Happy New Year! (a little late!)

2008 is here and a new year has begun. It has been a while since we posted so I thought it might be time for an update. We had a great holiday visiting family and friends and enjoying time off from work and school. We spent Christmas with my family in Oklahoma and New Year's with Randy's sister, brother-in-law, and neice in Tyler, TX. From our pictures below you can probably see we had a wonderful time. We loved getting to spend time with family and friends, but were glad to be back home (and in our own bed again)!

Work began again and the routine slowly fell back into place. Its funny, I love surprise and excitement, but I also love falling back into routine and familiar. I know this is something that I struggle with - my want to stay in the familiar, aka comfortable, and Jesus' call for me to step out into the unknown. Thankfully, I am learning to trust Jesus more and more and that makes it easier to step out into the unknown. And thankfully I serve a patient God who loves me even when I mess up.

Last weekend, Randy & I got to spend lots of time with our friends, Brian & Janelle, and Jacob & Laura. We hung out Friday night and played a mean game of "Killer Uno" (no one was hurt or died during this process...lol). Saturday, we all went to the wedding of our friends, Josh & Gilda. The wedding was beautiful and as much as I would like to share pictures, I forgot my camera. Hopefully, I can get Brian or Jacob to email me theirs sometime, hint, hint.... Afterwards, we headed back to Jacob & Laura's for dinner and to celebrate Jacob's 25th birthday. Sunday, they all were able to attend church with us and Randy & I actually got to be in the worship service with them! It was awesome. We headed back to our apartment, ate lunch and then spent the rest of our time visiting and catching up. Brian & Janelle are in the process of adopting/hoping to adopt a little boy named Alex. Please be in prayer for them during this time. Jacob & Laura are doing well - Laura starts back to school in a few weeks and Jacob is working.

Randy started back to Paramedic classes this week. He is excited that this is the downhill slope for him. He should be finished and a Paramedic by July/August. His clinicals start sometime in March and will keep him busy but we know it is just temporary. God will get us through it all.

And in closing, I wanted to leave you with cute pictures of our neice, Bella Grace. She is just adorable and I love getting to show her pictures off! Hope you all are doing well. We'd love to hear from you!