Worship, Praise, and an AWESOME evening

Last night Justin and I we blessed to be able to attend a Jeremy Camp, John Mark McMillan, and Carlos Whittaker concert.  It was such a great evening.  At each of their stops during this "Worship Tour" that they are doing they are hosting a "Conversations" time with area worship leaders to discuss how to make worship authentic in their churches. Because Justin is an assistant worship leader we got to go and be among about a hundred people to sit and talk with Jeremy, John Mark, and Carlos.   It was pretty neat.  We learned about "disturbing and disrupting, professional Christians". We then met our good friends Nicci and Kevin at the concert later and really had a great time of worship and praise and it really re-energized all of us.  We have been singing John Mark's and Jeremy's songs ever since (Not to mention we bought their CD's!)  Justin is a huge fan of John Mark McMillan and I have grown to be one too in the short time we've known about him.  Even though our favorite song "Death in his Grave" wasn't played last night, seeing John Mark in concert, and up close!!!, was very cool and he is seriously one of the best song writer, poets I've seen in a long time.  Not to mention his voice is just mesmerizing.  Jeremy Camp was very good too and being from Lafayette originally his family was there too and participated in some of the songs.  It's always neat, I think, when the singer makes the show personal and unique.  It was an awesome evening.  And to top everything off, Justin lead worship AND taught this AM in church.  It was definitely the best sermon he's ever given and he said it was the first time he felt "complete" after giving it, like he had said everything God wanted him too. 

"Conversations"

Meeting John Mark after the concert!!!!!!!

Check out John Mark's song and video "Death in his Grave"- It's awesome....

Death in his Grave

And because I had to include some of the girls, here are our Halloween/Fall pics from today.  We will have more with costumes after tonight. 

Ripken cleaning Kaelynn up after lunch.... :c)

Morganne is still doing great with "pottying in the big potty" and this is the sight that I came to when I met her in the kitchen after going #2!  She gets M&M's every time she does #2 on the potty.  Unfortunately, for us, she is very smart and has learned how to get as many M&M's as she can.  But for now, we are just thrilled it's been so easy so we aren't about to make any changes or stop rewarding.  Too funny.  Oh, and Morganne's Potty training made it into Justin's sermon today.  :cP

And a funny picture of Kaelynn after her bath this week.  I think her teeth right now kinda look like Jack-O-lantern teeth!  :cP  She makes us smile so much!

fun with friends

So much has happened in the last month, much of it I wanted to blog about but with Grandma's passing I got interrupted.  We have had two very fun get-togethers with our close friends and "small group".  The first was a "Minute to Win it" game party.   Bryce did a lot of hard work and came prepared with something like 12 games for us to complete.  We competed as pairs (couples, except Bryce and Gene since their wives were both gone for the evening).  Amazingly Justin and I actually won the evening!!  It was quite a laugh.  We also had our fourth annual pumpkin carving event.  Here are some pics from the fun.  (In our other small group we were asked "what do you like to do to get yourself out of a "funk" or a down mood?"  My answer was hang out with my closest friends.  I love these people! :c)) 

There is a coin at the toes of the pantyhose.  You have to get the coin out without touching hands/arms. 

 Blind folded you have to walk around and pick up a ball that is placed on a very unsteady pedestal. So, in other words catch the ball before it hits the ground after you run into it!

 With a balloon, fill it and blow cups down the table and off the other end.  IF they fell off the sides they had to be started over.  It's harder than it looks!!

 Begin with 6 pencils, on the back of your hand throw them up in the air and catch all 6.  Increase by 2 pencil increments up to 20 successfully in 60 seconds.  Very hard!  Let's just say Justin had a hard time even getting started.... :cP

 Pick up 5 paper bags off the ground with your mouth, without touching the ground with anything but your feet.  The bags were 10", 8", 6", 4",  and 2" tall.  Unbelievably, I was the only one to get all of them.  Who knew I was so flexible!!!  Here is Bryce getting awfully close.

