Christmas at the Lyric

This year, Northstar Church will be having their annual Christmas service at The Lyric Theatre in downtown Blacksburg. For those who don't live in Blacksburg and haven't a clue what that is--it's an old theatre from the 50's and it's amazing!! It has an incredible ambiance and such a beautiful sense of Old Christmas.



Please pray for us and that many people would come to hear the message of Jesus Christ! We are so excited and Cody and all the worship people have been working their behinds off to make this excellent! Please pray for us and for this to go on without a hitch!

ALSO, Cody's parents are here to be "Mr. and Mrs. Clause"--It's going to be amazing and hilarious! PICTURES WILL DEFINITELY BE TO COME!!

Love y'all,
LaRae

An early morning revelation.

This morning I was reading in John 5--to be honest, I had no specific reason to be reading this particular passage, I truly just thought--"Hey, I'm gonna read John 5 today!" And of course, just as sovereign as God is, He made this passage PERFECT for me!!

John 5 is the passage of scripture that details the paralytic at the pool of Bethesda who can not walk. He's been at this for 38 YEARS! Just a side note, I could not imagine doing the same thing for 38 years to no avail and STILL continuing to do it--I believe this man had some serious faith, or nothing else to do. Either way, that was crazy to me.

So, the story continues and Jesus comes to town, passes by the pool and notices this man. In God's omniscience, He knows how long this man has been an invalid and how long he's been waiting at this pool for healing with no results. Jesus comes to the man and says " Do you want to be healed?" I love the questions Jesus asks--they are so obvious, it's amazing. The man is probably thinking to himself, "who is this guy, he has got to be joking!" At least that's what I would be thinking/saying. I digress, so the man says essentially, yes of course I'd like to be healed but no one is here to help me get to the pool and if I try someone always beats me to the punch. Then Jesus says, "Get up, take up your bed and walk!" So simple, so easy, so to the point. Man, I love Jesus.

So, I'm reading this passage and you're probably thinking, "LaRae you can walk, how is this pertinent to your life??" Well, a little background info--- I have had a rough few months. It just seems like everything in life was weighing down on me. I would say probably the only thing that wasn't was my marriage--but we're newlyweds so I guess that goes without saying. But, I have just had the hardest times with life right now. LaRae-0, Life-1. ding, next round. I felt like every time I turned a corner it was one more straw on this camel's back. Then there were moments when that "straw" was simply too much and they all came tumbling down. I was stuck under this burden, unable to move, unable to function really. Going through each day, not enjoying each day, just making it through to the next. And to be honest, I'm still kind of there at times.

So, in reading this scripture, I am the paralyzed man. I'm stuck, unable to move, unable to get to a place to heal myself or "help" myself. So, I stay here. But, I'm reading this passage and I hear God saying, "LaRae, do you want to be healed? Do you want to overcome this perpetual bad mood?? Do you want to live an abundant life instead of life living you?? I'm like, uhhh YA GOD!! The answer is so simple and God's saying in return, ok then LaRae, 'get up, take up your bed and walk!' Then here I come with the excuses, but God this, but God that, "no one is here to take me to the pool".

Boy, this struck a chord with me. God's like, LaRae stop with the excuses--I'll tell you exactly what you need to do! Talk about making you shut up! So, now I'm just going to be quiet, stop being a victim to my life and listen to what HE has to say for a change. To be honest, I'm not exactly sure what it will be, but He's finally got my undivided attention and I'm ready to change! I know it's going to be hard and there may be things I have to change/quit/not participate in, so I'm ready to listen-He has the bigger picture in mind and that makes me so at peace! The only request I have is PLEASE don't make me sit here for 38 more years!!

Thank you everyone for all your prayers for us--life is good and God is too, even if we don't see it at the time or want to acknowlege it. HE IS GOOD. HE LOVES US. Such a hard conecept to grasp at times, believe me, I'm there.

We love you all so much and can't wait until the next time we get to see each of you!!

