Great day!

Today was such a great day! Even though all Cornerstone worship services were cancelled this weekend due to blowing snow drifts and way below zeros temperatures, Roger Wheeler invited us (and the Gibsons and Ehresmans) to their house for breakfast and "church" this morning. After we ate an awesome breakfast, we sang Christmas songs and Roger shared about Christmas and how it relates to the work he is doing in Rosebud. Then we prayed for the Wheeler's trip to Rosebud this week at Christmas.

Another reason why we LOVE the Wheelers!

Afterward, I did a little more Christmas baking (well, if you can call covering cookies with almond bark "baking") at my sister's house with Brady and Mya.

Here is what we made . . . so cute!

Chocolate Peppermint Shortbread Cookies

A friend asked for this recipe, so I thought I'd post it. I'll admit it is a little more high maintenance than some, but that's my style!

3/4 cup plus 2 tbsp butter, softened

1 1/2 cup powdered sugar

1/2 tsp peppermint extract

2 (1 oz ea) squares unsweetened baking chocolate, melted, cooled slightly

1 1/2 cups all-pupose flour

1 1/2 cup semisweet mini-chocolate chips

1 tbsp milk

1 drop green food color

1/2 tsp canola oil

1. Preheat oven to 375. Combine butter, 1/2 cup of the powdered sugar, 1/4 tsp of the peppermint extract and melted chocolate in large bowl. With an electric mixer, beat until creamy. Add flour, beat until mixture forms a dough. Stir in 1 cup of the chocolate chips by hand.

2. Shape dough into 1-in balls. Place 2 in. apart onto ungreased cookie sheet. Flatten each ball to 1 1/2 in. circle with bottom of glass dipped in flour.

3. Bake 5-7 minutes or until set. Let stand 2 minutes; remove from cookie sheets onto wire racks. Cool completely.

4. Combine remaining powdered sugar, remaining peppermint extract, milk and food color in small bowl. Beat at low speed until smooth. (Add additional milk, one tsp at a time, for desired frosting consistency.) Frost cooled cookies. Place on waxed paper.

5. Melt 1/2 cup chocolate chips and shortening in 1-qt saucepan over low heat, stirring occassionally until smooth. (I used the microwave.) Drizzle thin lines over frosting. Let stand until chocolate is set (at least 30 minutes).

Christmas Cookies

This past Thursday night I did some Christmas baking with some of my favorite girls! Qing, from our family group, Mya and Sydney.

Chocolate mint cookies, mini snowball cookies (my favorite) and thumbprint cookies (Jason's favorite)

Thanksgiving Weekend

We spent Thanksgiving Day in southwest Iowa with my family and then went with the Wheelers and Mike & Emily Mogard to the Rosebud Indian Reservation Friday-Sunday. Rosebud is located in the poorest county in the nation. It is filled with poverty, alcoholism, suicide and hopelessness. I could go on and on. The Wheelers have been going there a lot and after much labor, Roger led the first Bible Study (or "Stories along the Trail of Hope" as we referred to it with the Indians) on Sunday. 50 men, women & children came. Please pray that God would provide a few people to go there to live to help start a church. The room full of Indians we served Thanksgiving dinner to.

The kids love their Uncle Mitch
My beautiful Grandma, who we visited in the nursing home for the first time. We moved my Grandpa out of their house on Christmas day to live closer to Grandma. It is all very sad.

We don't have many mom & daughters shots

Family Group Thanksgiving

A couple pictures from our family group Thanksgiving meal on Tuesday night. We barely all fit in our house! It was so much fun.

We have a new nephew!

All the Ehresman's were hoping for a boy and they got one! Greysen James was born today at 3:20p. He weighed 9 lbs, 4 oz and was 21 inches. He and Kate are doing great.

Brady is already LOVING having a brother

Happy Family

The whole crew

We went to Rochester, Minnesota, to visit my good friends from college, Anh & Beth Ngo (& Chloe & Liam). We had a great time!

Chloe & I made banana bread.

Jason and Liam, playing the Wii

Sushi

One of my dreams before I die has been to learn to make sushi (you might think I am joking, but I am not!). Jason and I LOVE to eat sushi. One of my good Thai friends is moving away, but before she left, she invited me to her house this past Friday night to teach me to make sushi. It was so fun! And not as difficult as I imagined. And it was delicious!

My friend, Ying, and her sister, Nat

State Fair

Jason shared his annual turkey leg with Brady this year. Yong-shen and Qing had one, too.

Our Chinese friends - their first time at the fair

Future Cyclones?

Jason thought Mya looked so cute eating her pink strawberry ice cream in her pink outfit

Brady on the climbing wall

Mya is flying high and loving it

Brady's Birthday and Thailand Reunion

Brady's birthday was August 2nd and Sydney's was August 4th. Brady wanted a party on the Dietz' farm so he and his friends (and family) could ride four-wheelers. I think the big boys might have had more fun than the little ones. Most of the boys and their dads . . . and Uncle Jason and Uncle Mitch camped in tents, too. I was glad I was a girl and could sleep in my own bed!

Sydney got an apple

The boys at the party: Cameron & Beck Arant, Sam & Joe Andrews, Ben Ward and Brady (I'm not sure what Mark Ehresman looked like as a kid, but I'm pretty sure Brady is posing just like him as a kid!)

Brady's four-wheeler cake - six years old!

Seriously, you have to check out this cake Kate created from her head - it was impressive!Sydney turned two and had a "nim-n-nim" birthday cake

Ja (left), who visited me in June was in Kansas City to see Bethany Owens (right), who was a daughter of the missionary family I worked with in Thailand. Mook and her family traveled to Kansas City for their family vacation. They all realized they were only three hours from me and drove up two weeks ago to see me. It was such an incredible gift to see them all!

When I went to Thailand for the summer in 1997, Mook became my closest friend. She married Tony Long, an American guy living in Thailand and they now have three girls and live in Florida. The big girls with Tony and Mook's little girls: Hannah, Bethany (named after Bethany Owens) and EstherJason became a human jungle gym

More crazy fun . . . hmm . . . reminds me of Thailand!

The next morning Kelly Conner (who was part of my '97 summer team) and her three girls and Laura Van Roekel (who lived in Thailand with her husband after I did) and her daughter, Grace, came to visit. It was a big reunion in our little living room!

One last picture before they had to goThank you, God, for such a wonderful gift!

See all the pictures here.

Final Turkey Pictures

My last day in Van, I got to go see Sheryl's best friend, Ozgul, who I've seen each time I've been in Van.Fun with Klaire
One last picture with Sheryl!

Worship service with all the Cornerstoner's in Istanbul this morning (Mark Arant led worship)

Sarah Wood and I . . . overlooking Istanbul

Jodi Pribyl and I

Kayla McVicker, Brittany Kroese (high schoolers), me and Sarah