Mosaic Happenings

It is coming up on 2 years since this ministry first began and we have come a long way.  It has been so exciting to see both the little and big things God is doing with Mosaic.  Since the last post about Mosaic was nearly 10 months ago I decided it was well past time to share all of our happenings!

At the beginning of the year we sent out 2 teams each of 6 women to an orphanage in China, Morning Star Family Home.  Their time there was spent caring for the babies and toddlers during the Chinese New Year so the nannies could have some time off.  These babies all have some sort of heart condition so these ladies were not only responsible for their daily needs such as eating, sleeping and bathing, but also staying on top of their daily medicine doses.  Needless to say there wasn't much sleeping going on by our team members! Here is a link to the video montage highlighting the trip: https://vimeo.com/89648842

Just a few months ago we finally rolled out our new logo!  We have been looking forward to this for quite some time and we couldn't be more pleased.  Take a minute to check it out and read more about Mosaic on the new church website:
http://firstrockwall.org/ministries/mosaic/
Here is one look, but there are variances of this...

Our initial goal for this ministry was 'awareness.'  We wanted others to know about the need for believers to care for orphans.  Now our goal is shifting more towards being active.  Now that you know there is a need, what can you do?  How can individuals be involved?  It's more than just adoption, folks!  On July 26th Mosaic toured a local facility for abused and neglected children. Jonathan's Place is located in Garland and has many volunteer opportunities for those looking to get involved in children's lives without the adoption aspect.  We are praying about our involvement with Jonathan's Place.

Sunday we celebrated 4 new adoptive families in our church with an ice cream social! Did you hear that? Four new families: 2 via domestic infant adoption, 1 international and 1 through foster care. How exciting!

Looking ahead to Orphan Sunday we will be hosting a viewing of the documentary, 'Stuck.' We have invited a couple different agencies to set up a booth as well as a local adoption attorney, and other local church ministries as well. Looking to be a great event to raise awareness of the Orphan Crisis. Head on over to Both Ends Burning to learn more about the documentary.

Fishin' with Grandpa

The last half of the weekend that we were in Hog Country we spent with Brian's family.  It was Natalie's first official fishing trip and Grandpa was so excited!
So was she=)  The kids also enjoyed playing with the wagon around Grandpa's place, hauling rocks, pushing it, etc.

But it was the fishin' that we came for!

So we geared up and headed to the pond. We had two goals: Help NJ catch a fish and keep JZ from plunging into the water=)

Grandpa showed Natalie the box of worms and tried to get her to hold one. As you can see she wasn't convinced at first. She finally came around and let it wiggle in her hand for a bit.

Then it was time to cast the line and wait.

And she did it. She caught her first fish! She was giddy.

Then she did it again and again and again. I think she caught a total of 10 or so fish! The catfish pictured above was by far her biggest! We were all quite impressed and she just loved it. Meanwhile her mother caught this.....

It's literally a minnow. I thought it best to release this one.

It at least gave us a pretty hearty laugh!

JZ did pretty well, but we were all trading off to keep him happy...and dry.  Grandpa shouldered most of the work in keeping him occupied. He looks pretty content to me=)

Once Natalie got bored with the fishing, she and I looked for crawdads. I love the picture of her hand on my shoulder. My buddy.

We had such a wonderful weekend and thankful for the nice weather so NJ could fish!  Great memories

Hog Country

Joaquin's maiden voyage with his car seat turned around facing forward!  Too bad it didn't help=/

This past weekend we took a little family mini vacay up to Fayetteville. We decided we wanted to take the time to enjoy things we don't normally get to in the rush of our football weekends.  We spent the weekend with one of my college roommates and her family.
One of the events we have been dying to go back to is a baseball game. The U of A has a beautiful baseball stadium! It would have been a really great idea to take a picture of it.....but I didn't=)  This is the only picture I managed to get. Because of the youngsters we sat in the grassy area so they could run and we could have a picnic dinner. We were quite impressed at how long the kiddos made it as we didn't leave until the bottom of the 6th inning.  I think Kim and I saw 2 plays!

On Saturday we grabbed lunch from one of our favorite sub shops, Loafin' Joe's and headed to the football stadium for another picnic.  We were trying to soak up as much of campus life as we could. What I didn't remember was all the hills and how old I apparently am. Good grief I thought I was going to die!

At some point in the midst of the chaos of eating with my children I wondered, "What about this idea sounded good to me?" Joaquin was ALL over the place and kept falling down on top of food because of the terrain, NJ was having a meltdown for I don't even remember why and I don't even remember eating my sandwich. You know, the one from our favorite sub shop. Well, maybe next time I'll enjoy it.

