Before & After

Thanks to some very special friends we were able to finish our living room! Here’s the final product! We love it!

(Before on top, After on bottom)

Christmas!

What a wonderful Christmas this was! Unfortunately, we didn’t get to see all of our families, but we hope they ALL know we love them very much! Even though the miles may keep us apart we long to truly know and understand each and every one of you!

Christmas day we spent with my dad and Carmen. Carmen’s daughter Andrea was there along with Carmen’s son, Chris and his wife, Oliva. Abbie, Shane and Zoie also popped in for a bit. We had a wonderful meal, opened gifts, played games and enjoyed chatting and getting to know each other more.

The day after Christmas was spent with my mom and Clay. Danielle and Clay’s daughter Alyssa also joined us. We had brunch and hit the malls. Since we don’t have any little ones yet, we decided to try something different. We all money that we were able to spend on anything we wanted! We all had a great time. After a long day of shopping we settled down for a yummy all-you-can-eat dinner.

This time of year makes it’s easy to remember Jesus loves us so much that he came to die so we can live. Let’s make sure this wonderful truth is kept in the forefront of our minds ALL YEAR LONG! God Bless!

Engel Christmas Party

This year the party was at Megan and Mitch’s new house! We had a house full! With 7 kids under the age of 3 it wouldn’t be a party without Santa making an appearance! With his reindeer waiting on the roof Santa made his way down to say HO HO HO to the kids. This was there first visit with Santa – some did better than others. Next year I think all of them will do much better!

White Elephant – An Engel family tradition!

How it works - If your BINGO number is called you win a present – once the presents are gone you get to steal from other people. It’s as simple as that!

Here’s just a few of the items people got this year… a juicer, a mini UPS truck, Laxatives, books, games, CD’s, jelly shoes, a candle stick, green hair troll, and clothes…mostly whatever people could find around the house was fair game!

After all the fun and games it was time for karaoke. Some people rocked the house while others --- well, didn’t! We had a great time and it was wonderful to have all of the family in one place celebrating Christmas together!

Food & Clothing Drive Success

The food and clothing drive was a wonderful success! Thank you to everyone who participated! The weather was absolutely beautiful – we didn’t even need a coat for most of the day! Within the first hour we took a huge truck load to the Our Center, about 2 hours later we took another load, by 3pm we had another full load and a full trailer! Everything that was dropped off was in perfect condition! I know all of the clothing, blankets, hats, shoes, food... are going to bless hundreds of people in need this winter season! Can’t wait until next year!

Our First Snow

Bella LOVES playing in the snow! She hops around like a rabbit – running back and forth and eating as much of it as possible! Yum Yum - at least it’s the first snow - nice and white ;o) !

Thanksgiving in Kansas 2008

We went to visit Shan’s mom and step-dad in Kansas for Thanksgiving. We had great weather driving there and made it in about 10 hours. Thanksgiving was great – we had all the fixin’s (well except for the mashed potatoes - oops). It was a nice quiet Thanksgiving.

We watched a couple of movies – one in 3D about going to the center of the earth. That was unique for sure. And played Settlers of Catan – Shan’s favorite game – EVER!

Saturday we went downtown to checkout the lights and play dress-up. We went into a store where a simple polo shirt was $600 and a men’s suit was $2,000. We hit the shoe, purse and jean departments to make out our “wish lists”. Jackie and I wanted to see what a $1000 dress felt like so we tried them on – we had a blast. We had a wonderful time away and were excited to see how God was able to bless our time there in so many ways! Thank you Jackie and Roger – we had a great time!

Oh and I can’t forget the famous garage dance club – you’ll have to see it for yourself (sorry I couldn’t get it turned the right way)!

Painting Project

We decided to paint our living room a couple months ago! We wanted a change and thought this was the best/cheapest way to do it – well we didn’t think about the fact that we would need new curtains, new décor for over the fireplace…). We had a great time doing it!

One wall = Dolphin Fin
One wall = Breakfast Blend
One wall = Asparagus


(Gotta love the names!)

Digital Scrapbooking

Here are some of the pages I’ve made. I switched to scrapbooking digitally after I made our wedding album. I learned that I like having straight lines, but I don’t want to take the time to cut them straight - weird I know. This way if I make a page I don’t like I can delete it and start over without wasting any pictures, paper or other embellishments - saving lots of time and money. :o) Enjoy!

Ms. Bella

Ms. Bella wanted to say HI! She’s the “baby” of the family (for now) ;o) ! I had no idea that when we got her that I would love her so much! She has taught me what unconditional love really means!

She’s too smart for her own good – that’s for sure! We have taught her many cute tricks even sign language; however, she’s like a little kid if we sign to her and she doesn’t want to do it she’ll look away like, “I don’t hear you”. We also taught her to ring a bell when she needs to go potty – she has found her own ways of using it – if she seeing we’re getting ready to leave she’ll sit by the door and ring the bell with her tail, over and over and over… as you can tell she’s very entertaining!

She keeps me company while Shan’s working and she helps get me away from the computer to go for a walk when I’m working too much. This is Ms. Bella.

Food and Clothing Drive

My mom has decided to host a HUGE food and clothing drive to support HOPE and the Our Center. I have been helping her make and distribute flyers! Sounds like it’s going to be awesome! She has spoke with many different vendors that have donated a variety of things… large event tents, tooth brushes, tooth paste, pizza’s for lunch that day, a DJ, storage boxes, a cleaner and the list is still growing! Today we went around and posted flyers across town! I know God will use this day to provide in abundance- so that the homeless here in Longmont will have full tummies and will be warm this winter season. It’s already getting cold – we had our first dusting of snow today!

God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:1

Happy Halloween!

This year we were invited to a Murder Mystery Dinner with some friends. Our characters were Cleopatra and Caesar. It was perfect timing for the dinner since Halloween was 2 weeks later. We decided since we had the costumes already put together we would just use them for Halloween. It worked! Unfortunately I was fighting a cold that weekend, but I was just thrilled that I still fit in my high school prom dress! That's awesome!