Teen Youth Update!!

As I stated in my first post on this blog we have taken over leading the teens in our church. We haven't been officially been given the title. We stepped in to help a few months back and just haven't left. Hopefully the kids don't want us gone. :)

The kids have been thru a lot the past few years. Our friends Tyson and Rachel had been leading them the first year we got involved. They asked us to go on a trip with them and after that we stayed in as help. Tyson and Rachel had to leave due to personal reasons and move back home. After they left we stayed back to help until they hired a replacement. Just a few months passed and a guy named Mark was hired on. We helped for the part of the time he was there and God told us to take a break. So we did.... and we needed it. But I missed those kids and being involved. Mark resigned a few months back and we were asked to help again. And that's where we are today. Taking on this roll with NO experience and hoping we do the best we can with God's guidance. That means Randall stepping out of his comfort zone and teaching. I plan the events. I am SOOOO thankful for this. I know we have no experience and never thought this is where we would land but I love it. These teens are amazing. We teach them but I think we have learned just as much from them. We have developed relationships I see lasting a lifetime with them and their parents. God really knew what he was doing.

This year is going to be busy for these kids. We are currently doing a chocolate bar fundraiser to raise money for our snow tubing trip to Kansas City next month. We are going to take the kids around Sunday after church to neighborhoods to help sell. We will take that trip on 2/20/15. We will meet up with Tyson and Rachel's church. The kids have camp with these kids and made friendships. We are looking forward to it.

We are also doing a lock in in March, church camp in June, and a float trip in July with this church this year. I also plan on having smaller things at our house in between these big things for just our teens. We really enjoy spending time with them.

The teens also have stepped up and are praying and doing things for my uncle with cancer. Makes me even more proud of them. We are planning a prayer vigil outside his and my aunt's house Friday. I want him to know how much we all care and we have faith God can heal or has a reason for all this. Thanks for the kids who have been asking and praying for him. Our family truly appreciates it.

Here are some of these goofy kids we adore. If a pic is missed it just means you need to photo bomb me so I can have one :) We have quite a few more not pictured below. I adore them all. The group has grown to over 20 now. We had 22 last week! Praise God!!!

 

Happy Tuesday!

Kansas Weekend!

We had a blast this past weekend. Friday we left out about 2pm to Wichita to visit our friends Tyson and Rachel and their families and celebrate Rachel's birthday as well as our wonderful pastor's daughter Ashlee's, and Tyson's parents.
We arrived around 6pm. We headed to Rachel's sister Heidi's house where we were staying. I just love them. Heidi and me could talk for hours. Just ask Randall :) Her husband was out of town so he had to listen to our girl talk while waiting on everyone to eat. We ate out and stayed up pretty late chatting.
Saturday Randall hunted with the guys and me and the boys hung out with Heidi and Abigail. After the hunting trip we headed over to the birthday party. It was lots of fun and the boys had a blast playing with the kids and enjoying the beautiful weather outside. After the party we ate out again... We do that a lot when we visit. Enjoyable but pricey! Saturday night we hung out at Tyson and Rachel's til almost 11pm chatting. Randall wasn't too happy with me that we had to go but me and the boys were exhausted.  He got over it as soon as his head hit the pillow. He was just as tired as we were!
Sunday was church, more food, and church again. We were going to leave Sunday but decided to stay one more day.
Monday Randall hunted for a bit and we hit the road about 1:30pm. Took a bit longer to get home due to Randall obeying the speed limit laws this time. :) We laid around last night and did nothing. I will have to get caught up on laundry and clean house tonight.
I have to admit I have yet to start my devotional. I feel guilty. I need to set aside tonight. I figured I could try Thursday before we left but too much to do and this preggo momma was tired. :) Me and God still had alone time and I'm sure he understands. We have lots of things coming up so I need to learn to make time and get this simpler schedule going.

Here are some pics from the weekend-

 

Sweet Abigail at dinner Friday night

 

Carter feeding Gracie

 

Our pastors wife and my sweet friend Tamara took this. I LOVE IT.

 

 Carter enjoyed the cupcakes for sure!

 

Rach and me

This weekend was a success. I really wish we could visit with them more often. Them and their whole families are amazing. We are hoping come March we can go visit again before I can't travel anymore. But then comes baby so I'm okay with having to stay close to home.... Is it July yet? :)

Hope everyone else had a good weekend. I'm hoping to do a youth update post later today. We have lots coming up with them.

God Bless! Jenni

Being too busy.....

Sometimes life get nuts. Like crazy busy. We tend to run all the time and not slow down to enjoy life and this precious gift it is. I am the first to admit I do that. Being a wife, mom, full time employee, and involved at church keeps me going.  It is hard to keep up. Randall and I both work full times jobs. He leaves our house by 5:45am each day and comes home between 5-6pm. I leave at 7am and come home by 5pm. I do the taking and picking up of our boys at my mom's. And thank the good Lord for all that woman does for us. I don't know where we would be without her :)  There are days where I get up when Randall leaves and I don't sit until 8:30pm... it is exhausting. And now being pregnant even more so... Randall does what he can in the evenings to help. But my poor man is mentally and physically exhausted with the new job he has at work. He steps in and helps cook and plays with the boys and keeps them happy. That is a huge help when I try to do what else needs to be done.  I leave little to no time to myself. I decided enough is enough. I have to make a schedule of chores. Only do certain things a night. I need to leave myself time for my God, husband and kids. Today I picked up a devotional. And of course b/c of my prego brain I can't think of the name of it. But it is a devotional centered around God and simplifying life. I need this so bad. I feel like I am doing something wrong. Why can't I leave things lay in the evenings and just relax?  I have a hard time looking around at what is a clean but cluttered house some. Toys lay around, a pair of shoes here and there, and maybe some dishes in the sink. Who cares right??  I do. It drives me nuts. All I can think of at this moment is the heap of laundry to put away, and the grass on the kitchen floor from the boys playing outside and bringing it in.... seriously?!?!  Is that normal? I will start this devotion tonight. After Wednesday night bible classes, and bath time it will be done. I might really want to crash and fall asleep but this will be done. I have to keep my priorities in order. Surely I am not the only working mom who suffers from this?!?!?! There are days when I say, "God why can't I be a stay at home Mom?"...not that staying home is easy. I know it isn't. But I could think of all the things I could get done during the day time and have evenings with my family.

