Titus & Ladan Turn 7

Late June we made the hike back up to St. Louis. We had a good deal of meetings for HVG and Vernon was scheduled to preach the last weekend of June in O'fallon, so we made a week of it. It just so happened that that particular week was Titus' birthday. If you have been around the blog long you know we do parties...and I mean DO parties. We love having people over and making a big fuss over whomever's special day it is. Sooo, since Titus would not get his big party here in TX we through a family party in Missouri! Vernon's sister, Phyills and her family came over from IL and stayed the entire week! It was our nephew Ladan's birthday week as well (phyllis's son) because the boys are only a bit over a week apart!

We had a ball. We did all kinds of things that week:: we played in the water, went to the science center, made stepping stones, the kids watch movies with Grandma, visited friends and much more. Vernon worked, went to meetings, worked some more and Phyllis & I and the kiddos, well, we just had fun!! It was awesome. Here are some fun pictures::

Phyllis and I attempted making Lego cakes.

making stepping stones

movies w/ Grandma

A Dino-Mite Time

haha! That might be the cheesiest title you'll ever get out of me, but hey 3 year olds tend to do that to ya. This week, Justus turns 3 **sigh, deep breath** yep t.h.r.e.e. As in not a baby, not a toddler, a **another deep breath** preschooler. yep. thats what I said, a preschooler. crazy.

Justus doesn't actually turn 3 until this coming weekend but Vernon was going to be out of the country the next few weekends and not home for another weekend until mid June, so we decided to party this weekend! It was planned on a whim because we had previously planned to be in Austin but ended up having to cancel those plans at the last minute. SO I threw together a fun little party and friends were able to make it! Justus loves dinosaurs so it seemed fitting to have a Dinosaur theme. It was so fun. Dino-rific to keep the theme rolling :)

I loaned my camera to a friend that needed it to shoot a wedding, so I borrowed Lauren's and Keri's (moms who were at the party) then dumped them onto my computer before they left! Thanks girls for letting me use yalls!

We had a Dino Dig ::

we hid eggs filled with mini dinosaurs and cardboard cut out bones. The kids dug to find the dinosaur eggs and bones. It was a hit!

We had a Dinosaur Egg relay::

Pin the Tale On The Dinosaur::

And a Texas party is not complete with out::

A pinata ::

And a whole bunch of fun::

Easter Weekend

We had a fantastic Easter weekend this year. We are showered with good friends who are now as dear to us as family. Living so far from our families is hard at times and holidays tend to make us remember this reality. Last year in MO was the first Easter of Titus life (that he is able to remember:: so since he was 2) that we did not spend the weekend in Irving celebrating with friends and serving South Irving. We were so fortunate to jump right back in to our "tradition" of spending Saturday morning with friends at FBCI and Sunday afternoon at The Durham's. Thanks to all our friends who have warmly welcomed us right back into your lives after being gone 1.5 years. We love y'all to the moon!!! (and our families appreciate your kindness towards us as we are so far from them!)

One of our "traditions" on Saturday morning of Easter weekend, is to attempt to get a decent picture of all the kiddos together. As you will see below, we've come a long way in the past few years :)

2009:: priceless::

2011::

I mean, can you handle this picture! I love it!

And since we are far from home I thought I would include some pictures of the boys in their Easter garb so that all the friends and family could enjoy their cuteness too!

Justus:: 2 years old

Titus:: 6 years old

Every Easter Sunday we go to The Durham's house for a fantastic meal. The Durham's have families and singles over for Easter Dinner who do not have family around DFW to celebrate with. Every year it is such a blast! Pastor John hides a bag of goodies for each person around the house and we all have to hunt...yes, even the adults. Here is a picture of Pastor John playing with Spy Gear w/ Titus after we opened all our goodie bags. He is one of the coolest Pastor's we've ever known. Around The Durham's you, no matter how old you are, always feel important and loved.

Well that's a wrap folks. Its a month late but better late than never.

Chem 6A and The Musings of A Six Year Old Boy

We love to read. We read children's books, classics, new books, fiction, non-fiction, serious and not serious at all. We don't have TV (before you make any assertions, positive or negative, we get plenty of media via a dvd player & the Internet). This is something we love but at times creates hilarious situations. For example, the boys rarely see commercials, so when they do, the advertisement really works. Its like they think they HAVE to have whatever they saw advertised and can tell you EVERYTHING about it after seeing it once on a commercial. So, dear advertising/marketing people, you are still fooling my 6 year old. No matter how much we try to convince Titus that things are not, or may not be as they seem on said advertisement, he is vehement against such charges....I digress.

Sorry, back to reading a lot. When the Narnia films started to make their way into the theaters, we decided we wanted to read the series to Titus before we let him see the films. We did pretty good with Lion, Witch and The Wardrobe and then we read The Magicians Nephew, as we predicted wrong and they produced Prince Caspian next. So we got behind. And Titus had to wait to see Prince Caspian. This is where the hilarity comes in. We were out searching for a version of The Voyage of The Dawn Treader that had bigger pages and more pictures. (non film version pictures) and Titus said, "why are we reading them first anyway, there are so many things that the book got wrong anyway." I am sure I gasped loudly in the store and sternly put him in his rightful place. (joking.......kinda :) Since this moment he has not let up. Titus is convinced that the books are wrong and the movie is right. We have explained it every which way, even down to time lines but alas he will not give in. He even brought it up to a group of friends we went out to dinner with a couple nights ago, like he thought those adults would surely agree with him and speak some sense into us. Little did he know they all, of course, sided with us and that the book in fact DID come before the movie. He was astonished. He could not believe people would think so illogically. It is quite hilarious how worked up he gets about it and how good of arguments he has! This kid!

