The Dyrud's Great Adventure

Christmas Fun in Idaho

Dear Family and Friends~ A little reminder to keep in the back of your mind as you start your Christmas shopping (I know, I know, it's not even Thanksgiving yet). When you are purchasing things on-line (at any time of year, not just Christmas) please shop through our website! The address is http://www.sendthemforhim.com/files/Groups/Dyrud/categories.html All you need to do is go to our website, make a choice from the lists on the page (apparel, automotive, jewelry, etc.) and start shopping. That's it! You don't pay anything extra and we get a portion of the proceeds sent to our ministry account with MAF! Pretty neat :-) Thank you for using this unique method to help support our ministry as we serve with MAF. Happy Thanksgiving! Love, Tammi

If you have not yet seen the music video entitled, "Baby It's Cold Outside" by Idina Menzel (the singer who sang 'Let It Go' on the Disney movie 'Frozen') and Michael Buble, it is SUPER cute and I highly recommend it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6bbuBubZ1yE . It's always interesting to me to see different people's perspectives on things. For example, I had one San Diego friend who posted on his Facebook page "Baby it's cold outside"......... it was 47 degrees this morning (which, I confess, IS cold for San Diego). Today, here in Idaho, 41 degrees is supposed to be our high for the day and we might as well be outside in our shorts and tank tops! 41 degrees means the ice that we've been sliding around on as we drive will melt a bit; 41 degrees means the snow will start to melt a bit too and we'll remember that we have grass in our backyard; 41 degrees means we can leave our enormous down jackets in the closet and pull out ...

It's been a little while since I've written anything........... almost 6 months :-) We enjoyed a wonderful summer, having vacation time with friends, visiting family for Father's Day, taking swim lessons at the local rec center and jumping back into homeschooling in August. I can't believe that my (not so little anymore) Buddy Boy Justice will be 6 this coming Sunday! He is so full of life and energy (sometimes I wish he would share some with me) :-) He loves to memorize his AWANA verses, loves to ride his bike, loves to see what is growing in our garden and most of all, LOVES to find spiders and bugs in the backyard (that must be a boy thing). Jaycee enjoys being a lively 3 year old; she loves to follow her big brother around, loves to ride her bike and say her AWANA verses too. She likes to dance like a ballerina, loves the water (whether it's swimming or bath time or the sprinklers) and always enjoys playing 'pretend' with her kitchen and dress-up clo...

This week we enjoyed a wonderful visit with my (Tammi) parents! They flew from California to Idaho and we got to show them around 'Mayberry', I mean, Nampa :-) The weather was 'nice' while they were here (we had everything from sunny and 70 degrees to overcast and 50 degrees in a three day span) and we enjoyed days at the park feeding the ducks and bike rides around the neighborhood. Mom and I also discovered a great coffee place here called Dutch Brothers (they make a chocolate coconut coffee drink that is TO DIE FOR!!!!!!!) so I think I've found a new vice ;-) Dad and Mom flew back to California last night and Jaycee kept asking if she could go on the airplane too; she even gave Nana her pretend ticket and said "Okay, here my ticket. Me go Bumpa and Nini's house". Thanks for coming out Dad and Mom! We love you and miss you already :-)

                                           Jaycee playing outside in our first snow of winter!                             Since we are still waiting for Jaycee's mouth to heal from surgery,  we haven't been able to return to church yet so the Children's Ministry leaders mail all the crafts and Bible Stories to us at home so that the kids can still participate in the activities :-) This year we headed back to Minnesota in November for Jaycee to have another surgery (#3) on her cheek and mouth with the same surgeon that we saw back in February. We are so grateful that the Lord has provided this doctor who is familiar with Jaycee's rare...

                     Celebrating Jaycee's 2nd birthday, complete with Minnie Mouse cupcakes!                                             Justice helping Grandpa with race car tires :-) We returned to Idaho on July 1st after a wonderful trip to San Diego. It was such a blessing to see family and friends and supporters during our time there. For those that we didn't get to see, don't worry; we'll be back again another time! We have been *enjoying* temperatures in the 100s+ since we got back and it's finally cooling down into the mid 90s :-) Justice and Jaycee are excited to start swimming lessons next week and Justice will start soccer camp once swim lessons are finished....