Scrapbooking, Retreats, and My Birthday

One reason I have not been writing much lately is because I have been doing a lot of scrapbooking, my favorite hobby. I am proud to say that I am caught up to November 2006 in our family album! It has been fun looking back on all the memories we created.

Wes and I have an agreement that if there is a fire, we grab the girls then the scrapbooks. Is that sad? Those of you who scrapbook know what I am talking about. You spend so many hours preserving the precious memories.

Here are just a few layouts. Some of the embellishments are hanging crooked and pictures of pictures sometimes look blurry, but you can get the general idea. You can get a better look by clicking on the pictures to enlarge them.











































This past weekend I put scrapbooking aside to attend two retreats. Friday, I joined our High Schoolers for our annual Servant Leadership Retreat. Robert Oglesby from ACU, the main speaker, was very inspiring, as usual. Saturday, I left from there to meet 40 ladies from church for a ladies' retreat. This was our second year to go to Selah Inn, a beautiful retreat center located on 600 acres by Mt. Vernon in east Texas. I highly recommend this place if you ever need nice retreat accommodations. Visit http://selahranch.com/home.php for more information and to see beautiful pictures. It was a relaxing and spiritually uplifting time for all of us. Several of our ladies shared thoughts on our theme “Contagious Joy”. They really spoke from their heart and had most of us crying. That is okay…I always feel better after a good cry. I am very thankful for all those ladies and feel so blessed to be part of such a wonderful church family.







The main building at Selah Inn.












The cottage 3 of my friends and I stayed at.













The back part of the cottage.








Tomorrow is my birthday. The big 30. I definitely don’t feel 30, but I am not sad or depressed about it. It seems like just another day. Sweet Wes took me to dinner and to see We Are Marshall. We both enjoyed it and had a fun evening out. We reminisced about the days before children when we saw lots of movies. Dad volunteered to watch the girls for us, which was a real treat. The girls sure do love their Grandpa.

A New Baby

Two weekends ago I went to visit my dear friend Lauren in Shreveport who had just had a baby boy. Her husband had to go out of town for the weekend, so she asked if I would come help out. Wanting to see her and the new baby, I eagerly agreed. She has two daughters around Avery's age, as well. Abby stayed with Wes while I took Avery along, knowing that she would enjoy playing with her friends. I don't know why I bothered to take clothes for her. She loved dressing up in all their dress-up clothes. It was great catching up and meeting their adorable new family member. I had forgotten how tiny newborns are. It was precious being able to cuddle with him and have him sleep in my arms for hours.

At one point Avery asked if she could have a baby brother too. Ha! Not anytime soon!





Sweet Cole Jackson in his swing.















The three buddies!











Two cats and a princess.

National Conference on Youth Ministries

Each year Wes and I try to attend the National Conference on Youth Ministries (NCYM). This year it was held at the Cheyenne Mountain Resort in Colorado Springs, Colorado. We left the girls with Nana and Paw Paw and headed for the mountains. It was beautiful to see the white blanket of snow across the plains and mountains from the airplane.

We had wonderful time at the conference this year. It is always such a blessing to go to the conference. We always come away with new ideas, as well as, being refreshed and rejuvenated. There were amazing speakers such as David Fraze, Chris Seidman, Patrick Mead, and Randy Harris. It is always good to be together with old friends and to make new ones. We all share a common bond of working with youth.

Before we left for the conference Wes was asked to serve on the board of NCYM for 3 years, which is a huge honor. After praying and doing a lot of thinking we came to the conclusion that it might not be the best thing for him. Being on the board would require him to be gone 6 nights. He will already be gone taking some graduate classes this year. He didn’t want to be away from the family even more. Plus, NCYM is one of the only times he can just be a participant in something rather than in charge. It was a hard decision, but I am proud that he was asked to serve in that way. But, I am even prouder that he chose what would be best for our family.





BRRRRRRR! Remind me not to live in Colorado!














We had to keep warm somehow!!












It was great to see Josh and Shiloh Jones.













Home sweet home - for 4 nights.















One of the many beautiful views from the Cheyenne Mountain Resort.

