We have no idea who b/c we're not particularly funny people, but J.R. LOVES to be "funny." He thinks it's funny to wear this necklace and to play games...any and all games but especially funny ones and he laughs and smiles A LOT.
We visited Dot this morning...she was sleepy but perked up after a snack :) She has some bad wounds on her legs you can kind of see :(
Our dear cousins stopped by to see us while we were visiting Dot's: Airon, Brady, Aunt Evelyn and Gail and we got an action shot on Airon, Brady and Anna Kate.
Jon and I had our 4-yr wedding anniversary on July 24th but didn't get to celebrate until last night. Jon let me get a NEW DRESS to wear for my present (I love to get new dresses for special occasions, but we just don't spend money on clothes very often at all, so it was such a treat!) and I gave him a book. We went out to an Asian Fusion & Dessert Bar restaurant called Flavor that was delicious!!! Although I was disappointed that dessert bar didn't mean dessert buffet :) Anna Kate took this picture of us...quite a little photography talent for her age, don't you think?? ;) We are so thankful for 4 wonderful years of being married to each other :) :) :)
Jon and I have been doing Bible Clubs at some apartments less than 5 minutes from our house. It has been a huge blessing to be a little part of their lives and we've enjoyed the opportunity to brush up on some of our spanish! This weekend our church did a big dinner party for their families. Jon grilled 250 hot dogs for it then transported them in a ginormous crockpot thing!
Anna Kate watching soccer...she really wanted to play.
Anna Kate walking around with a grape soda most of the time...thankfully she doesn't know how to open it so she never drank it ;)
Me and my dear friends from church, Carole and Molly, and all of our kids. I wish we'd taken another pic b/c this one caught Carole between smiles...sorry there's not a better one to post, Carole :)
Me with J.R., Evelyn and Ebelyn. See the bounce house in the background? There were a lot fun games!!
Zeta holding J.R....these kids LOVE LOVE LOVE babies and always want to hold mine...so every once in a while we will let them.We have the privilege over the next few weeks of hosting for our church a family that is missionaries to Haiti - the Valcins. We LOVE them. This is a super short AMAZING video of Gersan Valcin's ministry...
The way Anna Kate and J.R. play warms my heart beyond words because they LOVE TO PLAY TOGETHER so much!!!!!!!! You can't possibly imagine how much they laugh together.
And if one of them is napping and the other isn't (very likely scenerio) then the awake one will be BANGING DOWN THE DOOR to wake the other one up!!!
THE GOOD - Houston kills our geckos so I sleep better at night not worrying that one will come in my bed or that I'll accidentally step on one on my way to the bathroom in the middle of the night...
THE BAD - Houston is OBSESSED with our oriental rugs...see those red fibers in his claws? He won't scratch anything else, we've tried it all...do any of you cat lovers have any brilliant solutions???
THE UGLY - this is unrelated to Houston, but this is our nasty dirty carpet in the heart of our living room...it was just freshly vacuumed. We could get it cleaned, but I know the spots would reappear really quickly. We've got most of it covered with rugs, but we can't cover all of it. I'm trying to get quotes on wood floors, but we're still looking for a "reasonable" price...
Ever since Anna Kate asked me what I was doing yesterday and I told her I was filling out her paper work for her school, she's been wearing her backpack and saying, "I'm ready!!" We talked a lot about obeying the teacher and being gentle to the other kids and not hitting them and she wanted to make sure they had snacks at the school. She's SOOO excited. She hasn't been to preschool yet. I keep trying to explain what a month is, b/c it's a month until school starts.
I find it interesting that the contents of her backpack were solely toiletries...hopefully she won't be more interested in boys than learning ;)
A person in my college ministry just tagged me in this photo in Facebook as the person in the very front left...at first I was like, "Oh that's not me." But I think it is?!?!? If you have any comments about this photo, remember if you can't say something nice, then don't say anything at all ;)
I was not the brightest light on the Christmas tree to pull an all-nighter Friday night for JR's party...I feel like death-warmed-over and I have a super busy week ahead.
Pupcakes :)
Sandwiches
Dog friends on all fours :)
Story time...we read the A to Z Dog Book and acted it out :)
Happy Birthday to you!! Anna Kate blew out the candle for him ;)
Stabbing the candle in the pupcake was fun...
It's gettin messy...
It's all gone!!! He loved it!
No, there hasn't been a post about this yet b/c I don't know what to say! Jon and I (and Anna Kate...don't think J.R. understands) are really excited, but we feel like every one else might think we're a little crazy for having 3 kids in a row, so it's hard for me to know what to say. But we just really believe the Lord says children are a blessing and we're trusting He knows what's best for our family more than we do as far as planning goes. I've always wanted a big family so I'm just so thankful. This baby will probably be Audrey or James, but Jon won't sign-off on any names until we know for sure if it's a boy or girl :)
ADDENDUM: I love these addendums b/c sometimes it takes a few days for it to hit me that something could have been misunderstood. I was thinking and thought that it could sound self-righteous that I said, "we're trusting God to know what's best for our family," but I think some people could be trusting God just as much as us by trusting that they feel that they are doing the right thing for their family and honoring the Lord by thoughtfully & prayfully planning or limiting their number of children. For the record, I don't think birth control is evil (maybe unhealthy, but that's just a feeling I have so it really doesn't mean much).
