Patricia and Eliza

On New Years Eve Patricia and Eliza were here in Ma, so they came over and visited with us! 

LOL It's the same old Patricia and Eliza! 

We love you ladies! :) 

Eliza and Stephanie 

Thanks for coming by ladies! We enjoyed talking to you and seeing you again! 

Rocks

A few weeks ago we had the Rock family over for dinner and enjoyed a nice evening with them :) 

We began the night with a good Portuguese dinner!
Salad, Chicken wings, Stuffed mushrooms, Roast, Stuffed Fish, Brussel Sprouts yummy! 

Mrs. Rock and Brianna 

Chariti, Tatianna (aka Tasha) :) and Luke 

Looking at pictures and updating Tasha on everything we've been up to. 

Even Gracie got all dressed up to come over! 

We were at Wal-Mart a few years ago and saw that little doggie dress and just had to get it for her! 

Chariti, Tasha, Tabitha, and Felicity

Tabitha and Tasha were talking for a while about evangelism, altar calls etc. It was great to have such a good conversation with you, Tasha! :) 

Mama :) 

Luke and Stephanie, conspirators!
Always have been and always will be. :) 

Gracie is plumb tuckered out from playing with the little people 

Conversation, laughter, telling stories....

Thanks for coming over Rock family! It was nice to have you over, we enjoyed spending the evening with you!

The Suffering of Man and the Sovereignty of God by Charles Spurgeon

~A Vexed Soul Comforted~ 

Job 27:2 "...The Almighty, who hath vexed my soul." 

The Word "who" was put into this verse by the translators, but it is not wanted; it is better as I have read it to you, perhaps a more exact translation of the original: "The Almighty hath embittered my soul." From this we learn that a good man may have his soul vexed; he may not be able to preserve the serenity of his mind. We think, and think rightly, that a Christian man should "glory in tribulations also, " and rise superior to all outward afflictions; but it is not always so with us. There is a needs-be, sometimes, that we should be "in heaviness through manifold temptations." Not only are the temptations needed for the trial of our faith, but it is even necessary that we should be in heaviness through them. I hardly imagine that the most quiet and restful believers have always been unruffled; I can scarcely think that even those whose peace is like a river have always been made to flow on with calm and equable current. Even to rivers there are rapids and cataracts, and so, methinks, in the most smoothly flowing life, there must surely be breaks of distraction and of distress. At any rate, it was so with Job. His afflictions, aggravated by the accusations of so-called friends, at least made the iron enter into his very soul, and his spirit was so troubled that he cried, "The Almighty hath embittered my soul." 

            It is also clear, from our text that a good man may trace the vexation of his soul distinctly to God. It was not merely that Job's former troubles had come from God, for he had borne up under them; when all he had was gone, he had still blessed the name of the Lord with holy serenity. But God had permitted these three eminent and distinguished men, mighty in speech, to come about, to rub salt into his wounds, and so to increase his agony. At first, too, God did not seem to help him in the debate, although afterwards he answered all the accusations of Job's friends, and put them to the rout; yet, for a time, Job had to stand like a solitary champion against all three of them, and against young Elihu, too; so he looked up to heaven, and he said, "The Almighty hath embittered my soul.' There is an end of the controversy; I can see whence all my trouble comes." 

 Advancing a step further, we notice that, in all this, Job did not rebel against God, or speak a word against him. He swore by that very God who had vexed his soul. See how it stands here: "As God liveth, who hath taken away my judgement, and the Almighty who hath vexed my soul." He stood fast to it that this God was the true God, he called him good, he believed him to be almighty; it never occurred to Job to bring a railing accusation against God, or to start aside from his allegiance to him. He is a truly brave man who can say with Job "Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him.,' Let God deal with me as he will, yet he is good, and I will praise his name. What if he has vexed my soul? He hath a right to vex me, so I will not kick against the pricks. Let him grieve me, let him put gall and wormwood into my cup if so it shall please him; but still will I magnify his name, for he is good, and only good." Here is the strength of the saints, here is the glory which God getteth out of true believers--- that they cannot and will not be soured against their God. 

Christmas Day

This year we began Christmas day with church, which I thought was a wonderful way to begin the day! It would be nice to have Christmas on a Sunday every year!

According to tradition we had lunch at T-Ruthie's house and visited with her. It was nice to see and talk to her again!

Felicity, Chariti, Hannah and Seth playing Uno while eating their dessert.

I love Chariti's face in this picture! So adorable! 

I remember being that little and feeling that excited about Christmas gifts now I'm seeing that kind of excitement in my little siblings! Time does fly by so quickly.

T-Ruthie(Dad's sister) with some of her nieces and nephew.

There's the rest of her nieces. :) 

We love you T-Ruth!!!

After spending time with T-Ruth we went home and opened the presents for us from our church family and each other.

 Sarah was so sweet and thoughtful to give us such a nice present!

Thank you Sarah!

