Camping in the back yard

Last weekend Ian and Mary made their first attempt at camping out. We decided we'd give her two hours to see if she'd lay down to sleep. They went out around 8 and came back in around 10:)Ian said she just kept running around the tent, then jumping up and down on the air mattress. She also got a time out for kicking daddy, then put herself in time out because she did it again. Here are some pictures of them setting everything up, and then of them going out to "sleep".


Mary thought it was funny to dive into the side of the tent




She kept saying "Mary night night" and laying down. That lasted for about 10 seconds, then she was up and running again.

funny youtube video

This is going to be Ian in a few years:

New joys

Mary LOVES to spin. I think this video says it all. The best one is when Ian spins her near the end:

And Noah has learned how to reach for things. I think this is such an amazing moment for babies because I can see that they realize other things are out there.

He also likes to make noise now:)

Starfall:)

Have you heard about Starfall? If not, and you have kids under the age of 7, you should check it out. It has GREAT resources for anyone wanting to work with their kids on letters and early reading activities! It's starfall.com and it is amazing. Mary's favorite is doing her ABC's.

Also, I ordered my very own laminator today! I borrowed a friend's for the day and loved it so much I ran out of things to laminate. I made flash cards for Mary today, but I also want to laminate some prayer cards that I have. Why? Because I can.

Red Door

I realized today that I've never mentioned Red Door on the blog! So I'll update you on the process we've been through as a family. Ian and I have always wanted to live, work, and do ministry in the same city. When we moved here we started to search out churches in the city. Although I already knew there probably wasn't one that we would want to belong to because when a church is making a difference in a city you usually hear about it! At least in Christian circles:) But even through asking friends they mostly said they went to church at the vineyard or churches outside the city, or that they went to one in Fairfield only because they had no better options.

About two years ago we got together with two other couples in our city. We dreamed with them about what our ideal church would look like. We talked about serving people in our community and coming together as a group to worship and learn. Well that started the Simple Church. So named because it's simple: we got together once a week to eat and study the bible at someone's house, and we took free stuff to people at an apartment complex near us to serve them, get to know them, and pray for them. It was great...except it felt like something was missing.

At the beginning of this year our friend Mark met a man named Josh who wanted to start a church and he called it Red Door, but they didn't have a location for it. He had people but no place. Enter us! So we all got to know Josh and his wife Tiffany a little better. The men talked theology and the women talked, well not about theology mostly:) And we decided that this group was biblically solid and was going somewhere. It the kind of group that you see and think, 'there's something different about them and I want to know what it is.' So our group joined with their group and we found a place to meet that was suitable for both. We started meeting once a week and again dreamed as a whole what this would be like. Nothing is perfect, but this group of people we call a church is just what we needed and where we want to be. I'm involved with the prayer team and the kid care, and Ian is on the lead team and does the small group curriculum. We're just getting started and it's so fun to be in the beginning stage with something like this.

If you'd like to learn more about what we're up to you can look at this website. I'm pumped about it!

2 months

Here are the pictures I took of Noah for his two month birthday:) He weighed in at a whopping 14 lbs at his check up! He's doing really well, so says the doctor. And I like the fact that he's been sleeping 8 PM-7:30 AM with one feeding for about a week now!

My favorite time of night

We have started having family time on our bed at night. We read some stories out of Mary's toddler bible and look at other books right before bedtime. Tonight she said Moses really clearly. It was really cute, and also showed me that she is getting better with the whole language thing...crazy! We love this time because it's right after we lay Noah down and we have some focused time just with Mary. She just says "night night mama, night night daddy" over and over again:)

Family filled weekend

We had a great, family filled, weekend. We spent a lot of time at GG's house just visiting, but we also had a bridal shower for my beautiful cousin and a family reunion on Saturday! Here are some pictures:
Noah, enjoying his time spent with his second cousin

The cake, made by my very talented aunt

The ring:)

Val, being embarrassed that Tom walked in as she was opening her special wedding night presents:






I thought this picture might need some explaining. Mary was getting cold and we didn't bring a coat (since it's been 95 degrees out!) so Ian put his long sleeved t-shirt on her


Sweet babies: