Christmas Time!

This is going to be a busy week! Ashby and I are hanging out today and getting our house ready for our staff Christmas party tonight! I am so thankful that God is allowing us to minister with such a great group of people. This Sunday marks our 4 year anniversary on staff at South Union, but it feels like we have been here forever! I know that it is very easy to get so busy at this time of year that you fly through the season and never really think on why we celebrate Christmas. Not that we've forgotten or don't know, but Satan does what he does best and makes us too busy to concentrate on what really matters. When I was growing up we always had a stocking for Jesus on our mantel. On Christmas morning we would write a note to Jesus and tell him things that we hoped to do better in the coming year. This year we will be rereading all of those notes and I wonder what kind of job I have done on actually doing what I said I would do. I'm thankful for the way my parents raised me and I hope that Ashby will always be able to look back on Christmas traditions that brought her closer to God instead of what "stuff" she got. 

I hope that you can all take some time this week to thank God for sending his son as a baby to sacrifice his life for us so we could have an eternity with him!

Until next time...

At Night Bird...

I just wanted to add a little bit to one of my previous posts. I told you about "heavenly peas," but I forgot to mention "at night bird." Every time she sings the song she ends it with "at night bird." It took us quite a while to decipher this phrase as it is not as easy as "heavenly peas." We were in our pastors office a couple of days ago and she was singing Silent Night to him and it hit me! She's saying "at thy birth!" This little girl has definitely been exactly what we needed. She is hilarious and sweet and stubborn and loving all at the same time and I know God is forming her to be something special!
Until next time...

Heavenly Peas

Ashby sang in her 3rd MDO program Sunday night at First Baptist and she did a marvelous job! The two songs that they sang were Holly Jolly Christmas and Silent Night. She practiced so hard on both of her songs and she knows most of the words. The first time we were practicing it at home she did a great job, but I noticed something towards the end of the song that I thought was funny. At the end of Silent Night she sang, "sleep in heavenly peas" instead of "heavenly peace." Before I started laughing (to myself of course), I asked her what heavenly peas were and she said, "They're the kind of peas you eat in Heaven." I love her so much and I am so thankful that God gave us such a sweet and cute little girl!

End of Semester!

Well, another semester has come and gone! I only have one more final and I will be finished until January! Now it's on to my last semester...EVER!!!!!! Josh and I talked a few weeks ago and decided that I will not go to work immediately following graduation. We are planning on having another baby (sometime) and I would really like to be able to stay home with the baby. For those of you that know me well, you know that I'm very excited about this! 

Everything at church is going great! We are in the process of doing dirt work for our new children's ministry building and I know that God is going to bless in this new endeavor. Once it is all complete I will share some pictures with everyone. Youth ministry is also going great! We went to a Casting Crowns/The Afters/Sanctus Real concert last weekend and it was AWESOME! I don't know about you, but I love Casting Crowns. I think it's because we can relate to them because they are all youth workers.

As far as Christmas goes...I am really missing Boomer (as always), but God has blessed us in so many ways that I could not possibly feel sorry for myself! Every year presents new and different challenges, but for this year we are doing good. I hope that all of you are enjoying a wonderful Christmas season together. Remember to enjoy the time that you have with your loved ones because you never know how much time you have with each of them.

Until next time...

Fall

God is so awesome!!!!! We had our Harvest Fest Monday night at church and almost 700 people cam through the doors! But, even better than that, 2 people walked out with a new destination!!! It is always a lot of work but it is definitely worth it!
My classes are going good this semester. I only have one class that I am currently going to because of the way the other two worked out so it has been really weird. But, when spring gets here I will hit the ground running because it will be my LAST SEMESTER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I can't wait to be finished with school! I can't believe that it's almost here!
I am going to start leaving you with something that Ashby has said recently. Last week we were putting her room back together since we redecorated it and she was helping me sort through her toys. She found a cell phone and was pretending to talk on it. I told her to put the phone up because I needed her help and she said, "Mama, I can't because I'm talking to somebody!" So I replied with, "If you don't put that phone down I will take it away." Quicker than she's ever done anything before, she put the phone back up to her ear and said, "Ok, I gotta go, bye bye!" I love this kid!

First Day of School

Well...I knew this day was coming. The first day of Kindergarten. When I woke up this morning I sat down in my chair and started checking facebook. It was great seeing everyone's kids going back to school in all their new clothes and backpacks. I just can't get off my mind that today would be Boomer's first day of Kindergarten. My biggest struggle right now is wondering what he would look like right now and how he would sound. What would his personality be like, would he be excited about going to school or would he hate it. The one thing I know for sure is that he is excited about where he is and I know that he loves it! I am praying for all of you who have little ones going off to their first day of Kindergarten and those of you who have bigger ones going back to school. God tells us that he has a plan and a purpose for our lives in Jeremiah...I pray that your children know this and that God does mighty things through them this school year!

Well, I guess I better update my blog because I have decided that my husband is going to keep hacking his way in and posting crazy stuff until I do.

Just to get you all up to date, I have had a crazy few months. Life is great, but super busy! I just finished my two summer classes today so I have a little over a month off of school, but out summer is just getting busy. We had our first day of cheer camp today, which went really well, but I’m super tired. Josh and Ashby are at Pine Springs because Josh is preaching there this week. We leave for Bogg next week and then the week after that is Mission McAllen. Once all of that is over with we are going to try to go on a mini vacation before school starts again and we have our first football game!

Our life is crazy, but I love it! Sometimes I really wish we had time to just sit and do nothing, but I love being with students and getting to experience life with them. God has blessed us in so many ways and I am so thankful for that.

I hope this finds everyone having an awesome week!