.family pictures.

A couple of weeks ago, Cole Gorman, from Blest Photography came out to take some pictures for us. He was awesome to work with. He was great with the kids, laid back, and the pictures turned out great! We were all dressed ready to go and AP decided he would spit up all over his shirt- OF COURSE..then he decided that he wasn't going to be his smiley self for the camera. Nevertheless, the pictures turned out wonderful. Here are a few of my favorites. Check back tomorrow for some of HJ and then Friday I will spotlight AP!

:thankful:

So I do realize that Thanksgiving has come and gone for this year... most people including myself have already decorated for Christmas, but before the craziness of Christmas begins i wanted to make a list of things that i am so thankful for... they are in no particular order at all... just some things that stand out and make me thankful for this past year!
*Jesus Christ- apart from Him I am NOTHING and can do NOTHING-
*Andrew- my best friend, partner in life, my LOVE
*HattieJo- her sweet spirit and teachable heart
*AP- his LIGHT UP THE ROOM smile and his snuggles
*my family- for their support in all that we do
*my sister- for how she loves my kiddos SO much!
*my in-laws- they are great! they raised one studly man that is what i know
*all my other family on both sides- blessings!
*Summit Church- where the Lord used JD Greear to make the GOSPEL so personal and real
*Mercy Hill- thankful for how the Lord has been, is, and will continue to work through this group that is moving to take the Gospel to Greensboro.
*Eggletons- a picture of true friends, thankful for their sacrifice to take the Gospel to the nations
*my job- it really is a joy each day
*my friends
*the Herringtons- who have been behind andrew and i 100% in the decision to move to Greensboro, who are packing up their life in the midst of having a baby in March to take the Gospel with us!
*the Dagers- who have also been their from the initial talk of planting a church and said, "we are in!" not to mention their daughter Nora is HJ's BFF!
*the Word- what a joy to have something that we can go to in order to know the Lord and his plan better and it has become so much for alive in this past year of digging into it
*the laugh of my 2 precious kiddos
*good health- the Lord has been so gracious to bless us with good health in ourselves and the kids
i know i could go on and on...

"Give thanks to the Lord for He is good; His LOVE endures FOREVER!"

Wordless Wednesday: FLEXIBLE

:Opie:

We have a new puppy! Let me introduce you to Opie.. .HattieJo LOVES him. He likes her as long as she isn't chasing him (which she does quite often!)..He is so sweet though. He loves to play and is so gentle.

:Pinny Pinterest:

Ok, so I told you I was loving some PINTEREST... So i decided to declare Sunday, "Pinny Pinterest" day- I mean I pin TONS of ideas, so I needed to cracking on making them a reality and not just a nice idea! So last week here are some things i did:
*made BBQ pineapple chicken in the crockpot- DELICIOUS!
*made a chocolate ice cream cake (1pt. of ice cream in the cake batter with eggs and water then you bake)-*these 3 signs, the wood for the signs were old drawers and cabinets from Andrew's parents house which makes them extra special!

::5months::

Little Man,
Can't believe that you are already 5 months old! Time is truly FLYING by. I feel like this month you have changed so much- You are so confident in holding yourself up, you are starting to sit up on your own. You are VERY aware of things around you and are all the time trying to reach for everything that you can see! You have started eating cereal and are really enjoying it. Those sweet rolls of yours are getting bigger and more are appearing! You still just have those 2 bottom chompers. You are wearing size 3 diapers and clothes sizes 6mths and 6-9mths. You are such a happy boy and you LOVE to smile! You have found your feet and you enjoy putting them in your mouth-you are very flexible. You are starting to form your own little schedule with your naps during the day which is great! We love you so much and are thankful for the healthy happy little man that you are. Your little sister loves you so much too- it has been so fun to see how they are starting to interact now. PRECIOUS! *click here to see HJ when she was 5months old- they look so much alike!

.be still.

.the LORD your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; he will REJOICE over you with GLADNESS; he will QUIET you by HIS LOVE; he will EXULT over you with loud singing.

Zephaniah3:17*these were taken on our hike on the retreat*

.sugar.

..please look it is dripping from his lips in every one of these pictures and is constantly dripping all day these days!..

..pure.sweetness..

:Check this out:

Check out our Pastor's blog from today.
Its so exciting that we are being sent from such a great church. We have been so privileged to be up under the Gospel teaching of JD each week. What a blessing!

.caged animal.

I guess since she had just been to the zoo and saw animals in the cage she thought this would be fun! The girl is so good at imaginative play! After she got finished pretending she was an animal, she put the basket on the ground and was hitting her golf balls into it...never a dull moment that is for sure.

.the before and after.

Before the hike:

After the hike:

Mercy Hill Vision Day Video

Mercy Hill Church Vision Day from Josh Sliffe on Vimeo.

:Mercy Hill Retreat part3:

Here is the group...well minus about 3 people! These are the people who have signed the Launch Team Covenant and are committed to taking the Gospel to Greensboro! There are quite a few more that we are talking with that are interested in going with us as well. We are SO BLESSED!
*HJ and Norah spent the weekend with their grandparents is why they are not in the pictures-It was HJ's first spend the night away and she did great!!*

:Mercy Hill Retreat part2:

Julianne and I trying to keep our footing because the wind was blowing something fierce on Saturday!

Dinner time! We divided into groups to prepare the meals for everyone.
"Dirty D" and Mark grilling some burgers for lunch:

Game time:

The ladies relaxing and enjoying the scenery!

This picture cracks me up! Just before this one of some of the guys we took a girl picture where we were all squeezed in close, then you move to take a picture of the guys and they act scared of each other!

:Mercy Hill Retreat:

It was AMAZING! I think we all walked away from the weekend saying it couldn't have gone any better. What a blessing! I am amazed at the team that the Lord has already put together. I feel so overwhelmed at times just thinking of all that the Lord has in store for us! It is crazy to think that 5 years ago we had someone in SC telling us that we should visit the Summit when we moved to seminary, now we have been here and are being sent out by them to take the Gospel to Greensboro. What a joy!
So we spent the weekend walking through the statement for our church, "the Gospel changes EVERYTHING." I feel like that statement has truly rocked me lately.
We had 4 sessions where Andrew taught through what these 4 statements mean for Mercy Hill Church: The Gospel saves, the Gospel sanctifies, the Gospel gathers, and the Gospel sends. It was awesome! You check out the website for more on those 4 statements as well. www.mercyhillgso.com. On Sunday morning Andrew laid out goals for the next 5 years for our church and then we prayed through each goal. It's so neat to think how apart from Christ we are nothing and can do nothing, but in Christ we have EVERYTHING that we need to do all that he has called us to do and so we pray expecting great things for Greensboro. We pray that the Lord will, even now as we prepare to go, break our hearts for the people of that city.

On Saturday we had just a day of doing whatever, except we weren't allowed to nap; Bobby declared him and Andrew the "no sleep police." The weather was gorgeous! So we all just hung around playing games, hiking, chatting, playing football(a2hour game that had all the boys walking funny on Sunday!), volleyball, and some KanJam. Here are some pictures from our time.

Here was our view from one of the porches of the house we stayed in:**More to come tomorrow!**