Fun times

Our children bring such fun times to our lives!

These are photos of Ava and Emmaline having fun with Tanya Crevier, an expert ball handler and sports evangelist. Our church brought Tanya in to minister to our schools and community and her enthusiasm and passion for Jesus was contagious and her skills were like none I've ever seen.

70's party, Ava at Ballet & Samuel is awake!

We attended the 2nd Annual youth group 70's party and had a blast! Matt showed all the youth that he knew how to have fun too as he literally tore up the dance floor in his 70's athletic gear (i think his pants were size youth small)! And yes, those are elbow pads, and sweat bands...and a fro!!

This photo of Ava is in the locker room at the ballet studio where she is taking lessons once a week. Her teacher is a woman from our church and she is incredible! When you walk into the studio, there is a gorgeous painting of a ballerina and at the bottom of the painting this scripture, "Let us praise His name with dancing" from Psalms. And that is what they do. The entire lesson, she has them dancing to praise and worship music. Ava absolutely loves it. Matt picked her up for the first time yesterday and got to watch her dance for a little bit, and as a proud dad said "she was made for this."

Samuel is awake more! We get to see his big, blue eyes and great big smile. And, what a joy it is! Anytime he is awake or making a smile or funny face, everyone in the family runs to see.

Emmaline's pigtails and sweet Samuel

Emmaline finally has enough hair for pigtails and they are super cute! You can't see them very well in this photo, but I thought this was a precious smile that would make your day! Emmaline has us laughing constantly. She has blossomed so much in the last few months so we are learning more about her and enjoying her so very much. Samuel is growing so good and sleeping well. He has learned to sleep in the middle of the living room all day, with chaos all around! Toward the end of the day, he hangs out in my sling while I cook dinner. He loves being in the sling and I had him in it so much yesterday that I am actually sore today. Our week mostly consists of staying home during the day with occasional walks and tons of playing outside. We go to the discovery center (children's museum) once a week and usually have people in and out of the house at night time for meals or just hanging out. Last week I finally started working with Ava on reading. She keeps asking me to teach her, so I started with a teaching tool that was recommended by Janet and my good friend Raeline.

The Lord is on the move here! We are experiencing Him at work all around us...in our church, in the youth, in our new friends and their families and in our family! Matt will be preaching this Sunday in church, so please pray for him. He asks for our prayers in knowing how to present what God has told him to share. The Lord has laid it heavily on his heart to challenge the church to get themselves and their families ready....ready to stand before the Lord, ready for the coming of Jesus. Thank you for praying.

Hopefully there won't be a time lapse of two weeks between my blogs like this one and my last one! I thought some of you might be interested in some recent photos of Samuel, so I wanted to give you some. Maybe in my next blog I can post some photos of our house as some of you have requested.

We just recently took a trip to Atlanta for a leadership conference along with the pastors and wives and some leaders from our church. We took Samuel with us while the girls stayed with DeeDee, Big Daddy, Papa and Grammy. We were homesick for the girls as I think they were for us and home and some normalcy in their lives. So, now we are trying to establish some sort of routine in our lives and we are now in full swing with the church, youth ministry and college/young adult ministry. Matt loves his job, we are crazy about our church family, and we already have some close friends. This doesn't mean that we don't miss all of you back home. We miss you and think of you all of the time. And, we want you to come visit!

When we first moved here, Ava said that she wanted to play with a friend and I told her that Emmaline was her friend to play with. Ava insisted that Em was not her friend, only her sister. Just the other day, Ava told me that Emmaline is her sister and BEST friend! I am so thankful for how this move has brought about a new friendship between them.
I thought you might want to see a pumpkin patch on the beach--quite a funny site! Sorry for no photos of Samuel. He was snoozing in the car seat. I will send photos of him asap!

I finally did it! I set up our family blog after many months that I've been talking about it. Now that we are far away from family and so many friends, I have an even greater desire to stay connected. So, hopefully you who take a look at this every now and then will know that this is just as much for you as it is for us! We love you and miss you.