Big Changes on the Horizon and SO excited for them!

I've been wanting to write on here for so long and actually be able to talk about the exciting new changes happening in our lives! Let's start from the beginning...

Ever since we got married three years ago and even while we were dating, Scott and I had talked about what we thought our future might look like... Both of us had a desire during high school and college to one day serve God in either youth ministry, college ministry, or over-seas, but we didn't know what that was going to look like or where God wanted us... When we ended up getting pregnant with Daniel only a few months after our marriage, Scott began looking for a job to be able to provide for us during the changes a growing family would bring. He was blessed with an amazing job with Marathon Oil Company, and grew to enjoy the people he worked with, his work, and all the things that living here in GJ brought! 

But, over time I began thinking a lot more about going into ministry and prayed a lot about the possibility of entering into full-time ministry somewhere... Scott and I talked from time to time about our future and both of us were pretty sure we wouldn't be where we were forever, but Scott didn't mention much about going into ministry until we talked a few months before this past Christmas ('11) and he mentioned the possibility of joining staff with Master Plan Ministries... He asked me what I thought and I was so excited to hear that he had been thinking and praying about the same thing I had been!

We talked with Jesse and Rhonda Denison in February about joining Master Plan and sent in our application on March 6th! April 21st we had our interview with Russ and Linda (and Rhonda with me and Kyle with Scott). Two days later we found out that we had been accepted on staff with Master Plan Ministry! YAY! It seemed like quite the fast process but we definitely knew that God was the one guiding us through all the steps and we are SO excited to be heading towards full-time college ministry!

Three weeks ago we were just starting our New Staff Training week down in Durango, CO, and the week followed as an amazing time with our fellow MPM staff team and was a great week of learning, growing, and full excitement of our support raising ahead of us and then our move onto our campuses! We met up at the Ranch that Master Plan has owned now for three years and Scott and I enjoyed getting the tour of the wonderful facility up there! It is so awesome seeing the work God is doing at that place already and how much more will be done as the work continues to be done getting it ready for staff trainings, retreats, etc in the future! I wish I had time to tell all about what God has done through the Ranch and how everything came about but I don't so if you want to read more, please go to the following website and read all about it! http://threetrailsranch.blogspot.com/

Part of us during the staff training

The "old" staff praying  for us new staff at the training.

The Denver team on Auraria Campus!

Our entire staff group is AWESOME! Once Scott and I and the other eight new staff have our groups of partners together to help financially support us and pray for us we will be joining an AMAZING Denver team at the Auraria Campus in downtown Denver, CO! We are SOOO excited to be joining Austin and Laura Krokos and their family, Jesse and Rhonda Denison and their family, Brad Jones, and Angi Pratt to reach that campus for Christ!

Ever since our New Staff Training we have been busy figuring our schedules and diving into support raising - telling others about the vision God has given us and adding partners to our group of supporters! It has been so exciting to see how many of our friends and families and people we don't even know are excited for us and are joining us financially and through prayer! Seeing God work and build our team is amazing and seeing my husband, Scott, step up and lead our family in this direction God is taking us has been so great! I love that man so much and I'm SO thankful that God gave me him for my husband! :o)

Speaking of Scott, he told his work a week or so ago that he would be leaving and entering into full-time college ministry! We are sad to be leaving such an amazing job with such amazing people, but it has been encouraging seeing them support us along the way! They have been such a great group of friends and I'm hoping we can stay in contact with several of them!

So I have MANY more things that I could write about but I know that I'll write again hopefully soon and I can share more of what we'll be doing on campus and all of that! If you have any questions please  ask! :o) ALSO, our website for the master plan group is Masterplanministries.net, so you can go on there to see pics and read about the campuses and more about what we will be doing! I think I'll try to upload a few pics on here now and then post this considering it's taken me a few days to even write this much... (Yes, we've been CRAZY busy lately!)

 Have an awesome week everyone!

Our family picture

Our Entire MPM Staff Group - Kids and Adults!

Lydia - 9 Months and 1 Week Old Already!

