Sarah Grace's Birthday Party

Wow...so I'm really behind because her birthday was July 12th!  But oh well, who cares.  This is my scrapbook so if it's a late post, it's ok.  We'll stop and remember our sweet Gracie Goo anytime!  I'll just get a post up about what we actually did and then I have some thoughts I want to write later about her and her precious little two year old self.

We did have a little party on Saturday before her birthday on Tuesday.  Our team was all there and Alyssa was still in town too so that was a fun treat!  We are so thankful for our friends that have moved here with us.  As much as Trav and I love meeting new people and making new friends, we treasure our long time friends that are here with us!  The party consisted of swimming mainly.  SG's favorite thing to do by far.  She often wakes up in the morning and says, "go swimming, mommy??".  And she is a FISH.  She's an amazing swimmer for a two year old if I don't say so myself!!  And she's fearless, completely, often just jumping off the step towards no one and with no warning.  She can now jump out, swim a little ways, and then turn around and swim back, but at the point that we had this party...she would just jump straight out and start swimming and trust someone to get her when she needed them!  She made a lot of people nervous to say the least (umm, Alyssa).

  Just getting the girls excited about the party.  I feel like with two year

olds you have to explain the b'day thing to them.  But really, they'd

get excited about anything...

Always up for giving Daddy kisses!

Some of the "guests"...poor little Emmy, not ready up for the pic!

Sisters...they really are getting closer by the day.  I'm loving it!

(notice the swimsuits from Aunt Allie!)

Emily made her cake!  

It was so cute and delicious!

She loved it.  All her favorite things right now...

 

 sunglasses, a swimwing pool, flipt flops, and a "susuit" (as she calls it)

  

Family pics.  Our two year old, three year old, and 6 month old!

No surprise, the "ice seam" was her favorite part!

She loved the party.  We opened some presents and celebrated her little life. 

She doesn't have a lot of friends here yet (her age anyway!) but it was all

the same to her.  She had baby and Ellie and this is all she needs!

One funny story...one day I was headed out to run a quick errand and took

just Gracie with me.  Trav was home and so I it'd be fun to get some time with just her.

All the way to the store she was saying...BABY, ELLIE.  Mommy, BABY, ELLIE.

I don't think she had rarely, maybe EVER been anywhere without them and she 

was genuinely concerned that they were not with her. 

I love that.  She loves her family.  Ok, more on her little heart later.

My Girls

There is so much I want to post and don't know when I'll ever do it...it's such a fun season of our lives in these early days of living here and planting a church that I really want to document it so I won't forget.  But the catching up will have to come another day.  Today was a day with my girls.  My typical morning routine is this: wake up (early!), run, have time with Jesus, think through the day and make a to do list, get a quick shower (maybe 75% of the time!), and be ready to meet my kids and thus the day!  This morning my to do list was extra long.  It always is after the weekend it seems.  With our services being on Sunday evenings at our house, Sat and Sunday are nuts around here.  Sunday especially.  Not only are we meeting in our home, but we are also providing dinner for everyone every week.  Something we felt like God said to do and it has been so fun...but of course has added to the chaos. 

So, this morning shortly after we had breakfast the girls started asking to go swimming.  So I made a choice, laundry can wait, unloading and reloading the dishwasher can wait, reorganizing the fridge can also wait, making my grocery store list and going to the grocery can definitely wait.  My kids are growing up and I don't want to miss it.  I should say that I am not normally the mom that makes the "let's play" decision (where Daddy always does!) but today I decided that I would spend the day with them...and really be with them...not present but doing 5,000 other things at the same time.  They had my undivided attention all day long.  We swam for about 4 hrs...I have no pics from that.  3 kids 3 and under (2 of which are fearless!) all in the pool at the same time with one adult...no place for a camera!  We had a picnic outside and played a little bit and got back in the pool.  I loved it.  They loved it.  Ellie and I had goggles on so we made lots of faces underwater.  A child's face under the water is classic...it's well worth going under with them to see it!  I have lots of underwater pics from Lauren's camera that I'll post later.

As a result, everyone went down late for naps and my to do list wasn't touched--but I would do it all over again...play with my kids all day.  The sweet part about it is somehow from the time we all came inside until the time our team meeting started tonight I miraculously completed almost everything on my list.  Not sure how that happened.  But it wouldn't have mattered if I hadn't...it was worth being with my girls after a crazy weekend!

A Big Day

So I've totally missed Sarah Grace's 2nd birthday...so I have some backtracking to do.

(by "missed" I just mean I haven't done a post about it!)

Things around here have suddenly gotten crazy. 

Knew it would happen, and it is upon us. 

We currently have a team in from Boston (from the training school)

doing outreach all week and we had our first church service in our home last night!

It was a crazy day.  Crazy.  So thankful for the team that was here to help us pull everything off.

I used to say I wasn't big on new adventures.  I'm gradually changing my mind. 

We are having a blast.

But yesterday wasn't just the start of our church, it was also Travis and I's wedding

anniversary.  I love that these things fell on the same day!  We'll celebrate later...but it was really sweet to start this new journey together on our anniversary.

So thankful to be married to a man with such vision to see the kingdom of God come on earth.  He's my favorite person in the whole world.  I love that I'm on this adventure with him.

Didn't really take pics of the night...but here are a few that got snapped somewhere along the way.

They got a cake for us (and for the Salskys who have their anniv this week too). 

 And this is just how crazy the day was...exhausted is my sweet baby!

There's lots more to say about all that's going on here and all that God's doing. 

But for now, maybe you can read Lauren's account of it (more pics and LOTS more stories).

Lauren is here with us for a month.  She was one of our students/college leaders in Boston and she came to serve us and bless us in this first month of our church.  And SHE HAS BLESSED US!!  She has been all in with whatever the day holds...and you never really know what that's going look like around here.  She does it all...kids, dishes, evangelism, stand up comedy (just kidding, but she makes us laugh all the time).  Thanks for being here, Lauren!  We love you!