T'was the night before Christmas

Heading out for Christmas Eve service-

Tried to take pictures without the paci...put it back immediately!

Our Family tradition is to go out to Chinese food for Christmas Eve dinner. It's a yummy and easy tradition.

We missed Luke and Ann Helen
Stockings are full and hung on the bookcase with care, presents are out...it's time for visions of sugar plums (what is a sugar plum anyway?) Merry Christmas to all and to all a goodnight.

Our Christmas Card & Letter

Wondrous
Adj. Remarkable or extraordinary; wonderful.

Wondrous is the perfect adjective to describe how we feel about this past year. It has gone by in a blur, but we’ve been careful to enjoy every minute with our little ones. They’ve taught us so much this year about how God our Father must feel about us as His children.

Bethany- I remember sitting up late at night with Josiah and thinking… “This little guy can’t do anything to earn my love. He can’t give back to me in any way. And right now all he is doing is taking from me but I’m overwhelmed with love for him. Just spending time with him is wondrous”. God wants to spend time with us too. We can’t earn his love…we can only accept it.

Jeff- I’ve learned a lot about God’s patience through interactions with Tori. There are so many times that I’ve wished she’d listen to my advice but she wants to do it, “all by myself”. So I sit back & watch her try, fail, & finally ask for help. Sometimes she stubbornly waits until it’s necessary for us to step in & for her safety, take over. But just like God responds to us… I don’t shame her for not asking for help sooner, I happily help her & hope she realizes that doing things together is much easier.

Tori (3 ½) - Logical, gentle & emotional. She loves to play with friends, her brother, & her pets. She spends a lot of time reading, riding her bike, & dressing up as a Princess. She makes us laugh all the time with her “Torisms” as we fondly call the funny things she says.

Josiah (1) – Loud, active & cheerful. He is all BOY. We call him our little “Tonka Truck” cause it doesn’t matter what is in his way…including our dog, he’s up and over it in seconds. He’s all about constant motion & loud noises.

Each year it seems we add a child or animal to our family. This year we’ve added two animals… a 2 year old golden lab named Samson joined our family this summer. He’s so gentle with the kids and adores our family (well, maybe not Kitty Boo). We also made room for a water turtle named Squirt and some fish, all named Nemo. Next year, there is a possibility that we will grow our family by adopting a child. We are currently working on local adoption paperwork & praying that God leads us to the child that He’s given our hearts a love & burden for. We’re really excited for our family to grow in a new way.

We’re praying that you’re able to feel the love of Jesus- whose birthday we are celebrating- and that you have a wondrous Christmas and year to come.

Love,

Coffer Family

Christmas Decorations

I love to decorate for Christmas with Nativity scenes. It helps me focus on the true meaning of CHRISTmas. Here are a few of my favorites-This is a water globe that plays Joy To The World really loud while sparkles float around.

This is the one I grew up with. My Mom passed down to me when she got a new one. I love it!

This is my family Christmas 1982. My brother Jake was only a few months old so we were asked to be in the living nativity at our church. My Brother Jason was a Shepard- MIA.

Our advent calendar. It's so hard to find one that's not filled with chocolate or has Santa all over it.

A very cool Christmas card that I keep and display every year.

Even the kids have a nativity scene. This is a Fisher Price Little People one. I love it! It gets put away every year so it's always new to the kids each Christmas. It lights up and plays music. Most nights I hide the characters and Tori finds them while we read the Christmas story. It's a tradition that I love.

You won't find many Santa's in our house but I had to have these.

Even Santa knows the meaning of Christmas.

My other decorations are focused on family. These are my new favorite wall frames that I change with the season. They're magnetic so it's easy to switch out the pictures and decorations.



