Disneyland

Christine is one of my favorite human beings on the planet. A true kindred spirit. She Loves God with all of her heart, is one of the top long distance runners in the nation, and is my son's first crush(just watch him blush when she comes up). I babysat her since she was just 2 years old and have loved her ever since. Not to mention I adore her entire family. We were lucky enough to steal Christine away from running and play at Disneyland for a few hours. We had such a great time!

Engaged

A few weeks ago we got an exciting phone call from Ryan and Summer in Puerto Rico saying that they were engaged! YAY...We have our first Sister-in-law! We just adore Summer and are so excited to welcome her into the Young family. We couldn't be happier for them both! Check out this rock...

Windy

In our mind, last nights walk on the beach was going to be a breath of fresh air for our family. It ended up being a windstorm of freezing, bone chilling air(Ok... California freezing) . :) We ran down to the beach determined to enjoy sunset and after 5 minutes of sand in our mouth and numb ears we had to retreat back to Main st. We found shelter in an IHOP...hehe, where we had hot coffee and breakfast for dinner. Despite the best lade plans we actually had an awesome time laughing and just being together. :)

Gavin's 2nd Birthday!

Well its true...our baby turned 2! How did that happen so fast? We officially have a toddler that is 37.5" tall and 31 pounds, wears a size 8 shoe, sings his alphabet and counts to 13(if you ask him what comes after 13 he'll say an emphatic 4!!!!!!!!). Did I mention he strongly developed his own opinion too! :) He constantly makes us laugh and is in the stage of repeating everything we say.
On Thursday night Josh and Gavin ran to the ATM to get money for the sitter. Josh was explaining that he was getting money out and explaining what money was. So when the sitter came over I was explaining what we do at bedtime and she was surprised that he could pray by himself. So I said to Gavin, "Gavin lets show Alicia how we pray. Gavin, who do we pray to?" Without missing a beat he said, "MONEY". I almost DIED LAUGHING! I had never even heard him say that word and he just said that we pray to money. Yah. Mortified. :) Thats my 2 year old. We Love this stage, it is full of so much laughter and many timeouts. Did I mention the permanent marker covering our entire bedspread and the lipstick on the carpet? We are so grateful for this time and how blessed we are to have each other. God has completely blown our minds with the gift of Gavin.

Today is the day of Salvation

II Cor. 6:2 For he says, "In the time of my favor I heard you, and in the day of salvation I helped you." I tell you, now is the time of God's favor, now is the day of salvation.

II Cor. 6:2 is the verse that was given to Patsy today from one of the many friends who have been praying for Ole these past few weeks(months/years).
And then the most amazing thing happened tonight...Josh's grandpa, who has been seriously ill in the hospital JUST accepted the Lord in his heart tonight. During the prayer he said outloud "I believe", twice! It was the most beautiful thing. Our God is so amazing and so gracious! Seeing him in so much pain the last few weeks has been horrible, and I just kept thinking about him being in heaven and getting a new body and going to a place where there is no pain forever. I'm amazed at God's mercy. The nurses couldn't believe he had made it out of ICU last week, and I know it was a miracle so that he had time to know Jesus.

It reminds me of...

The Parable of the Lost Sheep

10"See that you do not look down on one of these little ones. For I tell you that their angels in heaven always see the face of my Father in heaven.[a]
12"What do you think? If a man owns a hundred sheep, and one of them wanders away, will he not leave the ninety-nine on the hills and go to look for the one that wandered off? 13And if he finds it, I tell you the truth, he is happier about that one sheep than about the ninety-nine that did not wander off. 14In the same way your Father in heaven is not willing that any of these little ones should be lost.

Cousins

Our favorite family in the world came to visit: The Goff 5 (minus 1)!
Starla brought Daisy, Dylan, and Isaac down for a visit. Of course they had to hit up Disneyland and we all had a blast. I loved watching how much fun Gavin had hanging out with his cousins. They were like old pals. Jeff brought Ansley and then Christine came too, which was another highlight for the kids! Of course Nana was in heaven getting to spend time with all of her Grandkids at once.