Surprise!

True story. 

We are pretty excited and hoping the next 7 1/2 months fly so that we can soon see the face of this babe. 

A trip to the zoo

Last Friday Britt and I made a special trip to Colorado Springs because not only does his sister Becky live there but his sister Beth (who lives in Georgia) was visiting with her husband and kiddos. We all went to the CO, Springs Zoo that day (Which is an amazing zoo!), went swimming for almost 3 hours, and then grilled hamburgers and hot dogs. It was a great day!

  Our youngest nephew, James. He has the best smile and is such a happy baby! 

     Kinley. It can be quiet the challenge to get this little one to smile but when she does it is totally worth getting a picture of!

 

  A woman after my own heart. She loved my Camelback water bottle! 

   My favorite animal picture of the day. This fellow was posing for us!

 See what I mean about the water bottle!

 

          Uncle Britt is great at giving back rides!    

           

     Those kiddos were so tired after a fun busy day!

See what I mean? :)

Mom's Garden

Britt and I were over at my mom and dad's house yesterday so I wanted to play around with my camera and I took some pictures of my moms garden. Here are just a few...

I was also playing around with some B&W and Sepia color setting on the camera and took this of Justin. He is quite the poser. I also have a setting that picks one color and puts the rest in B&W. I like the setting but I am still working on it. It seems like I can only pick up yellows and greens so I need to do some more reading on this one.

They are both pretty good looking men though! :)

And then these little ladies stopped by with their mama and I had to grab a shot.

They are just way to cute!

 

First Photo Shoot

Well, I got my camera and Chloe was my first subject to shoot. It was actually pretty difficult because she is very active and still VERY puppy. Plus the shutter sound freaked her out so every time I got the camera focused she would move but I got a couple of decent shots and I thought I would share! Plus, I think she is pretty darn cute, under bit and all!



The No Surprise Gift

So my Birthday is coming up soon and I have really been wanting a nicer camera. Not like a "I am going to be the next big photographer and open my own business camera" but I nicer "point and shoot" camera that actually took decent pictures. As you should know by now Britt and I will be spending the summer in Colorado and I would love to have a better camera for our stay there and just life in general. 

So, without anymore delay, here it is, my soon to be Birthday gift!

 

 

  

Truth be told I absolutely love it even though I do not yet have the luxury of holding it in my hands. I can imagine it in my hands....

"Man, my fingernails looks bad..."

Anyway, I can imagine and it looks good! :)

Even though the gift is not a surprise, I don't care. The anticipation of having it is killing me! I love it! sometimes anticipation beats the feeling of surprise, in my opinion. I love both feelings but for right now I will live in the feeling of anticipation. :)

Happy Monday

Celebrating a Great Year!

This past Friday night we had the BSU end of the year Spring Banquet. It was a great time to celebrate the end of the year and to honor all of the seniors that have served in the ministry.

These are the four guys that Britt meets with. They are crazy, goofy guys and we love them. Despite their goofiness they all four are really godly men who love the Lord and desire to make His name known. They have committed their college years and life to making disciples of Jesus Christ and to be a part of that process and watching them grow as been an amazing privilege. We will have the opportunity to work with a few of them next year but some of them are moving on and we will miss them so much but it is exciting to send them out knowing the impact they will have in their work places and one day with a family. 

 These are the girls that I was able to meet with this last year. It was an honor to get to know each of them better. All four of these girls are so different and I love them each for their unique qualities and abilities. Despite their difference we all share a common love for the Lord and to watch that love and relationship unfold in their lives has been incredible. I have seen each one of them grow in ways that have molded them more into the image of our Lord and I know they love Him dearly. They love the younger girls on our campus and they are committed to making disciples. It has been amazing meeting with them and watching them grow! Two of them will be moving on and I will miss them so, so, so much!

This past year at the BSU has been one of the most difficult and challenging years of Britt and my life. From work and the crazy schedule of college ministry to personal life, family and marriage it has been a whirlwind. We are tired but it is a really good tired! We have loved this year and all that it has brought, even the challenges, because despite whatever has come the Lord has allowed us to be a part of investing in the lives of these students and others and we wouldn't trade it for anything.

We are looking forward to the opportunity to invest in students this summer and the school year to come. God has lots in store and we know He has big plans for our ministry at OU and we can't wait!

End of the year picnic

We love, love, love the students that we work with! We have several different areas that we lead in at the Baptist Student Union and one of those is Leadership Team (LT). These are Juniors and Seniors who are leaders in our ministry. I meet with 4 of the girls (One missing from the pictures) and Britt meets with 4 of the guys (A few missing from the picture) on a weekly basis. We also have these students in our home every Wednesday night for team meeting.

This last Wednesday was out last LT meeting of the year. We celebrated by going to the park and cooking hot dogs, having a watermelon spitting contest, and just spending some quality time together since some are graduating and our team will be new next year.

The girls!

Me, Gaby, Mary, Stephanie, Susie and Alia.

We were missing Amanda that night. 

Love, love, love these girls! 

The guys!

Bryan, Luke, Shane (staff), Aaron, Britt, Trevor, Trey and Jessy.

Tom and Barrett were missing that night.

We are SO thankful for this past year and we can hardly believe that it is here and gone. We have out final event for the school year tomorrow and Britt will have state meetings all week next week and then we will be done in Norman until August. However we are far from done because from May 27 to August 2 we will be in Denver, CO working with 19 students from OU and about 30 other students from 5 different universities around the nation. We are so excited about the opportunity and can't wait to keep you updated on all that God is doing!

A goal of mine is to get back into the blogging grove again and I think that I am off to a good start. Two post in one day! :)

Catching Up!

As many of you know Britt and I recently went on a spring break trip with students from the OU BSU to Glen Eyrie, Colorado for a Discipleship Training Conference week. It was an AMAZING week full of great opportunities and amazing fellowship! Here are some pictures from the week... 

First Sign of mountains. 

This is where the conferences were 

Good friends and fellow staff members Rita and Jenny. 

Some students that we get to work with. 

The guys love Britt! 

All of the students packed in for our large group setting. 

This is where Britt and I stayed. "The Pink House" rightfully names. :) 

After the Spring Break week was over Britt and I were able to stay in Colorado Spring with Britt's sister and brother-in-law for about 4 days. It was WONDERFUL to be able to spend time with them and just relax. We did so many fun things. Two of our favorite things were going to the local zoo and to the Olympic Village. Here are some pictures to "document" those events. :) 

  The zoo had this REALLY COOL area where you could feed giraffes. Here is Britt handing over some food.



I quickly made a friend. He actually let me pet him and it was a great Profile Picture opt. :) 

 The zoo works its way up the side of a mountain and here we are at the highest point.

The next day or so we went to the Olympic Village where athletes train and had a look around. We had a great time looking and things but mostly goofing off and taking pictures. Although trying to find the place was a bit of a pain and I ended up getting a little *cough cough* grouchy (Who me??) We finally found it and it was a great day full of making memories.

I immediately saw this and thought it would be a wonderful picture opportunity. 

Britt tries to be cool like me. :) Just kidding, I tell him all the time that he is a cool guy or I would not have married him. 

Champion! 

   GOLD!

Well, hello! 



Our trip was great! We came home and hit the ground running which is why I am just now getting around to updating this. Student ministry doesn't leave a lot of extra time to write on blogs but I wouldn't trade what we do for anything. It is the greatest job ever to be a part of changing the lives of students and passing on a vision of discipleship.