"Hot now" and this and that

Some friends of ours moved away a few months ago to Oklahoma and are in town for the week visiting, so we spent some time with them on Sunday and today.   Their kids are getting so big! 3 boys all under the age of 3 and their fourth on the way! That is one busy momma! Great to hear about their marriage ministry and we are not surprised at how quickly they have plugged into a church. We hung out at Chick-Fil-A and then walked over to the Krispy Kreme because the  "Hot Now" sign was on.

The kids were very entertained, I'm thinking I might go back very soon with a book and let Olivia have a good ole time watching the donuts roll down the belt.

ahh hot doughnuts! ohh wait...you see the trash can?  Can you believe they just rolled into the can if no one could get them off the belt quick enough.

Chocolate ice cream, Olivia's a happy girl

here is the energizer bunny (that's the little guy, jonathan) He liked getting his picture taken so he would stop just long enough for the flash. As for David, he is going to make one great dad one day.

I could just squeeze him, ohh wait I did when I took a turn of chasing him down.  He is wide open and it's fun to watch but man ohh man he keeps Kristal busy!

Well I'm glad that Grace made the suggestion for doughnuts but I can't believe I held out at Chick-Fil-A, with a healthy selection and caved in at Krispy Kreme with a big ole ice cream Sunday. Ohh well!

ohh happy days for Laura,  a restless night but a doughnut could always make you smile.  Sarah is thrilled not to have lunch in a smokey kitchen today. PB& J is on the menu at the Ellis house tonight!

all settled in for a few minutes. I'm thinking Kristal needs to rest when she has all the boys in one spot for a few minutes!

way to cute, Rebekah enjoyed the doughnuts and couldn't resist a little one offering her more.

Beautiful Amber, some of our crew in pj's (*wink*)  and Amber is all put together with 2 kids in tow.

On another note, this week has been very odd as we drive up to the house and see a  for sale sign in our front yard. A relief that the house is on the market and for the most part the home projects have ended, however I do get a little sad as I think of all our memories.  I am confident the Lord placed us in this special neighborhood.  I met one of my best friends that I will have for life, there is typically not a day that goes by that we find ourselves visiting with one another or chatting on the phone.  The kids are all doing very well and they have had a number of people praying for them as the sign was to be put up.

We did get a call today from the central office for a showing on Friday.  We will keep you posted on the showings.

Here is my sweet pea  and "little man" picking flowers one minute and picking up sticks pretending they are guns the next.

The boys went straight to the court after coming in from school.  Red faced and sweaty they had a pretty intense game going today.

It appears they make up rules as they go and they really do need a referee from time to time but for the most part they work things out and did a great job today with getting along.

THE Rock

We spent Friday morning at the park enjoying the warm weather and sweet friendship.  As we were leaving one of the kids said get on the rock, THE rock!  I just couldn't help to think and say "yes, girl get on the rock, and stay on the rock"!  I thought of the Matthew 7:24 where Jesus says, "Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock." It was a quick reminder to pray for those girls to grow in the Lord and to pray that He would guide me in pointing Olivia's little heart to Him. It took intentional effort to climb and to remain on the rock.  It takes intentional effort to live a life striving for righteousness when our culture saturates us with focusing on "my" needs and encourages us to be self absorbed which only leads to discontentment.  As they all stood on the rock and leaned on one another they didn't sway from side to side but it was much easier to stay planted.  Lord, I pray those young ladies will continue to have sweet friends that stand firm and if they don't they would always know that you alone are worthy.  I pray their foundations are firm, on THE solid rock.

We're still here....for now!

Yep, thats been my life for the past few weeks.

We are almost done with all of the repairs, improvements and upgrades to the house.  We should have it officially on the market by the end of the week.

So hang in there, I'm sure there will be more posts coming soon as we enter another phase in the process.

Logan's Sports Birthday Party

Today our living room turned into a locker room as we celebrated Logan's 7th Birthday.  We had 12 boys attend the party, we held a Wii bowling tournament, football toss, basketball shooting contest, hockey slapshot competition and pin the football on the field goal.  

Billy kept the boys busy!

Billy and I worked together on this cake...(he did a pretty good stinkin job on painting the logo!)

cheese!

hockey puck contest

football toss contest

Pizza and cake

okay the blind fold didn't work, so a bag did the trick

taking turns for the basketball shooting contest

wii bowing tournament

I love my help in the kitchen when baking 

All dressed up for the p a r t y!

