a few of my favorites

Here are a few pictures of some of my favorite kids.

This is my nephew, Jack. If you haven't met Jack yet, you are missing out. He brings a smile to everyone's face! He is the sweetest and cutest kid ever. I hope my kids are as cute and sweet as him. I just love him so much! This is him playing in the church nursery with me a couple of weeks ago!

The other day Christina and I went to lunch at Jason's Deli. I was on the Daniel Fast, so it seemed like a great deal for me because of the amazing salad bar! After we ate, Christina told Ella and Liv that they could get an ice cream. Ella loves Jason's because they have ice cream that you can get yourself. Liv loves ice cream too, but this was the first time she held her own ice cream cone! She was so proud of herself!

These Pictures were from Ella's 4th birthday party, It was a princess Leia theme!

my life as a minister's wife

Most of you know that of course, I am married to a youth minister, which I think is the most amazing thing EVER. I never thought that I would have married a youth minister, even though I have always wanted to marry a pastor and be a pastor's wife! When Mike and I met, I knew that we would get married and he would be in ministry, even though he didn't say that when I first met him. After a while, he finally changed his major to Youth Ministry at CSU, and I just knew that I would LOVE to be a youth pastor's wife.

Now, I am in love with pastor's wives, and any wife of a ministry leader. I just think that people don't give enough credit to PW. Lately, I have been reading Holly Furtick's blog and it is so encouraging. She is one woman of God who is a great example of being a PW who really fulfills the role. Then I was realizing that just about all of my friends are wives of men in ministry. I have so many friends around me who live just about the same life as I do being at church all the time, and loving it. Sometimes, it seems to get a little tiring, but we are all there to pick each other up. One of my best friends Christina Harris, is also a wife of a middle school pastor, now I realize why we are such good friends, we relate with each other. Plus, I just think she is awesome and I look up to her so much with her role as a PW. Some other amazing pastor's wives that I know and absolutely ADORE are Sarah Chalk, Jenny Miles, Many Santos, Sarah Bolin, Sara Smith, Cyndy Morris and Selina May. I see a little bit of myself in all of them. Also, I didn't even name the PW's that are related to me that I just love: Debbie Surratt, Sherry Surratt, Dee McGarity, Jenny Surratt, Lisa Surratt, Jenna Surratt, Jenny Mayer, Jess Ray, and Bethany Singleton. Anita McCart and Allison (soon to be Rankin) are also PW or soon to be that I hang out with and love.

So, as you can imagine, I am always at church. Last year when Mike and I were first engaged, I decided to use my time wisely while being at church all the time and volunteer in the nursery. I absolutely loved it, and a few months later I was asked to come on staff as a part time nursery worker on the weekends. This meant that I would work 2 or 3 of the services out of 5 of them on the weekend, and occasionally a first wednesday. I have been doing this for about 10 months and of course, I love it. There are 6 nursery rooms at Seacoast church LPR on the "0-24 months" hallway, and you will normally find me in one of them on the weekend, loving all those kids whether they are babies, crawlers, or walkers. :)

My favorite part of being at church for every service is this:
Whichever service I am not working in the nursery (which is normally the 9:30), I am upstairs in "the attic" where the middle school service is held. I get to see my husband speak, and act crazy with all the students that come to Nitro. I love it, and I have realized lately that my most important role there is Mike's wife. I am there to support, encourage, and help him do whatever is needed. Lately he has given me the duty of doing a part of the service on stage called "Tell Me Something Good". It's pretty fun, and most imporantly I feel that I have helped Mike with his job as a middle school minister!

In two weeks, I will be going on a youth trip with my husband for the first time as the "youth pastor's wife". (What a way to spend our first Valentines Day as a married couple huh?) I am very excited because I just love hanging out with the students just as much as he does! We will be traveling to Lake Junaluska in North Carolina for Lift, the ski/snowboard/tubing winter retreat. Mike told me that we are taking over 220 people total with all the campuses. I'm looking forward to joining my husband in ministry and seeing what God has planned for this trip!

This is me and my minister husband whom I will always love!
:)

Bride Wars, Dresses, a Birthday, and Kate!

If anyone has talked to me lately, I have been excited to share with you about one of these events!!! So, I thought I would share with everyone else about what this week holds for me!

This Friday the movie Bride Wars comes to theaters! As soon as my friends and I saw the previews, we planned an offical girls night on the opening night to go and see the movie! This is just the start of the weekend's events.


