Merry Christmas From the Mossi

One of my favorite things ever is setting up Christmas.  The quiet house.  The tree lights.  The joy of thinking about the excitement in the morning.  Contemplating what the day is all about.  It makes me feel sappy every year! 

Christmas Eve was spent at Brad and Gala's house.  The kids were so excited to open presents!  

Looks like Darth was a good boy this year! 

Mason, age 6
Christmas 2016 

There were a lot of Nerf guns under the tree.
Warning to all guests: Watch out for sniper fire.  He's legit and has great aim.

Merry Christmas from the Moss family! 

Halloween 2016

Halloween is so fun when you are 6 years old.  The mountain of candy, the costumes, the stories of ghosts and witches...  Makes me think back to Halloween when I was a kid.

My brother, sister and I used to all play with our candy and make trades.  Mine would be neatly organized by category (chocolate, sour, gum, stuff I didn't like) and my stash would last me until Christmas.  Josh's would be all in a heaping, jumbled pile in a drawer in his room. Jill's would be something in the middle, and usually gone after two weeks ~ because she was so generous and share her candy with me while I was hoarding mine for a later date.  Mom would charge us a Reese's tax, claiming she needed to test those to make sure no one did anything bad to our candy.  Well played, Mom.  

And then there was the year that mom waited until the last minute to get pumpkins to carve.  By the time she went out, there were no more pumpkins left, so she came home with these pre-carved foam pumpkins thinking it would be okay.  Or the year it was bitter cold and raining and she said if we would just forego trick or treating, she would take us to the store and buy any kind of candy for us we wanted.  All great memories.  

Sidenote: Now that I'm a mom, I completely get putting off pumpkin carving until the last minute and hoping the kiddo doesn't actually ask to carve a pumpkin.  It's messy.  And its taking a sharp knife and trying to carve into a round, slippery, hard pumpkin.  Sounds like a recipe for a trip to the ER if you ask me.  And, if it were raining, I would totally take Mase to trick or treat the aisles at Walmart and just get a few bags of candy and call it good.  

Mason wants to be Deadpool this year.  I've not seen the R rated movie, and neither has he.  But he insists... Lucky for me no full masks at his school Halloween party, so he's going as a skeleton to school.  Cute little bag 'o bones, don't you think?

Florida 2016

A New Chapter

Late in the summer, Richard was presented with the opportunity to move to the Joplin Lowes.  The thought of moving back to Joplin wasn't really in our plans, but we all know that our plans aren't always His plan.  So, after some thoughtful consideration, we decided to make the move.  While we were so sad to leave the amazing family friends at Lake of the Ozarks, we are so thrilled to be closer to family.  

Our friends/new neighbors the Huskys brought down champagne to celebrate our new house.  It isn't ours quite yet, so we broke into the backyard.  We are so excited to be in the Summit Ridge neighborhood. 

Excited to start this new chapter ~ The Moss family back in Joplin... Where our unique little love story started.  

Looking forward to building new memories in Joplin and spending a lot more time with the extended family.

Time: Slow Down!

Mason - 6 years old

This kid!  Just turned 6 years old.  Loves playing outside with his dad, fishing with his dad, and pretty much doing anything else with his dad.  Dislikes books and coloring (surprisingly, school he loves school).  Is beyond smart and has a heart of gold.

Summer 2016

We packed a ton of fun into our 2016 summer!

Julie completed her 4th (and possibly last) half marathon
Joplin Memorial Run 2016

Mase graduated preschool from the Academy of Osage Hills.  That school was such a blessing!  

3rd annual Moss-a-palooza at St. Pete's Beach in Florida

We love the beach!

St. Pete's Beach 2016

My favorite picture from our beach vacation!  

Said goodbye to some great friends!  We will be moving in the Fall back to Joplin, MO.  It's bittersweet.  We know God has a plan for us, but goodness, it's going to be hard to leave these ladies! 

Colorado vacation with the Boyles!  Hiking, whitewater rafting and lots of laughs.

Baseball game with Papa Moose

Darth continues to grow.  He now is 70lbs. and thinks he's a lap dog. 

Offer excepted on our new house in Joplin!  Our friends, and soon to be neighbors, brought over champagne to celebrate! 

Spent several evenings boating with friends.

