A#2's Politics

So my youngest who is 5 shared what her political views are at schoool. She's been listening to mommy and daddy too much talk I guess, but that's ok. I want to her to have the same values as we do.

The conversation went something like this...

A#2: I know who I'm going to vote for.
Teacher: Who?
A#2: I'm voting for the girl cause that other guy is going to steal our money!

I would say she's pretty perceptive and quite smart! Steven and I do talk a lot about politics so I'm sure she picked it up from us. Although those weren't our exact words. It was quite funny too!

Don't forget to vote everyone! This may be the most important election ever. Watch the video below.

New Beginnings

Sunday after baptism we were able to go to our new building, still under construction, and write our favorite faith, hope or love verse on the walls. Here is Jody above filming the event. I'm sure this will be in a video someday soon in one of the services.
This is after Jody noticed I was taking a picture of him. You now have been blogged Jody!
Our church has definitely grown the past few years. When our family started going in January 2003 there were only 300 members. Now I think there are 1,500. God has really grown our church. Course it's not all about the numbers, it's what God is doing in peoples live and how He is changing them. It's so neat to think that God is providing a place for us to minister to new people that come to our church. Steven and I have really become involved here. Steven teaches some adult ed Bible classes and I run a ministry called First Steps ( a ministry that supports pregnant moms and their families).
I do love it here. It is amazing to think we will be in this building by this December. It's exciting there will be more new people coming to our church and that God is going to change lives here.

Baptism at Hillside

So this past Sunday was baptism at Hillside. Since we don't actually have a baptismal, we have to put up a pool and your dunked in there....outside. Each person gets to share their testimony before they are dunked. These first top two pictures were actually taken May 18,2008 when A#1 was baptized. That's Pastor Pete above. He is our senior pastor. He is an incredible teacher and pastor. He is the father of 4 boys! Yes, you heard me 4 boys. Sometimes I wonder how they manage, but they do and I think the youngest now is 8 or 9 so things are probably easier now than they used to be. I like Pete because he is real. What you see is what you get.
I wish I had gotten a better picture of A#1 being baptized, but this guy's head got in the way. Steven actually got to baptize her. He got pretty choked up, but I thought it was so neat that her father got to do the honors. :)
So now 2 of her friends were baptized this past Sunday. And again, baptism was awesome! It is such a neat experience. This is one of her friends above with is dad and Pastor Jason.
Here he is going into the water. Brrrr! It was a little chilly.

And so when everyone is finished being baptized Pastor Pete likes to say there is a party going on in heaven. That's why you see everyone above releasing their balloon. I love that there is a party going on and people in heaven are celebrating when you come to Christ. What an amazing day it was!

Aunt Tiff

Boy do we love Aunt Tiff! The girls were so excited to have their aunt visit them from St. Louis. She even got to go on a field trip with the girls with their school to the apple orchard. We had a great time and can't wait to see her again. We love you Aunt Tiff!

A#1's Big Game

So it was A#1's big day! Her first soccer game along with A#2's second time to play a game. Both girls did great! A#2 however, spent more time playing with her first loose tooth than paying attention to the ball. Wish I could have gotten a picture of that!
Here is A#1 trying to get the ball away from the other team. This is right before she scored a goal, which I missed taking a photo of. :( But yeah for A#1!!! She was sooo excited and so were mom and dad.