.happy fall y'all.

this:plus this:plus this:plus this:equals this:My wonderful mother-in-law introduced me to this "fall mix" several years ago. She even gave me the fun candy corn dish to serve it in! The simpler way is to use regular candy corn, peanuts, and plain m&m's...I did this "fancy" version because its stuff I had around the house! This mix is the perfect mixture of sweet and salty all in one handful...YUMMY!!!!

.Church at the Ballpark.

Sunday before last, our church met all in one location... only one word to describe it...
AMAZING!!!!!!!!!!! It was so neat for all our different campuses to come together in one location in the heart of Durham to proclaim the Gospel... There were over 7,200 people in attendance and over 300 baptisms...AWESOME! I stood in awe as we all stood and worshiped together. What a joy to be a part of something so incredible...the Lord was truly glorified as the Gospel was preached!
Before the service started they had fun games which included sumo wrestling between campus pastors:(yes, that is andrew in the blue suit! haha)It was a joy to be able to worship together as a family as well. HattieJo LOVED being able to sing with us! Then she colored and loved on her daddy during the message.Here are a few shots of pictures of part of the crowd from where we were standing:Andrew had the privilege to baptize in one of the 4 baptism pools:- HJ said as we watched him, "i get in the pool with daddy?!" Oh how I cannot wait for the day when HJ will commit her life to following Christ. Here is a great (professional) shot of the crowd:And after the service the concession stands were open selling things for lunch! A great ending to a great morning!

.Wordless Wednesday: Our Little Gator.

.NGU football.

While we were in SC, we were able to go to a North Greenville University football game! This is the college that Andrew and I graduated from. It was neat going back to the stadium where Andrew had played. HattieJo had the best time at the game. She was ALL SMILES and cheers during the game. Before the game we tailgated with my family and some of our friends which was fun catching up with all of them and their children. (I didn't take my camera into the game, so I will have to snag some from my sister to post soon!).

.old macdonald had a farm.

We made a quick visit to SC last weekend. It was so fun! On Saturday morning we went over to one of my mom's friends house.... she lives on a farm! HJ was in heaven. She LOVED all the animals. Mrs. Gail has TONS i mean TONS of turkeys and chickens. She also has goats, horses and a donkey. HJ had fun chasing the turkeys when we got there, then we moved on to pet the horses. The goats were quite the sight. There was a "grumpy goat" as HJ called him because he bumped her hand when she was trying to pet him!AP just enjoyed it all from the comfort of his stroller. HJ has been talking about it ever since.

.September 11.

This post is a little late...

On September 11th when HJ woke up we put on her flag shirt and came downstairs for breakfast. We were eating and watching the Today Show's special on September 11, 2001. When they showed the flag being folded at Ground Zero, HJ said, "mommy that a flag like my shirt." That afternoon we went up to the local town's fire department for a special celebration. HattieJo loved being around all the fire trucks!

.fried chicken anyone?.

happy birthday babe

.3months.

Yep, its here already... 3 months...

AP,
We can't believe that you are 3 months old! CRAZY! You have changed so much this past month. You have started to come into your sweet personality. You love to smile! You have started cooing and "talking" to us more and more. You LOVE your crazy sister. You will follow HJ and smile at her so quickly. You are rolling over from belly to back frequently and you have already started teething! We can feel the little bumps and boy do you enjoy gnawing your hands and anything else you can get in your mouth. You are enjoying playing with the toys on your bouncy seat and you have quite the grip on mommy's hair and your toys! We LOVE you baby boy and thank the Lord for you! You are a precious gift.
Love,
Mommy, Daddy, and HJ

.earning her keep.

The other day while I was getting dinner ready HattieJo asked, "i wash da dishes mommy?" so of course i let her! hahaha...She had so much fun playing in the water!

.more fun in Charleston.

While in Charleston so many fun memories were made by being all together with the cousins and gigi and poppa. we are so thankful for the fun that time we had!

.SC Aquarium.

While we were in Charleston with the Collins5, Gigi and Poppa we went to the SC Aquarium..it was so fun...the kids had a blast running from one exhibit to the next and taking it all in...HJ touched a snake and a crocodile...BRAVE GIRL! HJ and Gigi talked about their favorite fish, HJ would say,

"gigi favote fish puuple...my favote fish is lellow!" *LOVE this picture on the left! Gigi and HJ both have their mouths wide open!!!..PRICELESS!* After lunch at the aquarium we saw some more fish and exhibits, then we watched a Dora movie in 4D(HJ's first movie experiment...which she enjoyed) after the movie we were all tired and ready to catch the FREE trolly back to our hotel for naps!!I LOVE the top picture of AP... his smile melts my heart EVERY.SINGLE.TIME!
After naps we all got cleaned up and hit the town in search of some dinner....well downtown Charleston is quite the college town at night.. most places were not ready for our HUGE family with 5 children under 5...we landed at a mexican place that was D.E.LICIOUS! Then no dinner out is complete without...ICE CREAM and we found my favorite place a few blocks away.. YOGURT MOUTAIN!

