Merry Christmas!

We loved spending time with family this Christmas. Here are a couple shots with the grandparents.

Here are Grandma and Grandpa Ayres (along with cousin Mary):

And here are Mimi and Papa Welch:

Santa Baby

Christina played dress up with Noah and I took pictures.

And my favorite pose...

Carissa's Christmas Program

Carissa's preschool has an annual Christmas program. They sing nursery rhymes and holiday songs.

With her teacher, Ms. Tammy.

Fall 2012 Video Update

Here is a glimpse of fall life in the Ayres family.

A New Season

Yesterday, a letter was sent out to our church highlighting some upcoming changes. It will also be discussed during this weekend's services.

In short, I will no longer be on staff at Vineyard Church after December.

I have been on staff just over five years and it has been a wonderful time for me and my family. Over a year ago, the leadership (including me) began to discuss and put into place a new, more fitting leadership structure for our church. As this new structure began to take shape this past summer, it became clearer that as some point in the future, my role would change drastically. In prayer with Matt, the Lead Pastor, and other leaders, we felt like the end of the year was it.

Let me be clear, this was no easy decision. There has been much heart break and tears shed through this process. I, and my family, have invested so much into this church family we so dearly love. As hard as it is, we have felt peace that this is what God is doing.

Moving forward, we are making the transition from leadership to members. Just normal people. We aren't moving anywhere. We aren't going to another church. Vineyard is still our home.

I have a chance to now utilize my education that I spent so much time and money on. We would appreciate your thoughts and prayers as we make this transition and I look for a new job.

With love,
Nathan, Christina, Carissa, and Noah

#roadtrip Part 2

Outside of Moab, UT we visited Arches National Park and then traveled to Colorado National Monument. Here are a few photos but more are posted on Flickr.

Arches National Park:

Colorado National Monument:

#roadtrip Home with Grant

Grant has finished his service in the Marines and is coming home! I flew out to him to ride home and have some fun along the way.

We drove to Page, AZ on Tuesday night. This morning we toured Antelope Canyon, Horseshoe Bend, and traveled to Moab, UT.

More photos are posted on Flickr.

New Clothes, New Smiles

Noah got some new clothes but we needed him to try them on first. He enjoyed it :)

Thanksgiving with Cousin Mary

We got to see my sister's family for the first time since they moved to KS earlier this summer. The three grandkids got to play together for the first time.

Decorating for Christmas

A week late with this, but we had our decorations up last weekend. It was nice to relax and recover from traveling for Thanksgiving this weekend.

Carissa had one major request. That she would get to put the star on.

Weekend in Licking

At the end of October, we spent a day in Licking with Christina's family. We visited a local pumpkin patch and had our own bonfire that night.

Noah eventually passed out. 

Mimi just wanted a picture with all the kids. They weren't interested at first. 

Jaxin finally joined us but Carissa still had some attitude/humor to share.

Carissa's School Field Trip

Carissa's preschool class went to the Bray Conservation Area last month. She had such a good time we had to go back the next week to explore some more.

Again, the pose...

Halloween

We had a great time with some friends on Halloween. For the first time we actually went to a neighborhood and walked door to door instead of heading downtown to businesses. Supergirl and Superman had a blast.

I don't know where she learned to pose like this...

Noah's 6 Months Old

Noah turned 6 months old on November 8. It's amazing how much he changes in that amount of time. I feel like the same person I was two years ago!

And we're back....

Life has been crazy and the blog was the first to go. But we're back now.

Here are a few more photos from our Chicago trip at the end of September.

Below was their weather exhibit. That's an artificial tornado in the middle.

Noah, just hanging out.

And a little sibling time before bed.

Weekend in Chicago

I had to privilege to play and teach at a worship conference this past weekend in south suburban Chicago. We stayed an extra few day to have fun around town. We went to the Museum of Science and Industry on Sunday.

We had some fun trying to take a family picture. Carissa was determined to have a silly face and Noah would get distracted. 

It was a great trip. I have a few more photos to share of the museum later. 

Carissa's Famous

Well, sort of. Each week, this post gets 3-5 hits from the google image search "someone excited." She's the fourth result. She's grown up so much since then. 

And someone's excited.

St. Louis Zoo - Penguins

We love this place.

Carissa's favorite animal right now are penguins (b/c we checked out Peirre the Penguin: A True Story from the library. A great book!).