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OK, I know I've been really bad about updates. Time flies when you're having fun, I guess! We've have been
having a lot of fun. We enjoyed Christmas in our new house. I really enjoyed Christmas this year. Together
with Matt's side of the family we adopted two families (in lieu of gifts to each other). It was so fun and I was so
glad to do it for those families. It also meant that our family members got together to shop and wrap gifts and
spend time together during the holidays instead of the normal craziness that we have at the holiday time.
Since we did that, I had much less Christmas shopping to do on my own, so that was a great relief. The
Christmas shopping that we did do was mostly done on-line (Praise God for the internet!!!!), so I was able to do
things I really wanted to do -- like make cookies. This year I only made my famous Oatmeal and Cinnamon
Chip cookies -- which are Matt's favorite. We made FIVE DOZEN of those cookies! That was a fun time. We
had our Christmas banquet at church where we eat, have a skit, sing Christmas carols, etc and that was a lot
of fun. We also represented Kurt and Brenda's foundation -- First Things First -- and made Christmas
deliveries to a local ministry here in Cedar Rapids called House of Hope. It's an awesome organization that
provides help for women. We delivered gifts, ate cookies and sang Christmas carols. Our new house looked
so gorgeous with all the Christmas decorations. It was so peaceful and nice. I just loved it. On December
19th, our two newest nieces were born -- Sienna Rae (5 lbs 1 oz) and Sierra Rose (5 lbs). Both were perfectly
healthy -- no incubators or anything. Matt and I have only seen pictures but they look so tiny and so precious.
We are planning a trip out there in March to see them. Can't wait!
We spent Christmas at my parents house. I got to catch up with high school friends Monica and Katie, and that
was a blast! Christmas Eve Day we went and visited my Grandma Gilles and other relatives in
Kickapoo/Brimfield. Christmas Eve we opened gifts with my mom and dad, and Christmas Day we spent with
my Grandma and Grandpa Heininger and Aunt Debbie, Jimmy, Kyle and Jeff. It was a fun Christmas.
Christmas night we drove back to Iowa and stopped at Sue and Tom's and then Gene and Mimi's (saw all the
parents/in-laws that day!).
The day after Christmas we picked up Amber from the airport. Wow, did we enjoy having her there! She was
such a joy to have around. She is at the age where she is a lot of fun to do stuff with -- like she helped me
enormously in the kitchen and things -- but she can also entertain herself when we have downtime, and that is
nice too! We had Christmas at our house with her and Sue and Tom and Gene and Mimi and Matt Post.
Amber helped me make both dinners. She liked our new house and can't wait to have her room downstairs.
We had a New Year's Eve party at our house with a bunch of our friends from church. Our Pastor had been
preaching about setting and obtaining goals in 2006, and how to do that so on New Year's, Amber and Abby
handed out pieces of paper (nicely rolled with a red ribbon tied around them) and we all had to write down the
goals that God had placed on our heart for 2006. Before everyone left (most people left before mid-night
because we all had to be at church early the next day), we prayed over our goals together. It was awesome.
Some of my goals have already been attained, and I'm making steps towards the rest all the time. It's exciting
to see progress!
One of my New Year's goals is to lose a little weight. I just want to loose 12 pounds. So, Matt and I have been
eating really healthy (I've actually been cooking A LOT!) and we also joined the YMCA. I love it. I work out 2-3
times a week and I really enjoy it. Matt goes and plays ball there sometimes over lunch because it's only a
couple blocks from our office. You just feel so healthy and it makes you feel good. I was hoping to have lost all
12 pounds by now, but I've only lost 6. Hey, 50% there!
In January, Matt and I started to get the basement ready to finish. He has started that process now, and that is
exciting! A group of people from our church went to Nigeria, and although I didn't go, I felt like I was there in
prayer. The whole 10 days that they were gone, they were constantly on my heart. They had an AMAZING trip
with too many awesome stories to try and write here, but it was awesome, and they plan to go back in February
of '07. We'll see if we feel like we should go that time around. There is another missions trip coming up in
November that Matt really wants to go on. It's to Peru -- that might be cool too -- just have to see where the Lord
leads us.
One other thing that we have re-instated in our lives is date night! Every Friday night we have date night. This
year we've done some fun things. One thing we have started to do is go to Xavier Girls High School Basketball
games. That has been a ton of fun. Yesterday for Valentine's Day, I got flowers hand delivered to me by my
loving husband -- that was sweet. My gift to him (part Christmas gift, part Valentines) was tickets to the
Iowa/Michigan St game last night. It was an AWESOME game! We had such a good time. Matt said that it was
one of his best Valentine's Days ever. Matt got me an Iowa shirt to wear to the game too! Sweet, huh? Last
Friday night we had our Valentine's Banquet, which was a lot of fun. We ate and then Pastor preached on
marriage. Afterwards, Lee Ann & Matt and Anne & Karlos and Matt and I went to Coldstone Creamery for ice
cream -- yummy! Needless to say I was off my diet that night!!! :) Not sure what we will do this weekend.
I've also been getting LOTS and LOTS of good decorating ideas for our house. It's fun to do all that stuff. We
had Jill come over and show us some window treatment samples and I think Mimi is coming over tomorrow
night and we'll look at samples with her.
I think that's about it. I hope to have more pictures and things to update soon.
