It's official!!

Jonathan is a pastor which makes me a pastor's wife?!?!? And my kids PK's?!?!? Yep, you read that right, Jonathan is planting and pastoring Lakeside Community Church. Now, let me back up and do some explaining.

We have been part of Pillar Church, a church plant, since it began over 3 years ago. We committed for a year and even after moving 45 minutes away, have yet to leave. Pillar is family and after having such a difficult time finding a church to begin with, we decided it was worth the drive. Clint, our pastor, and his family have been a great influences in all of our lives. One day, he told Jonathan he thought he should plant a church out here where we leave. We did not believe he was serious. Us, planting a church?? You guys who know us are probably asking yourselves the same thing and 3 years ago our answer would have been completely different. However, we began to pray about it and Jonathan felt like God was definitely calling him to plant a church in our Locust Grove area.

So, in November, we began meeting with 2 other couples, the Clifton's, and our family for a Bible study and church planting. We had many decisions to make including a church name, our church purpose, etc. We also decided to hold a banquet to share the vision of our church. This was an overwhelming task, but to God, it was nothing. All of our hard work paid off, and Saturday night, January 26, we held the Lakeside Community Church Vision Banquet. We had close to 100 people in attendance including area pastors, Pillar members, Stafford Baptist people, community people, as well as many others. We believed it would be ok, but it turned out way better than we could have imagined. God had more plans for the banquet then we knew!! It was beautiful inside and we had a great praise band from Soul Purpose, one of our sponsor churches. We also had a wonderful friend, Amanda Long, write a song particular to all of us that she played piano for and sang. It was amazing and that is not even a good description!! Thank you, Amanda!

Currently, Lakeside meets on Sunday evenings in a local elementary school. Our official launch will be in September, but we have plenty to do in the meantime. We have many outreaches planned to reach our neighbors in the area. Please pray with us as we begin to see God's plans for Lakeside.

So, that means, that yep, I am now a pastors wife which MANY people keep pointing out to me. Are you guys trying to tell me something???

Hellllloo!!!

It has been awhile since we have posted. Life has been very full around here and looks to stay that way for awhile. The kids are all doing great just very tired from our busy lives. Friday, after arriving home from school, the boys promptly laid out on the couches wrapped in blankets, watched movies, and stayed that way until we made them eat. They would not even get up to talk on the phone. It was funny, but sad that they were so tired. After eating, they went back to their cozy spots and chilled. Needless to say, they were to put to bed early.

Saturday, they were much better and played for awhile. Aunt Wendy and Uncle Matt came over to keep them while Jonathan and I headed to a banquet. Many members of Jonathan's family also came up to attend the banquet so they stopped by to drop off Cara and a quick hello. The kids had lots of fun playing games and hanging out. It was a nice relaxing evening for the kids (not sure about the aunt and uncle:)

Sunday morning, we dropped Jon off at church and met the family for breakfast at McDonald's before we all attended church together. After church, we all ate lunch together, then they headed back to NC and we headed home to get ready for Lakeside Church (this will be another post). We got home and put the kids to bed and it wasn't much after that, we headed to bed too. The kids were not the only ones who were tired.

Jonathan and I are both taking online classes right now. He is enrolled at Liberty University and has a full load. I am taking a class through PBS to renew my teaching license. My class is 6 weeks and quite demanding. I have not taken a college class since graduating in 1996! WOW, is all I have to say. I also have to respect Jon a little more for all the classes he has taken and continues to take.

While we are all tired, Chloe on the other hand seems to never be tired. She is a bundle of constant energy and joy. We put her to bed each night around 7:30 and usually at 9:00, she is still back there talking and singing to herself. Some nights, she even gets in the floor in the dark and plays, but she does not come out of her room. She is rotten!! It is amazing to realize she has been home with us for 9 months!!

Anyway, with all that said, we are very busy, but we'd be bored if we had nothing to do:)) Jon's mom is always surprised to find us at home when she calls since it happens so rarely that we are.

Thought I'd share

I saw this blog on another blog I read. This is a family trying to raise money for an adoption of a little girl from China who is a special needs child. Everything has happened pretty quickly and they are in need of funds quickly. This mom makes adorable dresses (as well as other things) for a pretty decent price. Check out the site here http://www.redthreadstitches.blogspot.com/ I hope you find something you like (I sure did:)) BTW, you can buy matching dresses for your little girl as well as your American doll baby (Chloe received one of these at Christmas).