My dear little girl,

Hi sweety! You are just over 9 months old, and I am amazed day after day how much love you bring to our family! I don't know what we'd do without your sweet smiles, cute little expressions, funny giggles, waves "bye-bye", and the constant babble of "mama, dada, bye-bye, and baba" you continue to say! We love you oh so much!

Your biggest accomplishment this past month (about three weeks ago) was crawling! And you are SO excited about it! We had gone down to Pappy and Maw-Maw's house on a Friday night and you made a few little moves on your knees and then the next morning your daddy and I watched as you crawled half way across the living room floor over to us! So glad we were both there to watch you! Just today I watched as you crawled and crawled all over our house, going from toy to toy and playing and then you crawled over to our back door and pulled up to your knees as you watched outside as your daddy and big brother mowed the back yard! I think you wanted to go join them! :o) It won't be long little girl til you are out there running around with them! So crazy!

You still have not pulled up all the way to your feet, but you do go up to your knees quite a lot... You also haven't really walked at all even when we hold your hands, because standing is not your favorite. I'm thinking you might still be awhile until you walk but that's okay; I am perfectly happy with having a little crawler for awhile! :o)

You have been eating and eating up a storm, and this past week you had some of your first actual solid foods... Some of your favorites have been pancakes, oatmeal, rice, beans, and eggs! You seem to be able to eat and eat so much! I'm going to have to keep on my toes with figuring out food for you to eat! It seems like you want to catch up to your big brother pretty fast!

You're still taking two to three naps a day (a shorter one in the morning and then usually a 2 hour ish nap when Daniel does early afternoon and a short one in the late afternoon)... Pretty soon I think we'll be able to move you to two naps, though, especially since you are usually such a happy little girl!

Lydia, I love how much you love your big brother! You are so excited when he plays beside you, or shares his toys, and you love when he gives you big kisses and hugs! It's oh so cute! I love you two so, so, so, so much! I'm so excited to see you two grow up and become close friends and I'm so excited to see where God is going to take you and us in life! Thank you, my sweet little girl, for being such a joy already in our life even though you might not know it. :o) You are so amazing and Mommy and Daddy loves you!

Love,
Mommy

Great Week with Nanny!

Hi everyone! So I just got another load of laundry in the washer, both kids are napping, Nanny (my awesome grandmother who is staying with us all week) is reading her book, and I am enjoying hearing the wooden chimes (from Hawaii) outside blowing in the breeze above my beautiful potted flowers! I am ready to take a little break and update y'all on our great week!

My parents brought Nanny over on Sunday afternoon to spend the week with us (through tomorrow evening) and it has been a fun week! I love having someone else here to talk with and relax with and help entertain kiddos during the days! Sunday afternoon Nanny and spent all afternoon making 2 lasagnas, 2 pans of brownies, and getting other stuff ready for a couple of dinners I was preparing! I took one meal in to Jon and Lacey (our youth pastor at church and his wife) who just had their first little one (a precious little girl, Evie). I was able to hang out with them for a little while and hold their sweet little girl... I'm so happy for them and am so glad they are part of our small group so I'll be able to see them more that way! :o) I got home just in time for a bunch of our friends to come over for dinner (hence the other lasagna meal)... We had a fun time hanging out eating and then the guys played games outside and us girls just talked about decorating and crafts!

Monday was a pretty lazy day just playing and watching as Lydia got more accustomed to Nanny and eventually allowed her to hold her and even feed her some baby food! It was Nanny's birthday so we were so thankful that she was here to spend it with us! I made a crock-pot meal of Chicken Tortilla Soup for dinner which was DELICIOUS and Nanny made her birthday pie - Key Lime Pie (a Weight Watcher's recipe, which was awesome) so we enjoyed those for dinner and then we drove to the edge of Fruita where we went on a little walk enjoying the beautiful evening! Daniel had so much fun running down the sidewalk, pointing out bugs, leaves, sticks, trees, dogs, and all the other things he saw along the way! He is the cutest little runner I've ever seen! Lol. We walked back through some neighborhoods and enjoyed seeing all the pretty homes and yards! I love looking at houses! :o)