Christmas

We celebrated Christmas twice at our house. On Saturday, Wes' family came for a Christmas lunch. After the girls naptime we sang Christmas songs and read two children's boooks about the birth of Jesus. Then we began opening presents. Avery zipped through her unwrapping while Abby wanted to take her time. She wanted to play with each and every gift before moving on to the next. Wes' family stayed the night and went to church with us the next day.

After they left Aaron, Janet, Mylen, and Dad joined us that afternoon. We attended our special candlelight service at church and then came home for some of our own traditions. We sang some more Christmas songs and read a book to the cousins about why we give gifts and celebrate Christmas. After the kiddos went to bed we took turns lighting our own candles while sharing our praises from 2006 and our prayers for 2007. My family has done that for several years now, and it is always a special time of sharing our hopes and dreams.

Here are a few Christmas pictures:





Our little Santas before the madness began!
















Avery in her new Ariel wedding dress.














Abby's new icecream set.















We love you Grandpa and Aunt Janet!












The cousins wrestling with Uncle Aaron after he took them for a ride.












Cousin Mylen is so fun to play with!
















We had to celebrate with Aunt Katy and Uncle Blake after Christmas because poor Blake got sick. :(

Better Late Than Never...

This Holiday Season was whirlwind of Christmas parties, birthday parties, church activities, and Chritmas productions. While it was fun, I am glad that things have slowed down quite a bit.
I wanted to include a copy of our Christmas letter that we sent out. Hopefully most of you got it. If you didn't get it, we didn't have your address. Ooops! Feel free to give it to us and we will make sure you are on our list next year.


The Encalade Gazette vol. 7

Dear Friends,
Merry Christmas all. It’s time once again for our unannounced, self promoting, and unnecessarily long family Christmas letter. Yes, it’s our chance to update many of you on things you’re already well aware of and others of you on things you could probably care less about (otherwise you would have picked up the phone and askedJ). We pray you’ve had a wonderful 2006. Ours has been joyous, trying, and tremendously blessed.

We write this letter from our warm and cozy living room. The tree is up, the stockings are hung, and a fire burns across the way. This is our first Christmas is our new house, and we are delighted to host our families for the first time this year.

We moved here (2803 Pyramid Circle) in April after selling our last home and renting for a short time. The first projects were painting, putting in new carpet and getting the girls’ swing set up in the backyard. There’s always more to be done, but we love our new home and are so grateful for Granny’s help in getting here.

Many of you have been in prayer for our family since the loss of Naomi’s mother, Cyndi. We want you all to know how appreciative we are of all the love and support we’ve received in the past few months. We miss her dearly, but her love lives on. Our girls often hear and tell stories of Grandma and the great woman she was. Richard, Naomi’s Dad, has moved to Denison, and is doing very well. It’s a blessing to have Grandpa so close and we are enjoying spending such quality time with him.

Our girls are doing so well. They keep us on our toes and always laughing. Abby, who will be two in February, is talking a lot. She blows kisses to everyone she sees, and absolutely adores her big sister. Avery (turning four in March) is becoming such a big girl. She’s a big helper for her Mommy and is her Daddy’s best buddy. She started Preschool this fall and is loving it. She comes home singing new songs, showing us what she made and telling us stories about her new friends. The girls’ favorite activities include story time at the library, playing with their friends at Mom’s Bible Study, reading books (especially Avery’s ‘Twenty Greatest Quarterbacks’ book), and dance parties with Daddy’s iPod. Our girls bring us so much joy. I can’t think of a sweeter sight than watching Abby hug and kiss her big sister ‘night night’.

Things are really good in Naomi’s world. She loves being a stay at home Mom, and we’re so thankful she’s able to continue doing that. She still scrapbooks when she has time, but she’s found a new hobby: blogging. Check it out at www.encalade.blogspot.com. Her young ladies’ Bible Study is a highlight each week. She is most thankful for her time with the girls but also quite appreciative of occasional breaks giving her a moment to herself or a chance to visit friends.

Wes is continually challenged and rewarded through his ministry at Park Avenue. The teens continually amaze and inspire him and he is especially grateful for the team of ministers he works with daily. In his free time he’s playing in an adult soccer league, reworking his golf swing, and doing his best to dominate his fantasy sports leagues. He’s still got a ways to go, but has become more ‘handy’ over the past few years. No longer does he call-in help for changing the AC filter or hanging pictures J. He actually has big plans for a deck in the backyard this spring… Naomi is skeptical.

