Redstone

So after Christmas our family and my parents headed to the mountains for some much needed R and R. Redstone is a quaint little moutain town. Not a ski resort, just a one street old mining town. There is the Redstone castle which was John Cleveland Osgood dream. A powerful and controversial industrialist of the 1900's that carved a mining community out of the wilderness. At the end of the street is the Redstone Inn. Where we had a very nice dinner. We stayed at some family friend's Riverhouse. We toured the castle and got a good dose of Colorado history. We went on a sleigh ride, and went sledding. At night once the kids were in bed, we drank hot chocolate and Bailey's and played Mexican train. I love getting away, no cell phones, a blanket of stars, snow everywhere, nestled among the peaks of the Rockies, walking everywhere by the lamp lights. It was worth it, sleepless nights sharing a room with the kids Luke getting over the last of the flu and mom getting it too, Ellie still puking everyday. But sometimes you just have to go for it and I loved it. Can't wait to go back this summer!

More blog posts!!

Hey family and friends, I want to update this more often so here we go!
We are getting settled here in Grand Junction. I love it here, I look at a mountain stream and think I can't believe I live here. It is amazing to experience the outdoors and nature so so much here. I am sick of people asking me if I like it here. Of course I do, but I miss being close to people who have known me the longest. I am tired of surfacy conversations with everyone here. So with the loneliness I turn to God. So in some regards this is a good season of being desperately dependent on God. I have had more time to focus my attention on being a better wife and mom. Which is good for me to really strive for that. This is very hard to feel successful in, but every night I lay in bed and think about what went well today. Praise God for those.
More to come later.

Ellie, my toddler. Loves to climb, and sit in things. Just like Goldilocks loves to try it all out. She is walking. It has not been documented. She is 14 months. Her top 2 teeth are making there way out. She will just walk around the house and busy herself. She entertains herself, thank goodness. I forget that 1 years olds don't have much of a fear factor. She tubes with Luke, goes into the bounce house with 5-6 kids at the b-day party. Loves to sit on the edge of the pool and scoot off so I will catch her. She is a Daddy's girl! Still a great napper, and I am looking forward to one on one time with her while Annie is at school.

Annabelle

Oh my little four year old. She is still adjusting to the move. She loves to be with her cousins. She still asks me every morning "where are we going today?" and "When can I see my cousins?". This one likes to be entertained and social. She can outride me on her bike when we go for walks. And it is getting hard to catch her while playing chase. She is great at art, enjoys interacting more with Ellie. I am going to miss her when she starts preschool 4 days a week!

Friends at the lake

Annabelle and Quinn. Quinn lives next door to my parents. It is very convient to have a friend even at your grandparents.

Annabelle and Macy. Macy kept her thumb up the faster sign the whole time.

Annabelle Macy and Kate.

Ethan Crabb and his ladies. They were spotting while Matt and Luke tube.

I love the lake. I love being able to host friends while out there. Thanks for making the drive guys.

Elliana's First

Cheeks and eyes, that's our Ellie

Anaya is 8, Nerea almost 4

She fed Luke first I had to beg to get some, but she was happy to share...eventually

Happy first birthday Elliana. God has answered our prayers with you. You are fun, you love to eat, play with your sister, throw a ball, and eat again. You can really throw a good fit, whether banging your head on the floor, or the full body bucking, or the rolling around on the floor crying. Another thing you are very good at. Crawling and cruising you have managed and I learned from your sister you will walk when you want to. I am in no hurry. We relish the moments you lay your head down and hug. The sweet da da or mom you call out to us. We are proud to be your parents Happy birthday Ellie.

Answered Prayer

John 14:13-14

If you ask for anything in my name, I will do it for you, So that the Father's glory will be shown through the Son. If you ask me for anything in my name, I will do it.

Last Thursday during my quiet time I felt very strongly to pray that our buyers would come see the house that day. I had full confidence in this leading of the Holy Spirit. And so my day goes and I continue to have the buyers on my heart. 1:00 rolls around no call from the relator about a showing, so I think well this must mean it will be short notice I better get this place in order. Luke walks in the door at 3:10, phone rings at 3:20 we have a showing at 4:00. I ask the lady from the office, do you believe in prayer? Because I knew these people were coming and I am going to be ready for them. It was still a family effort to get the house ready in 40 minutes and all of us out the door.

