The Christmas Season...Part 2

On the 12th, my mom, Cole and I headed down to Disneyland for a look at what they do for the "Holidays." This was the first time my mom had been to Disneyland in about 10 or 12 years. She bought and annual pass so she could join us as often as possible! :) Cole and Grandma had a blast going on rides together and hanging out. Here are some pics of our fun afternoon/evening at the DL!

The castle at night....SO pretty!

































Cole and Grandma on the tram ride, ready to have fun!



















Grandma and Cole waiting for the Dumbo ride!



















And here they are getting ready to fly!!!














And they're off....














It's a Small World all lit up...AWESOME!




















































We were also able to join Summer and Todd, Ashlyn & Jeremy and Summer's sister, Breezy for a couple of the hours....always a blast with the Rought's...this was probably their last trip to DL for a while as they are moving to SLO in 11 days!!!! We were glad to be able to join them for a while and I snapped this cute picture of Cole and his "best friend," Jeremy walking out of the Buzz Lightyear ride...















The cold tram ride home after waiting for 30 minutes for it! BBBBRRRRRRRR!!!! Grandma wrapped both of them up in G-Pop's big jacket and kept them warm...except for their noses! :) And there were still smiles from them too! :)



















Last Friday, Emilie, Brice, Katy, Beau and myself were hired to be "Carolers." We sang at a Christmas party for Janice Simpson from Grace. It was a lot of fun preparing and practicing and I hope and pray that all her guests truly enjoyed the songs we sang and really listened to the lyrics of the music. We were able to sing 8 songs, 3 with accompaniment, and 5 acapella, and we think it turned out pretty well! After singing, we went to my parents house and surprised them by caroling at their door too! They loved it! And they were able to watch the Colester overnight so Mike and I, along with Emilie and Brice, could go see I Am Legend! All I have to say is...WOW. I seriously had a headache for 2 days after the movie because it was so FREAKIN' intense. I enjoy thriller and suspense flicks, but this was over the top in my opinion. The story line was pretty awesome and definitely left a lot to think about, however, I will probably only watch that one once!

On Saturday morning, I headed up to my parent's house to meet up with them and head out to Wrightwood, CA for our Davis Family Christmas! We had a GREAT time chatting with my cousins and aunts and uncles and ALL three kids had a blast playing in the snow that was still there from a storm the weekend before! Cole really had a blast and thought it was REALLY funny to throw snowballs at people and mama's car! Here are couple of pictures of the kids enjoying the cold weather....the girl is my cousin, Dusty and his new bride's daughter, Savannah or Sav, and the boy is my other cousin Steve, and his wife Morna's son Zachary...


All three kids on the sled...no way were we going to be able to get all three kids looking at the camera at the same time!!! :)














Cole making use of EVERY part of the toys!



















Zachary posing in the snow!!! SO CUTE!



















"Aunkey" and Cole playing Lincoln Logs...well, Aunkey is building and Cole is shooting...



















Probably the biggest hit of the night...this puzzle that made sounds...very entertaining!



















Zachary with his spoon...Savannah lookin' around, and Cole running and jumping in the snow!














Cole, Sav, and Zach with "Uncle Steve" or "Daddy"














The three kids throwing snowballs over the balcony...Cole's favorite part.



















We really enjoyed ourselves and had a wonderful time with family!! Thanks to the Nish Family for opening the Wrightwood house to us all and allowing us to actually see snow this Christmas season!!!

So...what do you think???

So...what do you think of the new blog page??? Give me some feedback people. I also did a poll on the right...check it out! I think it's purrty

A Concert, Cuteness and Cole!

Last night we were able to attend the Grace Baptist Annual Christmas Concert. As always, it was amazing. It's something I look forward to each and every Christmas season. This year, Brice & Emilie joined the adult choir, so not only did we have my mom playing harp to look forward to, but we had Emilie and Brice to watch and hear! We went with my Uncle Tedd & Aunt Cheryl and Cheryl's mom, Vi, and had a great time. Cole unfortunately sat through the first 30 minutes only, but Mike was nice enough to take him to the lobby so I could enjoy the entire concert! We then headed over to Stonefire Grill for some good eats and had a nice time visiting with my family. Here are some pics from the Concert and Uncle Tedd with Coley...

