My Life in Pictures

Our time in Kentucky is always too short!  We try to pack in lots of visits with friends, speaking, church services, small groups, and the kids' dentist.  It's been a very busy time to say the least!

Lucy waiting for the dentist to check her teeth.

Fluoride treatment!

My dear friend sent me this picture of her precious daughter all dressed up for the holiday.
Last week was the big holiday at the end of Ramadan.

The little kids snuggled in for a movie after their baths.

Noah and Jonah
These tow guys were joined at the hip before we moved overseas.
It was fun to see that even though they don't see each other often the friendship is still there!

The Crockett and Leonard kids.

Lucy fell in love with the Crockett's dog.  He really was the sweetest dog I have ever seen!

Suzanna started 1st grade today!  I am so proud of this little sweetie!
Callie and Lucy went with Eric to walk her in because she was a little bit nervous!

Cultural Conundrums

It has been funny to see what the kids find surprising about America.  One of the biggest things is waving and greeting people.

Typically, when we pass someone that person will wave or say hello.  The kids immediately ask, "Who was that?"  I have had to explain to the kids about 400 times that people in America say hello whether you know them or not.

I guess we don't really greet people when we encounter them on the street in our country unless we know them.  And even then, I would never greet a man even if I knew him well.  Likewise, Justin would never greet one of my friends.



Another funny thing... The other day we were walking up to a friend's house for a visit.  He has a nice SUV and a big house.   Noah asked me, "Why does everybody in America have big stuff?  Do they really need all that?"  HA!  Out of the mouthes of babes comes undeniable truth!

Sunday Sneak Peek

Redneckedness

The daddies used their redneck innovation skills to blow up the kiddie pool.  The hand pump was taking forever, so they put the leaf blower nozzle into a funnel, packed grocery sacks around the nozzle, and inserted the funnel into pump tube.  Much to my surprise, it worked! 

What's App

Today Kelly from Kelly's Korner is asking folks what their favorite apps are.

Mine is What's App.

With this app I can text my friends all over the world for free!

I guess it sort of works like Skype but I don't know for sure since I have no idea about anything technical.  Even though I'm technologically impaired I can still use this app easily!  So, that shows you how user friendly it is.  If you have loved ones who travel a lot or live in other countries, this is a must-have app!

Pretty Nails and Sharp Shootin'

I know it looks like we've been goofing our entire time in the States.  But actually, we've started speaking quite a bit.  I just never get a picture of us while we're up front!  Sunday we did the service at our sending church.  We've spoken at small groups and had lots of individual appointments.  All that on top of trying to catch up with friends for a meal together or at least a quick coffee.  So, the kids have been drug around quite a bit.

We made a point to set time apart today and do something special with them.  Emily and I took the girls to a $3 kids movie and then to get their nails painted this morning.

Then we met up with the guys for Mexican food.  Triple YUM!  After a delicious lunch, the guys passed James (the baby) off to us and we went home.

Eric is quite the rifleman and so he took Justin and Noah to the shooting range.  The men taught Noah gun safety and how to shoot.  Then Noah got to shoot a gun for the first time!  He could hit the target pretty well and loved it!

Now, it's back to the speaking circuit we go!

Wild Children

Last night we went to our friends' house for dinner.  Justin worked with Angie back in his engineering days.  Shortly after, I joined Angie's soccer team and we played together for several years.  She and Bryan's wedding was one of the most beautiful that we've ever attended.  When we were leaving Kentucky and they were expecting their first baby, they bought our baby furniture.   Three beautiful girls later, the furniture is still going strong!

These pictures are funny because the kids were slow to warm up to each other.  But by the time we left we were having to drag our kids into the car.  They did not want to leave!

All the wild ones together!

Lucy and Audrey

This is a picture of the kids from our last visit 3 years ago.
I can't believe how the kids have grown!

Turkish Breakfast

Turkish food is so good.  You can tell people that, but I don't think they really believe you.  So, we decided to try our best to recreate a typical Turkish breakfast for the Walshes.  

I love a nice Turkish breakfast.  

Todays's breakfast included börek (layers of thin dough with a savory filling), salami (typically all beef but we had to cheat since we couldn't find beef salami), boiled eggs, tomatoes, cucumbers, cheeses, olives, and bread.

Sunday Sneak Peek

A boy and his knife.

Justin decided that it was prime time for Noah to get his first pocket knife, and Noah has been making spears ever since!

Water Fun!

All work and no play make life dull!

The girls were playing in the sprinkler so the Dads decided to ambush them.
They are lucky enough to have sweet Daddies who share the water balloons.

Then they decided to all go after Noah.

Run for your life, Noah!

Lucy and Suzanna are birds of a feather!

The next day we had a pool party!

By the end of the night, the girls decided to make a water slide.
Watch out James, here we come!

The Walshes

We showed up on our dear friends' doorstep on Wednesday evening at dinner time.  Surprise!  I had miscommunicated so they thought we were coming on Thursday night!  In spite of my error, they opened up their door, welcomed us in, pretended like they were happy to see us, and got to work making pizzas for dinner!

How blessed are we?!

We've known the Walshes since our college days at Asbury, and we went to church together for many years.  The past three times that we have furloughed in Kentucky, they have graciously opened up their home to us.  Not many people welcome a family of five for several weeks at a time.  Far fewer do so with joy.  The Walshes are among the few.

