We are thankful!

Hello family and friends,
First, we are thankful for those of you who still check up on our blog from time to time... because we haven't been doing so well at updates.
Because of the Thanksgiving holiday coming this week, we thought it would be fun to tell those we love the top 10 things we are thankful for.
1. Jesus Christ. This is the most important relationship we have. Without Christ, His death and resurrection, we would be totally lost and without hope. We are incredibly thankful for Him and the price He paid for us. We once were lost, but now are found!
(the rest of these are in no particular order)
2. Marriage. Not always easy, but so worth it! We have been married 7 years now and continue to grow in our relationship. We believe we can serve the Lord better together, than apart. We have very different gifts and are thankful we get to use them to serve in ministry together.
3. Family. "You don't choose your family. They are God's gift to you, as you are to them." Desmond Tutu. John's sister, Leah and her husband Ben are living in Seattle and Nichole's parents are living 20 feet away in a fifth wheel for a the holidays. It is a blessing to have family in Washington.
3. Children. Lily has brought incredible joy to our lives. We never knew the love we have for her existed! We simply cannot imagine life without her. And we thank God for choosing us to care for her and raise her. We also do not take having our own child for granted. We struggled getting pregnant and will always see Lily as a blessing/miracle from God.
4. Friends. We have many good and faithful friends. They have seen us through our good and bad times. They have celebrated with us and kept us grounded. We thank God for bringing such great people into our lives.
5. Mentors. We would not be who we are today without those who have invested time in our lives.
6. Adventures. If you know us well, you know that we are always up for an adventure. This is one of the things we love most about each other! Road trips, camping, biking, geocaching and fun day trips are just a part of who we are.
7. Church. Our church community is so important to us. We love CCBC! And we love all those who we serve with, worship with and spend time with. We have found our lifetime friends in this community and we are grateful!
8. Music. We both love music! We love listening to music, singing music and playing music. John also loves reading about music, especially guitars. Even our little Lily loves to sing and dance. Music is often playing in our house.
9. House. We dreamed we would buy our own house someday, but never thought that would happen so early in our marriage. We have now lived in our house 6 years! We live in a cozy rambler and have recently done some renovations to update it a bit. We thank God for blessing us with a warm, quiet and restful place. Oh, and "House" is the one show we are watching right now. :-)
10. Jobs. In this time of economic uncertainty, we are both thankful for our jobs. John is the Pastor of Youth and Parents at Christ Community Baptist. He also works a few hours a month as a property manager for Firgrove Nodak. Nichole is mostly a stay at home mama, which she loves! She also works part-time (from home) for Care Net Pregnancy and Family Services, coordinating their Helpline program. Nichole also serves in the Washington Air National Guard and was recently promoted to Master Sergeant.

We hope you will take time this Thanksgiving to be thankful as 1 Thessalonians 5:18 reads, "Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus."

A sweet Lily story

Lily and I have been going to BSF (Bible Study Fellowship) for about a month now. Every Wednesday morning, we leave the house early to get to our classes. Lily is in the toddler class and I am in the big girl class. :-) Lily cried the first few weeks when I would leave her, but last week she was SO excited to go. We entered the door of the gym and she started jogging ahead of me. She went right through the gate and didn't hardly look back at me. So, off I went to my big girl class.
I picked her up a little while later and asked her teacher how she did. Her teacher said, "She did great. Lily is so adorable! I have to tell you what she did today. There was another little girl who was crying off and on and wanting her mommy. Lily went over to her, rubbed her arm and told her, "It's gonna be okay, your mama will be here soon, okay." It was so cute. Then she would come to us and tell us that we needed to tell the little girl it was gonna be okay."
Then the teacher looked at me and said, "You are doing a good job mommy."
Tears welled up in my eyes. I almost lost it! If you know me, I have doubted my ability to be a good mom from time to time. If you know Lily, she is quite the encourager. She is very sympathetic and caring towards others. I often say, "Everyone needs a little Lily in their lives!" From her telling me how pretty my shoes are to talking me through moments of sadness... "It's okay mama, take a deep breath, you don't have to be sad." I am amazed at her capacity (at 2 1/2) to love and to care and to recognize the needs of others.
I praise God that He chose to give us this precious little girl... through whom, I see His goodness and grace. And I pray that you all have a little Lily in your lives too. :-)

Our Summer Adventures

It seems crazy that it is already October 1! Our summer was full of adventures - so, to catch you up on us and our life, we thought you would highlight the last few months of summer. Enjoy!

