Thoughts for a New Year

Psalm 18:28-36

For You will light my lamp;
The LORD my God will enlighten my darkness.
For by You I can run against a troop,
By my God I can leap over a wall.
As for God, His way is perfect;
The word of the LORD is proven;
He is a shield to all who trust in Him.

For who is God, except the LORD?
And who is a rock, except our God?
It is God who arms me with strength,
And makes my way perfect.
He makes my feet like the feet of deer,
And sets me on my high places.
He teaches my hands to make war,
So that my arms can bend a bow of bronze.

You have also given me the shield of Your salvation;
Your right hand has held me up,
Your gentleness has made me great.
You enlarged my path under me,
So my feet did not slip.


Wishing you all a blessed year!

Merry Christmas!

"The people that walked in darkness, have seen a great light:
they that dwelled in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined...
For unto us a child is born, and unto us a Son is given: and the government is upon his shoulder, and he shall call his name, Wonderful, Counselor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.
--Isaiah 9:2, 6

Friends for Life...

Our Little Angel

Two for One

For those of you who read comments, here are the "missing" pictures! (Thanks to Sarah for taking them. :)

A couple weeks ago we were able to help at Operation Christmas Child with some sweet friends. Every year they have an ornament and a t-shirt for you. Well, this year I picked up the biggest shirt they had -- just for fun. One of these friends said that we could fit two of us in it so we tried and these are pictures of it! :)

And we didn't stretch it out! :)

Tea time

A couple weeks ago, the Morgan girls came over for afternoon tea. It was so special and we had a lovely time together!

The table was set.

We had fun making little chocolate cream pies, raspberry pies, and lemon meringue pies. :)

Rachel and Anna

Rebecca and Rebecca

Anna, Sarah and Sarah
(Yes, it does get a little confusing sometimes when we are together. :)

All the girls.

Our Hero

Our dearest Father had a birthday too (his is three days after Noah's). We could never thank him enough for all the sacrifices he makes for each one of us. We love you lots and lots and lots and... :)

So sorry for the lack of posts. We do have several events to post about but first things first. Noah's carefree days are over and has entered the world of double digits! :)

They're like banana's...they are always in a bunch!

Girls 'n Curls

Here is a little flashback from the past. . . oh, and a little something from the present. :)

Rub-a-dub-dub, Bethy in a tub...

Roll Tide!

Last Saturday found our family having a jolly good time with the Martinez family! :) (Before we went to their home we were able to attend yet another wedding and it was SO good. :) Anyhow, back to having a jolly good time at the Martinezes... you see, the Martinez family roots for LSU and we are Alabama fans and the two teams were playing together. (The Martinezes were all decked out in LSU gear and colors and the Storries were all Alabama red.) So we gathered to "watch the game" (some of us did and some of us didn't) and had some scrumptious jambalaya! Needless to say, we all had a blast and just loved being able to spend time with their sweet family! :) Here are a few pictures from the evening!

The flag was new for the occasion! :)

The whole crew (except the moms who were the photographers).

Jenna and Beth...future best friends! ;)

David, John and Josiah, playing together.

And we're back!

Sorry for the lack of post recently. We have been mighty busy people the past few weeks! The last couple of Saturdays we were helping with weddings that were happening at our church, and this week we decided that because spring cleaning never really happened we should do fall cleaning (we were getting ready to welcome our little sister...much more important :)!

So in a nut shell that is why we have not been around doing posts. But I do have some pictures of the wedding last weekend. The first wedding we were at (Tate and Meredith's) I forgot my camera. :( It was beautiful as well and I'm disappointed I don't have any pictures to put up of that one. Anyway, the one that was last weekend (Nathan and Laura's) I was able to do that cake for them, she designed it all and it turned out lovely...she has wonderful taste! :)

The happy couple! :D

On this day, one year ago, The Storries of Three Sisters entered the blogosphere. So... Happy Anniversary to us? :P

Mr. Harlan is home!

For those of you who don't know, Mr. Harlan was serving in Iraq for the past year and we (and especially his sweet family :) are very thankful the Lord brought him home safely! Below are a couple links to articles that were in the California paper upon his return. One of them is a picture of his and is son who was born while he was gone (Heath was born the day after Beth! :). Anyway, I thought you all might like to look at them!

http://gallery.venturacountystar.com/slideShows_custom.cfm?photoIDs=20750&typeName=STAFF
http://www.venturacountystar.com/news/2008/sep/27/200-seabees-back-from-iraq-families-tearfully/

Baby Beth is 5 months!

It's hard to believe it but Beth is already five months old. She can now almost sit by herself and is making all sorts of girly sounds! :) I'm afraid she is slightly spoiled but we try to limit how many times we say the word cute! ;) She is a pure joy and we all love playing with her and watching her discover the exciting things in life.

A Profound Thought

Dear Reader,
This is the most uncommunicative blogger of this blog. My neglect of this site has been gnawing at me of late (after all, it was my idea! It think), and so I am here to remedy my problem, or at least be able to tell myself that I really am a good blog hostess. Yes, you may call it self deception, but I'm not listening.
I am here to share with you, gentle reader, a most profound truth that came to me the other day. Now, usually, I hide such things from the general public, because the depths of them cannot be plumbed by the average American. In fact, I doubt that anyone reading this will understand the beautiful truth they are about to be exposed to. Unless, of course, I get a French reader, perchance. It is as follows.

Stick pretzels are a balm for the troubled heart and mind.

There. I did it. I told you that you wouldn't understand. But this truth was not discovered easily. It took a singing practice in which one soprano had a croaking amphibian in her throat that would not be dislodged, and an alto who was too easily provoked to laughter. All the ladies were pronouncing vowels like bumpkins. The male ranges, well, 3/4 of them had head colds. It was dirge-ish, ghoulish, and altogether frightening.

But then, we pulled out the pretzels. Not the twisty kind, for those only depress you further by reminding you of your current mental condition. The straight, stick ones. And by the time the un-local singers had been trotted out the door, smiles reigned supreme. It was beautiful. It was inspiring. It was possibly life-changing.

Never forget the lesson of the pretzels.

Happy Fall Ya'll! =)

Friends!

The past couple of weekends God has given us special time with sweet friends. The Chapa family came up and spent a couple days with us (it all went by too fast =). We had so much fun sitting around talking, playing games, picking berries (the boys went on that adventure), and just spending time together! They are such a blessing to our family and we thank the Lord for bringing our families together. =) Unfortunately, I did not get pictures while they were here but trust me, we made lots of memories! =D

And just last weekend another sweet family joined us at that Berry Patch Farms and then came and had lunch with us. I did however get pictures of the time we spent with the McKinney's so I thought I would post a few! Once again, we thank the Lord for giving us such special friends to fellowship with! =)

A juicy red ripe strawberry

In the strawberry field.

Ben, Becca and Anna

Mr. McKinney and Dad picking raspberries. Beth going along for the ride and taking a snooze! :)

We couldn't let the day go by without getting a girl picture (Beth was sleeping)!

Taking Care of Beth...

A Wall Full of Storries!

If you visit our home you will find in our family room a wall filled with pictures of each child. Every year we take new pictures to put up and so I thought I would post the pictures that we (or a sweet friend) took! :)

Anna

Sarah

Rebecca

Benjamin

Elijah

Noah

Micah

Josiah

David

Elisabeth