Wyoming trip & fun stuff!!

We had an AMAZING trip to Wyoming & Western Nebraska.  Such an encouraging time to meet with friends & former youth group students & some parents.  I don't think there is anything more encouraging than to see former students who are all grown up & still living faithfully for Jesus!!!!! I'm so thankful we had a part in their lives & now we get to partner again with them in ministry!  The trip was also very fruitful for our fundraising efforts. God is truly blessing us!!!! ALL PRAISE TO HIM!!!

The boys traveled so well!!! Poor Lincoln did get cars sick on the first day of travel.  This has never happened before!  It was so ridiculously windy!!! This made travel very....swervy!!  Poor little guy!  But he slept it all off once we arrived at our friends house!  YAY!!!!  But other than that, they traveled great...I think we logged about 1700 miles by the time we got home!  I'm so thankful that they did so well!!!

We returned home to very warm weather & this pregnant girl was a little grumpy thinking the Northwest Kansas had decided to skip spring all together & jump straight to summer :( But no worries...our AC works just fine!  Ha ha!!!!  So yesterday, Mike was watering the lawn & the boys discovered the sprinkler!  THEY HAD SO MUCH FUN!!!  We grilled steaks & then later toasted marshmallows over the grill!!!  I love these boys so much & I'm so blessed to have them!

SPIDER - MAN!!!

Earlier today, I was downstairs printing some pages that I needed, when all of a sudden, I heard what sounded like about 8 boys jumping around the living room!  Well, when I came upstairs, Lincoln very excitedly said, "mama, look at what I got!"  I said, "let me see."  He showed me a dead spider!  I asked him where he found it and he told me it was walking across the floor right over there!  I said what did you do?  He told me that he jumped on it like this!!!!! ((jumping up & down...sounding again like the 8 boys)) Made me giggle!  So I sent him to flush it down the toilet! Then I proceeded to boost his male ego & tell him that killing a spider was a super tough manly thing to do & that he was a hero to girls everywhere!

Then when Mike came home for lunch, we got to tell him the exciting story all over again!  I LOVE LIVING WITH THESE BOYS!!!!!!

A little catch up....

Two weeks ago today, we got our first support letters all printed & folded. Then I had a team of jr/high school girls & their mom graciously offer to help me stuff all the envelopes & put the labels on.  I wish I had taken pictures of this fun time, but I didn't!  Next time I will remember!!!  Then on Monday, I finished up sealing them & stamping them & got them in the mail!  So exciting to mail out over 450 letters about our exciting ministry!  And so far, only 1 has returned to me due to a wrong address!!  So, not too bad so far!  I have been waiting & cringing in fear that everytime I open the mail box that it could be full of blue envelopes with wrong addresses....so I am very thankful!

But, in more exciting news, we have officially received 2 pledge cards returned!!!! YAY JESUS!!! We have had several verbal commitments also.

On Saturday we will leave & head for Wyoming.  Mike will be preaching at First Christian Church in Wheatland, Wy (church we served with before moving to Norton the first time).  Then we will make our way around the state visiting some of my family & lots of friends & former youth group students.  This will be a very exciting trip for us.  Please pray for the boys as we travel...it will be lots of van time for them!

Please keep praying for us as we look for a house, & continue our support raising!  We are having so much fun!!!

Late post...really late!

Ok, so for those of you who only keep up with me on this blog...I apologize!  What I am about to tell you has been public for about 2 months now, but a friend recently reminded me that I needed to blog about this!

Yep, that's right!!! BABY SANDER #3 will be joining us mid-October...we are ELATED!!! This is such an exciting time, for us!  So much going on already & this is the best, most exciting news!  The boys are excited also!  Lincoln keeps changing his mind about whether this baby is a boy or a girl...who knows!  We like the anticipation of waiting until the moment he/she arrives, so you will all have to wait as well!  In the mean time...I am now 16 weeks & finally starting to feel my energy that has escaped me for some time now.  I still get tired, but not all the time exhausted.  I can't complain though...all of my babies so far have been very gracious to me.  Only giving me slight nausea (except Justice...I did get sick once) and fatigue...but that beats the alternative...I'm sorry friends who had/have terrible sickness.

More later....

Justice is 2 (almost)!!!