After we ate we headed to the stadium where we found a nice shady spot at the top to chill out and "watch" the scrimmage game.

Again, two young children in a football stadium is not really conducive to seeing much of the game, but it was fun for them to experience it all. Now Natalie will understand where we are going when we tell her about the games.  Just another opportunity to soak them in Razorback spirit!

Joaquin actually reached out for Kim several times over the weekend, but here he was just looking for a free ride!

We left the scrimmage early (no surprise there) and proceeded to find mine and Brian's names on the Senior walk. Excuse the terrible photo with my shadow, but Natalie is pointing to my name etched in concrete showing I graduated with my Master of Arts in Teaching.  I hope one day her name is on there as well. Sniffle.

Although our time went quickly and was a bit of chaos it was so good to be back on campus.  It was also good to catch up with Kim and her family!

I love Hog Country.

One day I hope these three girls have this picture posted in their dorm room on the U of A campus=) Maybe Natalie and Audrey will be second generation roomies!

Destin Part 2

As with every Florida trip you always plan for a rainy day activity. This is the first year EVER that it did not rain a single drop while we were there. Crazy! Well, Mimi had an "unbirthday party" planned for a day to hang out inside away from the sun.

Mimi and the girls made oreo cookie pops while Poppi and Evan hung out. Then Mimi had puppets for the kids to decorate and put on a puppet show. We had monkey bread for breakfast and made safari binoculars. Fun times! This actually worked out perfectly because I had to make a visit to the Minute Clinic for an ear infection. So annoying. 

Once Brian and I returned we all decided to head to the local mall area called Destin Commons.

As you can see above it had a great play area that was mostly shaded. If we had known there was a sprinkler area we would have come prepared for the kids to play in it=/  We did a little shopping around and Poppi and Mimi paid for the kids to ride the train around the place. Gotta love Grandparents=)

We ended up at Johnny Rockets' for some ice cream and snacks. Turned out to be a perfect non-beach day.

Brian was dying to rent a scooter and go cruising Old Hwy 98 along the beach so we did! Safety first for me! I'm 100% certain I was the only one on a scooter wearing a helmet.  I'm not going to lie...I felt a little vulnerable on that little thing and we only went 20 mph. That's fast on a scooter, folks.  We enjoyed our time but 2 hours was more than enough time. We ended our journey at TCBY with some ice cream.

Family pictures and out-to-eat night was a hit. We walked to Pompano Joe's from our townhouse. How perfect is that? We saw a line of folks waiting to get their names on the waiting list which didn't seem promising. After about a 7 minute wait they got us right in, table of 10! We were pretty cramped because that's the way the place is but we were right on the beach and the food was great!

 Group shot at the restaurant. JZ and I didn't make the shot as I was the photographer and he was next to me=)

View from behind us

I'm only allowed to show you our family photo. The whole family is off limits for mom's Christmas cards!

The youngsters each chose a date night so Brian and I went down to the Destin Harbor to walk around and found a great Mexican place to eat, Crab Island Cantina.

We had a nice viewing of several dolphin cruises, show boats like the pirate one above and sail boats. Beautiful area! We also got a little airshow that was fun!

This trip was a blast! I am so thankful for each and every time we are able to pull something like this off as each year gets more busy with kids growing up.  I'm also thankful that we all like each other enough to spend a week together on the beach=)

Destin 2014

This year our family decided to stay in Destin instead of Navarre. I wanted clear, calm water with a long sandbar and mom wanted to stay right on the beach (I was not at all opposed to that idea). We got exactly that! After a lot of Internet searches for places on the beach that we could afford we found this townhome......

It is the Sanddollar Townhome on Miramar Beach.  It was a little older of a place than we normally stayed, but it turned out to be just perfect. The bottom level had a huge deck with shower and lounging chairs and the owners provided a ton of beach toys. The next level up had two bedrooms joined with a bathroom. Bedrooms each contained a queen bed  and futon plus tvs. The bonus about this level is the porch swing with a perfect view.  The next level up was the main living area and kitchen (half bath) with a great walk-out deck for grilling out! Beautiful view.

The top level was the master suite and fourth bedroom with two full baths. The master suite had a sitting are with a large window facing the beach. Perfect.

We seriously could not have found a better place and since we went before Memorial Weekend we got a great deal on it. We met the owners and they were very friendly and accommodating. Our biggest complaint/annoyance was that the kitchen didn't have a pantry. What?! It was kind of a small kitchen but with a unit housing that many people you have to have a pantry. We cleaned out a cabinet and made one that worked, but come on!

