Christmas Elf

Some little Christmas elf found herself in my Christmas stuff. Yes that is two stockings on her feet and check out those ears!

We're back from Mexico part 2

This is a picture from last year. We took a team of highschool students from a Christian school in Maine. They poured the columns. LeTourneau did some work on this site in March and the church itself raised money to do more work done.

What a great accomplishment for them to get so far in just one year. Eventually they will build walls on the lower level, creating SS rooms. The top will be the sanctuary. This is looking at the back of the church. The road in front of the church is at the sanctuary level. 3 of our team members this year went with us last year too.
This is the altar at the end of Calixto's last sermon. The man in the maroon shirt came back to Christ after walking away from his faith since the death of his young son in the Spring. His 2 year old was run over by a truck. The town people think the driver did it on purpose as he is very against the Christians and the church there. We believe he is now in Jail. Placido and his wife were just swallowed up in grief. Here is Christopher mixing concrete. He worked so hard and enjoyed every minute of it! Pop-pop you would have been proud! Here you can see the front of the church a little bit. In all of our years of doing this we have never seen such a big pile of concrete to mix!! Many towns people came to help out with the project although they are not christians.
Here are the girls! This is the river we bathed in last year. This year it was too cold and the river was churned up because of the rain...it rained a lot! So, catherine and I didn't really take a bath while we were there...I tried to post a picture of the so called "shower area" but it didn't come up. One "wall" to the shower was a row of hibiscus plants, the other 3 "walls" were stick poles with some sort of bag for coverage...coverage was minimal at best! But, we stayed clean with wet wipes just fine! I was able to wash my hair though which was nice!
We are scheduled to return to Mx in February and again in March...Anyone want to come with us??

We're back from Mexico!

These are not in order...I tried to post more than five but they wouldn't show up?! Anyway all 158 pictures are at the following if you would like to look at them: http://www2.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=140695013/a=22985913_22985913/t_=22985913
We went to a remote village, Jalpa (Halpa), where we poured a roof on the church, prayer walked and did house to house evangelism. The area is breath takingly beautiful! We only took a small group, 11 including us. It was a great trip, our focus was "For the fame of his name" The kids enjoyed it a lot and didn't get sick, Praise the Lord! This picture was taken on the way back to Tamazunchale, a 2 hour drive on windy, unpaved, very bumpy roads!
This is back in Tamaz with Pastor Candido and his family. On the wall behind them is a picture of the team we took in April, (Uncle Lee you are the last person on the right in the bottom photo. Dad, for some reason you aren't in the picture)
I just love this picture. This house is tucked away along a small pathway. This woman only speaks the native language of Nahuatl (nah-watt) not spanish. When we came up she promplty found chairs for us to sit on and went back to sorting her beans. We had a church member with us who translated from spanish to her language. She was precious!
This is the team right before we left Jalpa (minus to guys who overslept!) We were standing on the freshly poured roof as the sun began to rise over the mountains , so beautiful!
The road winds back in front of Jalpa, across a valley so you can see the entire village. The population is about 700 people. This is zoomed in so you can't see the whole area. The church is
about in the middle of the picture, it is the large building that looks like it is on pilings. Once it is painted it will surely be a beacon on a hill. The whole village is built on the mountain side and is quite steep.
I'll post a picture of what the church looked like last year when we were there...

19 years ago!

Thanksgiving

We had a great Thanksgiving here. I cooked for my brothers and their familys and my dad (my mom just had knee surgery and was still in the hospital.). We had a great time. It was much better this year. Last year the worst part was that Mimi was with us and she kept saying that Cody looked just like Bruce and I was just waiting for her to ask where he was. It was good last year but very painful. This year even though I kept wanting to show Bruce my perfect pie and ask him how the meal was, it was different. I have come to realize that I have so much to be thankful for and that I have a lot of people who love me and are there for me. I am actually looking forward to the Holidays this year. Last year I just wanted to hide. The Lord surely is good to us. I have no pictures to share because for some reason I forget to get it out. I even forgot it yesterday when we went to dingman's falls.
Roni

My ballerina

Silly Girl!

It is so hard to get a decent picture these days. When Cheyenne sees the orange light on the camera she yells "Cheese!" and makes horrible faces. See for yourself.

And you think you have bad hair days?!

This was Catherine this morning...Miss Wild thing! She had taken her pajamas off during the night...so she could sleep like Christopher!

Way to go Tigers!!

Congratulations to Christopher and the "Tigers" for a first place, undefeated season!! He is in the under 9 league, which is the first year they officially keep score and the first year they have to place 1st, 2nd or 3rd to receive a trophy. It was a very exciting season! Christopher scored 13 goals in 7 games. He usually splits the games playing offense and then goal keeper. Of course I get so nervous when he is the goal keeper...that is a tough position to play! Here he is showing off his trophy at the party last night. Who knows why he chose to hold it this way?! I guess because he could?!
Catherine posing with her friend Lindsey. Her twin brother plays on the team. With the exception of last season he and Christopher played together for 2 years prior. Catherine just loves Lindsey! Here is a picture at the last game, he was getting ready to play goal keeper.
I'm going to miss soccer games every Saturday...but Basketball will start up soon. Not my favorite sport to watch but any game is fun when your child plays in it. I have definitely found my competitive nature (never thought I really had one!!) I try not to get nervous or yell (good things, not bad!) but I just can't help myself.

