SPLISH, SPLASH!

I got some cute pictures of the girls the other day in the bath together. They love bath time! I have to admit, it will be nice when they can bathe themselves without my help.






I have been messing with our new camera some more trying to figure it out. We still get so many blurry pictures which can be frustrating! We need to get a professional to help us out. I did learn some more things as read through the directions AGAIN the other night. Here are a few random pictures.

Yes, she is in a costume!

Making music together with harmonicas!

This, That, and the Other

I know I have not written in a while so there is a lot to tell. Avery and Abby had their wellness check-ups a week or so ago. They are both doing great! Abby is just above average on height and weight. Avery is just above average on height and in the 25th percentile with her weight, which explains why so many clothes are very loose around her waist. (Must be nice!) The doctor noticed that Abby's right leg is curved in a little. She said this was fairly common and it usually will just straighten out with more walking and running. She told us not to worry about it and she would check it again next year. I felt bad that I hadn't even noticed it before. Abby had to get one shot for which she did not even cry. This is the second time she has not cried after getting a shot. She just gave the nurse the meanest glare I have ever seen. Avery had to get 3 shots! OUCH! She was tough for the first one and then cried with the last two. Poor girl!

I have been so thankful for the girl's health! They have been extremely healthy children all their lives. Avery has only had one ear infection and puked only once. Abby hasn't ever thrown up and has never had an ear infection. The girls average about 2 colds a year and that is about it. I constantly thank God for giving them such good health. It is a HUGE blessing!

Since Abby was about 9 months or so she has been taking a pacifier just at nap time and at bedtime. We often tried to give it to her during church to keep her quiet, but she unfortunately wouldn't usually take it. A week and a half ago we decided to totally wean her from her pacifier since most doctors say you should at age 2. I dreaded doing this because she did seem to love to sleep with it. She has been so easy to put down to sleep since very early on. We simply would give her pacifier and blankie and she would lay down and immediately go to sleep. It was wonderful! Anyways, the day I decided to take it away I talked with her about it several times throughout the day. I would tell her that she was getting to be such a big girl and didn't need her pacifier anymore. I would ask her, "Does Avery use a pacifier? Does Mommy use a pacifier? Does Daddy use a pacifier?" She would reply, "No" to all of these. After a while she would even say it all herself. She would ask herself the questions and answer herself. It was adorable! That night I didn't give her her pacifier and laid her down with her blankie and a stuffed animal I had been putting her down with to hopefully take the place of the pacifier. I closed the door fully expecting a long night of lots of tears. She didn't utter a sound, not even a peep! Wes and I were shocked, to say the least! She didn't ever ask for her pacifier or fuss about it again! Needless to say, this was an extreme answer to prayers. Do I think it is silly to pray about pacifiers? NOT AT ALL!

The weather has been gorgeous here and we have been taking advantage of it by playing outside with the girls. I have been doing some work in my flower beds and Avery even helped me pull weeds. I wonder how long she will get enjoyment from that. I even took the girls to the park for a picnic the other day. I loaded their battery powered Barbie car too, because there is a great paved path that I thought would be fun for the girls to drive on. I didn't take my camera, but it was a hoot watching Avery drive her and Abby all around. She is definitely not ready for her license. She kept looking off in different directions and before she knew it, she would be off the road. Abby often climbs out while Avery is still driving. She falls and gets right back up. She is very tough!

On Sunday, Wes and I started teaching Avery's Bible class for the Spring quarter. It was a lot of fun. I was a little nervous since I had only taught cradle roll, 4th graders, and the youth group. I did observe the other teacher the week before to get an idea of how to do it. Anyways, they were so cute. They would say the most hilarious things. The lesson was on Jesus calming the storm and at one point we were discussing how big and scary the waves probably were. I asked them if they would be scared. They all replied, "YES" except for one little boy who said, "I wouldn't be scared. I would just go surfing!" This same little boy kept getting Wes' attention by saying, "Hey Man!" Wes finally told him to call him "Wes".

I have enjoyed doing some more scrapbooking lately. For those of you who scrapbook, have you heard of or seen the Wish Blade? This new machine is amazing! My friend told me about it and I saw it on HSN as I was flipping through the channels the other night. Basically it can cut any letter or shape you have on your computer. So you could automatically have any of your fonts or shapes that you already have on your computer cut out. You don't have to purchase certain fonts. You can just use what you already have, make it any size you want, even "weld" the letters together and the Wish Blade will cut it for you. No more buying stickers or QuicKutz fonts. I immediately tried to think of things I own that I could sell on EBay. I think I will have to wait and ask for it for Christmas! :(

Today Wes and I took cupcakes to Avery's preschool class to celebrate her birthday, which is Sunday. It is hard to believe she will be 4! Time is flying too fast!

