fun in the sun

eric and erin blessed us with their presence soon after we moved here because they were going to canada. so the kids had all kinds of fun while they were here. here's a question though, why is it that kids don't play in the pool when they are dressed for the occasion but when they are fully dressed they totally love to play in the pool?
then we have esther playing in the sun with a soccer ball that jess got me for my birthday. and then eli and olivia totally posing for the camera. there is more to come from this visit, but these are the pics from playing outside.

when we got back

as you know just two weeks ago we got back from vacation. we have also moved into a parsonage, so while we were gone the church was going to paint the house and do some things to update the house a little. when we got back, though, there was a little present in the back yard and we were so excited. (especially the kids) there was a swing set there and we didn't even know that that was part of the deal. we have been so blessed by being here for the 2 weeks that we have been here. God definately has a plan and we are excited to be just a little part of that plan.

we pray that all is well wherever you are reading this and just know that God has a plan that is going to be worked out for the whole kingdom and we get to go with it or against it. i pray that you will work with Him on that plan, to further the Kingdom of God. have a blessed day!!!

oops, i did it again

i may have had a little accident here, just hope that you aren't offended!! just laugh at me, it is all right!















just to let you know, this is just chili that i had spilled. i didn't really poop myself. just thought that i would let you know. i do have some friends that would poop themselves for a picture (i.e. nate kingsbury) love ya buddy!!!!

back from the shore

we had a fabulous time at the shore. we played on the beach and in the surf and none of us got burnt too badly. here are just a few pictures and i will post more later.
just keep us in your prayers as we make the change to burnips wesleyan. the other day jess (new jersey girl) was sitting out back and i think it was a little too quiet for her and she started to freak out. we went to holland later that day and she realized that she wasn't as far from civilization as she had first thought. anyway, it is hard for her because she has always lived in the city and this transition is a little difficult. she knows that we are where God wants us to be, but it sure is hard to remember that when your not comfortable with your surroundings, but i guess that paul got used to it too. i love you jess ;)

what's up

we are now in burnips, mi and we are very excited. we have been gone from ministry it seems like forever, because before we left new castle, i really didn't have any responsibilities and then we went on vacation right after we moved up here. we are so excited about what God has for us up here. we are nervous as well because it is all unfamilier and that worries us, but we know that God has a plan for us.
other than that there isn't a whole lot going on, we will have pictures soon of our vacation and i'll try to start posting a little more often. by the way if anyone was offended by my last couple of posts, i'm sorry but i think that kind of stuff is funny and the parents of those teens knew exactly what they were doing and they were alright with it.
pray for us as we get started up here and we'll be praying for you! God bless you all!!!!
(by the way, you can check us out on the web by going to www.bwchurch.com if you really want to know more about the church.)

gallon challenge: ryan

this is ryan in the gallon challenge. just a little note, he was the first one to blow, though he thought that he would be the last. guess your dinner just wouldn't stay down.

gallon challenge: corey

corey in the gallon.

gallon challenge: jordan

Jordan in the gallon challenge.

here are my beautiful kids, just thought that you all might want another picture of our kids. we are really busy right now, because we are moving to what jess and i consider our africa. michigan. you heard me right, we are moving to michigan. we are really excited but we have a lot to do before we move, so if you don't hear from us for a long time, and if i don't post anything for a long time it is because life has been sucked out of us because we are so busy. we appreciate the prayers from all of you that read this and just pray that all is well with you as well. God bless and we'll see you in the funny papers. 

blogging again

i know that i haven't posted in a long time and i thought that i would catch you up on what is going on. we are looking for another church. i had put my name in for the church that we are at, but the board decided that they wanted to go in another direction. we would appreciate any prayers that you might send up for us, but we also know that God has a plan for us. we are following where He is going to lead us. we are talking with a church in burnips, mi and we are really liking what we are seeing with this church.
we have been in new jersey over the last week because ange has gotten married. these are photos from the wedding. we have the greatest family in the world and it just got better because andrew hulfish has joined our clan. God bless you all!!!
 

pictures of esther

my little princess

this is garrett. the poor kid didn't have any dress up clothes of his own, so he always had to wear his sister's clothes. luckily his birthday was this past week and my mom got him some batman pj's and spiderman pj's so now he can wear those. now we'll really get to see if he likes dressing up like a girl, or if it was that he only had those outfits to dress up in. i'm praying for the last one of those options. for those of you wondering if i am ever going to get some updated photos of esther, i am working on that, but like i have said before, i'm a little busy. just be patient, may be by the time she is 16 i'll get some updated photos of her. have a blessed day!

wondering where i am?

just to let you know, i have been a little busy here at the church. the pastor resigned and then left, so i have been left to do the preaching and trying my best to lead the church in this transition time. that doesn't leave me much time to blog, so that is why you haven't heard much from us. sorry about that, and i have been meaning to put some pictures of the kids on here, but like i said, i have been a busy boy. i'll try to get some up soon. we would appreciate the prayers of all of y'all and we'll let you know what comes out of all of this.