Saturday is Allison's day! She is getting married this June to AJ and this saturday morning her bridesmaids that she has chosen are all having a brunch and then going to pick out our bridesmaids dresses that we will be wearing in her wedding! Allison has picked the color of the dresses, and we get to pick the cut and style of the dress that we want! I am so stoked, especially for Allison because she is getting married and It's so close!This is a picture of us this summer.


Sunday is one of my other best friend's (Christina) birthday! I am watching her beautiful girls, Ella and Olivia, for her and Kevin to go on a birthday date!This is a picture of us from her birthday a couple years ago, we went to starbucks... definitely a birthday celebration!


Finally on Tuesday..."Coffee with Kate" Kate Gosselin, from the hit tv show 'Jon and Kate plus 8' on TLC, will be speaking at my church (Seacoast on Long Point Rd) and I'm pretty sure she is doing a book signing too! They have book that just came out called "Multiple Blessings" that she will be promoting. I am just so excited to see her in person, and hopefully be able to get a picture with her! I love her show, and have watched it all 4 seasons! Her kids are so cute, I just love little Aaden with his glasses... they are all so adorable!!!


These are all the exciting things that are happening to me this week that I am so stoked about. If you would like to come to the event "Coffee with Kate" you can register for $10 at seacoast.org... sorry guys, this is a ladies only night!
Here is the link to register:
http://www.seacoast.org/Story.asp?storyid=1837

St. Louis Gateway Arch and bungee jumping in Mills Mall

These last two days have been full of adventure! Yesterday, we went inside the St. Louis Arch, and yes, it was very intense! As we stood in line for our way up, I actually realized how small these little carts are that we had to ride up. The ride up the arch was only 4 minutes, so how bad could it be?? There was seven of us going up, but only 5 could fit in one cart, so Mike and I broke away from the group, which is always kind of awkward because you have to make friends for 4 minutes while you creep up the arch in a cart that is about 5 feet wide and 5 feet tall. So we get in the cart, or "tram" as they call it, and here we go! There was us two and another couple in the cart and right before we left to go up, anarch ranger" hopped in our cart wih us. The ranger told us that he had been working there for 16 years, and he usually goes up the arch once or twice a week, to do a 2 hour shift up there. He also made us guess how many stairs there were going up the arch. The answer: 1,076 stairs to go up the arch. He was a very nice guy, making the ride up there with the strangers a bit less awkward. Then when we get up to the top of the arch which was 630 feet high, we get out of our small cart and go into the observation deck, which wasn't very big either. There were very small windows that you could look out of to see the St. Louis side, which had an amazing view of Busch staidium where the Cardinals play, and you could also see the Illinois side from the other side of the arch. One of my favorite things that you could see was the shadow of the arch from the sun shining on it! It was so much fun, you can spend as mich time up there as you want, and then just catch the next tram back down. Here are some pics from the exciting day! It was so much fun!

Today, we went to the St. Louis Mills Mall. Our little cousin Morgan, as you can see in these pictures is so adorable. She was telling us all about the bungee jumping in the mall, and the glow in the dark miniture golf. So we went, and Brittainy and I got talked into going on the bungee jump in the mall. All I knew was that I wanted to do some flips! I had never been on one of those things, and I will tell you what, THAT IS A WORKOUT!!! Especially doing some flips! Here is some pictures of us all, and of me doing flips on the bungee jump! Watch until the end, because I didn't quite make the third jump, I couldn't get my legs over fast enough!!! It was totally fun though!

Christmas in St. Louis and Mike as Santa Claus!!!

