Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Heart Hugs

Tonight our church had their 2nd Family Worship Night full of praise and music. What an amazing time! We were in a Healing class before the service so we ended up sitting at the bottom of the riser section where they brought the kids in for the service. Not only did we get to high five and give hugs but my heart was so deeply touched to hear their young voices singing out the songs especially the "My Savior, My God" song where they were singing their hearts out. It brought tears to my eyes and a massive hug to my heart.

We need to remember in our daily lives to take time and be silent to listen & absorb God in our lives. I love the times where the boys and I get to just sit and snuggle and be quite together. We share so much love in those quite times. How much more God wants to do that with us too! It does amazing things in our lives when we remember to stop, breath and in quite "snuggle" with God.

I don't know if this service is on the web yet but I highly encourage you to go listen to the services that are ... they are filled with laughter and learning.

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Guitar Blessings

Well, Malachi finally was able to purchase a guitar with the money he has been so focused on saving for one. He even did a mighty fine deal in negotiating and got it for $10 cheaper than he had planned to pay. A big thanks to Cousin Mike for finding it in Houston online for him. Now he has to save up for an amp. He's so excited. I think he would have slept with it if we would have allowed it. Now to find a way to get him lessons or find a good DVD, etc to help him learn how to play it. We're open for suggestions!

Stay tuned ... maybe one of these days we'll have a video with him playing it on here.

P.S. It's gotten Josiah motivated to play drums ... just imagine .... 37 foot 5th wheel ... guitar ... and drums? Maybe some prayers will be a great idea too! Ha! We'll treasure the moments no matter what. God is Good! All the Time!

Friday, January 16, 2009

Belated Christmas

The boys were excited to finally get to open their Christmas gifts from Corynn & Mike's family. Malachi was ecstatic to have finally gotten a much wanted skateboard backpack. Both of the boys got Webkinz toys ... Josiah a Lion he named Frizzy and Malachi a Bear he named Spike. Josiah is going to be getting a 6-month Club Penguin membership too! They were both very excited.

Friday, January 9, 2009

Project 3:45

What an amazing day! We got to start it out by doing our "Project 3:45" that our church is doing on the dock near our home. You can't beat that ... water, sunshine, family and God time. It's exciting and a wonderful feeling to have our sons begging us to read "just one more chapter." We're ahead of the plan right now because we are generally reading two (2) chapters a day even on the "open" days. We also got the added discovery of one of our neighbors leaving their two, nice-sized fish on the stringer on the dock.

Check out the Project 3:45. It's a great study plan to read the New Testament this year. The layout is online with the chapter for the day so if you can log on ... you can do it anywhere you have computer access. You can even do it from your desk at work if you have a brief bit of time or need an encouraging break. As Pastor Alan shared it's definitely better to be seen doing something motivational to encourage you thus improve your work than to be shopping or playing games. Ha! Some days take a little longer than 3 minutes and 45 seconds if the chapter is long or if you have discussion (with God or when doing it with someone else) but other days will be much shorter as some of the chapters are well ... shorter! Ha! Excuse the humor but our house seems to be full of more joy and laughter since starting this as a family.

Thursday, January 8, 2009

Fishing ... the next best thing to snuggling!

What a way to end a day! Randy finally agreed to get the fishing equipment out of the "basement" so they could go fishing. The boys have been asking to go but this mom has decided I've put in enough years of handling fish that if they aren't going to take the fish off the hook when they catch them then they can wait until their Dad or Grandpa Brown is here to fish with them. Malachi's response, "Aw Mom, we can figure that out after we catch the fish." Mom's interpretation - If I catch a fish then you can take it off for me. Definitely not falling for that one ... hopefully.

It was an uneventful night for catching fish ... figures since Randy was here. However Malachi did catch the dock across the way. We did get to meet a Al and his son, Sheldon, who come out fishing on their boat a lot. Ultimately, we got to spend time together having fun as a family. You can't ever beat that.

Conroe Skatepark


Finally! It has dried out and warmed up enough that once the boys got done with school we were able to go enjoy the Conroe Skatepark for real!

Friday, January 2, 2009

Family & Food ... Can it get any better?

Sit back and enjoy the MANY pictures!
We had an amazing time with food and family fun at Tyrel & Amber's. I'm not sure who enjoyed Owen's toys more, Owen or the kids. The boys were excited that they got to finally use Dad's Little Giant ladder. I think Ty & Amber were excited to get the rest of their Christmas decorations down. Chelsey and her girls, Brodie & Kyler, came over and played too. The boys brought their Wii and Guitar Hero to add to the mix. (Some people probably shouldn't quit their day job ... if they have one! Ha!) It's such a joy to be around and get to know Corynn, Tyrel & Chelsey's families. Major blessing! (and the foods a plus!)

Thursday, January 1, 2009

Welcome

... to the view of our yard from our new location of our home in the New Year. For whatever reason God has brought us to Lakeview Marina to reside. We sure do miss being close to Corynn, Mike, Reilly and Benny and getting to go to Living Faith Outreach but I have to admit ... living on a lake has some perks ... at least right now before it's hectic boating season!

A side note to ponder ... I had prayed that we could find an economical place somewhere between Corynn, Tyrel & Chelsey's families to live. I was thinking somewhere between Danbury & League City (10 to 20 minutes). God's response: Conroe ... we're a little over an hour from Corynn's and about an hour and 20 minutes from Tyrel & Chelsey's. God's humor once again?

May your New Year be filled with Abundance from Above!

New Year's Eve Celebration

We ended 2008 celebrating with my neice, Corynn, Mike, Maddy, Reilly, Benny, Dan & Stu at Mike & Corynn's. It was a fun evening of playing games, watching a movie, lots of laughs and fireworks at midnight. What more could you ask for?


Looking back over the past year ... WOW! pretty much sums it up. God has done so much in our lives, taken us to soooo many places and blessed our lives with adding wonderful friends. We are definitely very rich in all the ways that really matter.