Wow, it has been a long time...

It sure has been a long time since I have posted on here...

Life as I knew it has changed in many ways since the beginning of December. There have been many challenges as well as many, many blessings! I am so thrilled to begin a new year, serving the Lord, and enjoying my family! I want to learn more this year than I did last year... I want to read more than I did last year... I want to make more connections with influential people than I did last year.

Over the past month we have seen many different things happen.

Katie and I were able to go to Rhode Island for a week to celebrate Christmas. It was a wonderful trip. We were able to see the sights and eat at all of our favorite restaurants. We even managed to get a Dell's Lemonade! Wow! Those are great! Before we knew it, we were headed back to Florida and looking forward to a busy busy month...

Each week there was something huge going on, one week it was the Christmas program, (which was great by the way) another week it was Christmas Caroling and other Christmas Parties... Lots and Lots of fun, but Very Very Busy!!

The week of Christmas we went up to Jacksonville and had a great time with the family... we were able to spend time with Mom and Dad, Grandma and Grandpa Bethel, Aunt Roanna and Uncle Steve and all the kids... It was a great time! We also spent a lot of time with Amanda and Steve. It was refreshing to see our relationship grow during our time together. While we were there we had family pictures taken and did a lot of other exciting stuff like watching the Dark Knight, and swimming in the 108 degree spa before jumping into the 60 degree pool... Trust me! It was exhilerating!!!

Well, last week Amanda and Steve drove all the way down here to Port Charlotte and Katie and I got to watch Stephen James for a few days!!! It was so much fun!! I really miss him and I loved spending that time with him. It reminded me of how much my Uncle Steve meant to me when I was a young guy! It is neat to be on the other end of the uncle/ nephew relationship.

Will is doing (and eating) MORE THAN EVER!!!!! Tonight: Will ate two ENTIRE pieces of Pizza tonight and for lunch he ate olive garden breadsticks, 6 yum yum snacks, and a bottle... this boy just eats and eats and eats!!!! It is unbelievable how much one little baby boy can eat!!!

He is just a very short ways from walking all by himself... He can already hold on to stuff and walk all around the room... In the morning I will take him out of his crib and he will crawl from his room to our room to find mommy... (Daddy lets her sleep in in the morning... what a great guy!! :)... He crawls all over the place and is CONSTANTLY GETTING INTO STUFF that he should not be touching... like light sockets, lap top computers, remotes, iphones... The first thing the boy crawled for was a TV remote!!!! He is a natural born techie :)

Well, there is a lot here but I am sure that one day I will look back and be so thankful that I took the time to write about the details! God has been faithful even through the challenges we have faced...

Thank you God for what you did in 2008 and thanks for what you will do in 2009!!!