Moving Again!!

So, we are moving back to Houston.

We moved up to Longview, TX in August for Ryan to take a job at a church.  The job did not quite fit the job description and Ryan quickly became frustrated (especially since he left his previous job for similar frustrations).  So, back to Houston we come.

This move has not all been in vain however....

•  We have both learned to be more confident in our faith. 
•  I have developed skills in mentoring people.  
•  I have mastered cooking in a crock pot.
• Ryan has learned that he needs a job outside of the church
• Ryan has developed his skills in personal training
• Malia has been potty trained
• Andrew has developed a love for school
• Kai got a new bible from our church and Ryan and him have been reading it nightly
• We all learned the art of neighboring and living in community
• We have all learned that we need to be more intentional about spending time with extended family

We hope to carry all of this back to Houston with us.  

We have loved our time in Longview, and we have loved living here missionally.  We cherish the friendships we have made and hope to keep those connections.

But Houston is calling us... we miss our family and friends, we miss our missional community and our Oikos group, we miss HEB, we miss Awanas on Wednesday night, and we miss Freebirds and Taco Cabana.....along with many other things.

See you all soon.

Princess Malia

My little girl turned three today.

We had a princess party.  

I think I had too much fun decorating for such a girlie event.  There was purple and pink everywhere!!

6 little princesses attended the party.  

It was so cute seeing them dressed up and playing all together.

We played with princesses

We turned frogs into Princes.

               

 We played with more princesses.

We gave out lots of true love's kisses (only to our daddies, of course.)

Then, we ate a lunch fit for a princess, followed, of course, by cupcakes.

After lunch, we opened presents.

And then we played a little more.

It was simple and fun... Just like Malia.  

Happy Birthday Baby Girl!!

Andrew's B-Day

We celebrated Andrew's 5th birthday this weekend at a park by our house.

We had lots of friends and family there.  Sydney, the little girl above, is Andrew's best friend in his preschool class.  

We had a coloring table.

We had a menu of Andrew's favorites (Chettos, chips and salsa, and bagel bites)

His cake was a lemon bundt cake-- because he does not like icing.

Andrew got lots of cool toys.  

The hot gift this year was anything Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

We attempted to play a few games.  They were hilarious.  The first one was the classic sit on a balloon to make it pop relay race.

But none of the kids weighed enough...

So we ended up having to help.... here is Andrew and Uncle Doug helping Sarah pop her balloon.

Then we moved onto the pinata... another failure.

None of the kids could hit it hard enough.

After about three rounds we finally gave up and just tore it opened.

The kids were excited anyways.

There were lots of laughs and plenty of fun.  

Happy Birthday Baby Boy!!!!

Swing Set

My kids have some great grandparents.

They tore down our swing set at our old house., restained it, fixed the awning, delivered it to our new house, and helped set it up again.

My kids were super excited.

Malia said she was going to swing EVERY day!!

Our backyard is fun again.

Thanks Mimi and Pawpaw!!!

Halloween.... a few days late

 I did really bad at Halloween pictures this year.... so for memories sake.... Kai was the bad guy from Scream, Andrew was Spider-man by day and a ninja by night(he thought he needed a costume change), and Malia was the prettiest Snow White ever.

Malia got to Trick or Treat all day long.  She had a costume parade at her school, then attended an after school program party with her brothers that I  helped out with, and then we all went around the neighborhood with some friends.  

It was a long day and the kids all fell asleep in their costumes.

Happy Halloween 

Premature Hair loss

Every child does it at one point or another... the dreaded cutting of their own hair!!

Andrew did it because his hair was itching his ears.  Funny how he did not cut the hair around his ears....

 The picture above is especially funny to me because at this point he realized what he had done and what was going to happen next and he thought his hair would never grow back and he would be bald like Pawpaw!

He cried all through the shaving of his head.

But he was back to his old self the next day.  I asked him if anyone at school asked him about his head, and he said "yes, but I just told my friends a chainsaw cut it off"....That sounds about right for Andrew.

1st World Missionaries- update

We have now lived in Longview, TX for three months.  We have been praying, seeking, and watching for opportunities for God to open our eyes to what we are suppose to do here.

In that time, I have started a bible study with two other mothers.  We are studying the TK Primer, which sets out to teach people how to live in community with one another.  It is unfortunate that this has to be taught, but I am starting to see the positive effects of our lessons.  My neighbor and I recently hosted a block party, which six families on our street attended.



We had a great evening, sharing stories, making s'mores around the fire, and trading recipes on food items brought.

Many of the people knew each other faces or maybe even the neighbor name, but knew little else about the person.  After this evening we are all a little bit closer to one another and that is what God wants from his children.  We need to be involved with the people living around us.  We need to build relationships with them, so that we can serve them and teach them how to serve others.

Take your kids to play in the front yard today, prayer walk your neighborhood, or have a family over to your house for dinner.  Build up the saints living around you with your prayers, presence, gifts, and services.  In short, be the church everyday to all you come in contact with.