Goodbye, 2011... Part 1

     2011 is almost over. A year really isn`t as long as it seems. I hope you all have had a wonderful, Christ-centered year and don`t even try to make a New Year`s Resolution because you probably won`t even be able to keep it. Just kidding, you can if you want but nothing too big. :D :D Anyway, I thought I would post some pictures from our family`s 2011 and I hope you enjoy!!

We went to a couple of weddings including The Big C`s sister`s.

And, Aaron and Anna Nix`s wedding. Yeeaahh, I`m not sure what we were doing.

         One of the most memorable things of the year was when T-bird, me and my parents flew to Ethiopia to meet Peaches for the first time. I`m not sure what that picture is of up there but I thought it looked cool. =)

         That was an amazing, unforgettable trip!! And after waiting about a month we brought our Peaches home. Here are some pictures of that day:

     It`s so amazing to have her in our lives. It was incredible to see God work and time it perfectly. It`s so awesome to look back and see how God worked it out and brought Peaches to our home who is sitting in my lap right now. Wow. Thank you God. Over the summer me, T-bird, and Sunshine went on a mission trip to inner city New Orleans where Hurricane Katrina hit pretty badly. We took pictures, but unfortunately I don`t have access to them right now. Perhaps for another time..... it was an amazing, faith-stretching trip and I really hope we have the opportunity to go again this coming year. Also over the summer we got together with most of my dad`s side of the family at the legendary Johnson Lake. Fun times. However I don`t have time to post any pics so I promise you will get some next part... I hope you have enjoyed these pictures and look out for Part 2!!


--Rye Bread

Boxing Day

   I am not stealing this from my sister. ( Boxing Day, Bursts of Sunshine) It was actually my idea in the first place so don`t think that I`m copying her. =D But I think this fantastic song deserves to be posted twice, so, I gave her permission to post it as well. ANYWAY, I hope you all have a wonderful Boxing Day and a happy new year. :)







--Rye Bread

Merry Christmas

  Merry Christmas!! For me and my fellow Siouxlanders it may not be as white as we would have hoped, but you gotta love the warm weather. =) Our family continued the tradition of baking cookies a few days before Christmas and they were and still are TASTY!!!!! Here are a few pictures from that baking day:

The first batch of cookies are cut and ready to bake!

Fresh out of the oven and ready to be decorated. :)

Eddie Joe is hard at work

The Big Fella is completely focused on making the ultimate design

And, the final result!! Yummy!

    Don`t worry, I won`t torture you with anymore delicious cookie pictures. We had a lot of fun making and decorating them. =D I hope you all have a wonderful time with your families and remember that it`s about Christ and what He came to do. God and sinners being reconciled through the Father treating His Son as if He had lived our sinful lives. Jesus took our punishment. Jesus took the Father`s wrath. Jesus took the cross and gave us the chance to be adopted and become children of God. Merry Christmas.



--Rye Bread

Rye Bread`s Random Rambles

    I can`t apologize enough for not posting since Thanksgiving! But, sorry anyway. This will just kinda be a random post about this and that so sorry if I begin to ramble. Amid the recent December craziness  we had our church`s annual Night of Christmas Music in which Something Greater and our family performed songs, plus an awesome Nativity that the Youth Group and Company put on! Here are some videos of that night:







  I hope you enjoyed these!! Adding to the fun and craziness of December, we were invited to our friend`s very belated birthday slumber party (we managed to pull off an all-nighter. yeah, I`m kinda out of it =) ) We had a lot of fun and these are some pretty professional-looking pictures taken on the impressive camera on an iPod touch. All sarcasm aside, sorry about the blurriness :)

Video games of course!

What`s a party without skittles and m&m`s?!

And making cappucinnos at 3 in the morning, naturally. =)

And, when you`re at a sleepover with The Big C, you know this movie is gonna show up!! :D good times...

   Well, I want to once again apologize for not posting in FOREVER!!! But, here you go, and I will try to post more frequently in the future, not that anyone really cares. XD I wish you all a Merry CHRISTmas and I hope that you remember it`s about Jesus CHRIST, not Santa. Although, I have been pretty good this year... jk jk. :)



--Rye Bread

Sorry...

   Sorry, sorry, sorry for not posting in forever!! Seems like we`ve been really busy lately but maybe that`s just me. Anyway, I wanted to post about Thanksgiving on Thanksgiving but that didn`t really work out so, here is my Thanksgiving post. I have so so much to be thankful for. I don`t know where to start. Here are just a few: music, family, friends, food (of course), an amazing, supportive, fantastic church family, quoting movies with my sister, laughter, joy, tears, stars singing God`s praise... and on and on it goes. But the thing that I am most thankful for above everything else is that God didn`t pass me by but embraced me as a son. A holy, almighty God who would have been perfectly just to turn the other way and send us to hell, showed love for worthless sinners like us and doesn`t even remember that we did anything wrong. He wiped my record clean. That`s something to be thankful for. THANK YOU JESUS!!
Before I end this post I would like to show you some pics of how we spent our thanksgiving:

All the men played football in the back while the feast was being prepared. =)

The Big Fella is clearly going to catch this ball and take it in for six points!

Eddie Joe could... go.... all... the.... WAY!!!

This is only some of the amazing food that was waiting for us when we came in...

...prepared by the amazing Grandma!!

        We all had a great Thanksgiving together. It was also our little sister Peaches` first one with us. She came home to our family from Ethiopia at the end of March and she is such a little joy in our life. And this Thanksgiving marked the day that she was brought into the transition home Hannah`s Hope one year ago. So, it was a special day for us all. We are all so thankful for her. God is good. I hope you all had a fantastic Thanksgiving and, well, MERRY CHRISTMAS!! Just kidding. :)




--Rye Bread

Fifteen?!

