a weekend with new friends

A couple of weekends ago, we were thrilled to travel across Missouri to visit some new friends.  We have never met Tim and Amber before, but we have some mutual friends in IN and so they invited us to come stay with them for the weekend!  Awesome.  I love the body of Christ :)

To say we had an amazing time with them would be an understatement.  Nathan and I LOVED talking to Tim and Amber, they were such gracious hosts, and our kids matched up perfectly with their kids!

Seriously--we couldn't have planned it any better!  Kaine and their oldest were really close in age, and then Halle and Layla matched up with their 2 girls (ages and personalities matched!  See the pictures of Layla and her new friend below!)

Oh my...these two girls were so hilarious together!  They are both such sweet girls with crazy personalities!  They were meant to be friends, I think :)

Tim and Amber, thank you guys for such a wonderful weekend!  We loved getting to know your family.  God's blessings to you!

my girl halle

Today was Halle's 6th birthday!  She was bummed to have school cancelled on her birthday, but I was glad she could spend it home with us!  

We had classes in the morning, so we brought Kaine and Halle with us.  Then, in the afternoon we prepared for her party!

Here she is, ready for her birthday party.  Beside her is her new "pet", received in a birthday package from Grandpa Jim and Grandma Jan.  

We invited Aaron and Jill's family and also our good friends Jae and Enoch's family over tonight.  Poor Aaron has had some terrible strep throat, so he couldn't come.  But Jill brought the kiddos and once again, the cousins had a blast :)  Halle and Kaine were also very excited to spend the evening with their friends Urim and Woo-ah (Jae and Enoch's kids).  Their family lived next to us the whole time we were at NTBI, too, so these kids have been friends the whole time we have been in training.  What a blessing Jae and Enoch's family is to us!

Nathan is always the one in charge of birthday games, and he always does such a great job!  He is very creative :)  Tonight, he printed off a picture of Halle with her mouth wide open, and taped it on the wall.  Then, he superglued a stamp to the end of a nerf dart and had the kids try to shoot the dart (which was a heart shaped stamp--aka a "heart cookie") into Halle's mouth.  If that makes any sense!

Here is Halle and Woo-ah.  Such sweet friends :) 

I loved my little birthday girl :)

Halle, we had so much fun celebrating you today!  You are a gift from God, and we are so thankful for you!  We love you!!