For the first time ever...we got a fake tree. I'm actually really enjoying not cleaning up needles or having to keep Josiah's hands out of the water. Last year our tree got so dry that I wasn't able to keep the lights on for fear of fire. I love the lights so I was willing to go fake this year and keep the lights on all season long. Extra bonuses- it's pre-lit and we don't need a tree stand. It came in a pretty little pot. I do miss the tree smell though so I bought it. I've got a Mistletoe candle and tree oil that you can put on special ornaments. Both of our Mom's had a tradition of giving us special ornaments each year and we've continued this tradition. Jeff usually gets a unique Santa and I like to collect frogs. Tori & Josiah get something that is important to them at the time. Tori's is a Thomas train this year. Josiah- Superman onsie. As you can guess, we have a lot of ornaments. We also collect them from our vacations. It's so fun to pull them out and remember the places we've been. We've also added a lot of pictures and first time type ornaments. It's a 3D scrapbook. Aw, so happy.

Crazy Day...and it's only noon

How could these adorable little ones cause so much craziness? Oh, it happens-

So, maybe if I write about how frustrating things have been this morning I'll find the humor in it. I know it's all funny stuff...looking back on it.

I've already washed both kids pee pee sheets and two sets of Tori's clothes. Ummmm, isn't she potty trained?

Josiah spilled my full coffee mug (notice that means I didn't get coffee) all over the floor and proceeded to walk through it soaking not only one pair of jammies but we had him doubled up to keep warm so he soaked two pairs.

I thought, I know what will help, let's go outside before it rains. So I told Tori to put her shoes and socks on as I got Siah ready. I'm still not sure why but she screamed at me, "No, I will never wear socks!" Guess who is wearing socks now...and forever.

Things I learned while outside on this frigid day: frozen tennis ball doesn't bounce very well. I also learned where Samson's thinks is a great place poop- the pathway from the front door to the firewood pile. Of course my ugg boots found that treasure and I proceeded to tracked it onto the sidewalk. Before I could clean it up I had to help a frantic Tori who couldn't get her shoes on...her sock were on though. Of course Josiah decided at that exact time to climb off his bike and crawl through the poop on his way to find out why his sister was crying. ARRRG!

To top it all off Tori peed her pants again when we came inside!

So now I'm staring at a mountain of laundry and dishes and thinking...I'm not going to do it right now! I'm going to think about everything I'm grateful for instead. Here goes: I get to stay home and raise my beautiful children. I have a hard working and loving husband and friends and family that will laugh with me. I have a washer & dryer and I don't have to go to the laundry mat anymore. I have extra sheets and a crazy amount of (free and cute) clothes for the kids. My coffee was not hot enough to burn Josiah and I can always make more...maybe I should cut back anyway. It's not raining so we were able to bundle up and go outside to play on wonderful toys in our own front yard. Tori has socks and shoes to wear. We have a gentle and loving guard dog and plenty of firewood. Josiah is so caring that he'll crawl through poo to comfort his sister...and I realized that he did it immediately. Tori's kidneys are working to produce pee! And finally, IT'S NAP TIME!

Miracle

The following post is a little long but definitely worth reading. My Mom has been miraculously healed. I copied the e-mail I sent to all of our Prayer Warrior friends asking them to pray for my Mom to be healed. The follow up e-mails are how God answered our prayers. It has been truly AMAZING.

12/11/08
To all our Prayer Warrior friends and family,

I invite you to join us in prayer this weekend. My Mom & Dad are heading to a church on Friday night that has a healing ministry. It is called Bethel Church in Redding (click for link to website). I know to some of you this might sound odd, (others think it's about time!). We do believe that God heals and for some reason He has given this church and ministry the gift of healing in His name. They give all glory to God and have had 1000's of healings. Check out their Testimony page...it's amazing. Personally I know of a family that is seeing results of a healing just this past weekend and I'm so encouraged. After talking with this person I immediately looked into Bethel's ministry for my own Mom and I've encouraged them to go. We are praying that God chooses to use this ministry to bring about healing for Mom. As you all know, this year has been really hard for her. She is in great physical pain and still feels nauseous at all times. She has had every test imaginable and many, often times, painful procedures and still has no relief. So, we are praying and believing that God will give her body mercy and heal her this weekend. She has been miraculously healed in the past and we are believing that God wants to heal her again.