That about wraps up our 2006. We hope you have enjoyed catching up with us. God has been so good to our family. We love Denison, Texas. We love the Park Avenue Church of Christ. We’re thankful for the home we’ve made here, the good health we have experienced, and the love we are shown daily. We look forward to 2007 and the ways God will work in and through our family.

Lots of love and warmest Christmas greetings,
Wes, Naomi, Avery and Abby

Texas Weather... Make up your mind!

These pictures were taken in 70 degree weather in our backyard about a week and half ago. That night brought freezing rain and below freezing weather. It also brought lightening to the transformer in our back yard frying our alarm system panal, our phone line, and modem. The electricity went off four more times throughout the next 3 days. I felt like I was in Africa again. Finally they replaced the transformer and we have had no trouble except getting everything fixed or replaced that was affected by the lightening.

Thank you, God, for our warm fireplace which kept us warm when the electricity was off.

We didn't get enough snow to really play in it. As you can see, the TXU men worked hard. It amazes me how they can stay on the poles. The first time they came out was around 1:00 in the morning in the freezing rain!!! Wes went out and offered to make them some coffee and we realized later that "DAH!" we have no electricity to make the coffee.

Ten Reasons I Love Being a Youth Minister’s Wife

1. It is exciting to see the youth grow and mature in Christ throughout the years. Every year graduation comes to soon! The first 6th grade class we had graduated this past Spring.
2. It is extremely rewarding to have relationships with teens.
3. It brings me such joy to see God working in their lives. I learn so much from them!
4. I get to see Wes at work (I should really say God at work in Wes) all the time and the girls get to be part of their Daddy’s work.
5. I love having the teens in our home for devotionals, games, and snacks.
6. My girls have wonderful Christian examples who love them dearly. Avery and Abby love the “big kids” too.
7. My family and I get to plan and do lots of FUN stuff!
8. Teens are rarely boring to be around. They keep me laughing.
9. Having girls over for girlie movies, snacks, and fun games never gets old.
10. Teens keep you looking, acting, and dressing young.

We had a high school retreat this past weekend which went great! The girls got to go to Nana and Paw Paw’s house where they had a blast as usual. The theme was “Loving the Unlovely” something we all need to be reminded of. The youth ministers and teens had many good things to share and our guys did a terrific job leading the Sunday morning service all by themselves. I was proud of them!
I know I said that working with the youth keeps you young, but I was made aware this weekend that I am getting older. Wes keeps reminding me and everyone else that I am turning 30 next month. He is only 4 ½ months behind me but he still looks about 16 years old. He got carded the other day when he tried to buy a rated R movie. Ha! Anyways at the retreat the campfire seemed to be a lot farther away then I remembered it. Also, a few girls decided to wake up at 5:30 the first morning to get ready for an 8:30 breakfast. They were showering, blow drying their hair, straightening their hair, talking and laughing with now care in the world to the majority of us who aim to get up as late as possible. Then at 6:30 while the lights were still off and most girls were still sleeping (lucky them!) one of the girls slipped off the bunk bed ladder falling on her back on the hard cement floor letting out some scary moans. Another sponsor and I rushed to her. At first she wasn’t moving and barely talking. I rushed to get her youth minister fearing that we would be calling 911 soon. Thankfully she started moving some more and was just extremely soar the rest of the retreat. She sure gave everyone an awful scare. With only 5 hours of sleep, I longed for those days in college when I could function quite well on little sleep. Seriously though, who gets up 3 hours early to get ready for a retreat? The girls were from another youth group that went with us. I am glad my girls are a lot less maintenance. The next night before I turned the lights out I told them that they weren’t allowed up before 7:15. I have never had to do this before, but most of the other girls thanked me.
It did make me feel better when I was complimenting a high school boy from another youth group about his ACU T-shirt. I asked if he planned to go to college at ACU and where he was from. We talked for a little bit and then he asked where I was from. I told him where I was from and that I was Wes’ wife. He got a little embarrassed and said he thought I was a teen.

