Happy Birthday Avery

Happy Birthday Avery! It was a good day and a good group of people. Not to mention there was a ton of kids around. You had to watch your step, if not you could have stepped on one of them.

Avery got a ton of great gifts. It's easy to buy for a one year old because they wont remember anything. But pictures are worth a thousand words.

The cake was awesome....

as you can see :o)

ready....and dodgeball!

Last week Josh ad a Dodgeball Tournament at church. The kids had hug up flyers all around their high school to promote the event. We had at least one team from each school show up. (there are 4 surrounding high schools) plus one team from BBC. We had music, food, and most importantly.... dodgeball. It's such a classic old school game. I'm sure my dad and brother can think back on dodgeball in the bodine!

This is one of the kids, Kyle. He was on the BBC team called AA (affirmative action. He was in charge of making the shirts and he also made the sign that i think everyone of the teens took a picture with. (i will spare you all that weirdness)

At times the games could get pretty intense. 90% of these kids don't go to any church or youth group so some not so clean words would come out or an occasional finger would fly in the air. I understand that just because you are at a church that doesn't mean that you are "holy". I would make a comment or give a look because I didn't want to make them feel like they couldn't have a good time, but some respect needed to be shone. It was fun for me to watch Josh play. This is him in action. He takes dodgeball very seriously. People would gang up on him so he wouldn't get so many people out and you could see the frustration on his face. but for the most part he was a good sport about it.

I was in charge of reffing the game. Now that was crazy! there was always another reff on the other side of the gym (sometimes josh sometimes our friend adam) but it was always me. In the beginning, they were getting used to the rules and wouldn't put up a fight. Plus Josh said that if the argue with the ref then they would be out. IT wasn't until the last 1/2 hour when i started the get nervous. IT was the game before the championship. On one team a guy blocked the opposing teams ball with the one in his hand. The opposing teams ball flew in the air so he dropped his ball to catch it. I called him out because if you drop the blocking ball you are out. Well they didn't like that5 call and about three guys from the team started to gt into my face. JOsh was in the other room and didn't know what was going on. luckily Adam came over and made them back up. Oh man i mean they are only teen age boys... i probably could have take then (yeah right) but it got my heart rate up for sure.

during all this Hugo was being the best AA mascot he could be. A few of the girls took turns taking him outside and watching him so josh and i could keep an eye out on the teens. By they end of the night he was pooped! He better get used to it because we are having another one at then end of February! Any takers?

more hugo!

just a few more photos for your enjoyment. This was Hugo at our dodgeball tournament. I will fill you all in later on how all the dodgeball playing went.

Hugo is here

Oh yes! Hugo is here!!! Today Josh drove out to Revine PA to pick up the newest member of our family. He came with the name Max but we decided to change it to Hugo and i think it's awesome. He is a pure breed English bull dog. He is only 8 weeks old but boy is he big. He's got huge paws which tells us he's going to be one large dog. He is still a little timid with his new surroundings. We hope to be good parents from this wonderful puppy!

PowerSurge 4 life

This past weekend josh and i had the opportunity to go on a snow retreat with our youth group. It was AWESOME! we had a group of 6 guys and 6 girls. It was a nice mix of different groups within the youth group. We had sooo much fun just hanging out. We had about two sessions a day and then free time. OOOHHH the free time! Here is just a few of us just hanging out. There were about 250 kids at the camp at the one was time so it was nice when you did get a space just for you and your group. This is just a few kids that were there at the time.

It was nice to have SNOW!we had some pretty crazy snow ball fights... more like attack the closes person to you and fill them with snow. In the picture from top to bottom is Chelsea, Emily, Brianna, Chris, Kyle, and Tim. The best part was watching them all fall after they couldn't hold themselves up anymore.

I was introduced to a new game. Carpet ball. If you do't know what it is, allow me a moment to explain. There is a long table with walls and lined with carpet. On each end there are 6 balls and a white line about two feet from the end. There is one white ball that you role from your end and try and knock the other ball into the bottom section of the table. reading this it doesn't sound all that exciting, but it can get pretty intense. i was starting to loose my voice because i was yelling and getting so stressed out about it. eventually i had to stop playing because i was getting to carried away. Josh wants to get one and put it into our youth room.

And hen there was dodge ball. You had to make one team of 8 players. The game is a little bit of a sore spot so all i will say is that we had a lot more fun practicing. Josh and i lined the kids up against the wall and then threw the ball at them to see if they could catch it or dodge the ball. Oh man it was funny to watch them. Like i said the game wasn't great but everything else was great.

With all the fun that we had, it can't compare to the amazing life changing decisions some of the kids made. After each session we would go into small groups. Since we were one of the smaller youth groups, we just kept all our kids together to talk about things. The kind of things that the kids were asking and saying were awesome. You could see them thinking and you could see when all the dots would get connected and they would answer their own questions. a lot of them have been trying to read the bible in a year and have already seen God do things in their lives. They are such an awesome group of kids. I think sometimes josh and i forget how good we have it. Yes there is still a lot that still needs to be done with them and in their lives but steps have been made and it's all because of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ!

All I have to say is POWERSURGE 4 LIFE!!!!!

Merry Christmas (a little late)

This Christmas was so awesome. all I wanted was to hang out with my family. I know my parents were happy that we were all there but at some times it was a little over whelming. As you can see Baby Gideon was always the peaceful one. He was such a snuggler. So much so it gave me a little baby bug.

Avery at Joe and Lori's wedding shower... thats right it's a shower not a shin dig. It was amazing having like 11 kids 5 and under. At least we had a good adult to kid ratio. To look at pictures of when i was a baby with all of my cousins and now to be one of the adults taking care of all the kids, oh how times have changed. We missed you Lawrence family!
















The Christmas trampoline. The fact that Jess and Josh's kids have more energy then the sun, we thought the trampoline would be great for them. the kids were so excited and they handled not being able to open it right away. My parent will be driving it out in the spring. The kids had just as much fun just jumping on the box. When they do get the trampoline up and running, we'll have to pray for safety! no hospital visits!!!













Jonnie is such a good dog. (as is Doc) but my dad was so cute laying with Jonnie. He's such a big dog. To look at him it could be a scary dog, but he is so gentle dog. He loves people and really cares about them. When my brother left his dogs with my parents christmas day, you could see how sad they were because their mom and dad were not around. But then they get attached to my brother-in-law josh and jonnie would follow him around. It's so nice to have a well trained and caring dog. I can't wait till josh and I get a dog and have an opportunity to train it and make it part of our family.















the long awaited family photo.Let's just hope that the number of people in the picture doesn't get any bigger any time soon. My parents house can't handle much more! So where's Christmas going to be next year?