Santa's BEST Helpers

Merry Christmas, friends!

Love, Emily

{Season's Greetings}

I always have WAY too much fun with Picnik and this year's Christmas card was no exception. I wish I could send a real one to all our friends & family, but it adds up, right?! I thought I would also take a moment to write a little "update" from the Brotherton household-cause that's sorta what you do in a Christmas card! :)

This year has been a full year for us-full of new experiences, lots of changes, some goodbyes and some hellos. This is going to sound like an oxi-moron, but bear with me. This summer, we made one of the most difficult, yet easy decisions of our lives so far. We switched churches. Now, for those of you who have made a switch like that at some point in your life, you will understand what I mean. It is so difficult to leave a family-a community-of people who have loved and supported you over a period of time. In the course of being at Westgate, Ryan & I were married, changed jobs, served on staff, prayed for kids, had 2 kids :), & so much more! Ryan had attended for nearly 10 years! What wonderful memories we both have, and of course, will never forget! Now, here's what I mean when I say it was one of the easiest decisions...we knew it was what the Lord was asking us to do. We had peace (which is HUGE in times of change), and we had a vision of where the Lord wanted to take us. So there was no denying it was time to move on, but when push comes to shove, it's never truly easy.

We ended up rolling down the hill (almost literally!) to North Sound Church (still in Edmonds, our hometown) and have begun to settle in there. I'm grateful to have opportunities to sing on the worship team every now & then, and we've also been helping out with their youth & young adults. We're really enjoying meeting new people, but are also grateful we are still close by to family & friends!!!

Ryan is still cleaning carpets with our business, SnoKing Carpet & Upholstery Cleaning. We are so grateful for having such a great community around us who helps spread the word about the company. {Shameless Plug}: If you are needing to have your carpets cleaned, or maybe you've got a couch that could use a bit of sprucing up, call us! 206-801-0161 {End Shameless Plug}

Ryan has also been keeping busy with a side job for a bread distributing company that distributes bread to the local Costco. Dave's Killer Bread (yum!) & others. He's really loving being on a different side of the grocery business, after all his years at Safeway!

For me, life has continued to be nice & full. The girls keep me entertained and get me great exercise! I have been focusing on writing a lot this year. Mostly music-although this blog gets some attention too :). I was able to go to a musician's summit in November and attend multiple songwriting seminars and was really challenged & motivated to keep on polishing & practicing my writing. So hopefully 2011 will be filled with more songs-I look forward to sharing them with you!

As if raising twins wasn't crazy enough, I decided I wanted to get a job. : ) I'm liking it, but I'm obviously new to the retail world cause who in their right mind would work retail for the holidays?!? :) Anyways, I'm actually really enjoying getting out of my 4 walls and into an environment that allows me to be Christ's hands & feet in a new way. It's been a growing time and I know the Lord is just beginning!

Last, but certainly not least, Miss Evelyn & Miss Eleanor. The two most precious, hysterical, lovely twins around! This has been such a fun-filled year! We laugh more and more every day. Silly phrases, silly songs, serious Freudian slips & serious musical duets keep us entertained. We are so blessed!

This has gotten long, so if you're still here reading, thank you! :) To end, here are some pictures from the "snow storm" we had a few weeks ago-the girls were in heaven!

Love, The Brothertons

Time to Stand Tall

Is it weird that I'm finding inspiration today by one of my own songs? :) I find that it's challenging me in ways I didn't expect-as if it's someone else's song. But I'm being gently reminded that it's not a song I wrote-instead, it was inspired by the Holy Spirit and ultimately written by Him. So it shouldn't come as a surprise that I'm being challenged & inspired by it!

If you're anything like me, sometimes life's "stuff" comes to a head and you realize you've been trying to handle things in your own strength. And you know what? It's tiring! Cleaning house, raising kids, trying to keep your marriage strong, friendships, family, church...you see what I'm getting at! Life is full-and I often find myself acting on my own strength (as though I can accomplish things much more effectively than the Lord-ha, I'm SO human, right?!)

So today, I take a deep breath and ask the Lord to take my burdens and "give life to these dry, dry bones" (a line from the song, if you're not familiar with it). Let's stand tall and firm today-relying on God's strength, not our own. If we stand tall through the every day stuff, I believe He gives us even more strength to stand firm on the foundation of our salvation through even the toughest of trials!

May Jesus encourage you today as you strive to stand tall on His firm foundation! Wanna listen to the song, Stand Tall? Click here... (you will want to pause the music player that's at the bottom of my blog) :)

Love,

Emily

Just because I love them so...

I am, understandably, partial to these two beauties. They make my life oh so entertaining! :) If you don't believe me, watch this video!

We're kind of in la la land at our house these days. Life has been so busy that I've barely got a few Christmas decorations up. We've decided to not do a tree this year...I know, I know...bah humbug, I guess. No, I'm not really bah humbug-ing, I just don't feel like having a tree with 2 very curious toddlers running (and I truly mean running!) around. I drove by a tree lot yesterday and saw a sweet little Charlie Brown one, but even a small one would be ever so tempting for those two. Oh well, we'll be sure to take pictures of them in front of other people's trees!

I'm almost done with our Christmas card & note. It will be coming in blog form this year, so keep your eyes open :).

~Emily