Baptism

I am going to post two posts today we have had a lot going on around here. We have some exciting news. Valor , Ethan and Jadon all got baptized this weekend!!! Valor and Ethan have been waiting for this for a while. Jadon just decided he was ready. Our church had a baptism, potluck and pool party at one of the city pools. 8 people got baptized. It is so neat to see your kids proclaiming their beliefs and love for the Lord. Here are some pics. Both Jay's Mom and my parents got to be there.

Jadon

Ethan

Valor

More visiting family

We had more family visit this weekend. This time it was from Jay's side. His Mom (Vicky), Sister-in-law (Holly), nephew (Troy), Niece (Amy), Cousin (Kim) and her two boys (Michel and Noah). Yeah that's a lot of people. We had a good time. We showed them around Chico and went swimming a lot. This is the first time the 6 cousins (Jay's brothers kids) have all been together. We met Amy about 5-6 years ago when her mom called Jay's parents looking for Troy (Jay's brother). She did not know that Troy had passed away. So Troy never knew he had a daughter. She was spending some time with her grandparents (Jay's parents) in Idaho this summer so Mom decided to bring her down to meet her cousins. She is 12 just 6 months younger then Valor. They all had a great time together Sheri, Troy, Holly, Jadon and Ethan at the Root Beer Shop.
Amy and Valor
All the cousins - Troy (22 mon), Amy (12), Valor (12), Ethan (10), Jadon (8) , Breandan (4), Michel (11), Noah (3 mon)
One Mile pool in Bidwell Park

Kim and Noah

Family Fun

Here are some more fun things we did when my cousin and Grandma were here. David is adjusting. He is used to it being quieter and they have no free time since they go to school so much and study. He didn't like the creek swimming very much. Since it was so last minute to have him here we don't have many things planned outside of Chico. We have people coming to visit though. This week we have Jay's mom, Amy (our niece we have not really met yet, I'll explain later), Holly (our sister -in-law) and Troy (our nephew). Kim (Jays cousin), her son's Noah and Michel. I'll Show pic's from that later.The Honey Run covered bridge is 114 years old. Above: the kids under the bridge. Below: Nana and Breandan on the bridge.
Bear Hole swimming area in Upper Bidwell park in Chico

Day Camp swimming area in upper Bidwell Park - Teresa and Madison and Jacob. We had fish swimming all around us the kids were feeding them their sandwiches. It was pretty cool especially for boys.

More video game of course - Ethan and David

This is a park in Yuba City about 1 hour from us by my parents house. It was a lot of fun and it is only $3 to get in. for 3 hours, not bad. We had a lot of fun.


Nana and 6 of her great- grand kids. Notice only one girl. She is the only one of 9 great- grand kids.

Our exchange student

We just found out last week that they needed another host family for a 13 year old boy from Korea for 4 weeks. We jumped at the chance to have him. We were just praying and talking about having another college exchange student for the school year when we got the phone call for this (no kidding within 10 min). Valor is actually the host because he is closest in age and can relate more to him. Valor is sharing a room with him and he is the main communicator. This is a great opportunity for Valor to get the share the gospel and his love for Christ. Valor is very excited about it. We love having the students here and it is a great learning experience for us and the boys. Two years ago we had Mari from Japan and she was with us for almost a year. We still keep in contact with her. David is his American name Dong Huyn Lee is his Korean name. This is a Christian organization and on the American end the goal of it is to teach these kids about Christ trough everyday life. A majority of Koreans know nothing about Christ. On the Korean end they are coming over for education. They know they are being placed in American Christian homes. This is a great opportunity for us to minister, since we are not in a position in our lives to go anywhere as missionaries we can bring people here and show them Christ's love. We are so excited to have the opportunity to do this. We are having a great time showing him around Chico and the "American" lifestyle. Please Pray that we are able to share the gospel with him and that he is open to learning. The organization is also going to show the students the Jesus Film in Korean. So Pray Pray Pray please. They are hoping to make a difference in the kids so they can take it back to Korea and share with their family and friends.
Also my cousin Teresa and her two kids, Jacob and Madison, and my Grandma came to visit for a few days. Here are some pics of them and David. More pics to follow.
Madison, Breandan, David, Jadon, Ethan, Valor and Jacob at the creek
Of course a common bond Video Games!!!!

