A W's a W

That's right, a win's a win...in case you hadn't noticed (ahem, Brandon), I beat my yearly posting from 2008...oh yeah!!

Happy New Year!!!

Happy 2010 from the York's!! This past year was full of change as usual, and as usual, God has blessed our family more than we could ever imagine. My resolutions for 2010 are 1) to lose the 20 pounds that I've been trying to lose for the past year, 2) to get our finances in order so that I can continue to be at stay at home mommy even when my unemployment runs out this Spring, and 3) to be more bold in sharing my faith and living out my life in whatever way the Spirit leads me. I hope your 2010 is full of happiness and love through our wonderful Savior, Christ Jesus!!

Sorry some of these pictures are really blurry, we went downtown for the first time ever since living here (can you believe that?) and ate at the Rainforest Cafe and walked around the Riverwalk. Timothy had been playing with the camera in the restaurant and I didn't realize he'd gotten smudges all over the camera lens. Oh well!! The other pictures are just normal craziness around the house. Charlotte has decided she likes to pose for the camera and Timothy was being cheesy as usual.

Christmas 2009

We spent Christmas this year with Brandon's family in East Texas. We drove over there Tuesday afternoon and spent lots of time playing with family and eating (LOTS of) good food! The kids had a blast playing with their cousins and we enjoyed catching up with everyone. As usual, all of the pictures are on facebook, but here are some of my favorites. Santa was very good to Timothy and Charlotte this year. Timothy got a big boy set of real golf clubs and an art desk and Charlotte got a slide and a sing a long stage thing. They also both got a TON of new clothes this year and I think between my mom and Brandon's mom, Charlotte could be the next poster child for Gymboree!! I really think she owns almost every outfit they had in their stores this fall/winter! Just another happy reminder of how much God has blessed our family this year!

For Grumpy

This past Friday I got to keep my brother's kids for the morning and although it was a little crazy, I did manage to snap some pictures. Channing grabbed the Yankees foam finger that Timothy got this past summer so I ran for the camera to take a picture for my dad, who is arguably, the world's biggest Yankees fan!! The only other time they were all still was at lunch, so those were the only other pictures I got...pardon the messy faces and food (and the fact that Channing has no pants on, they played outside that morning and they all got really muddy so we had to throw all the clothes in the wash while we ate lunch)!! If you haven't please read my sister in law's blog (The Crafton Family) and please pray for their sweet baby boy that is due in February. I don't think I'll get a chance to post again before we leave for Buna, so Merry Christmas to all!!!

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

It's Beginning to Look a Lot like Christmas!

So, I know Christmas is next week (ahhh!), but we finally got the lights up on the house tonight, better late than never, right? I only have to buy for four more people and I know exactly what to get them so it's just a matter of getting to the store! We have been so incredibly busy this past week, yesterday and today were a nice break from the craziness! Last week, we got home Sunday night and then our friends, the Herkens, came to stay with us for a few days while they were visiting family in TX. We had a blast visiting with them, and of course, the kids had so much fun playing. We went to the zoo and Chuck E Cheese and attempted to make a gingerbread house. Then on Saturday, we drove over to Houston to see the Thompson family and celebrate Christmas with them. They had gotten us tickets to their church Christmas party and even had a babysitter to watch the kids so it was a great trip!! Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures though :( We got back Sunday afternoon and went over to my brother's house Monday night to celebrate Christmas with his family and my parents, and, I didn't get any pictures that night either...but I do have some of the best gingerbread house ever made, and the beautiful lights on our house that my amazing husband came home early today to finish!!

It Wouldn't be a Trip Home...

...if there wasn't any drama! Wow, well we knew we were going up to WA for Thanksgiving, we left the Tuesday before the holiday and got in there late that night. We planned to stay until the following Saturday (so like 10 days) but ended up staying a little longer, keep reading to find out why, but I warn you, this could be long and rambling!!

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving, we got to see all of the WA side of the family and we got to meet my sister's new boyfriend Mike; we just loved him, what a sweet guy! We had some great food, watched some football, and had a really good time. That night, however, Charlotte decided she didn't want to sleep, and Brandon's stomach decided it didn't want to keep all that delicious food so he was up all night throwing it all back up...gross. Not a great way to start off a trip, but still, we got through it! We got my parents' Christmas tree on Friday and decorated the house for Christmas. The kids had fun playing with all of Grammy's Christmas decorations. On Saturday, we went to Poulsbo to see Heather and Kevin and Tyler's new house and celebrate Tyler's 11th (that's right, I said 11th) birthday. Can you believe that kid is so old :) Timothy really loved playing ping pong and Charlotte loved playing with the puppies.

On Sunday morning, we went to church and noticed that the police had the street blocked off when we turned to go to the building. We found out after Bible class that there had been a shooting at the coffee shop down the road and four police officers had been killed. That was the most tense sermon I've ever sat through! You could hear the helicopters overhead, there were several men from the congregation patrolling the outside of the building and we were told at the end of the service to please leave quickly and carefully because the shooter was still on the loose. The police ended up catching and killing him later that week, but it was so so sad to hear about the families that the fallen police officers left behind, all of them had children and the coffee shop that they were killed at was the place that Brandon and I used to go every Sunday morning to pick up coffee for church (they donate a huge thing of coffee to our church every week), and we know several of the girls that work there by name.

