It's February

And I haven't blogged at all in the new year. Don't have much to add at the moment, but I am in the process of uploading a slideshow with a few of our pictures from Disney. It will be playing at the top the blog once I have it all set up. Then I'll need to add some more photos to it.

From our busy household to yours!
>Naomi for the Colliers

-- Trust in the Lord, for He is good.

Christmas 2010 Photos (1)

Wii fun time!

Alex, our TVTroper.

What animal is that behind you, Aidan?

A bug for Bug.

Christmas 2010 Photos (2)

Kyrie on pointe with her new ballet calendar.

The kids listening to the Christmas story before opening presents.

Abi's new jacket matches her new pjs!

Aimee singing in her Dora microphone.

Christmas Letter

Yay! We have our Christmas letter done before Christmas! We are posting the link here on the blog, linking to it through Facebook, and also sending the pdf file as an attachment through e-mail. One way or another, everyone that wants to see our letter should get the opportunity (as well as some who aren't interested at all). :)

Oh, Firefox keeps opening it up at 116% which makes the pictures pixelated. Turn it down to 100% and the pictures should be clear.

Collier Christmas letter

Merry Christmas all!

Love in Christ,
Naomi for the Colliers

2010 Webelos Woods

Well, the Tall Timbers 2010 Webelos Woods is done and in the record books now; over 600 scouts and cubs from the Woodlands/Spring area enjoyed a great weekend with wonderfully cool weather and lots of opportunity for the cubs to visit with the various troops and decide which they would like to join.

A handful of dedicated scouts from the Mato OA (Order of the Arrow) chapter worked tirelessly all weekend to make it all happen: Seth Whitaker, Alex Gumm, Alex Collier and Kevin Dunnican were everywhere -- helping with registration, check-in/check-out and parking, staffing the "Colonneh Cafe" trading post, building and running the campfire, performing an OA call out, and even conducting their first OA Brotherhood ceremony! Without their help, Webelos Woods would not have been possible.

Several OA Advisors were also key to making the weekend work: Chris Jones was the overall coordinator of Webelos Woods this year, and kept things moving -- making sure the camp was prepared and all the campsites assigned, working with the OA ceremonies team on the campfire, call out and Brotherhood ceremony, and pretty much everything else as well. Bryant Dunnican was our camp medic for the weekend, I spent nearly all the weekend in the registration office handling all the paperwork, and newlywed Bobby Warren was our weekend chef (the fajitas were great!).

A number of other scout leaders, parents, and arrowmen pitched in to help at various points during the weekend, and the help was very much needed and appreciated. It's weekends like this when we see scouting at it's best, and I'm proud to be associated with such a great organization!

WWW,

Tartan

I wish Tartan had been there

I'm sitting at Whataburger, taking up a whole corner with my tribe of six- most of us wearing our AWANA shirts. A gentleman passes by on his way out wearing skull cap and shawl; he smiles slightly at us and I incline my head in acknowledgment. A couple of minutes later he returns with a set of toy fairy\butterfly wings and wand and offers them to me for my little ones. I accept, wondering where this will go and he tells us he is a missionary and asks my name and where I am from. I briefly explain and ask where he's from- Wisconsin. Did I ask his name? No- I'm an awful conversationalist with strangers. He asks how many kids I have and I claim all six and then he asks what their giftings are. Um, I'm not sure what he's looking for and say so but I can't find the words to explain that while my husband and I are always trying to discern the gifts God has blessed our children with- I don't like to discuss them lest they feel like their being compared or compartmentalized. (We talk about them one-on-one or as a family, but I *try* not to say "this is the organized one, this one is the people-person" in front of them to others) Aimee pipes up with a wave and "hello" and he delightedly says she's a greeter. Well, that sounds ok. Then he goes on to explain we must give wings to our children and how the butterfly starts off as a gentle, crawling creature that becomes a beautiful butterfly. Okay... I just sit there smiling and nodding my head- and not thinking of anything to say. He finishes off by thanking me for blessing the world with my children; I smile and nod and thank him for the wings\wand. He says "blessings to you" and Alex pipes up with "God bless you" as he walks out the door.

I'm sitting there thinking- I wish Tartan had been here! He would have continued the conversation and asked questions and at least found out who he was a missionary for.

Alex steps away from the table for a moment and then I notice the man's keys sitting on my table. Without really thinking, I send Aidan outside with them thinking that the man must be out in the parking lot and has not realized yet that he's missing his keys. Aidan starts across the lot and I have a moment of panic- I have no idea if this guy is who he presents himself as and I just sent my son out there alone. Fortunately I can see them clearly from where I'm sitting and it's obvious I'm watching intently. As Aidan hands over the keys, they speak briefly and then he walks off. According to Aidan, he was parked at the car wash and was searching the ground around his car when he came out. Aidan says he was told to help his mom, do his chores and be an example to his sisters.


So *now* I'm wondering- was he a Jew, a messianic Jew, or none of the above? Did he recognize our AWANA shirts or did he just guess that since Alex and Aidan's shirts said "Truth and Training", we believed there is such a thing as truth and it's worth training our children to know? Considering the size of our family, did he think we were Mormon or Catholic? *sigh* Wish Tartan had been there.


Tongue-tied,
Naomi for the Colliers

Disney Movie Shoot at Hollywood Studios

I know! I still haven't posted pictures from our Disney adventure. However, I'm posting the 2 videos we took of Tartan and me participating in a "movie shoot" at Hollywood Studios. The first one is about 12 minutes and the second one is about 3 minutes. I recently got the PhotoPass pictures from Disney, so hopefully I'll find some time to put together a slide show.