laughter

you always hear 'laughter is the best medicine' and so many studies have been done to prove this theory...or at least how laughing daily helps to decrease your stress, which in turn helps your blood pressure, heart rate, etc

and it's true; laughing is so much fun and does make you feel happier all around

we had our small group party today/tonight

john, sophia, and i are so blessed to have this small group

we have learned, grown, cried, worked, and laughed with these people for the past 2 years

it has been an awesome journey!

this year, we decided as a small group to adopt a family through our local combined community services (which helps coordinate services to the community by local churches instead of each church trying to do its own thing all the time...awesome concept!)

so we collected money, got wish lists from our family, split up at wal-mart, shopped, bugged the poor cashier lady who had to swipe every bill we gave her to make sure it wasn't fake (yes, we paid all cash :) ), wrapped the presents, ate GOOD food, then had a white elephant/yankee swap game

it's always fun to see what people will bring to white elephant gift exchanges

this year included some tacky decorating signs, a drew carey bobble head, a laser pointer, leopard print cappuchino cups, elephant skin, and a home made mouse catcher...we laughed the entire time!

and what's even cooler is to look back on a year ago when we did this same thing...we had 10 couples, one baby, and three babies on the way

this year we have 8 couples, 3 babies, and 2 babies on the way

it is so much fun to experience life with these couples (i should probably say families now :) )...and it's even more fun to laugh with them!