Tuesday (yesterday) we went to the mall and I let the kids play in the inside play area while Nanny got a pedicure. Lydia (BIG NEWS!!!) started crawling on Saturday so she was actually able to crawl around with another little girl who was there and thought the super big bugs were super fun and cute to stare up at! Daniel played with another little boy for awhile, trying to figure out how to leap up on top of the play things like that boy did... After Nanny was done we went to Target to get a few things and then she bought me and her some coffee drinks at Starbucks - which was amazing of course! It was nice to get out and walk around in the air conditioning! We spent awhile outside before Daniel's nap at home watching him play with his basketball and softballs and his T-ball stuff... He LOVES to throw all the balls (basketball, softball, and golf balls) into the hoop and he is doing so well at actually getting quite a lot in! He LOVES to be outside lately, and since it's been nice enough still sitting out in the shade under the covering, we have spent a lot of time out there this week! I've also been watering the grass a lot (trying to keep it nice and green and growing those seeds Scott had planted a few weeks back) and I am also watering my garden which is growing in quite nicely! ANYWAY, off topic... Tuesday evening after Scott got home we headed into town to eat at Noodles & Company which was delicious as always! Definitely one of my most favorite places right now to eat at! I tried one of their Mediterranean dishes... yumm, yumm! After dinner we went to Sherwood Park and let Daniel play with Scott for awhile while Nanny fed Lydia a bottle and I went over to the hospital to see another friend and her new baby! They are also from our small group (Kara and Beau) and just had their second little one... a beautiful baby girl, also! So much fun! Yesterday evening after putting the kids down we popped up our camper and made sure everything was in it for camping this weekend in Lake City! SUPER excited to go camping with all my family and Nanny and some friends! Before bed we played Rummi Cube with Nanny which was a lot of fun. We love that game!

Today we haven't really done much at all.... Laundry, dishes, playing with kids, and now updating this! I think I'm going to go ahead and close for now and maybe get some reading in while I have a chance! Hope everyone has a wonderful rest of the week!

Random thoughts on the book of Judges...

The kids are napping and I just finished another great day of a Bible Study I have been going through! I started going through it a few months ago - my friend Laura Krokos has it on her blog - beholdingglory.com. She has done a lot of different studies that I'd love to also go through someday, but this particular one I've been doing has been one on the book of Judges. You should go over to her blog and check it out! I love it first of all because I've never really read through the book of Judges before, especially to study, so I have gotten so much out of it! And I also love reading her comments because she has three little ones and just hearing her thoughts is nice because they are so close to some of my own! I've also loved it because there are so many connections to our life every day... I just read about Gideon and I love how God was able to use a man who was fearful and didn't fully trust in God, but he was still used for some amazing things such as rescuing the Israelites from their enemies yet again! Reminds me again how important it is for us to take the step and trust God with our life every day even when we feel fearful or when we just don't see how things could work out! It's always been hard for me to trust God fully... I don't really know why considering how much He has rescued me again and again, but I'm just glad that God still uses me in His grand plan and that He loves and cares about me enough to never give up! I'm so thankful that I have a husband who shows me areas in which we need to trust God more... Scott has been such a great man to lovingly help me grow and mature in my walk with God! I love that man so much! :o)

Well, I was going to write more but we are headed into town for Daniel's check-up appointment in a little bit so I need to get everything ready to load into the van and then get the kiddos up! I hope everyone has a wonderful day!

Another week away for work... Missing my hubby...

Scott is gone for another week up in WY... :o( I miss him already and he just left not long ago! I'm excited though, because after this trip he shouldn't have to leave again until July for a conference, so that's super exciting! It'll be nice to have him here for longer than three or four weeks at once!

