Last week at a glance

After youth group kick off Jon headed back up to camp and spent the rest of the week there with the guest group. On Wednesday Q and I drove up to family dinner with the staff and Lisa came home with us. Brad and Matt met us there and we watched Survivor together. As you can see, Lisa was very intense! Rightfully so, since it ended up being her guy who was voted out first!

On Thursday Mary had us over for dinner and the girls were as adorable as always 

This sweet face makes me so happy. Oh how I love her!!

Both girls were giggling like crazy and having fun sharing kisses and high fives. They are so funny together

Then on Friday we went to gymnastics and Jon was home by late afternoon! We missed him but it went by quickly thankfully!! Time for some family park time. Pushing both Jon and I on the swing at the same time

Catching Daddy on the slide! She was wanting us to do the things she usually does and she acted as the parent haha

Love him so much. Life is better when he's home. 

Courtney Clarke Photography - Lisa's Wedding

Lisa just recently got all the pictures from her wedding and she sent me a bunch. Their photographer was Courtney Clarke and she did great! (minus the pictures being so late). I cried when I watched the slideshow that she put together for them... its so special and so lovely! Here are a few of the ones of Quinny that Lisa sent!

 Oh that cheese face. I can't wait until she's a teenager and looks back on these days and sees how she used to smile haha!

 Thats a bocce ball that she's holding above.. and here is the action shot of her throwing it... But I have no idea how she would have thrown it so hard! Bocee balls are heavy! Guess she's full of surprises!

 This was such a fun day. Best game of bocce Ive ever played! It was fun to see the pictures and remember what a great day that was!

 And a clear visual of where Q gets her goofiness from! haha!

 This made me really laugh! She was sitting with Erin up front for a while and Erin let her play with her phone so that Q could take "selfies"... Courtney captured that perfectly! Look at the smile and all! So funny!

 My love :) 

Photo Booth Country Fall Fair

I was in charge of the photo booth at the church country fall fair and I finally took the pictures off of my camera! Here are some of my favorites from the day

 I love this one! Fun Family Pic!

 They came over and wanted pics together and Gabi was like "Mel, we want you to come in too"... so sweet! I love these guys.

 Best! 

 Ashley worked so hard on this day! She did great. This is the family that now has Jake. He is happy with them and doing really well (she complained about his stinky farts... I told her that he can clear a room no problem when he eats human food because his bum then stinks so bad! Funny). Ashley and I text most days and see other around town lots... I like having a new friend who is so fun and understands the phase of life that I am in right now!

 THESE TWO! So so cute!!!! It was their wedding anniversary that day... I can't remember the exact number! But it was around 35 years! Amazing. (its Scott and Deb, in case you can't tell!)

 Mary came over and she asked Quinny to go in the photo booth with her... so funny to watch them get their props and get ready. She is so amazing... always so thoughtful and so kind and just loves kids so much... Quinny is lucky to have her Auntie Mary around to love on her!!

I love how hard Mary is laughing here... Quinny was being goofy and cracking her up

 Courtney and her family came up for the day... Ryan was working. Its always SO good to see her, but its always in busy places where we don't really have time to actually talk. We need to get together with the Denningers more often!

 This is Nina.. she is new to youth this year because she is just in grade 7 now. This is the best pose of the day!

Youth Group Kick-Off!

FINALLY! We have been counting down the days until youth group started again for the year! With Jon leaving for the week, we raced to finish the room on Sunday, and Jon got it all set up and I stayed late finishing the painting on the chalkboard wall. The pictures don't look that great, it really does look better in real life! I just really hope that this is a room that is inviting and open and where teens can come and feel safe and have fun. I want it to be cozy and uplifting and allow them to feel a sense of ownership over their room. Is that too much pressure to put on a room? haha! Here are some after pics once we finished... we still have a few more touches to do, but that will have to wait until after kick-off!