Uncle Tedd & Cole hamming it up for the camera!



















The choir...Emilie is in the third row up and third person in on the left wearing a green sweater and Brice in on the top row towards the middle wearing a blue dress shirt and suit.















Our amazing choir director, Peter Beers, doing what he does best!



















Robin (the narrator) & our Sign interpreter...



















The end of the concert and everyone including the orchestra getting a standing ovation! Mom is standing up on the left hand side behind her harp. :)















And I just had to take this shot. Cole is just starting to try and put his own clothes, shoes, etc. on and he came stumbling in my room wearing his new thermal pj's and MY ugg boots. :) Too cute.

Many Updates Needed!

Hello everyone! The Koegle household has been busy, busy, busy! We celebrated Thanksgiving here at my house with my family (Mom, Dad, Em & Brice) and Mike's sister Katy & her husband Beau (Brice's brother). If you don't already know the craziness that is our family...there it is! :) We had a wonderful time. Here are a few pictures from Thanksgiving that I'd love to share with you...
The beautiful table that Emilie & I set up












The cute idea I thought of by putting a leaf from my persimmon tree tied onto the napkins..












The bird...it was SO tasty!












The whole family filling their plates with the yummy Thanksgiving feast!













In other news...the night before Thanksgiving, we found out that I was pregnant and we were so excited to tell our family the next day. We planned everything out and had a great time telling our family on Thanksgiving and some close friends that weekend at church. However, the following Monday evening, the Lord decided to take the baby up to heaven and we miscarried. That evening was more than emotional and we were very saddened by this as we have been trying for a second baby for almost 2 years. But we know that the Lord's timing is PERFECT and His plan is PERFECT for our family. Although we may not understand His reasons for things, we know He has our best interests in mind and knows what's best for us and our family. We finished out the week with our hearts in the right place and praising the Lord for the trial that He has put upon us. We are also grateful that the Lord put the hope in our hearts and minds that we CAN get pregnant again. That was a great feeling. Please continue to pray for our hearts that they would not be hardened later on and that we would continue to find joy in the situation.

On a lighter note, this last weekend, we (the entire California Koegle clan) made a last minute trip to Columbus, Ohio for a HUGE family reunion for Michelle's (Mike's mom) side of the family. We had a blast and were so grateful that we were able to make it back there. Many of the family members that were there, I had never met before. There were about 115 people in this amazingly awesome mansion belonging to Michelle's cousin, Jim Cullinan and we all fit with plenty of room for more. We flew out there on a red-eye flight on Friday night, arrived at 6:15 a.m., the party started at 3:00 and (for us) ended at 12:30 a.m., we got up at about 10:00 a.m., went out to lunch with Bob's family, then headed back to the airport at 5:00 p.m. to catch our flight out at 7:30 p.m. We arrived at LAX at about 9:45 p.m., got to the flyaway at about 10:45 p.m., drove home and finally fell into bed at about 1:00 a.m. And Mike got up to go to work the next morning at 5:45 a.m! So, are you tired just reading that....I am!!! :) Thanks again to everyone who made the weekend happen for us...we had a GREAT time! :)

This week, besides catching up on sleep, has been pretty uneventful. We got our Christmas decorations all put up and the house feels homey finally! I'll take some pictures this weekend and post them next week!

Now begins the crazy busy Christmas season. As I sat at my Titus 2 Bible study last night, I was reminded that we need to slow down and not be so out-of-control during this season. Just because it's the "holiday season," does not give us the right to be crazed, frenzied women. And I need to remember that! I hope and pray that this amazing season that is upon us will be filled with quiet moments with your family and loved ones and you will be reminded of the REAL reason we celebrate Christmas...the birth of MY & hopefully YOUR Saviour, Jesus Christ!