Here are some pictures from this weekend...

The Park Avenue Gang!


You all crack me up!


The "band" singing Sadie Hawkins Dance.

Wes, the "wanna-be" keyboard player for the band.


Trying to choke Heath with his tie.


Okay, I guess I am getting older...
I taught these girls when they were in the 4th grade,
and now they are sophomores.

ROAD TRIP

This past Thursday we went to Georgetown and Austin. Wes did some premarital counseling with a couple he will marry in the spring. We spent the night with our friends, Heather and Monty McCulley. We get to see them every year at Camp Cornerstone where we take our middle schoolers and also at the National Conference of Youth Ministries. Their son, Caleb, and our girls had a ball together playing with remote cars and other boy toys. Maybe I should get them some boy toys for Christmas?

Friday morning we went to the Austin Children's Museum which was very neat. I highly recommend taking your children there if you are ever in Austin. Their website is: http://www.austinkids.org/ There are lots of fun hands-on centers for the kids to play/learn in.

We spent Friday night with Wes' aunt and uncle who live by Lake Travis. Saturday we got to watch his cousin's playoff football game.

Abby learning about milking a cow.


Thankfully, Avery didn't ask many questions about what she was doing to the cow.


"Daddy, you took me to get my flu shot so I am going to get you back by giving you a shot!"


"Abby, what would you like to buy today?"


The girls gettin' down with the band. Avery was thrilled to dress up!



"Let's be beavers!"


"I love slides!"


Playing in the eagle's nest.


"Let's join the chipmunks in the tree."


"We have lots of work to do on this house."

HAVE A HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Three Year Old Tales

Avery is three and I am loving this age! Most of the time she is sweet and has the cutest things to say. She is fun to talk to and thinks her parents are the best. She is always surprising us with what she knows and understands. She is a ball of energy - I wish she would share some with me. Here are some things she has said recently.

"Mommy, Abby is on the guessing bed!" (the guest bed)

(I was doing a little chant/jig while she was brushing her teeth.) "You work it funny, Mommy!"

"My tummy is hungry!"

(I asked her another day if her tummy was hungry.) "I sure hope so!"

(Yesterday, she greeted Abby, who had just woken up from her nap, with these words.) "Abby, here is your sister!"

"Abby, you look gorgeous!"

"That was just my leg moving. I didn't toot." (in her booster seat at lunch one day)

(She was acting pretty flirty with one of our youth group boys. We asked her if she thought he was cute.) "No, he's gorgeous!"

(a song she made up at dinner the other day)

"Shake you eyes.
Shake your head.
And shake your elbows before that."

(She came home from preschool singing this song she has learned. It is sung to the tune of I'm a Little Tea Pot.)

"I'm a little Indian on the go.
Here is my arrow, here is my bow.
When I go a huntin' hear me shout,
BEARS AND BUFFALOS, YOU BETTER WATCH OUT!"

Avery dancing with Heath at our high school devo last night.
She is an Indian/Cowboys Cheerleader.

Isn't funny how you are proud of the silliest things when you become a parent? For example, Abby has not taken off her pajamas after she has woken up for two mornings now. Yeah! Also, she kept her cute pig-tails in last night while we had the teens over, as well as the whole time she was playing with the other kids during my ladies Bible study.

She gave into Avery's request for her to wear the ballerina costume! What a sweet sister!

The Power of a Praying Wife and Parent

A couple of months ago our Wednesday night ladies class coordinator (as well as an elder's wife) asked if I would speak to the class sometime on The Power of a Praying Wife and The Power of a Praying Parent. Immediately I began to dread speaking infront of 40 ladies, many of whom are older and much wiser than me. I began to think of some excuse I could offer her. Deep down inside I knew it was something I should do, even though I don't feel gifted in the area of teaching ladies Bible class. I enjoy teaching children and teens, but I get extremely nervous teaching the ladies class. I guess I feel like the majority of them have more life experience than I do. Why should they listen to me? Well, I agreed to teach, just like I do every time, and then I volunteered some of the ladies in my Bible study group to help. They weren't too excited at first either, but they graciously agreed to teach with me.