Jon came down from camp at dinner time and we went straight to the church and ate dinner there and prepped for the evening! I was so giddy with excitement as the youth started flooding in!! I love seeing this place filled with the laughing chatter of their voices. Such a good sound

They loved the room!! Yay!!! Seeing how stoked they were made all those hours of work worth it!!!

Crazies!!!! Even Tadd has a huge smile on.. thats really saying something! It was fun to walk around and re-connect with them after the summer.

We had a Dodgeball tournament which was perfect because Jon was in the big room running the tournament, and we put a table across to block balls, and then I stayed in the youth room with the kids who weren't playing. He got to have fun and be silly and I got to have good talks... its a good system that works well for us! We are so short on leaders this year... its been a source of stress. But we know that God will work it out and that we need to put people before policy, as hard as that is. Its been quite the up and down journey for us the past few weeks! But then I get to youth group, and I take pictures like this of kids who are being so goofy, and just makes it all seem easier! People just need to get how awesome these kids are and how important youth ministry is, and then they would be aching to volunteer! So how we do make that possible? How do we get people to really see and believe in and care deeply about youth ministry? We need to make our purpose known and we need to pray lots.

Our little cheerleader for the evening! As of right now, I am potentially the only female leader for the year. That is a lot of pressure because I usually have to leave youth early to get this little one to bed! But if we don't have female leaders, I will need to be there every single week and be there for the whole time. Seeing her cheer like this for them is so cute and she loves being there, but having her there distracts me and takes away from me being intentional with the youth. So we have a dilemma there also that we are trying to pray through. We either need to find someone who can consistently watch her every single Tuesday at my house (which is near impossible, no one is able to do that) or we need a few female leaders. So we have been praying over both of those things! But she did love being there, and the kids just love her and are so good to her.

My little Georgia who I love so much :)

First God-talk of the year! Way to go husband! This is the area that I have seen the most growth in him over the past few years. Still lots of more growing to do, but he is so faithful to prayer when it comes to his talks and what he needs to be speaking on. He allows himself to be open and be lead, and I find that admirable. Also note Q being all cuddly on the couch, listening. She knows when Daddy is talking that she needs to sit nice and be quiet and she does pretty good at that! And the girls love when she sit with them like this haha

The chalkboard wall at the end of the night! Our chalkboard challenge of the evening was for them to draw their favorite summer memory. There were five different drawings having to do with Imadene - three Wildside ones, one LIT one and one main camp. I love that Imadene in all sorts of ways impacted their lives this summer and made it onto their top summer memory :)

End of the night selfie! Rebekah stays late because her dad is a leader, and I was driving Hannah and Elijah home so they had to wait for me. Jon is in the top left of this picture but the light drowned him out! So funny. So many big smiles. Such a great night. So looking forward to this year!!

Calea's 24th Birthday

Monday was the start of our solo week! Jon is hosting and running program for a Wildside guest group all week, so he was up and out the door bright and early. Quinny and I had a pretty lazy morning. She wanted her jammies off, so I left her run around naked - what a cute little butt! She played with her babies all morning long - here she is pushing Elsa and Anna each in their own seat

We showered late in the morning, and she still didn't want to get dressed, so I didn't fight it. We didn't have anywhere to be until after nap time anyways. I was watching her play and caught this - her trying to climb onto the kitchen so that she could get the things stashed on top. She changed her mind and realized it was a bad idea before I could even say anything

So she just used her microwave as a stool instead. Who needs things like a stool when you have mini microwaves around?! Resourceful girl! Also, I will ask her what her name is and she responds with "KINNY AMP-ARD!" She yells it overtime she says it, and its just so funny. I love that she calls herself "kinny". I will say "can you say Quinnlyn?" and she says "No no no no Mama! KINNY!" So clearly she would rather be called Quinny haha. Funny girl.

They sent this during the day and it made me happy. Such good buddies. Their friendship has changed and grown so much over the past year or so and its really awesome to see. Jon went from being Jacob's mentor to really being one of his closest friends. Jacob is up at camp helping Jon with the guest group for a few days this week and getting paid pretty good money to be there! Jacob is sleeping in the trailer in Q's room on a cot for the week, so they are getting lots of man time together!

