Talent Night

This year for the home school talent show, the 'family band' decided play

"How He Loves." (David Crowder's version)

They also decided to do it without Dad,

but he had plenty to do because he was asked to be the MC again this year.

And since Joy has decided that she's done singing in public (or maybe it is just that we are done making her-lol) they 'borrowed' a singer and Joy played her acoustic guitar.

Here are some pictures:

I'm always missing pictures of Zac because he's always in the back in the drum cage...

Our many thanks to Kayla for loaning us her beautiful voice!

They did a great job and were a BIG hit!!!!

Joy was also in a dance. (but my pictures didn't turn out well)

It was a big night for everyone -but me!

I'm not the president this year and enjoyed that my only job was to watch. So, why was it that I was the only one in the family who was nervous?! Who knows, but it was a wonderful night! : )

~Becky

My quiet time

Here is how I've been doing my quiet time since the summer and I love it. I'm reading one chapter in the Pentateuch, (one of the first five books of the Bible)

one in one of the Prophets,

one in Psalms,

one in Proverbs,

one in a Gospel

and one in an Epistle.

(although I don't always get done with all 6 chapters before it is time to wake up our kiddos for school, but I try)

Some other books that have impacted my spiritual walk and are a part of my daily quiet time are:

~Prayers from The Power of a Praying a Wife for my hubby

~Prayers for our four kids from The Power of a Praying Parent

(Stormie Omartian has taught me the power of praying the scriptures)

~ I also pray these specific verses from Luke 2 over our children

~I love Oswald Chambers and like to read the daily reading out of My Utmost for His Highest

~I know for a fact that the spiritual warfare prayer from a book called This Means War has had beyond-huge impact on the lives of my family members and every area of our lives. My hubby and I both try to pray this daily and have for several years. -Although, not together because he is up praying while I'm still dead to the world for about another hour. : )

I haven't actually read that book, but the prayer in it was given to us in a spiritual warfare class we took once and it has been a huge blessing.

My new favorite book that I'm enjoying doing daily readings from is Ann Spangler's Praying the Names of God. It is awesome. When you need healing you can remind yourself that you are talking to Yahweh Rophe -I AM the God who heals you. When you are in a discouraging situation, remember what Hagar found out, that he is El Roi -The God who sees me. And if you are engaged in a spiritual battle, remember that Yahweh Tsebaoth -The captain of the Hosts goes before you and is your rear guard. It is very encouraging and it will liven up your prayer time! I highly recommend it.

May we all grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior this year! : )

~Becky

Hair day

This morning, not long after I got out of the shower, one of our boys said:

"Wow, your hair looks weird. But, it looks like it is ABOUT to look really good."

LOL!!!

Hows that for tact? : )

He's so cute!

~Becky

The days are a blur

We had a small horse, I mean -Max the one year old German Shepherd stay with us for a week. And well, life was busy and exciting to say the least. But nothing broke this time around.

I'm on a scarf knitting binge. But that really needs to turn into a hat knitting because on Feb. 5th our Hats of Hope group is going to pass out hats to the homeless! Yay! We have about 30 so far! We were interviewed for the newspaper too!

I love that my BFF of 20+ years FINALLY got her house and they live 40 minutes from us! We are having lots of fun fellowship with all our kiddos. Hoping her hubby gets a job out here soon.

We helped them get settled in yesterday after waiting for at least 8 weeks for everything to go through with the bank. It was quite a wait, bless their hearts.

My hubby and I went to a youth leaders retreat this weekend. It was so awesome! May we all be impacted by "the letters in RED" this year!

We had a fun family night last night with dinner at Sonic and a movie. (thanks Max!)

I'm sure there is more going on, but its all a blur...

~Becky

Love it

"It is not a diary. It is a captain's log!" : )

~Andrew

~Becky

Special Day!

There's a new adult in the world today! : )

Happy 18th birthday, Zac!!!!

We love you!

~MOM

New years festivities

We had an All-Nighter for the youth group last week. (aka - a "lock in.")

I had basically decided to avoid those like the plague after doing a couple in our own youth ministry years ago, but now I'm the one with the teens and I couldn't resist the plea for more leaders to help.

So, all day, I kept telling myself "I can do all things through Christ." LOL Because I'm sure I haven't stayed up all night since I gave birth to Andrew. ; ) And 10:00 PM to 7:00 AM is a looooooonnnnnngggggg time!

Guess what?! I did stay awake and I had SOOO much fun!!!!

The key, was that they had so many events planned there just about wasn't any down time and that thankfully made it seem like a very quick night!

We saw Tron in 3D at the theater, then played pillow-fight soccer and toilet paper dodge ball. We also went to Bounce U and jumped around on huge inflatables for a couple of hours and ended the night or I guess, started the day, with laser tag in the church building. Great fun.

My sweet hubby picked us up because I didn't thing I had the 30 minute drive home in me and I was right. We all crashed out until about 3:00 PM. Andrew didn't wake up until 5:30 PM and it was pretty cute when he asked me "if all the clocks were wrong." : ) One of the boys informed him that it was his (internal) clock that was wrong.

We were pretty well recovered by New Year's Eve when we went to a bonfire to celebrate with some friends, eat too much and fellowship.

We celebrated the New Year with home improvements!!! Whoo-hoo! Half way through the day I heard my hubby say "Wow, it has been a rough year!" LOL

Carlos did amazing things around here like he always does, and fixed everything in sight! : ) What a blessing!

Happy New Year!

~Becky

Praying for my dad

My dear, sweet dad had emergency bypass surgery on Thursday night.

Praying and wishing I could be in San Diego with him. : (

He's doing well though! Thank the Lord!

~Becky