12/13/08
Hi Friends,

Mom & Dad had a wonderful, worshipful experience at Bethel Church. They prayed with the speaker after the Friday night service and really had some spiritual and emotional healing. Dad was made aware that he can't carry the burden of not being able to heal Mom himself. He needed to learn to "Let Go & Let God". The speaker also prayed over Mom and felt that she had a crippling spirit and prayed against that. She asked if anyone else in her family had anything similar and in fact her father (deceased) was wheelchair bound for most of his life and her sister has laid on a couch for the past 10+ years. Neither had specific reasons for their crippling. The speaker identified that as a generational curse and she prayed that it would be broken.

Today they went to the Healing Room and were prayed with individually. One of the prayers was regarding Mom's leg that is 1/2 inch shorter than the other. It causes all sorts of back problems and she needs to wear a lift. They prayed healing in her leg and claimed that it lengthened. She is excited to measure her leg and see the healing. They also prayed for her nerve damage, digestive system, and pain issues. Nothing dramatic happened in those areas but because they are all internal we are expecting time to reveal more healing...expect praise updates soon!

The healing that did happen has been amazing. It's all encompassing- spiritual, emotional, and physical. The past few days they were able to spend a lot of time in prayer together and be reminded of how big our God is. They're able to hope again that she will not live in constant pain. Please pray for her continued healing.

12/17/08
Praise the LORD!!! I hope you're picturing me joyfully shouting this praise. Mom just returned from her chiropractor who's known that her legs are 1/2 inch different and that she needs to wear a lift. Today, when he measured her legs (4 times) they were EVEN. He agreed that she has been miraculously healed. In addition, she hasn't had to take pain medication for the past few days and she is not nauseous. We are thanking the Lord for his amazing healing.
Please tell everyone of God's great works and boldly declare His GLORY

Thanksgiving

We had a very Happy Thanksgiving at Mom & Dad's house.

Mimi & Papa with the kiddos

Jeff taking part in a favorite tradition- shooting the persimmons off the tree. It's an odd tradition but lots of fun.

Auntie Len with Siah Our little pumpkin Luke and Ann Helen

November 2008 Tori-isms

Sitting down for dinner
Tori- “Can I have a sippy cup with ice and lemon please?”
Jeff- “Why?”
Tori- “It makes it more juicier.” After taking a sip, “Mmmm…it’s alicious (delicious).”

Playing inside
Tori- “Ewwww! Samson got “SNIFF” all over me. That’s disgusting! Get the Sniff off of me.”
Reminded me of Lucy on the Peanuts

Talking about the differences between dogs and horses-
“Horses feet are loud and they’re too big for a leash.”

Exasperating my child
Lately I’ve been calling our dog Samson “Snoop” whenever he does something annoying. This really upsets Tori. She says, “Mommy, his name is Samson and that’s what you need to call him.” … I continue to call him Snoop. So today when I called him Snoop she bent down and checked his nametag and told me, “his name tag says Samson, not Snoop!”

Playing outside
I noticed there was dog poop near Tori’s play house so I warned her to lookout for it. (I wasn’t going to clean it up…it’s Jeff’s dog. Ok, I know I should have but, Gross! And that’s how he talked me into a dog. I don’t do dog poop…other poop all day long, but not dog. Anyways, back to the story.) Tori said that she couldn’t see the poop. Next thing I know she disappears into the house. When I asked her what she was doing she said she had a surprise for me. She comes out with her hands behind her back and then shows me a pink building block that has holes in it. When I asked her what it was she said, “its a poop spotter.” Then she held it up to her eye to look through it…”Oh, I see the poo now!” she exclaimed excitedly.

Daily bike ride in the front yard
Tori was riding her bike in circles and I commented on it. Her reply was, “can I go in triangles instead?”

Soon there will be Siah-isms…but right now, we don’t know what he’s saying. But he is LOUD! Lots of boy noises. We do know to duck and cover when he’s playing though because he constantly throws his toys.