Brown Eyed Boy

Just love those big brown eyes!!

Spring Time

Gymnastics

We have been wanting to put Lana in gymnastics for a while now and the timing just really hasn't worked out right until now. Thanks to Groupon, we got a great deal on classes, so we figured this was the perfect opportunity for her to try a class (10 week session). Lana has been SO excited ever since we signed her up, she has been wearing her leotard non-stop at home, and doing "gymnastics." She could not wait to go to class today. She was such a big girl, and she did such a great job, I loved watching her!! Ready for her first day of Gymnastic's class!

Stretching, getting ready for classThe parents watching area is upstairs, so I didn't get really good pictures, but cute enough to shae. There are only 3 girls in Lana's class of 4 and 5 year olds. I love that they get so much one on one! The girls also got a long great!

Balance beam

Love this picture, she looks so big. Sorry they are either blurry or dark because i was too far away

The practiced frontward and backward sommersaults on the mat, Lana already knew how to do both of these, but loved practicing on the mats. She will learn much, much more I am sure!and bouncing!

and Brother got to watch Lana and play while she was in class. Love that in the parents area there are also toys for the little ones! :) Not sure what Nathan was up to in this picture, he looks guilty.

Forgotten God

I have so much a want to blog about, as I mentioned in a previous post, and I just haven't sat down to do it. This has really been on my heart and mind in the last several weeks, and especially today, so I am starting here. Our book study on Sunday nights has been reading/studying Forgotten God, by Francis Chan. It mainly focuses on learning to live a life focused on the Holy Spirit, and ways that we can do that. The Chapter that has stood out to me the most is Chapter 6. "Forget About His Will For Your Life." How often do you hear that? Never. This chapter was so meaningful to me. When I was younger, in Highschool and College, that was always the BIG question. What is God's will for your life, and how do you know God's will for your life? How do you know you are living according to God's will. These are the things I was always wondering and being asked. Well it is simple, really. There are very few people in Scripture who received their "life plan" from God in advance, or even a 5 year plan for that matter. Abraham was told to pack up his family and all of his possessions and start walking. He didn't know where he was going, and he didn't know if he would ever be back, he didn't even know any of the details. God said to go and he went, that is pretty much all he knew. God cares more about our response to His Spirit's leading today, in this moment, than about what we intend to do next year. We need to be thinking, what does God want me to do in the next ten minutes, or today, not years down the line. God wants us to listen to His Spirit on a daily basis, and even through out the day. As difficult and stretching moments arise, and during the normal of our everyday lives. We need to learn to seek hard after the Spirit's leading in my life today, instead of focusing on "God's Will for my life" We need to learn to pray for an open and willing heart, to surrender to the spirit's leading with our friends, children, spouse, circumstance, or decision in our lives right now. It doesn't mean that God doesn't have purposes and plans for each of our lives or that He doesn't care what we do with our lives. He does. But, he never promises to reveal these purposes all at once and in advance. We are called to keep in step with the Holy Spirit. Galations 5:16

Rewind. . .

I meant to post these pictures last month and it just never happened. These pictures are from our Valentine Banquet at Church. The Youth put on a nice italian dinner, and serve the people in the Church, we take in a love offering, and the proceeds go toward youth camp, and our youth missions trip this summer. One of our parents also takes pictures for $5, to raise money. Here is how ours turned out. . . Josh and I were pretty busy working the whole time, (thank you Jessica for feeding and taking care of our kids) so we didn't get a picture of us, but here are our sweet kids. Nathan looks very unsure in this picture, only because he was afraid we were going to take is balloons away :)

Four sweet girls, Lana, Hayley, Perry, and Abby