     Yeah. It`s hard to believe but me and my brother turned fifteen on Sunday. And yes that means we are old enough to get our learner`s permits. O____O   But don`t worry, we haven`t gotten them yet. Soon though.... very soon. Driving aside, we really did have a fantastic birthday. On Saturday we went to Starbucks with who else but the band. After grabbing our coffee we went and had an epic jam session. Here are some pictures:

              After that, we headed back home for guy time with a bunch of our friends. It consisted mostly of air hockey, John Smith, capture the flag, and foursquare. Here are some pictures from our evening:

   


          Well, we are both so thankful for our family and friends who made it such an awesome birthday. Have an excellent night and watch out for us driving on the road. Be a twinkie not a ding-dong...



--Rye Bread

Something Greater

       As you may know, both of us love music. We love to play it, write it, listen to it, you name it. So, once me and T-bird became pretty experienced in the instruments we play, (T-bird: piano, trumpet, a little guitar; me: guitar, trombone, a little piano) we decided to form a band with a couple of our friends. Our band is called Something Greater and I decided to post a video of us playing one night at church. On the drums, we have "South Pole", (looooong story) on the electric guitar is "The Big C", playing the piano is T-bird, and me completely destroying the song on the microphone. Without further ado, here is the song "Lights" from Something Greater:












--Rye Bread

Last Slice of Pizza

     I was supposed to post a Tim Hawkins video yesterday because it was Tim Hawkins Tuesday. However, yesterday was filled with school, school, school, choir, school, school, basketball practice, school, school, and last, but not least, school. So, instead of making you die of laughter from Tim, here`s a video from Julian Smith that`s stupid but somehow makes me laugh every time I watch it.




















--Rye Bread

Other Blogs...

      These are some awesome blogs from some friends and family of ours that you should check out:

Bursts of Sunshine is a blog that our older sister writes and is one of the best blogs ever! Sunshine is the coolest, funniest, most amazing older sister we have and is such a good example of Christ in the way she lives her life. So, what are you waiting for? Check it out!! Oh, and if you want to read more about our family and such, go to our family`s blog, room for more.

Another excellent blog you want to see is Dingy, But Loved. This blog is written by our very good friend, Bugg, with whom we make hilarious skits and reeeeeeaaaaally random inside jokes. We always have a blast together. So, if you`re looking for a blog written by someone with an awesome sense of humor, and with a passion to shine for Jesus, this is the one. =) Oh yeah and you should also look at their family`s blog, Hennhouse Happenings.

You should also see the blog, Meant to Shine. This one is written by our sister in Christ, Cassandra. She is also a very good friend of ours and a great example of Christ to us. She has this incredible, contagious desire to be a light in the world`s darkness and always seems to be giggling about something. ;) And I also recommend their family`s blog, Unto Him We Live.

Another one you should definitely look at is 80 Billion. This blog is written by Belle, who is one of Sunshine and Cassandra`s good friends. She is also the cousin and friend of Bugg. She is a very godly person who strives to defeat Satan in the everyday fight. And you will just have to see why she calls her blog what it is. :)

      

    Whew. Well, I hope you look at all these fantastic blogs. There are probably some I`m forgetting but that`s about it for now. Have an awesome day and remember, be a twinkie not a ding-dong. =)



--Rye Bread

Tim Hawkins Dose for the Week...

     Here is your Tim Hawkins video for the week:









--Rye Bread

Thoughts on a Friday Night

It is Friday night and I got an extra shot in my starbucks drink so I am very awake and ready to post. This post is just me thinking of different things tonight. Thinking about the insane summer we've had. Thinking of how God loves us even though we don't deserve it. And one of the ways He shows His love for us is through affliction. Well, why does He do that?! we wonder. Why doesn't He just shower us with blessings and say, I love you? I'm not saying He doesn't do that, but if that happened all the time, why would you need to depend on God? You could say, "I'm doing great on my own. I don't really need God in my life."

Oh, but you do!! He's the reason you're breathing right now! He's the One in control of your life! So I think one of the many thousand reasons God afflicts us is to remind us that we desperately need Him and that we need to trust Him. Without Him, we are nothing and we can't do anything on our own strength. He is our great God and our Rock. Here's a few lyrics to a song I wrote about pain and affliction in our lives:

It might seem like the pain's too much
But God is just showing His love
He'll give you the way of escape
He won't let you drown

So when dark times come your way
Rejoice on that day
For God is lifted high
And we are brought down



--Rye Bread

He is big.

       Rye Bread, Sunshine, and I all went to our youth group's Bible study last night.  We watched an amazing video with Louie Gigleo speaking at a missions conference.  We got a huge (yet still small)
picture of God.  Why is the universe so big?  Is it simply sitting out there, praising God?  You bet it is!!
 He is big.    

He is really, really big.  HE is the God we serve.   Sometimes just going through routine wakeup eatbreakfast havequiettime doschool eatlunch gotochurch calendercalendercalender, we can lose who God really is.  But he deserves more than that.  And He does. He is getting praise 24/7.  He doesn't NEED us.   But he lets us praise Him and serve Him.   So it was good to hear that last night.

--
T-bird

Here goes nothing...

Hey me and my twin bro are startin' a blog! woot woot. We`re pretty excited. And if you`re wondering about our title you need to watch more Tim Hawkins. Well anyway this blog is about a couple of teenage guys who are striving to be different than this ding-dong world. And without Jesus, we`re hopeless. So I hope you enjoy this video from Tim Hawkins about being different for Jesus:





--Rye Bread