Winter Camp

We are in our new house and are mostly settled. Last weekend we had our High School Winter Camp and we were so blessed to have John Drollinger come as our camp speaker. He spoke on technology and how it can distract us from our love from Christ if we are not careful. It was a neat weekend discussing with the students how to keep technology from distracting us from our love for Jesus and how we can use technology to impact others for Christ. It really gave us a neat launching pad for discussion with the students.

John's wife Rachel has been one of my best friends since junior high and high school and I cherish her friendship even more today! It's so fun to share this season of life together. Our kids had even more fun than before, which warmed my heart so much. It was fun to FINALLY meet Brighton, their 14 month old and to see how Andrew and Sierra have grown in the last year and a half. Friends like these guys are rare and we thank the Lord for them.

Here are some pictures of our awesome weekend at camp and hanging out with the Drollingers for a few days after.

Marian joined me in my cabin with the girls. Macy stayed the night at Grammy's and came up the next day. It was such a blessing to have them there with us. 

Jon and Marian after doing the zip line. 

Macy entertaining herself in the snow while I took pictures of the students on the Zip line. 

I love this little guy!
Funny story about Andrew-- (Rach, I hope this is okay that I share this...)
The first night at camp Andrew looked at Marian and said, "Let's kiss!"
It was the funniest thing ever and if I hadn't heard it I probably wouldn't have believed it.
I told him in about 15 years, she's all his!

Marian doing the zip line. Look at that face! She loved every second of it. 

Macy rode the zip line tandem with me.
She was so brave!

Little Brighton...such a sweetie.

Brighton absolutely loved Marian and it goes without saying that Marian loved her right back!
It was fun to see them together. 

Not sure how we missed Sierra in this one, but the three of them were making
mud and snow pies in the backyard. 

Trying to find Marian. Marian got sick on Sunday night and
I made her rest on my bed. Brighton knew she was in there and had
been peeking in the crack in the door. Finally she just pushed it open! So sweet. 

Our attempt at a Sunday afternoon nap...they just played. =)
I'm sad that this is my only picture of Sierra....how did that happen?! She has got to be the sweetest thing ever...she always says, "Excuse me...." before saying something. Oh, man she melts my heart.

Thanks for coming, Drollingers! We love you guys and are so thankful for our friendship with you guys. You are such a great encouragement to us spiritually and we are so refreshed by being with you this past weekend.

When the toys are all packed...

Praise the Lord for boxes!

Look in the slits =)

We are in the midst of moving, so life is kind of crazy. But, here are a few pictures from the weekend. Yesterday was crazy hair day at school and today the girls had a basketball game. Jon is coaching with a friend he played football with at MSU. It's been such a blast. He loves it and is so great with the kids. The only bummer is that the shirts we were given are University of Montana GRIZ colors!!!! Ugh!!! Never thought I'd cheer for a maroon team. =)

Getting ready to take a shot during warm ups

Macy guarding # 1 (from the back-- haha!)

With Gram after the game

If I get a chance I'll post some video footage from the game. 

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas from the Montoyas!

Christmas Eve
On our way to church we stopped at urgent care to see if Macy had
pink eye...yep, she did.
We were the best dressed patients in the urgent care that night.  =) 

What a blessing these two are...these are the "Little House on the Prairie"
dresses my Mom made the girls for Christmas.

Cute story on this one...because Macy had pink eye,
her and I stayed home from church Christmas morning.
She put this little "nativity" together with her stuff animals.
She did glue the star to the couch, which was not cool, but it was
hard to be upset with all that sweetness attached to it.

Macy made these for me all on her own. She had been saving the toilet
paper rolls in a secret spot at home and dug the bow out of the trash.
I will treasure these forever! 

Marian made me this bobcat scarf in class. She is the sweetest spirit I know.

We headed up to get our tree this weekend and, as always, enjoyed some neat family time. (Nathan and Kaylee Kelm-- if you're reading this, we thought of you much of the time and the fun we had with you last year. Macy even asked if we could see if you wanted to join us. I guess the distance of Montana to Bolivia hasn't solidified in her mind yet. =) Anyway, it was so much fun and the sledding was fun and FAST which translates in our family to cheers by Marian and tears by Macy. At one point, I had finally convinced Macy to go with me (she felt safer going alone =) and we ended up spinning around and heading FAST backwards with trees on either side. I had to literally hold her down because she was trying to "jump ship." =) Good times. Guess that didn't build her trust and confidence in me. =) 


Here are a few pictures...

As we were hiking up to where we cut down our tree Macy was lagging quite a bit behind us. She rarely lags because she has way more energy than any of us. We kept encouraging her to keep up and eventually Jon mentioned "Just watch out for the mountain lions who like little girls who are not with their Moms." Because the girls know Jon is such a joker, I figured she's say "yeah right, Dad." But, there was silence behind us and we just kept going. All of a sudden Macy runs up to me, and sweetly says "I'm gonna hold your hand, Mama." Problem solved. =)

She's been looking so old to me lately. Kind of makes my heart hurt.  =) 

Love her hat...thanks to Auntie Holly and Auntie Maria.

Nerdy 30

We had a "Nerdy 30" party with the youth group on November 30th. We got the idea for this party from our friends John and Rachel. We had to think of some way to do this with our youth group, so Jon suggested we do it on November 30. Oh my was this fun. Our students had such a blast and it was neat to give them a night where they didn't have to "worry" about looking good and to just have fun with one another.

Here are some pics from the fun night...

Some of our other leaders...

Justin and Justine

Dan and Kimberly

Dan has got to be one of the funniest people ever.
He was our M.C. for the night...and he and Justin performed a
"surprise"serenade to me, whom they lovingly referred to as "Mama Montoya."
Not sure I like that name, but the performance was hilarious.
They sang "Total Eclipse of the Heart" by Bonnie Tyler.

We are so thankful for our leaders. They are some of our best friends
and it's so awesome to serve alongside them.

If you want to see more of the students, you'll just have to hop on facebook. =) 

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone! 

What we've been up to the last month or so...

Jon and I went to a Boise State football game with the Gannons. It was a fun road trip and weekend away as a couple. Why Boise State? Jon's defensive coordinator from MSU is now the d-coordinator at BSU and he hooked us up with some tickets. It was a super fun game to go to. 

Justin and Justine...we love road-tripping it with these guys! We laugh a lot. 

Jon with Coach K after a BSU win!

Had to add this one, because he's just hot stuff!

Then for our real team... the BOBCATS!! We all went to a VERY cold Bobcat game. The girls had a blast and had fun cheering them on and holding up the signs they made themselves.

Macy dressed up like a pilgrim for Harvest Night at AWANA. Marian was sick, so she didn't get to go.

I know I'm her Mom, but she is just the cutest.
She even got this little basket of food together for her costume.

Then for Pumpkin Carving...we were thankful for a warm fall afternoon to be outside.

My sweet girls...