They ended up cancelling services that evening, so Brandon and I went out on a date night and saw New Moon and got some dinner. It was nice to get away from the kids for the night and we're SO thankful to have grandparents that love and spoil them so much!! On Monday, my parents and Brandon and I took the kids to the Children's Museum in Tacoma. They had so much fun playing dress up and making movies and doing art projects. Timothy worked in the "store" and the "restaurant" and Charlotte mostly played with the magnets. It was a really neat museum. On Tuesday, my nephew Tyler came over and we celebrated his actual birthday by getting Santa pictures made and bowling and playing mini golf. Timothy had so much fun, I think that was his most favorite day of the whole trip. Wednesday we stayed pretty low-key and just hung out, and Thursday we went to see that Planet 51 movie, not a great movie, but we had the whole theater to ourselves, so the kids pretty much just ran around the whole time and had fun. On Friday, my mom and Charlotte and I did a little shopping and the boys hung out at home and McD's. That night, we went up to see my nephew sing in his church's Christmas program, it was really cute and Timothy sang along to every song. It was such a good week and it really made me miss living up in the NW.

The real adventure was on Saturday. We had an early flight and Brittany did too, so we all left about 5am for the airport. It was really foggy and really cold and about 30 minutes into the trip, we hit a patch of ice and spun out really bad, went off the highway, through some brush and finally into a concrete wall. It was pretty scary, and thankfully, no one was seriously hurt. Brittany was really sore and ended up going to the ER on a stretcher in a neck brace and my mom hit her shoulder pretty bad on the car seat. Timothy and Charlotte both immediately started crying, but calmed down pretty quickly when got them out of their car seats. We were all pretty upset and shaken up and finally made it to Brittany's car (where my dad and Brandon had been) and the police told us where to drive to to pick up my dad who went with the tow truck. We got to the car dealership and while we were waiting on the police to finish writing everything up, Timothy started crying that his back hurt and then he started throwing up. We told the cop that we needed an ambulance and me, Brittany, and Timothy all rode in the ambulance to the hospital. Timothy was admitted, had some x-rays done, and was finally released, they said everything looked fine, he probably just threw up because he was scared. Brittany was released about the same time, she's fine as well, just really sore. I think we were all quite traumatized. Timothy will tell you in detail about everything that happened that morning, I took him for a follow up with his pediatrician this morning and she said that physically he's fine, but the re-living everything and anxiety might last for a few weeks.

The ER doc wouldn't let him fly on Saturday though, so we had to wait till Sunday afternoon to fly out. When we went to check in for our flight, they told us that it was delayed and we were going to miss our connection in Denver so we couldn't fly out that day, we would have to re-book. We talked to a different ticket agent who immediately got us booked on a flight that left that afternoon and went through L.A. instead (thank you nice United agent, whoever you are). So we flew to L.A. and right before we were supposed to board for San Antonio, the gate agent announced that there was a weather advisory in San Antonio and that we were going to try and land there, but if we couldn't, we would be re-routed to Oklahoma City. I almost cried at that point!! I just wanted to get home!! So, we got on board and thankfully, God held off on the fog and we were able to land around midnight.

What a trip!! Needless to say, we're very tired and we were very thankful to have a nice peaceful day today! We do have a busy month this month and we're really looking forward to catching up with friends that we haven't seen in a while, visiting with my parents while they're down here for a couple of weeks, and going to Brandon's parents' house for Christmas. Here are some of the pictures from Thanksgiving, I'll put them all on facebook!

Around the House

We've been having a pretty low-key week this week, no plans, nothing much going on, it's been nice to relax and hang out at home. I snapped a few pictures of the kids playing though, for the most part they play well together, but Timothy seems to think he has to be right next to Charlotte, which usually means that he knocks her over and she cries. She seems to think that she has to have whatever he's playing with, which usually means that she ends up climbing all over him...and then he knocks her down...it's a never-ending cycle! Her hair is getting really long in the back and front though, you can see how crazy it's getting! She rocked a mini side pony the other day in an attempt by me to get her bangs out of her face. I'm trying to let them grow out and they keep hanging in her face. She has learned to pull her bows out, so I thought if it was in a ponytail that she couldn't mess that up as fast. She really didn't like it, but it looked pretty cute! I'm just tired of her rubbing her eyes all the time because her hair is in her face! Anyway, here are some pictures. I probably won't get in another post till we get back from Thanksgiving, so Happy Turkey Day!!

"For the Least of These"

I know that this blog is pretty much always about my kids, but humor me this one time :) and let me write up some things that have been on my mind and going on in our lives lately. A few weeks ago, I started getting this nagging feeling that something in my life was missing, that I was doing the things I needed to do to get by, but that there was something more that I could do, and I just couldn't figure out what. Two weeks ago, while Brandon was gone playing basketball and the kids were in their beds, I picked up a book that my mom had gotten me a couple months ago and started to read it. The book is called "Crazy Love" by Francis Chan and it has completely changed the way I view my life. It was such a challenging book and it really made me think about how I was spending my time and how God wanted me to live this life that He's given to me.

