Twiggy is Six!

Six years ago today this crazy, beautiful, sweet little girl was born into the world.
This girl keeps us in stitches with all the funny things she says and does
(like yesterday during school when she slapped her hand on her forehead and exclaimed,
"Mama, I'm trying to think but nothing is coming out!"--she's a lot like her mama).



We are thanking the Lord that He is giving us the honor of raising this one!

Happy Birthday, Twiggy!
We love you so much!

Psalm 8:3-4

"When I look at Your heavens, the work of Your fingers,
The moon and the stars, which You have set in place,
What is man that You are mindful of him,
And the Son of man that You care for Him?"

Moving

It's official--I can now tell the world that we are moving to Texas in the fall. The main reason we went to Texas on vacation was to check out To Every Tribe Ministries, a mission board that specializes in church planting to unreached tribes. Though we do not know specifically where the Lord is directing us, we are going to be training at the school there in Texas. This has been mulling around in our heads for over a year now and today it became official (well, public anyways). I would love to share with you how the Lord brought us to this point, which I think I will save for another post.

Now the kids are in bed, Paul is at Applebee's with a good friend of his and as I sit here in the silence of our house my heart sinks. I don't know if it's just the release of finally making all of these plans public, or even what it is exactly, but the tears just will not stop. I have no doubt of my Lord's leading thus far and I am so very excited about this next step but I think tonight it really became a reality as we shared the ministry with our home church; we are moving from the place that has been my home for the last 28 years--my parents, my sisters, my grandparents, and the church that I grew up in, all these people that I love so greatly--everything that is so familiar to me will change in a matter of months. I am going to miss everyone so much that my heart aches already. Why is it that sometimes doing what the Lord wants you to do has to be so hard? I hate change! In my flesh I want to stay here and have life continue on as it has been...

...but then my all-loving, all-knowing, all-powerful God reminds me that He is never going to change. It is He who brought me out of the pit in the first place and He is not going to leave me. He will be with us in Texas and wherever He sends us after that. The very same God that is in Wisconsin as I type this is also in Texas ( not to mention North Carolina, Kentucky, Florida, South Dakota...). I don't really know what else to say except that I love all of you that I dread leaving and I love my never-changing GOD!

"I know, O LORD, that the way of man is not in himself, that it is not in man who walks to direct his steps." Jeremiah 10:23

Our Little Princess

Yesterday Daisy was in her first wedding. She was very nervous but did an excellent job for an almost 4-year-old. During the rehearsal she was instructed to throw the petals, but instead would squat down, place a petal on the floor, stand up, take another couple of steps, and do the whole process over again. She was then shown how to throw the petals. So when the next practice came and she was told to throw three petals, she walked about halfway to the front of the church, squatted down, placed three petals on the floor, stood up and walked the rest of the way (she makes her mama smile). Here are a few pictures of the little princess:

Daisy with her "dashing" young escort, Dash.

Just minutes before the wedding, Daisy was getting very nervous, but Twiggy was right by her side to reassure her.

I love this picture of Daisy with the bride, Becca.

Happy Easter!

We serve an awesome God who not only will be victorious in the end, but already has the victory! Death has been defeated because Christ is alive! What a cause for celebration!

San Antonio, Texas

Well, we did make it to San Antonio last night, but the drive took a good 6 hours instead of the 4 we thought it would take. Between potty breaks, a Wal-Mart run, potty breaks, stopping for food, and potty breaks, the trip took a little longer (I'm thinking that having everyone wear diapers would not have been a bad idea after all, ha ha).

A little back-tracking...

In Dallas we went to The Sixth Floor, the JFK assasination museum. "Why," you might be asking, "would you take your children to a place like that?" Well, I must admit, the museum was a little bit over their heads, and maybe a little sobering, but it was still very interesting to see the place where JFK was shot and to learn a little more history on the subject.

Though this looks like just a picture of a street, the "X" you see in the middle of the street is where JFK was shot. The two handome men in the background (the one in the blue shirt who's holding the one in the green shirt) are my huband and son.

Here are Daisy and Twiggy sitting on "The Grassy Knoll".

Fast forwarding...

Today in San Antonio, we went to see the Alamo. Is that where Custard had his last stand? I think I learned too much of my history from Patch the Pirate. : ) No, seriously, another interesting landmark in our nation's history that if you are ever in the San Antonio area I would highly recommend visiting...or if you are homeschooling your children (Froggy) and would like to take a little field trip during your study of the Alamo ; ). Call me really dumb, but I did not know that Davey Crockett was killed at the seige of the Alamo...guess I should have paid more attention in my history classes.

Well, so far it may seem like we've had a kind of morbid vacation (at least the sight-seeing part), but we are hoping to take the kids to the zoo and the gulf on Thursday and Friday. They were very excited to get to our final destination, Los Fresnos, this afternoon, where we will be spending the next three days...a few days of not riding in the car is always a good thing for small children, a pregnant woman...and her husband. I'll close with a few pictures of the kids during their favorite pasttime:

I forgot to tell you...

We do have pictures of the Alamo, but we'll have to post them when we get back. I did not have the memory card in the camera and forgot the connecting cable at home. Oops!

We Made It

We arrived in Dallas, Texas yesterday afternoon at about 3:30. The trip couldn't have gone better. The kids did great and Paul and I stayed awake when we needed to. Thanks to the Lord, I had no trouble with my restless legs while I was driving and that was a huge answer to prayer!

Today we are going to do a little sight-seeing here in Dallas and then drive the 4 hours to San Antonio where we will be spending a day or so. We miss you all there in Chetek! Twiggy sends her love to Mimi and Papa. She has already said through tears that she misses you, Papa and Mimi! Stay tuned...