A bird doesn't sing because it has an answer...

I've been so busy at work over the past week, and with the holidays and loosing power, we haven't been home a lot, so I guess those are my excuses for not blogging. While my blogging stopped, life did not. Over the past couple of weeks, we endured a ice/snow storm, lost power for 3 and a half days, Bryan and I celebrated our third Christmas being married, Macie had her first Christmas (with a huge bone from Bryan's parents and a stocking from my bro) and we went on a weekend retreat with the Bernard family. I got a new laptop for Christmas from my wonderful husband, but unfortunately, the internet doesn't work well enough out at our house for me to put photos up. I will put photos up tomorrow of the ice storm, snow, and the weekend at the beach. Macie loved the snow. She was constantly chasing (and eating) snowballs Bryan would throw for her. The only part she didn't like was being left out in the cold when we had to go somewhere. Our house was slammed by the stor

Here is little Isla Lute. I haven't had photos of her for a while, since our camera was gone for a while. She just got over being cholicy, and is really happy now. She really was smiling a lot, but not really for the camera. Kyle thought pinching her cheeks together would make her smile. It didn't work, but we caught her smiling by herself later.

Hooray for "Arctic Blast!" Macie and the kids had a great time out in the snow yesterday morning....Macie even had the chance to make her first yellow snow. She still hasn't quite figured out how to run on the slippery stuff, but now she loves running around in it so much that she won't come inside when we call her. This is her being sad that we are leaving her to go to church. Jae made a snowman yesterday morning and Daniel is trying to eat its head. This is us trying to get Macie to sit nicely for a family picture, but she would never face the camera. We are bribing her with cheese.

This weekend we are having four of our high school students over to spend the weekend with us! Since we aren't super interesting, and poor, our activities revolve around free things our families can provide. So far we have been to my parents' house to see the puppies...which was a big hit with the kids. Here's my mom getting some love from one of the pups. Now we are at the Bernards' house (they are in Hawaii) playing Wii. Next we will be going back to our house to eat dinner and then to the Corban basketball game. Oh the exciting lives we lead! Daniel (below) and Veronica (above) put the pups in their hoods. The pups seemed pretty content. Jae really liked this little guy (no. 5 puppy). He stole him from Daniel's hood and then the little guy fell asleep in his arms (below). I love this photo - notice the top puppy stomping on the one below him!

Latest things Macie has eaten -- a roll of scotch tape (including plastic holder) and bits of Christmas tree

This is our first Christmas in our house! It's so great to be able and spread out our Christmas decorations through the house, and have room to have people over for the holidays! Bryan and I went out to get our Christmas tree with his parents on Saturday...before the humiliating Civil War, and we got everything set up too! Our tree is about 9 feet tall and goes all the way up to the peak of our vaulted ceiling in the living room. It looks great with all the lights and we are loving walking into a house that smells like a forest. Here's a photo of our huge tree before we decorated it. It basically makes Bryan look like a little kid! Bryan and I were discussing that whoever thought of hauling in a Christmas tree, putting lights on it and presents underneath it was a genius. We love Christmas, especially Bryan, who would play Christmas carols year-round if I let him!

So since I am at a loss for new photos, I decided to go dig up a classic from my past with Bryan - our first date. Look how little we are! This was taken in December of 2001, our junior year of high school before the winter formal (SnoBall). As you can tell from this photo, we are rather awkward with our hands and not knowing what to do (or even where to look at the camera!). We weren't dating at this time, and I had gotten up the courage to ask him to SnoBall (it's a guy-ask-girl dance) as a friend. I was partially convinced by Samantha and Melissa to do this, and part of me really wanted to ask him, but didn't want to get rejected. I decorated his Buick on the inside with snowflakes and streamers to ask him, and he called that night to say yes! It was my first dance, and I borrowed the dress from Amanda Acker (then Uram) -- thanks Amanda! I'm not sure whose idea the umbrella was, but I think we were both relieved that Bryan had something to hold in this photo. We had

So my camera is in the shop, and I, in turn, am feeling helpless. Somehow its LCD screen got cracked and the display no longer works, so I had to send it away to Nikon in California, and apparently it takes up to 2 weeks to get back! I normally carry my camera around in my bag with me, everywhere I go...now my bag is very light and I keep driving by things I wish I could take photos of. It's driving me insane...how did I manage before my camera....and so my dependancy on electronics continues. So I write this to let you know that there won't be any new photos on here for a while, but maybe I will dig up some interesting ones, since no one likes to read a blog without photos!

With my husband gone at a pastor's conference in Washington, I took Macie over to visit my parents and the puppies. My family ended up playing Scrabble, upon my suggestion, and I ended up holding little #4 girl puppy in my hood all night. She just snuggled right in there against the back of my neck only letting out the occasional mew when she had a bad dream. Macie had a good time getting to know the puppies too, even though their cries made her nervous. She wouldn't stop licking little #4, so I had to hide her in my hood. They are so cute, but still blind for a few more days. They get cuter every time I see them!

On this day to remember those who serve and some who have paid the ultimate price, the rain came down in buckets. I suppose it's fitting for a day like today to be stormy, because, after all, sacrifice is not a sunny topic. It is somber, like the rain, and even though the flags fly wet today, thanks be to God that they still fly.

Two months ago, this was our game night crowd. Now, we have added two more...Ben and Isla. Ben is happily back at home after National Guard training, and Isla is happily breathing air instead of floating around in Kari's belly. Here is Ben and Isla in a staring contest. Isla was pretty unstoppable, but Ben managed to win once!

My parents' dog RyeLeigh had her third litter of puppies yesterday, and she had her biggest litter ever -- 12! The poor dog looked like a cow before she had those pups! I went over there yesterday to see them, and they are really cute, but they are still blind, and their cuteness is nowhere near how cute they will get. If anyone is looking for the cutest puppies ever for Christmas, these will be weaned just in time and they are awesome, purebred German Shorthair Pointers - great family and hunting dogs.

So I'm a bit late because I thought Bryan was going to update his blog with these photos, but I guess he's not yet because he's too busy (understandably). Bryan holds a high school Bible study on Wednesday night, called Man Club because it used to be just for guys, and the name stuck. Anyway, on the week of Halloween, he brought the kids up to Salem to go to the deaf school haunted house. Shocker -- they have never been to a haunted house, and hardly any of them carve pumpkins! Isn't that terrible?! Anyway, we exposed them to the scary clowns, strobe lights and chainsaw attacks of the deaf school haunted house, and I had a great time laughing at all their screaming. I only got scared once...maybe twice. My favorite was when a guy popped out and freaked Bryan out! I laughed so hard! The whole time I had Sun literally attached to my left arm. I think she had her eyes closed the entire time and was crying by the end...yes she is a Junior in high school. We had a great ti