Lake O' the Pines

Well, still no pics from New Orleans yet........hopefully soon.....so we will move on..........
Every summer for about the last 5 or 6 years we have met up with some of the guys Ryan played baseball with at ETBU and their wives and families. It is always a fun time to have a little reunion with friends that we don't get to see much, if at all, during the year. We usually get together at Canyon Lake but this year we actually got together at Lake O' the Pines and camped out (in campers). Every year there are more kids.............and usually one on the way! Although Kyleigh didn't understand why we weren't sleeping outside, since we were camping, she had alot of fun and was so excited to make smores by the camp fire. The kids all played well together............hard to believe we have been out of school long enough to have all these kids!!


Brayden absolutely loved Lacy, Cas and Gina's baby (she is an only child at the moment, but hopefully not for long)!




Halle, Marty and Christy's youngest


Melanie and Abby




Jack and Erin's oldest, Lainey, celebrated her 3rd bday while we were there. They have a new little girl Katie, who is 3 months old


Dereck, Cas, Marty, Jack, Ryan, and Gifford




My Cutie Pa Tootie!


Caylee and Halle, Marty and Christy's girls




The tent area made for a perfect sand box play area

Derrick and Jennifer's kiddos, Tinley and Zach

future beach volleyball player!

Abby, Gif and Mel's oldest. She has a new baby sister, who stayed with her grandparents for the weekend. She looks just like her Aunt Gina!

New Orleans Mission Trip

Last week Ryan and I went on a mission trip to New Orleans with our church. Of course my camera stopped working (thank goodness for a 4 year warranty that i bought that expires in 4 months!) 3 days into the trip so i am waiting for one of the guys to download some of the 2000 pics for me that he got from everybodies camera. It was a great experience and truly a blessing to serve and minister with Ryan. We canvassed neighborhoods promoting our block party we had monday night which was fun and presented several opportunities for some of our people to share the gospel. Canvassing the neighborhoods was really neat because we got to see some of what has been done in the rebuilding process but also see how much is left to be done. The people were so willing to talk to us and tell us their stories.

We also went to the NO Homeless Mission and served dinner and had a small service for them which was a neat experience also. We were working all week through a church called Celebration church in NO who is doing alot of great work in the rebuilding of New Orleans. We had a construction team who worked on some construction projects through Crossroad Missions and Jericho Project. Jericho Project is an organization working to rebuild homes and help families buy them and finance them at a low 3%.

Our other group (the one ryan and i were on) spent the week doing sports camp and VBS at Lake Ponchatrain (sp?) elementarty school. It was a great experience and the kids loved it. There were about 11 professions of faith during the week. Truly a blessing to see the kids come and invite more kids the next day. So many of those kids just wanted to be loved on which was the best and most fun part of it all.

We did get to go the the French Quarter thurs night which was fun, and we ate at Bubba Gumps. By Friday we were definitely ready to be home and see our kids. we have never been without them for a full week, but they had so much fun at my mom and dad's. i think mom was having to take care of 3 kids, as my dad was not fully recovered from his surgery so she was having to take care of him also. She was such a trooper.

one great experience while we were there was a meeting a girl at the block party named Gado Shelley. she is 7 months pregnant and had nothing so we were able to go buy her some things and then through our church we were able to purchase her a baby bed, car seat, and stroller. Most of the girls loaded up and went to her trailer (they still don't have a home) and gave her a little baby shower and she was so excited. it was so sweet to see how happy she was.

well, hopefully in the next few days i will have some pictures of the trip to post but i just wanted to write the post while i had a minute. it was such a good trip and the Lord really blessed us with some great ministry opportunities while we were there. He is always faithful...........

gone fishin'

kyleigh went fishing with daddy and pop earlier this week. from what i hear, she can catch some fish with her barbie fishing rod!! she had alot of fun.

Happy 4th of July!!

Well, we waited in Tootsie and Pop's backyard until 10:30 pm last night for the fireworks show to start. Evidently there were technical difficulties, and they had to postpone the show until Saturday night. Try explaining that to two 3 year olds whom you have already syked (sp?) up for the show!! Brayden fell asleep shortly after dark..........definitely not a night owl like his sister. None the less, we got to spend some fun time with Ryan's family last night and today. I was supposed to have to work but I ended up not having to so it was fun being with the fam. The kids (and Katherine!) spent today slip and sliding and swimming, and Kyleigh and Katherine had fun jumping on the trampoline with the sprinkler underneath..................not sure who is more of a kid........kyleigh or katherine!! :)







Katherine, Me, and Jessica


Katherine and Kyleigh


All boy - riding daddy's tractor


Handsome


loves to laugh


Sadie and Kyleigh