.GreensboroPart2.

On Sunday night we had our first small group gathering of our launch team.. It was A.W.E.S.O.M.E.!!!!!!!!! I am so pumped about watching things unfold and to see how the Lord is going to use this group to take the Gospel to Greensboro. On our way to the gathering, Andrew and I were talking about how crazy it is that this night had finally come! It has been over a year coming so it was very exciting! The night consisted of some fried chicken and all the fixin's...fact game about Gboro(gotta know the city to reach the city), launch team commitment signingsand a great time praying.
Here are some facts from our game:
*Greensboro is named after American Revolution General Nathaniel Greene
*The mascot of UNCG is the Spartans
*Greensboro is 69th in the top 100 largest cities in the US
*There are 1,717 homeless children in Guilford County
*20% of Greensboro's population lives in poverty
Here are the members of the launch team minus 3 people:Here is a picture of the signed launch team commitments:
"Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen." Ephesians 3:20-21

.GreensboroPart1.

Guest Blogger: Andrew

The other day I had a man tell me that church planters were all either crazy or stupid! Needless to say it was very encouraging. I think his point was simple; church planting is a difficult task and therefore it is a difficult decision to make as a family. Every family that has taken such a task probably has a story of how they came to the decision. Anna and I want y’all to know ours...

Moving to seminary for us was an easy decision. I felt called to ministry for a long time and Anna had the very same heart. What wasn’t easy was finding a church to plug into when were first arrived in Wake Forest, NC. Many times people can’t find churches because they feel there isn’t a good one...we were the opposite. After visiting a few in a row we realized that we could plug, do ministry, and be discipled in a number of churches in this area. But after attending the Summit Church in the Summer of 2007, and attending small group, we bought in...and what a blessing it has been.

I start with our story of finding the Summit because that is really where the story of church planting begins for us. I know that in reality God has been preparing our direction for years and years (awesome families, mentors, support, experience, etc)...but at the Summit it started to take shape. Under the discipleship/mentorship/friendship of Pastor JD Greear 2 things have come alive in me over the past 4 years. First I have learned and become passionate about preaching the Gospel for BOTH salvation and sanctification. And second I’ve learned that in this broken and ravaged by sin world...the local church is God’s plan A for redemption. With these two passions ignited in my heart Anna and I began to ask the question of what God would have us do when our time at the Summit was over...

Even asking that question was sobering in that it meant a move from RDU and the Summit. It was hard to think about a time when we would leave the staff and family here. The most formative years for ministry in our lives have been at this church. Our friends are here, our children were born into this family, and we have been treated extremely well! But if our heartbeat is the Glory of God, and He is sending us from the Summit...we concluded that even these good gifts from God were worth laying down. So the conversation continued. The elders of the Summit were clued in to what we were thinking...and a vision was forming.

The Summit Church wants to plant other churches...in fact we have the goal of planting 1000 churches before 2050! Inside that vision is a specific niche to see churches planted in North Carolina. As Anna and I talked about church planting in North Carolina a few things become clear. First, we love the Carolinas both north and south. Second, we feel pretty equipped to do ministry in the traditional south. Third, the exchange of true Gospel for moralism in the south is heart breaking to us. As these truths started to weigh on our hearts planting a church in North Carolina became more and more exciting. For who knows how long our prayer had been that God would weave us into the 1000 church vision in a way that fit...and we felt like planting a church right here was it.

As excited as we were becoming the big question in my mind was, “will THEY follow me?”. The “they” I am referring to really is another entire story in and of itself. Throughout the process I’ve chronicled here is an important piece that God was forming...a team! When things started to become real in our minds I knew that much of it was contingent on whether or not a few families would partner. Being one of the Brier Creek Campus Pastors afforded me the opportunity to work closely with two families for a long time. Both the Herringtons and the Dagers were people that I knew we needed before even Anna and I would solidify our answer to this call. So almost exactly a year ago I started the conversation with these families about what it would look like for us to plant a church in NC...and to my joy it didn’t take long before they were totally on board. While our elders knew that we were in the process of evaluation, it came time last December for me to formally bring them my thoughts. The conversations that followed were the most encouraging of my life. The collective response from these men was, “we see this in you, we believe in you, we are behind you, now go for it!”. With that the decision was made...we were on track to plant a church in North Carolina...

But where?! After an extensive search we came to see Greensboro as the best fit for us and our team. To read more about the “why” go here http://sendrdu.com/greensboro...

God is continuing to write this story and blowing our minds all the time with awesome team members and support from all over. There is so much more to the story being written everyday...but we will save that for other posts. We will keep you updated as to what is happening when. But for everyone who wondered, “how did you come to that decision”...now you know!

.blue eyed baby boys.

Totally snagged this collage from my sister in laws blog... LOVE this of our blue eyed baby boys! Ryan was loving him some AP while we were in Charleston.
PRECIOUS!