Love,

LaRae

Recipe of the Week

So, I've been looking for some great blogs with good, tasty recipes--I have found one! I'm either not looking hard enough or there is just a lack of them! So, I've decided to start my own (well, sorta). It's not that I'm some amazing cook or recipe-maker, but I have made my fairshare of recipes and they have been pretty amazing. This having to do with the recipe, I'm sure, and not my culinary skills!

So, here is recipe #1 (We'll start off easy)

Aunt Lindy's Broccolli Casserole

Ingredients:

1 9x13 casserole dish

1pkg. frozen broccoli (12-16 oz.)

3/4 C. Instant Rice

1/4 C. Grated Cheese or 8oz. Velvetta

1 Can Cream of Mushroom Soup

1/2 to 1 Can of French's Fried Onions

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350 Degrees and grease casserole dish. Cook broccoli and drain. Cook rice. Combine the cooked broccoli and rice into one bowl. Stir in the Cream of Mushroom soup and Cheese. Pour into casserole Dish. Bake at 350 for 15 minutes. After 15 minutes, take out and stire (to combine cheese and melt) then top with fried onions. Return to oven for 15 more minutes. Remove from oven and cool for about 3 minutes before serving.

ENJOY!!

A Davenport Thanksgiving!

This year Cody and I decided to go to Ohio to see his family for Thanksgiving and then Florida to see mine at Christmas! Thanksgiving was a great time, but I still missed my family so very much! The Davenport's did a great job at giving us a wonderful vacation!! Here are a few of the pictures from our trip!

After Nashville, we stopped in Cincinatti on our way to Wooster to visit Corey and Cissie! We hung out at their house and talked for a while, then had dinner at Panera!! We were sad to leave, but had a great time while we were there!

After getting into Wooster around 10pm Sunday night, we crashed!! The next morning we slept it (it was so nice!!) and then headed to Cleveland to go shopping!! This is me and Cody's mom in the car headed to Crocker Park for a day full of shopping!!


Cody's Parents at Crocker Park doing some Christmas Shopping!!


The next day, Cody went to Cleveland to spend time with the guys and the girls went to lunch (Vanessa was sick, so she couldn't make it!) So, Robin and I headed to the Pine Tree Barn! It doesn't sound like much, but it was A-MAZING!! After an incredible lunch (great bistro food) It had 3 floors of eveything you could ever want for house decor! It had every kind of style you could imagine--it was amazing!! I got a few goodies for our Christmas Decorations at our house in Virginia and it got me even more excited for Christmas and it wasn't even Thanksgiving yet!!! They had, at least, 50 Christmas trees decorated in every theme imaginable!


Here are just three of the trees!


Another room decorated!

The next day, Wednesday, I went to Cody's grandma's to help bake pies!! We had such a good time! She gave me one of her apron's to wear and we had a blast!!


These are just two of the TEN that we made!! His grandma gets her crust from Canada--it's not made in the United States! It was incredible--she taught me so much! It was so nice!

Later that night we went to Medina, a nearby town and saw an early movie then ate at this great little Chinese Bistro! It was yummy! The restaurant had a wait, so there was this gorgeous gazebo across the street (ironically the same spot where I first met Cody's parents and got a picture taken with them--awwww, so cute!) Anyways, we had a little photo shoot to get a good Christmas Card picture. I think we got a good one! :)


Robin and I were goofing off as the boys were talking at dinner--such a typical scene.

After dinner we headed home and started getting ready for Thanksgiving Day!! Cody helped me bake a Pecan Pie (he's chopping the nuts here!)

I had never made a Pecan Pie before, so I was a little nervous, but....


It turned out DELICIOUS!!! Mark, Cody's dad was so happy!! He loves Pecan Pie, too!


As the pie was baking, I helped Cody's mom decorate the table! She decorates with Christmas decor because no one get's to see her fun Christmas Dishes since they go to Cody's grandparents for Christmas (Robin has decor for EVERY holiday--it's crazy!)

This is the final product!! We had a great time and Marth Stuart would've been proud!


The individual place settings!


Everyone showed up around noon and we ate around One--there was SO MUCH FOOD!! It was delicious!


