It's Christmas Day!

Christmas Eve in the Sky

We are grateful for God's graciousness to us during our travel on Christmas Eve day. We had a few delays on the ground en route, but the pilots made up for most of the time in the air, so we arrived in RI just under an hour later than our original itinerary predicted! We praise God that we arrived safely & without any major delays or problems. Also, Juliana did fantastic on the plane & even made a few friends...if you can imagine that! :) We enjoyed a lovely Christmas day with Jeff's family, as you can see from the pictures above. Having Juliana as part of the celebration sure makes things a lot more entertaining!

Merry Christmas from the Pierce's!

Hello Friends & Family,

Merry Christmas to you! We hope you have a wonderful time celebrating the birth of our Savior this year. May all your holiday activities be filled with His joy and peace!

Love,

Jeff, Jill, and Juliana

Christmas Kimono

Juliana's cousins Ben, Yumiko & Sakura, who live in Japan, sent her this Kimono as a Christmas present. Thank you!!

Winter Wonderland

Winter Wonderland

According to our neighbor's measurement, approximately 15 inches of snow has accumulated over the past week here at our apartment complex!! Olympia is not accustomed to this kind of weather...& neither are we after living in FL & So. Cal. for about 10 years! As you can see from the pictures, it is beautiful! We are planning to fly to RI tomorrow to begin our Christmas & New Year's visit with our families, but the forecast is predicting snow overnight & during the day tomorrow, so we'll see whether or not our flight makes it off the ground as scheduled. We're praying that we will make it to RI for Christmas Eve, but also praying that even if we don't, we will have a heart of gratitude & joy in our Savior...Who after all, is the reason for the season! He certainly didn't get to spend the first Christmas in a warm house with a delicious meal & cozy bed, so we hope that we can be thankful even if we have to spend a few extra hours in a crowded airport...sure beats a smelly stable!

O, Christmas Tree

This is our 8th Christmas as husband & wife & the first year that we have a Christmas tree!! We have gone home for Christmas every year (except last year), so we've procrastinated on purchasing a tree & decorated our apartment in other ways. Call us "Scrooges"...or simply "cheapskates," but we're thankful that God provided a tree for us this year. (Jeff spotted it on clearance at a store that's going out of business.) Juliana went crazy for the strands of beads as we were decorating the tree & wanted to play with all the ornaments...it was quite fun!

Bright, sunshiny days...in Olympia!

Life's Simple Pleasures

Family Outing

Mommy's Little Helper

Our Visit to Lattin's Cider Mill

Trick-or-Treat

Mimicking Mommy

As Juliana finished her dinner last week, I got the sneezes & had to grab a tissue to blow my nose. Like they say, "imitation is the sincerest form of flattery." At least, that's the way I'm choosing to think of it!

Establishing good hygiene habits!

Juliana loves to "brush" her teeth. A couple days ago while she was "brushing", she brought me her polar bear...Luckily, I was able to get her to do it again, so I could catch it on video.

Baby Wrecking Ball!

This post is for our good friend, Ryan Limbaugh. We hope that seeing our apartment in such disarray truly does "bless your soul!" :)
Love,
Jeff, Jill, & especially Juliana

Baby Wrecking Ball!

Snapshots from September

One small step for Juliana...

We shot this video about a month ago...the night Juliana took her first official steps. Although we're late in posting it, we wanted to share her milestone with you. (Sorry it's sideways, but we can't figure out how to turn it around!)
Since that fateful evening she has completely taken off with walking, so much so that we can hardly keep up with her! We turned to each other at church this morning and realized neither one of us knew where she went since just a few seconds before! We quickly discovered her playing in the toddler room...where all the toys are. She's keeping us on our toes!

Fireproof

While my parents were here, Jeff & I got away for a "date" alone together while they stayed home with Juliana. We went to see the movie "Fireproof", which some of you may have heard about. We really enjoyed the film & think it has a great message, so we've posted the trailer below. Let us know if you decide to go see it!

We Finally Made It to Mt. Rainier...And We Didn't Stop There!

