Family Pics

I have really been wanting to get family pictures taken for a while now, and our sweet friend, Amber agreed to take them...she did a really great job! I am just amazed at her talent and patience...taking pictures of two boys going in opposite directions most of the time. Thank you, Amber for some great pictures that we will enjoy for a long time! Here is our Christmas card...I was so excited to be able to use the pictures that she took.

























































These are some of my favorites, but with over 200 to choose from, it is hard to narrow them down...

...and finally, we hope you had a "Merry Christmas"!

Cuteness!

I have too much to post that it is overwhelming, so here are just a few cute pics of Gabe from this week and a video of Joshua.

Gabe has mostly been eating baby food, but is starting to branch out into some solids...gnawing on bread, diced fruit, and his favorite below...Gerber's version of spaghetti-o's.


















Here is the aftermath...


















Josh is not to be outdown with the messy-ness! This was the damage done after Joshua devoured a piece of pumpkin bread with chocolate chips.























And an old picture of Gabe from his Kid's Day Out "Imagination Day". This was Oct. 31st, but his costume as a tandem parachuter didn't quite work out without his Daddy, so we improvised with this "costume" as a biker. Watch out, he is a tough dude!























I wish I would remember that I have to take videos from my camera going a certain direction...I did not remember this time, so you will have to crane your neck to see this. I took this video on Wednesday night at church. One of out good friends, Chantz, is always so sweet to play with our boys. He found the way to Joshua's heart by helping him swing in a creative way!

Fall-a-Palooza

Each year on Oct. 31st, our church hosts Fall-a-Palooza. It has gotten increasingly exciting each year since Joshua was born. The first year he rode around in his stroller, last year he walked around not very excited about anything, and this year he actually participated in games and loved the bounce house! Gabe was a lot of fun too! All of the grandparents came up to enjoy the boys, so it was alot of fun. Peter and I also had our student ministry fall retreat that weekend, so they all watched and entertained the boys. I can't believe that I have not posted any of their cute pictures yet, so here they are.

Yes, he could be the next Tiger Woods!


















Joshua was the cutest construction worker around! He even won 3rd place in the costume contest for the preschool category.


















Joshua and I were construction workers, and Peter & Gabe were...























...tandem skydivers!























You can see their costume a little better in this picture...

Sam & Miles have arrived!

My sweet friend, Kristin, had her twinadoes (as she calls them) on Sunday afternoon. We were able to visit her after she went into the recovery room, and then spent some time with her this morning. She will be posting pictures soon, so check her blog for all of the sweet pictures. Because they were born at 34 weeks, they will have to spend some time in the NICU. As you can imagine, no new mother wants to be separated from her babies, so this is very hard. Pray specifically that Kristin will have peace during this time, and that the babies will be able to maintain their body temperature and eat from a bottle consistently. Below are a few scriptures to pray over their family.

“Whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do those things that are pleasing in His sight.” 1 John 3:22
Jesus, in Your Name we ask for quick healing for Sam and Miles, and believe that they will receive it. May your peace continually be with Todd and Kristin as they trust in You.

“…and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.” James 5:16
Lord, many believers are calling to you today, and we trust that you hear and answer those prayers on behalf of Todd, Kristin, Laney, Sam & Miles.

If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him! Matthew 7:11
Lord, as much as Todd & Kristin want to protect their boys and give them good gifts, please show them that your gifts are even greater…pour them out on the Lewis Family today.

“Your light shall break forth like the morning, your healing shall spring forth speedily (for Sam & Miles), and your righteousness shall go before you; the glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard.” Isaiah 58:8
Lord, we ask that you would bring a speedy healing for Sam & Miles so that they may go home soon. Thank you that your righteousness and glory surrounds them.

“But to you who fear My name the Sun of Righteousness shall arise with healing in His wings.” Malachi 4:2
Lord, we ask that you would arise today with healing in your wings…cover Sam and Miles with your protection and make them strong. Restore health to Kristin’s body as well so that she may be able to care for her precious family.

“Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb is a reward.” Psalm 127:3
Lord, thank you for the incredible blessing of Sam & Miles! We pray that they would continue in the godly heritage of Todd & Kristin.

Sweet Friends...a Heavy Heart

This last week has been filled with hard news to take. Our family has spent a lot of time on our knees pleading before God on behalf of two precious families.

