SNOW DAY!!!!

Well at 7:15am this morning we were out playing in the SNOW!!!! We don't get snow often in Memphis, but today we did!! Emma got to stay home from school and so far we are on our 2nd time of playing in the snow and have had hot chocolate once, I'm sure we'll be having it again after our second playtime in the snow!!!

Broadway Buddies!!!!

Since September, Emma's after school activity has been a thing called Broadway Bound. There were 3 different classes: the buddies, 6-8 year olds, blast, 9-13 year olds, and then the troupe which was 9-13 year olds who auditioned. These past few months they have been learning 5 songs and choreography to go along with them. This past Friday night was the culmination of it all, THE BIG PERFORMANCE!!! Emma did a wonderful job dancing and singing and had a solo in the song YMCA. She had so much fun doing it all, and I think it was a great experience for her to be able to be on stage and in a show, something she's wanted to do for a LONG time!
Emma doing her solo.

Emma's star and picture on the wall before you went into the theatre.
Emma dancing in "American Bandstand"


Getting ready for her solo in YMCA.

Dancing and singing in "We Are Family"

After the show, sitting in her chair backstage.

Taylor, Julia Anne, Ty and Emma. Taylor is our main babysitter her and we were so glad she and her sister came to support Emma.

Emma, Katie Beth, and Madelyn. Madelyn was in the show too, but Katie Beth is a friend from school and church who came to cheer them both on--What a TRUE Friend!!!

Emma and Ty being sweet on stage after the show. Ty was great the whole week of dress rehersals and the night of the show, he just sat and watched and was sooo good!! He is definitely a great little brother. When it was over, and Emma came out front to see us all, he was the 1st one to run up to her and give her a BIG hug!!
Probably 2 of Emma's Biggest Fans---PaPa and MiMi, they flew all the way in from Dallas for the big show!!!

Show and Tell

The same day that it snowed, Ty got to take his 2 underwater frogs for show and tell at Mother's Day Out. He LOVED getting up in front of his class to show them all his "pets". When I came to pick him up 3 of the kids were just standing around the frogs watching them. I think they were a hit!!

SNOW???

One morning last week I was up at 5am and it had started snowing. It stopped for awhile, but then, while the kids were getting ready for school, it started snowing huge flakes again. Well by the time we got outside the flakes were very tiny with not alot of accumulation!!! But here is our effort of playing in the snow!

Ty and Dorian

Ty and his friend Dorian love to play together. Dorian is a friend who we met through Emma's soccer team a couple of years ago. Dorian's brother was on her team and so Ty and Dorian got to play alot at games and practices. Now we see them every week at storytime at the Library and when it's warm enough we take a picnic to a park and play. These pics were at Dorian's house and Ty and Dorian had a great time playing together.

Ty's First Basketball game

Ty started playing Upward basketball this past weekend. For opening day, they called out each team's name and had them run through streamers and a spirit line. Ty had so much fun and is beginning to learn a little bit of the basics of basketball.going through the spirit line

Jeff is the head coach and here they are waiting for all of the teams to come out. There were four different teams, we play on a half court. These men are not all on our team, in fact Jeff is the only one of our coaches that you can see.

Ty getting lined up so he can see who the player is that he is suppose to guard. They put little colored straps on them so they can see who has the same color as they do.

Ty dribbling down the court.
Ty's team has 7 players so 2 sit on the bench each quarter.

Ty guarding his player.
Giving "good games" to the other team.

Upward is great for Ty's age and younger elementary age because they don't emphasize on the winning as much and all get "awards" which are little stars they can put on their jersey each week. This is one of the coaches giving out the stars.

Christmas with Grandpa

Last weekend Jeff's dad, "grandpa" got to come into town so we could celebrate Christmas. We had a great time. Most of the time we played with the Wii he gave us and let all of our competitiveness come out---seriously we had to calm Emma down a couple of times :)

Ty opening a present
Emma opening the Wii

Grandpa's masterpiece of presents and stockings, Great Grandma helped with all of the supplies and sent her presents too.

VANCOUVER!!!!