I'm so over me and Daniel being sick! I'm praying that Lydia doesn't catch any of it, because I'm so ready to have a healthy family again and be able to enjoy this wonderful spring weather! Scott seeded our back yard yesterday which is really exciting but means Daniel can't play out in the yard for two weeks! That means we'll be going on lots of walks and playing out in the front yard to enjoy this weather! I'm excited for the grass to grow, though. Our yard isn't that bad, but it has lots of bare patches in it, so we are hoping this will fill it in a bit more. I STILL haven't planted our garden, but I'm hoping to go buy tomato and pepper plants at the nursery on Tuesday and then hopefully plant the seeds and plants by Thursday at least... Hopefully it's not too late to plant them all, but at least doing it this late will mean nothing should freeze!

We didn't make it to church this morning because I was still not feeling the greatest... but I'm feeling much better now except for my non-stop runny nose! At least I haven't had to take any Ibuprofin today, so that has been nice. If I continue to feel better, though, I'm hoping to be able to take the kids over to our friends', David and Jessica's, house later on this afternoon for a BBQ with some friends. They have been working all afternoon (or will be working all afternoon) on sanding down the outside of their house to paint so we are sort of skipping out on the work and just coming for food. I know... not very nice of me, but I might just bring some food to help out so that'll make up for it I'm sure! Plus who wouldn't want to hang out with my sweet little kiddos?! :o)

Friday night Scott and I took the kids on a drive and to the park for dinner and they were able to swing and play for awhile! I love having family nights like that! We were talking about more family nights we'll have to have this summer... For one, we'll have to take them to Bananas sometime, because I know Daniel would love to play miniature golf... even though he won't be officially "playing" more than likely, but he'll enjoy hitting the golf balls. :o) I love my family and I love family nights!

Okay, I gotta go... Lydia is waking up from her nap! Hope everyone is having a wonderful Sunday!

8 months old!

Dear Lydia,

Today is your 8 month old birthday! I am watching you roll and wiggle around all over the place, and right now you are really wanting to pull yourself up with your bouncer but it's not happening so far! You are growing and growing and have learned so many new things this month! No, you are not flat out crawling yet but you are oh so close! You get up on all fours all the time but just haven't really moved/crawled on them yet, although you get around really well between rolling, wiggling, and whatever else you do!

One of your favorite things to do these days is wave and wave! You have the cutest little wave that started  out with you closing your fingers into a fist and then opening them again and then closing them, etc (usually faced towards you instead of to the person you are waving to) but now you just wave your hand up and down which is so super cute! I LOVE your waves oh so much!

You are also clapping now, although I haven't seen you do it all that much... mainly just when we are anywhere singing with a bunch of people, especially when you see others clapping! It's so super cute, though!

ALSO, almost a month ago now you said "mama" and "dada" for the first time which was so cute! You haven't said "mama" too many times but you say "dada" and "baba" a lot! I love hearing you say sounds that actually are sounded more like talking but it means you are growing up so fast!

You love to play with all sorts of toys now, but usually end up playing more with your brother's toys than your own... Although you LOVE balloons and Daniel's construction vehicles. Lol. :o)

You have been eating up a storm lately... Three meals a day and usually around 3 or 4 ice cubes of food plus pureed rice... I have a list of foods in the fridge to puree up for you soon because you (and your brother who LOVES your food, also!) have been eating up everything so fast! Not sure what your favorite food is because you love like everything! You've had mango, avacado, peas, banana, rice, sweet potato, carrots, pears, apples, pumpkin, and so many other things! Yumm yumm!

You love to cuddle! This afternoon I was sitting down on the floor playing with you and you sat in my lap facing me and kept cuddling and cuddling! You still suck on your finger whenever you are tired or hungry, which is so cute and keeps you very content, so between that and your sweet face and smiles, you are adorable! You also love playing peek-a-boo now! When you sit in our laps facing us you will bury your face in our chest and then throw yourself back as if to say "peek-a-boo" and then do it again and again just giving us the biggest smiles each time! Whenever you have a dress on you'll hold up your skirt and play peek-a-boo with whoever will pay attention to you, too. :o)

I love you oh so much sweet girl! You have brought so much joy to our family and I don't know what I'd do without you to brighten my day with your smiles, giggles, and cute little face!

