chichicastenango...

... it's where we'll be in 2 months! What?! You've never heard of it?!

Me neither.

It's in Guatemala. Jordan and I will be going with 10 others from our church. We'll be working with Pray America which is an amazing organization! Check out their website. Pray America focuses on the needs of the MANY widows and children in the area. Our team will be building houses for widows and participating in various feeding programs. We'll also just be building relationships and showing the people some love. Pray America has built over 600 homes, after which the women and children are invited to come to a weekly dinner followed by Bible study. Most of these women turn from their Mayan religion and become believers. The children are also fed and taught Bible studies. We've heard some awesome stories come out of this area! God is at work!!

We had been wanting to go on this Guatemala trip for a few months prior to officially signing up. As we dug into it a little more, though, we kind of got freaked out! During the final 'decision week', we were totally distracted and didn't give much thought and prayer to it. We had kind of just said, 'not now' until the night before we had to give our answer. When I came home that night, Jordan was doing a Bible study and he announced to me, 'we have to go'. We talked about it and realized that all of our 'reasons' not to go were actually 'excuses'. We believe that the devil was working hard that entire week to keep us distracted and, quite honestly, scared. We were scared to cover the cost of this trip, scared for Jordan to take off of work, scared to leave our kids, scared of how God might use us, and scared to commit time into our group and fundraisers. Even now as I write, I still have concerns. But we have both felt this nudging to go and we're just going to jump in and hope/pray for the best!

That being said, if you're a believer in prayer, will you pray for us and our team as well? And if you have a desire to give, let me know :) Our team would sure appreciate it!

charlie's birthday

before haircut

during (obviously!)

after; 'Ta-da!'

to exercise...

...or not to exercise...

That has been the nagging question in my head! After the 25 k, I pretty much just quit! And I can tell. I haven't had as much energy or drive, I can tell that my eating habits have worsened, and my pants have gotten tighter. Darn it! Why did I quit such a good thing? Now I feel like I have gone backwards. Even though I haven't gained anything back, I can tell I am losing muscle. But Jordan and I are feeling motivated again to get into shape. I am doing the Grand Rapids Mud Run at the end of August so now I have something to work for. It's a 5k obstacle course through the mud. I am doing it with a team of 3 other mothers I know from church. Our team name is 'Muddy Moms'! I am super excited! So Jordan and I ran tonight (separately because Charlie was asleep!) and we feel like our mentalities have suddenly changed for the better! I have been making excuses all summer and now I am choosing....

....to exercise!

charlie's first

My baby boy is ONE! Charlie turned one on July 30. We had a party for him on Friday night with our family. I think he had a good time! He didn't really get the opening presents thing but he liked all of them and he has been playing with his new toys more than his old toys! He enjoyed digging into his chocolate cake but only with little bites at a time, he didn't get crazy with it! And when the cake was about 1/3 of the way gone, he pushed the plate away! We also hauled out our enormous slip-n-slide which the kids thoroughly enjoyed! That night we had 6 of our neices and nephews sleep over. We gave them pop, junk food, and popcorn while they watched PG-13 movies, and we let them stay up til 11:30! The next morning they were back at it on the slip-n-slide. After they left, we took naps and then went out to Grand Haven for the Coast Guard Festival. We didn't get to the carnival. We got food, walked the board walk, went to the beach and played in the water for awhile (which was amazing!!), then got ice cream. We walked back to where we had parked and let the kids play in the park until we got creeped out by all of the 15-20 somethings that were just sitting around in the playarea. Can't trust anyone these days.... The next day we had a pool party for Jordan's aunt and uncle that had come to MI from Iowa. So it was another busy weekend but very enjoyable.

Charlie is my smile-maker! He's always got a smile on his face which puts a smile on mine. He can say 'dada', 'mama', and 'no-no'. He likes to shake his head 'yes' and 'no'. He dances all the time lately when the girls play the piano or when Natalie sings about what she is doing (which is constantly)! Today I was telling Charlie to say 'mama' because he hardly ever does and he kept saying 'dada'. So then I'd tickle him and he was laughing harder than I've ever heard him before. I am just so sure that he knew what he was doing! He can do the sign for 'more' and he tries to say it as well. He gives me hugs everytime I get him from his crib. He loves his daddy and his sisters so much! I'll try to get kisses from him lately but he'll only kiss when he sees Jordan do it first, then he's all about it! In honor of Charlie's first birthday, I gave him his first haircut. He had quite a few fly-aways and especially long hair on the top of his head and at the ears. And now he's lost his baby look!

It has been so amazing to see Charlie grow up in his first year. I wouldn't trade one day of it. Why is it so hard for me to let go? When I think of how Charlie and I would cuddle while he ate, I want to cry because I long to do that again. And when I think of how we could just sit and stare into each others' eyes.... now he has no sit left in him! And the first time I met him.... I would do it all over again. Feeling him do sumersaults in my tummy.... Can you tell I have the 'baby itch' again?! (Don't get your hopes up!!) I just can't believe that God would entrust to ME these three children. That is so humbling! I better stop this sentimentalism now though before I start rambling! I know I've said this all before.