For those of you that haven't heard, we are going to be planting a church in downtown Vancouver Canada. God began laying on our hearts church planting around September, confirmed that and showed us we should do it in downtown Vancouver, in November, and now we have begun our journey to make it there. Our goal is to be there by June 2010 and these next 18 months will be spent in preparation for it. We have put our house on the market and annouced to our church our plans, however, Jeff will still be doing youth ministry there while we start fundraising, unless we need to go do an intership somewhere before June 2010. We are so excited, about what God is doing and I will let you know what our website is when Jeff gets one up and running (he's working on it now). In the meantime please pray with us about all of the details, that they will fall into place.

Jeff and I at Stanley Park with downtown in the background.
Driving into downtown.

Another view of downtown.

New Years Eve 2008

For New Years Eve, our friends, Jimmy and Leisha took us out to The Melting Pot. We had such a fun time talking and enjoying a meal without kids!! Afterward we went back to their house, where all of the kids were with a sitter, relieved the sitter, and let the kids play till about 11pm. Then we went home and put two tired kiddos to bed!! It was a very fun way to celebrate!!

OK, I don't ususally just write, but this story was just too cute to not share with everyone. Yesterday, while the Jenkins were here, Emma, Ty and Corin were all dancing to some Hillsong Kids Worship. Emma turned off the music and said, "y'all come here we need to talk about something." So Ty and Corin followed her to a corner of the room where she continued to share with them how to ask Jesus into your heart, it went a little something like this:
Emma: Do you know who Jesus is?
Ty and Corin: Yes
Emma: What do you know about Him?
Ty: (mentioned Jesus' name and then something about a four wheeler)
Corin: (I'm not sure, b/c I went to share with Jeff what was going on)
Emma: Would you like to ask Jesus into your hearts?
Ty and Corin: Yes!
Emma : Then pray this after me (she prays a prayer and they repeat it)

Then Emma came to me and said, "Mom, Ty and Corin want to ask Jesus into their hearts" I told her, "great, but they're pretty young so I think we should still talk to them about it some more."
Then Emma said, " OK" and was waiting for me to talk to them, so I said, " What I mean is we need to talk to them over time" She said, "OK" and off she went to play some more.


I am so thankful that even in that cute and funny situation, God is already developing in her a heart to tell others about Him.

The Jenkins Girls Come for a Visit!!!

The last couple of days the Jenkins ladies, Paige, Halle, and Corin, all got to come for a visit (John was on a mission trip). We had such a blast. We went to the Children's Museum of Memphis, made cupcakes, made pizza, opened presents, and played and played and played!!! We loved having them here.

Ty on the Firetruck at the Children's Museum.
Ty and Corin on a motorcycle

Halle and Emma on the motorcycle.

Ty checking out at "Kroger"

Emma checking out--this was all of the kids favorite parts!

All of the kids licking the spoons after making cupcakes.

Ty and Corin zoned in on the tv.

All 4 of the kids right before bath time!

Post #2 of Gatlinburg

Jeff got the great opportunity to speak at a youth retreat in Gatlinburg/Pigeon Forge again, like he has the past 2 years. So since it was during Christmas break the kids and I went with him and we had so much fun. The kids and I went on a nature hike, we got to see the Sprays, who we hadn't seen in forever, went to Dixie Stampede, where Ty was asked to chase a chicken in a race, but being the sweet brother that he is, let Emma and she won. We also got to go to Ober Gatlinburg, ice skate, and ride the Alpine Slide. It was a wonderful 4 days and we loved every minute.

Jeff and Ty before they went down the mountain on the alpine slide. Just to make sure everyone knows, Emma and I won, the boys got behind a slow lady :0)

Emma and I on the chairlift.

Jeff and Ty on the chairlift before we rode down on the alpine slide.

Emma and Ty ice skating. They had so much fun.

Ty by one of the riders in the Dixie Stampede.

Winter Retreat in Gatlinburg 2008

Bennett kept us laughing by doing all sorts of funny things!!!

Leah Grace, Emma, and Ty playing Foosball. They had so much fun seeing each other.

Emma before she started the race.

Emma chasing a chicken down to the finish line. She is the tall one at the front. I have to say she was the fastest!!

Emma waving to our side as everyone cheered because they won.

Emma by the waterfall that was going down the hill

Ty on one of the bridges.
Emma hiking back up the hill.
Ty hiking up the hill.