Show Us Your Life- Your Church

I'm linking up with Kelly's Korner today to share our church! 

A month before our first anniversary and two months before Anna-Kate was due, Derek started preaching at his father's hometown church in Lepanto.

It was an hour and a half drive, every weekend but we agreed it was the right thing for our family. 

There were so many difficult things about being away every single weekend but it was a HUGE blessing! 

Derek and I grew so close to the families there. I know that Derek enjoyed getting to share such a special place with his own family. 

Just a few years before Derek started preaching, his grandfather passed away. His grandfather was an amazing leader in that church. For many reasons, being in that church every week was healing. I know that it was a challenge but I think Derek felt his grandfather with him when he was there. 

The Sunday after Christmas, Derek and I said our goodbyes. It was extremely difficult but the church needed a minister who could live in town and we were ready to stay put on the weekends. 

When we came back from Franklin, we stopped and I made some pictures of the church and the town. 

Our little Lepanto church

The parsonage. We spent a lot of weekends in this house. The first night that Anna-Kate slept all the way through was in this house.

This is one of the streets downtown. I love this town! :)

Another downtown shot... 

This is the last one. I just love it here.

(ps. Sorry to all you photogs- I like to play around with color in my pictures...)

In January we became "full-time" members of the church that Derek and I had been attending on Wednesday nights. It is conveniently located right across the street!

Derek and I visited several different churches before we started at Lepanto but we never found a "home." Lepanto taught me more about a loving church family and helped me to realize that our Searcy home was at Westside.

I'm so glad we made that choice. The friends that we have made there are wonderful. They have a pretty close-knit group of young marrieds, many of them have children near Anna-Kate and Thomas' age. We have enjoyed the lessons from the minister and it's been so nice to have Derek in the pew with me!

The classes for the little ones have been wonderful too. Anna-Kate is learning so much! She loves her teachers too. On Sunday nights, they have a special class for little ones called "Christian Soldiers." Anna-Kate loves going. She always asks during the week if it's time for Christian soldiers! haha.

The nursery is wonderful too. I try really hard to keep Thomas in church for as long as possible, but he gets really stir crazy. It seems like he just wants to get down and play and talk. If the girls make a noise, he has to compete with them! Usually, we have to take him out because he is so restless.

Sunday mornings with little ones are tough! I'm always looking for quiet "pew activities" and ideas. (So if you have anything... please share!!) I usually pack a couple of books and a coloring book or notepad and crayons. I try to pack a few quiet toys for Thomas but most of them get thrown right in the floor... or he finds a way to make them noisy. Anna-Kate enjoys taking her baby doll to church too. I have a little magnetic dress up doll that she likes to take sometimes too. I try to let her pack a bag (with supervision) so that things kind of rotate in and out according to what she is interested in.

Wednesday nights Derek and I host a home Bible study. We decided to start doing that this fall so we could branch out and make some new friends. It has been so wonderful doing this! It's really easy for people with young children, since we are right across the street.

I'm standing in our yard. We have no trouble with finding a parking spot! :)

Sorry for the terrible picture!

I've enjoyed getting to link up with Kelly's Korner and share our churches with you! God has richly blessed us with two wonderful congregations and lots of loving family!

Link up and play along too! 

Christmas in Franklin Part 3

Hey guess what... 

this is my final Christmas 2010 post! ha! 

Thursday morning we had a girls breakfast with my sister, Sara, before she went to work. After that my Grandmother, Anna-Kate and I went shopping! We needed a few things for our family gift exchange that night. 

We had a lot of fun shopping but poor Anna-Kate was worn out and she got drug from grown up store to grown up store! I decided to give her a special treat and let her visit the candy store. It's one of those grab a bag and scoop and fill places. Anna-Kate's eyes were huge when she realized that she could get any candy she wanted and as much as she wanted. I think she had a lot of fun scooping out the candy and it helped redirect her. Of course I watched how much she ate and she never really ate very much but it was the whole experience that she really enjoyed. Sometimes I think that's important. I worry so much about making sure they eat healthy and so I hold back on things. But I do like to let go every so often and just let her be a kid. 

We enjoyed a laid back day and then went to spend time with family. 

This is one of my favorite family gatherings... I really love them all but I always get one of my favorite things at this one. Boiled custard!! My grandfather's sister probably makes the best boiled custard! I'm still craving it. One glass was just not enough! ;) 

Of course I love getting to spend time with that side of the family too! 

Thomas decided to kick his legs up after dinner! haha! We all thought it was pretty funny! 

Greer is one of Anna-Kate's idols... this night she passed her love for shoes to Anna-Kate... 

monkey see, monkey do... :) I love this! 

She did have tights on but decided she was too big for them- after all Greer wasn't wearing any! You'd be amazed by how much Greer motivates Anna-Kate to wear a certain outfit or a certain night gown... even 6 hours away! 

We had so much fun! Plus we got to take home the cutest little basket. I'm going to put this in our playroom and put the kids toys in! The basket also had several Tennessee goodies, including the neatest little Franklin plate! 

We packed the car that night and headed out Friday morning. 