Our friends, Chuck & Kristi Walker received some incredibly hard news last week after the birth of their sweet son, Zane. After many days of tests, it was determined that Kristi has stage four cancer in many areas of her body. Amanda wrote about this on her blog in detail, so please click here to know how to pray specifically. They have three sweet boys: Cade, Mason & Zane. We love the Walker Family and are believing that God can perform a miracle to restore health to her body.

Today was a hard day as our church celebrated the homecoming of Ileeta Watson to her heavenly home. Ileeta was a full-time staff member at our church, so I have had the pleasure of serving with her and getting to know her well over the last year and a half. She was a genuine, selfless servant and has impacted so many lives. Even when she was sick, she always had a kind word to say and rarely even said anything about the pain she was in. I have learned so much from her during the time that we worked together and I have been blessed by her! I loved the stories that some of her closest friends shared at the funeral. Today has made me think about those I love and the friendships that I hold dear. I hope that we are even closer in 25 years and that all of our children love spending time together as well. They truly have a unique friendship.

Please pray today for her daughters, Candace & Natalee, her mom, Alma, and all of the other family members and friends that were so dear to her. It is hard to even think about a work day without Ileeta there.

Fall is in the Air

Last Thursday while my mom was here, she took us to the Dallas Arboretum. I have only been there during the spring, so it was nice to see all of the fall colors and TONS of pumpkins. They had a big pumpkin patch, a pumpkin house, and all of the walkways were lined with pumpkins! It's no wonder Joshua kept pointing out the pumpkins while we were there.

Here are the boys posing for a picture in front of the cottage...

Joshua adopted the cottage as his personal playhouse. He invited us inside, played peek-a-boo by opening and closing the shutters and door. It was difficult to take this picture because he kept wanting to close the shutters.

Another peek-a-boo picture...

Gabe posing in the pumpkin patch...
























...with the pumpkin house in the background.


















Joshua loved the floating pumpkins...























At the end of our time at the Arboretum, Joshua picked out two pumpkins...one for himself and one for Gabe. He picked out small ones because he wanted to be able to carry them.

Here is Joshua's pumpkin...
























And Gabe's pumpkin...

Josh & Friends

We are making it this week without Peter...God has been good to give me and the boys some sweet time together, but man I was sure glad when my mom arrived after work on Monday! The reinforcement is here! We spent all morning today running errands to get ready for our apartment's National Night Out event. It was a lot of fun...thanks to some great friends...Ashley & Christian kept the bounce house in check, and Nate Smith was awesome entertainment. I will have to post some pics once I get them downloaded. The best picture of the night will be the four young girls who stood three feet away from Nate the entire time he was singing. It was as if they were at a rock concert and they had front row seats. They were swaying with the music, had an air microphone for themself, and there was even a little jumping going on at some points.

Back to Peter, I forgot how weird it is to not be able to hear from him. When my phone rings, I expect it to be him on the other end. Thank you to everyone who has been praying for him...I am trusting that the Lord is doing some miraculous things through the team. They have two more days of building the pastor's house and ministering to the village, and then they will head back up river. Tonight I met a friend of one of our residents...we were talking and I told him that Peter was in Nicaragua. He asked if he was in Managua...I said that he flew in there and then went to Puerto Cabezas and then Wes Palm (not the spelling, that's just how it sounds to me). He said, "I know just where that is, is he working with the Palmers?" Hello! He went on a mission trip to the same region when he was in high school and worked with the missionaries that Peter's team is with right now. Isn't the Lord sweet to give me the encouragement of someone who knew exactly what Peter is facing tonight?

So the post originally was going to be about Joshua and his cutie pie girl friends, but I got side-tracked. My sweet friends Janelle and Kristin posted some pictures and stories from playdates we have had recently. Because those pictures are still on my camera, I am putting the link to their posts here. Grandpa Ashdown, this is for you! I know that you check for updates often, so here are some great pictures and videos of the boys.

Playdate of Joshua, Gabe & Ella at the park a few weeks ago. Click here for some fun videos of the kids singing as they play.

Playdate of Joshua, Gabe & Laney at the Lewis' house on Sunday night. Click here to see the best choke-hold picture (don't worry, there were no lasting effects on Gabe...he's just fine).

Mikitos and Mosquitos

Peter is headed with a team of 13 to Nicaragua this morning. We made it to the airport at 5:30am and stuck around a while to see him off. They will return next Saturday night...very late! I am so grateful that my mom is coming on Monday to stay with us and help me keep my sanity!