Totally Addicted!!

Ok, so yes, I am definetely loving this digital scrapbooking!! Hope you all enjoy looking at my creations because I sure like sharing them. Anyway, here it is. . .

My first digital scrap!!!

You can click on the picture to make it bigger.


So, I like the idea of scrapbooking and began really well, but. . . it goes a little slow. So, I read up on digital scrapbooking. I like the idea I can sit and do it at my computer without having to gather up all the supplies needed (especially since our space is so limited) and that I can change it around. There are still things I need to work out, but I kinda like this:)) Hope you do, too!

Christmas Round 3

And finally, there was Christmas Round 3. This past Friday, Jonathan's parents, Danny, Carol, and Cara arrived. We are not quite sure how there was room in the car for them with all the presents.

The kids enjoyed all the presents, but most importantly, they enjoyed the company! Again, we ate and ate and ate some more. It's amazing we were able to move on Sunday. The kids had lots of fun playing together and the adults enjoyed conversation (minus the men who went on a 3 hour shopping trip)!!

Christmas -- Round 1 and 2

Christmas Round 1 was quite a surprise. My mom left bags full of stuff for the kids. They were very excited with their new things. They enjoyed the puzzles and games that rainy afternoon while Chloe enjoyed her beautiful, new Bitty Baby. Both have matching dresses! Later in the week, they all enjoyed shopping for new clothes, shoes, and coats with the money she included. To be boys, they are quite selective in choosing clothes and like the preppy look. Thanks, Nama!

Then there was Christmas round 2. My dad aka Papa arrived Friday to celebrate Christmas with us. Little did he kow how exciting it would be. (I ended up in the ER with gall stones.) After that excitement, things died down and the normal fun was had. Dad, the kids, and I went shopping Christmas Eve and I am now the proud owner of a new Canon EOS Digital Rebel XTi 10.1 MP Digital SLR Camera!! I am enjoying this quite a bit. We attended Stafford Baptist for Christams Eve service. We have done this for the past several years. After this, we ate dinner at TGIFriday's--yea, I had a hard time with this being Christmas Eve dinner, but, you gotta do what you gotta do. From there, you can see the festives in pictures above. The kids had a great Christmas and were very excited about their gifts. We spent the day playing games, chiling in jammies, and eating!! What better way to spend Christmas day:))

Pictures and tidbits!

The boys enjoying apple cider after decorating their trees.

They also had ccokies they helped make during tree decorating.

This is not a great picture, but. . . Cody received 2 perfect scores on his SOL's last year. They have a small program for all those who score at least one perfect score. It is a very hard feat and we are extremely proud of him!! Way to go, Cody.

Keegan is making a project at school for Christmas. As you can see he is quite intent on working. It turned out to be a cute little wreath. Great job, Keegan.

We have in the past bought 3 trees--one for each boy. This year, we bought 2 and they paired up. Since living here in Spotsy, we visit Belmont Tree Farm to cut our trees down. It is a nice experience and the kids look forward to it each year. They each spent time decorating their trees (Cody did his alone as Chloe had other ideas of what to do.) Chloe entertained herself with the countdown to Christmas house. Jonathan and the kids pose in front of the lake at the tree farm.

Our church, Pillar, attended the sleigh ride event in Dumfries. It was not at all what we expected, but the kids had fun. It was EXTREMELY cold!! All the kids had a pony ride except for Chloe who screamed when we tried to put her on the pony. They were able to feed the animals and play on the different things.

Christmas video starring the kids

This is really cute of the kiddos!! Click below and check it out!! Let us know what you think:)
Be patient, it does take a minute to load, but it is well worth it!

http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1318218565

Thanksgiving 2007

We celebrated Thansgiving several times this year. We ate turkey at the beginning of November with my sister and Matt. Then, we spent the actual day of Thanksgiving with friends. The Friday afterwards, we began our Thanksgiving tour of food!! We ate the ever famous shrimp at my dad's Friday night. My brother, Marvin, was actually there. This is the first time we have seem him in over a year. He met Chloe for the first time and she fell for him quickly. We had loads of fun hanging out with him and daddy.