(*by the way nathan, did you see that i finally put you on here? hope you are happy! :-) )

sending him out

last night i had the opportunity to go over to my grandma's house and send off one of my cousins to the mission field of india. as i have reflected over the past couple of days about my cousin and to see where he has come from i am blessed to call him family. bj used to be a rough kid who just didn't care what others thought about him. he was living his life and he was going to live no matter what that meant to his family and friends. we prayed for him and kept loving him and finally Jesus is the one that made the difference. bj has come so far and i know that it has everything to do with his friendship with the Almighty Maker of heaven and earth.
i also looked at our family as a whole and looked at the legacy that my grandfather has left. my grandfather was a minister for years and he tried his hardest at teaching his kids about the love of Christ. 5 of the 6 kids that he has are professing Christians. 3 out of 14 grandchildren are pastors, even though not all of them are of age to make that decision. then there is bj who is going to india as a missionary with his wife, jaime. i'm proud of the heritage that i come from. i'm proud to be associated with people like my grandfather and my cousins. i pray that one day i'll leave a legacy like my grandfather. i pray that my children will come to the knowing power of Jesus Christ. i pray that my grandchildren will be missionaries in whatever field the Lord puts them in.
i know that this post has a lot to do with my family and may be your family isn't the same as mine. with all probability your family is a lot different than mine, but this is all that i am saying. even though i come from a family that has a heritage in the church and i stem from a family that is all about ministry, that doesn't mean that you can't start that heritage in your family. i don't know what my great-grandfather did, but i can tell you that my grandfather started something and it has affected us for generations to come. you can have that too, if you will just start today. God bless you and keep you. know that i pray for you that read this, and if you don't know Christ, i pray that you will come to know Him today.

esther victoria is born

esther victoria was born on dec. 27 @ 4:20 am. she weighed in @ 7 lbs. 4 oz. and was 20 1/4 inches long. we are so blessed to have another little one in our family. God bless everyone and have a happy new year!!!

happy early birthday

dec. 17 my daughter will be 3. olivia my dear, you are so precious. you are my little princess. you make me laugh and when i think about the future you even make me cry. i just have to tell you that i love you and that you will not date until you are 32. thank you for allowing me to be your father, and i love you. by the way, this is my little cinderella. this was her birthday outfit from my mom and dad. i just had to put this on this blog so that all you princes out there could be jealous. God bless you all!

our tree

here is our finished product. we were so excited about putting this tree up this year. i don't know what it is about putting up a stinkin' tree, but it will just put you in the holiday spirit. my favorite part of putting up the tree is first being able to use a saw (since i don't do that very often) and the other thing is putting on the star at the end of it all. that star represents one thing to me and that is the birth of Jesus. He is the reason for this season. this last week we watched a charlie brown Christmas. that is my favorite Christmas movie. when charlie is trying to find the real meaning of Christmas and everywhere he turns there is commercialism. snoopy is drawn in by the decorating, sally (charlie's sister) wants everything under the sun and lucy tells him that he needs to be busy doing things. they all think that this is what Christmas is really all about. when charlie doesn't find happiness in any of these things, he finally has enough and shouts, "does anyone know what Christmas is all about?!!" linus steps up to the plate and tells him what it is all about. he tells the real Christ-mas story from luke 2:8-14,

"And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping
watch over their flock by night. And , lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them,
and the glory of the Lord shone round about them; and they were sore afraid. And
the angel said unto them, 'Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of
great joy, which shall be to all people.For unto you is born this day in the
city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto
you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.'
And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host
praising God, and saying, 'Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good
will toward men.'"

this is the real story of Christmas. this year as you are out and in the lines and getting really annoyed with the whole thing, just remember why we celebrate Christ-mas. May be that will help you get into the holiday mood.

hunting a tree

we had a great time going out and picking a tree. we did it on a day that it was snowing and that made the experience that much better. we are excited about our 10 1/2 foot tree. hope all of you had the same experience as us with shopping for a tree. God bless!

merry christmas

it's been a while since i have posted anything, so i thought that i would catch you up on our lives. a couple of weeks before thanksgiving we were having some drainage issues in our bathroom. i love plumbing so i thought that i would give it a go. okay, so i don't love plumbing, but i am too cheap to call a plumber so i thought that i would give it a go. needless to say, the look on my face in the second picture tells you that it did not go well. i was yelling and screaming and luckily the kids were up because if they hadn't there may have been some choice words that would have come out of my mouth. anyway, just to let you know our downstairs bathroom sink is still out of order to this day, and i have no motivation to make it work right now.
on a lighter note, things are going well. we just got back from vacation in new jersey with jess' family and we had a blast. it was good to get away for a week, but we are back to the same ol' grind again. we have a tree, but i'll post some pictures later to show you those. the kids are getting big and jess is about to plop esther out anytime now. hope all is going well. God bless!!!

lies

i'm having some issues here lately. my wife is now 7 months pregnant as you can see. she is doing marvelously, but she is starting to get under my skin. she has been reading a book called lies women believe and i am starting to get a little frustrated with her. the book itself sounds pretty good. the lady who wrote it has based everything around scripture and i find that that usually makes for a pretty good book. the problem that i am having with jess, though, is that one of the lies that this writer says that women believe is that
we have a right to decide the size of our families. this is something that has bothered me over the past week and a half. the reason that it bothers me is not that it comes from scripture, but that it is a faith issue. you see, i have always struggled with faith and putting my whole life in God's hands. that is the exact point that jess is talking to me about. another problem is that i don't want to have 500 kids and i feel that if we just didn't have me snipped and if we didn't use some sort ofbirth control, soon i'll be driving a bus just to get my kids around. gentlemen, let me advise you, if you don't want a lot of kids, then i would advise you to never let your wives read this book. right now, i am fighting a fight that i thought that i was done with. we had made a deal that after our 3rd kid, we were done. now i'm not so sure she feels the same way. hope y'all make out better than i did.