Below is a very brief description from our pastor and trip member, John Durham, of the purpose of the trip:
Our team will be building a church and a pastor’s home for the Miskito Indians on the bank of the Coco River next week. We are partnering with IMB missionaries in Nicaragua and are going to a remote village called Tulimbila which is a 7 hour upriver trip in a canoe. Please pray for three things: 1) Safety and health of the team. 2) The seed of the Gospel to be firmly planted in the hearts of the Miskito Indians. 3) Completion of the church and house in the week we are there.

Pray for the team members: Peter, Jared, Daniel, Steven, Aaron, John, Daniel, Chantz, Phil, Will, Greg, and Cody.

Entertainment by Joshua

I have been grabbing my camera a lot lately to video the boys...I'm trying to make sure we have some fun things documented. Since Joshua has been talking and singing so much lately, I wanted to share a few of those videos.

Joshua created his own medley of his favorite songs. In this video he started with the A,B,Cs, then went straight into Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star, and halfway through that song changed to Jesus Loves the Little Children.

Joshua Song Medley from Melissa Murrell on Vimeo.

Almost every night we read Goodnight Moon, sometimes more than once. Lately he has been reciting the words along with me. Here is Joshua telling the beginning of the book. He got distracted and wanted to look at himself in the camera as I was videoing him. I am just amazed that kids his age can memorize things...

Story Time with Joshua from Melissa Murrell on Vimeo.

Gabe's Officially Crawling!

In my last post I said that Gabe's main mode of getting around has been army crawling. Well, last night he took three crawling steps toward me...then today he has been practicing some more. I went to his Kid's Day Out class today and grabbed my camera as he started to crawl across the floor. He is still going back and forth between army crawling and crawling on his knees, and I'm honestly a little worried about him getting around even faster than he has been. He is going to be keeping me on my toes!

Gabe Crawling from Melissa Murrell on Vimeo.

Gabe - 8 Month Day!

Gabe is 8 months old today...where has the time gone?! He is such a sweet and happy baby, and brings us joy each day. Here are some of his recent developments:

-He cut two more teeth this week, bringing his total to four.
-He says mama, dada, and nana. Talk about melting my heart when he says "mama" repeatedly while "crawling" toward me.
-His main mode of transportation is army crawling.
-He enjoys standing up while holding onto toys or the couch.
-He is 20 pounds!
-His eyes light up when Joshua is playing with him.
-He laughs easily and smiles at everyone!
-He enjoys eating cereal and most baby food, but hasn't seemed too fond of the jarred meats...I don't think that I would like them either!
-The best development yet is that he has been sleeping through the night almost every night for the last two weeks!




















Here is a video of "a day in the life" of our boys. Joshua was being sweet to entertain Gabe with a game of "Where are me?" (a.k.a. "where am I?" or peek-a-boo).

Ike, Missing My Boys & Grapefest

All week long, Peter and I have been watching the weather channel, trying to figure out what Hurricane Ike was going to do. The boys went to Houston last Sunday to spend the week with grandparents. Our plan all along was to drive to Houston yesterday and spend the weekend with family and then bring the boys back Saturday. As Hurricane Ike continued heading toward the Galveston area, we decided to just drive down yesterday and turn right back around. We met my parents in Conroe just hours before I-45 got unbearably clogged. We were so grateful to not be stuck in that terrible traffic! And so glad to be reunited with our boys! That was my first time to be away from Gabe and definitely the longest time away from Joshua. Peter and I had a good time hanging out together and did a few things that we don't get to do often...like go see a movie and ride our bikes.

Now that Ike is pounding Galveston, we are glued to the tv. I am just so distraught over the fact that there are so many people that didn't evacuate Galveston Island. We are praying for their safety. I guess we will know much more in the morning.

I wanted to leave you with a few pics from Grapefest...it is going on this weekend in Grapevine. Last night we met up with Janelle & Ella, and Todd, Kristin & Laney . It was so much fun! We just walked around for a while, let the kids dance to the live music, and did some serious exercise in the bounce house.

Peter took on the responsibility of pushing the boys in the stroller...


















My sweet Gabe...he seems like such a big boy sitting up in the stroller.























I love this picture because Ella and Laney are so excited to be dancing to the music. As you can tell, Joshua was not as excited. He did enjoy running circles around Janelle for a while.


















This picture is so sweet as the kids rush over to give Kristin a hug...I like to think that they were all talking to the twins.























The kids loved the bounce house...Joshua was sweating and red in the face by the time we convinced him to get out.

Gabe Army Crawling

We finally took a video of Gabe in his very fast army crawling mode! It just so happened that when I was recording this short clip, Joshua decided to show off his new thing also...making sure brother doesn't get any of his toys!

