Happy Birthday, David!

We celebrated the birthday of the most handsome man in the world on Tuesday, April 18th with some gifts, a dinner at his favorite "Famous Dave's BBQ," and a Birthday Encore of ice cream cake on Tuesday night ... we were too full from eating out to have it all in one night! Hayden was very helpful in "delivering" the presents to David ... mostly softball gear for the upcoming season!

Happy Easter 2006

Easter Eggs
Saturday we colored eggs, which was quite an experience! Hayden loved mixing the colors and making fun designs! Mommy and daddy designed some eggs too, and we had a great time of creativity and laughs ... and making a mess! :)


His favorite egg-art, though, was his red one.


Easter Sunday
We had an incredible Easter that began early with our Sunrise Service. David had the privilege of leading our service this year, and it was so blessed! We had 60 people in attendance, and an incredible message from my wonderful husband, as well as a beautiful rainbow in the eastern sky just behind the cross! What an amazing time of worship, rememberance, and fellowship it was!


Hayden got to hunt for Easter eggs after our big lunch! He got some jelly-bean filled eggs and a kite, and had a blast on the scavenger hunt for goodies! In addition, we spent some family time talking about what Easter was truly about, and David and I are so thankful for the incredible gift and responsibility we've been entrusted with ... to share the love of the Lord with our little guy is just so incredible!

Spring Cleaning

Yard work was the order of the day ... both David and I had Friday off, and we spent most of our time in the yard! Perennials were FINALLY being planted, and we are now resting our tired selves with tall glasses of water! Hayden was such an eager helper, and loved playing with dirt, so he was a natural, and did such a great job of helping us in digging and planting!

A Fun Saturday!

Papa, Grandma, and Pete
Last weekend was Kansas State University's Open House, where high schoolers and transfer students can come and see all that KSU has to offer! My brother Pete is a senior this year, and planning on becoming a Wildcat, so he, mom, and dad came down for the day ... after hours of walking around campus, they came by for an afternoon of visiting, lunch, and shopping!

WE CANNOT WAIT TO HAVE YOU IN MANHATTAN, PETE!


They brought Hayden some new and exciting toys for the spring, and the coolest "Easter basket" ever ... a Tonka-truck bucket for all of his cars!


He loved the baseball glove and ball, and played catch with grandma for the longest time! What fun!


The work bench, though, was the one that stole the show! Hayden insisted on having a "working lunch."

Real Life Church Women's Ministry

Last weekend was definitely a busy one! To promote the upcoming fall study opportunities for the women of RLC, the women's ministry held it's monthly brunch and displayed many different studies for women to browse through, and see which they would like to have available to them for the fall. In addition, we held a Ladies Night Out at the Lincoln Perk (the best coffee shop EVER) that evening with a chocolate fountain for fruit dipping and some great games! It was a tremendous opportunity for fellowship, relaxation, and looking forward to what God has in store for the fall!

RLC Carnival!

At the beginning of the month, Real Life Church hosted an outreach event ... a carnival! It was an incredible day of fun with face-painting, games, dunk-the-pastors, and balloon animals and followed by dinner and an evening praise and worship concert led by our very own Lance Stafford ... oh ... and a pie in David's face (I'll explain later)!

The day was an absolute praise! Beautiful weather ... new faces ... and a priceless picture of what the "church" is to be ... people sharing their excitement for and love of God with others and reaching out to the community! It was awesome!
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Hayden's Dream World!
There were so many "toddler" things to do that Hayden literally did not stop moving from the time we got there ... first was the tunnel!






The slide was the next item on Hayden's very long "to-do" list. David followed to provide support, but Hayden quickly left him in the dust ... he is so independent! Scary! (for mommy, anyway)!


After watching Mommy get her face painted to excite him about it (to no avail), and getting a new puppy balloon animal, he was ready for his most favorite dish, a hot dog and chips! No mac and cheese, but it didn't seem to bother this little guy!


Fun for David, too!
So ... to raise money for mission/outreach, their ministry team decided it'd be fun to have a little friendly competition between Pastors Eric and David. There wonderful pics were pasted onto tin cans, and people were asked to donate money for the pastor they'd like to see with a pie in his face. :) It was a tight race, but eventually after some last minute contributions (like, as they were standing up there!), David was the winner of a pie in the face! Ha! Much to Pastor Eric's surprise, however, he was not left out! What fun, and a blessing ... there were some very generous donations to the mission/outreach ministry! Yeah, God!

He Be Jammin ...

Hayden adores music ... when he was first born, the musical worship at church would put him in an immediate state of calm and peace. He loves to listen music, and now scripture and music during nap time and bed time. When we're cooking in the kitchen he loves to have the radio on and does his own little dance to the beat ... when we're in the car he sings along ... even when we're playing basketball outside he begs for us to turn some music on!

None of these musical times, even remotely compare, however, to Hayden's time spent on the guitar! We've created songs that we are constantly singing and he loves to be the "conductor," first choosing the song, and then supplying the musical background! It's been a joy to see this music he has enjoyed from birth turn in to even more ... even if it is just playing a wooden guitar with rubberband strings! He does have a super-cool "electric" guitar that lights up and everything, but because his songs have become more his style lately, he tends to favor the guitar that he gets to control the music for! Ha!

So excited to start his sing-along ...


Taking requests from the audience ...


Have a GREAT Day!