Our Jungle Journey

This past week the church hosted our Vacation Bible School. Our theme was Jungle Journey: Exploring the Nature of God. We averaged around 35 kids a day, which is great for a congregation that only has around 6 or so that come every week. We have more children than that but many don't come to class or church every week. We had a lot of fun and most importantly taught children God's Word.

These are some of the decorations we used.

A very talented member, Betty Stephens, did these with pastels.

She also did all of the decorations in the fellowship hall.

This is one from my room.

Another one from my room. The attendance charts and a pictures from our story that we added to the wall each day.

These are a few of my favorite pictures from the week.

The whole group (minus some who had to go to work, etc.)

Reagan had fun too!

It was a great week. We do classes for 3 years old and up so Reagan didn't go to class. I held her while Justin did the opening and singing and then he took her while I was teaching my class. We kept her pack and play in the nursery and put her down for her nap in there everyday. She did really well considering we were not in her normal place. We have put her down in there before when I was working on my decorations so she was somewhat use to it.

Tomorrow we are leaving for Indian Creek Youth Camp!!! I'm sooooo excited! I look forward to camp so much every year and miss it as soon as it's over. Except I don't miss the lack of sleep and being in the heat all day. Thankfully we do have air conditioned cabins! Camp is kind of like a big reunion for us. Many of our friends from Memphis School of Preaching will be there. And for most of them it's the only time we see them all year. I love getting to catch up with everyone. Most of all I love being in a place where most of the people are concerned with living a Christian life and bettering themselves. I love having Bible class and worship everyday. I love all the singing and being present for baptisms and restorations. It's an amazing thing to be a part of someone becoming a Christian and having their sins washed away. Camp is always so uplifting. If only the "real world" could be so wonderful. I'm thankful to have such a wonderful place to go every summer!

I'm sure I'll have plenty of pictures and fun to share with you when we get back!

Bulletin Board: 1 Peter 5:8

I did this bulletin board for VBS. I wanted to find something that went with our jungle theme but could be left up after VBS is over. This board was Justin's idea I just did the grunt work. :)

He found the font on the internet. I'm not sure where. Then I colored it with prismacolor

pencils. The lion head I found on the internet then blew up with a projector.

Down We Go

Reagan is learning all sorts of new things lately. One of them is how to get down the step in the living room. She has been able to get up it for a while, but down is a whole other situation. A lot of times she will just sit there and scream at you until you put her on the lower floor. :) The other day though we caught her on video trying a not so successful route before getting it right.

How Does Your Garden Grow?

In case you can't remember this is what my flower beds looked like earlier this year. Here's what they look like now.

zinnia's coming up

I will do another post to let you see how huge the plants around the deck get towards the end of the summer.

I don't know if I'd mentioned it on here before, but I know I have on Facebook. We have a big problem in the front bed with poison ivy. We didn't even realize it until last summer. I was all huge and pregnant and couldn't deal with weeding in 100 degrees so shortly before Reagan was born Justin decided he would weed the beds for me. The next day he was covered in poison ivy. He had to wear long sleeved shirts and be careful how he touched her when she was born because he still had it when Reagan was born. Now he won't even get too close to that bed. Earlier this year I tried digging it up and spraying round up in the hole. No luck with that. Some of the poison ivy was growing through the lime stone that sits not too far below the surface here. There was no way I could get all the roots so it came back. This time I tried the round up that is specially made for poison ivy and got these results...

Success! I had to use a newspaper to shield the plants around it and it took a couple of weeks, but it definitely worked. No more poison ivy! Well, at least not for now. We'll see whether or not it comes back.

