Happy Birthday To Aubrey!!!

To celebrate Aubrey's birthday this year, we went up to Grandma and Grandpa's house and had dinner and cake. =) Here he is enjoying his new big boy seat. Grandma, Grandpa, Uncle Buddy, Aunt Loshly, baby Chase and Uncle Julie, Aunt Julie, Holiday and JC were all there. We had a great time.

Baby Chase got to spend some time with the Coles family. He loved Holiday!

Aubrey and Jaden and Baylee and Chase got some fun presents from Aunt Julie and from Grandma. They loved them!

Aubrey enjoying his birthday cake! He was so excited about the birthday cake! Happy birthday little man, we love you!

Can you believe it???

In other news... Jaden has lost his first tooth! Actually, since this picture was taken on Sunday, he lost the one next to it too. =( I can't believe how big he is getting. I remember losing my first tooth. He is that age now. It is unreal to me. He was so excited, not at all scared. I think it helped that his friend Luke had already lost his teeth, Jaden wanted to lose his so badly!

Vegas

We were able to get away for a few days a couple of weeks ago and it was wonderful! We went to Las Vegas, Tony's boss sent us there as an award for his awesome job at work. We got to hang out with some really fun people and had a great time. We went shopping and even caught a Ray Ramano show. It was a wonderful break for us, and as always, we appreciate my parents so much for being willing to take the kids for several days... we know it's not easy! We stayed at the MGM Signature, probably the nicest room I've ever stayed it. It was wonderful!

Here was our continental breakfast, served in our room each morning on this beautiful little table, fresh amazing coffee, pastries and fruit. We of courst ordered some eggs and bacon also because I don't think it's really breakfast without some protien. =) It was phenomenal. The food was probably our favorite part, we got to go to the Nobhill Tavern, a resturant unlike any we had ever been to. It was amazing! The chef just prepared your meal, you didn't get to pick anything. It was served family style and we shared it with some really fun couples. There was no salt, pepper, ketchup. ;) It was perfect when it arrived. We had this unreal plate of fruit in our room when we arrived too, champagne grapes and candied dates with all sorts of fresh peaches and plums. It was so nice. The little sandwich shop in the hotel had the best tuna melt we had ever tasted. Mmmmm... I'm craving that again. Yeah, we gained a couple of pounds!

Some Pictures from the Trip

The view from our room, at least part of it. There are a couple of pools you can't see from this picture. =)

Bathroom

Kitchen

Reading Couch ;)

Baylee

My little girl is getting so big... and so beautiful! She is slimming out and turning into a big girl. I can't believe how much she has changed lately. I just love those fire red eyebrows. =) She is such a blessing. Bayleesan Bunkin Lauren Princess Congdon Ballerina Mermaid!

Val's Children

I came across a great little orphanage in Haiti, run by a man named Franklin Val. He was shot several times many years ago and survived, promising the Lord that he would do something good for all of the children in his city. He started this orphanage and drives a taxi to pay for the expenses, as well as take care of his own family. His sister takes care of the children, she is 65. I believe they have around 30 children. From the little I have learned about them, they seem like incredible people. Even more incredible, how God has provided for them. A family has befriended Pastor Val (I'm not clear on the entire story) and their church has "adopted" the orphanage, sending money and supplies to them as they can. This family has created a neat website, the college age daughter did an amazing job with the photography and video clips. They are trying to get the word out on Facebook as well. Check them out, become a fan. I hope to get involved with this ministry. They are trying to build a new facility and need all the help they can get! What a neat family, and a great idea! This is one small way you can practically reach out as the hands and feet of Christ. Even if it is just in prayer for these precious people! There is so much need it can be overwhelming, but try not to let it paralyze you.

"No amount of piety in his imagination and affections will harm us if we can keep it out of his will." CS Lewis from the Screwtape Letters

First Day of Enrichment Classes

Happy Birthday Aubrey!

Today, my sweet, silly, smart, serious, little boy turns two! It seems like he was just born, and yet I can't imagine our family without him. He is not our little chub chubs anymore! He is getting tall and thinning out and looks like such a big boy. I really wish that I could just freeze him right where he is. I can't believe we are out of town, we miss you so much baby! Happy Happy birthday, can't wait to snuggle you when we get home. =)

Nathan's Pictures

Baylee loves to Sing... by herself! =)

Irresistable

Lovin Life in his "big boy undies"!

Newest members of the fam...

Who could resist six adorable, fuzzy little chickens? Not Tony. ;)

Quote of the week

It is impossible to get from preoccupation with behavior to the gospel. The gospel is not a message about doing things. It is a message about being a new creature. It speaks to people as broken, fallen sinners who are in need of a new heart. God has given His Son to make us new creatures. God does open-heart surgery, not a face-lift. He produces change from inside out. He rejects the man who fasts twice a week and accepts the sinner who cries for mercy.
--Tedd Tripp

Her luck ran out

Well, our very favorite chicken Marshmallow, Cheddar Cheese or Piper, depending on who you ask... finally ran out of luck. =( Last week, the kids opened up the coop somehow without my knowing and when we got home we found her, along with our black chicken, dead in our yard. Well, the black chicken was dead, she was injured pretty badly and poor Tony had to kill her. It was very sad. I saw our brown chicken running around out there, and Jacie was chasing it. I ran out there and saved it, but it was too late for the other two. Chicken keeping has been much more difficult than I anticipated. So far, I think we have bought 8 chickens and now have one left. We have not seen an egg yet. This was really not how it was supposed to work out. I really just wanted to give our brown chicken away before she too was a sad statistic of the Congdon chicken massacre. However, Tony really likes keeping them and since he is never discouraged by these types of things, he decided we would work on fencing that area off better and he came home with 6 more adorable babies. I have been encouraged by how well the kids have handled it. I was very worried that they would realize that they were the ones who opened the gate and get very upset. Death is a fact of life that I don't want to shelter them from. However, I don't want them to value life so little, that they just shrug their shoulders and say, "oh well, we can just buy some more." Even though they are just two dollars, they are each little lives that we have stewardship over... so far we have not done very well. Anyway, we are working on improving our "defenses" against Jacie the killer canine. I hope that the kids are learning something through all of this, I certainly am. Our sweet white chicken, whatever you want to call her, will be missed. She was our first one and we were very surprised how taken with her we all were. After all, she was just a chicken... but she was a pretty cool one.

*Disclaimer: we do not believe in "Luck", but it seemed to be an appropriate title. =)

silly things

I'm glad that for the most part, when things like this happen, my initial response is laughter. (Not sure if you can see from the photo, but ther counter is also covered in water, as well as the floor.) It is completely involentary... I laugh, they laugh, then I run and grab my camera. By the time I've taken pictures and laughed with the kids for a few minutes, the initial feelings of frustration and irritation are gone, and I can clean it up and get on with life. This is definitely a blessing from God, because I would have never guessed that my personality would permit such a response. Looking back at these things, they are indeed very funny. I mean, all she wanted to do was... give her toys a bath.. give her dolls some baby powder.. give the chickens some more water.. give Aubrey some Cheerios, etc. She is really very sweet in her own messy way. =)