So, here I am sitting in the basement of Mike's grandparents house in St. Louis! It has been so much fun! We drove up here the day after Christmas, leaving at 6am and we actually arrived around 630pm! Even though we did gain an hour, we still made the drive in less than 13 hours! When we arrived, we hung out with family, and just relaxed. The next morning we woke up with good smell of breakfast coming down into the basement suite, which is where Mike and I are staying! All the family came over, and then we did Christmas with them. Mike's 2 cousins, Ryan and Morgan, who were in our wedding this summer were over and it was fun watching them open all of there gifts. Mike and I recieved a $25 gift card to Olive Garden, $25 gift card to Chili's/On the Border, and 2 $25 gift cards to McDonalds(one for each of us!) from his grandparents, and a few sweaters and jackets from his aunt and uncle! We made out pretty well this Christmas with the date night giftcards!!! Yay!!!After opening presents, and then taking an afternoon nap, we headed of to mike's mom's entire family get together at the Senior Citizen hall in Illinois. It was VERY Interesting! There was a water fountain at the Seniors hall that had a sign above it saying "PLEASE! This is a drinking fountain!!" We don't even want to know what people thought it was in order to put the sign out on it! Maybe someone used it as a bathroom one time!?!?! haha! Anyway, every year Santa Claus comes and gives presents to all the children there. It is usually one of the older men that dresses up in the Santa suit, but this year, somehow Mike got talked into being Santa Claus! haha it was so funny! His job was to come through the front door saying "ho! ho! ho!" and ask the children if they have been good this year, and then give them the present that is in the big red Santa bag! So, he did, Mike came through the door with a big "A Christmas Story" "HO! HO! HO!" He came and sat in the Christmas chair, and called out the names on the presents and the kids came and sat on his lap and received their presents. After all the presents were gone, a little girl came up and gave Santa a present that she had made. It was a book full of clippings of Santa Claus, it was so sweet.

Another great thing here in St. Louis is the famous QuikTrip convenient store. They have anazing slurpies and drinks all for great prices! If you haven't been to one, you need to go!!! Here are some pictures from all the festivites here in St. Louis, and I'm sure there will be more posts from here in St. Louis later!

enjoying life to the fullest

So, it's been a while since I've given anyone an update! Here's what's new: I finally got a new car and I absolutely love it! Here is a picture of me with my new car! It's a 99 Honda accord, in a dark purple color. It really looks black, until the sun hits it at the perfect angle and then you can see the purple tint. It feels so nice to have a car that will actually run well for me, and not give me any problems. It has a sunroof, which I absolutely love! Oh, by the way, did you realize that yesterday was when I took this picture, and yes, it was in the 80s on December 19, and I was wearing shorts! The weather has been like this for the last week, and it has been so wonderful! Last night, my stepdad Mike, has his work party at the festival of lights, and we all went! It was really fun, Mike and I ate at the shelter, with Brad, Beth, baby Jack, my mom and Mike. It was our 4th oyster roast that we have been to this Christmas season, and I don't even like them. Good thing there was other food there! Then we rode through and saw all the lights. Here is a picture of Jack with his little head out the window enjoying it all. He loved it! At the very end, I love taking a picture of the Happy New year and getting the next year in there, The last 4 years I have gone, I have gotten all of the years, so here is this years! Happy New Year 2009! I can't believe it's already going to be 2009!
So, another party that I went to this year was what we called our "girlfriends" party with all the kids and babies. Once a week, a few of my friends and I all get together and have lunch. It is normally at one of our houses, or we will go out to eat somewhere, and just enjoy life together. My sister in law Bethany and baby Jack were there, Michelle and baby Stone, Christina and baby Olivia and Ella, and Allison & I all got together to have our little party! We decided to have a gift exchange and draw names, so we did and it was fun! Here are a few pics from the day, mostly of the kids:

Our 1st Christmas Excitement!

I love Christmastime, and I love decorating for Christmas! I was so excited this year to have our own apartment to decorate. I kept on asking Mike when we could start decorating in early November, he then told me that their was a rule that you weren't allowed to decorate for Christmas until after Thanksgiving. Well, the days kept geting closer, and I finally talked him in to getting our tree (it was in my parents attic, their old one) about a week before Thanksgiving. It wouldn't fit in either one of our small 2 door cars, so we just put it on top!

We FINALLY put the tree up 2 days before Thanksgiving, because we decided that we would be with our families at their houses on Thanksgiving, and the day after, and of course, I would be SHOPPING on black Friday! So we did, I got to use all of my new decorations that I had bought last year on sale after Christmas. Here are some pictures of our tree, decorations, and even some wrapped presents under the tree!

Our Tree

The wreath on our door that I decorated

New cute table runner and centerpiece that I put together

Stockings with our initials on them!

The final tree! It is so pretty and colorful!

The Ornament we got on our honeymoon

Pretty presents and new tree skirt

Christmas in the bathroom!Our mini tree is on the table when you first walk in!More decorations on the Kitchen counter!

I don't have a picure, but we put colored and white lights on our porch! It looks so festive!