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?

It's Christmas Time!!!!

Tis the season for craziness! There is not one day where there is nothing to do. I'm sure you are all feeling the same way. Especially those of you who will be traveling this season! This is a snap shot of what i going on now a days. This is me and josh sitting in front of our first Christmas tree! Most of you will be getting this in our Christmas card.

This year the teens were recruited to be in the Christmas musical at church. Josh and I were not sure how well this was going to go over. It was a little easy because the teens that are involved with the Puerto Rico missions trip have to participate in whatever we tell them they have to be in. The program was on Saturday night and Sunday night. It was AMAZING! i was sitting in the front row making sure they were coming in on time, and i couldn't hold back my emotions! i cried tears of joy! the fact that we had 19 teens stinging in the choir which is the same number of people in the adult choir! needless to say they did a wonderful job and i could not be more proud of the teens and of josh for putting up with a lot in order for that night to happen. LOVE YOU JOSH!

picking out our first tree was a lot of fun. Growing up we always went as a family to pick out a tree. Never did my tree get picked to be the one to be taken home. well, in all fairness, i did pick trees that were really fat and way to tall for the room, but still i never picked the tree. When josh and i went it was very cold but a lot of fun. We made the decision together and i think it was a good one. Josh put the lights on as soon as we got home and said that it needed blinky lights... so we got some. I was in charge of putting on the ornaments. I had a shoe box with all 20 ornaments in it. The tree was looking pretty empty, so i got some of the ornaments from our wedding and we put them on the tree. It's looking better. Now all we need is a tree topper and a tree skirt but it is crazy how expensive those things can be!
This is josh putting his favorite ball on the tree! Lets go METS! I can't wait for all my family to come to our new home!

Turkey Olympics

I am proud to introduce the first ever Turkey Olympics. Let me explain. The turkey Olympics consists of four teams made up of about 6-7 teens and a frozen turkey to go alone with them. Each team has a color, red, blue, yellow, and green. It took the mind power of four creative youth leaders the following games where invented. Here are a few of the leaders that were involved. Jen (in charge of capturing the event), me (one of the brains behind the event), jon (he was in charag of bringing the duck), Danielle (another brains behind the event), scott (the third brains) but then there are some people missing from the pictures like J who is the Jr high leader and of course the main brain, josh.
the first game we played was called Hot Turkey. The game started with everyone in a circle passing around all 4 20 pound turkeys. There were a few dropped turkey's, including one on my leg, but it was worth it because my team came out on top. The second game was Turkey world cup. First we played two on two and the winner of those games played against each other. There were a few time outs because the turkey would start poking out of it's packaging and thats just not safe. Then there was seal the turkey bacon. It was awesome to see the kids try and pick up more then one turkey at a time and then somehow get it back to their team. But I have to say that Turkey ten pin what awesome. You have one team who is trying to knock down the pins, but you have to three other trying to deflect the on coming turkey. it was awesome and it really hurt my arm flinging a 20 pound turkey. Last but not least there was turkey relay. Now this holds a little closer to my heart because it came out of my head and it went over well. The relay was all the stuff you do on thanksgiving day. One at a time the kids would get a clue about what they had to do. The tasks consisted of shaving the turkey, dressing, watching the parade, driving to dinner, eating, going to the bathroom, and taking a nap. It was messy, funny, and just plain awesome! everybody had such a great time that we think we will being doing it every year from here on out, but with new and improved games. Of course, the best thing was that my team won!!!! WAY TO GO GREEN!

Halloween Parade

This year was a sad Halloween Parade. Don't get me wrong I still had a great time, but it wasn't like all the other years. For starters, not everyone was there. Jenn and Marshal couldn't come because some of the kids got sick. Uncle Jimmy and Aunt Wendy just got back from a trip and Uncle Jeff and Aunt Kathy.... well... who knows. But it was fun with me, Josh, Jon, Mom, Dad, Ang, Andrew, and Avery. Jim and Jess stopped by at the end with their three kids!
Avery was so fun to watch. Her eyes were so wide and lit up! She didn't know what to look at and she didn't know that she needed to look ahead of her. Other then one very loud horn that scared all of us, she did very well. There is a picture of her chomping down on a Jr. Mint box. She later got a hold of a lolly pop and she chewed right through the paper!
But I must say that these pictures are pretty good considering that our camera is broken and I had to look through the eye piece and it was very difficult. Hope you guys enjoyed the pictures! Wish you guys could have been there.

it's pumpkin time

i really do love carving pumpkins! I had weekend full of pumpkins. On friday night I went to my friend kelly's house and carved pumpkins with kelly, her husband nate, and nates brother Ed. I, being the smart one, chose the hardest pattern. it took me like 2 hours and it didn't turn out what the picture looked like but when does it ever. Then on Saturday we had a girls day out for church. We went to a place in princton where you could pick your own apple, pumpkin, rasberries... it was so much fun. IT was a small group, but a fun one non the less. We wanted to get caramel covered apples but they were a lot of money, so we had the bright idea to get a few apples and make our own. that again did not turn out the way it was planned. but fun non the less. After we burnt the caramel, i drove to my parents house and carved some more pumpkins!!!! those are on the top of the page! mine then my dads and hen my mom! I'm ready for this holiday to be over and for christmas to be here and all of my family will be here!!!! OHHH quick update. Josh and I got the apartment and we are moving in the saturday after thanksgiving...bitter sweet. And my Butt doesn't hurt anymore! but now it won't grow any hair! weird i know