Watermelon patch '06

Well, we have several watermelons in our impromptu patch so on Sunday we thought we would see how good they were...
They were so proud of their melons...They look pretty on the outside!How disappointing! When Christopher cut open the first one it was completely white inside and smelled like a cucumber.
The second one was just a little pink. They both tasted it, Christopher said it was good...but, it really wasn't! We will leave the rest of them alone and see what happens over the next month. Christopher had his hopes set on starting a watermelon business...maybe next year! We'll deifinitely have room for a garden at the new house!
The dry, hot weather over the summer must have been the reason for our crop failure!

Fall Fun!

Saturday our church had a family fun day at the farm. The weather was nice and cool especially after the sun set. Usually it is still hot, so it was a treat to actually have fall weather for our big fall event! Here is Catherine dressed as a "cowboy-girl"! Her cowboy hat didn't fit anymore so we had to improvise with a plain ole straw hat!
Here we are carving our pumpkins...as you can see cleaning it out is not Christopher's favorite thing to do!
I'm not sure Catherine actually did any work on her pumpkin but at least we got a picture of her hand inside, pretending to clean it out!
Our finished products! We usually carve pumpkins and make caramel apples the same evening but, we kind of ran out of time and now we have no apples as they were eaten and the caramels are still in the pantry!! I'll have to buy more apples and make them sometime...before Christmas, I hope.Catherine just loved "burning her pumpkin" She wanted it lit everynight. We did for a few nights until we ran out of candles.
Our house buying is still moving along, we don't know when closing will be yet, most likely the beginning of December. On another note check out www.ashleysstory.org baby Ashley had a multiple organ transplant and has not been doing so well over the last few days. Please pray for this precious baby and family!

Where did my little baby go?

That is Cody with number 4
Today was our homecoming game. We lost 21 to 9 but it was a good game. These pictures are in backwards order but I am to tired to redo them. After the game there was a homecoming banquet. Cody and three other students got to go. Elizabeth didn't go but here is a picture of her and Sami. Notice her new hair color....I love it.
This is Cody, Justin, Ashley and Sami. Ashley and Sami are cheerleaders

Don't these two look scarey? I don't know why they can't smile.
Watch out for number 10

photo session with Cat.

Catherine will be having her pictures taken on Fri and I was trying to decide if I liked the clothes I bought her, so I took some pix of her outside...she was such the little model, trying different poses! (you can see the tags on her new clothes! I didn't want to take them off till I was sure I liked them on her!)

ok, the dead plant behind her doesn't make such a nice background!

I am not sure that my camera is really fixed, the pix still are not very crisp. I've taken it in 3 times, so the next time I take it in, they are supposed to replace it.

Have a good day!

Prayers

Hi everyone,
Please keep Rob and Becky and the Brower family in your prayers. Bob passed away tonight at around 6:15.
Roni

Happy Birthday Calixto

Yet another Fall Birthday...
ok I posted this this morning...where oh where did it go?? Anyway...
"Happy Birthday Honey...one more year until the big One!"
Yesterday was his birthday but we were not home all day to post a birthday message. He had all day alumni meetings/gatherings at LeTourneau and the kids and I had Christopher's soccer tournament. His parents came in and we had a nice dinner with them last night.
Happy Birthday to a wonderful husband and father...We love you!

Happy Birthday to Calixto!!

For some reason I can't post a picture this morning! Yesterday was Calixto's birthday! We weren't home much at all so I was unable to post then. Calixto spent all day at alumni meetings at LeTourneau and the kids and I were at Christopher's soccer tournament. We did have a nice dinner with his parents last night. And now we are off to visit a different church in town, so we feel like we aren't at "work". Have a great time of worship today!

Happy Birthday to Calixto!!

miscellaneous pictures

Christopher's birthday party at Kid's Station. It is a pretty cool place run by a local Methodist church. It's kind of like Chuck E Cheese only bigger and better. They have individual rooms for your parties and they take care of everything from invitations to the cake. That was helpful since we got back into town on Fri evening and he had both a soccer game and his party the next day.
Some kind of animal skin on his head?! Don't know why someone brought that to the party?! But since it was there...you might as well put it on your head!
My sweet friend Toni, we used to be neighbors until they moved back to South Dakota. God has blessed me with a wonderful godly friendship that continues in spite of the distance. (Her husband is an associate pastor in an EV Free church.)
Oops, forgot to rotate the picture of the chocolate faced girl!
These are a bit out of order...It was nice to rent a car and visit the country side in Minnesota and not just stay in the city. Our other pictures of the trip are on a throw away camera, for some reason I can not get the pictures off the cd to post them...I think I erased them or something...I'll keep trying.
Visit our personal blog at thearces.blogspot.com or the site is linked from this page too.

A Belated Happy Birthday to Roni!

Wow, lots of fall birthdays...Hope you had a good day...I pray that you would see God's blessings everyday of this new year! May you feel His presence as he leads you through this journey of life. Praying for His guidance and provision for you over this year!

Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday Christopher! Hope you had a great day.
Love Aunt Roni and kids