Work Day...

We had QUITE the work day around here! Brodie and I have been challenged lately to put our FAITH into ACTION! A couple of verses that we have listened to teachings on in the past few weeks have made that challenge really surface. One is Matthew 7:21, "Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of Heaven, BUT ONLY HE WHO DOES THE WILL OF MY FATHER WHO IS IN HEAVEN." 
So we've been asking ourselves, "What is His Will?"  To LOVE Him above all else and to LOVE others as He loves. To help the poor and needy. Not just help them, but Scripture says to "spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed." (Isaiah 58:10). And in James we are told, "Do not merely listen to the Word, and so deceive yourselves. DO WHAT IT SAYS." (James 1:22)   We have realized how short we fall in the area of REALLY LOVING others as Jesus loves. 
We want to be ALL about His Will and His Kingdom 
but so often we just end up getting caught up in our own. 


As we have been praying about this and wrestling through our own selfishness, one of the things that has been put on our hearts is to reach out to our neighborhood kids. We are going to invite them over 1 x per month and have pizza, games and teach them about Jesus!!! We are going to open up our garage and hopefully fill it up with kids who need to hear all about Jesus, His love and the Sacrifice He made for them! This left us with a BIG project...cleaning out our entire garage!!! 
We worked as a team and got it done :)


We had one other project today. When we did our devotional time this morning, we prayed about how we can put our faith into action today. As we prayed, Kennady had my Grandpa on her heart, so we decided that we'd call him and take him to lunch (his very favorite thing to do!). Well, when we called, he was out in the backyard trimming some trees - he is 88 years old. So as a family we decided instead of taking him out for lunch, we'd drop by and help him.

He was happy to see us!

Of course, Brodie jumped right in and took over the tree trimming while the kids and I gathered up the branches and began filling the garbage cans with them (the boys did a little sword fighting, too!).  Once the trees were done, Brodie noticed another project that Grandpa could use some help with....

When the big wind storm came through a few weeks ago, his green netting that shades his patio ripped and blew into a big pile at the end of his portico. So Brodie had the great idea to lift Kennady up onto the structure and have her staple it back up. As Brodie was "stunting" her up there, Grandpa said, "You know I have a ladder." 

But Brodie has more fun doing things his own creative way! 

So he got Kennady up there and put her to work!

What a trooper she is to go along with her Daddy's crazy ideas  :)

And now we are off to dinner with Nana and Papa  :)

LOVE Month

We LOVE Valentine's month!!! When the kids were little we used to have "Jesus is LOVE" parties where they would invite their friends over and we would play games, have treats and hear a story about Jesus' love. This year we had a simple dinner at home. Kennady had softball practice and then she and Brodie went straight to cheer practice. While they were gone, the boys and I made a special dinner and decorated for our Family Valentine's dinner!

Keegan and Kolson set the table - they do a great job...they get practice most every night :) They also helped me make dinner! We had PINK salmon (all 3 of our kids' favorite), heart shaped corn bread muffins, spinach with PINK raspberry dressing, and vegetables with RED peppers...we tried to stick with PINK and RED!

Brodie and I LOVED having a special Valentine's Day at home with our kids! Here they are wearing their "early" Valentine's gifts...

Keegan and Kolson got Football jerseys of some of their favorite players and Kennady got clothes for softball and cheer practice  :)

Last weekend.....

We had a lot of FUN things that we did last weekend....
First, we got to spend the afternoon with Claire!!! She is so cute and fun and she is growing so fast!!!

The kids had so much fun playing with her...

And Auntie Julie and I had fun chatting...

Claire loves her owl and she loves it when we make the "hoot-hoot" sound!

After they left, Keegan put together a toy that Nana got for Baby Kaylee (who we are hoping to know who she is soon!)...

He has always been so good at putting things together...I think it comes from all the Lego building!

And since Monday was a holiday, Kennady got to see her life-long friend, Lauren! They made and decorated cookie dough pops and did some pretty great art work!

We LOVE long weekends!!!!!

Football, Softball and Family Fun

We had jersey day at school last week...

And Softball try-outs this week...

Went to the Cabin with Grandma over the weekend and did a little hiking...

Now we are looking forward to a 3 day weekend!!!