Celebrating 40 Years of God's Faithfulness!

Two months ago today, Dan's parents, Terry and Nancy, celebrated their 40th wedding anniversary.  Yes - forty!  Isn't that great?  So a few weeks after Christmas, us "kids" threw them a party for some close friends and family.  Here are some scenes from the festivities!

We put the boys to work.  Christian is quite the cupcake froster.  We give him an 'A.' Christian is Dan's sister Linda's boyfriend.  (If I didn't put my apostrophes in the right place, I apologize in advance.)

Dan's brother Tim flew down from Missoula just for the party!  It was so special to have him.  He surprised Terry and Nancy by just showing up at their house the day of the party.  They were very touched!
We also put him right to work.

The finished look:

Then the guests arrived.  In this first picture, Linda and Christian are chatting with some dear friends of Terry and Nancy who now live in Idaho.  They were able to be here for the party!

The kids table (or counter...)

Terry's brother Ty was able to be here from Tennessee. (He is in the black sweater.)

Tim, chatting it up with Grandpa Hickman:

We gathered together and Tim shared a few words about his parents.

Dan shared some trivia about his parents that Tim's wife Jamie had put together for us.  (She was very disappointed that she wasn't able to join us from Missoula.  But she was still part of the party anyway!)

Terry's mom is quite the poet and writes poems for very special family occasions.   She wrote a special poem for Terry and Nancy is is reading it here.

Time to cut the cake!

 At the end of the night, Terry and Nancy watched a few special videos that were sent from some out-of-town family (Nancy's sister, father and family in Minnesota; and Jamie and the kids in Missoula).

It was so special to have 'old' and dear friends come help celebrate 40 years with us.  And we are so blessed to have parents who love the Lord and each other so much, who impart wisdom and show unending love to us, and who provide such a godly example of what it means to walk with the Lord and have a marriage that both glorifies the Lord and effectively displays Christ's love for us, His bride.   We look forward to, Lord willing, many more years of marriage for them.  Happy 40th Anniversary, Terry and Nancy!

My one regret is that we never took a family picture of them with their three kids before Tim went back to Missoula. :(  Alas, I will end with this picture of the two of them, taken the night before their actual anniversary, with the flowers that us kids got for them.

And yes, your eyes aren't playing tricks on you.  I have updated the look of our blog.  What do you think???