ALMOST HERE...

Well, our family is preparing for a short term mission trip to Honduras and it is only a few weeks away! Many of you received our Christmas card and letter about it and hopefully you have been praying for us as we prepare:-) Our GL, Breanna, has been teaching the boys (and us) a little bit of spanish in preparation, and we have been really pressing into God for His heart and direction. We are getting excited to help with a soccer camp while we are there, working on finishing a building for the school down there (Instituto El Ray), helping teach dance and just spending time with the people and sharing Jesus with them. More than anything we are excited that our boys will be a part of this and we absolutely wouldn't have it any other way. We will be leaving in a few weeks, keep us in your thoughts and prayers!

GET IN SHAPE GIRL!

Hey all you ladies out there, I know you will be feeling this... my friend Kelley Terwillegar has recently started her own business and I promised her an email to some of my lady friends as well as a blog post on the matter!! She is a personal trainer who will come to your home, she offers classes during the day with babysitting options to be discussed. She teaches dance, yoga, pilates and group exercise as well. She would love to have some new clients, so give her a holler if you are feeling the need to "get in shape girl!" I have known her for a little over a year, we both work with the dance team at THS, she is a coach and I am a choreographer (she specializes in dance and technique while you know this crazy kid does hip hop) She is absolutely amazing! She is also offering several classes through the TLC (Tahoma Learning Center) for peops of all ages.

Email her at: THE.DANCE.SPOT@hotmail.com
Check out her website: www.myspace.com/THEDANCESPOT

"Parents choose to homeschool for many reasons. They've dared hope that their children won't follow the suicidal paths of our culture in thought, deed, or outlook. Led by the Spirit of God, some parents have recognized the traps in our culture and gone one step further; they've realized that, the world go where it may, we are not bound to go with it... "Escapism!" cry the critics. They're right. Homeschoolers are escapists. Like Joseph fleeing from Potiphar's wife, we do what we can to escape from sin and destruction. We are running from warped views of sexuality...we are running from skyrocketing divorce rates...we are running from rebellion, lies and "me too" materialism. We are running from a pop culture that values conformity and discourages thought. God help us - I wish more could escape. Homeschooling for many of us, is not just a choice. It is a calling. "You can't shelter your children forever," the concerned tell us. "They have to learn about evil sooner or later." And again, they're right. One day they will face it in their own hearts, and only God will be great enough to save them. But they will learn about evil by their parents' NOT their peers', side. They will face it with their feet on a solid foundation. God has called thousands of families to remove their children from the permeation of modern culture; the humanistic teachings of schools, the folly of following peers, and the immoral pressures of youth culture..."

written by: Rachel Starr Thomson www.LittleDozen.com excerpt from Above This Valley

Happy New Year!!!

Jubilee Joy and Jafeth Roy, aren't they cute?
Cami, Micah, Justice and Hope, what good friends!
Emma, Monika, Kim and Gabriel, in our pjs on New Years eve
The Sullards, and Sloan in the corner
Uncle Corey with Cami and Justice on Christmas Day

Christmas Eve opening gifts
Cami striking quite the pose...
Kim and Kevin by the "Santa Head" notorious around here...
Cami and Justice in the Christmas Play at Church, they were orphans

Mercy, Justice, Cami and Raami on Christmas Eve

Surprise!!! Kevin, Anne, Cole, Caroline
Rory and Sloan on Christmas Eve, buds! Grandma and Sloan on Christmas Day, they are so cute!
Cami and Justice on Christmas Day at Grandma's house

Happy New Year Everyone, and Merry Christmas too since I haven't done a blog post since November (yikes). I could say I have been really busy... or whatever, but the honest truth is I just kept putting it off since I hadn't downloaded pics from my camera to my computer, yadayadayada. So anywho, I hope you all had as blessed of a Christmas season as we did. In mid-December Cami and Justice were in the play at our church and Cami sang a solo (the First Noel) it was so precious! Zach took me to the Michael W. Smith concert which was amazing! Then Kevin and Anne and their kids surprised us on Christmas day by driving up from Cali! We spent Christmas eve with our dear friends the Nelsons and Christmas day with family and the Owens. We drove to Spokane for New Years to see our good friends the MacDonalds and even got to stop in and see the Sullards as well!

A THANKSGIVING WEEKEND TO REMEMBER!!!

WHOA! We had quite the Thanksgiving weekend. Blogger posted everything backwards so we will take you from Sunday back to Thursday...

Ran the Seattle half marathon today... not as bad as running the Portland last month, but my theory of "riding on the coattails of my marathon training" (aka NOT training since the marathon) did not turn out quite as expected... in fact my finish time was down about 3-4 minutes this year.... oh well, it was a beautiful day for a "long short run" as Keri and I like to refer to half marathons...
Keri, Olivia and Kim at the finish, feeling pretty good. Olivia kicked tush on her time ofcourse!! She is so smokin' fast!
I love Olivia! Look how great she looks, and she just ran 13 miles at about an 8min. or so pace...
Keri and Kim... Yes! Another finish!!!
Shane and Olivia at the finish.
WHAT???????????????? GO COUGS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We kicked the UW's tushies in the apple cup (last 3 out of 4 years I might add) I sang the cougar fight song so many times that my throat hurt, that is a true coug for you!