 Mom told the little kids that she wanted a small camera to be able to keep in her pocketbook and take with her wherever she went so when they went Christmas shopping with Dad they told him and he got her a Nikon Coolpix S3100! It's just the perfect size!

Mom's gift to Dad, 

he had asked for Cologne. We knew that's what he wanted so Mom went out and got him some! 

Aww Momma and her boy. He makes her smile :) especially with his cozy, new robe on!

hmmm.....mystery present for Mom!

Ahhhh....laughter ensues...

Examining her new gift.

We've listened to it probably about a 100 times so far, I think I can say with confidence Mom likes her gift! lol :)

Senior discount, you know. Private joke! ;)

Wow, Stephanie that's one impressive stocking! Looks like a hockey stick.

Over the knee socks!!! Never have to wear nylons again! Yippee!

The Fournier's invited us over for later that day and we always love spending time with the Fournier's!
So we went over and spent the rest of Christmas day with them! This year, our church family was more involved in our Christmas and I thought that was really awesome!

~~~~~~~

The next day, Monday morning

Felicity, Chariti, Hannah and Tabitha used the new waffle maker that T-Ruth gave us to make yummy whole wheat waffles for breakfast! This is a Mello special breakfast comprised of Dad's homefries, Tabitha's waffles topped with cottage cheese, strawberries and Stephanie's fried bananas with 100% pure maple syrup drizzled on top and a side of bacon oh yeah, it's sweeet!

Hannah's mickey mouse plate, neatly organized, no one food is allowed to touch the other. :) 

Hannah took this picture because she liked how her plate looked. 

Christine Kuszewski made Mom this cute and pretty little tea cozy! Mom has always wanted a tea cozy and this one is so cute! She loved it! 

Thank you Christine!

~~~

Thank you Lord for such a nice and enjoyable Christmas! And thank you for our church family and the time that we were able to spend with them this year!

Christmas Eve

 Christmas Eve for us this year, like Thanksgiving, was a very quiet one.

We had dad's parents for dinner, a quiet evening together and we

ended the night with a visit to the Eckersons!
It's always good to end on a good note. :) lol 

Love this picture of Chariti

Opening gifts from Vavoa and Vavoo.

New PJ's! 

and candles for the older girls.

Vavoa and Seth
Sethers looks so cute! (at least I think he does) :) 
I love seeing little guys all dressed up(he added the bow tie himself :))!

Singing some hymns and Christmas carols...

Both of our grandparents enjoy music so they like it when we all sing together. 

Our grandparents bought Tabitha this mandolin and Vavoo is teaching her to play. Our grandfather has played the mandolin since he was a young'en.

Also celebrating Vavoo's 81st birthday!

Seth tries out his new crossbow from Vision Forum.

After our grandparents left, and the kids were in bed, we called to see if anyone was still at the Eckerson's Christmas party and most people were still there. 

So we decided to head over to their house.

We found out after we arrived (and the only people there were the Fournier's and Eckerson's) 

that about 15 minutes after we called everyone started to leave!

 Though it was short, we still had a great time and enjoyed seeing them!

We leave you with this link:
We Three Kings-Claymation Christmas ( you just need to see this!:))
The part the camels sing is Nate and Ryan's part, we heard they do it very well! We still have yet to convince them to sing it for us though! :)
~
We wish we had been able to attend candlelight service, it sounded quite lovely, but we were glad to see you guys anyway! :)

Merry Christmas!
 

Maine-Barton's and Denny Concert!

Back in December, the Denny's were having a concert which we wanted to see and we were missing the Barton's, so we remedied the dire situation post haste by Mom, Stephanie and Tabitha taking a trip up to Maine to have dinner with the Barton's and then we all went to the concert together!

They just about had dinner ready so we learned a new way of making dinner rolls!

♥ Tabitha and Aunt Beth ♥

Aunt Beth is such a dear, sweet lady! I love her! 

Everyone except Mom

Love you guys!

The Momma's 

Two of the dearest, wisest, most godly women that I know!

Once dinner was ready we quickly gobbled it up and raced over to the church where the famous Denny Family was singing live in concert! ;)
We purposely hadn't told the Denny's that we were coming up for the concert because we wanted to surprise them. We showed up a few minutes late and walked in behind the Barton's.
Their expressions were just priceless!

They had the greatest facial expressions,

between shocked smiles and beet red faces it was awesome to see how surprised they were! 

We really enjoyed listening to them! Their songs posses a depth and beauty which is rare in the majority of even Christian music these days, it was a refreshment to hear them.
I love seeing Marshall up there with his own little guitar!

After the concert Titus played his now four string guitar! Cute little guy!

 We started talking about guns and Mass gun laws vs. Maine gun laws so Aunt Rhonda nonchalantly pulls out and unloads her little revolver!
  Mom asked if she could hold it and  everyone laughed at how not used to guns Mom is. :)
Love the freedom Maine has!

 ~~~

Thank you Barton's for having us over for dinner! And to the Denny's for still being our friends even after we surprised you! lol :)