Heck, two years ago when we stayed with them, James was only 2 weeks old!  And this time, Emily will be gone for the second half of our visit to be on campus for her doctoral program.  They are busy people, yet they make time for us!

You cannot imagine how much they have blessed us over the years.  They are so good to us!  Eric is quite the chef and makes gourmet meals for us.  They surprise us with with our favorite candy, ziplock bags, and peanut butter from time to time.  They bend over backwards to spoil us rotten.

We just love them so much and are so thankful for their friendship and gracious service to us!  Thank you, Lord, for dear friends!

More Fun with Mindy!

This past year and a half Mindy has worked hard helping to open a HUGE family entertainment center.  She mostly does behind the scenes payroll and computer stuff and is occasionally out on the floor as a manager.  So, one of the many perks of knowing Mindy is getting to have lots of fun for no money!

Yall, this place was huge and it was so fun!  There were all sorts of really great things that the whole family could do!

4D theater

There was an entire section full of inflate-ables.
This slide was over 50 feet tall and it was super fast!

This entire room was like a huge Simon Says game.
The kids were running around the entire room hitting their color!
I'd like one of these in my flat to work out the kids' Winter Energy Surge!

These were spinning bumper cars.
I thought I was doing something wrong because I kept spinning around.
Afterwards, Mindy confessed, while laughing hysterically, that she was controlling the spinning from the control desk!
She's lucky that I didn't throw up on her!

In-door go carts!

And, of course, there were tons of fun arcade games.
Poor Lucy couldn't quite get the hang of Skee Ball.
She kept throwing the ball everywhere!  I am surprised no one got hurt!  HA!

That evening we finally got to meet Mindy's boyfriend, Travis.  He is AWESOME!  Our three wild children didn't phase him.  He was sweet and fun.  Travis definitely gets the Leonard seal of approval!

We love, love, love Mindy and had such a good time with her!  She is such a dear friend, an encourager, and a woman who walks with the Lord!  Our time with her was too short.  But, really no amount of time would be enough!!

Drive-In

One of the hardest things about furlough is the constant travel.  I'm a girl that loves order and schedules.  So a summer of life in a suitcase and no daily structure is quite a challenge!  Discipline gets loose and by the end of the summer we're a bit of a mess! 

But, the BEST thing about furlough is time with family and friends.  We have had a week with each of our families and now we're making one quick stop to see this girl:

My best friend Mindy!

Before we start speaking and meeting with people.  Hardly a day will go by in August that won't be meeting with someone!

That means lots of travel!  For sanity purposes we rented a minivan for our three weeks on the road in Ohio, Kentucky, and West Virginia.  Praise the Lord, they upgraded us to a really nice Tahoe with unlimited miles at no charge!  So at least we're traveling in style!!

We were all excited about visiting Mindy because Mindy=FUN!  We started our time together at the drive-in!

All snuggled up and ready for the show.

Justin was pretty exhausted, but he was a good sport!

So happy to be together!

The movies don't start until dark and then it's a double feature!  We watched Despicable Me 2 and Turbo.  It was so fun, but made for a VERY late night!

So...

What do you think about my new look?

Justin gave me a blog makeover for our 16th anniversary gift.  I don't know how he found "The Cutest Blog on the Block"  but they have been so fun to work with!  A sweet girl named Alicia designed and is implementing everything.  That is no small feat considering the CRAZY parameters I gave her!  Add the fact that I am completely technologically inept and you have an incompetence cocktail that poor Alicia had to deal with!  Bless her heart!

Anyhow, take a look around and let me know what you think and if there are any kinks that need to be worked out!

Beloved

Well, Prince George is here!  Mom and I have been excitedly checking the news every now and again waiting for Kate to go into labor, waiting for the baby to be born, waiting to hear the gender, and waiting to find out his name.  It seems like the whole world has been anxiously awaiting the birth of this child.  And the funny thing is it doesn't really affect hardly any of us at all.  He won't be our king, after all.

Still, the whole world has been excitedly waiting.

Then once he arrived people began to celebrate and gather and talk about him.  It's not every day that a prince is born.

As I was thinking about this new baby the Lord spoke to me.  He said, "that's the way I rejoice over every baby that is born!"

Yall!  It honestly took me by surprise.  As I looked at pictures on the internet, I compared them to how the angels are rejoicing over you and me.

The way that love tenderly oozes from a new father's eyes can't even compare to the love in our Heavenly Father's eyes for us.

The way that people have anticipated his arrival and gleefully cheered his birth is a tiny glimpse at how our Heavenly Father delights in us... minus the iPhones!  

Yall, this prince has arrived.  But every second all around the world sons and daughters of the King are born.  Praise HIS name!  Their arrivals may be a bit more meager and most likely less celebrated on earth.  But, the angels in heaven rejoice are rejoicing.

Unfortunately, most of these princes and princesses have no idea of their royal heritage. Some never hear the good news.  Others reject it and look to the world to see what it has to offer.  But every baby born on this earth is equally cherished and beloved by its Heavenly Father, and each one has the opportunity to inherit the Kingdom that is never ending.  

He not only calls us His, He calls us His BELOVED children. 

Sunday Sneak Peek: Cousins

2013
Aydin, Callie, Cam, Noah, Lucy, and Tayne