So Excited!

OK! I know the holidays are over. But I have to tell you, I am so excited about the month of January it feels a lot like Christmas to me. Even a little... kid in the candy store. So many great things happening I can hardly figure out what I am most excited about.

Tomorrow, my husband is giving me the whole day to join some friends scrap booking at Archivers. This will be the first time since the move and I am more then a little behind. (In scrap book world - Joshua hasn't even been born yet.) We have been digging out photo's this week and it has been so fun to go back and remember when the boys were babies.

Sunday, Brian and I get to go to Greeley, CO and help promote the Alpha course at a local church. We met some amazing people from the Greeley church (Don, Beth, Mel, Marci and Gabe - we are so excited for what is ahead of you) when we went to the Alpha Conference last year and they are launching their course this January. We are so thankful for any role we get to play in Alpha and can't wait to see what God is going to do.

On Monday we are hosting the Alpha Celebration Dinner at Grace. This will lead into our Winter Alpha Course and I am so excited about both the team of people we are working with and the chance to meet new people.

January 12 is the next quiz meet for the boys and we are excited to see them compete again.

Then... After much waiting and anticipation... We leave for two weeks at Grandma's house in Minnesota. Dee, thank you so much for letting us invade and we are counting the days (10) till we get to come. TWO WEEKS! I am so excited. That is enough time to visit and see everyone with out having to ration out the trip hour by hour.

In the middle of our trip, I get to join my MN girls for a weekend up North. Gorgeous Cabin, 3 days, no kids and a enormous scrap booking room equipped with lots of toys. Sounds like a slice of heaven.

Now - as if all of that is not enough - there is still my favorite reason for being so excited I can hardly sit still

Brian's little sister, Jenny just welcomed to the world beautiful Alissa Mae. She was born on January 3rd, 8 lbs 2 oz, 20 inches long, head full of dark hair and perfect! Now, Jenny was crying as she told me those details so if tears of joy muffled them - they are at least pretty close. New Dad Jon was wonderful and we are so excited for this new life and new family. With two big brothers, Cody and Cole, to keep the household on track - we know all will be fine.

We can not wait to see all of our friends and family in MN - and to hold the new baby.

Yeah!

Happy New Year 2008

Welcome to the New Year and our new family blog! I love new beginnings and fresh starts and so today seemed like the perfect day to get this up and out there.

New Years is always a time when we pause and look to the past year and all it has held - and for our household - 2007 has been a year of blessings and growth.

In January, Brian returned to Moss Point, Mississippi to help another family recover and rebuild from Hurricane Katrina. Our church has been working with Convoy of Hope and Brian loves going to help. The family they partnered with had two teenage sons (one of them in a hospital bed) living in the FIMA trailer and were so thankful for the help. The family pitched in and helped the entire week to help restore one room from ruin to livable for the boys to move into and start getting back some of their life. Hard work and helping people are arenas Brian thrives in and so for him this was one of the best parts of the year.

Jacob and Joshua kept busy during the winter months with school and by studying Junior Bible Quiz. Both boys did well and were always excited to earn points, ribbons and medals. Mom and Dad loved spending time as a family reading and learning about the bible. It is such a neat way to spend time and invest in our kids, to see them memorizing bible verses, encouraging others, developing good sportsmanship, study skills and a winning attitude. We started up again in the fall and are getting geared up for spring competition.


In May, Brian and I attended an Alpha Conference here in the Denver area and it was outstanding. Alpha has played a major role in our lives the last five years and we continue to be involved in this program. In January we were so excited to launch Alpha at Grace Community and we had three amazing courses in 2007. To everyone who was part of Alpha this last year - as a guest or as a volunteer - you rock! I am blown away with how all of you jumped in and that made for an awesome year. Thank You!

Summer in 07 was so much fun. The boys and I swam almost everyday and then, in June, Dad joined us for the fun in the Great Adventure. Three days, Elitch Gardens, Water World and Fat City. What a riot! Jake and Josh are game for anything - roller coaster, water slide, wave pool, bumper cars, laser tag, bowling, miniature golf, ball fun house - they had a blast.

In June we made the decision to join the 14ers in climbing to the top of Pikes Peak. If your first thought is, she is not in shape for that - your answer is right. Holy Buckets! It was great at the beginning when the boys stayed at the back of our group with us, it made it look like I was going slow for the benefit of my children. As they got comfortable with all the adults (yes - they were the only 5 & 6 year old climbing the mountain with us that day), they quickly moved to the head of the pack and it became obvious that Momma was sucking air. ***Hard.*** However, with the encouragement (I call it that now) of my husband I didn't quit and we all made it to the top. And back down to the car. Both major miracles.

July found us back at Woman Lake for the Carlson/Krueger family vacation. I LOVE VACATION! Now that we are in Denver that time is even more important. The luxury of drinking a cup of coffee and watching the sun set across the lake, hearing the boys laugh and play with their cousins, fishing, swimming and of course game nights. There is a reason we have been doing it for 9 years now.













In September Brian was promoted and now supervises the support team. This is one major factor in 2007 being a year of growth. Brian is being stretched in so many areas that he is often "sore" but he continues to excel and do an amazing job. He is traveling with this position (something new for our family) and one of the perks is that the travel often takes him to MN where he can catch up with family and friends.

For Thanksgiving we traveled to Iowa and spent time with Tanya's family. This was our best trip ever - we had so much fun. The boys were excited to stay at Fun City (a hotel with an indoor water park, bowling alley, go karts and arcade). and even got to play one night at the hotel with Grandma and Grandpa. If that wasn't enough, Grandpa set the garage up as a play room - ping pong, race track and even air darts. Good food and plenty of family, (Tanya's brother Shawn and his family) made for so much fun. Shawn and Amanda - thanks for making time in your schedule to hang out with us.

We were home for the holidays - in Denver during the Christmas season. It still feels a little odd - but we are slowly branching out and starting new traditions. We have had several game nights with groups of friends, Christmas Eve service at Grace was full of our church family and on Christmas we joined the Vernazas' and their always abundant and delicious table.

Over the last few days I have spent alot of time before bed - looking at the Christmas tree lights and thinking about all the blessings of the year.
Jesus, family, friends, health, food, home to name a few.

I hope those of you reading this are able to count the blessing of your year (even if you have also been stretched) and are excited about the year to come.

We Are - and we invite you back to see if there have been new adventures.