Nichole contracted the HINI virus while deployed in Tennessee in July. This picture was taken the night she got finally got to fly home. Lily wasn't so sure what to think. Nichole fully recovered and is all better now.

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Our summer vacation road trip in August began with a stop in Boise, Idaho to see the Smith family. They had a great park right by their house, so needless to say, this was Lily's favorite part of that day. :-)

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Our next stop was in Littleton, CO. We spent the week hanging out with the Elsner family. The Merriman family and Mitchell Scott joined us one afternoon at the Garden of the Gods. We had a great picnic and time together.

Ethan & Avery Elsner, Lily Gruber

Avery and Lily had so much fun playing and bathing together.

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Our next stop was Sioux Falls, SD. We spent the week with family and friends. Lily loves anything with wheels.

Lily's new best friend, her cousin Malachi.

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On our way back to WA, we spent two nights in Bozeman, MT. These next few pictures were taken in a park while we were geocaching.

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Ben & Leah spent Labor Day weekend with us. We did some geocaching together, a family sport for us, which led us to discover new and beautiful places.

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In September, we celebrated our 7 year anniversary (Aug. 24th) at Big Lake in Mount Vernon, WA. We stayed at an amazing home on the lake and did a lot of relaxing and reading. We also had our anniversary dinner at a cozy, romantic restaurant in LaConner, WA. It was a great time away!

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A few weeks ago, we were gifted a swingset by a family in our church whose kids had outgrown it. If you asked Lily, she would probably say this was the happiest day of her life. Now, she plays on it almost everyday and loves having her very own park. We named it Lilyland.

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So, that catches us up a bit. We didn't sell our house this summer, so we took it off the market yesterday. We are placing our faith and trust in the plans God has for us.
Nichole started a new position in the Air National Guard - she is now working at WANG Headquarters and is busily learning her new job. She recently passed her NCO Academy test and is hoping to be promoted to MSgt soon. This new job is taking her to Washington DC this month and California in November. Nichole continues to work for Care Net, part-time, mostly from home. Nichole is also doing Bible Study Fellowship this year, and Lily gets to go to a little class herself.
John is enjoying a new chapter in ministry. He is still the youth pastor at Christ Community Baptist but he is also taking on an additional role as campus pastor for a multi-site in Graham. If you want to know more, go to his blog by clicking here.
Lily is just a happy, healthy little girl. She loves life! Her favorite things to do include, singing and dancing, reading books, using her imagination for play, cooking in her kitchen, watching Dora and playing outside on her swingset. She brings an abundance of joy to our home and we thank God for her. It is hard to believe she will be turning 3 in just a few months. We love our Lily so much!

STP and guards

Tomorrow, Leah, Harald and John will have a great adventure together. We are going to ride in the STP (Seattle to Portland) Bike Classic. This year is the 30th anniversary. By the time we finish on Sunday we will have ridden 202 miles.
Click for Twitter or Posterous updates during the week of our adventure.

On Sunday Nichole will be leaving for a week of Air National Guard training in Tennessee.

Update: added Posterous and Twitter links 7/10/09 @ 2:53 pm.

Camping Pics

I forgot to include a link to the camping pics.
Click here and enjoy.

Here it is a month later

Well, here it is a month later. June was a very fun and busy month. I updated the Lily pictures album so make sure you check out the new pictures of her. As always they are very cute. We are excited to have Nana and Opa visit us for a couple of weeks.

Lily has begun taking pictures and some of them do not turn out that bad.

We went to the Point Defiance Zoo with the Tangedahls.

Lily loves her Auntie Leah

Leah and I rode 100 miles in our training for the STP ride coming up this weekend.

We went on our first camping trip with Lily and she had her first Smore.

Lily had her first corn on the cob.

Our neighborhood had a bbq for our street to celebrate the Fourth of July. We had a great time bbqing, getting to know each other better and shooting off fireworks.

Once a month

Here are the happenings in recent weeks in the life of the Grubers. I have also updated Lily's pictures, so please check them out.

Last Sunday we went on a bike ride in Orting with Ben and Leah. We had a great time riding, eating and playing at the park.

