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!