man, I'm behind!

Wow, do I ever have a lot to write about! We have been crazy busy for the past month having birthday parties, weddings, school... the list could go on and on! I'll try to get everyone caught up on us and put the pics in some collages to avoid you having to scroll through the 700 pictures that I could probably put up here. Okay, so maybe that is a small exaggeration, but not by much!

John Mark had an AWESOME first birthday. We have to give a great big THANK YOU to everyone who came and played with us. John Mark absolutely LOVES all his new toys and has great fun pulling them out of the toy box one-by-one. He has a newfound love of cake, and any time someone has any, he thinks that he needs to try it. We were at a wedding on saturday and he ate half of our friend Brian's piece of cake!

Speaking of cake... the first weekend in August we got the fun privilege of being in our best friends, Chris & Kelly's wedding. Micah was the best man and I was a bridesmaid. It was a BEAUTIFUL wedding and we couldn't possibly be happier for the two of them. They had a dance at the reception, and here is John Mark dancing away with the bride! He had a big time eating everyone's food and dancing with all the girls!

Unfortunately, with the wedding came two really big goodbyes. Chris & Kelly left the next morning for San Antonio, TX where Kelly has a job at a church. Our other friends, Chris & Andrea (there's a lot of Chris' in our lives!!) Newkirk left on Sunday of the same weekend for Kentucky. He'll be in seminary there. We are so excited to see what God is going to do in their lives, but at the same time, it is so sad to not have them here with us everyday! Needless to say, it was a bittersweet weekend mixed with lots of laughter and tears.

A big highlight of the same weekend (we were busy people for those 3 days!!) was that our besties from Houston were in town! We got to spend all day Saturday and some of Sunday with them until they had to drive back. :( It was so great to see them, and we had great fun just hanging out being the 6 of us again. There is always a big hole in our gang when Byran and Nat aren't there with us. Now we're counting down to the big weekend in September when we get to go see them!

Let's see, what else new do I have to share with you? John Mark is getting bigger and funnier with each passing day. He loves to ride around in his wagon that he got for his birthday, swing on his swingset and torment Caroline. He promotes to the big kid class at church this next weekend, and I'm so sad about that! He has also gone to CLC (the Christian Learning Center) 2 days a week this summer. I'll be teaching Pre-K there in the fall, and he'll be there 3 days a week. He really is a big kid there- they nap on nap mats, eat food at the little mini-tables and have circle time. He does pretty good. His favorite part is, of course, lunch. According to his teachers, he eats his food and whatever Caroline (or anyone else for that matter) doesn't finish.

Two nights ago, we took a walk to the snow cone stand at the end of the street. Micah and I both got snow cones and John Mark had a BLAST taking bites from both of ours. Then he realized that he could reach his hand into my cup and get pieces of ice out. So this sticky mess that you see here was the result!!

Writing this has made me think of a new song that I am totally in love with. It's called "beyond measure" by Jeremy Camp. My favorite line in the song sums up the way that I feel today- "I know that I've been given more than beyond measure." I have to give thanks to the Giver of every good and perfect gift for this beautiful life that I have been blessed with!