Anna-Kate does so good watching movies!! We had the best ride back! :) 

The entire back of the car was stuffed full! It was crazy! 

We stopped in Lepanto before heading home, but that's a whole other post! :) 

It is always so nice to go and visit my family. I love seeing everyone. I especially enjoy getting to share my children with so many members of my family. I hope that Anna-Kate and Thomas will share the same love for Franklin as I do when they get older. 

But as good of a trip as it was, there's no place like home! 

Christmas in Franklin

We left Searcy on Monday morning to go visit my family in Franklin. Anna-Kate and Thomas did pretty good in the car- thank goodness! It is about a 5-6 hour drive, so that's not easy on a little one. 

When we got to my grandparents, we visited and then they let us open gifts. (I left my camera in the car so I don't have any pictures of that!) One of the things Thomas got was a tickle me elmo. I thought he would love it, but it completely scared him! Elmo starts off standing up and then laughs so hard he falls on his bottom and then lays on the floor. He eventually stands up but it's all the movement that frightens Thomas! I tried to get him over the fear but he's still not impressed. 

My grandmother completely surprised us with a dual screen portable dvd player for our car!! We were SO excited! Our car has never been quieter! :) 

After we exchanged gifts we got ready to go see my Dad and his side of the family. Two of my Dad's sisters came and their children and grandchildren! It was pretty crazy! Thomas and Anna-Kate had so many babies to play with! It was so much fun because I know that is how it was for my dad when we were all younger. 

There were a lot of people and it was pretty crazy so it took Thomas and Anna-Kate quite a while to warm up. 

We ate and visited and then we decided to attempt a picture of all our little ones! 

Thomas and my nephew Luke

Here goes: Luke (7 months), Anna-Kate (3 1/2), Thomas (14 months), Declan (5 years), Kara (8 months), Miles (almost 3), Willow (8), Edan (9 months), and Emberly (4 months)

We exchanged a few gifts. Let me just say, when you are 3 1/2 and are on your 7th Christmas "party" you start to expect presents at every gathering. I'm embarrassed to say that's how Anna-Kate acted! ha. She started seeing gifts and saying "I want to open presents." Then we would open gifts and she would say "I want more presents" or "I never get any presents" haha. It was so bad! Oh man. Thankfully, we are on present detox and hopefully by her birthday she won't be so greedy!  

When I was going through my pictures I found this one. Looks like Aunt Jessie and Anna-Kate "borrowed" mommy's camera! Too cute! 

As we were wrapping up I walked in the other room and caught Anna-Kate, Willow and Declan hanging out in the recliner. 

We had so much fun visiting with everyone. I especially loved getting to see family that I haven't seen in forever! 

Quick Trip to Saint Louis

So last Tuesday I got a text message from Derek when he was in class. It said, 

"I just won two tickets to next Tuesday's Cardinals Game!!" 

Apparently Derek answered a trivia question on Twitter and he won the tickets! 

Crazy.

He really does have all the luck.

Even crazier is that we decided to go! 

Thomas and Anna-Kate both had a check up scheduled for the morning so we just left after that. Thomas slept most of the way and Anna-Kate slept about half of the trip. They were both really good on the drive! 

When we got into town we had a little time to kill before we met up with two of Derek's cousins so I snapped a few pictures of Thomas and Anna-Kate. 

I can not tell you how much I LOVE Thomas' face in this one! 

By a few I meant a lot of pictures... :)

We met up at a place called Pi Pizzeria. It was such a good, deep-dish pizza!  Derek hadn't seen his family there in years, so it was a lot of fun visiting with them! We are going to have to see them every time we go now! 

After dinner, we went to the game. We were amazed by the awesome seats we got! Derek kept waiting on a home run to come our way while I secretly hoped it wouldn't! ha! Seriously a flying ball with two children by me... no thank you! :)  As cool as it would have been... they stayed away. 

The game was SO hot! Poor Anna-Kate was a sweaty mess! Even Thomas was hot! 

The Cardinals had a good lead by the end of the 7th inning and the kids were getting really tired, so Derek and I decided to walk the park a bit and head on out. Anna-Kate and Thomas were sound asleep before we even got out of the parking garage, and the game ended shortly after that. 

We headed back to Searcy after the game! The first bit of the drive went pretty fast but about 2:00, Derek and I started getting tired. Thankfully we made it home about 3:30! 

Derek and I are absolutely crazy for doing a turn-around trip but he only had one day he could take off and he loves the Cardinals, so we knew we had to take advantage of the tickets! We were really glad we went! 

25 or 6 to 4

I really couldn't come up with a good title for this post since it covers so much so I just used the title of my favorite song of all time.

Christmas was a blur for the most part. We spent time in Lepanto with my Dad's family which was a blast. I love the Kelsos (Dad's cousins). They're so much fun. We did a dirty Christmas present swap and our choice of a pig cookie jar worked out perfect for Steve who got stuck with it. Could not have been better. We went from there to Franklin for about a week and enjoyed a couple nights with Nicki's dad before spending a few days at her Grandparents. I finally got to meet Sara's man Jeremy and I absolutely loved him (in a completely heterosexually way of course). Finally we got back home to have Christmas as a family. By the time we got back I was fairly stressed with all the travel and ready for 2009.

