Painting

That's all we've been doing this week. Carissa has steered clear until now because she doesn't like to get dirty. Tonight was a different story though. She was quite pleased that she had painted her hands, but she wanted them cleaned off immeadiately.

Missing My Baby

This was sent to me from Bekah who is watching Carissa today.  She apparently can take pictures of herself with other peoples cell phones. Too smart for me.

Kind Coffee

Even bears like it.

I'm at the Vineyard National Worship Leaders Retreat in Estes Park, CO this week. I am badly missing my wife and baby girl though. I'm here until Friday and then I'll get to see them again.

We're hanging out at Kind Coffee in downtown Estes Park this afternoon during our free time today. The retreat has been great so far. We've had some awesome times of worship and some good small group times.

Boots

We were at out on the deck at our new house today and Carissa was really enjoying the sound her boots made on the wood. She would march and stomp around trying to be as loud as possible.

About Our New Home

Some of you know this already, but the previous owners of the house were the Wilson family.

Wade was the senior pastor at Vineyard in Rolla until 2007 when his family, along with a few other people, left for La Crosse, WI to plant a church.

Wade and Lynne had the house built back in 1998. God blessed them so much with this house by loving on people using their house. I got to pray with them yesterday before they went back to Wisconsin and we prayed that God would continue to bless this house and that we would be able to love people with the house just the same.

The coolest thing about the house is in the basement. In the closet under the stairs, the Wilson's recorded the heights of their four children as they grew up on the door jam. It is going to be awesome to add Carissa's height along side theirs.

We're Moving

That's right, we have bought a house in Rolla. We have been really blessed over the past four years in our current house but it was time to move our family to Rolla. God was definitely watching out for us with this one. We got an amazing deal and at just the right time for us.

It's a five bedroom/three bath ranch home with a full finished basement. Here's a photo from the realtor:

Feel free to email me at nathan.ayres(at)gmail.com for our new address.

We have a little bit of work we want to do before we move in, like painting and getting the carpet replaced. This house has some pretty awesome history. I'll blog about that at some point in the future.

I'll be updating our progress here along the way.

Barney :(

We're 10 minutes in and she hasn't budged. I hate Barney. Does any adult really like Barney? I don't see how they could.

Eating Snow

Last week, after the snow had first fallen, I brought some inside for Carissa to see. She decided to eat it. She found a utensil all on her own. By the way, it was NOT yellow. I checked.

Apple Butter

You might think this photo doesn't have a lot to do with apple butter but that's because most of it had been washed off already. We had some biscuits and Carissa discovered the jar. She had it all over her face and clothes. She loved it so much, she's still smiling :)

Movie Night

This is the best way to watch a movie.

Silence Helps

I've been pretty quiet online the past few days. I haven't said much on Twitter or checked Facebook much. I've only had a few blog posts about our Ugly Christmas Sweater Party.

You see, a week ago today, New Year's day, my life was rocked. My heart was broken wide open.

Some very good friends of ours were having a baby but the doctors had told her that the baby wasn't well. The baby wasn't even expected to survive pregnancy. Or labor. But she did. Cassie was born on New Year's Day.

There is a lot to their story that morning but I will let them tell it. Maybe someday I will share their account.

Christina and I got to be with them as they held their beautiful daughter for the first time. We all cried with tears of joy and of pain. Cassie joined God in heaven that morning. And I will be forever changed because her.

You see, that's not supposed to happen to children. They don't die only hours after they've taken their first breath. They're not supposed to die at all. No one with a heart and a sane mind would ever allow a child to die.

But God did.

God sent his son, Jesus, to live among us and then die on a cross for our sins. I think I now have a small glimpse of what God felt when he watched his son die.

So I've been quiet this week. Thinking a lot. They asked be to do the funeral (my first one), which was yesterday. The silence helped me focus a bit better this week. So I might return to Twitter and Facebook a bit more often now, but I will always remember Cassie.

The Sleeveless Turtleneck

First, yes, I'm embarrassed by this photo.

Second, I'm still embarrassed, but at least I won a gift card.

A look back at 2009 and a look ahead to 2010

I've learned something interesting about you who visit the site. There is a huge dip in traffic in the summer, but it picked back up in the fall. My best guess is that you all don't like the cold :)

Here's a question for you:
Do you regularly follow this blog or any others? Are you constantly on Facebook stalking me or someone else to see what we're up to? :)

 Make your life easier with Google Reader!

Welcome 2010 with a kick in the face by subscribing to this blog and more and using Google Reader to keep up. You can even subscribe to news sites like CCN, Fox, or even your local news station. Here's a view of my reader.

If this is the only blog you read (I would encourage more though like this one or this one), another option is to sign up for email updates. See below.

So sign up today!

Ugly Christmas Sweater Results

We had a blast at our Ugly Christmas Sweater party this last weekend. Carissa won the kids contest thanks to her mother's hard work. I won the adult contest, thanks to the sleeveless turtle neck. You can check out a few more photos from the party on flickr.

Hanging with the Boys

We're up at Christina's brother's house for a Christmas party tomorrow. Carissa is just hanging out with her cousins while they play the new Wii they got for Christmas.