Pastor Gabe

On Sunday, January 11th, Gabe got ordained! He is now (officially) Reverend Gabe Barber. (Although he's still called Pastor Gabe.) The ceremony was AWESOME! We couldn't have asked for anything more. The chairman of our elder board and his wife put together a beautiful ceremony and a fun reception afterwards.The whole day made us even more thankful for our congregation and made us realize again how blessed we are to be right here right now

There were, more or less, three parts to the ordination process during the ceremony. First, after a wonderful sermon by Pastor Chen (our previous senior pastor), he asked us several questions, such as our beliefs and commitment to the ministry, etc. Then, he asked the congregation several questions, such as if they would support us as their pastor, etc. After we all agreed to everything, we moved on... (I hate to brush over this part so quickly. This was actually a very meaningful part to me.)

All of the ordained pastors in the room came forward to lay hands on us and pray for us and our ministry. It was a really special time, especially now that Gabe has grown much closer to the other English pastors. I was also very blessed to have been included in all of this. Our ministry has always been together even if I'm not physically there with Gabe. I'm very happy to know our church recognizes that even though they don't see me much.

The final part was Gabe's "robing". This was the frosting on the cake.

There were so many special things done by people at our church. It seemed like everyone used their special gifts and talents to bless us that day. This is the Mandarin worship team. They sang a special song for us during the ceremony. It was so beautiful. It seemed like there were WAY more than just 6 voices.The reception was great! I love seeing our worlds collide. We had family, local friends, out of town friends, and of course our church there all at once. It was fun to watch them all interact.

Andrew loved Gabe's new garb. (Shout out to Tai-Wai!)

One of the women at church made beautiful floral arrangements for us all over the reception hall. She even made us a bouquet!

Cutie!

One of the men at church is a baker and is famous for his cakes. (Can you see why?) It tasted good too!
Congratulations, Pastor Gabe! You ROCK!!!

Nonnie and Poppa's House

December 26th, the 2 kids and I flew up to visit Gabe's parents. Gabe took off for Winter Retreat in the mountains and then drove up to Nevada City to meet up with us for a couple more days.

I got a new camera for Christmas so hopefully the posts from here out will be that much better! :) Enjoy the pics. This is a looooooooooooooooooooong post...

Train museum in Nevada City. Andrew was in heaven!

Feeding the horse snow.

I think this was Andrew's favorite Christmas present: an entire fireman outfit complete with hose, hatchet, walkie-talkie, and fire extinguisher from Auntie Mady.

Once again, Keira was proven to be a grandpa-lover! She spent most of her time with Michael on the visit.

Here are the famous pair sledding. (I have a bunch of videos. We'll see if I get around to posting them.)

Andrew got so good at sledding, he got to go by himself for the second half of our time there.

Just like Michael and Keira were a great pair, Leila and Andrew were inseparable for most of the visit.

Gabe drove 9 hours to meet us up there. What a husband!!!

Aren't they all cute?! (It's worth blowing up this pic to see Keira's expression. HA!)

All bundled up for our walk.

The adventures of Yellow Bear (formerly known as Daisy): As shown here, Y.B. was getting a little low on stuffing. (She was also wearing Keira's socks that day.) Andrew is seen here with her "food".

It is a very delicate issue to rip open one's favorite possesion and must be handled delicately. I remembered my dad doing open-bottom surgery on Drowsy (my baby doll) on the dining room table, trying to fix her voice. I remember it fondly so I tried to replicate that for Andrew with this surgery. He actually had a good time. Daisy got to hit the buffet table and eat as much as she wanted.

Boy did she! Honestly, she now looks like she is on steroids. We were all laughing so hard when she was finished. She's actually quite firm now.
It actually wasn't steroids, though. It was stuffing mixed with Christmas cookies that ended her thinnner years. hehehe...

Leila played so many cool games with Andrew. They made clay animals and told stories with them for hours.

The kids were quite happy to have Gabe back around.

The two happy couples.

Meanwhile...

Gabe only had a couple pics from his trip. I thought this one was gorgeous. I wish he had the good camera for it.
The snow level was low and he had to use chains for the first time ever.

The rest of his pics were like this! Crazy Gabe!... lots of snow, though, huh?

Christmas with just the Barbers

This was our first Christmas with just our little family. We had a wonderful time celebrating together. One of my fondest Christmas traditions from childhood was waking up Christmas morning and opening up stockings in my parents' bed. We've decided to carry that tradition on in our own family.
The kids loved it and so did we!

Santa came the night before and left a special present for each kiddo along with their stockings.

Here's Andrew on his new scooter from Santa. He's really getting the hang of it now.

We had an awesome time together, but a large part of the day went to packing for our adventures that started the next morning... to be continued...

Andrew's 3rd Birthday

I really want to finish posting from all of December and my goal is to finish by Saturday night. Let's see if Cheri can do it...
Andrew turned 3 on December 21st! He had an awesome day that ended with a fun party at our house. This was him as soon as he woke up in the morning. And, yes, before his breakfast, he did eat a cupcake.

For some reason I can't get this pic horizontal, but these are the cupcakes I made for him. I was TOTALLY stressed out the night before his birthday and was up until 3am getting ready for his birthday, Keira's dedication, church, and his birthday party. Everything was just an item on a To Do list for me to check off and that made me so sad. I really wanted his birthday to be special and from my heart. I stopped my work at about 1am and prayed for God to give me wisdom in how to bless my son the next day. This idea for the table and cupcakes is what God helped me come up with. Andrew (along with the other boys at the party) were so excited. Plus, all of the candy I used was candy and cereal, etc. that Andrew could eat. It was so fun to be able to do something so special for him.

After breakfast, Andrew opened his gift from us. We got him his first Bible. He LOVES it! He loves books and loves to hear about God and Bible stories so it fit him just right!

Now, when Gabe leaves for work, Andrew puts his Bible and Thomas laptop in his backpack and "goes to work" too. It's so cute!

Keira at Andrew's party. I love her little pouty lip and her big baby blues.
We played an awesome game of pin the tail on Mickey Mouse. They caught on enough to play, but didn't catch on all the way so it was pretty funny.

Noah was the funniest. He just kept walking further and further away from the poster. We finally had to stop him.

Keira with her friend, Abigail.

Whoa!

One of the great things about present-opening at a 3-yr-old party is that everyone helps. :)

Andrew blowing out the candle.

Andrew is such an awesome kid. He is a loving, sharing, silly, smart, and thoughtful little boy. We love him so much!