We rang in the new year with my mom's family in Fayetteville. It was good to see them after a long time away. We spend the first day of the year with some good family friends, the Hankins. Steve Hankins was a college friend of Dad's at Harding and a former executive at Tyson Chicken.

After returning home we were blessed with the good news that T Lamarr was ready to hire Nicki full-time. I am so proud of her. She is such a true professional. She's up every morning at 5 and out the door by 6:15. I've even started getting up with her so we have more time together. It isn't all roses. We miss each other plenty but with me still busy with school it seems like it may get easier over time.

In addition to Nicki's career advancement, Little Miss Baby Cakes is growing like a weed. We don't have many new pics since Nicki left her camera in Franklin. She got a baby doll and she loves to hold it, rock it, feed it, etc. She is getting so mature and I am one proud daddy.

As for me, I'm finishing my final 6 hours of undergrad and am already doing some grad work. I hope to walk with my BBA in May and my MBA in 2010. I hope to have a job by May here in Searcy somewhere in the banking industry. I have become very facinated with it recently....yeah I'm a dork.

It's been tough lately watching all of my friends working and seeing Nicki having career success while I'm still in school. I'm so ready to be done. So far so good though, we are moving into that adult phase of our lives, family, jobs, and no Spring Break!!

Thanksgiving

Sounds strange to say it but this is my last Thanksgiving break. Since Nicki and I will be part of the "real world" next year we won't have the luxury of a whole week off to travel and see family. That being said, we are taking full advantage this week.

Nicki hitched a ride yesterday with a couple of friends and took herself and the baby to Franklin, TN where we will be spending the break. I have a dinner to attend Monday night plus regular weekend preaching duties so I will be following her early Tuesday morning. I can' remember the last time I spent four whole nights away from the two of them. It seems like forever but I hope it flys cause I love being with them, especially in Franklin. I am looking very forward to seeing that side of the family since it's been four months since the last visit.

In the mean time I am working on moving some stuff out of my parents attic and into my attic....kind of makes me wonder why I even have all of that stuff but I'm sure there was a reason at one time. I got so geared up last night moving it all that I kept going and got to a lot of projects that I had been putting off for lack of time and motivation. Today I hope to get to the leaf raking and maybe cleaning out my shed (future man cave...stay tuned for more on that :)

All in all this a much needed break and I am ready for every second of it. Pictures of our Franklin adventure should be up in the next few days. Till then....farewell.

What a Difference a Week Makes!

So judging by the last post I had things pretty well planned out. Things never go like you plan them. I am sitting here in my living room at 7:50 on Thursday morning as my friends leave town to go to Chicago. I have three holes in my stomach and I'm not sure what happened at that Gospel Meeting last week.

How did I get here? Well it all started last Thursday when we went to Lepanto to prepare for the meeting. Things were all set for Mel to come on Friday with his family and things were of to a great start. Friday morning I awoke with some slight stomach discomfort. A couple of hours later it went away and I thought nothing of my morning indigestion. Saturday morning I had it again...this time it hung around. By 5 p.m. I had severe discomfort and had thrown up nine times. Off the the emergency room we went.

One CAT scan later and I learned that I had appendicitis. My dad jokes that he didn't need a $500 scan to tell him I was full of crap but that's my dad for ya. So on Sunday (yes, my birthday) I had my appendix removed. Recovery went fairly well and I was home by Tuesday. Now it was time to decide about that trip. I wanted to go of course but I felt like it was a bit inappropriate to go running off on my wife and kid after they just spend 4 days worrying and caring for me. After MUCH deliberation and last second flip-flopping I decided to stay.

Am I disappointed? Yes. Is this the right call....without a doubt.

Sometimes I wish like nothing else that I could do the right thing and have no second thoughts about it. It feels like it's more altruistic that way. But I am human and I guess it just reinforces the idea that doing the right thing is hard but still right. I know they need me here and yet I feel bad being disappointed about missing the trip.

I remember my father passing up at least two job promotions (there were certainly more I don't know about) to keep my family in Searcy. When I think about how much he has sacrificed for me I have no choice when it comes to my family. If he can pass on his career, a stupid baseball game can certainly wait.

I hope the guys have fun. As for me, I'll catch the game on TV...with my family by my side.

Independence Day Travels

Happy 4th of July to all of you. Hope your plans go well for the extended weekend. As for our family we're off to Franklin, TN. Franklin is Nicki's hometown and if you've never been it is absolutely beautiful.

Traveling on weekends s tought with my job but we do our best. After Nicki get's home from work in just about 30 minutes we will pack up, eat supper, and then head to Lepanto. This will give us a chance to rest up at the house and wake up two hours closer to Franklin. That's a big help with a baby who doesn't take to well to 6 hour drives.

We'll be headed back on Saturday afternoon and I will preach on Sunday as usual. Pretty quick turn around but its always worth it to see the family. Wish us luck and say a prayer...Anna-Kate is cutting a tooth. This may be a long weekend.