Baseballs over!!!!

Ok so baseball is finally over!!!!! Ethan lost the championship game so they are out of it. He is OK with it now he says he can have a summer but it was fun while it lasted. Jay and about 10 other people went to the Angel's vs. A's game in Oakland yesterday. I stayed home to go to Ethan's game. Jay also wanted to go to Ethan's game but we already had this all planned out and other people going. Ethan's team was not supposed to play Sunday but because of all the postponed games they had to. So here are some pics of the game in Oakland.




Jay and Valor. Yes Valor has braces and an expander on the top so his teeth are splitting apart!! Just for a short time.
The gang that went - Jay, Becky, Valor, Andy, Micah, Breandan, Caitlyn, Jadon, Curtis, Dan and Doug

They had fun in their red amongst all the green.

Angels won 4-3

ANOTHER All Star update

OK so here is an update on all stars again. I feel like this has been going on forever, well maybe because it has. With all the postponed games etc. we are living baseball around here. Well Ethan played Friday night against the other undefeated team and they lost, but Ethan could not have had a better game he got a double with an RBI, then he hit one out of the park and got another RBI plus himself, it was pretty cool. This was his second home run for the year. He was playing one of his best friends teams so even though they lost he had "bragging" rights. So because they lost Fri. they played on Sat. and they won. In that game he hit a double and a single, walked and grounded out. He also had the game winning catch, so he got the player of the game award. Needless to say he has had a great weekend. So now it continues, because they won they play the team they lost to on Fri. night tomorrow. It should be a tough game. And what was really cool is that his Uncle Royal and Aunt Denise were up here and got to see both of the games. Wow what a weekend.

You know something else pretty cool all during all stars they have to say the Little League pledge and the first line of that pledge for those of you that don't know it is "I trust in God" Now that is cool. Would that be there if the pledge was written today, I don't know but probably not. The people who wrote it thought that it was not just important enough to be in the pledge but to say it first. Now I know the kids have to say that but do we say that because we believe it and because we want to say it? Do we say that first when we are up against a "tough competition"? I don't know that I always do like I should. Do you? Just a thought started by baseball.

Ethan and his home run ball

Ethan getting player of the game for his team.

Please Pray!!

I can't believe I am writing about the fires again. It has been a very tough summer up here. We drove up to Paradise last night to help some friends of ours from Church evacuate their home and get their cars and stuff down to Chico. The smoke was so bad yesterday and it was raining ash down in Chico that they postponed All Stars again. It is not only the smoke but is the heat it is supposed to be 113 degrees today. They were evacuating a hospital in Paradise this morning. We have seen fires almost non stop since June 11. Chico is fine but smokey. So far our friends house and Paradise is fine. Please pray for the people having to evacuate, the fire fighters who have to work the fire lines in this heat and they are saying they are doing 24 hour shifts (we have seen crews from all over Cal. including down south), and anyone who is having trouble with the smoke. Thanks for your prayers.

By the way we are snake sitting for our friends that were evacuated. Boys are loving it Mom not so much!! It better stay in that cage or else!! (Mom will move out)

All Stars

So here is the updates on All Stars. Valors team lost both of their games so they are out. Ethan's team has played two games and not lost yet so they play on Tues. against the other team that has not lost yet. It should be a great game. Here are some pics. We also found a cool park by Valor's games in Willows (about 40 min from Chico) the ground was pieces of old tire crumbled up and painted blue and the structure was very cool.

A little fun with our car

Valor caught and played right field he is #99

Ethan also catches and plays 2nd base. He is #7

Finally a day outside

OK so it was the last day of June and finally the smoky air was getting better so we decided to go down town and get some ice cream and go run around in the fountain. The air has been "Very unhealthy" for almost a week. There have been so many fires up here from lightning strikes the weekend before. We decided to stay indoors for the most part over this past week (besides baseball practice). Not very much fun for four boys with lots of energy, but it went pretty good considering. We had lots of friends over to play board games and video games! They even postponed the All Star tournaments that were supposed to start over the weekend. Well the air is a little better and we needed to get out and run!! And by the way the All Star games start up today yeah!!! We will keep you posted on how their teams do.