The kids successfully enjoyed the beach and waves all week long. The townhome also provided a plastic pool that we took down to the water for the kids to splash around in, but they honestly enjoyed the ocean more!  We met some neighbors with 8 kids and I think their little one spent more time with us in the pool=)

As you can see, the little AND big kids enjoyed the waves!

As the photographer of this next series of pictures I just couldn't resist the chance to capture this....

*notice how Evan realizes what's coming & I'm not about to warn them

*HA! Poppi's reaction cracks me up!

*And these last two are truly my favorite....Dad's expression says one thing, "You dirty dog!"

I was laughing so hard and it could not have been timed out any better. Luck!

JZ had so much fun in the sand and water! His first beach trip was a huge success. He was giddy and ran with wreckless abandon towards the waves! Getting knocked down and water soaked didn't bother him a bit. He just laughed and kept going back for more. The camera was loving him!

Oh my goodness I want to squeeze him!

Natalie also really enjoyed the sand and water and got very brave walking into the waves up to her waist. She wasn't, however, so cooperative for the camera so our pictures are minimal=/

Funny tidbit.  Natalie is wearing the same bathing suit that she wore 2 years ago. Not like, Oh that suit is so cute we will buy it in a bigger size now. No. The same suit when she was 18 months old. SMH

The highlight of our trip was the next to last morning when we finally saw dolphins!

This picture does not even do it justice. Right where that dolphin was swimming was where we had been swimming all week.  It literally could not have been deeper than 4 ft. He was practically walking the sandbar, folks! I have been to Florida many many times and have NEVER seen them so close! All the kids got to see the dolphins (we saw 4) so we felt the trip was complete=)

I won't lie that I initially thought it was a shark. Our neighbor friends had been paddle-boarding right in the area before it changes to dark blue and had seen a hammerhead shark just a few days before. I was relieved what we saw was a dolphin=)

Stay tuned to part 2...

Easter Fun

Since I'm months behind on posting any kind of blog we will just do pictures.....

Easter gifts from Grandparents on both sides

Easter baskets from Mommy and Daddy

Egg hunting with neighborhood friends!

My favorite cuties with outfits (well, JZ's tie) made by Mommy!

Mimi and Poppi's Playhouse

One of the joys of getting to stay home with my kiddos is taking road trips whenever! This one lead us back home to my parents' house for a few days.  Like an idiot, I forgot my good camera so these pictures will all be from my phone=/ So excuse the poor quality.

We hit the road Tuesday morning and headed to our usual Texarkana Chik-fil-A stop. It's the perfect half-way point with good food and a playground perfect for both kids. I wish all of their restaurants had the same play area as this one!  Joaquin just becomes giddy at this place. He wants to be a big kid so badly! That's the best shot I could get of him. He was having too much fun.

We arrived at 3pm and enjoyed the rest of the day hanging at Mimi and Poppi's house.  The next morning we ventured out to Little Rock to see the Game and Fish Nature Center.  It was a neat little place.  The kids got to see two, live baby alligators, a couple of snakes and a variety of fish. I'm disappointed that I only got the one picture above.   Natalie wasn't scared to touch the snake!  After that we jumped on over the Heifer International building.  This was a neat place but a little over the heads of my kids.  Here is a link to learn more about this project: http://www.heifer.org/about-heifer/index.html. 

The next day was spent with my Granny. We took her shopping for her groceries. Her list included: chocolate chip cookies, ice cream, garlic bread, and a few other yummy things. When I'm 93 my list will look the same! The essentials.=) Loading two kids and my Granny along with 3 other adults was quite funny.  We ate at Chicken Express which pleased everyone! After our running around we returned to her house for the afternoon. Natalie got to see and pet the neighbor's goats and Alpaca (random, I know) so she was happy.

Before we left, Granny and Natalie needed to enjoy a cup of ice cream and a cookie!

What a pair! Love the one of her and JZ too.

On Friday we met my dear ol friend Sarah and her kiddos at Chik-fil-A.  I was so excited that she let her oldest skip school to come see us. The last few visits we have coordinated have been without him so it was a nice surprise.  I failed to get any pictures of any of the kids=( But we had a good visit and watched Londyn and Joaquin both be brave and climb up the playground and go down the slide! Fun times.

We spent as much time outside as we could while at mom and dad's house. Friday night was pizza on the patio and it was just perfection. We stayed outside all afternoon. Joaquin popped a few wheelies on his scooter!  Natalie and Poppi rode the truck and then she fell asleep in my arms in the rocking chair. Sweet girl.

We had a great week away and could not have asked for better weather!