Happy Birthday Brooklyn

I cannot even believe that we celebrated Brooklyns 2nd birthday!! It feels like just yesterday we were bringing our tiny baby home from the hospital, not to mention all the sleepless nights! What a joy it is to have the blessing of a child. We are so blessed to be entrusted with such a precious life to raise. We celebrated Brooklyn's birthday in style....Winnie the Pooh! The girl is obsessed with POOH. It was a fun time to be with family.

The guys especially liked all the decorations...

The overwhelmed and very excited birthday girl...

you CAN have fun at a 2 year olds birthday party!

Get Rich Quick Scheme...

We hear alot about Get Rich Quick Schemes... ive been one of the many who has been sucked into watching their imfamous informercials early in the morning. But this isnt a scheme....I just finished an amazing study on Ephesians. BE Rich by Warren Wiersbe. Now I dont want to be an obnoxious endorser but let me just say these books, the "BE Books" have overhauled my life in the last 5 months! I have learned SO much going through the word with these books as a tool. Ive done alot of studies, and im one of those people that takes 2 hours in the Bible Study isle in the book store (just ask Ben!) and nothing has taught me to rely on the BIBLE instead of the words of man more than these books. Ephesians, be rich, be rich in what we have been given when we were saved. We are rich, we have been given the gift of eternal life. Sometimes i can so easily lose sight of that, when i cant go get the newest photography gadget, or that new coffee table ive been wanting or those new boots i really think i need. At those moments my flesh so quickly takes over and satan has a grip on my life because I forget so easily that I am RICH and even though i may not get the temporary things I want or think I need, I am blessed with every spiritual blessing. We are so blessed as believers to have SO many study tools, wise teachers, sermons, dvds, books, and the list goes on and on (literally!!). We are so very blessed, I just hope we take advantage of it.

"all for now", as my dad says
-Wendy


Now go out and get yourself a BE Book.....just kidding im not being an obnoxious endorser:)

Halloween in small town Pennsylvania

Well it was that time of year, for all the moms and dads to take their kids out in the freezing cold to take candy from complete strangers...seems a bit strange of a tradition if you think about it, but of coarse we had to do it! Brooklyn's finally at the stage where things are fun to her and she actually gets excited for events like this, so we took her around Montoursville, to alot of people from the church she got a TON of candy (which of coarse her mommy and daddy have eaten practically all of!) she had such a fun time and would probably be walking around town tricker treating now if I would let her! Here's some pictures from our halloween adventures...

Bens Birthday Celebration

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BEN

We celebrated Bens 'quarter of a century' birthday by...going to youth group! Sounds fun, huh? :) His birthday happened to fall on a wednesday so I decided to TRY to surprise Ben with a birthday party at youth group....

we had the teens dress up in crazy clothes and bring food, a few of the girls went all out for Ben's "surprise" party...

It was a good time and special to have the teens celebrate his birthday with him

band wagon...

Well, i've decided its time to jump on the band wagon and start blogging. Everyonelse is doing it!! I find myself finding out whats going on in people's lives the most through their blogs. So I guess I should say...where do I begin?

We moved back to Pennsylvania 7 months ago, bought a house 2 weeks after moving home and began our ministry at the same time! Ben is the youth director at my (Wendy's) home church. WHO would have that back in youth group myself that I would EVER be moving back to Montoursville, PA and leading MY youth group! Never in a million years would I have believed it! We sure are loving it. We just continually feel that this is exactly where the Lord wants us. Not that its mayberry and we whistle while we work 24/7 but we have an overwhelming peace that this is where He wants us and He's doing the work through us. what a comforting feeling it is. So we sure are loving it and have grown together as a couple and a family and have grown with the Lord through this whole process of 'getting our feet wet' in ministry for the first time!

Brooklyn is growing like a weed, I hate it!! We keep saying we just want to keep her exactly how she is now, forever. She will be two in 2 weeks! Be watching for lots of pictures from that party:) She is obsessed with Winnie the Poo, stickers, coloring (or as she says "cuyering"), music, singing "The Lords Army", and the list goes on! She is such a joy in our lives and we just truly have so much fun with her. She is extremely loved by all her family here in PA and Grandma, Grandpa & Aunt Rachel is Missouri. She sure loves all the teens in the youth group too. oh my do they just give her their full attention whenever she enters the room and boy does she love the attention! she is NOT a shy one that is for sure!

We really hope to keep you up to date on whats going on in our lives as a family and our ministry. (hopefully I'm better at blogging than I am at journaling!:)

thanks for reading, more later!

-Wendy