Young Life All Staff

We spent the last week in Orlando for the Young Life All Staff conference.
It was awesome.
Far exceeded my expectations!
It was great to get away with just Trip (and 4,000 other people) and to not be on baby schedule.
This was the longest we have been away from Brooks, and I was more than ok :)
Of course I missed him but so enjoyed my time away. It's healthy.
So nice to have to set my alarm to wake up and not have my baby crying as my 7:00 am alarm.
My mom got super grandmother points for keeping sick Brooks all week and taking him to the doctor.
The day after we left he got a fever and was feeling crummy most of the week!

I am not sure how to put the conference into words.
There was so much,
laughter,
tears,
fun friends.....
There was Jeff Foxworthy, Francis Chan, Tim Keller, funny program and inspirational stories of lives been touched by the mission of Young Life.
It truly gave us a bigger picture of the mission, it's so much bigger than our own little area.
The testimonies were phenomenal.
It rejuvenated my passion for the ministry.
It put my heart in check of the things that my heart desires and the things of this world.
Trip and I feel blessed and proud to be a part of something so much greater than ourselves.

a stadium at Sea World full of YL peeps singing Sweet Caroline!

We had one day at the parks, so much fun being with everybody!

space mountain has gotten a little rougher since they re-did it.
We all felt a little abused afterwards.

And yes, I threw up on a roller coaster at Sea World, literally, on the roller coaster. 

My battle with motion sickness seems to get worse as I get older, we're praying about it.

and they had a personal fireworks show for us at Sea World!

We came home with very full hearts!
Our God is a very good God.

And some pictures of Brooks mom sent us while we were away!

11 months

11 months

he has 2 teeth and one more coming in

he is crawling all over the place and standing a lot

he is eating lots of new real people food

he loves fruit and cheese

hates being changed

he is in his big boy car seat 

loves looking out the window

loves his cardboard books

taking one nap a day 

doesn't mind babysitters!

Introducing....

drum roll....................The Doster Family 2011 blog book! (insert crashing symbols here)

I plan on making one each year as my little scrapbook. 

I was pleasantly surprise by the cost and the simplicity of the process! 

Cheers! (insert clinking wine glasses here)

And the little man is 11 months now! 

1 year is creeping up on us. 

Get your party hats ready people! (insert noise maker with confetti here)

It's a..................

No no no, I am not talking about me and Trip. I am not pregnant!
We found out the gender of Andrew and Sarah's twins tonight.
They had everyone over for dinner and cake pops!
The cake pops had the gender revealed inside, blue or pink.
Here are some photos to capture the moment!

Andrew was a little nervous before the revealing

a little sweat action going on

wait for it......

wait for it.......

wait for it......

it's blue! The cake is blue! 2 boys! Andrew and Daniel part II

can you tell Andrew wanted boys?

victory!

but everyone else still had to eat their cake pops to make sure there weren't some pink ones hidden in there!

still no pink cake pops, still 2 boys!

It's official people, Brooks has two more boy cousins to play with! woohoo

Andrew is going to make a great boy twin dad :)

And Sarah will be a great boy mom!

This year......

In the book of Nehemiah, 

Nehemiah is working to rebuild the wall around Jerusalem and faces opposition from some guys with weird names that want to keep him from doing what he feels God has called him to do. 

They ask him to meet them down in a nearby village in order to distract him from finishing his job. 

Nehemiah responds (well aware of their intentions), 

"I am doing a great work and I cannot come down". Nehemiah 6:3

I want this year to be a year of less distraction, 

more discipline,

more focus,

focus on where God is working,

and that is where I want to be.

I don't want to get lost in distractions of this world

money, things, busyness, comparison, image, computer, t.v.......

I want to be able to say,

"no, I'm doing a great work and I cannot come down".

And with better focus I believe comes contentment

being content with what I have. 

In my little world I am easily swayed to want new shiny things,

shiny stainless steel refrigerator,

shiny new granite countertops,

shiny new pair of shoes,

shiny new ipad,

shiny new lamp,

shiny new piece of furniture,

the list goes on.....................

everyday I can come up with new shiny things to desire.

Every once in a while I fall into the trap of wondering what it would be like if Trip wasn't on Young Life staff,

I think how nice it would be if he worked for a church where he didn't have to raise his salary.

I think how nice it would be if he worked in the business world and had a bigger income and things like bonuses. 

I think how nice it would be to not live month to month.

I think how nice it would be to never worry about being on reduced pay because support didn't come in.

And then I feel guilty

because we are so rich

we have enough

we have more than enough

we have plenty

And Trip is doing a great work and he cannot come down!

And we're married, 

so that makes us one, 

SO I am doing a great work and I cannot come down!

Every post needs a picture.........

Brooks and Mason

So I think Audrey and I both had Adam's son. I just realized how weird and gross that sounds!
Check out the resemblance! It's scary. I wonder if they will look alike as they get older!  Which one is Brooks?

If you guessed the bottom one, you are correct!

Happy New Year

Can't believe Christmas has come and gone. We just took down our decorations today. It always makes me sad when this time of year is over. We had a fun first Christmas with Brooks. Even though he didn't really know what was happening we had fun helping him open presents. He got some great fun toys that he loves.
2011 was a great year, it's been the biggest life change so far with Brooks entering our world. I feel like our life is so different now in so many ways yet still very much the same! Can't wait to see what 2012 has in store!

he really loves his new ball pit from Santa. It's a bit of an eye sore but oh well

next year we're just going to give him tissue paper