Family Fun

Family is such a blessing, and we are so thankful to have some of our family living in the Northwest...it seems that slowly but surely, most of David's family is inching closer and
closer to this beautiful corner of the country! :)
We recently added one more brother to the "Parker Bros." of Seattle, as Andrew moved up in the beginning of January! He stayed with us for a few weeks, and is now getting settled in his new apartment. We're so glad to have him up here...although he's been
so busy with his new job we barely see him
(but we're so thankful God provided a job!).

We've also enjoyed some visits from the Pichura clan (David's sister). It is definitely CRAZY when all 8 of them are in our house, but we enjoy every minute of it! They came 2 weeks ago, and are coming again this weekend...and we can't get enough! :)

Our little table gets stretched to capacity with this bunch!

Faith turns 7! She told me she wanted "a doggy cake that's chocolate with chocolate frosting"...this girl knows what she likes! ;)
It took me awhile to come up with a plan, but this is how it turned out. She loved it!

On one of Seattle's notorious "rainy days", we decided to go to the Aquarium...which was great! We enjoyed lots of hands-on stuff, which the kids really enjoyed. We also got to see them feed the fish, the octopus, the seals, and eels!! The kids actually got to feed starfish too, which was really neat. This place is definitely worth going to, rain or shine!

Christmas Fun...and snow!

We were blessed to be able to spend the holidays with family in Hood River, Oregon...we celebrated a late Christmas on the 28th, and
we were so excited to receive a "white christmas"!
The snow kept falling, and we actually had to stay a day later than planned because of a big storm coming through...
but this is one time when we were happy to stay put!
It was a fun week filled with laughs, Wii, sledding, baking
(which of course means eating!!),
games, and just enjoying time together as a family.

The Pichura kids all lined up with their "big gift" -- Red Sox jerseys!

Caleb and his new outfit...too cute!

Faith seems to be in an ongoing Broadway production...it's always drama with her!

This was the main attraction throughout the week--
"we" played a lot of Wii!! :)

David's dad and our nephew Titus.

This dog has patience like I have never seen!

The infamous Gingerbread contest has begun!! Get ready for some crazy pictures! I don't know where the Parker's get their "talent" :)

Paul's masterpiece...I'll let you guess.

As you can see, Andrew was really getting into the Spirit of Christmas with his gingerbread man.

Bryan's left us speechless. :)

Micah's Star War's gingerbread man.

Mom Parker's adorable gingerbread house...I think she could start a business!

My entry-- orphan Annie and her dog Sandy.

Grace's amazing gingerbread house...she is becoming quite the artist!!

David's finished product...he spent a lot of time on the Wonka house, and I thought it was pretty cute, but, apparently, others didn't, because he was knocked down to second place this year...the new championship title went to:

Kristin's cute clown!

Mery Christmas from the Parker's!!

Merry Christmas!!

We hope you all have a Merry Christmas celebrating our Savior!

Merry...Thanksgiving!

These pictures are just a tad bit late, but I wanted to post a few pictures from November before Christmas pictures roll around! David's parents and brother Andrew made the trip up from Oregon, and my parents were here for the week visiting,
which made this Thanksgiving extra nice.

Starting the morning off with a healthy dose of cinnamon rolls! :)

David's brother Andrew enjoying some snacks.

The star of the show: the turkey fry!

Table set and ready to go!

The Parker men and their technology! ;)

(Some) of the Parker's! It was great to spend some time with everyone!

We're Back!

We just wanted to let you know we're back from our trip! We had a great time and saw many beautiful places...more to come after we sort through the 2500 photos!!! :)

Summer "Fun"

As you can tell, we kind of went on a blogging hiatus for a few months. We really haven't had a lot of "blog-worthy" adventures this summer...well, we have had 2, but obviously those lived up to their name, since they're, well, on the blog. :) Other than that, a few short day trips have been the extent of our summer. Not that I am complaining! We have enjoyed this summer, but it has been busy...mostly with people and books! ;) David has been quite busy training people, as our church started a Discipleship Program, and also helped launch a new campus of Mars Hill. Since this is what he feels called to do, it is a blessing that he has been able to spend most of his summer equipping leaders for the sake of the Gospel. David also started a Master's Degree level program at our church and I have been going through a biblical counseling training, so it definitely hasn't been a summer of relaxing on the beach...although we have been blessed to enjoy a few relaxing days on the water. It can be tempting to look back at this summer and feel like it was "wasted" because we didn't get to enjoy the warm weather as much as we would like...but as soon I think that, I realize this summer was far from wasted. It has been spent impacting people for Jesus, which is the furthest thing from a waste...in fact, it's the only thing that's not.

With that said, I will attempt to do a blogger "unload" of what memories we did make this summer. I've realized that if I don't transfer them onto blogger, the memories transfer from my mind into into the dark abyss of the hard drive :) So, if you care to read, make sure to keep scrolling down because I will probably may make separate posts in the next day or 2 to make things easier to find (I may back-date them to keep them in some sort of order).

#8

It may be hard to believe, but September 1st we celebrated our 8th Anniversary! We enjoyed a very nice night out, doing two things we really enjoy...eating good (cheap!) food and watching a beautiful sunset. We were talking about how crazy it is that it's been 8 years, and even crazier that this is our 3rd anniversary celebrated in Seattle! We are so thankful that Jesus brought us together, and that He has kept us together! He has definitely grown us both a lot this past year, and we are ever more
thankful to be serving Him together.

The happy, handsome husband.

Yum! Nothing beats happy hour prices. We practically ordered the whole menu for under $30!

The view from the bottom.

And the view from the top.

8 years...