Condo, shopping, date night, Dr. Who, advent...

Well I am extremely pleased to announce that after many disappointing months of looking for apartments and places to live and not feeling like we were quite able to find the right thing, we are finally moving into our own place! It is my uncle & aunt's condo that they are trying to sell and we are very blessed to get the chance to live in it for a while and try to figure out where we want to live permanently. It is beautiful and spacious and for whatever amount of time we are able to be there we are going to enjoy it and make the most of it!

(Below: Mather bedroom with windows overlooking the lake/pond)

Grandpa was so kind to let us use his truck, it made moving furniture from the shop so much easier.

It's looking a little bit like home!

After Thanksgiving we will be driving back from New Mexico with a moving truck. After that the condos are being fumigated so we will actually move in the next weekend. I'm so anxious and excited to be in it!

I went to World Market with Mom, Hope, and Joshy and we had a blast! We had so much fun looking at all the cool things in there.

Hope and I sampled some coffee and tea.

And found some gross Nutella...

Joshy and I tried out this super cool double wingbacked chair.

Josh and I had a date night to see Despicable Me 2 in 3D at a fun little cheap theater!

The theater had Space Mountain in it!!! =O

Josh and I were twins on Friday night! He wanted me to wear my beanie so we'd both have black hats. =)

Silly tired Daddy!

These cuties talked all evening

Sarah and I started watching Day of the Doctor WAY too late at night!

But the orange rolls were a good consolation...

My family did advent at this yesterday

Kid's Night & Girls Manicures

On Saturday night, my parents went to an annual dinner that my great grandmother's church puts on before Thanksgiving.

(As a side note: Two years ago TODAY, my parents and grandparents were at this same even on the evening that Josh proposed to me on my grandparent's patio!)

Amal & Sudha joined in on the event this year and so we had the boys for the evening. Amy & Phoebe were also over so it just ended up being an evening full of fun activities and good food!

Sarah helped the boys make a fun craft for their parents. Ethan loved the "painting"!

Matt helped the boys make a tube track and they had fun racing tennis balls from one end to the other.

I don't think the blanket fort needs an explanation. However notice that sweets making is going down in the kitchen!

For some hard to explain reason, Sarah's school schedule has changed and she has Mondays off for the next few weeks until she finishes the program. So Mom decided to try and use those days to spend time with family. Last Monday, she, myself, and my sisters met for lunch and a tennis date. Yesterday she has all the R ladies who are local over for manicures! We had a fun time scrubbing, lotioning, and painting each other's nails!

And my favourite from tonight, Josh wanted to show Grandpa the game that he plays (Ghost Recon). It's been fun hearing them talk about the specs and graphics of the game. Talk about two nerds in a pod! (Or...office...)

My favourite part of this holiday season so far has been the 30 Days of Thanksgiving that my dad has put together for our church. He has chosen different topics per day and scripture to read that goes along with them, and the idea is that during family time you read them and then in light of the scripture talk about the things to be thankful for. We have been doing this with Grandma & Grandpa at dinner and it's been a lot of fun. It's been very helpful to pull my focus to the things in my life which I usually take for granted but for which I need to be constantly and consistently praising God.

For example here is what we did tonight:

MATERIAL PROVISION

God provides after the flood (Genesis 8:13-9:17)

God feeds a widow and her son (1 Kings 17:1-16)

Jesus feeds the hungry crowd (Matthew 14:13-21)

God provides for His own (Matthew 6:25-34)

After each passage we pull things from the text and relate them to how God provides for us materially. And at the end we pray together thanking God for His provision.

I know Dad works hard putting this together and it's been helping Josh and I through the day to be thanking God for His goodness to us. We are so blessed!

Octoberish 2013

Wow, I can't believe it's been over a month since I posted! I haven't been particularly busy, just that there haven't necessarily been big things that I thought I should post about. But it's been a while now and I just pulled pictures off my camera so I'm going to do a recap of the last month and a half.

We went on a date with my parents!

Hope got a job at Chickfila and we've been several times to eat there!

Josh and I dressed up as Cary Grant & Audrey Hepburn for Halloween

Bryan and Nate happened to be in town at the same time and we all had dinner at my parent's house

Matt is moving back in with my parents and is doing an overhaul on the old "boy's room" before he moves all his things in. After 10 years of having only males as it's inhabitants it has more holes in the wall than anyone would imagine!

Kitty took refuge inside the sewing desk and we all enjoyed peeking at him!

Hope looked so cute at church I had to sneak a picture during the service...

I bought some decals to put on our wall, they're so pretty!

We all went to see Ender's Game for $4 at our favourite theater in Garden Grove!

The cousins made a cool fort

Joshy and I recorded a remix for fun

Aubrie helped me empty the dishwasher

Cousins fort

Joshy and I two person juggling