That's MY boy

Notice the left-handed swing. Yup. Mommy knows to teach this young.

Harvest Grand Opening

Thanks to so many of you for your prayers and support today as we had the official grand opening of our new church plant, Harvest Community Church.

Pictures won't do the whole experience justice obviously, but it was a great morning....

(Aaron, with Aunt Sarah, giving our children's pastor a very serious look)

(one of my jobs, other than being a trophy pastor's wife =) , is to handle child check-in)

To get to this day, it's been a lot of blood, sweat, tears, and tons of advertising....

But a lot of fun too. Our team has already experienced some awesome and amazing things, and we are so excited to see how God works in and through this church in the months and years to come.

And one more thing from this past weekend - To advertise the church we handed out free movie tickets in front of the IMAX theater, so thought you all would appreciate some pics from that....

This is my bro (as Napoleon Dynamite) and Lee as Darth Vader.

Lee was such a hit with all the little boys..... I think he sweat only a few gallons inside the costume. Not joking, when he took off his shoes, quite a LARGE puddle of sweat poured out. MMMMM.

Thanks again for all your thoughts and prayers!!!

Drummer Boy

This had become the new favorite activity.....

Then the guitar broke from the abuse and that made us quite sad. (Don't worry, Papa Bob fixed it) So we decided that Aaron needed a drum with his birthday money that hadn't been spent yet. Aaron is quite happy with this new purchase. Very loud, but very happy.

The Prodigal Son

A story that has always been very close to my heart has been the story of The Prodigal Son found in Luke 15:11-32. After reading Henri Nouwen's Return of the Prodigal Son (read it if you never have!) in college, I got a copy of Rembrants' painting depicting the scene and have always had it hanging in my room. I was really happy when my Aunt Nancy gave Aaron a book that we all read when we were little that had this story in it. Aaron has really enjoyed these books lately and it has been cool to begin teaching him what it's in the Bible.

For some reason a few weeks ago, when I got to the climax of the story where the boy returns back to his Father, Aaron sweetly and heart-breakingly began to sob. I have never seen him cry out of empathy for someone else and I began crying along with him - it was just so sad and I was not sure why he got so emotional. Lee was gone at the time so I had him read it to Aaron a few days later, thinking it might help that his own daddy was not "bye-bye." Again, lots of bitter tears. A few days later, I tried reading another version of the story from a different Bible story book not sure if he would equate the two. He did and again, sobbed hard in my neck as he clutched me....

Needless to say, we will probably avoid this story for at least a little while.... We don't know exactly what causes his tears when reading this story - as much as it breaks my heart to see my little boy so upset and sad, it also gives me much joy and hope to see a tender heart forming within him as he views sin and our need for reconciliation with God. I pray and desire so deeply for this little heart to know the Lord and live for Him....

Anyway, that being said and to close on a lighter note regarding Bible stories, Aaron also likes talking about the "NO NO apple" that Adam and Eve ate. =)

Pre-Launch activity

We have been super busy the past few weeks with the coming grand opening of our chuch plant. This past Sunday, we met in the IMAX theatre where we hold our services and began practicing setting up and tearing down....

This is Lee bossing all of us around. He's pretty good at that. JK =)

It's a lot of work and a lot of details, but we were super excited to see things come together and everyone in their "role." We have a great team!!!

Aaron wasn't quite too sure of "Movie church" at first....

But I think he's going to like it. Actually, come to think of it, he doesn't have much of a choice because we are going to be stuck there for awhile. =)

Lee's brother was also in town last week and Aaron had fun playing guitar everyday with him. I was bad about taking pictures but did happen to snap one with my cell phone.

We celebrated our successful practice run with our Harvest Launch team with a pool party.

Aaron loved jumping off the diving board and is such a little fish in the water.

It's been a tiring but good couple of weeks. You will hear more and see many more pics I'm sure in the weeks to come.....

Birthday Celebration

Lots of pics on this post - after several days worth of celebrating this little two year old's birthday. Aaron helped make cupcakes. Notice the chocolate on the face =) And don't be fooled by the big boy Elmo underwear - Sometimes we "practice" and Elmo always ends up wet.



We also took an evening to have a joint bday celebration with Cousin Brynn who will also be two in a few days....
My house cannot handle many more birthdays with all the toys that end up coming with... But the excitement of it all is so fun - Just look at these faces =)