There has been so much going on around here, I don’t hardly know where to begin to get you caught up!  We have been very busy traveling this past month and have a little break before we go to see family at the end of this month. 

Our Travels

At the beginning of spring, I was ready to travel!  I was so looking forward to a road trip!  And now that we have had a few in a short period of time, I am so glad to be back home and settling into our routine again!  (Isn’t that how it goes though?) 

Spring Youth Retreat

We had a great group of girls from our church that went to the retreat this spring.  It was the first time for some of them to be out of state,  so that’s always fun.  I pray that the truths taught to them during this week have a lasting, transforming impact on their lives. 

(Here we are pictured with the group from my Dad’s church.  We were all in the same cabin :)

 

Conference and Visit with Family 

Each year in the spring we head to the mountains of NC for our annual conference for our denomination.  It is always a wonderful time of refreshing for us and a time to visit with other pastors and their wives. 

On the way to the conference center, we stopped for lunch and my daughter couldn’t wait for her food to come out.  So she started eating a lemon ;-)  By the time she was done, there was a little bit of the peel left, about the size of a quarter.  Yuck.

Here is Isaac and his “cousin Emma” who he absolutely adores. 

When the conference was over, we took a few more days and traveled to KY with Aaron’s parents to visit with his sister and her family. 

His sister and her husband own a restaurant with a family fun center attached.  Our kids loved to run around and play.  Here is Isaac (with daddy’s help ;-) playing his first round of ski ball. 

Here is Isaac with one of his cousins.  I’m thinking they look like they might be related ;-)  Isaac loves his cousins and still talks about them!

 

Discipleship Summit 2011

Myself and two other ladies from our church went to a Ladies’s Retreat hosted by the Francis Asbury Society.  After about 10 minutes on the road together, we were laughing so hard I wasn’t sure if I was going to be able to drive!  It was a wonderful time of relaxation and refreshing for all of us. 

We stayed at the Amish Door Inn in Wilmot, OH in the heart of Ohio Amish Country.  There are lots of fun little things I could tell you about this weekend, like for starters, the food was DELICIOUS!!

The Inn was beautiful . . .

The countryside was gorgeous . . .

And the company was exceptional . . .

(Our “table buddies” from Ohio :)

 

But the most memorable and special part of the weekend was the presence of the sweet Spirit of God and a life (lives!) that were transformed because of it.  As we walked into the comfortable conference room for our first service, I felt the sweetness of the Lord like I had not felt in such a long time.  I couldn’t keep the tears back!  Silent tears streamed down my cheeks during the prayer, the singing, and the message.  I knew that God was here and he wanted to do amazing things in the lives of all of those who came seeking Him.  

The theme of the weekend was “The Making of a Disciple”, what does it truly mean to be a disciple of Christ.  One of the things that stuck out in my mind during that first message was that Jesus called his disciples to Himself, just as He calls each one of us to follow Him.  During the time of discussion at our table after the message, one of the ladies mentioned just how amazing it was that God had called each of us there, and that each of us were one in the 107 ladies that were present that weekend. 

It was an absolutely beautiful weekend, reflecting on the “Enoughness” of Jesus (are you allowing Jesus to be enough for you, or are you trying to have Jesus + something to bring you fulfillment)  and having a surrendered heart to Christ.

 

Our Easter

Easter came upon us so quick this year! I could hardly believe that it has already come and gone! We had an Easter Egg Hunt at the church again this year, and it was so fun to see my kiddos really hunting for eggs this year! Last year I had to point the eggs out to them, but this year, they did it all on their own!

 

All the kids were attentive as they heard the true meaning of Easter.

And Miss Miriam especially like her cupcake :)

So then Easter Sunday I tried (and failed) to get a good picture of them in their Easter clothes.  Maybe next year?

 

Our Family

I realized it’s been quite a while since you’ve heard how we are actually doing!  In a nutshell, we are all doing good :)

Aaron

As usual, Aaron is staying on the go most of the time.  ;)  Of course, I’ve never met a pastor yet who wasn’t.  Pastoring a church takes so much time, that is often not realized to the lay people in the church.  They never know the late night/early morning phone calls that he gets, the difficult situations he has to handle, or the long hours spent in preparation for sermons,  let alone the time just spent in administrative details of the church.  Even in all of that, he does a wonderful job taking care of our family and as you can see, his children adore him.  He is their hero.  (And mine too :~) 

In his “spare time”  he is working on relearning his Greek and also has a few extra projects going on here around the house.  We are working on gradually finishing the upstairs to give us a couple more bedrooms (I’m so excited about this!). 

This was the start of the project. . .  the dormer on the front of the house originally had no support, and so the back side of it had sort of “sunk” and put alot of weight on the main roof.  So Aaron had to go in and gradually raise it back up to get it squared up before he could build the walls under the dormer to stabilize it. 

Here is where we are now, with most of the framing done.  (The only framing left is to frame in some closets, when we figure out where we want to put them ;)

We have new windows ready to go in, and new siding to put on the outside on the front of the dormer, to freshen it up and give it a nice little face lift.  (The old metal siding has “bled” white onto the brick, ugh!)  Then next on the list is the electrical and insulation!!

 

Isaac

My children never cease to amaze me.  Isaac is talking much more now and some of the things he says absolutely cracks me up.  For example . .

• sister is screaming . . . again!
• What are YOU doing?

He is so light-hearted and relaxed.  He has done well with potty training and is officially in “big boy underwear” all the time now except sleeping.  (Hallelujah!)  He knows his colors and is all the time pointing out what color something is, without our prompting.  He is doing well counting, although he still likes to skip #4.   And he knows most of his alphabet and what sound the letter makes.  He loves to help out with anything!!  One of his favorite things to do is to help mommy “wash dishes” after lunchtime before his naptime.  He is such a precious gift.

 

Miriam

My little precious girl, where do I begin?  Well, for starters, she is a talker!  I am absolutely blown away by how quickly she is developing, especially in the language department.  She has been saying phrases for a while now, and is getting really close to saying short sentences (just within the last week or two!)   

She is a very spunky and fiery 21 mth old who has a mind of her own and adores her big brother.  She is quite vocal when there is something going on she does like  (aka  temper tantrum, which we are working on….continually!)   She is both a daddy’s girl and a mommy’s girl, and is a little bit more cautious around strangers than her older brother.  But she is absolutely precious and loves to snuggle!!  She is our Baby Girl :)

 

Hannah

Miss Hannah will be 28 weeks tomorrow!  I can’t hardly believe it!  Time has flown by so quickly this time!  She seems to be a bit calmer than her sister was and doesn’t kick me quite as much :)  She seems to be growing on schedule and not giving mommy too rough of a time :)  We are all so excited to see her!  I think Isaac is really catching on this time, and will say that Baby Hannah is in mommy’s belly.  Just a little less than 3 months to go!

 

Me

I have been doing well and feeling well overall.  This pregnancy has been a bit rougher on me than the previous ones, but from what I’ve heard from other women, not too bad, so I’m not complaining!  I’m staying busy with things at home, trying to keep up with everybody.  Currently I’m still teaching the youth SS class, the children’s Wednesday night class, and leading one of the ladies’ Bible Studies.  Come the first of July though, I will be gradually handing these over to someone else as I get ready to pick up a newborn!

 

Well, I think that’s about it!   I’m sure there’s lots of stuff that I left out, and I will think about it later.  ;-)  That’s the way it always goes isn’t it?