Papa's 80th Birthday

I am slowly getting caught up on summer events, but one that can't go without mentioning is Papa's 80th birthday party. The party was on July 12th at a treasure of a restaurant called The Carriage House in Houston. They had great barbecue and neat antiques throughout the restaurant.

It was a surprise party, and he was definitely surprised when he saw that we had driven in from Dallas, and many of his longtime friends were also there. Papa has played in bands for a long time, and several of his band friends came to wish him a happy birthday. They were all so sweet, and I had a flash-forward moment of what it may be like when I am 80 years old and have lived a lot of life with my good friends.

There were a few tense moments at the party, which ended up giving us a good laugh. As you see in the picture below, Papa was blowing out his candles when the present behind the cake fell over on top of the candles. The tissue paper caught on fire and Papa threw the paper off the cake. He continued working on blowing out the candles, mind you. The paper fell behind the table by the paper tablecloth and wood wall. Luckily, Peter's mom ran over to the paper and started stepping on it. This was all caught on video and I wish I had it to post on the blog because it was very funny!

Gabe and Papa posing for a pic...

A pic of most of the family that was at the party...

Conversation with Joshua

Having a conversation with Joshua is a new thing for us, and I love that he can verbally tell me what is going on in his head...for the most part! This morning on our way to church, we took a minute to pray. After we said "Amen" this was the conversation...

J: I show God my raisins.
M: Did you know that God can already see your raisins? He sees everything.
J: I show God my water.

Minutes later...
J: I done pooping. I show God my poo poo.

A short conversation, but it had me laughing so hard! I'm sure it won't be the last time that the topic of conversation turns to poop!

Mission Houston

Following our move in June, we headed to Houston for our middle- and high school mission trip. It was so great to be back in our "stomping ground" to serve. The students were great and worked very hard that week. They ran a VBS for a brand new Spanish-speaking church, sorted clothes for a clothes closet, served snow cones at an apartment complex, and passed flyers out in a neighborhood to promote the church. I am really proud of each one of them for being obedient to the Lord's call to go!

Here are a few of the sweet kids that we met in Houston...

While in Houston, the boys and I split our time with our families and the mission group. Each morning I went to help with the VBS and the boys spent time with grandparents. Josh & Gabe had such a fun time visiting the Houston Zoo and a children's museum. I also had the blessing to meet up with many of my Houston friends for a playdate. It is rare that I get to visit with friends on our short trips to Houston, so this was really great!

After their visit to the zoo, the boys posed in their Houston Zoo shirts...

We also had a birthday party our first night in town for Phillip and Elizabeth (who share the same birthday - June 8)...

The boys got to spend time with their great-grandpa (Papa)...

Josh and Gabe love swimming, so it was very fun to get to swim at Grandpa & Grandma's house...

Here are a few pics of our playdate at Memorial City Mall. Let me just say, that mall has the best play area. The only drawback, is that every other mother in Houston also thought it was a good day to go to the mall, so there were lots of kids there. It was so fun to connect with some of my wonderful Houston friends, but we need to do it again in a less hectic environment so we can visit more. I really wanted a picture of all the moms and kids, but it was an impossible feat.

Here is my mom with Gabe and Michelle with Jack...the boys are good friends already and holding hands...

This was the closest we got to a group picture...Kay & Jayk, Becky & Luke, Lauren & Ava, me & Gabe. Missing from this picture are Michelle & her boys, Amanda & Jackson, Becky's son Will, and Joshua.

Kay & Jayk having a good time...Jayk and Jackson hanging out together.

On Thursday of that week, the entire mission group went to Galveston for a fun afternoon at the beach. The students deserved a break because they worked so hard at each task they were given throughout the week! Our families went along, and it was fun to be all together at the beach. This was Joshua and Gabe's first time at a beach. As Lauren said, their beach experiences will only go up from there (meaning Galveston is not the prettiest beach) :)

Joshua's first feel of the warm Galveston water...

...and Gabe's first dip in the water

Grandma and Gabe lounging on the beach...

Oksana and Joshua looking for shells on the beach...

Grannie and Josh playing with boats in the shallow water...

Peter, Joshua, Tyler, and Ava posing for a pic...

Joshua was not very enthused about having to pack up and leave the beach...

We headed to the Kemah Boardwalk when we left Galveston. We all enjoyed the atmosphere of the boardwalk, even though it was sprinkling, and the great food at Joe's Crab Shack!

It was such a great week...fun with our students and families...wonderful opportunities for ministry and some very real, cool stories of how God moved in unexpected ways!