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!