My "baby" turns 2 tomorrow, and yes I am sitting here being sentimental. Oh how the time flies!  I adore this little boy.  He is such a true "redhead." He is a ball of fire, so much fun, temper, loves to giggle, & just enjoys life.  Someone once told me they just laugh at him, because he has 2 emotions....1) Happy/laughing 2) Angry.  Pretty true....he is one extreme or the other. I find myself worrying that something is wrong if he is somewhere in between the extremes. LOL He is the sweetest, orneriest guy I have EVER been around (or heard of for that matter). He constantly makes me laugh, sometimes makes me want to scream, but mostly just laugh!  I am so completely in love with him its insane!  He melts my heart 1000 times a day!  If he hasn't melted your heart yet, you need to come spend more time with us!  He is an amazing little person!

So.....that means, busy week for me!  Wednesday, we will do our typical trip to the donut shop to kick off the birthday celebration. Then the next few days will be spent cleaning & baking cakes!  I am going to attempt a full body Elmo cake (fingers crossed).  Mike has a cute idea (in his head, you'd think he would find me a picture), so hopefully it will work!  Also I will be making Elmo face cupcakes.  I LOVE BIRTHDAYS!!! So anyway, I should probably get busy doing something other than blogging!  Hopefully I will get pictures up on Saturday night.....or Sunday afternoon!

A little over a month ago, we announced that we would be resigning from the church & working at the Rock Christian Youth Center full time.  The thing is, the Rock doesn't have the budget to supply a salary for us.  So, we will be raising support for our family.  I'm so excited/scared for this opportunity!  

Yesterday, we took some family photos (thanks, Rachelle!).  We needed some current pics for our letterhead, prayer card etc.  We had a great time!  Pictures with a 3 & almost 2 years old is challenging & fun at the same time!  But we did happen to get a few shots that are PERFECT for what we needed.  We Mike chose the above picture for our prayer card, because it is so us!  This is like a fun evening at home playing with the boys.  Me- laughing, Lincoln- showing off, Justice- preoccupied, & Mike just loving us all!!!  So....with all that said I have a few prayer needs to share with you!

• Next week, Mike & I will be going to a conference to learn about raising support for our ministry.  I'm sure the learning curve is going to be well above my head, so please pray that I will be able to soak it all in, or at the very least take good notes that I can spend time mulling through later! 

• My mom & sister are traveling here to stay with our boys while we are gone!  Please pray for safe travel & good weather for their travel!

• Currently I have the responsibility to input names & addresses into our database system for mailings.  Please pray for me as I do this.  We  have a list of names of friends & family, and sometimes I wanna make the choice whether or not they will support us.  I try to over think their financial situation. Mostly, I don't want to send to people that I feel we would be a burden to.  I'm currently trying to work through these feelings & let God be in control.  Knowing that prayer support is a greater need than financial support.  Also, pray for those who will be receiving our mailing.  Pray that God would lead them in their commitment to be involved in the ministry at the Rock.

• My biggest concern right now is a house for us to live in.  Currently, we live in the church parsonage....so, we need to be finding something else.  I HAVE HUGE FEARS ABOUT THIS!!! We have  "our idea" of where/what type of house we would like to live in, but sometimes I feel like we are dreaming too big or asking for too much.  So I try to look for houses for sale/rent etc & I always find reasons why I don't wanna live there.  So on one hand I'm dreaming too big, on the other I just want a place to live, but I'm being too picky.  For example, I was driving to the store the other day, see houses for sale & the thoughts that race through my head are....it's on a busy street, there's not back yard for the boys, or its too small, it's so tiny, its too expensive etc.  One day while having these thoughts, I stopped & prayed.  I shared all of this with Jesus & I asked him to provide the house that he wants for us.  But the human side of me wants to just figure it out. Please pray for patience & wisdom. It is so hard to wait & to trust God!  

Well, thanks for reading & praying for us!  Love you all! 

Best moment of the day! (and probably any day)

I love my boys!

Today during worship, our song leader (Jeremie) was talking during a break in one of the songs. He was talking about how much God loves us & how that His love is so much bigger than all of our sin!  At that moment a tiny 3 year old hand reached up, clasped mine, and a cute little blond haired, blue eyed, boy looked at me and said "Mom, I LOVE Jesus!"  Lincoln melts my heart once again!

My challenge is to remember these most precious moments during the trying times.  I will spare the details of the not so good parts of my day.  Sometimes I wonder, "Why do I constantly have to remind myself that I love these boys so much?" I feel like a bad mom at those times. But I feel like a good mom when I always remember to act out of love first.

Praying that I will act out of LOVE towards others more often.