Love,
Mommy

Daniel's Birthday Party and Summer Plans

We had Daniel's birthday party on Sunday and it turned out so cute and was a ton of fun! Poor little Daniel was not feeling well almost the entire weekend (still isn't quite back to normal) so that was sad because he wasn't able to enjoy all the activities, opening gifts, and playing with all his friends as much as he would have. :o( We had lots of our friends and family there, and at least all the other kids had a great time swinging, sliding, playing in the sand"boxes" with trucks, coloring, and decorating their hard hats. It was fun just watching everyone play and all the adults just hung out and talked and ate snacks. I had so much fun making all the construction signs using my super cool Cricut machine and planning all the other decorations and snacks. I made a chocolate cake and Scott helped me decorate the cake with oreos and construction vehicles... It turned out really cute and was SO much easier than the normal cakes I have done (his tiger and monkey cakes last year) and the ladybug cake just recently because I didn't have to use all the cake decorating stuff. :o) Some of the awesome things he got for his birthday were a T-ball set, a basketball hoop and ball, a tricycle, a golfing set, puzzles, a swimming pool and toys, trucks, cars, books, clothes, and a bowling set. He has had so much fun since his party playing with all his new toys! (He was just outside playing with all his outside things and now he is working on a puzzle...) Thanks so much to everyone who came! It was such a beautiful day!

We have been so busy lately it's crazy! I seriously just want to slow down a bit but I'm not sure why I think things are going to slow down since summers are crazy around here! We are planning out various weekends / weeks away throughout the summer already which I'm excited for! I'm so happy to go camping and on other trips with my family! We are discussing perhaps going camping Memorial Weekend in Lake City which would be SO awesome especially since that's where Scott and I had our honeymoon and May 30th is our 3 year anniversary! It would be fun to take both of the kids there (we've just taken Daniel there once when he was 5 weeks old). 

Another thing I'm trying to focus on this month is working out and eating right (weight watchers) again! I KNOW, I KNOW... That's what I said back in Jan. when I started doing good with all that. That lasted until the beginning of March and then I stopped working out and paying close attention to my eating after losing 14 lbs! The good thing is I only gained two pounds back and I am ready to focus in on it all again especially before the busy summer starts full force! A group of friends and I are helping each other stay accountable on facebook which is so nice, so I am excited to do a full month of Jillian Michaels' 30-Day Shred and eat well and see if I can get much more fit! It's still hard to try to schedule everything out and get everything done, but I think I'll figure out something to work soon hopefully! 

I'm also focusing this month on getting in good quiet times each day which is something that oftentimes gets put on the back burner for me. :o( My days go so much better when I have that time so I am putting it on my priority list instead of the "if I have time" list... I have been going through a study on Judges that one of my friends has been doing on her blog. It has been AMAZING especially since Judges is one of those books that I find hard to get through... You should definitely check out the study! I love it because she only covers a few verses at a time and then has some good things to think about and questions to ask yourself which is always good to go deeper. Here is the link to her blog: http://www.beholdingglorycom/. 

So I can't believe tomorrow will be two months already since my nephew, Makaio, went to be with Jesus! I miss him so much sometimes it's crazy! It's amazing how much a little baby who never took a breath on this earth could touch so many lives! I think I had written on here, but I can't remember, about us girls getting together to do scrapbooks of his short life. I'm so glad we were able to have the chance to do that because I love being able to look through his book whenever I go through days of really missing him. I can't even imagine what my sister and Wayne are going through, but I know it's hard to go through some days especially when we are all together as a family because I think of what it would have been like if he was with us... I so wish Lydia still had her little cousin who she was going to be such good buddies with, especially since they were so close together in age! Lelia has been such an encouragement to me watching her go through all this, though! She has had some really hard days but she still tries to be there for all of us and for Wayne! Prayers for Lelia and Wayne over Mother's Day weekend ahead would be greatly appreciated! We all know that it will be really tough for them to get through that day but she is also so thankful that she is a mom so she doesn't want people to just think that it's better to not mention anything but to instead recognize that she is still a mother. I think she and Wayne are going to try to spend the day together... hopefully they can go do something fun just the two of them somewhere! 

Well, I should probably wrap this up. Thanks for reading!