I finished the book in about a week, and I think I underlined most of it, one piece that really stood out to me was the following - "In Matthew 25 we get a frightening picture of the coming judgement. In this passage, Christ condemns people to eternal punishment because they did not care for Him during their lives on earth. 'I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me'. The condemned protest, saying that they never saw Christ in any of these positions of need, and Jesus responds,' I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me'. Ouch. To me that is like a stinging, unexpected slap in the face. Like many of you, I've heard that passage taught on numerous occasions. I've left convicted, but haven't taken it literally. We see it as a fresh perspective on poverty rather than a literal picture of impending judgement. How would my life change if I actually thought of each person I came into contact with as Christ-the person driving painfully slow in front of me, the checker at the grocery store who seems more interested in chatting than ringing up my items, the member of my own family with whom I can't seem to have a conversation and not get annoyed?"

Sorry, I know that was a long quote, but it really hit me...I'm so incredibly selfish and I'm teaching that same characteristic to my children. So once I finished reading the book, I spent quite a bit of time in prayer and asked for God to help me find opportunities to give, really really give. I spent one night last week looking up to see what places in San Antonio needed volunteers for service work and immediately begin to feel a tug on my heart to help the homeless. I've never been one of those people who refuses to give to homeless people because I think they'll waste my money, but I never really gave much more than a couple of dollars and then rolled my window back up and kept going. I wanted to be different this time and from now on...so last Friday, the kids and I headed to WalMart after reading an article from a friend that had some GREAT suggestions on what homeless people really need. We put together five gallon sized ziploc bags full of bottled water, socks, gum, jerkey, granola bars, toothbrush/toothpaste, chapstick, and a note with the address and hours of our church's Care Cottage which gives food and clothes to needy people. We threw them all in the car and just took off driving. It didn't take us long to find a man on the corner near our WalMart and Timothy was so happy to hand out a bag of stuff to "someone who doesn't have nothing".

We ended up handing out four of the five bags total. The difference to me, this time, was that I put myself out of my comfort zone and talked to these people, asked them their names, how their day had been, I told them I was going to pray for them and that I would hopefully see them again. One man, Willy, told me I had the biggest smile he had seen all day. Another man, Gary, teared up a little when I told him I would pray for him. Willy didn't have any legs and was in a wheelchair and Timothy was really interested in that, he kept asking me where Mr. Willy's legs and toes went, so I told him that the next time we saw him, he could ask. Hopefully we'll see Willy again and we can bring him some more food. Farther along in "Crazy Love", Mr. Chan writes that "Jesus is saying (in the passage from Matt. 25) that we show tangible love for God in how we care for the poor and those who are suffering. He expects us to treat the poor and the desperate as if they were Christ Himself."

I can't even tell you what a great start this has been for me and the kids. Timothy asks every day if we can "ride in the car and find people who don't have nothing". And God has blessed us already and quite abundantly! We got a notice in the mail over the weekend that said WA state was extending my unemployment pay another month! Tonight, I went to WalMart and gave all my spare quarters to the Salvation Army bell ringer at the door and when I got inside, I immediately noticed a man looking at me, I had to walk past him, so I smiled and he waved me over and told me that I looked like a walking angel, that he had never seen someone looking so radiant. Now, I know what I looked like when I walked into that store, in my sweats and with very little make up on, so my only conclusion is that that man saw Jesus shining through me.

Now, I've struggled with posting this for a while, because I didn't want anyone to think that I was bragging, or boasting...but I can't help but share what God has done for me in the past two weeks. More than anything, I feel joy - real, happy in my heart, joy. And if sharing my story can bless someone else and help them to feel that same joy that comes from serving God with your whole heart, than I'm happy I took the time to write this all out. Please pray for Willy and Gary, I don't know much about them, but I'm hoping to see them again. It's really getting cold at night here and I hope they have a safe, warm place to sleep at night. And pray for our family, that we can continue to boldly show the love of Christ to those who need it most.

Why, to the North Pole, of Course!

This past weekend, we drove up to Palestine, TX and took a trip to the North Pole on the Polar Express. It was so much fun, Timothy was just precious. He reminded me of Will Ferrell's character in the movie, Elf. He was so excited to be there and to see the North Pole and Santa Claus! We got to the hotel Saturday afternoon and hung out for a bit with the family and then we all went to Ryan's for dinner and then to the train station. They had it decorated so pretty and there were so many fun places to take pictures. Once we got on the train, they played the songs from the movie, and the waiters sang and danced along to the "Hot Chocolate" song while they served us hot chocolate and cookies. We rode all the way to the "North Pole" where Santa got on the train and came to see every child and give them their own special "I Believe" bell. The kids had so much fun and Timothy really was so happy and excited. Hopefully we can go back next year when Charlotte understands more too! And just a note - all of the pictures are on facebook, but I only put some of them on here...