Breanna was a huge help with the party, she ran the bowling tournament

and helped serve the pizza and cake.

We also took Logan out Monday night to the Ale House for his new favorite dessert.

Dessert Nachos! Yummy!

Many ways to get a tooth out but like this.....only Logan!

Logan has had his first wiggly tooth for several days and he was about to drive us bonkers with his endless questions of how his tooth would fall out. He would not allow us to help however, on his own he wraps a string around his tooth and ties it to his remote control car. Yep, that is how he pulled his fist tooth out!

Chipping Away

The other morning after our ice storm I looked out the window and Maddy was fiercely chipping away at the ice on "Gammy Sue's" driveway (our neighbor) . She ran in our house briefly to get some dry gloves and said she is taking care of "Grammy Sue". I tried to take a picture of her working from inside our warm house but I was too far away so I walked over to get a closer shot.  It had been over an hour of her working on the driveway while friends sled past her down the hill. Maddy's cheeks were rosy and she had taken off her gloves and coat because she was sweating from working so hard. She said it was hard to shovel the ice but she kept telling herself  "don't stop when it gets hard".  She gripped the shovel tighter and focused on the work ahead. I wasn't dressed to shovel or scrape the ice but my heart was not going to let me walk away without helping.  Maddy was growing weary at the task ahead and was discouraged by the seemingly little progress she had made. When we started working together she said "this is still hard but it is much easier with help and not being alone"  The learning lessons engulfed my thoughts.

So many times our burdens, the circumstances that we are in cause us to grow weary. For myself, the previous few days had been tough fighting the weariness of the process we are in with the church plant.  I received a phone call from a faithful friend  (we are blessed with several faithful friends) on the day that I was just utterly overwhelmed with all that needed to be done. Just like when I decided to get closer to take a picture of Maddy and ended up picking up a shovel, the person calling wasn't calling to carry a burden but she was available when she sensed the need at that moment.  It was a relief to share my heart and to know that she wasn't observing from a distance or just whizzing by like Maddy's friends on the sled. She stopped, sacrificed her time, and helped carry the burden. Its not always about having help in the circumstance as much as it is having someone there beside you to help carry the burden. That encouraging phone call helped me pick up the pace and to draw not on my own strength but the Lords to help me endure when it is difficult.  By drawing on the strength of the Lord it provided a peace and joy in the journey and reminded me to keep focused on the truth, and what God is calling us to do.
Maddy finished the driveway with some help and she looked back and said "I am so glad you helped, it would have taken me all day to by myself." The Lord can get us through any circumstance that we face with or without people that come along to carry the burden. Sometimes the blessing comes to those who decide to help with the burden more than the person they are helping.  Maddy could have finished the driveway alone and I have no doubt she would have, however I had the privilege of working along side her and enjoying the task even though I didn't set out to do it, she did.
Chipping away at the ice that day did more than help "Grammy Sue" it provided opportunity for me to see the blessing that others are when they come along side us to help shoulder the load and chip away at difficulties in our own lives.  God is faithful in every situation and circumstance and He knows when we need an extra shovel to help get through the ice.

snow and "wild at heart"

The kids played outside for days in all the snow.  Months ago when we started talking about moving to PA to start a church, I laughed and said God is going to have to make my blood thicker if we are moving north. Crazy enough, we enjoyed every minute of the snow and we are looking forward to our next snowstorm. I'm not saying my blood is thicker just yet but my perspective of enjoying the season has certainly been changed.

 

This picture was taken several days after the initial snow fall. The kids asked to go sledding at the park and I knew that all the snow was going to be melted with the 60 degree forecast so we headed out with coffee in  hand and chocolate covered coffee beans in my pocket for the last day of sledding.  It did take a lot to resist my adventurous spirit with not going down the hill with the kids.  (not enough time has passed from having a head injury just yet)

Olivia was a "hoot" sledding. She didn't want anyone to touch or help her on the sled.  She was getting a little too adventurous when she started doing "tricks" on her sled.  A gentleman at the park said that he would be on the lookout for Olivia in winter Olympics. 

 Logan had a "play date" that afternoon .....well that sounds kind of strange when you see who is in the pictures but really, Logan asked if Marcus would come over and shoot the BB gun. Marcus works with Billy and Logan thinks he is a pretty cool dude after he came over and smashed pumpkins a couple months ago.  

pure laughter, fun!!

They did this for about 2-3 hours. They only stopped because it started to get dark. 

very cool with the shades (mom thinks eyes are important so no more shooting without glasses.)