staff retreat 2013

Spence, Haddie and I got to get away for staff retreat for a few days.  It is so so great to get together with the other staff and their wives and reconnect.  I love getting to meet newer wives to staff and seeing ones that go to a different campus so I don't get to spend much time with them.  It was so bittersweet this year because our church planting residents finished out their year with the retreat.  We had a sweet time praying over them and their wives (if they were there).  We also got to hear from the man who planted our church over 50 years ago.  He has such an incredible story and I loved hearing him talk about planting, leaving and serving in Vietnam for the majority of his career, and just sharing about his life in general.  

Haddie loves snuggles with Danny

She made some sweet new baby friends

Spence thought I would go with him to the top of the mountain.  Clearly, he forgot who he married.  But I was super proud when he sent me this pic of him from the top!

This girl

The residents

Spence in India

Spence and a couple other guys from the church got an opportunity to go to India and teach some local pastors.  It was a really cool trip for him to go on especially because some of our sweet friends happened to be there for the upcoming birth of their daughter.  Hurray for getting to see and love on some of our international church planting friends.  Craig and Spence worked together at the church for a couple years and we were also all in small group together before any of us had kids. Spence had such a great time with them and well, we missed him but survived here at home :)

 

 

Spence and Levi

Spencer and Craig

Garrett, Spence, and Daniel

Danielle, Levi, Craig, and Spence

Highlight of any day daddy was gone was getting to FaceTime

O'Brien's Moving Party

Our sweet, dear friends Brad, Jena-Marie, Calliah Grace, and Elsa O'Brien are moving to Baltimore to start a church in a city that desperately needs the gospel.  We are a bit heart broken to lose them here if I am being honest.  Brad performed our wedding ceremony, so he holds a special place in our hearts.  (Yes, that was the super fly guy who was unfazed by the passing out groomsmen in the middle of the ceremony).  And Jena, gosh, I don't even know how to begin to talk about my friendship with Jena-Marie.  It literally hurts me that she is leaving.  We became close through a very special small group that we were a part of.  Our hearts are forever knit because God saw fit for us to walk through some of our toughest days together when we both suffered losing babies.  Verses texted to me from her in the middle of her own crisis, were some of the sweetest that I recieved because she was literally in the depths with me. 

We are praying for God to be glorified and the city of Baltimore to be blessed with Redeemer City Church.  If you or someone you know is in that area, please find out more here.

 

Ellie gave Elsa some baby love

 of course the kiddos just wanted to sit and read the Bible.

OR kids had to be broken out of rooms becuase they locked themselves into offices...

Kidsweek 2012- Zapped

Our church's VBS is called Kidsweek.  The theme this year was Zapped.  The preschoolers studied Moses and the elementary studied Peter.  I volunteered in the nursery with Ben and Ellie.  Ben was heartbroken each morning when Zeke got to go in "Kidsweek Church" and he had to go down to "Sunday church" (this was how the boys differentiated the different areas we used)

Zeke had to be convinced each morning to go in.  Ben cheered him on by saying "don't cry Zeke"

On the final day we had a family worship/bounce house party, this is how Ellie throws down

Nothing better in the 10,000 degree heat than a snocone

Zeke was one of the few who didn't mind climbing up the slide since he had on socks. 

Yes, everything was blazing hot!

Zeke was so brave and loved going down again and again

**Ben is absent from these pictures because he did not like the slide at all.  Thanks, Mr. Brian for taking Ben down the slide.  Spence and Ben found things to do on the ground instead ;)

Awana

There was an end of year awards ceremony for Awana.  It has been so great seeing Zeke blossom this year.  He started the year rough with crying at every drop off.  He ended the year with running into class and hugging his teacher.  We weren't great about memorizing verses (totally my fault and not because he coulnd't have done it.  I was just slack), but we had decided our family goal was for him to enjoy going and get more used to being away from mommy some.  We definitely accomplished this goal, with the help of his teacher and the rest of the Awana team.  We love you, Zeke and can't wait for next year's Awana!

Zeke's class coming in

Sweet buddies, Zeke and Lincoln

The reason Zeke had such a great year.  Thank you, Ms. Miranda!!!

Sweetest picture ever.  I was trying to snap a picutre of Zeke (failed because of Gaynor waving to Hudson).  BUT Lincoln saw me and began waving.  We love you buddy!

Ben cheered so hard for everyone, but most especially for his big brother :)

This was the best picture I could get of Ryah Layne.  Sorry, V, I couldn't catch her smiling :(

Zeke was so busy smiling at us, he didn't notice Miranda trying to give him his certificate.  She finally gave it to another child to give to him.  It seriously took about 5 minutes before he took it.

Once he got it though, he was busy trying to get the necklace off and kept holding it up and yelling to me.

This is the vide of the kiddos singing.  Zeke got into it with one round left to go.