Here is a funny story about the girls... The other night, Wes asked Abby to please take her bowl of grapes back to the kitchen to eat. She didn't respond at first. (Shocking for a two year old - I know.) He told her again and Avery said, "Daddy, that's just the way she rolls!" She cracks us up!

I had to include this hilarious picture of Wes who still keeps me laughing even after all these years. Okay, I will admit it. Sometimes his humor annoys me, but for the most part I am glad he has a great ability to make people laugh.


If you watch The Office, you get why this is so funny. If you don't watch the office, well, you need to start!

I hope you have enjoyed my ramblings.

MySpace

Wes talked me into getting a myspace. It is a great way to keep up with the teens.

Check it out...

http://www.myspace.com/scrapbookie

("Bookie" is what Wes and I call each other from time to time.)

Colorado...Here We Come!

On Thursday Wes and I flew to Denver where we met up with Paul and Audrey Crabtree, Jamie and Steven Schlegel, Scott Schlegel, and Justin Clem. Jenny joined us the next day. After spending a short time at the Crabtree's house we headed to the snowy mountains. Parts of the trip were a little scary because of the the thick snow, but we made it safely to the beautiful house near Beaver Creek. Wes' great aunt and uncle graciously let us stay in their 5 bedroom, 6 bathroom vacation home for three nights. Thank you Aunt Dianne and Uncle Chick for an awesome place to stay!

Friday and Saturday was spent skiing at Beaver Creek. On Friday we had tons of snow and wind blasts of 70 miles per hour. They closed several lifts due to the bad weather. There were times during skiing that the wind blew the snow so hard it felt like sand was pelting my face. Yes, it was quite painful and sometimes frightening. At one point Jamie and I were on the mountain resting in a restaurant and waiting out the hard wind. The plan was to wait for the others to make a run down the mountain without us, ride the lift back up and we would join them on the way back down. We were hoping the wind would die down, making it easier to see and more comfortable to ski. Unfortunately, during our rest we received a call from the guys saying the lift was closed due to the winds. We couldn't even ride the lift down. Jamie and I had to ski down by ourselves in the bad weather. I know we were both praying and God looked out for us. We made it down safely. At one spot the wind had just knocked over a tree across the path. Thanks Jamie for being there and helping me down. I would have been terrified if I had to go down by myself in that weather. The next day the weather was beautiful! Wes and enjoyed walking through the shops in Beaver Creek Village, and then I read while the others skied. I had enough skiing and enjoyed relaxing with a book.

Besides skiing and shopping, we enjoyed cooking some late breakfasts and our own pizza in a kitchen that fit all of us, eating at some wonderful restaurants, playing some fun games, loosing to Paul in poker, catching up on each other's lives, and laughing at all the guys who haven't changed since college. The house had an outside hot tub where we got relief for our soar muscles. It was amazing to sit out there, soak up the view of the snow capped mountains, the soothing hot water, while parts of our hair froze. We were entertained by a couple of the guys who decided to jump out of the hot tub into the freezing snow.

Well, I had an absolutely wonderful time with everyone. It is always good to catch up on each other's lives, reminisce about ACU days, and laugh, laugh, laugh. We definitely need to do it again sometime! Wes and I are so blessed to have such good friends.

The gang.

Let's go skiing!

Wes did a terrific job driving in these conditions!

One of the slopes.

The amazing house we stayed in. The snow in the yard came up to my knees!

All the girlies!

Digging our trench for our snow war.

Wes and I after some ski runs.

The guys doing their Sing Song faces! They could have done their shows for us, I am sure.

Relaxing in the hot tub!

Birthday Party

Avery and Abby had a Prince and Princess birthday party about a week ago. (Wes and I went on a couple's trip to Colorado four days after that, which is why I am just now posting this. More on that later.)

We had 13 of their friends over to our house to help us celebrate. The festivities included putting on body jewelry, decorating crowns, playing pin the crown on the princess, playing with wands and scepters, and pulling open a princess pinata. They also enjoyed eating a princess cupcake cake with ice cream. We had a full house, but the girls had a blast with all their buddies from church.

For the last two years we have had a combined birthday party for them which works out wonderfully. Their birthdays are close and they have many of the same friends, so it makes sense to combine the parties.






The whole gang!
It sure was tricky trying to get a decent group shot!












Avery and Abby fueling up before they blow out their candles.












What a treat!














Abby was the last one eating and she enjoyed every bite of her cupcake and ice cream.












Avery trying out her roller skating gear.

Towel Time!

These are a few pictures taken recently when the girls stayed at Nana and Paw Paw's house.

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.