way if you'll let him. This past year made me take a good hard look at myself and the end result was ...I didn't like what I saw. I didn't like who I had become during the year of 2008 and I was not happy because somewhere along the way I had taken my eyes of God and put them on things that I thought were important. My relationship with God suffered because of it. My faith in God was shaken and everyone in my family were innocent bystanders of the windfall in the choices I made. For that I am so sorry. Thank God, he saw fit to rescue me just in time and set me back on the straight and narrow :)

To my family and friends, I am sorry if I hurt you this past year in any way. If my actions or words caused you hurt or anger, I am truly sorry. My prayer for 2009 is that I take captive every thought and allow my words to heal rather than hurt. To bless rather than curse and to love rather than judge. I pray that you all have peace, love, joy and happiness in the new year and that God blesses you beyond measure. We are keeping you all daily in our thoughts and prayers.

We are out with the old and in with the new!!!!!!! YIPEEEEEEEEEE

Christmas Drama's

Our 3 oldest Children have been involved in Drama Club at the Church and on Dec 14th had the opportunity to present a drama written and directed by one of my Best Friends Amanda Moss. She also did the painting of Mary and Joseph in the following Photo. This was the display at the back of the church for the drama entitled "Jesus, Lord at Thy Birth" It was very well written and the children all did a fantastic job on their parts. The angel visits Mary...Angel played by our Pastors son and Mary by our daughter, Rachael.The angel visits the Shepard's... Reuben, our son is the Shepard in the blue.Hannah our Daughter was an angel...she is on the end with her arms raised.
Back Row Angels: Hannah our daughter, our Pastors son, and our cousin's son.

Front Row: Amanda's brother, and our Daughter Rachael.
We are very proud of our children for participating in this Drama. Remember, Jesus is the reason for the Season!

Sunday School Concert 2008


Alex was Joseph he is in the manger beside the girl in blue and Emily is the first angel on the left. They were so cute doing their part with their class :)

Hannah doing her part in the Concert
Rachael with her sign on the Sweetness of Christmas.
Reuben with his class...He absolutely refused to wear a suit to the concert LOL Said it wouldn't be cool *sigh* (I wanted him to dress right up)
It is such a busy time of year with Concerts, drama's and banquets. We did manage to get away to see the Drama my parents were involved in at their church. They did a fantastic job and we had the opportunity to see friends and family we hadn't seen in a long time.

What a BLIZZARD

♫ Oh the weather outside is frightful......but this fire is so delightful.......♫

The Christmas Holidays started out with a good ole Canadian Blizzard! According to news reports this will be the first time since the 70's that there will be a white Christmas from one end of Canada to the other!! We got hit hard...lots of ice, snow and wind. Here are a few pictures of the Blizzard of 08!

This was the beginning of the blizzard around 7 pm!

By midnight...it looked like this!
The next morning, we found out that a lot of people had no power for over 11 hours and we had no phone service. Hubby's work was cancelled and this was around 8am when he tried to snow blow the driveway a bit. You can just barely see the snow blower in this pic.

Here he was trying to dig out our van in case he got called to work. It was a complete white out for a while. The wind was howling and snow mixed with ice pelted down on him as he tried to clean the yard some. I am blessed that I have a Hubby that will take care of things like this for us. It was so cold!

Hubby came to the door looking like Jack Frost...or the abominable Snowman LOL. Hard to believe he and his 3 brothers drove to Quebec later that day to pick up their other brother from the airport to bring him home to NB in time for Christmas! Thank God that they made it safely home and had no mishaps along the way. My other brother in law (my sister's hubby...was stranded in Toronto for 2 days trying to get a flight home for Christmas!)

You know it's a bad storm when your glasses are stuck to your face with ice!!

Ice built up on Hubby's glasses after we had taken some off!

We are so thankful and fortunate that we all survived this blizzard and that God's protection was upon our loved ones as they travelled the highways in this storm. Thank you to everyone who kept Hubby and his brother's in their prayers as they travelled home. They were a pretty tired bunch when we picked them up in Freddy LOL

Those Special Moments

It is not often in our busy lives that time seems to stand still however, just for a short while tonight that happened for me. The last couple of weeks have been hectic with shopping, concerts, practices etc and in the midst of all of that the Twins and I got very sick. I could feel that dreaded emotion of being overwhelmed creeping up on me today when I thought of all the things I didn't get done yet as I lay in bed with a raging fever. Despite the fact I was sick, I still wanted to get some things done around the house. Tonight however, we decided that instead of cleaning up we would just enjoy the evening and watch a movie together as a family. It was so nice to relax with the children and snuggle together as the movie played on. It was in that moment that it seemed like time stood still. The moment where the children were giggling and snuggling closer as they enjoyed the antics of 6 little puppies that made me wish I could stay there forever.