All of this reminds me, as always, of a song. My life is pretty much themed in songs...if you haven't already gathered that around my blog. That evening around the dinner table with our friends as Titus tried to convince them of their logical fallacies my good friend Stacie, who is my switchfoot-junky-partner-in-crime, leaned over and said, "this reminds me of a certain Switchfoot song," I smiled and nodded as I knew she was certainly talking about the first Switchfoot song I ever heard back in 1998:: Chem 6A. In it is the ever popular line, "I don't wanna read the book, I'll watch the movie." A line I will hear for years to come as we weed our way through the classics of literature. Lets just pray until then that he comes around on his logic skills. ha!

for now, enjoy this video of teenage switchfoot:: you're welcome :)

The Aftermath

You may know that Hillsong United just released a new album entitled "Aftermath." This album has been more than fitting for us as we adjust to life back in Texas. We have the title song "Aftermath" on repeat in our house and our cars. "Lifted out of the wreckage I find hope in the aftermath" is the line my heart sings.

Our life in Missouri was great. The dearest of family and friends were just miles from our reach. We made amazing new friends that somehow now feel as close as family. The Lord gave us all we needed and more as we followed Him to Missouri. I look back at the last year and a half and the words that come to mind are:: refine, realign, refocus, brokeness, humility, redefine, rebuild. After the events of our move back to Texas, aftermath is a great word picture for us. Not that our life was destroyed in anyway physically but spiritually and emotionally our hearts were wrecked and redifined in a beautiful way over the last year.

I know the writers of the song Aftermath had the intentions of illustrating our lives apart from Christ and the wreck we make of ourselves as we seek our own life apart from He who gives life. They wanted, I am sure, to illustrate the hope of being pulled out, set apart for the cause of Christ and I would contend they did an amazing job of that both musically and lyrically.

After a long period of brokeness, humility, hardship, suffering or refining, do you ever feel like you are being pulled from the wreckage? The aftermath of what you just walked through is all around you, the sting of the wound, the stench of that which was peeled away? But in that aftermath, there is some how hope. Hope that you made it through alive and that it was worth it for some reason. Christ pulls you up, dusts you off and cleans your wounds so they can heal.

We are so elated to be back in Texas, a place we never thought we would live again. Its funny how the Lord excites your heart for things you never thought you would be excited about! We love it here more than EVER. We are adjusting to life in Fort Worth, our new Church and loving being close to our sweet friends.

I am a part of a women's Bible Study on Tuesday nights and I mentioned that I was thinking of not blogging anymore because I was pretty sure if I had readers they were not readers anymore because of my lack of posting. It came out that some of those ladies (whom I did not know until last month) actually read my blog! So they encouraged me not to stop. So here I am. In the aftermath. Stop by, I guess, and read as we wade through the beautiful wreckage.

with hope::

Amber

Forced Media Fast

Last week Vernon had the privilege of preaching a revival at a church in the middle of the beautiful country in southwest Missouri. It was a fantastic week. The boys and I were able to go and we all stayed in the Church (it has a room for families to stay in). We knew going into the trip that there would be no cell service and very limited Internet (it is actually easier to get a hold of us in Sudan than in this rural area of MO). We had been wanting to do a "media fast" for a while now so we thought this would be a perfect time.

Those of you who know me know that I am notorious for being bad at returning calls and have been labeled "hard to get a hold of." I was the last person I knew that was my age to get a cell phone (and only did because long distance was getting expensive talking to Vern). I hated the idea of always being available to all at all times. I go through this same aversion with each new "social media" as they comes out, blogging, facebook, twitter, etc. So the thought of not "being able to be gotten a hold of" was refreshing. A media fast? YES PLEASE!!

Really the honest depths of it is that I dont want the responsibility of responding to such a wide variety of needs/wants. I want control. I want to be in charge of who can and cannot get a hold of me so that I can have control of what comes my way. Now granted, part of this is a good thing. I DO think there is wisdom in protecting your self and not spreading your self thin and baring so many other needs/burdens that you cant care for your own. (or those of your close friends and family) I DO think there is wisdom in setting boundaries and not feeling an excessive amount of responsibility to respond each time you are beckoned. So dont hear me say that everyone should be openly available at all times. Be available :: just keep it balanced!

Since we don't have TV and rarely watch movies, our "media" is the Internet and our iPhones. (and most certainly books but we didn't count those :) On any given month I send/receive approx 1500 text, easy. Each day I check facebook and/or twitter continually through the day as if I really need to know what everyone is doing. I am subscribed to 50+ blogs, send/receive 20+ emails a day and feel compelled to posts random thoughts throughout the day for all to read. None of these things are BAD in and of themselves. They can be used for Godly purposes, "spurring one another on in Love and good deeds" but they MUST remain in check.

Putting them in check is exactly what we did this week and I am so thankful. It was beautiful week. No where to go, no texts, voicemails or emails to respond to, just our family and a fun church family to get to know. It was beautiful and refreshing.

A lot went on in my heart this week regarding media and its role in our life and I highly recommend a small "fast" to all of you. You dont have to be in rural SWMO to turn off your phone and shut your computer. Let the Lord show you where media has led you in to sin, or rather, revealed the sin in your heart. Also, let the Lord show you how you do and can use it for His Glory.

Here are some photos of what we did all day. We did ride four wheelers but I didnt get any pics of it::