A quote...

Searching and doing various things online yesterday, I came across this...I'm not sure that I have any specific commentary on it...but it just convicted me;

"What the Church needs to-day is not more machinery or better, not new organizations or more and novel methods, but men whom the Holy Ghost can use -- men of prayer, men mighty in prayer. The Holy Ghost does not flow through methods, but through men. He does not come on machinery, but on men. He does not anoint plans, but men -- men of prayer." -E.M. Bounds

Happy Belated Birthday Hannah!

I failed to post my usual "Happy Birthday" message last Friday to Hannah. She is the big 1!!! Saturday we went to her Luau party. It was a great time despite her being a little sick. It's always fun to get together with the family. We have had a lot of fun living so close and getting to be so involved in watching her grow up and spend so much time with them. It has truly been a blessing. Julie wrote a little more about it and has more pictures on Count Your Blessings, their blog.

I am disappointed we didn't take more pictures...but these are a few of what we did get.

Hannah playing in the "hot tub". The kids decided that was the hot tub because the water was warmer than the big pool.Those kabobs were really good. G did a great job grilling!

We were even treated with frozen strawberry lemonade drinks!! They were super sweet!

She managed to get icing just about everywhere, arms, legs, belly, etc. She clearly had no hesitation about digging in.

Caitlin's visit

Last week Caitlin was here visiting. She stayed for 5 nights. During the day Caitlin and I filled our time with swimming, baking, computer games, shopping, etc. At night we would wait for George to come home and have dinner and spend the evening together either hanging out by the pool or some other adventure we had planned.

A few noteworthy things...Tuesday Caitlin and I baked cookies in the morning, then delivered them to her dad, Uncle George, and Uncle Ben and Aunt Julie. When I handed her the mixer she said, "This is my favorite part!" I thought she was excited about using the mixer by herself, come to find out...she just wanted to lick the beaters.



Caitlin loves dinosaurs, which is quite surprising considering how "girly" she is. So as our very special thing of the week we went to T-Rex Cafe for dinner Tuesday evening. For those of you who know Rainforest Cafe...imagine that, with dinosaurs instead. In addition to their huge moving dinosaurs, skeletons, live fish, and gift shop, they also had an area where children could dig up dinosaur bones. Each child received a small paintbrush to gently brush away the sand from the bones. Unfortunately the camera was left at home so we didn't get any pictures of the adventure. Caitlin loved every minute of it. She repeatedly showed her appreciation as she hugged us saying, "I love you, I love you".

Wednesday Aunt Julie and Cousin Hannah joined us for a trip to the Kansas City Zoo. It was not exactly the best idea on my part. I had never been to the KC zoo and didn't realize how spread out it was. It was an incredibly hot day to say the least and there was very little shade. Once we found some shade we stopped awhile to drink and cool off. As we sat there Hannah became sick with a rash of some sort and we decided it was best to just go home. Thankfully we were all agreed, even Caitlin, "Aunt E," she said, "It's hot, maybe if it cools off this afternoon we can go swimming." She ended up spending the afternoon swimming and playing with her daddy at Uncle Ben's house.

Caitlin was able to feed the goats right after we arrived at the zoo...she thought it was pretty cool.

All in all, we had a great time. I had been a little worried about how she would sleep at night and if she would get homesick, but as she told her mom, "Only once I missed you berry bad" Sometime next month little sister, Emma is going to stay for a visit as well...I think we might only do a couple of days for that visit. :)

Morning at the ball park

A week and a half ago we headed up to Kirksville, MO for George to fill a preaching appointment. We had a great time. I went to college there and lived there for 4 years. It was fun to show him around campus and the different sights around town. We had a wonderful time with the members of Hazelcreek Church and Lord willing will go again for another church meeting sometime next month.

On the way out of Kansas City we were able to stop and watch Daniel play in a Special Olympics softball tournament. Mom wrote on her blog about it and shared a few pictures...but just in case you missed them...here are a few of our own.

Last day of vacation!

Well, this post will sum up all of our vacation travels. We arrived in Dallas mid-afternoon on the 3rd to meet my Aunt LeAnne (mom's sister). We picked her up and headed over to Uncle Jeff's house (my mom's brother). The evening was very casual and relaxed. We went out for pizza then visited until early morning. On the 4th we slept late, and sat around the breakfast table a long time just catching up. George, Aunt LeAnne, and I ran to a fancy grocery store to pick up a few more things for lunch. I've never seen such a produce selection in my life!! Plus they had a whole wall of specialty cheeses. It was quite the experience. After a delicious lunch we had to say farewell and get on the road. Overall it was a wonderful trip full of friends and family. We couldn't have asked for anything more.

Uncle Jeff and Aunt Paula

Aunt LeAnne