Jon's youngest sister, Charissa aka Aunt Kiss, is visiting us on her way home from being a counselor at Camp Ozark. We LOVE that she's visiting us and have had so much fun b/c we don't get to see her much b/c she's so busy with the college life. She's such a sweetheart.
We got to go to dinner with Sugar, Jon's grandmother, and Aunt Kiss!
Hugs from Sugar...so special.
Anna Kate got to visit the zoo with Jon's parents this Saturday...she had a TON of fun. Gabby asked what she wanted to do when they came to town and Anna Kate said, "I want to see monkeys." So they took her to the zoo. She also wanted to see a lion, but apparently he died recently :(
Riding "horses" with Gabby.
A little apprehension about the "real" animals getting too close to her...even when separated by glass.
Anna Kate and Papa...those must be fake BABY elephants b/c they aren't very big :)Her name is Ginny Owens and her music touches my soul and she's real and I just love her more than words can express and I got to MEET her at her concert a couple of weeks ago and of course I just started BALLING when I told her I loved her and so I proceeded to apologize for being so awkward...
I can totally relate to Alex Mejias’s song, Where Hope Remains, (to listen scroll to the VERY bottom of this page and stop the playlist and click on Alex's cd cover and it's song #4) since we moved to urban America a year ago so Jon wouldn’t have a long commute to work…honestly, I’m resisting a change God is working in me. I can’t tell you how many times a day I wish I could go back to how I was before -- just living a nice little sheltered privileged life surrounded by TONS of Christian-type people who look and think just like me…doing good for others without really getting involved deeply to where I feel convicted about thinking I’m better than other people and alienated from the rest of people like me. Now I’m haunted by the millions of poor and needy people here in our own city on a daily basis b/c they live in apartments literally right around the corner from us and I’m having a hard time fighting the urge to take my family and flee to the refuge of the suburbs then contribute a few volunteer hours each month to the inner-city cause.
ADDENDUM:
So, like me, you may think...what wrong with that? Well for us, we see that it's easy to just get comfortable with the way things are (totally separate cultures) and even easier to get comfortable with it from a distance, but in reality, things aren't good and the less fortunate need churches that reach them and make sure they have a ride to get there and people that care about them when they do and a place where they feel included rather than just random para-church ministries branching out from rich white churches that have no real intention of becoming multi-racial churches. These lower income neighbors need to see the love of Jesus in their lives and a change in a cycle of poverty and hopelessness that's growing DAILY rather than shrinking and this is done better through hands-on relationships with them, than from giving them money and food and motivational speaker events. Who is the most unlikely person in the whole world to be writing this blog...I can't even believe I'm writing this!?!?
You may also think, like me, you have kids and you are responsible for keeping them safe and raising them right now, not saving the world. I couldn't agree with you more except on one point, I am not responsible for keeping them safe, the Lord is. I could keep them literally in a bubble, and it the Lord allows a bomb to drop on that bubble, I am helpless to intervene...I could bring them to the front lines of WWIII and if the Lord desires to protect us, we will be protected. Nothing happens that he does not allow. And I see myself having less regard for their safety by leaving them in a world of darkness that grows on a daily basis rather than spending my life fighting that evil darkness with the light and love of Jesus. One day, maybe many many years from now, if the darkness is left unchecked by the believers today, it will invade our safe neighborhood pockets in America and it will be too vast to be resisted and we will be in no better condition than those Christian parts of Africa being raped and pillaged...that is not what I want to leave my children and/or children's children's children. Fortunately or unfortunately, Jon’s committed to staying and making a difference and I don’t think God is giving me a way out of this one.
Unfortunately he's sick today :( But we'd still like to share some memories from is short little life.
I just took this pic, he looks sick, huh? He's sleeping right now.
One year ago today...our 1st family pic right after he was born.it's for J.R.'s 1st birthday party that we had to post-pone until next Saturday b/c he's very sick with some nasty virus bug that's been making it's rounds. We're having a puppy party that I totally blog-robbed from a friend of a friend's blog b/c I thought her party was the cutest ever.
We're super thankful to a nice employee at Home Depot named Larry who went above and beyond the call of duty to get this box for us :)
Painting in progress...both kids were in between paint, kiddie pool and sandbox in their birthday suits and it created a HUGE mess...so we ended up ending the "group" project method.
I finally finished it after the kids went to bed...never mind that the top is Paprika spray paint and the bottom is left-over Ralph Lauren red paint. Dogs don't care, right?
How will I ever get the paint up that Anna Kate contributed to our patio?