Thursday night we get a call they are coming back in the morning for a second showing. I call my neighbor Pam ask her to keep an eye out for these people since they are the ones. She says they are a family with a 2 year old boy.

Saturday no news no showings, Sunday same.

Monday our relator says they are deciding between yours and 2 others. Again we pray, we lower the price, try to get their attention and move us up to the top of the list.

Tuesday we accept an offer. An answered prayer. Never before have I experienced a prompt to pray and to have faith in something like this. It has been humbling. God will take care of me, but to let me be apart of it, that is amazing.

This move has been an adventure, yes it is hard but to experience God around every corner that is worth it.

Home Sweet Where?

Above: These mountains are called the Bookcliffs, with Mount Garfield on the end. These mountains are on the northern side of the valley.

Above: This is the Colorado National Monument. This on the sounthern side of the valley.

Above: This is the Grand Mesa. The world's largest flat-top mountain. There are over 200 lakes that are great for fishing and camping. Also Powdernhorn ski resort is located here. The Grand Mesa is to the east of Grand Junction.

This will be our new home!

Here is Grand Junction: Population is 100,000, there is one mall, but I am excited to have the option of shopping at Old Navy and Kohls now! Denver is 4 hours away and that is where I will have to go to do more serious shopping like my favorite Children's Place.

Our House. We went out over Spring Break to find a house and we did. It is a cool story so here you go. We were looking for a 4 bedroom house that had 2 living spaces so that Luke could have a YL meeting and I don't have to hide somewhere. With the market being soft we were hoping to find a house that we could have our family grow and the girls to be able to have their own space when they are older. And so we chose the first house we looked at. It is old, built in '66, the description of it was stately. Which is not Luke and I's style but it has such a homey feel we were soon over it. It has 2 living rooms a dining room. Lots of window and sunlight coming through. A huge backyard with a porch, lots of land behind us that we saw kids exploring in. The master bed and bath are not a dream come true because it is old. But it has an unfinished basement and so someday we will redo the basement and then we can take out an upstairs bedroom and make it part of the master. Lots of space and lots of hidden potential. But we can move in and have lots of space right away. we will not be doing in projects any time soon.

So we decided to make an offer on the house. The asking price was out of our comfort level. So we offered 14,oo0 less than they were asking. Our Realtor mentioned that others had said they were going to put offers on this house too. We did not know if that was a bluff, or just talk or what. The next day we got a call that there were 2 additional offers on the house. How high are we willing to go? WHAT? This house has been on the market for over a month they had moved out, and now we have competition. At this point I was not going to get attached to this house because we did not want to end up paying more than we were comfortable. We said we can not do much more and hope for the best. The next day we get a call from our Realtor, Well they want to go with you, they countered $3,000 more, and I won't take a commission and the other relator will pitch in some too. What about the other offers? They were significantly more than yours but the family really wanted to go with you. My heart swelled with such a blessing. Our relator had given the sellers an idea of who we were and how we wanted to raise our young family in this home and to do ministry. I could tell that both the relators and the family worked so hard to make this work. I know that we are paying for this house but it just felt like such a gift. We got a great interest rate and our house payment is exactly where we are comfortable. Confirmation that God will take care of us. If we ask for bread will he give us a stone? No your Father above wants to give you "good things". The home is such a huge piece of me feeling at home in GJ. I feel so blessed!

We close on April 27th we will move the first week of May! Please pray that we sell our home in Manhattan. I know that this too will be a God thing.

Who are these kids??

Hi Friends, so I am feeling out of touch. I see your pics and I feel like I have not seen so many of you. You are your kids are changing. Here are the Feather girls. Ellie eats and eats and eats. After she gets food in her she gets a little crazy. These are pics of Ellie showing off to high school boys that were having dinner with us. She was pretending to be smoking a doobie with her green bean. She has a tough act to follow to get peoples attention with a big sister like Annabelle but she is carving her own path no doubt. This is a typical day with Annabelle. She is the fairy princess trying to catch the monster fish. We "play" alot. She is very busy and wants me to join in too. Miss you people that live far away. I need to make plans to see you all before we are gone, sad. House going on the market tomorrow off to go clean.