Family Fun!

So, as you may have seen in previous blogs ... this is our adorable niece Ellie (notice name tag)! Andrea's sister (Jill), Ellie, and Ava (2 year old niece) came to visit this weekend! We had so much fun! It was family time all weekend, which was great! Andrea's dad works a lot and thus is normally catching up on sleep on the weekends or working.... this weekend he had off and the nieces were in town... so it was family fun! So, back to the picture above of Ellie... she really likes the movies "Little Rascals", "The Wizard of Oz", and "Charlotte's Web". So, she likes to pretend to be the characters in the movies or make others participate in plays involving the characters from the 3 movies. She proceeded to make name tags (writing the names all by herself) to put on a production on the stage (fireplace). Here are some pictures from the festivities....

Here is Ellie (as Darla from the "Little Rascals") and Uncle Joe (as the Wizard from "The Wizard of Oz") ...notice the beautiful name tags. Joe was called to the stage to sing "We're Off to See the Wizard"!

Andrea's dad (as the Lion from "Wizard of Oz") and Ellie. "Over the Rainbow" was this performance!!! :)

So, after the plays and Ellie making everyone sing... we went for a walk in the woods behind Andrea's parent's house. It was fun showing the nieces all the animal tracks and trudging in the woods. So, above, is Andrea's dad, Andrea, and Joe's attempt at a snow fort. Ellie wanted a snow fort with a roof. So, as you can see that's what she got... we used up most of the snow in the yard... and with Andrea's dad's expertise... we made a roof using some cardboard and covered it with snow! Ellie and Ava wanted to stay in their snow fort all day and eat snow!

Cooking FUN!

So, for some reason, we decided to cook a turkey. Well, I guess I know the reason... it sounded good and I thought the meat could be used over and over again for various other meals. So, we bought a turkey and cooked a big dinner for my parents. This was our second attempt at turkey baking. My mom told us, "It was the best turkey I've ever had". So I guess... we did okay. Here are some pictures of Joe and I slaving away in the kitchen! We really enjoy cooking... especially together!

Joe's haircut

So, Joe's hair was getting way too long. It needed cut very badly. If you don't believe me, here are some pictures!

Joe with a full head of hair!
and ....
Joe with a fro!
Haha... this was after I washed his hair in the sink with the squirter! I felt like a beauty professional!
So, you are probably wondering, why in the world did we let his hair get this long???! Well, I (Andrea) had to substitute teach right before we left to travel for Christmas festivities. So, I never got around to cutting his hair and quite frankly it didn't even cross my mind or his to do so. But, thank goodness... here is what he looks like now... after I cut his hair.

Whoa... much better!

I enjoy cutting his hair. I am getting better at fading it throughout so he doesn't get a "Marine cut" or "high and tight"(Joe's terminology). Notice - his facial hair is even trimmed!

Indy Christmas Conference

From December 28th to January 1st, we had a blast at the regional conference for Campus Crusade for Christ in Indianapolis. There were 2000 students at the conference. We had a great time hearing from the speakers and being challenged to be Christ's ambassadors. We also went out in Indy to share food and Christ's love with the needy.

Dave (a student from Illinois State University), Ivan (a man we shared Christ's love with), and Andrea out in the community of Indy

Joe out in Indy with Amanda and Ruth-Anne (students from Illinois State University) looking for someone to talk to about God's love

We had a great time hanging out with our future students. We were up so late every night spending time with them. We are still trying to catch-up on sleep, especially after going to bed at 4am some nights! We had to get up early everyday, too. Staff with CCC have jobs at the conference to serve the students and for the whole shabang to go smoothly. We were a part of the ballroom crew. This meant we needed to be at the meeting an hour and a half early and get up at around 6am everyday. We did really enjoy our job, despite being tired every morning! It was fun greeting the students as they came into the meetings! We had to make sure only the people allowed into the meetings came in and had the responsbility of opening and closing the doors! We also put information on about 2000 seats every morning! Needless to say, we had an amazing time at Christmas Conference! We love our students and can't wait to get to Illinois!

Some highlights from our time in Indy were: being challenged in our relationships with God, amazing praise and worship, praying and praising in the New Year, sharing God's love in the community, spending quality time with students, hanging out with old friends, and thinking all this greatness is just a part of working with Campus Crusade for Christ! An added bonus to the time, was getting to stay in a super nice hotel for a really cheap price. We stayed in the Westin - yes, they advertise heavenly beds, and they were heavenly!

Look at the heavenly bed and our super nice room!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas! Hope your holiday has been as great as ours. We have been having such a great time with family and reflecting on Jesus' birth! We have been to Lewisburg, Ohio to spend time with Joe's parents and to Illinois to spend time with Andrea's family. We will be traveling later today to another part of Illinois for Christmas fun with Joe's extended family. Here are some pictures of all the fun!!!



In Lewisburg, we went to a fun light display throughout a park with Joe's parents. It was quite fun and they even had free hot chocolate!

Joe with his mom (Debi) at the light display.


Having fun on the bridge with the fog and Christmas lights.


Our adorable nieces pumped for Christmas!

Our nieces were an absolute hoot on Christmas. They are just the perfect ages for tearing open the presents! They kept saying "Oh my gosh, look what I got"! Hope you all have been having a great Christmas!

1.5 year anniversary

Yesterday, was our 1.5 year anniversary. It seems crazy that we have been married that long! I guess time flies when you're having fun!

Thanksgiving fun and more!

Joe and his momma (Debi) and Andrea with her momma-in-law

So, we had a great Thanksgiving! We traveled to Joe's hometown to spend time with his family. It was wonderful, since we have not spent time with them in awhile. We went to Joe's aunt's house for Thanksgiving dinner, which was delicious. We had a great time hanging out with his cousins, parents, and aunt and uncle! This year consisted of eating too much, playing games (ping pong, darts, pool), and giving tutorials on our Garmin GPS (Joe's parents and aunt and uncle really wanted to get a GPS on Black Friday and we had won one awhile back).

We also really enjoyed spending extended time with Joe's parents and helping them put up their Christmas decorations. Joe's parents had never had a artificial tree before so wanted our help putting it up. Andrea has become a pro at this endeavour (and filling in the holes) because her family has always had an artificial Christmas tree. Here is the final product!

Joe's parent's Christmas tree that we decorated!

Another pivotal time of our stay in Lewisburg, Ohio was playing Joe's mom's favorite game - Aggravation. We played probably ten times before Joe won. Here is a picture of when he won! He was so excited and kept jumping up and down. His mom was laughing so hard she was crying!

Joe is pumped about winning! Not only did he win, but he schooled us!