Family Christmas

We celebrated Christmas on Sunday a little but mostly the Family celebrated Christmas the day after Christmas this year. Jennifer and Brandon gotin Christmas night so the whole family could be together.
When Brandon and Jennifer got home Brandon was ready to go so we went sledding in front of the house. Build a little jump, make a fool of yourself, and it is always good times

brandon and Jennifer home

nice air

sledding
Here is our Christmas Day

Christmas pictures

Christmas Lunch

apples to apples
If you have never played the game Apple to Apples. I highly recommend it as a group game. It is a fun one because of the interaction within the group.

Christmas Boxers
We are all sporting our Christmas Boxers
And sure enough, my dad would not let this Christmas go by without some kind of chaos so he bought us all nerf guns and let the fun begin
Nerf Gun War

you're a gonner

nerf gun war

war!

watchout
At the end of Christmas around New Years, Kelly's new boyfriend, Brenton(the soccer coach at Oklahoma Wesleyan) came to meet and spend a couple of days with the family

the family and Brenton
It was a full Christmas to say the Least!

Back To School

Right before i went back to school, two RA's from my dorm took me snowboarding for the first time! It was so amazing!

Me, Dave, and Joel Snowboarding
I fell so much the first day, that i broke the zipper on my snow pants and had to where Joel's jump suit(picture above) the second day! I got to where i could go off a small box railing and landed one 180 off the jump. I was cautious though! Dave did break his rist though. NOTE: Someone always gets hurt when a group goes snowboarding. Don't be that guy! :)
When School Started, my good friend TRace, from Cali came to visit. First things first i showed him where Mexico, IN was! It was only fitting! :) The cruel irony of a big mexio sign in the middle of a corn field where it is 30 degrees

Mexico, Indiana

yeah baby

Trace and me
We had a good time. A group of us went ice skating on the weekend while Trace was here.

kat, mark, and josh
On the way up we were blaring the music and acting like we were deaf as we belted all the lyrics to Disney, Spice Girls, Love Songs, you name it.

classic picture... can you find me?

me ice skating

the group

guys getting too close

the girls

Mark Jumping on my face
It was a good time
Trace left after a week and is now back home. It was sad to see him go, but nice to taste of Cali out in good ol' Indiana

Logos 05

Over Christmas break i got to be apart of the security staff that helped run the Wesleyan Churches Youth conference in Grand Rapids, MI.


What the Stage looked like

worship

Me workin the signing booth and workin it well! :)

Security

Dan Bellinger
It will be fun to see where he goes in the Wesleyan Church. he is sharp... and he apparently loves buffalo wings
I was lucky enough to get to pick up Something Like Silas up from the airport. They were a band who lead worship out in Cali on Sunday evenings that i always listened to, so it was amazing to get to talk to them and know the personally

Me with Something LIke Silas

Amy, Me, and Joy Hurlow
Janelle, Kelly, and Me


Me and the Olsons
Mitch is Travis Hobbs boss and the Head student ministries pastor at Hillside Wesleyan Church in Michigan

Me, Travis Hobbs, & Lance Young

Lance & Travis
THis is how it should be. Lance and Travis are pastoring at different churches but met up at this conference. This was an all too familiar picture of them growing up... together!

Alli Walls and Me

leaving logos

Kelly worked the promo booth for Oklahoma Wesleyan University with one of her good friends Caroline who also works there. They were entertained by each other to say the least.

Caroline Southworth and her husband Kevin

Me and Kel again

Oh, sibling love

Me and My Sis
Kelly and Caroline

Kelly, Caroline, and an OWU RA

Me and Gale Richmond

Security is serious work

Classic

Kelly and Caroline at Work
It was good to see Kel and enjoy the trip. I love my family.

Quick Thoughts

Pictures of Break will be coming soon... but here are just a few things i learned over break

1.
I was reading in my mom's People magazine and a guy said about weight loss,
"You're weight is personal. People can take away your job and house, but they can't tell you how to treat your body."
I thought that was very interesting. Reminds me a lot about the how the Bible tells us to treat ourselves with love
1 Corinthians 6:18-20
Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a man commits are outside his body, but he who sins sexually sins against his own body. Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body.

2. John Maxwell's Today Matters "Unfortunately, many people approach their lives very passively...But life is not a dress rehearsal...If you're proactive, you focus on preparing. If you're reactive, you end up focusing on repairing.

Repairing
Makes you focus on yesterday
Consumes time
Breeds discouragement
Increases Costs
Pays now for yesterday
Becomes an obstacle to growth

Prepairing
Lets you focus on today
Increases efficiencey
Increases confidence
Saves Money
Pays now for tomorrow
Takes you to a higher level

John Maxwell has got skillz!!! This is well put. There is a time to look at things in retrospect, but we must live in today and look to where we can go compared to where we could've gone.

3. "'...Nobody can make another person happy. That was [a personal] job'... If you want today to be a good day, you need to take charge of the way you look at it."
-Maxwell