Jesus In my Place

I would like to invite everyone to the cd release concert for our Summit worship cd, Jesus in My Place.  I got my hands on a copy earlier this week and I haven't stopped playing it yet.  The songs are written by our worship leaders, and they are good.  We have been learning some of them during church and I am loving observing how our church is being led into worshipping our God corporately.  I feel like we as a congregation are learning so much about worship right now.
The night is going to be so cool.  I love all of our worship leaders and really love when they all come together to lead us.  The concert starts at 6 and is at the Summit's Brier Creek.  Our small group is going together and we would love to see you there as well.  For more info you can visit here. 

Just One

I enjoy reading a blog that was started by some pastor's wives from all over the country.  It has become a great resource.  If you are a woman in ministry or a wife of a man in ministry then you need to check out Leading and Loving It.  Last year for the first time they put on a video conference.  I watched it from my living room by myself and it ws really good.  A lot of women spoke and they covered some great topics.  This year though, the staff wives of our church are going to get together and watch.  I am so excited about gleaning not only the information from the women speaking, but also from the women that I get the pleasure and honor of serving with.  Also, bonus I don't have many opportunities to hang out with a lot of these women so I am superexcited about getting some awesome girl time.  If you don't get to watch the videos live, but still want to see them, you can find them on the site in the archives.  You can also view last years as well. 

Christmas at the Summit

Our church this year is having 5 Christmas services.  Each service is identical and there will be childcare provided.  Spence and I are attending the service on December 24 at 4:00.  We would love for anyone to join us.  Other opportunities to worship are December 22 at 6:00, December 23 at 12:00 and 6:00 or December 24 at 4:00 and 6:00.  I will be serving at some of the other service times so I hope to see you there.  If you would like more information, please visit the website.

Christmas activites all in one

I have been so very slack about Christmas posts, but we really have been doing a lot of fun things.  We jumped right in as soon as we got home from Thanksgiving.  The boys have had a blast doing all the activites we have planned.  We actually haven't done as much as I would have liked because of my extreme tiredness and Ellie's recent desire to send me to the couch for hours while I am having some strong Braxton Hicks.  Here are some of our pictures that I have caught, please excuse the picture quality they are all from my phone.

 Ben wanted to put all the ornaments on the tree

 Zeke wanted to watch Snoopy more than put ornaments on the tree

 We walk over to see our neighbor's decorations often... Ben decided to become part of the decor

 The boys room got festive with lights around the room. 

It is very bright, so we sneak in and turn them off after they are asleep

 For the 12 days leading up to Christmas, we are pulling a family activity from a jar. 

One was bundling up and taking a walk through the neighborhood to see the lights. 

A few of the others have been having lunch out as a family, getting donuts, and buying new Christmas books.

The boys have enjoyed these activities so far

 What's Christmas with out an ugly sweater party? 

Spence took it to the next level and wore one while making announcements

 Ben go involved with a candy marathon while we visisted YaYa's

 Our staff Christmas party included some special  entertainment from some of the staff...

The church hosted a Ladies Night.  We had a women only band, yummy desserts and one of our pastor's wives shared about our life being a race and that we have the security of knowing our finish line and staying the course.

Rain can't hold us down

Rain on Halloween?! Could there be anything more cruel?! Spence called from work and asked what we should do. I immediately began naming friends who grew up in the north and trick or treated through the snow. I said we would press on unless the kids refused to go out.
We had planned for our small group to set up a table with hot chocolate, apple cider, and candy like last year. We did decide to just have them hand out candy from inside the house instead. We got ready and headed out:

our wild animals

yucky yucky weather

Ben tried to go inside our neighbors house

this is 1 of 2 houses we actually got candy from, no one else had their lights on

my boys with some of our small group friends

This was at about the time that we realized our neighborhood was lame this year. Seriously, 2 houses? Come on! We acted fast and called back to the house and had our sweet sweet friends hide through out our house. This is how the rest of our trick or treating went:

Robert hid behind the play kitchen set

Alex hid underneath blankets in Zeke's room

Then the group came back downstairs The boys dumped their candy to show everyone their goods.

Zeke realized the superiority of Reese's Cups over Tootsie Rolls

Ben scoping out Zeke's goods

The tiger carefully watches the giraffe's observations

Then Benjamin decided he did not want more pictures taken:

no more mommy!

no, stop!

no, pictures!

seriously, mom

Zeke on the other hand hammed it up!

As soon as he put on his costume, he yelled "now let's sing a song!"

Sweet adoration

The boys pretty much think Alex is their personal punching bag

Zeke then became our candy-giver-outer. He seriously liked this part the most. The doorbell rang and the kid went all frantic, running to get the candy (that we had to keep out of reach of Ben who kept grabbing handfuls of snickers and asking to put them into his pumpkin), and demanding to be the one to open the door and give each kid 1 piece (yeah he was stingy)

I am so in love with this sweet boy

He was so worn out from the day this is how he fell asleep,

if we are gonna be honest, it's actually how we roll in Durham