Having lived in Washington for over a year now and having admired Mt. Rainier from a distance the entire time, we've been longing to get there. Well, we finally made it to the mountain—or at least really close to it! Jill’s parents came into town last week, and we took a day trip to a place called "Paradise" in the Mt. Rainier National Park.

Despite the favorable forecast, we drove in thick clouded weather almost the whole way to the mountain. Feeling a little discouraged, we prayed that God would graciously provide somehow for us to be able to see the mountain. As we continued driving and ascending the mountain, we began passing through the cloud cover and eventually transcended it completely. From that point on, we had nearly perfect visibility of the mountain!

The hours we spent up there were truly inspiring for all of us. As we hiked around, we enjoyed the beautiful snow covered mountain from all different vantage points. And as we looked on in wonder, we were moved to heartfelt worship. We reckoned Mt. Rainier to be an awesome illustration of God’s own awe-inspiring attributes. Several Scriptures come to mind:

As we gazed upon the massive rock, we were reminded of the infinite strength of our God.

• Psalm 65:5-6 "By awesome deeds You answer us in righteousness, O God of our salvation, You who are the trust of all the ends of the earth and of the farthest sea; Who establishes the mountains by His strength, Being girded with might;"

As we admired its height towering 14,400 ft. in the air, we were reminded of the infinitely transcendent faithfulness and righteousness of our God.

• Psalm 36:5-6 "Your mercy, O LORD, is in the heavens; Your faithfulness reaches to the clouds. Your righteousness is like the great mountains;"

And as we walked around admiring the mass and stability of the mountain--feeling at times surrounded by the mountain because of its enormity--we were reminded of God’s ever-present help and our security in His care.

• Psalm 121:1-2 "I will lift up my eyes to the mountains; From where shall my help come? My help comes from the LORD, Who made heaven and earth."

Well, last week we took a trip to Mt. Rainier, but we didn’t stop there. We found that our journey actually took us beyond the mountain into the wonders of God Himself. The beauty of the creation pointed us so clearly to the Creator. For that we are exceedingly grateful! Thank you, Lord! We’ll look forward to more awe-inspiring trips to Mt. Rainier in the future. We'd love for you to come join us some time!

In Awe of Him,

Jeff, Jill, and Juliana

Greetings Family & Friends!

Welcome to our family blog!

We've posted some pictures, videos & links that we hope you will enjoy. We also hope you'll remember to check in on us for updates from time to time & feel free to post your comments too. It is a blessing to keep in touch with you, as many of you are across the country or even around the world.

To visit our church blog, you can click on the link for Summit Lake Community Church & learn about the things God is doing there.

Love,
Jeff, Jill & Juliana

Persecution of Christians in India

As many of you know, we have had a special burden for India for the last couple years, so it's no surprise that this blog post caught Jeff's eye today. Thousands of Indian Christians are suffering tremendous persecution in east India. If you would like to learn more, please visit http://www.teampyro.blogspot.com/ and read the post from August 31st entitled "Pray for India." As the title emplores, please join us in praying for these dear brothers & sisters in Christ on the other side of the globe whose lives have been turned upside down; and for the salvation of their persecutors; and for God to show Himself glorious in the midst of such chaos.

La Push, WA

We went to La Push, WA last Friday & Saturday with a family from our church. As you can see, we were awestruck by the beautiful beach...& very thankful for the sunshine! We had a great time walking along the shore, gathering around a campfire & looking up at an amazing sky full of stars, spying starfish, sea anemones & barnacles at low tide, and just being together.

A few shots from August

Dee dah dee dah do! "Take 2"

Dee dah dee dah do!

Chapman family interviewed on "Larry King Live"

We were deeply moved & blessed by watching this family being interviewed after their daughter's death. If you are able to take a few minutes, there are six segments total; you can watch the first here on our blog, then go to youtube.com and search "chapman larry king" to view the remaining five parts. We trust God will use it to impact your hearts as he did ours.

Welcome to our blog!

Dear Family & Friends,

Well, we have finally jumped on the blogwagon! We are excited to be able to post recent pictures and updates about our life here in Olympia, WA...and wherever else the Lord may take us. We hope you will enjoy checking in on us from time to time!

Blessings,

Jeff, Jill, & Juliana