We're not in Kansas anymore...

But this past weekend, we were!

We visited some good friends from our Gateway days near Kansas City.  It was such a fun and good weekend of catching up with Diane and her son Nick, along with the rest of the family.  We also had a great time celebrating Layla's birthday, and meeting and connecting with some awesome believers at our church in Kansas City on Sunday.

Our kids were soooo excited to go on a "long" drive!  (The drive was about 3.5 hours.  Tomorrow, they will be traveling 9.5 hours to our hometown.  I hope they will still like long drives tomorrow!)

Daisy is enjoying her snacks--double fisting her snack bag and a slim jim :)

Trying to pass time in the restroom at Wendy's, while our sweet little Daisy was taking FOREVER on the potty.  Ha!  When we came out of the stall there was a line of at least 7 women waiting for us to be done.  Oops!

(doesn't Layla look so short in this picture??)

When we got there, we saw that our hostess (Diane) has a ginormous house!  We stepped into the huge finished basement, and our kids looked around in awe.  My favorite quote, from Halle:  "This is the best day of my life!!"

(insert, another quote from Halle this weekend--not so much my favorite:  "Hey mom!  Guess what I did?  I brushed the urinal with my toothbrush and then I brushed my teeth!"  Gag. Me.)


Our kids loved playing with the toys in Diane's house...

And Diane has a wood-burning furnace, which is so awesome!  She taught Kaine how to put wood in the fire.

Layla's birthday was on Saturday, and that was so fun.  Four is such a fun birthday age :) She loved helping me decorate some cupcakes...

(love that Dorito smile)

On Saturday night, Diane invited the church over to her house for some great fellowship.  We were so thankful she did that, because we got to meet and talk to a lot of people.  We also were thankful that many of them were interested in what were are doing with missions...thanks, Diane!!

Our kids met some great new friends.  We are so thankful, and we know it is God's grace, that our kids make friends so easily wherever we go.  So far, for the past few years, they have been super laid back and so amazingly flexible.  Thanks for anyone who prays for them--God is definitely answering them!

Layla and a little girl named Alice.  They were so cute together!  And I love her name...I don't know any little girls named Alice!  So cute :)

The whole group joined us in singing Happy Birthday to Layla.  She was pretty embarrassed :)

Thank you, Diane and Nick, for a great weekend!  We really had a good time and we hope we can do it again sometime before we move away :)

So last night, we arrived back here at the MTC, and unpacked from our weekend.  I did our laundry...and promptly began re-packing our stuff for Thanksgiving in Indiana!  Whew.  But we are so excited--tomorrow we will be back in our hometown for the first time since moving to Missouri.  Can't wait to see you all!