40 years and counting...

My parents celebrate 40 years of marriage on January 2nd. While we had the whole family here for Christmas, we wanted to take one evening to celebrate. It's hard work being married for that long! (and of course very rewarding I'm sure...) It makes Roger and my 5 years seem like nothing!

Here we are recreating the cake cutting...

Notice the beautiful bride's dress adorning the door in the background. We begged my sister to wear it, but unfortunately her pride won over honoring my parents. :)

We were thankful to have so many family members and friends drive from out of town to help in the event!

The crowd's attention is on our Not So Newlywed game show host Jason. (You can see his reflection in the window.)

I love some of the old pictures we found of the two lovebirds before children! My sister in law made a video with old pictures, but I can't figure out how to get it to load. Unfortunate for you, because there were some dandys---just imagine short shorts, double knit suits, black thick framed glasses, and 40+year old party pix!

Time with Cousins...

Mary Katherine loves spending time with her cousins and will be so sad when she wakes up on next week and realizes that Grandma and Papa's house no longer is filled with cousins for playing!

These two may be my favorite ones! I love the different expressions on each face!

Missing Papa Wayne in this picture!

THE Reason for the Season

Beginning last year, my mother started planning for a new Christmas tradition in the Sizelove house.

Last July, she made copies of the Christmas play and gave them to us to start working on songs and lines. (I'm not sure that anyone made it home with our scripts.)

October marked the purchasing of patterns and fabric for the costumes.

Nothing was going to stop this woman on a mission...

a broken arm couldn't stop her on the sewing machine...

rolling her vehicle...nope, just shook the shattered glass off the fabric and kept on sewing!

so without further delay, let me introduce this year's cast...

I was an angel as well...but unfortunately was not able to get myself on camera.

Merry Christmas!

A must read...

If you don't already read this blog, I'd recommend stopping by and checking out the past week! Kristi is in Ethiopia right now meeting the birth mom of her daughter along with many other incredible things!

What are God's thoughts on Tradition?

This time of year, traditions are big! As a somewhat new mother, I know I've given a lot of thought about what traditions I want to begin in our small family. As a child, I loved what traditions we had. What is it that makes us all love tradition? I think it's the familiarity of it, the idea that we can recreate good memories year after year that is so appealing to our human nature. It's comfortable!

Let's think beyond holiday traditions and just the general idea of tradition. More specifically, tradition in church. Lately, I've found myself frustrated with tradition. Some of our churches are so bound by hundreds of years of tradition that it overrules Biblical truth. In some cases, I know it doesn't necessarily contradict the Bible, but seems to distract from the message. To sum it up, tradition is not saving people! So, where's the balance? If it's not adding to God's kingdom, bringing in the lost, taking care of the poor, discipling...where does it belong? I'm so tired of doing things just because that's the way it's always done. What's the value in tradition? When we think about it, aren't traditions more about gratification for self rather than to Him? Someone help me because right now I've experienced so much by the extreme that I'm not seeing it!

Someone please give me a good counter argument, because I'm not so sure I'm ready to give up all my tradition. ;)

no better view

As I was editing the other night, I look up from my computer and see this. What a beautiful picture of my sweet husband reading to his daughter!

Thank you to those who have been praying for MK! We were able to visit awhile on Tuesday with MK's neurologist. Every test so far has come back normal! At this point, she rules out anything with the nerves or dealing with the spinal cord. She wants to do a muscle biopsy to determine if it's a muscle disease. If it was normal, then she would rule out anything muscular and would diagnose it as cerebral palsy. To a parent this sounds alarming, but I have peace about either direction. What she has seems mild and it would not be a condition that would worsen. She's doing great physically and showing constant improvement and strengthening. Most people wouldn't even notice anything! As far as treatment, she will continue to wear her foot braces and regular physical therapy to help with her strengthening and coordination.