My Butt Hurts

All of you know that I have some kind of infection. I hate it. I thought it had started to drain, but apparently it's not going away. It's like I've collected a third butt cheek or something.
I haven't been to work since Friday! I have had to sit at home and do nothing but soak in the tub and lay in the couch. When I'm at work and I'm having a hard day or I'm tired the thought of not working is very nice. Being able to sleep in, watch TV, soak in a nice hot tub. Maybe that would be fun if I could get out of the house, go to the bathroom with out swinging with pain, be able to take a shower without feeling like I was going to pass out, and I wasn't bleeding.
I'm done!!! It is getting better but I still can sit on my butt. I have to call the doctor on Wednesday to see what is going to happen next. I'll spare you all of the pictures of my "infection". Maybe I'll make it our Christmas card.

our thoughts

So these are some thoughts that josh and i have been thinking about. Josh and I are not entirely happy with our apartment. When I first went looking for apartment, this really was the best place. So we jump at the opportunity for the place. And then our upstairs neighbor started walking around in high heels ALL THE TIME!!!! plus it's annoying to have to walk a mile to our cars everyday.... even when we park illegally. plus always having to lug our laundry to the car... then to someones house or a very gross laundry mat that i will not go to. SSSSOOOO we started looking at new places. Josh said that we have to get a place with a washer and dryer in the apartment. And we found one!!! we looked at it and it's really nice. It nice and close to josh's work and it's close to 295 for me to get to work. Plus my favorite diner is on the corner. I think the two things that sold josh on this place was that it have a washer, dryer and you can have pets!!!! now i know my brothers saying "YES THEY CAN TAKE THE CATS!!!" but as you can tell from the photo.... josh wants a dog. At first, I was not excited. I didn't want to take care of a dog, its ganna poop every where and pee all the time and make my place smell bad. and then i heard my moms voice in my head (no offense mom)Then i thought about having to take care of one. I get to hear it get all excited when i come home from work. And i could chase it around the house till it gets all tired and we hang out on the couch till josh got home from school. and we could go to the puppy park and play with the other dogs. We would take him to church and have him play with all the kids. the dog could be trained and ready by the time we have kids. and i fell in love with this specific puppy. i would name him/her Indi because of the dot on his/her head. I thought it was cute! So right now those are our thoughts. I mean I have other thoughts but now is not the time or place for that.... until then, I hope you all are well out there!!!! I can't wait till Christmas so i can be with ALL MY FAMILY! i miss you and love you all!

Everything

That is an amazing video. josh found it on Godtube.com. He played it for me one night and i started to cry (josh shed a single tear.) Then we played it in youth group on Wednesday. Seeing it on a 100 inch screen in a room with 27 teenagers all dealing with those temptations and those sin's... my heart could not stop pounding. It was a powerful video to follow a powerful message that josh shared. It was an awesome start to what should be an amazing school year. We have a few new leaders with us. Scott, Danielle, and (maybe) Jonny boy Rore. Josh and I have been having some computer issues with our hard drive crashing so i have no fun pictures to post, plus we can't find our memory card. But i promise wehn everything is back up and running i will have some awesome pictures to share. I have to make sure i get a picture of josh on Monday because it is his first day back at school. All very exciting.

So after my nice rant from my last blog I thought that i would write something a little more up beat. So here are some pictures from the shore. I tried not to duplicate pictures from "the hulfish happenings" The first picture on the list is a typical beach day. Mom is reading... dad is looking interested and josh is about to fall asleep, right after putting tones of suntan lotion on.

Here there is a nice picture of something josh made for me. Well we kind of made it together. I drew the heart, then he made the J... then he tried to make the C but it was hard, so i drew it. joint effort from husband and wife.


This is me saying HHHHIIIII so josh




this is josh saying HHHHHIIIIII to me!


This was a picture that I took. Personally, i thought it was pretty awesome. I was just trying to take a picture of a nice view of the beach.... but notice that awesome seagull flying o so gracefully through the air! and the reflection of the bird on the water just makes it all.




This year was a great one. It was upsetting that Josh and I could not be down for a full week, but we did make some day trips and long weekends. Josh and I did have the 'pleasure" of helping my grandparents and aunt unload on their first day down at the shore. Most of you who read this already know of the two mini vans stuffed from top to bottom with things for the house, including the 24 boxes of cereal. Then there was always the fun of people getting upset and locking themselves in there rooms, but then are fine by the time they are ready to leave for the boardwalk and skip out on the dinner that josh and i made for everyone to enjoy. good times.... anyway i look forward to the vacations josh and i have planned. hope all is well in the blogging world.