exciting times...

Aubri is learning to walk. It is just about the cutest thing you have ever seen. She still chooses to crawl most of the time, but she is walking more and more each day. She is so precious!

My sweet little Nathan

This morning I have been blessed by the conversations I have had with little Nathan. I can tell that Jesus is working in Him and already molding Him so that he loves the things of God. First, at breakfast this morning Kaleb gave us his definition of salvation. The start of this conversation was out of left field but, hey, we went with it. Kaleb said that salvation is when you can't see someone's body...when they have to go away and die. Rayden and I gently corrected him by saying that slavation is something that happens before you die...it's when you ask Jesus into your heart. Then, as the light bulb went off in Kaleb's head, he added "so that you can live with Jesus in Heaven." Hooray...he got it. Then, so sweetly, Nathan added, "I wish I could be with Jesus in Heaven...when do I get to go live with Him." Fighting back the tears at the mere thought of it, I told him that God gets to pick when it's our turn to be with Him...but our job is to have Him in our heart and be ready. End of conversation.

Then, later we were on our way to Walmart to get some flannel sheets for the boys beds (their room gets very cold at night and their cotton sheets feel "cold" to them so they won't use them and then they wake up at 5 am freezing...mommy and daddy are willing to try anything to keep them in bed til 6:30) So, again, Kaleb starts the conversation. He says, "Jesus can't do bad things because he is just a baby." After a muffled giggle I proceed to remind the kids that Jesus did grow up and become a man...then he died on the cross to forgive our sins. But, he never ever made any bad choices. Again I see the evidence of the Lord's work in Nathan's life as he says, "I wish I could be just like God and Jesus. But I make too many bad choices." I told him that it's our job to try as hard as we can to be just like Jesus. Then when we make a bad choice we have to say we are sorry and then just keep trying. In the way only a 3yr old can he replies, "all this trying is really hard work" All I could do was simply agree and praise the Lord for his patience and the work that He is already doing in my sweet babies!

so far so good

Abour a year ago I was prompted to get Kaleb involved in AWANA. WHile I was never in it as a child, my brothers were and I remember it seeming really cool. And, at that point I was welcoming a chance to drop off my angels in someone else's care for an hour of quiet and Bible study. We found a nearby church that had the program and we enrolled. All the while I was wishing our own church had AWANA. I instantly fell in love with this programs ability to motivate kiddos to hide God's Word in their hearts and I was completely amazed at my children's ability to memorize Scripture (they put their momma to shame for sure!) Little did I know that God was preparing me to meet a sweet friend at my church named Karen. God had also placed in her heart a love for AWANA and the first time we talked we were in tears as we realized that GOd had given us a shared dream. We shared that dream with our mutual friend Nikki, who runs our kids day out program, and then the ball began to roll. THis August we launched the AWANA program at our church. It has been amazing.

We have over 20 volunteers who serve our 87 registered kids each week. I am in charge of the preschool part of AWANA, called Cubbies. It is for 3 and 4 year olds. I have 16 of each for a grand total of 32 CUbbies! It is AWESOME. I, of course, have 2 favorites. They are pictured above!

A typical Wednesday

Wednesdays are long days for us. For starters, it is youth group night...so daddy is certainly busy. He has two meetings every wednesday and then he doesn't come home until about 10pm. THe rest of us keep pretty busy as well. We have preschool...where mommy teaches gym class and get thoroughly exhausted. The boys have pretty much stopped napping at school. They do require them to lay on mats for about an hour...but my kids never fall asleep anymore. So, after school we head home and watch a movie because in just a short hour and a half we head back to church for AWANA. Normally, this is what happens while we watch our movie...

The Bartlett Fair

A friend of mine told me about a really cool website called midsouthmoms.com . It lists all kinds of events, restaurants, activities, etc for families to do in Memphis. So yesterday after school I checked it out. Sure enough...there was an event listed that we just couldn't pass up...the Bartlett fair. About 20 minutes from our house was a fair that had free admission....just what we need...free. Of course the ad didn't tell us that rides were about $3 a piece per person. Good thing we prayed for content babies during each pregnancy. The boys were happy to ride the hot air ballon ride twice and the ferris wheel once (with daddy, of course) THey had a ball. Other highlights include, but are not limited to:

---real hot air balloons

---blue grass bands (and boy can my kids cut a rug!)

---free balloons

---free toothbrushes from a local dentist (who knew how excited a 3 year old would be over a toothbrush....but he clutched that thing like it was pure gold!)

---yummy fair food (although by the end of the night we didn't have enough cash left for a funnel cake...mommy was so sad)

It was a great time. I am so thankful for my sweet family and all the wonderful memories we are building together. I can't imagine a much better life than I have now....except maybe one with a housecleaning service...but hey, a girl can dream, right!

It's official...

...I am a soccer mom...and proud of it! I've got the sweat pants and mini van to prove it! Today was the boys second soccer game and it was so much fun. We are playing for the Arlington City League. It's about 20 minutes from our house and we love our team and our coach. The boys are on the black team and they decided as a team that they wanted their team name to be the "Panthers". Rayden and I have caught ourselves several times shouting out..."Go black panthers"...then we quickly let out a small gasp and silently remind ourselves that we should not ever do that again.

As a proud soccer mom I need to tell you that while our league does not keep score, the Panthers have totally dominated both of their games so far. And as my pride swells within me I must also add that one of the goals that we had tonight was scored by none other than Kaleb Josiah Hollis. I am pretty much hoarse from all the screaming I did at the game. I wish I could have captured Kaleb's face the exact moment he realized that he had just scored a goal. It was so amazingly priceless. I missed the moment however because I was jumpoing around and screaming like a total dufus. Oh well...the precious look of amazment and elation will forever be etched in mind to enjoy always.

"we're a team"

Tonight was our very first soccer practice. We are playing for the Arlington Recreation League with our good friends, the Lees. Danielle is a great friend of mine and her little girl, Gracie, is right between the boys ages. They have about 8 kids on their team and we practice every Tuesday night for 35 minutes and will have 8 games on Saturday mornings starting on the 20th. For our first attempt at organized sports we did pretty well. They were super pumped at first...Gracie, Nathan, and Kaleb all put their hands together and jumped up and down chanting, "we're a team, we're a team". Then when things got rolling and you had to stay in line and take turns, Kaleb got very distracted. He began rolling around in the grass and spinning in circles. He took a turn every once in a while, but for the most part he played his own version of soccer. Nathan waited in line very patiently...but when it was time for a scrimage he quickly pooped out and ran off the field yelling, "I need a drink of water....these guys are too fast." I think it will be a great learning expereince for all of us. And Rayden and I are excited to be doing something outside of church. Being a minister really sucks you in and it's hard to be involved with anything else. We are anxious to meet some new people. You can enjoy these pictures and look forward to more and more updates as the season progresses.



Coach Angela taught them 3 soccer rules tonight. #1 no hands #2 don't steal the ball from your teammate #3 keep the ball close to you