We rented the movie Snow Buddies tonight. It's a great family movie....a cute and cuddly kind of movie. The children really liked it and even though it wasn't a cartoon, the Twins sat and watched it all the way through. I cherish every moment I get with the children and at times I look at them and just can't believe how fast they are growing up. I am so thankful for those little moments where you swell with love for them. The moments when they give you a homemade card or picture with their faces beaming with joy as they watch your reaction upon reading the card. The moments when they take one of their toys and wrap it up as a gift for you because they love you so much they wanted you to have it. Moments of laughter, tears and even anger. Moments that are filled with little personality traits unique to who they are. When they say things like, "Your the best Mommy in the world, your the prettiest mommy...your my little Mommy etc.." Moments of hugs, kisses. acting silly and dancing together. Such moments will be cherished forever in my heart.

I love this time of year because I am such a family gal. I love spending time with our families. I am especially looking forward to visiting with my grandparents. I am so thankful and appreciative that they are still here with us and fortunate that I have had all my grandparents living to enjoy this Christmas. We had a little scare this fall with Grammie Moss's health but she pulled through and is doing great. That made me realize that I needed to create more moments with them and to never take their health for granted. How many people are lucky enough to have their grandparents with them in their 30's? I am truly blessed :) I can never take enough pictures of them. They are so special to me.

My husband's Grandmother just celebrated her 90th birthday this past summer and we are excited about going to see her this Christmas as well. Our children have a rich heritage and we thank God for that. Visiting with family over the holidays is the highlight of each Christmas. Incase I don't get a chance to update this blog before Christmas I want to take a moment to wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Remember......Jesus is the reason for the season!!!!

~*~ Catching Snowflakes ~*~

Our 3 youngest creating a childhood memory as they try to catch a snowflake in the first 'real' snowstorm :)

Christmas All Aglow

~♫~It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas
everywhere we go...~♫~

This familiar carol serenades us as we decorate and trim the house for our favorite Holiday of the year. I love decorating and sometimes have the tendency to go overboard but hey, what a great time to take advantage of this decorative urge I have. Every time I go out shopping for gifts I get distracted and spend a long time in the Christmas Decor aisles and each time I resist the temptation to buy another item to make our house look more Christmasy!

I love the soft glow that the Christmas lights bring. It's so warm and inviting. They create such a cozy, peaceful atmosphere at home. I love snuggling with my children by the tree that is all aglow. For my friends and family that live across Canada and on the other side of the world....here are a few pics of my hand at decorating this year :)

On the 7th Day

If you are at all familiar with the story of the creation in Genesis, you will know that on the 7th day God rested. For us, our 7th day is Sunday all though there isn't much resting going on. With 5 children who are amazingly wide awake in the afternoon, it is next to impossible for us to get any sleep let alone a time of 'resting'. We are left dreaming about how it used to be on those lazy Sunday afternoons and spend reality being busy parents. There is always something that needs tended to, a broken toy, ruffled feelings, sibling rivalry and so on. I am beginning to think that our children have these built in sensors that go off as soon as we put our feet up and begin to relax :) However, they are precious and it won't be long when we will be wishing we had these chaotic, noisy afternoons! It is amazing how fast time goes and how quickly they grow up.

Today is the first day of December. Wow!! That is hard to believe. We went into Freddy Sunday afternoon and it was bustling with Christmas shoppers. It was hard to find a parking space. We had intended on ordering our Son's glasses but they weren't open so we spent an hour walking mindlessly around the mall talking to friends we hadn't seen since this time last year. One of the things, I do enjoy about this season is running into the 'long time no see' friends at the mall. It's always a surprise as to who your going to run into. I think there will be quite a few trips to the mall before the big day on the 25th because I have barely started my Christmas shopping. I love this time of year and even enjoy the rush to get that last gift :)

Through the hustle and bustle of every Christmas Season, we make sure our children know that it is not about getting but rather giving. Even more importantly, it is a special time of year that we can set aside to honor the birth of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. During the day, I try to find quiet moments with each of my children to teach them what I call a golden nugget from the Bible. This month, these golden nuggets will revolve around the true meaning of Christmas and when I can, I will find those quiet moments for myself even if it has to be after they are snuggled in their beds. It's in those quiet moments of reflecting on the word of God that I gain strength for tomorrow. If even God himself needed a time of resting, how much more do us humans need it? I crave those quiet moments when life is chaotic and I haven't given God some of my time. Naturally, in our flesh we need to sleep and to recharge our batteries, this also applies to our spirit as well. Too often, we allow our burdens to weigh us down sometimes to the point where we can't even remember how to lay them down at the foot of the cross and just rest in the arms of the one who loves us the most. He carried the weight of the world on his shoulders and he is definitely big enough to carry your heavy burdens. He said in Mat 11:28 "Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest."

It is not in God's plan our lives for us to be stressed out and burnt out. If after 6 days of just speaking the world into existence, God rested we can be confidant that He wants the same for us. We all know that as the 25th gets closer, life is going to kick into high gear on the road of nonstop busyness. Christmas parties, concerts, banquets, shopping, hosting, visiting, travelling and the list goes on and on will rob us of our time. However, if we go into the season with our minds made up that it's ok to relax and ok to say no to some things, we may actually enJOY the season :) I encourage you to find those quiet moments, and I guarantee you...you won't regret it!