Christmas!

We are having a wonderful and relaxing Christmas break and hope you all are, too!
Some things we've been doing....

Visiting with friends...

Elaina, Ian and the rest of the kids in our church sang a couple Sundays ago. It was so much fun to watch them! :)

Ian and Seth doing some necessary trimming.... :)

Of course we have been playing in the snow, too!!!! YAY!!!

We've also been baking, spending time with family, playing games....
Elaina, Ian and Seth have been spending a lot of time playing with Playmobiles!!! Fun! :)

I hope everyone had a wonderful CHRISTmas!
~M~

Celery

Seth enjoying Dad's celery.

YUM!!

Michigan November

It has been an incredibly mild November so far in MI! We are so thankful for the wonderful weather this late in the year. :)

Andrea's leaf photography

Seth and Frisky

Ian!

My brothers are so much fun. :)

Well... so are my sisters.

~M~

BJU '09

I got back from the Bob Jones University High School Festival in South Carolina a few of days ago and am finally getting around to posting about it. :) We had a wonderful trip and God really blessed our group. The group was lots bigger this year which was great! We had a ton of fun. Here are a few pictures from the trip....

The first picture of the week taken at a rest stop. I almost squashed the poor bug thinking it was a stick. Stick bugs are so neat!!!

North Carolina = Beautiful!
God shows His power and majesty through His creation.

Liesl and Danielle in NC

In the gameroom at BJU playing Dutch Blitz

I played a harp solo....

...violin solo...

...and piano duet (this picture is the me part of it...hehe).

David and Liesl practicing on the stage because.....

...they got 1st place in string ensembles!
If anyone remembers from the BJU post '08, they got second last year.
For BJU, getting 1st is really good-- there are a lot of super talented people there from all over the states.
Good job!

~Sisters in Christ~

Liesl and Danielle

Danielle, Amber and Rachel

Danielle and me

Amber and me

Rachel and Amber

~Friends are amazing!~

The whole group the day before we left.
If anyone remembers from last year... we had 8 people, so this was really neat!

What kept me going on the way home--sugar!!!!!!!!!!
Well.... almost... I didn't stay awake quite the whole way. Driving 16 hours after a week at Bob Jones made me tired.... :)

Thanks for your prayers. It was so exciting for me to see how God worked through this week. It was fun, stretching, short, a great learning experience, somewhat scary, long, tiring.... an awesome week!


~Marissa

For Aunt Robbie....

... you said you like candid photos!
We did not pose these! :D

This was the only one that almost worked... but Seth is making a funny face. Haha... oh well!!

~M and A~

Chester Kids

~Boys~
Seth and Ian

~Girls~
Marissa, Andrea, Elaina

We love our siblings!
I think I already used this picture..... sorry! We don't have a lot of pictures of us all together unfortunately.

Quick Post

Pictures from the last week or so...

Sorry we haven't posted in a while. Things have been way too busy around here. Hopefully we will be able to get back to it soon... we'll see!
Hope everyone is having an excellent autumn!!!
~M~

Will you take a walk with me?

Words from Jesus

"I am the way and the truth and the life..."
John 14:6

"What is impossible with men is possible with God."
Luke 18:27

"I tell you the truth," Jesus replied, "no one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for me and the gospel will fail to receive a hundred times this much..."
Mark 10:29-30

"Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, but he who stands firm to the end will be saved."
Matthew 24:12-13

"... do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink..... Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them...."
Matthew 6:25-26

"The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are good, your whole body will be full of light."
Matthew 6:22

Thank you for coming with me! I hope you enjoyed our walk.

In the same way, Jesus is inviting us to walk with Him. This is the most exciting, fulfilling, amazing walk you will ever take. Answer Jesus' call today.
~M~

Harvest season is here!

Yes, it does take quite a bit of time to freeze, can, and deyhrate all of this food, but we are so grateful for the abundant harvest God has blessed us with this year! Ever with our small yard, we have so much stored up for the winter already (and lots more to go!).

"As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will never cease."
Genesis 8:22

"Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever."
Hebrews 13:8

Peaches.......

....lots and lots of peaches.

We have so many peaches right now! And this is only two trees (and we've only done about half)!

Mom and Grandma peeling and cutting.

Deciding which ones are ripe enough.

We have only canned 7 jars so far. We froze about 12 bags. So I guess it's not that many. It seems like SO many when we are preparing them, but I'm sure it will not seem that way this winter!