After she woke up from her nap, Q and I headed down to Victoria for Calea's birthday dinner! I didn't take any pictures! Ugh! But it was a good night with the family. By the end I was ready to go home though... Makenna kept hiding on Q and making her cry, so I talked to her about it, and how hiding is only fun if they are playing hide and go seek. So then she just instead started pretending that she was sleeping and she wouldn't open her eyes when Q repeatedly called her name. So Q lashed out and scratched Makenna pretty good on her face. I felt terrible, the scratch looked awful. But also frustrated... I often feel like we go down there and I spend the whole time putting Q on time out or getting after her, because she's the most aggressive and verbal so its easiest to blame things on her. It's tiring! But it was a fun night with everyone... lots of laughs. Calea cooked the most delicious dinner.. parmesan potatoes and corn on the cob and marinated steak and chicken. She's such a great cook! Despite the fights, Q also had fun with her cousins... she just adores Madi so much and spends the whole time following Madi around and calling her. At one point Madi was hiding under the little kid table and Luke was calling her name and she wasn't responding (we couldnt see her under there). Q calls "Madi, where ARE you?!" And Madi yells back "Hi Winnie!" (thats what she calls her). It was SO funny and cute. I was glad that Quinnlyn and I were able to drive down and be a part of the birthday celebrations.... Calea is so grounded and has the biggest heart and totally beautiful. We are so thankful for her and love her a LOT! Q kept saying "Happy Day KK!". Here is the one shot of the night that I got... beautiful girls!!! Happy 24th Birthday Calea!!! I hope this year is a splendid one.

Sunday

My little sparkling gem woke up on Sunday not feeling great. Her nose was stuffy and I could tell she was tired. But Jon was already at church, since he was doing music, so I got us both ready and we headed out. Into the service, Katherine who was working downstairs, brought her up to me. She said that Q wasn't playing nice with the other kids and kept hitting and just getting mad. Yikes!! So I let her sit on my lap during the service, and she actually did pretty well. She cuddled into me right away, so I could tell she was tired. She also did this about halfway through. Just a little rest. I was a little mortified that she was brought up from downstairs, but I also know that when she's tired she has a really short fuse (I wonder where that comes from?!). She was quiet during the service, so she stayed with me during the whole thing 

 Bradley and Lisa came to Calvary for church! They are looking for somewhere new to go, because sadly the Baptist church in Lake Cowichan is disinegrating and they are feeling a little lost. They don't want to go to New Life with the rest of the staff/Auxano, so we invited them here. They really liked it, which is awesome! They came for lunch afterwards and told us that they were doing a Survivor pool with Matt and Vanessa. WHAT! We wanted in! They wanted a few more people, so it was perfect! We spent a good chunk of the afternoon watching videos of the new contestants and discussing who we would pick (we are all cool like that). We called Matt and Vanessa on speakerphone and we all made our picks! It was really fun. I love these people. A few silly pics were sent back and forth....

 When Q woke up from her nap, they were still here and right away started to play with her. Her and Brad haven't spent that much time together, so it was nice to see her excited about him and wanting to play. They pulled out the bowling pins and he had Q giggling really hard

 Then she pulled out her "game" and asked "Lee-Ah" to play with her

Lisa that evening posted this to her Instagram... so adorable!!!

 They left in the late afternoon and I facetimed with my mom, like I do most weekends. I took this because I was laughing so hard... my phone AS YOU CAN CLEARLY SEE was almost dead... but when I told my mom that I had to go because my phone was dying, she started yelling and wouldnt let me hang up, telling me that I was just making excuses to not talk anymore. I am guilty of doing that... she knows me well!! Im just not a huge phone talker, I don't like it that much. FaceTime is a bit better, but my mom knows my tricks. So she was laughing and yelling and I was saying that I actually had to go or else it would just shut off and hang up on her. I took this so that I could show her that I wasn't lying to her this time. Too funny! Love my momma.