The next morning we traveled to Kinston to Nana Jo and Granddaddy's house. All the family (minus Cindy and crew who we missed very much) gathered around. It is lots of fun to see everyone and it always gets a bit loud. All the kids and men had a wonderful game of football. I don't know about the others, but Jonathan was very sore. Is there an age limit for this tradition??? We ate and ate and ate and talked and ate and . . . do you see a pattern here? That evening we headed home and besides Jonathan, all of us were out by 7:00. We were very tired.

I took lots of pictures and I hope you enjoy the slide show.

Photo shoot

Our wonderful friend, Jennifer Clifton, has recently begun photo shoots. She has a great eye for seeing things in her camera and enjoys taking pictures. Last week, Chloe had her first photo shoot. We were not really sure how well she would do since we had a busy day and she had a late nap, but as you can see, she's a natural. Next project: ALL 4 kiddos:))) Wish us good luck!!

Happy Thanksgiving!!

We hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving today. Our family and several church families gathered today at the Clifton's house to celebrate together. There was tons of food, football, and fun!! The kids played a very rough football game that they enjoyed while we all watched in fear of who was going to get hurt. Thank goodness nobody did. Then, everyone headed inside to watch football on TV (and eat some more). The kids also enjoed making Indian necklaces that they wore with pride. Before the day ended, we again stuffed ourselves and all seemed ready for bed. We had a great time hanging out with everyone.

When we returned home, the boys made turkey cookies. They iced the cookies and used different candies to create with. Jonathan even joined in on the fun and made a different looking turkey. Chloe fell asleep on the way home and never even woke when we put her to bed so she missed out on the fun.

Tomorrow, we head to NC to papa's house for some shrimp. We look forward to this meal all year. Saturday morning, we will head to Nana Jo and Granddaddy's house for more food. It seems to be a trend that we celebrate all events for several days. This seems to be a good thing for all of us and you won't hear us complaining.

Catching up

Life has been busy as usual:) We are all working hard both at our jobs and at school. Cody made the Honor Roll for this 9 weeks and has enjoyed learning all about Albert Einstein. Keegan is having a wonderful year. He is doing much better in school and earned a white ribbon for AR this week. Kale has taken off in reading and reads without being told. We are very proud of all 3 boys and their excitement about school. Chloe continues to do well with Mrs. Bonnie. She repeats pretty much everything anyone says and completely understands everything we say. Chloe seems to have been with us forever and has so many characteristics of us all that without looking at her, you'd think I actually gave birth to her:)

Chloe really likes her new hat!

Family picture at the telescope place. Can you see the snow at our feet?

Posing in the caves with our hard hats.

Group shot after leaving the caves.

Last weekend, we headed to West Virginia with the Pelts. This was the second time around and just as much fun. We had both added an extra child to our families so again we had to rent a ride and we also stayed in 2 cabins this time. The Pelts has warned us several times that Jillian is a bad rider. Well, let's just say--NOT!!! She did great and hardly made a peep so I am not sure what they were talking about. We visited a telescope station and then went to some caverns. The boys really enjoyed exploring the caves and looking at bats. We had a wonderful time in West Virginia and hanging out with friends. Ready for next year????

Apple Orchard PIctures

Here are the pictures from our trip to pick apples. I blogged it back for September, but never added pictures and I realized there were some really cute ones, so here they are:))

Mountain trip with grandparents

The last weekend in October, Jonathan's parents came for a visit. We decided to head to the mountains to see all the beauty and have some fun. We were not sure how it would go since it had rain so much for the few days before, but it turned out to be a beautiful day! We went to to Sky Meadows first since they had some events going on. When we first arrived, the events were not happening so we went hiking. Of course, we picked the shortest hike which all so happened to be pretty much straight up. We all made it to different points up each seeing a breath taking view. When we made it back down, we went to the old kitchen to see some different items being made with apples. The boys really enjoyed this and Chloe just enjoyed eating some apples. There was also an old sort of barn and they were able to climb up and see into the loft. Next, we headed to Skyline Drive to see all the leaves and views. As you can see from the pictures, it was gorgeous. It was fun to stop and see the different views. We had a wonderful time and were all very tired by the time we arrived home.

Just a side note. . .For some reason I had blogged awhile back about a trip to Maryland and not published it. I realized it tonight and published.