Pelican's

We love snoballs, we love the Gastons, but the combo was EPIC.  Yay for fun times with sweet friends before we move.

Diary of a church planter's wife- our first meetings

We had our first official meeting of Mercy Church on Sunday February 8.  We met in our house and had about 30 people who have signed on to move from Raleigh with us to Charlotte.  It was absolutely incredible

I stood in the back and I took this picture.  And just was blown away.  I had two thoughts as I sat watching Spence talk to our team.  One was "oh, no, this is real.  How am I going to tell Spencer that I can't do this and we are so not moving".  The other was "wow, it's happening and this is exactly what God has been preparing us to do."

The following week, Spence and I went to Charlotte to have our first meeting of the Charlotte based portion of Mercy.  I so enjoyed meeting everyone from there and putting names and faces together.  

It was so great how quickly people started making relationships and hanging out.  I loved watching everyone make connections.  It was seriously so good for me to see the groups and everything coming together.  Our second time for both groups was this past week and we attempted to video conference.  The tech part didn't go well, but the unity already was overwhelming.  I had to run upstairs for a second during our time and when I came back down I saw two people who hadn't known each other before praying together.  And ya'll that right there.  That is what gets me so excited and pumped up for all this.  It makes the moving and leaving friends and all the change so much easier.

Merry Christmas

Random December pictures

The Summit put out an Advent reading plan that we are enjoying each day

Family Worship night had one of my sweet nursery babes up reciting part of Luke 2

Staff Christmas party had a photo booth, yes our church is that cool

I had a mantle to decorate this year,  I have to find another stocking holder so all 6 can be hung

Ben had a Christmas program at school and was awesome.  

Christmas pic outtakes

I took 154 pictures of these crazy kids.  I sorted through the 150 outtakes and narrowed them down to this.  Yes, I do mean that there were 4 decent ones that we can use for our card.  They will be revealed at a later date ;)

On an completely unrelated note (HA!) I am not meant to photograph children for my profession.

Church Plant Vision Nights

We had two nights in November where we had meetings in Raleigh and in Charlotte for people to come out and hear more about our church.  We were blown away.  The whole time I have been so so worried about it being just us, but people showed up.  It was so great having people come who are open to moving with us from the Raleigh/Durham area.  Then it was really awesome to be in Charlotte and have people so excited for us to be coming there.  We had invitations to come over for dinner, to bring out kids out to play, places to stay while we are house hunting or just exploring the area. People who said this church is a very specific answer to prayers they have been praying for months and even years.  It is just so awesome to see God already moving and preparing the way for us.  Spence and I also were able to enjoy a night away from the kiddos just the two of us for the first time in almost 14 months.   Spence wrote a little something here about the nights.  

Meeting in Durham

Meeting in Charlotte 

I get the privilege of being married to that stud 

Halloween on the same day we return from Disney?!

Well, we are the crazy people who traveled back from Disney and immediately jumped into Halloween.  I mean what a week for our kids, right?  Insanity.  The kids did a fabulous job traveling back, but when we got home it was COLD compared to that gorgeous weather we had all week.  

The boys searched through all their costumes and chose Woody and Spider-Man.  We put Haddie in Ben's old monkey costume.  Ellie trie don 3 different costumes, but in the end refused to wear any of them.  So, she went as a "An Uncooperative 2 Year Old".  We went trick or treating with some friends in the neighborhood and had so much fun.  

Back on the Magical Express

It isn't as fun of a ride when you are leaving, but we still loved it even if it was super early to get out the door and on the bus.

My sweet sleeping girl was such a champ for the entire trip.  I went on and on about how Ellie did when we took her at 7 months, but that girl had us up walking around in the middle of the night because of waking up.  Haddie on the other hand, really rolled with whatever we threw at her.  She napped when and where she could and was just so so sweet the whole time.  She charmed everyone who saw her and didn't even make a fuss at all the whole time.

yeah, no words

that boy

nothing like a chubby little monkey

Best pic I could get of Ben 

Yes, that is her beautiful Cinderella costume that she refused to wear

As many of the kiddos as I could get in the pic