Family Time

This summer has been really busy for our family.  Jacob had his first college class and working! Emily has been a huge helper for me this summer watching Hannah and doing some odds and ends jobs an the Autism Center. Jacob and Emily also house sat for my aunt while they were on vacation. Emily spent a couple of days at Disneyland with my mom, aunts, and cousins.  From all the stories I hear they made lots of fun memories! David spent 12 days helping our best friends move from Houston, TX to Gainsville, VA. He spent some time with his family back east also. I have been very busy with work and trying to figure out the budget situation for us.  I have also been very busy trying to keep up with every one's schedules of comings and goings. We really didn't go anywhere big as a family this summer. We did lots of stuff locally, but we did manage to go to Pismo Beach for the day. I have always tried to teach our kids that family time is really important, but as they are getting older and they are developing their own schedules it is getting hard to squeeze in that time.  I cherish every minute I can get us together and do stuff as a family!! This summer has been really hard on me realizing that Jacob & Emily aren't little anymore they are going up to be adults and spreading their wings to fly!! It is exciting to watch what God is doing and going to do in their lives!! Here are a few pictures that Emily snapped while we were gone.

Pavement cruising

Emily got this awesome photo of Hannah and I tonight. She wanted to ride on the longboard, so I held her next to me, and we cruised for a bit. She loved it!

Gotta admit though, it was really hard to keep her on the board and keep us going at the same time.


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Chick-fil-A

Our kids love this place! Tonight was buy any meal get free dessert! Jacob & Hannah enjoying cheesecake



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Ice tea

I LOVE McDonald's ice tea!!



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Uncle David & Eliana

Eliana has warmed up to her Uncle David!

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Baby blankets

First one down





Second one



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Katie!!

I am amazed at this young lady who is 21 years old and living in Uganda to serve Jesus Christ!! She has the most beautiful heart!! She knows how to serve our Lord and Saviour!! She is the foster mother to 13 girls. She serves anyone who comes to her house in need!!  Please keep her in your prayers!!www.kissesforkatie.blogspot.com

Jazmine

Jacob's cat licks the water off the rock!! Her own fresh water fountain!!



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Best Friends

David made it to Houston to help Jeff & Teresa to move to Virginia! Jeff & David are best of buddies!!


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Sleepy Head

She is so tired today! She slept the whole way down to the airport.


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Forever a Family!!

We had a nice evening for Hannah's Gotcha Day. I snapped a few photos of her and she even gave me some smiles! We had pizza from Papa John's and a chocolate cake for dessert!!

Little Miss Bug Eyes!!

Trying to give me a good smile!!

Precious!!

The Kids!!

Growing up to fast!!

Daddy, Hannah & Mama!!! Happy Gotcha Day!!

Goofing off with Daddy!!

I just love these kids!!!

Yummy treat!!

A new yummy treat I found at Sam's Club!!



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Gotcha Day Cake

Emily baked a cake for Hannah's Gotcha Day!!



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Gotcha Day: Three Years Later

Three years ago today the most precious, scared, sick and beautiful little girl entered our lives.  I can't believe it has been three years since we were in China.  I have had so much fun watching her grow up to be this little spit fire of a 4 year old.  I can't imagine what life would be like without her.  God has given us a precious child for us to raise to know HIM as her own someday.  I love listening to her sing songs from the top of her lungs about Jesus. I love her little brown eyes that look up at me daily asking a million and one questions about everything and anything.  I love her cute little button nose. I love the heart that she has for learning.  Hannah we love you so much!!! Happy Gotcha Day or Forever Family Day!!!
Love,
Daddy, Mama, Jacob & Emily

Request from Hannah

Tomorrow nights dinner request from Hannah for Gotcha Day!! Cheese Pizza with Olives and Mac & Cheese!! That sounds interesting to me, but hey if the kid wants it let her have it right??? It is her day tomorrow... I will never forget the night that we got her she was so hungry and scared to death. One of the first things I fed her was olives off of a pizza from Papa John's! She also asked for a cake! I guess this mama needs to get a cake made. I think we even have a Papa John's in town too. Hannah just makes me smile!!

Pizza Delivery in China!!

Pizza anyone!!!

Why Does Gossip Matter So Much!!

“Avoid godless chatter, because those who indulge in it will become more and more ungodly.” (2 Timothy 2:16)

I was checking things on Facebook this morning and someone posted this from Devotions.com I thought this was really good so I wanted to blog about it. I have been trying to instill in our child the harm of gossip and this explains it so well. I think I will be visiting this web site more often.
The devotion is below:

I was in church recently when an old friend of mine came to visit. It was the strangest thing. My wife and I were just talking about him. He was out of work and we felt so sorry for him.