In the middle of May, our cousins from Germany, Tim and Miri, came to visit. We went to a Mariners game with them.

Part of our house being ready to sell was new carpet in the family room.

Lily loves riding her bike and just being outside in general. She will sometimes spend five hours throughout the day outside. This is her serious look.

Lily rides a bike

Lily got this trike for her birthday. We have been pushing her around on it. Earlier this week she just jumped on it and started riding.



Click here for another video of her riding.

Lily and George

This is what I came home to today. Lily was dressed up in a tutu, headband and magic wand. George was dressed up in a onesie and butterfly wings.

Where did April go?

It is already May and there hasn't been an update to the Gruber blog in over a month. I have been busy with two large youth activities and Nichole and I did a job with her parents and have been working on the house nonstop. Pictures of the house will come up some time this week as we still have some finishing touches to do.
I added some cute pictures of our daughter, so if that is what you come here for, you can be relieved.
Here is a teaser for those of you that like baby feet.

Our little girl turns 2!

We can hardly believe that Lily is 2. It seems like it was just a few days ago when we brought her home from the hospital. We have loved watching Lily grow and learn. We love going on adventures as a family. Lily loves "ventures" too. She brings us so much joy! These last few months have been tough for us as a family. Lily has definitely been a light in the midst of some darkness. We waited a long time for her and God blessed us big time! We simply can't imagine our life without her. We give thanks daily for our beautiful little Lily.
Her birthday celebration was so much fun. We spent the weekend in Ocean Shores, WA with some friends and family. Here are some pic's from the weekend:

Nichole made Lily (with a friends help) a birthday cake with Dora doll jumping out of it.

Lily's favorite present was her bike from mama and dada. She is on it ALL the time at home. We are waiting for the rain to stop so we can go on a bike adventure outside. The runner up, her Dora back pack from Auntie Leah.


John promised Lily he would take her to the "osin" and Lily asked about going all week before we left for our weekend. So, despite the miserable weather, John did not want to break his promise. Here we are at the very cold Washington coast.

The party goers.

Fun times at the Gruber's

Last Wednesday morning, Lily and I opened birthday presents with Nana and Opa on Skype. Nichole was in bed with a headache. We had a great time opening presents and she was very excited for her new set of Melissa & Doug instruments. Needless to say, Nichole's headache did not get any better.

Adventures

Adventure #1: Nichole and I spent eight days at Marble Retreat in Colorado. It was an adventure for us to be away from Lily and to spend time talking and being counseled about our lives. We are very thankful for our church sending us there and we have begun applying the insights to our lives. Click here for the full photo album.

Marble Retreat Lodge

Our balcony

Adventure #2: I am still on Sabbatical which gives us flexibility during our day. We began geocaching last year and went on a small geocaching adventure this week. There are some more pics from this adventure if you click here.

Mama found it
Daddy, wait

Adventure #3: This is our last free weekend before I go back to work, as the next three weekends already have things planned. We decided we wanted to do something new and adventurous. We found our local chapter of the American Volksport Assocation was hosting a walk at Northwest Trek. If you did their walk, you received a coupon for half off the price of the tram ride. Since we enjoy walking and had never been to NW Trek before, we though it would be a great time. We were presently surprised by NW Trek and enjoyed seeing the park and "earning" our way on to the tram. Click here to see all the pictures from this adventure.

The AVA flag

On our walk

Lily sings three of her favorite songs

Click on the title of the song
to watch a video of Lily singing.

Twinkle, Twinkle

ABCs

Jesus Loves Me
(This one still needs a little work.)

New blogs added to the blog roll

I have added two blogs to our blog roll.

The first blog is for the Levetzow family. Their daughter has been babysat by mom and dad and it was recently discovered that she has leukemia. We are praying for her treatment.

The second is for Malorie Junkert. She is a friend of ours that we first got close to when she was in the youth group we serve at CCBC. She is now a nursing student at Creighton. We miss her very much.

January pics

With John being on Sabbatical these past few weeks have been a lot of fun for our family. This weekend we are going to Portland and Salem to visit friends and family. Here are some pictures of Lily. Click on the album link to see more of her if you want.

Lily starts saying the alphabet

Lily is beginning to say the alphabet and also getting close to being two. Two being the high five denial at the end. Enjoy.