Long Time Coming

So, it has been quite a while since I have posted anything about what I've been up to in the past month & a half, so prepare yourself for a jumbled peek into my life lately (via pictures.) Lol =)

For the past five weeks I have been home from Northland for Christmas break. It has been a really refreshing & relaxing time. It was snowing really hard when everyone was leaving but I made it home safely & started Christmas break out right by preparing some extra special packages for our troops overseas. Back at Thanksgiving I asked our church family to donate Christmas cards to send to the soldiers & they responded generously!

Thanks to them we had over 500 cards that I was able to take back to college with me & they were filled out by the students there. We also stuffed them with tracts & sent a bunch of Christmas cookies. Hopefully the Lord will use those tracts in some of the soldier's lives.

I was also able to hang out with Katelyn (one of my best friends) a lot over break. I didn't think it was possible, but over these past five weeks Katie-lou & I have gotten even closer. It has been so much fun!! This past Tuesday she came over to my house for a movie, but I think that we had more fun after the movie. It was about 3 in the morning, right after boy talk & just before we started watching Tim Hawkins videos, when we started getting a little slap happy.  We were probably a little sleep deprived by that time, but it was still fun. Lol! ...Good times =)

Haha! This picture is from New Years Eve. The Rost family put together an amazing spread of appetizers for the party that we had at our church. It was a cruise theme, which was kind of ironic since it was about -5 outside. Lol. But anyways, I was given the job of toasting things, Stephanie made Won-Tons, & Caleb made this really good slushy stuff. Steph & I still thought we had better supervise though...you just never know with Caleb =)

Yummy!!

My sister Amber, her husband, & daughter Aubrianna were able to come up for a visit too. We had so much fun! We are very close, so it is always great to spend time together. Plus, my niece is getting so big already!!

My mom always complains about being called "grandma" now, but we all know she secretly loves it. How could she not with a grand-baby this adorable?!

One of the reasons Amber came to visit was to hear about our other sister's trip to South America in December. My sister Rebecca, her husband Ben, & 3 other couples went on a missions trip to Paraguay, South America in the beginning of December. They gave a presentation in our church on a Sunday night. Ben also announced that they had gotten an amazing deal on plane tickets: 3 for the price of 2! Turns out, my sister Becca is going to be having a baby in July =) Yay!!

One of the highlights of my break was welcoming my big brother Jeremiah home from his second tour in Iraq. I have missed him so much!! Its always hard being away from my brother, but knowing his life is in danger makes it worse. But God has been so good & He has definitely been protecting Jer-bear (Don't tell Jeremiah I called him that! Lol.)

Jeremiah's first time holding his niece. I believe his exact words were "AWWWWW!!!!!"

So all in all, a very good break. I know that this next semester is going to be especially trying, but I am looking forward to seeing what the Lord will teach me over the next 4 months. Thanks for stopping by! I'll try to be faithful in updating as I return to school =) Have a wonderful weekend!!!