Presents from Grandma

So, a few days before Halle's birthday we came home to a SURPRISE....two BIG packages with Halle's name on them signed by Grandma Debbie and Grandpa John. ALL THREE of us were pretty excited to get inside and open them to see what was inside. And of course, even if there was no return address on these packages we would still have no doubt these were from Grandma Debbie (my mom). Why you ask? Well take a look for yourself..... 

A porcelain doll on a HORSE!
AWESOME cowgirl boots that you wear while riding a HORSE!
Halle really likes them, she always brings them to me and says "pretty" as she so insistently tries to communicate to me to put them on her.
And finally none other than a five foot long stuffed HORSE! This thing takes up her whole room
So we added the horse, that we haven't named yet, to sit right next to her growing horse collection from Grandma Debbie! 

Thank you mom and John so much for sending those packages, it was soooo sweet! She loves them. I will get up pics soon of her in her boots. Halle says," thank you G-ma, you rock!"  We love you! Oh and thank you for the HOT flip flops you sent for me, love em, so comfy!

Proxy Launchs

When Dan, Halle and I moved to Cedar Falls and joined the Glad Tidings Church family, there was actually no student ministry within the church. Glad Tidings church went through a rough stage with the last pastorate and lost 100 to 150 people and that was all with in two to four years. Pastor Joe and Tonya Henson accepted the position as Glad Tidings' lead pastor about one year ago and started revamping everything within the church. They are great servants of Jesus and really love His Bride. They love the city and the church and have grasped Jesus' vision for the future of Glad Tidings. Jesus has grown Glad Tidings now by 100 in the past 8-10 months. Even greater thing is that many are new believers and have made the decision to follow Jesus and serve in His church. We are so excited to see the amazing things Jesus is doing inside His church. We are looking forward to all that is ahead. Dan and I moved to Cedar Falls as Dan accepted the worship/student pastor this past April. With no student ministries in place at that time, Dan decided to put all his energy into helping on the administration, small groups, leadership groups, web site and worship for the past 5 months and start up the student and college ministry this fall when school began. This past week Proxy Student Ministries of Glad Tidings Church met for the first time and it ROCKED! THERE WERE 60 PEOPLE  there! PRAISE JESUS! The night went great. Granted there were alot of mess ups and alot of holes but still rocking. 

Dan preached JESUS and what Proxy stood for and was about.

Deb Corkery did an amazing job leading worship for us. She is extremely gifted and talented.
Many of the students came out to hear the guest band, "Short Notice."
Beautiful Katy!
We spent all week on signs to go up all over the room and only one of them dried in time. The Valley Cafe. Dan and I were BLOWN away at the help we had and the generosity shown this week from many people in the church. We couldn't have done much of this stuff without those key people's help. Thank you guys!!!!
The guest band was "Short Notice" This was there very first time playing live and they were AWESOME! I'm serious, they were really great! That girl can sing!!

Our one sign that dried in time.....woohooo

Looking forward to great things in Proxy! We'll keep you posted!

July's fireworks and watermelon

July has been one busy month. So busy in fact I have not found the time to post much. Which is really too bad. Halle is changing and doing something new every single day. I could post every day and have something completely new and exciting to tell you about our growing pretty girl. I couldn't let July pass without sharing some of these pictures and memories with you. 

On the 4th of July Dan, Halle, and I sat on the lawn on the University campus with our friends from GT Church to watch fireworks. This was Halle and friend Zion's first firework event. 

Zion and Halle love to play and be the center of attention of course.
They haven't quite learned how to be gentle with one another yet. We have to watch them pretty close.
This is Zion and his beautiful mother and our sweet friend Katrina.
I love Iowa sunsets. 
Zion seemed to enjoy watching the fireworks.
Halle was unsure at first, but then warmed up to it and then actually began pointing them out to us and saying "OOooooo."
This is such a cute photo, look at that face!

A few weeks later Halle and I took a walk with Denver and Ashley to a park and brought some watermelon along. Ashley and Denver are some new great friends that Jesus has brought into our lives. We are so privileged to know them. Ashley and her husband Steve are youth pastors at another church here in Cedar Falls. They have a son named Denver who is just one month older than Halle. We wanted to get a simple shoot of the kids munching  on some watermelon which turned out to be not so simple. Well for Halle, not so simple. 
Halle was interested in the watermelon at first.
Denver was definitely liking the watermelon pretty much immediately.



...but then I knew Halle couldn't stay still for long. Since she has started walking you can hardly keep her from exploring every free chance she gets. So the watermelon shoot lasted probably just a minute with Halle.
But she'll try to feed Denver. Halle likes to share ALL her food.
Denver was actually pretty upset when we decided to end the shoot and head home.
We ended the day with a good wash down. We really enjoy the time spent with the Nelson's. Thank you Jesus for friends you bring into our lives.