After we all sat down, Cody's Dad read a passage of scripture about Giving Thanks to the Lord...we said the Blessing and DUG IN!!


Taking a breather from the yummy food!


After dinner everyone was stuffed, so we headed to the sun room and played Nintendo Wii--even Cody's 79 year old Grandpa got in on the action--He's bowling here!


All the ladies, exhausted from Cooking and Cleaning are watching the Hilarity that was the boys playing Nintento Wii!!

Then after all that--we had the family Christmas Gift Exchange Drawing!!


Thanksgiving night we got to hang out with Cody's nephew Noah--we had a great time!! He loved my camera, so I taught him how to take some pictures--he was pretty good!! If it becomes a career, I'll be taking credit for that..hahahaha.

What a great time we had--it was so fun and yet so relaxing!! We didn't want to come home--but Saturday we got in the car and headed back to Blacksburg, so thankful that we have an amazing family and already talking about CHRISTMAS!!!

Hope ya'll had a wonderful Thanksgiving and truly remembered from whom all blessings flow, our wonderful Savior Jesus Christ!

Love y'all and Missed you,

C&L Davenport

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

This past Monday we had Lucas and Bethany Tucker over for dinner! They are another young married couple that helps us out in Northstar's Youth Group, come to think of it, they were our first couple over for dinner :) 

Anyways, after dinner we were just sitting around talking and happened to peek outside and it was POURING down snow!! It was so beautiful! This was the first snow of the 2008-09 Winter Season in Blacksburg and subsequently Cody and I's first downpour of snow since we've been married!! 

Also speaking of marriage, on Friday we will have been married for FIVE MONTHS!! WOW and we haven't killed each other!! Things are going great!! :) haha

Right outside our front door! It was gorgeous outside! And Yes, we do still have our McCain/Palin sign up--I guess we just can't let it go.

Cody basking in the snow flurries

My car is covered already!

The next morning we awoke to a snow-covered wonderland!

This is our backyard scene

Our back porch was awesome!

The next morning we had about 6-8 inches!

Snow on Virginia Tech's Campus--this building happens to be where I work :)

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*Winter is officially here!! We are so excited! It's been so fun snuggling up on the couch and drinking our hot apple cider and cocoa! 

In future news, tomorrow, after I get off work, Cody and I are leaving for a Youth Leaders Conference in Nashville, Tennessee (our favorite city-woohoo) So, we are so very excited to get out of town and really learn more about Youth Ministry! Then on Sunday afternoon, we are headed to Ohio for Thanksgiving--but not before stopping in Cincinatti to visit our favorite newlyweds, Corey and Cissie!! Starting tomorrow at 5pm--the next 10 days will be fabulous!! Tons of pictures to come!!! 

Love and Blessings,

C&L Davenport

Trunk or Treat!!

This year Northstar had their 1st Annual Trunk or Treat!! Here are a few pictures from the event!

FARGO and the Cowgirl!

The two "ballers" --Geoff and Adam or should I say
G-money and A-dizzle!

This was the cutest little girl in the world! Her mom said she didn't want to participate in Halloween then she changed her mind that night--she has on a hot pink wig, red boots and Halloween leggings.

Cutest little fairy at Northstar!

Olivia's little brother had a genuine astronaut's suit--his dad bought it when he went to Houston last month! It was so cool!
*He wanted a picture with the Wendy's girl!

The butterfly, Esther and the Monk promoting the evening!

In competition for our Christmas card!

I was Wendy from the Fastfood chain!

He was digging my treats! haha

Loved her AXE!

Pumpkin, Black Widow Spider, G-Money and the Monk!
*Some of our College kids who came out to see the cute kids!

Caleb the Spy or more popularly known as Batman.

Eve--cutest butterfly we had!

*After we had the event--we came back to our house and had TONS of Trick or Treaters!


Cody got a fog and lightening machine--he was like a little boy, it was so cute!!


Trying to scare the kids with the Fog machine!



Winner of the best Costume of the night: He was a robot and he even had a voice distorter that made him sound like one--it was incredibly genious--you'd only see that in Blacksburg! His mom was definitely an Engineering Professor at VT!