We leave Friday for Kansas to visit our best friends and their families. I can't wait. I will be a bit busy tomorrow getting ready for that but then when we return a schedule will begin. I might even have to make a chart and stick to it.  Might make Randall remind me of it. :) He will enjoy that I am sure.

If you are reading this and you find yourself not slowing down and enjoying life please do. Life is way too short. You aren't promised tomorrow. None of us are. Enjoy what you have and be oh so very thankful for it....

Giving this another go.....

I have tried over the past few years to start a blog. I make a few posts and then just quit..... Done that twice now. But this one will stick. I really need a place to share my thoughts, updates, and other things going on in our lives. I really enjoy reading others blogs and hopefully this can be enjoyable.

Before I get to normal posts here is an update on us! This might take a while....

Randall and I will be together 10 years come this July. And in October we will celebrate 9 years of marriage! It has been years full of ups and downs. But I thank God daily for making this past few years so many ups! They, by far, outweigh the downs. Ever since we placed God in the center of our marriage life has been so very wonderful. Randall is an amazing husband and father. I feel so completely blessed to have him. I look forward to growing old with this man. Even more so now than I ever did before.

Randall is still a master plumber. He has been working for the same company all together 10 years. We are thankful for this company helping provide for our family by giving him work. Maybe one day he will open a company of his own. What an adventure that would be!

I work as a Marketing Training Manager at my company. I assist in training new employees and I also wear lots of other hats there. It has its moments just like any other job but overall been such a great career move for me. This April I will hit 8 years with this company. And again thanking God for providing!

Tucker turned 5 this past October. He also started Pre-k this past fall. He really looks forward to Kindergarten. We also just enrolled him in t-ball. We tried t-ball and soccer last season. That was WAY too hard. Too much going back and forth. It wore him out! He is looking forward to focusing on t-ball. He is already practicing. Tucker continues to amaze us with his love for others and most importantly Jesus.

Carter will be 3 in May. He will start a mother's day program in the fall to get the classroom feel. Probably just a couple days a week before he goes to Pre-k the following fall. He will also get to finally start soccer in the fall. It should be interesting doing two sports again but we will do what we can. And at least both boys get to participate and poor Carter doesn't just have to sit back and watch. Carter is a ball of energy. He is so independent and smart. He also has already shown a love for Jesus. I love it. If for whatever reason we miss church he gets upset. Just like his big brother. Makes this Momma proud.

We try our best to keep God the center of our family. I want my boys to know his love and keep him in their lives as they grow up. I love to see their love for him. They love singing praise and worship songs. Melts my heart!

We also have an another adventure coming up.... baby #3. I can't wait. I am currently 16 weeks. We find out the gender (if the baby behaves) 2/20/15. This pregnancy has been different than the boys but those were also different than the other. I never got sick with Tucker and got swollen bad.... and with Carter I was sick for a few weeks (lost 6lbs) and never got swollen. The first 13-14 weeks I couldn't keep anything down with this one unless I took the prescribed meds from the doc. I have lost a total of 12lbs as of a couple weeks ago. I can finally eat but now I have these pesky headaches. Hopefully those will also soon get better. I do have a check up 1/30/15 but too early at that point for the ultrasound. It is only a month away but seems so far away. I can't wait! I want to know what to call this blessing. We do have names picked out. Some know the names but I will share on here once the ultrasound is done. A girl would be nice so I know what it is like to have a girl but another boy would be just as nice. I can see how fun it will be to buy dresses, bows, paint fingernails etc....but I also can see a little boy rough housing with Tucker and Carter and being another shadow to Randall.  I will happily take whatever God gives us. This will be our last baby. So as much as this pregnancy has been difficult, I am enjoying these moments. I have already been able to feel movement. It is so wonderful. I am looking forward to the day when we make our family complete! We lost a baby in April so this one has been a bit more nerve racking but I know God  has a plan. If this baby is meant to be ours everything will go perfect. And so far it has. We have such a wonderful God! We feel very blessed to have what we have. Many don't get to experience what is like to be a parent. I am thankful we do. Twice now!

Outside of enjoying our little family we are very involved in our church. Randall helps run the sound board and now I manage the children church program for ages 2-5. Oh and we help lead some crazy teenagers!! :) We have been involved with them for over two years now. Just staying behind the scenes helping out. Until recently that is all we did... as of a few months ago our youth director resigned. We stepped up to help and have been doing it ever since. We don't know exactly where it will lead to but we are so thankful for these kids. Being in their lives and doing what we can to show them God's love and teach them to keep him first is such a blessing. I couldn't imagine life without them.  I hope when my boys are teens they have adults they can trust and look up to. Maybe some of these teens will be just that for my kids. How thankful I would be!

That is a quick run down at where we are at.... This blog will probably be random. Updates on us, maybe recipes, clothes, church stuff etc. Hope you enjoy!