CHRISTmas 2007

Yesterday our family celebrated the birth of Christ at our home by reading the account from the Bible, giving thanks to God for His gift of Christ and His goodness to our family this past year, followed by opening presents. When we were done we had our traditional breakfast of Chocolate Gravy and biscuits (don't knock it until you've tried it). After the chores had been done and ice broken for the animals we headed to Donna's mother's house in Matador, TX for Christmas with her family. Her entire family was together for the first time in a long time and it was great to see everyone.

Before eating lunch we all went to the nursing home. Donna's mom had made throws for all the residents and we let the grand kids deliver them and sing for the wonderful people living in the home. Taking time out of our get together to share God's love with those precious elderly people was a blessing.

After a non-traditional lunch the afternoon was spent visiting (Jess napped) and catching up on one anothers lives. We have truely been blessed with a fine family and great friends that God continues to use to enrich our lives.

December 10, 2007

Here is something new for our family--a blog. We will try to update this as often as possible for those of you who want to keep up with what is happening in our lives here in the Panhandle of Texas.

Jess is still the Pastor at First Baptist Church in Claude and enjoys day working with local ranchers as a means of ministry, outreach and working with his horses. Donna continues to teach Special Education at the elementary school here and has received a lot of specialized training the past couple of years in dealing with autistic children.

We are finding it hard to believe another year is quickly wrapping up. The girls all had birthdays in November; Morgan turned 14, Lauren 12 and our baby Landry is now 9--it is amazing how quickly they grow up.

We were just talking the other day how that when the girls were little their lives evolved around our schedule--as they get older it seems our lives evolve more and more around their schedule. All three of the "Little Women" are involved in horses and participate in Horse Shows, Jr. Rodeos and Playdays as well as helping dad work cattle every chance they get. Morgan and Lauren both started roping at the end of the summer and plan to compete in breakaway and maybe even tie down in the Spring. Morgan has qualified the past two years for the State 4H Horse Show in Barrels, Poles and Halter and has enjoyed her first year of Reining in 4H and one AQHA show. Lauren missed out on qualifying for the State 4H Horse Show this year due to an injury to one of her horses and an injury she sustained (the night before the District Horse Show) after being bucked off another horse in which she did severe nerve damage to her right arm. She missed the District Horse Show but was back riding and even roping shortly. She has yet to completely recover but with God's grace is dealing with it well. Pray for her as she is still seeing a neurologist. All in all it's been a good year for our family and once again we realize just how good God is all the time.