Pics

I had to wait until John was awake to do this part. Enjoy!

Future Pastor's wife: Bethany!



Joshua waving "hi"



Josh and Bethany during the game of Pit



Joshua washing dishes, thank you!



Bethany getting ready to go home :(



All five of us together!



Bethany and Me



Joshua, Bethany, and Malachi (he was very sad they were leaving)



Here's a little video of us playing Pit on New Year's Eve. This is a great look into the crazy fun:

Visit from D.C.

Our friends that live in D.C. came for a visit last weekend. Joshua and Bethany were our best friends while we were students here. They moved off campus after the first semester, but there was much driving to their apartments or to ours.

We had a great, great time while they were here. They came in at 11:30 on Friday afternoon. It was an hour later than they were supposed to arrive, but they had inclement weather in Atlanta during their layover. It was great to see them again after being separated for two and a half years. Bethany and I would cook a lot together when they lived in the DFW area and we were excited to cook together again. So after we got home and Malachi started napping we made our way to the grocery store to stock up for the five days they'd be here. I showed her my new favorite grocery store, Central Market. We had a great time just hanging out and talking that day. It was so fun to see how much we've grown over the last 2 1/2 years. They've really matured and it's so obvious when talking to them. Joshua plans on being a Pastor and it really shows that he and Bethany are spending their lives preparing for that future ministry.

We spent the first four days playing games, talking, laughing, going to church, going to the Dallas Zoo, and overall just hanging out.

Monday night we had a New Year's Eve party at our place so that our friends could come meet Josh and Bethany. We ended up with 13 people in our apartment playing Pit, Mafia, and Scene It. The last few people left our place at 3:00am on 1/1/08. We had such a great time that it was worth the lack of sleep.

Tuesday was their last day with us. Malachi got me up at 7:50 and by 8:15 I was back in bed because Joshua came in and said that I could sleep if I wanted. What a blessing that was. John, Bethany, and I didn't get up until after 9:30. We mostly spent that day just hanging out and getting ready for their departure. We left for the airport at 3:15 and said our goodbye's at terminal E. I think it was hardest on Malachi. He started crying when Josh leaned in to say goodbye. I really think Malachi's starting to hate the airport.

John and I hope that we'll get to go see Josh and Bethany later this year. Neither of us has been to D.C. in a long time and we all think that 2 1/2 years is way too long to be apart.

I'm so happy they came to visit. They are such good friends and were such a blessing to us while they were here. They worst thing about their visit was the rooting for the New England Patriots (boo Pats).

Josh and Bethany we love you!

p.s. pics to follow

Quick updates:

1. Christmas was good, Malachi's stuff seems to have doubled and we're not done with it yet.

2. John finished his fall semester and the next day started his winter math class. He starts his spring semester before this math class finishes.

3. Our friends are coming in town tomorrow morning and leave Tuesday afternoon.

4. I may post pictures of Christmas and our friend's visit some time after that.

Merry Christmas everyone and Happy New Year!

Made me weep

Challenge Accepted

My girlfriend Bethany said that her friend challenged her to Blog seven things about herself that are interesting and that are mostly unknown. Since I'm an open book to anyone, this may prove to be a true challenge.

1. The night before (sometimes up to a week before) an event I'm very excited about, I have a very hard time sleeping. This has been going on for years and years and I've yet to try to do anything about it.

2. I love photography. I took four quarters of it in high school and got a D one quarter because I didn't turn in work. My skills have decreased quite a bit, but I'd love to pick it up again.

3. I've had three surgeries in my life but I only have two scars.

4. I love to read, however, if the book isn't full of action I have a hard time getting through it.

5. I'm writing a book on being a child of divorce. It's very, very far from completion but I feel like sharing about my experience and finding out how others coped with it.

6. I love to dress up...for about an hour. Then I want my jeans and t-shirt back.

7. I had migraines when I was a child and again when I was 22 years old. God healed me of them the second time and I haven't had one since (I'm now 26).

Those things seem small, nothing very big was revealed but I have to say that I dug deep for them. I really am an open book.

More Pics

Some pics of the family visiting last month.

Two (2) years old now.

Can you believe that Malachi is two years old? I can't! It doesn't seem like that long ago when he was born. And on the other hand it feels like we've had him as long as we've had our six year marriage. It's hard to remember life with out a child. It seems foreign to be able to sleep in until noon, go where ever you want with whom ever you want with out thinking twice about whether or not it's smoky or too loud or if they serve anything that Malachi will eat.

Seeing friends of our without kids sometimes make me mourn those days. Then I see Malachi do something cute or achieve something new and those feelings melt away. I love him so much that I wouldn't give him up for anything.



His birthday party was a great time!

He had all of his friends here both young and old - and by old I mean our age :) He had a great time kicking around balloons with his friends and having lunch with them. He also really, really loved the cake that mom and dad made for him.



As you can tell from the cake we had an airplane theme because right now he loves airplanes! He got some great gifts and really just had a good time with his friends. Thank you to everyone who came!

Here's everyone singing happy birthday to Malachi!




Some fun pics from the "airplane/terminal" decorations:






Some people pics:

Me and Zoe


Rylan


Elijah


Issac


Joanna (Isaac's mom) and Steph (Zoe's mom (Joanna helped me a lot with the party, thank you so much!))


Miss Gina and Danielle (the baby in her belly was born on Monday - she's so cute!)


Velda and Simeon

Valerie, Raul and Me


Rob, Jill, Me, Danielle, Rylan, and Joanna


Raul, John, and Malachi

Thanksgiving was a good day for us. We had lunch at 1:00 with our friends Chris and Holly and then Ben and Sarah came down at 5:00. They were here until Saturday evening (as previously blogged about). They got leftovers from our lunch with Chris and Holly. There was so much food after Thanksgiving that both couples had substantial leftovers even after large plates were made up for Ben and Sarah.

The day after Thanksgiving was Malachi's actually birthday. Rick and Mickey came down for the day, so the seven of us were all together. We had a great day as a family and Malachi got one of his best presents ever. His piano with microphone! He loves that gift! Fortunately for me he doesn't over do it.

I'm no longer sick and we're coming into a busy part of the season for me. Luckily though, it'll be over a week from Saturday (but I have at least five things going on between tomorrow night and then.

Love to all!