WoW!!

For those of you who have experienced a bonfire at our house, we don't think there will be one anytime soon! This is what our fire pit looked like a couple of days ago...now it is completely covered and the logs you see here are about four feet tall.

White Christmas

As I awoke this morning I had the anticipation of a child. Peering out the window in the dark as if to see anything at all, I actually couldn't believe my eyes! Our entire back yard is filled as far as the back trees and up into the branches, even in the dark early morning, WHITE. That is the best way to describe it. Everything white. Maybe a few specks of dark wood peeking out from under the four foot piled high stacked wood.

Over the last few days our responsibility of keeping the kids warm and fed throughout a winter storm has made us feel a bit anxious. If our electricity were to go out, we would have to rely on the generator borrowed from a friend and plug up the two little space heaters for indoors we bought just last night. Luckily, we haven't even had to use them. The kids are oblivious to it all as they have their minds set on more important things. Playing in the snow has been their ultimate goal for the day!! We have accumulated about 7 inches yesterday, a bit of wet frozen, then another 9 1/2 inches last night. It rained for about an hour and snowed at least another 8-10 inches throughout the rest of the day.

When we had all had enough of being inside we went on a walk and decided since we still didn't have a Christmas tree, we would go on a true Russell Family search................ so here it is...our Christmas tree. Found on our property. By US. Cut down by David. We had the best time figuring out how to decorate such a fragile tree. It is truly the blessing of wading through acres(okay maybe one) of snow to find this perfect one. What is truly a great feeling is being together, making memories that last forever and knowing that our God has so richly blessed us.

Fall Flew by!

What happened to fall? I think I remember the leaves. I know I do. Now all of a sudden we are packing to move at the end of December. The Christensen Family was so generous at Thanksgiving and had our family over. We had a blast. This week we attended two musical events. The first was Jayce's band concert at Silverdale Elementary. He plays percussion and was so good! Later in the week, we attended the Christmas Chorus Concert that was done at church. Jayce and Shaila sang and did so well. We enjoyed it so much!

Before you know it, we will be writing about Valentines day! Enjoy the photos!

Naval Submarine Support Center "Friends and Family Day 2008"

Today we got to experience a Naval lower base and submarine tour of the USS Kentucky with some great friends. The Navy rarely does these tours any more and with David being on shore duty, it is even more unlikely to have the chance to enjoy one. Even though David had been working for at least a month to clean his office, unfortunately the time ran out and we missed his specific office. Bummer! If you never experienced a tour of a nuclear powered submarine and ever get the chance, you should definitely jump on it! We hope that they decide to do another of these tours and that we can extend these opportunities to others. It was so much fun and they shared a wealth of information on what these "silent servers" do in their daily lives on board and lower base. As one of the sailors said on the tour, "It takes a special guy to do the job of a submarine sailor". Our sailor makes us proud! These photos are of us at a memorial outside of lower base. We all cherished our lives enough not to smuggle a camera to the tour!

12th Annual Leavenworth Camping 2008

With school in full swing, work, church, and driving endlessly to and from home, we are all pooped! This past weekend we took a break and went to Leavenworth to join a group of our fellow church families to camp from Friday to Monday. We packed up the camper, cleaned up the house (in case of a showing) and headed out. We even left only 30 minutes behind schedule and were on the road before dark. For those of you who have ever taken a trip with us, you know that is history!


On Friday at about 9:30 pm we headed up the last stretch(and the highest) over Steven's Pass. About 6 or 7 miles from the top we started losing our dashboard lights, then went the headlights, and at about one mile from top, people started flashing their lights on and off at us. Whew! We made it to the top where it was approximately 31 degrees. We sat and laughed and talked about how cold it would be until we came up with the plan to call for help. There was no way we were even going to head down the hill with no brakes.

Soon our rescue party arrived(Thanks Dan, Lane, Dave St.M, and Loren). We piled in and got warm while the guys attached our camper to Lane's truck. The next day some other helpers(Thanks Phil and Travis) went and helped David replace the alternator and battery. Yippeee!!! It worked.

Saturday allowed the kids and I fishing, lunch, more fishing, and lots of around the fire visiting. Sunday was enjoyed with worship, shopping, more fishing and more campfire. We had so much fun. We counted 4o something people at the campsite. Wow!

We even assembled a brave snipe hunting party.

This weekend the weather stayed around 50 to 60 degrees during the day and really chilly at night. The leaves are turning in Washington, the weather is turning colder, and the cold is here to stay. I bet some of the next photos posted are SNOW! Keep in tune.

Our fun filled week....

David's Mom and Dad were here this last week. They flew from Corpus Christi, Texas to see us and the kids. The kids were very excited to see Grandma and Poppie. We had such a blast! The weekend flew so fast that we hardly sat still. Tuesday they arrived and had to catch up on sleep some. That evening Jayce shared his new percussion kit with Poppie. Jimmie is a retired band director of 30 years. Jayce is in line to be a "third generation percussionist". His dad is proud. Wednesday night brought dinner with our church family at the Central Kitsap Church of Christ. We enjoyed that. Thursday was a half day of school, but after the kids got out of school we all enjoyed a family style dinner at home. Friday we all enjoyed sleeping in and then Central Kitsap High School football game that evening. Saturday was eventful with a trip to Tacoma Point Defiance Park for lunch by the water and a picnic lunch. We watched the kids take a long walk down the water, played frisbee, and Jayce and Shaila climbed some great hills. Grandma said she thought that they were full of energy and played so well together!! After that we journied on to Olympia, Washington and got to tag along after a tour of the Capitol Building. It was so beautiful and interesting. The guide told us that the chandlier that hangs in the middle of the dome swung back and forth for months after the last earthquake. Wow! The kids learned a lot and so did we! Washington history is almost as neat as Texas! NOT!


Of course, Sunday was the Lord's day and we all got to worship together. Sunday night we have share groups and we attended the Port Orchard group where we were glad again to be with our Christian family. We headed home and knew our time together was coming to a close. With heavy hearts we said our goodbyes that night as we all headed off to work and school the next morning while Grandma and Poppie headed to Seattle for a good night's sleep before their flight out at 6 a.m. the next morning.


We enjoyed our time with Mom and Dad and will miss them. We pray always that somewhere down the road we can live closer to family.

Slow but sure.....

Slowly but surely I will get this whole thing going....I don't have much time, and want to put a lot more photos on it, but have a lot to learn. Hope you enjoy....

~Here comes the Circus~

Whippeee!!! I figured out how to at least upload one or two photos to our new blog. Don't laugh, you are watching history!! My brain working all on its own is HISTORY!

For those of you who haven't made the trek out to our new house in Port Orchard, here it is! This photo was taken way before it was "finished" so it doesn't have the driveway, lawn, hanging plants, etc.....Maybe I will be smart enough to be able to get photos that are recent. We have a LAN in our house and my laptop isn't talking to our desktop. So, move over kids, Mom has some blogging and posting to do....Or is that the same thing? Ha!

David's parents are here right now, so you might have to wait a bit while we go explore the Pacific Northwest to watch my masterpiece blog come together....I am determined. Thanks Katie for the encouragement!!!

Getting Started.....

After your constant and loyal visits to our old site, we decided to start a blog that we might actually keep up with. Pray hard! ha!

Hope you enjoy it!! Give me a few weeks to work out the kinks. I am not that good at the whole posting photos thingy!!