Team Moss is Relocating to Joplin

Exciting new to share: Team Moss will be relocating back to Joplin this fall.  We aren't sure what God has in store for us, but we know to trust His plan.  Truth: It's bittersweet.  We are leaving behind some AMAZING friends here at Lake of the Ozarks who are some of the most generous, genuine people we've ever met.  We are talking about entire families who carried us through some pretty tough battles.  They aren't just my friends, they are family friends and their entire families have embraced our family.  But, we are so excited to move to Joplin to be around the Snyder and Moss families!  We are thrilled that Mason will get to grow up around him Nannie and Poppy Snyder and his cousins! We found a beautiful home in a great neighborhood.  Excited to start this new adventure.

Here we are toasting to our new house. 

He has Risen! And a little family history...

Easter is a lot of fun with a 5 year old.  There are Easter baskets, lots of colorful eggs, and tons of candy.  This year, we tried to downplay that a bit (okay, we didn't down play it too much!) and really focus on the real meaning of Easter.  That Jesus died for our sins and rose from the dead.

We went to Easter service on Saturday night, and Mase chose to sit with us instead of going to his Sunday school class.  I must admit, at first I was a little disappointed, as I always feel he may be a distraction in church.  But, then, I look over and see Richard lifting him up and Mase clapping his hands to the music and my heart instantly flutters.  Seeing Mase worship, being held by Richard, is a great thing!  Plus, I must say, he was extremely well behaved during the entire service.  He must have knew the Easter bunny was watching.

Mase, age 5

Val, also shared a story of Easter when she was a little girl:

I woke up as I do every Easter thinking about going to sunrise service as a little girl.  It was always at my granny Baker's and Papa Baker's.  We called him Papa Gummy, not sure why?  Granny and Papa lived out on a 35 acre farm on Spring River, in a beautiful, old, 3 porch house.  There was a big red barn, a round, white, chicken house which we got to collect eggs with Granny there.  I really remember there were lots of spring flowers everywhere.  I know my granny must have planted all those tulips and spring flower bulbs at some point, but at the time, I thought they just all appeared.  Out in the field were 3 crosses.  And that's where the whole Quapaw Christian Church came for sunrise service.  It was usually a little cool out, but really magical as we saw the sun peering through the trees, rising in beautiful colors as the preacher told us the story of Jesus.  After that, all the men of the church cooked a big breakfast outside in iron skillets on a campfire: eggs, bacon, ham and of course Granny headed up the homemade biscuits and gravy and fried potatoes.  I can still smell the breakfast cooking.  And Granny and Pap with their gracious hearts serving their family and community.  What a great memory!

I love the way she still has this memory every Easter and I wanted to put it into writing, so that it stays in the family.

May we all celebrate because He has Risen!

Only 5 Years Old and Already Has It Figured Out

I took Mason with me to vote (2016 Primary). 

As we were leaving I tried to explain that we are very lucky we get to help choose our leaders, because not everyone gets that right. 

His response: "Mom, know who I want my leader to be?  God."

I left with tears streaming down my face.  I'm not sure I've ever been more proud.  

Getting Our Camp On

Some friends of our are avid campers.  So when they mentioned that they were going camping, I jumped at the chance... Even though the last time Richard and I went camping together 1. We were married, but not to each other and 2. If I remember correctly, he forgot the poles to his tent.  Needless to say, we were out of our element.  But, in the spirit of adventure, we decided to go.  And we loved it!  Mase loved playing with his friends and we enjoyed some drinks and good conversation around the camp fire.  Can't wait to go again!

Richard, Julie and Mason Moss
Josh, Brooke, Tyson and Liam McKay
Chris, Mary, Conner and Charlie Boyles

Only 5 and Already Has It Figured Out

I took Mason with me to vote (2016 Primary). 

As we were leaving I tried to explain that we are very lucky we get to help choose our leaders, because not everyone gets that right. 

His response: "Mom, know who I want my leader to be?  God."

I left with tears streaming down my face.  I'm not sure I've ever been more proud.

Baller!

Our church, Osage Hills, hosted Upward basketball this year.  It's focus is on both sports and learning about Christ.  We decided to make it a family affair, so Richard and I signed up to coach.  Mase loved that his Daddy coached the team.

It was an incredible experience to see these young kids grow in both their basketball skills and with their sportsmanship.  We had all kinds of ability levels on our team and on several occasions, I choked back tears seeing these 5 and 6 year olds work together to make sure everyone on the team could score a basket.  