GO COUGS!!!
Okay, here we are on Saturday, the boys ran the Seattle Kids Marathon with the Nelson Clan. We all had a great time ofcourse. Justice ran his 1.2 miles in about 8-9 minutes, I was limping along behind him...

"The Gang" prerace...
"The Gang" postrace, except Kim and Justice were already inside.
Great Job Justice, Cami, Jared, Mercy and Raami!!

Here is Sloan on friday looking pretty cool out on the trail. He ran 5 miles in 2 days to help the boys finish up their miles for the kids marathon, he is only 3 years old! He is a man of endurance....

Yay!! Zach finally came out on the boys and I "stomping grounds"... the trails... we all had a lot of fun.
Saturday was Trevor's Birthday but we celebrated on Friday by going to Chuck E. Cheese's. Happy Birthday Trevor, you special boy you! I love his crown, he looks so cute. Plus that way Andrea and I could tell him and Cami apart...
This is my favorite picture from the whole weekend! Look how beautiful Andrea looks! What a cute couple, they are so special to Zach and me!!!!!
Happy Birthday Trevor!!!!!

This is Thanksgiving night, we went to our friends parents house for dessert, it was really special to spend time with them, we love you Karen and Erik and family!

Jafeth and Abby hung out on Thanksgiving, they had a lot of fun together:-) I love you Karen!!!
We had ham and potatoes for Thanksgiving dinner at my moms house, with my brother Corey too. It was yummy and a lot of fun too! Thanks for inviting us mom:-) You are invited to our house for Christmas.... love you! Also Thanks for watching the boys while I ran the half marathon, what would I do without you???

A random trail picture that decided to post itself at the end.

These are all my handsome men!

Well, that was quite a Thanksgiving Weekend to remember! A lot to be thankful for, especially all our family and friends. Thank you Jesus for all your blessings you give us, we are so grateful.

Justice and Cami on diaper patrol...

Last night I was getting the little boys bathed before Zach got home from work and Sloan was in the bathtub already. Well there was some crisis downstairs with the dog that I was dealing with and I asked Justice and Cami to get Jafeth undressed and put him in the tub with Sloan and then keep their eyes on him until I could get up there. Well I heard some sort of scuffling and giggling upstairs about five minutes later so I hollered up at the boys "did you get Jafe in the tub yet?" and they said "no, he's poopy." So I hollered up "okay, I will be up in just a minute." Well, I headed upstairs and what do I come across? Justice wiping Jafeth clean and Cami holding Jafe's arms and distracting him. They did a great job and got him all cleaned up, undressed and in the bathtub! I was so amazed and proud of them! Justice said "I never knew I could change his diaper, it was pretty easy!" Cami quickly put the diaper in a safeway sack and put it on the front porch for Zach to throw away (that is Cami's "job" he is our local diaper duty man). Anyway, I was so blessed I just had to share that. My boys have their share of unlovely chores (obviously disposing of nasty diapers is Cami's) and Justice is forever on laundry patrol, no easy task with 6 people a puppy and 2 flights of stairs to contend with between where we shed our clothes and the laundry area is. (He is also required to sort them into whites and colors in the appropriate baskets as well). I know that any of you moms with girls are snickering, but let me tell you, seven and six year old boys don't usually volunteer for diaper duty! Thank you Lord for my boys, they are so great!

Veterans Day!!

Hey Everyone! Hope you all had a great Veterans Day or a weekend of celebrations like we did! On Saturday my good friend Olivia threw a surprise party for her husband Shane because he is officially done serving his time with the military this coming week. Congratulations Shane and Olivia! We are so proud of you that you served our country. Thanks for serving Shane and all the military men and women out there. Shane also spent some time in Iraq. He is a man of honor and we are blessed by him!

Shane and Olivia, they are so cute!
Here is our family outside of Olivia's parents house. Jafeth looks a little roughed up, but we might use this pic for our Christmas cards this year... check out Sloan, he looks like a spinasaurus.
Surprise Shane!
























Today is Sloan's very best bud in the whole world, Rory's birthday! Rory turned the big 3!!! He is such a great little boy and he is very dear to our hearts. I am so happy that Sloan has his own best bud like Justice and Cami have Gavin and Trevor. We love you very much Rory, hope your birthday is the best!



Rory on the left, Sloan on the right, eating cupcakes. They are wearing the same shirt!







Rory with a big smile on his face, opening his present:-)

Jafeth on the left, Rory in the middle, Sloan on the right.
Two peas in a pod!

Raami and Rory, what a sweet picture!