Carvin' some Pumpkins!!!!

 Curtis trying some pumpkin.  He then walked around eating more as the night went on.  We figured it was just added fiber.  :cD

 Kyla and Kaelynn bonding as baby girls do!

 Teaching Morganne about pumpkin seeds, and then thanks to Gene and Bryant we got to eat some too!

 The finished product.

 It's supposed to be a golden retriever.  I was not impressed.  Too much work for the result.  (I followed a stencil.)

 The kiddos, round one holding round two.  :cP 

And, I was asked to take some family pictures of the Gosewehr's.  It's always fun taking pictures of friends.  I didn't take many but here are a few of my favorites.  Just because the moment arose, I cought a pic of Gene and stuntman Dylan.  Check out the air under Dylan.  This kid is fearless!!!  (that is both good and bad sometimes!)

 Isn't LeighAnn gorgeous.... 

Lastly, some BIG news for us is that Morganne, as of about 4 weeks ago, is totally potty trained now!!!!  I had decided that I wasn't going to push it at all and really wasn't going to worry about it until she was three.  One night she told Justin that she wanted to go on the big potty so of course he took her.  And that was it, she has gone ever since and has only had 3 accidents in 4 weeks!!!  Amanda, our daycare lady, has even sent home all of Morganne's diapers because she doesn't even use them for naps anymore.  We were so nervous about potty training because we thought it would be a struggle.   Talk about the easiest potty training time possible!!

We were also blessed today to have Daddy home with us. So, after a special treat of donuts for breakfast, we headed to the zoo!  Our first trip to the zoo since just after Kaelynn was born.  Being a Monday and overcast weather there was hardly anyone there.  Surprisingly, we actually ran into Livie and Tammy too!  Unfortunately, many of the animals were napping while we were there but it was a very good trip and we couldn't have asked for better weather!  Our renewed zoo membership was a gift from the Hicks' for taking their family pictures. We greatly appreciate it!!!

Hope you enjoyed the many pictures!!

The innocence of a 2 year old

This weekend was very long and tiring.  I'm glad it's over, though I have a deep passion for spending time with family so I'm sad that has to end and that a special part of my family is no longer with us.  It was an interesting weekend with the girls too.  They were great, I could not have asked any more of them for the interrupted nap times, confined play areas, meeting new people, long car rides, and always trying to be on their "best" behavior and "quiet" in the funeral home.  Morganne's innocence and lack of understanding proved to be the hardest part for me.  I rarely cry in general, but when she would ask where Great-Grandma was it definitely choked me up a few times, and about caused my grandfather to lose it when she asked him.  oops.  It's impossible to explain death to a two year old.  We just kept stressing that though we will never see her again, Great-Grandma is now with Jesus in Heaven.  How much of that she understands I have no idea.  She did ask me though if I was going to die and if she was going to die someday.  That was hard to explain too.  The girls definitely brought a fun, more lightened aspect to the funeral.  Their laughs and giggles made everyone smile so their presence was very appreciated.  Like always I had my camera present.  Here are some pictures I captured over the weekend.   

Morganne and Kacee at the funeral home.  The home was an old house that had incredible woodwork and architecture. 

Bringing a moment of relief before the burial.

A very tired little girl, but being very well behaved despite the lack of naps and constant going, going, going.

 A moment of sadness and final goodbye as Grandma's casket was lowered into the ground.

And a moment of joy from a two year old.

 Back at my parent's after the burial.  A special moment that if only for a short time took Great-Grandpa's mind off of the circumstances.

 Thanks in-part to her sister, Kaelynn also brought some laughs that afternoon.

 Morganne, as everyone else too, thoroughly enjoyed her time with Aunt Becky.  We wished so much that she lived closer.

And, because this post was mostly of Morganne here is a cute pic of Kaelynn taken last week.  She makes us smile every day.