We had a wonderful Christmas. We praise God for sending his Son for us. and for keeping us safe during the holidays.
Matt woke me up this morning at 5:20. He had a stomach ache and then couldn't go back to sleep. So what do we do? Open presents! We then went to my parents and had a great time hanging out and opening gifts.


In our home we have several decorations and ornaments from my childhood. A couple of years ago my mom gave me this particular decoration because no one in my family appreciates it quite like I do. It was my favorite growing up. Enjoy!!

Santa is very respectful. :)





This was a gift from my sister and brother in law to Matt. He can't stand cats or Rachel Ray. :)Very funny.



My niece Brynne was opening a gift from my brother. A duplicate from earlier that day.

Brynne (4): "Uncle Shawn why did you buy this for me when Santa already gave it to me?!"

Matt's family has always called the day before Christmas Eve - Christmas Adam.  Because Adam came before Eve.  :)  Last week Matt taught the meaning of Christmas Adam to all the kids at Sunday school.  They asked for presents on this holiday before the holidays.  I'm sure their parents thanked Matt for yet another day their children ask for presents.  

We have been seeing commercials for the new American Gladiators and everytime they come on Matt gets so excited. He hopes they have cool names like Laser, Nitro and Blaze.

 "This decision was very difficult for me. My parents have always put a lot of pressure on me to follow in their footsteps, but when it came down to the end I realized my heart has always been at Oregon. Quack Quack!"

Today was the choirs last performance at church and it was great, but whew I am glad its over. Getting up extra early on Sundays, spending my Saturdays practicing, it was a lot of work but I think it paid off.  

THE SCENE: Late at night both of us in bed the lights off, silent.

BETH: You know what I love about york peppermint patties.





(that's my wife you gotta love her.)

 You beat me at shuffle board, and the bet was that I blog a post saying so.

You know what I'll do you one better because that's just the type of guy I am.

I dedicate this poem to you ENJOY!








Dude

U

Kicked

Every ones

Butt

Let us

Understand

Eventually the

Depth,

Experience and

Vast

Intelligence of

Lord

Shuffle Board

I have lived in Portland my whole life and I have never seen the Christmas ships! We got to go this year with our new neighbors Ford, Lindsay and Kealy and another couple from our church. The girls had cocoa and the men had beers and shuffle board at a local bar. Then we went down to Sellwood park and watched the boats from the dock. It was alot of fun. Here are a few pictures from my first Christmas ship experience.

Last night we had our christmas party for our small group. We ate good food and opened white elephant gifts. It was alot of fun! Here are a couple of pictures from our fun night.










Kayla actually stole this gift. It was a book called God's Gift - hotties and dreamboats from the 70s and 80s.

I am in the christmas choir again this year and we just had our first practice. We are singing both services on the 9th and 16th of December if you would like to come and see me sing and visit the church. Services are at 9am and 10:45am. Here is the link to the church to get the address. Hope to see you there!

www.pearlchurch.org

One of the gifts my parents got for me for my birthday was tickets to So You Think You Can Dance. I LOVE THAT SHOW!!! I got to go last year and was so excited to see it again this year. My mom got us 2nd row! It was soooooo much fun! I told her it needs to be an annual gift. Here are a few pictures from our fun night.















I know its a little blurry but they wouldn't let me use a flash so it made it blurry. My favorite Neil is on the floor on the left. :)

Yesterday Matt was putting up a shelf and a piece broke so we needed to buy some super glue. After using it (with a q-tip might I add) he went to rub his eye when he suddenly shrieked and ran downstairs. After a few minutes and some more shrieking I went to see what happened. His eye lid was glued to his eye brow and he got some on his eyelashes too. I haven't laughed like that in while. Don't worry he got it all off.

My niece Brynne (4): "Jesus made us pumpkin pie for dessert!"

Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving! We definitley did.

This morning I got a call from Matt. He had just worked out at the gym and heres how the conversation went.

Matt: I think I stunk up the gym.
Elizabeth: Why, what did you do?
Matt: Well, I was running and all of the sudden I could only smell Doo Dads! (aka the smell of Worcestershire sauce) It was coming out of my pores!
Elizabeth: I think it's in the car! The BO is coming from the car! (a line from Seinfeld)

So the moral is - when you cook Doo Dads in your house it follows you for days!

"So when somebody has B.O., the "O" usually stays with the "B". Once the "B" leaves, the "O" goes with it." - Jerry Seinfeld :)

We have a new tradition in the Benz home. Every Thankgiving we are going to make Matts favorite snack growing up. A few years back I got the recipe from his dad, stunk up my mom and dads house and suprised him for his birthday. Now I get to stink up my house every year. Let me explain about the smell. The recipe goes something like this.

One bottle of worcestershire sauce + One stick of butter = A house full of stink

You add it to 3 kinds of Chex and ALOT of nuts. Then dry it in the oven. Everytime we open the oven it's like a punch in the face. Did I mention that I love my husband very much.