So... Happy First Birthday, Charlie love! You'll always be my little man.

summer-lovin'

our summer

We've been having a great summer so far. It feels like we've been too busy, though. I still want us to get to the beach more often. It's just a little hard to get there with Charlie being so little yet. The girls have been having a great time playing with all of the neighborhood kids on our street. For a couple weeks, we had nightly baseball games going on in our yard. Now we've got a huge slip-n-slide that has become the new attraction. Natalie enjoyed a couple of churchs' vbs programs, swimming lessons, and in June she learned to ride her bike without training wheels. Our strategy with that was that we kept bending the training wheels up so she had to learn to balance herself. Then we loosened the bolts on the wheels so that eventually they just fell off when she was riding. And now she is zooming all over the place. Ruby still just loves to play with her babies. She is such a little mother to everyone and everything. My niece, Ava, and Ruby are best friends. Ruby's language skills are improving and I'm already starting to miss that Ruby jibberish! Charlie just had his first birthday! He isn't walking yet, just speed crawling everywhere! He has been enjoying the sand box and playing with his sisters. His language is really starting to pick up too. He was singing in the car yesterday!

Jordan and I have been busy.... Jordan was laid off for a week but he's been keeping busy enough with side jobs. He just put in a lot of work in my mom's kitchen. Jordan and 2 of our guy friends went on an 80 mile kayaking trip in the beginning of June. They started in Grayling and worked their way down. It was pretty cold that week (4os and 5os) but they had a good time. It took them 3 days. Jordan and I just did the Holland Hundred bike event for our church. We raised money for wells in Zambia, Africa. We biked for 36 miles which was a little much for me! I was tired but more than that, I just found it hard to breathe. Not sure why.... But I'm glad we did it and maybe next year I'll have to train for it! We also went to the midnight viewing of the very last Harry Potter movie with our friend, Sara. Good movie, interesting crowd....! We're about to be getting into tomatoes so I'll be getting busy with canning soon. Jordan traded his white Dodge Ram for a Pontiac Vibe. It was a good trade. There is more value in the car than in the truck! And 28 miles to the gallon versus 10 mpg with the truck! I had a terrible wisdom tooth extraction experience. I was tortured for about 15 minutes while the dentist tried to yank out and drill the rest of the wisdom tooth that remained after he had cracked the top off. A month later, I can finally yawn without pain. I actually got dry socket from the whole experience. Vicodin didn't even touch the pain. But my awesome husband went out at 11p one night to pick me up some oil of cloves which is the only thing that would touch the pain. It was actually a very nice dentist and he felt really bad that I got the dry socket since it probably happened because of the trauma. So lesson learned (a little late, I might add): get your wisdom teeth out BEFORE they come through! Wisdom is knowledge rightly applied!

As for the rest of the summer, neither Jordan or myself have been running but we hope to start up again soon (we've been saying that all summer!). I just signed up with some friends from church for the Grand Rapids Mud Run at the end of August so I have to get exercising again! This year we also tripled (at least!) the size of our garden! We're happy we did it but it is consuming much more of my time than I wanted it to! I am constantly weeding! Everything is coming up good though. But something I have to make more time for: the beach! Me and the kids just love to go, and I wouldn't mind getting a beach day without the kids too maybe!

Enjoy the rest of August!!

natalie's four

We just celebrated four incredible years of Natalie! We threw one party before her birthday and one a few days after. She enjoyed reminding us that is was her birthday weekend. She had fun at both of her parties but she was so shy when it came to opening her presents!

Even though it's such a gradual change, having a four year old is so different from the three year old stage. This summer, she's been hanging out with all of her neighborhood friends. It started with a boy named Alec whom she got the biggest crush on. It started that they would ride their bikes together or play with his pet bunny and in no time at all, the flirting began! Jordan and I watched one day as he rode his bike over to our house to tell her a secret, she blushed and giggled, and then he rode back home. I thought it was so cute but it bothered Jordan. One night she prayed for him and when Jordan asked why she liked Alec so much she said, "because I love him!" But she's over him now :)

We had a couple of not-so-fun weeks there surrounding her birthday. She began testing us all the time and crying over everything and it felt like we were constantly getting after her! I don't know where that came from but as quick as it came, it has once again left us.

Natalie still loves to act like she's an animal! She's gotten really good at running on all fours, she makes what she thinks are dinosaur sounds, and she does these cute bird kisses where she does this puckered mouth and big eyes and comes at us moving her head from side to side! She really pays attention to detail! She's an amazing artist, too and she's getting really good at hitting a (plastic!) baseball! I don't mean to brag... I just want to remember these things :)

She has brought us SO MUCH JOY and I just praise God that He has given us these four fabulous years with her.

Making her birthday dessert

cramming everyone into our living room for the party!