The Big Two Eight on the 28th!

Maggie baked ALL day for her daddy's b-day last thursday!

Mommy made a feast!

Daddy needed lots of help blowing out his candles

Henry was quite satisfied with the cake. Happy birthday Daddy we love you very much!

Visit from the Cousin Clan

Last week we had some special visitors Lauren, Jeff and their twin boys, Cullen and Lane. Adorable is really the only word to describe the evening. Maggie was SOO excited to have not just one but two sweet little babies in our home. Everything cousin Lauren did, Maggie did too with her baby doll(s)! And, when Lauren left, Maggie took over her identity and we referred to her as Lauren for the rest of the evening...well until bedtime at least.
The ladies feed their babies.
Henry, Cullen, Maggie and Lane take a group photo. Thanks for coming over gang we had a great time and we will be playing "twins" for a long time to come at our house.

Henry

Honduras or bust

We had our second annual mission's team fundraiser banquet a few weeks ago at Johnson and Wales. This event has turned into such a special evening. It is not only an occassion to raise support for our upcoming mission's trip, but it is also a time for friends and supporters of RUF to come and see the life at JWU. Our campus is such a unique place to house this type of ministry. Most students come with a determined focus and a mapped out plan for a future career in culinary arts. But, that is not all our campus offers surprisingly. There is fashion, hospitality, business, accounting and even sports management to name a few. Yes, they are well known for their culinary arts programs, but this place is so much more. We love ministering here and delight in being able to share it's richness and hidden qualities with the community. Especially those that share a vision with us to see the gospel spread like wildfire there. Thank you to all of you that were able to join us and please continue to pray for this place. Here are a few pictures of the evening. Once again our RUF students pretty much ran the entire evening, using many of the mad skills they have learned here.



Tyler and a few of his buds that came out to support the evening, thanks Adam and Dave.
This is one of our stellar students giving her testimony of what RUF has meant to her over the past year (as Tyler looks on like a proud Father). She is also going with us to Honduras over spring break, along with seven other students, and the four Dirks. The Lord has provided all the funds needed to go and we are so excited to head to La Ceiba in just a few weeks to see what the Lord has for us there. We hope to serve him well and to grow ourselves as we are stretched in another country.

Farewell to friends

It's been a tough few weeks in Charlotte, and partly because we had to say goodbye to some of our very dear friends, the Hunts. If you keep up with our blog at all you know that we spend lots of time with them and that we are going to miss them tremendously. The only factor that softens the blow of losing such sweet friends, is knowing that they have been called by our Lord to preach the good news of the gospel to the people of Prague, as missionaries with World Harvest. This family exudes Christ and has been such an encouragement to our own family throughout the years that I know without a doubt that their ministry in Europe, by God's grace, will be truly remarkable. We will miss them here, but are thankful for the eternal relationship we share with them that carries over the waters and even further.
My crafty friend Melissa, is always equipping the kids with something fun and creative to do. There final project in Charlotte was to create matching picture frames, with matching Sam and Maggie pictures. Now whenever Maggie misses her friend she can look at their picture that is easily accessed on top of her dresser.
These pictures are out of order, forgive me, but here we are Saturday night at South of the Border sharing some Mexican food, drinks and kid chaos.
Another out of order picture, but here are the kids painting the frames and Henry "painting" his workbook. We don't quite trust Henry to paint by himself yet, but we did give him a wet paintbrush to use on some paper, which immediately went into his mouth.

Our friend Caleigh joined us for a cinnamon roll break and a little play time as well on Saturday.

Story time with Mr. Jake.
Maggie picked out a special farewell dessert to share with her buddy Sam. She chose chocolate cake, what a smart girl.We love you Hunt family and you will be very much missed. You will be in our prayers as you seek out the call God has given you in Prague. Thank you for answering and living boldly for Him, you are awesome.

“The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.” -Matthew 9: 37-38

nice to meet you..

Last week Maggie, Henry and I headed to my Grandma's house in Columbia for a very special visit with my cousin and her new baby. Little Janna is just over a month old and it was our first time getting to meet her. She is absolutely precious and we had so much fun "ooo-ing" and "ah-ing" over her.
The proud new Grandma, "Gigi," my Aunt Debbie.

While we were at Grandma Dots we just had to throw some food to the fish in the backyard pond. I believe we went through an entire bag of bread and we didn't see a single fish. Usually the pond is absolutely full of them, but not so much when we were there this time. Perhaps the excited children had something to do with it, their noise level might not have been appropriate for the task. I don't think they minded that the fish weren't around though.
But the Henny's were biting! He preferred feeding the bread to himself to throwing it wastefully in a pond with no action.
Maggie climbed into a tree and we could hardly see her she was so high off the ground (as shown here).
Henry did throw a few pieces in the pond once he had his own fill.

Our cousin Brody was there to and he did a fabulous job sprinkling the lake with tons of bread despite the lack of fish.And then cousin Trooper showed up for the party and the kids greeted him with hands in his face, sorry Trooper, but we sure love you.

to the country take II...

Last weekend we headed with some of our pals to Holly Hill SC for some fun in the country. This time we accomplished our goal of enjoying a farewell adventure with our dear friends the Hunts. They are moving to Prague in a few weeks and we wanted to say goodbye in a big fun way. So our friends, the Kulps, offered up some sweet accomodations for the weekend long par-tay. I wish I had more pictures, but here are a few of the highlights.
The boys enjoyed some gun shootin' and tree cutting (I'm serious they did that for fun). I may never understand the male mind.
And, in stark contrast, the girls had a sewing party (indoors and out of the cold). However, we did emerge from the comforts of indoor heating for a farmer Dave lead hay ride and a bonfire, and I may have gotten in one tiny game of corn hole.
And as for these two little munchkins read here for their weekend fun.