During one of our devotions early on in the season, I posed the question "What does it mean to be Christlike?"  Our sweet Mason blurted out "it means that our friends are more important than basketball."  Proud mom moment!  

Mason, age 5

Bringing the ball down the court.  

Richard is trying to teach the rules of basketball.  The kids are asking what is for snack.  

2016 Goals

This year my word is going to be INTENTIONAL.  We want to be intentional with our time, with our family and marriage, and with our resources.  

Over coffee, Richard and I came up with some 2016 goals.  Will all these things happen?  Not likely.  But, coming up with goals and being intentional about working towards them is a great start!  

Our goals include being intentional about our family, our physical and spiritual health, raising Mason to be a stellar young man and our finances.  Quite honestly, we do okay in most of these areas... But, we don't want to settle for being fine.  We want to be INTENTIONAL. Purposeful in our actions to achieve our goals.  

It's a risk to share goals.  When we put them out there publicly, we are at risk for being held accountable ~ and that is both awesome and scary.  We put ourselves at risk for others seeing if we fail at those goals.  And, perhaps part of being intentional is not caring what others think of us.  Let's pursue the approval of those who really matter (God, ourselves, family and close friends) and not those who wish to judge our failures.  And, if we strive for an ambitious goal and we don't succeed, is that really a failure?  We surely would be much better off if we hadn't done any work to achieve the goal, right?  

Richard's goals include maintaining a rigorous exercise routine and improving his eating habits.  He hopes to run another half marathon this year.  Not an easy goal considering he works a minimum of 60 hours a week.  

Julie's goal includes to continue running and to complete several half marathons working up to the Bass Pro Marathon on November 6, 2016.  

As a family, we would like to attend church more regularly.  We want to spend less time in front of a screen and more time interacting together.  When we have free time, we want to be intentional about planning trips and creating memories.  And, part of strengthening our family is strengthening our marriage through date nights and more time having meaningful conversations.  

Financially, we would like to save more, and be intentional about our spending.  This means spending less on frivolous stuff (like crafting supplies, trips to Target and Starbucks) and increasing giving to whatever causes touch our hearts.  We also want to start teaching Mason about financial responsibilities and the pride that comes with earning and spending your own money.  

Mason's goal is to get a Jango Fett costume ASAP.  

Happy 2016!  Looking forward to the great things to come this year! 

2015 Top Ten

TOP 10 MOSS MOMENTS IN 2015 (in no particular order):

1. Running the Joplin Turkey Trot with Mason.  Seeing him work hard when it got difficult and push through... The pride beaming off of him when he received his medal.  Priceless!

2.  Julie finishing the hard chemo treatments in February.  The last one nearly killed me, but I made it!

3.  Relay for life with the entire Gillispie family.  

4.  Spending a week in Florida with the entire Moss/Snyder family.

5.  Running my first half marathon on my one year cancer-versary.  

6.  Richard and Julie running a half marathon together.  

7.   Watching Mason grow up ~ He loves sports and costumes!

8.  Trick-or-treating with the Moss family in Joplin.

9.  Richard losing 25 lbs. through lots of hard work on his road bike, running and his heavy bag. On one of Richard's 3 training runs (when he went out for a jog and came back 9 miles later), Mason and I surprised him by meeting him a few blocks from the house and chalking the street with motivational messages.  Richard said that moment stands out for him in 2015.

10.  Getting Darth!  He absolutely completes our little family.

Christmas 2015

Elfvis being ornery.

Ugly Christmas Sweater Party

Good times with great people! 

This was fun.  We used 2 entire bottle of sprinkles and they were everywhere!

Welcome to the family, Darth Moss.
Richard and Mason surprised me with Darth ~ a 9 week old golden doodle.  He fits into our family really well!  

The tree.  Some gifts Santa brought Mase were a skateboard, a Darth Maul costume and light saber, puzzles, and clothes.  One of his favorite gifts was a really cool Storm Trooper costume from Aunt Gala.  Santa brought Richard a Roomba, which is AMAZING!  

Mase made this coffee cup for Richard at school.  Richard and I fight over who gets to drink out of it every morning.  

All I wanted was one good family picture for the Christmas album.  This is what I got.
It's not perfect, but it perfectly sums up this stage of life right now and I love it!
(Note that the cat and dog cooperated better than the 5 year old)

Christmas at Nanny and Poppy's house. 

Trying out his Darth Maul Christmas swag.