Today we started VBS and I will definitely get some pictures and such up in the next couple of days. VBS is the kickoff to what Justin and I are calling our summer marathon. VBS this week, camp next week, Justin goes to Jamaica the next 10 days after that for a mission trip, a couple of normal weeks, vacation to St. Louis for a Cardinals game and to TN, Reagan's bday party while we're there with family, the next week still in TN for a gospel meeting Justin's doing, a couple of normal weeks, possibly just the two of us going on a trip for our 5th anniversary the first full week of September (possibly Disney if we can get the money saved up), and a gospel meeting the next week here in Demopolis. It keeps going. Last Saturday in Sept. Justin's speaking at a youth day, 1st Saturday in October we have our annual cookout at the house, Justin's sister gets married the next weekend, then at some point we will have a Halloween party over here at the house. As much as we have going on the next few months will fly by...except for the 10 days Justin is in another country without us. :( Hopefully mom is coming to visit during that time so we won't get too lonely. We're going to be so busy but also having so much fun and hopefully doing some good for the Lord's church as well. It's going to be a great summer!

A Devo and an Art Show

This past Sunday night the Ray's hosted a youth devo. Does it still count as a "youth" devo when only two people (3 if you count Reagan) there are under the age of 20? Anywho...

There was singing...

and speaking...

and eating...

and more eating...

hey, those girls look alike...

and Reagan got a pony ride from another big dog (this one would actually sit somewhat still for us)...

and there were cool old family photos...

(they look like mobsters!)

and some cool art by Matthew...

and even more cool art by Lynda!

This one is my favorite!

They are a very talented family! We had such a great time and really appreciated that they hosted a devo (with an art show to boot)! :) We've now added these devos as a monthly event. It is always such a blessing to spend time with our Christian family.

Another Month Older: 10 Months

My little baby girl is 10 months old! She will be 1 year old in 2 months...once again, I just can't believe it. She is getting so big so fast.

On mom's last visit she bought Reagan a pool and we got out in it last week.

Reagan loved it! Look Mom, I even put her sunglasses on her so there....she does wear them!

We had some fun playing in the window today. She and Daddy like to look out the window together in the mornings.

She really studies everything. You can see the wheels turning in her head when she's trying to figure something out.

She's still a super friendly baby. She still goes to everyone but will cling to mommy or daddy sometimes.

She's taking more and more steps.

And is into EVERYTHING all of the time! Her favorites are the DVDs and the dog and cat's water bowl.

I've included a little progression of her eating skills. For the longest she would gag if anything that hadn't been pureed was put in her mouth. Then we moved on to this.

Then this.

And now...

She actually eats!

But sometimes this happens.

Now she shakes her head no when you tell her no no...it's so cute. :)

And she still loves her some Sesame Street!

She's just too stinkin' cute! I love that little sweet face so much. She's such a fun baby...usually. :) I'm so lucky to be Reagan's Mommy!

She's Her Mother's Daughter

Isn't this a funny picture of Reagan with a wig on?

Oh wait. It's not Reagan...it's me!

I just had to post this to show everyone out there who thinks she looks nothing like me that she does. Granted I'm wearing a silly wig in this pic. I gave you a picture of Reagan below so you can compare the two of us.

So there people! :)

Baby Steps

I promised in my last post to let you all see some video of Reagan's little baby steps so here it is!

She will take a few little steps every now and then but definitely isn't a walker yet.

Today Reagan and I were supposed to leave for Tennessee to help take care of my mom after her hip surgery. Instead, Justin took her to the office with him so I could rest for a while because I'm sick. :( I think it's a sinus infection. My glands are so swollen on one side I can't open my mouth up very wide. I have to squish my food flat to fit it in. Hopefully I will feel better soon. Prayers are much appreciated because I feel pretty miserable!

Reagan's New Toy

This past weekend we had a visit from my mom and stepdad. Mom wanted to get one last visit in before she has hip surgery Monday because she doesn't know when she'll be able to travel again. Reagan and I are planning on going up to Tennessee next week to help out some. Mom brought Reagan a new toy. It's one of those toys that the baby stands behind and pushes. Reagan LOVES it! Here are a couple of cute videos of her playing with it.

Here she is pushing it around...forward and sideways. :)

Here she is dancing to the music it plays, jabbering, and standing up on her own a little bit.

She's been learning lots of new things! She has taken her first few steps and I promise to post a video of it soon!