We are finally all moved in after a week of slowly moving. Thanks to our friends Ford Jordan and Erik Stone who helped us move the big things on Saturday. I will post more pictures once we are all unpacked, right now things are just everywhere. Here is a picture of Matt's new tv - I mean our new tv. :) He is so excited-he's in love.

Matt - Happy Birthday, Merry Christmas, Happy Valentines Day, Happy MLK Day, Happy Presidents Day, and Happy Veterens Day!

I celebrated Veterans Day up in Seattle thanks to Erik and one heck of a birthday present.
We had a blast while watching the hawks shut down the 49ers on Monday Night Football.
Hope you all had as much fun as we did with the holiday and thanks to all the Veterans
and servicemen for everything they have and are doing for our country.

Yesterday I was walking on my lunch and saw a grown man skipping down the street. Maybe I will start skipping....then again I AM AN ADULT!

Also picture are coming of the Seahawks game Matt went to on Monday.

Just kidding, but my back is killing me after putting all of that furniture together for the last 6 hours while Matt is in Seattle. :(

So have I told you how much I love Ikea. I LOVE IKEA. I could shop there everyday. We are moving into our new place this week and there is very little storage space. I mean NO storage space. In the kitchen there isn't even enough cupboards to put our dishes and food! So what do we do...We go to IKEA!!! We just spent the last 3 hours there and we got LOTS of good stuff. We got a new dresser, a cupboard to put our towels, another cupboard to put our food, a rack to hang our dishes and lots of other goodies. We even brought home a package of their famous swedish meatballs to try!

This morning I had an appointment and afterward I went home for a while to grab a bit to eat. Matt was right down the street so he met me and we ate an early lunch together. It was very nice. I turned on the tv and started flipping and I ran across the Price is Right which caused us both to go Yeah! and we weren't even sick! Would you like to know what we think of Drew Carey as the new host? ....We miss Bob.


P.S. Please spay and neuter your pets. Matt says especially your cats.

We found a place to live! After months of living like nomads we finally found a place to rent in Sellwood. It is really cute and a few blocks from the river! Below is picture of the tri-plex, we are renting the middle one. We will start moving this Saturday but will be moving our stuff over for the next week or so.

I just want to thank those who helped us through this challenging time who prayed for us and even looked at places on craiglist and around sellwood (that's you lindsay) :)

Thank you so much Heather and Andy (my sister and her husband) for letting us live in your home and invade your space for a month. It was so much fun! We still miss you!

Thank you Mike and Jen for letting us live in your beautiful home while you are away. We have loved living there but we can't wait until your back!

This morning Matt woke up at 6 to go put something in his car and then climbed back into bed. We are currently staying at Mike and Jen Roths house and they have an alarm system. He turned off the alarm to go out and then set the alarm back up to go back to bed. When we are in the house we typically set it as no motion so we can move about the house without it going off. Well he forgot and set it as normal. I came downstairs an hour later to get ready and this horrible blast started screaming at me. It scared the you know what out of me. I turned it off but the company still called Mike....and Jens dad....and Ford Jordan....and the Police. Whoops! Sorry to whoever got a wake up call this morning. :)

Today at church we observed All Saints Day. It is a day to recognize a person or people in your life that have inspired your spiritual walk. After church Matt and I were discussing who we would recognize and we both had the same people. Mike and Jen Roth. They have been a huge part of our walk. We were a part of a youth group 7 years ago and Mike was our pastor. When they started Pearl church we followed. Mike baptized us both, they gave us pre-marital counseling, and Mike married us. They have also been wonderful friends to us. They have shown us what a christian marriage looks like and have been so generous as to let us stay in their home while they are living in Boston for 3 months. Thank you Mike and Jen for being faithful servants and loving us in the best and worst of times. We love you!

Matt suprised me with the best christmas present ever! A trip to Mexico! We were there for a week and it couldn't have been better. We relaxed on the beach, drank margaritas and even took a party boat to a small island off Cancun. Here are a few shots from the week.































We went to our favorite vacation spot in March for our anniversary....The Beach! We went to Newport, it was the first time we had been back since living there in the winter of '05.

This was the inside of a really neat lighthouse in Newport.















In May we went to Vegas with our friends Travis and Jennifer. It was great! We left with over $800! Here is a picture of me at an awesome buffet. My plate is full of goodies, and anyone who knows me knows this is a very good thing.


















We went campng with some good friends of ours Ben and Sarah. It was so much fun even though is was a little cold and wet, and it was JULY!



















In August we spent all night walking for the Relay for Life. We dressed up as celebrities, I was Meredith Grey from Grey's Anatomy and Matt was Napolean Dynamite.





Our friend Eric let us dress him up for a contest and he WON!!! Doesn't he make a pretty women. :)

















Over the summer Matt taught me how to play golf! I am not very good yet but I hope to be much better by next summer. He even bought me my own golf clubs. There pink!











Our new nephew William James Pastore was born on September 17th! He was named after my dad. He weighed 8 pounds and 13 ounces! He was a big boy! Will has been such a blessing upon our lifes and we will enjoy showering him with love.


You want to know what he thinks of being in this world take a look at his first hand gesture.