As I watched him take his seat, I couldn’t help but wonder how he was handling his crisis. I not only heard about his misfortune, but I also had the not-so-rare pleasure to hear several conflicting accounts about what had happened. Frankly, I didn’t know what to believe.
Maybe some of these “accounts” were wrong and it really wasn’t his entire fault. After all, I remember when I was in high school, my church once talked about how my dad frequently fell asleep during our pastor’s sermons. What they didn’t know was that he had recently been diagnosed with diabetes and would occasionally doze off because he had not yet learned how to balance his diet with his medication. Sadly, he stopped going to church for a long time until our family’s pastor finally told him, “You come back and feel free to sleep during my sermons anytime. At least your eyes are closed.”

Paul Scott in The Day of the Scorpion wrote, “Ah, well, the truth is one thing, but in a way it’s the other thing, the gossip, that counts. It shows where peoples’ hearts lie.” Isn’t that the cold, hard truth?

Gossip is a frequent topic in the Bible. Obviously God knows that it’s going to take awhile before his opinion about it sinks in. He’s right.

Jesus’ half-brother, James, once wrote, “If anyone considers himself religious and yet does not keep a tight rein on his tongue, he deceives himself and his religion is worthless. (James 1:26) James understood the danger of gossip better than any of Jesus’ disciples. Jesus spent his entire life with James, so James probably knew Jesus better than anyone, including his own mother. He also knew that gossip helped to perpetuate the hatred and envy that destroyed his brother. I think that’s exactly why James devoted a portion of the Book of James to teach us about the nature of gossip. He saw firsthand what can happen when the flames of hatred are fanned by gossip. I think that’s why he said, “the tongue is a small part of the body, but it makes great boasts. Consider what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark.” (James 3:5)

I guess what bothered me most about my friend’s visit was just as were singing praise choruses, someone turned around to me with a “Well-what-do-you-know” look on her face. I didn’t know what else to say except, “He lost his job, you know?” “I know,” she said. “That’s the best Christmas gift I ever got.”

I was stunned by her comment. But I realized as I stood there that I was as much a part of the problem as she was. For all of us, James has something to say about that, too. “With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in God’s likeness.” (James 3:8)

White shirt!!

It seems like every time Jacob scoops up ice cream he flips it on his WHITE t-shirt!


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Camp out

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Girls camp out tonight!

Dessert

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One of my favorite dessert!

25 pounds

Emily & I have been doing Weight Watchers since April. I am very proud of Emily!!! She has had so much determination to lose weight. I joke with her and call her my point police. She hit her 25 lb mark to day. Her total weight loss to date is 27.8 pounds. You rock kid!! I have loved being on this journey with you. Your are a beautiful young lady. I can't wait for us to get to our goal weight to get our new wardrobe!!! I love you Mama!!

Emily holding a 25lb bag of pinto beans!!!

Happy Birthday America!

We had a nice quite 4th of July!! I try to get pictures of the kids on the 4th. It is half way through the year and we usually can get some fun pictures. This year was rather hard to get a good shot. All three of them were goofing off. I did get a couple shots of them. I love it when they are all smiles. Hope everyone had a nice day!!! Happy Birthday America!!

Random 4th of July pictures

ER visit

Jacob scraped his leg pretty bad at Newport Beach when we went to visit the Yarger's. We cleaned his leg up, but I think the damage was already done by the time we got home that night. Jacob woke up this morning with a red circle around one of the sores. I was not happy with that so I loaded him up and we spent the morning in the ER. Boy do we have some stories to tell about that visit. There are some crazy people in the ER. The doctor put him on two different antibiotics. We go to our doctor on Thursday morning for him to get it rechecked.

Bored in the ER

The big sore!!

The whole leg

There is a red circle around this sore!!

Work BBQ

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That's DISGUSTING!

I love Hannah..so very much. She is really adorable with how she talks about things.

SKIM

Here's some footage from the weekend. My buddy Preston made this one, since he's got final cut, and well...I'm stuck working with iMovie. I'll get final cut soon, but for now, enjoy the awesome video he put together! It's really cool!

Mom having surgery

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Mom ready from surgery!!!!

Newport Beach with The Yarger's

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Street Rat, I Don't Buy That.

You think your life sucks? Stuck in traffic, spilled coffee, bad day at school? That PALES in comparison to this kid. Here's hoping this kid goes somewhere in this world after this. I was definitely blown away, and I have no idea what he was actually singing. One of the purest voices in the world.

Respect

Love this poster!!! It is to the point!!