Change

Right now I finally decided to sit and write on here for the first time in 6 months. I am sitting outside in the beautiful Chico weather. Jay and Jadon are at a paintball retreat, Valor is working, Ethan is on a bike ride with a friend and Breandan is playing outside with the neighbor kids and I am getting a chance to relax! Right now we are in the middle of baseball season so this is a rare moment to enjoy! Life this past 6 months has been busy, changing, difficult, happy, and probably anything else that you can think of! So much has changed and is changing.

I think Change sums up our last 6 months.

Kids grow up so fast!! Two of them are now taller then me :-(. There is something surreal about when your kids get taller then you. Now don't get me wrong with having all boys I hope they are one day all taller then me! It just happened so fast. And they love to tell me over and over.

Most of our changes have been for Valor. He is graduating Jr. High and we signed him up for his High School classes, he got his first job (umpiring), he is getting to go to the National young leaders state conference next week and fly to Irvine by himself. Wow time goes so fast! He is very independent but yet so much still a kid. It is neat to see him becoming a man.

I feel like as the baby or toddler stage of our parenting is over, and even though we enjoyed that, we are loving our whole new adventure. Of course there are hard times and trials, but watching our kids make their own decisions, some good and some that we need to walk them through, has been awesome. Even though our kids can give us hard times at home I think the real test is how they act when we are not around and they are with other people. We are very proud of who they are and who they are becoming. We do miss the babies though and have to borrow to get our baby fix sometimes!!

Well those are just my thoughts for now hopefully I will get or take moments like this more often and post on here more regularly.

Animoto.com

Love Chico Sunday

This past Sunday 19 churches in our area didn't have services. Instead we went out into our community to serve, together. We had what was called "Love Chico". There were over 90 projects including schools, non-profits, parks, nursing homes etc. and almost 3,000 volunteers. The project we gardening, cleaning, painting, construction, really anything that needed help getting done. This was a great way to unite the Body of Christ and serve in our community. We had a great time serving as a family with others from other churches. We went to Chico Eastside Little League to clean up and help on projects. After the last storm we had there were lots of downed branches so we cleaned that up, we painted and just did general cleanup. We figured this was a great place to go considering we practically live there in the Spring. We worked from 8:45 to about noon. Then everyone met at the Downtown plaza for worship and testimonies

Happy Birthday Valor!!!

We survived the first teenage year! Valor is 14!!!! We can't believe it, it has gone so fast. We are so proud of him and the young man that he is becoming! Valor has grown in so many ways this past year. It is so much fun to have "adult" conversations with him about world, social and religious issues. This past year he played baseball, indoor soccer and roller hockey. He also continues to play is bass guitar and write songs. He has continued to lead the bible study at school, with his friend Joe, at lunch time. In school he is doing great in 8th grade and is taking geometry on line for math. We are looking forward to more "adventures" this year. Love you Valor!!

Ethan is another year older 12!!!!

Wow I can't believe another year has flown by. It is going so fast I need to take more time to just sit and watch them grow up, if only they would slow down!!! Ethan is turning 12 today! Last year before a teenager (but actually he acts that way already). We are so proud of him and the young man that he is becoming. He is growing spiritually (he went up to the 6th grade in Jr high because he wanted "something more") and physically (he is now the tallest in his class and will catch up to me very soon and he is almost stronger) and maturity (well not too much yet :-) ). Love you Ethan Have a great year!!!

First day of school!!!

So summer is over and school started Aug. 19th! What ever happened to starting school after Labor Day?? This is the one and only year we will have all four boys in the same school, their charter school is K-8th grades (well preschool is there also but they are a little bit separated) Here are a few pics from the first day of school. Of course there are more of Breandan because he is starting Kindergarten!! (and he is the only one that will allow me to take pictures of him at school!!)

Breandan - Kindergarten

Jadon - 4th grade

Ethan - 6th grade

Valor - 8th grade

The rest of summer!!

Well here is the rest of the highlights from our summer. This summer was a stay home summer for us because of different circumstances. We still had some visitors and had some adventures. School starts this next week (Aug 18th) then our busy times start. School, 2 in hockey, 2 in soccer, band ,church etc.The boys (and Mom) enjoyed the time at home and around town (mostly we did do one trip).

I went on my first scrapbook weekend. There were 8 ladies and we laid all our stuff out on Friday in the conference room and spent the night at the hotel. We packed up to go home on Sunday!! I only knew one of the ladies there but it was a great time of fellowship and meeting new friends.

Valor and Ethan were in All stars until the about the first week of July.

Jadon took Jay out on his Father's Day outing. Fishing at Horseshoe lake in Bidwell park.

The Kovacs' and us went to my parents house in Live Oak where you can still do your own fireworks for the 4th of July

Jadon played Upwards flag football. It is so cool they do a devotional at half time for the teams. Caesar was leading the devotionals and he had Jadon help with a illustration. This is an outreach of the Evangelical Free Church.

This was our one trip for the summer and of course it revolved around sports. That seems to be the season of our life that we are in right now. Brannan Island is in the Sacramento Deltas.
Ethan had a mini tournament for Butte United travel soccer in Elk Grove near Sac. so we decided to make a weekend out of it. We went to the games swam in the river and picked our own fruit.

The last four weeks of summer we had two Korean teachers stay with us. They were taking English classes at Chico State. We had a great time with them. Learning more about Korea and teaching them more about America. This is through the college but the families they place them with are Christians (a Christian home stay program). We have an awesome opportunity to share the gospel but more importantly just to show them God's love through our everyday life and to build relationships that will last, to continue to pour Christ into their lives. This is our mission field along with Matthew's cafe. Every time we have students or teachers stay with us they become family. So now we have an international family and lots of people to visit in Korea and Japan hopefully some day. We look forward to each time we can have students with us. The teachers we had this summer were Cho and Kang. They teach Elementary and Middle school in Cheongju, Korea

We finally put up the pool that Royal and Denise gave us (Jay couldn't because of his leg) It is a lot of fun and a great way to cool off. Thank you Uncle Royal and Aunt Denise!!!

They made us a very yummy Korean dinner. Jadon is now a pro at chopsticks! Nanna Kovacs' (that is what we still call her) was up visiting the Kovacs' from Kansas so she joined us on a few adventures. It was so good to see her. She has always been Jay's second Mom.

We go swimming at Bear hole in upper park every summer. The boys love jumping off the rock and this year Jadon even did it!! This pic is of Valor jumping and Ethan standing below.