My friends and I have been studying these two books by Stormie Omartian at our Tuesday Morning Bible Study. Studying these books with the ladies helped us to focus our praying and taught us many ways to pray for our children and spouse. I highly recommend them.

Here is some of what we shared with the ladies class this past Wednesday night.

Praying for your child or husband is not a means of gaining control over your child or husband. In fact, it is the opposite. It is releasing that power and relying on God’s power to transform US, (YES, US) our children, and our husbands. It’s a way to invite God’s power into our husband’s and children’s lives for his greatest blessing, which is ultimately ours too.

Praying gives you hope. God can restore all that we as humans have messed up. We can trust Him to take away the pain, hopelessness, hardness, and unforgiveness. Only the Lord is perfect. We need to look to Him as the source of all we want to see happen in our family, instead of thinking “If our husband and kids would just listen and follow what I have to say things would be great.” It is our responsibility to pray. It’s God’s job to answer. Leave it in His hands. We also have to realize that God doesn’t always answer our prayers like we want. That is part of releasing that CONTROL. He knows what is best for us. We can’t change our husbands or children. However, God can.

Many times God has to change us to make situations better. We have to be open to the fact that we might need to change. Sometimes we might need to pray “Lord, change me”. Pray that you will be your husband’s helpmate, companion, champion, friend, and support.

We discussed specific areas of their husband and children's lives they could cover with prayer, giving them some personal testimonies. Then we left them with one final thought.

Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers a multitude of sins.
(I Peter 4:8)

We can never be the perfect mother or wife. What will cover the places where we miss the mark as a wife and as a parent? LOVE Pray that God helps you love your child and husband with such unconditional love that it smoothes all the rough places, heals all wounds, and covers your weaknesses.

Needless to say, I am glad we have it over with. My dear friends did a wonderful job speaking from their hearts. I haved learned so much from them and am thankful for our friendship.

God often calls us to step out of our comfort zone and this was certainly one of those times. I also have to remember that just because my friends and I were younger than many of the ladies in that class, I believe that God still used us to touch their hearts. I know I am constantly learning about God from the precious teens we work with.

Halloween Memories

Here we are at our church's Fall Festival. It was wonderful having my dad there. We are enjoying having him so close now! The girls get sad every time he leaves. Yes, that is a spider headband on my head. I borrowed it from one of Avery's many costumes. This is the only article of clothing I can borrow from her right now.

Avery sampling some of her Halloween candy. Yum! Yum!

Abby in a weird daze from trying many types of candy for the very first time. "I'm not sure I understand all of this - but I do know I like that candy stuff! Mom and Dad have really been holding back. What else have I been missing out on?"

Halloween Happiness

God brings us so much joy through our little girls! We had a wonderful Halloween this year! We went to Avery's preschool Fall Festival, a Halloween party at the Denison Library during 'Story Time', and our church's Fall Festival. They had a ball playing all the games, but the biggest hits were both bounce houses at the fall festivals. It was cute to watch Abby just sitting there while the other kids bounced her high in the air. Avery would have stayed in there all night if we hadn't encouraged her to try some games. Our girls came home with a ton of candy; so much that they didn't notice when, after running out of candy, we gave a little of their's away to neighborhood trick-or-treaters. We really aren't cruel parents, they just didn't need that much candy. A month ago I had to finally throw out EASTER candy they hadn't eaten!

You'd think Avery would be costumed out, but that girl loves to play dress up. She still puts on her Care Bear outfit every day even if it is 85 degrees outside. She assumes since she wants to dress up that Abby does too. "Mommy, Abby wants to put the ballerina costume on." Oh, really Avery? Did she tell you that? If you ask me, it looks like she'd rather wear her birthday suit. There's rarely a time around here lately that Abby's not dressing or undressing. I go in to get her out of her crib and there she stands with her shirt in one hand and her pants in the other. I'm not sure if she thinks she looks good in a diaper or if she's hoping for a future as a stripper. 'The Power of a Praying Parent' did NOT have a chapter on this!

Here Goes...

Well, I have decided to try out this "blogging" thing. I have really enjoyed reading my friend's blogs and thought I would join the world of blogging! I am excited about sharing our lives and keeping in touch with friends. Wes and I are off to go Christmas shopping without the girls. I'll post more later...