Mahala's Baptism

Mahala got baptized last night at Celebration in Clovis. She was so-o-o excited, she could hardly contain herself!!! Pastor Adam Jordan was the minister and Daddy got to help (Mommy was videoing and taking pics). I missed the part where Pastor Adam asked her if she knew Jesus as her personal Lord and Savior, but then he says "I baptize you in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit" and down she goes!!! It was so awesome - Daddy even had tears in his eyes, it was very touching.

Mahala got saved at Vacation Bible School at Celebration about 2 months ago and we talked to her about what it means to have Jesus in your heart. Then we explained to her that one of the first things she needs to do is get water baptized. She was a little hesitant at first, but the more we talked about it, the more excited she got. Mahala also has been baptized in the Holy Spirit - she prays in tongues often. The other morning she was playing in her room all by herself (well, her stuffed animals were there) and Colten came running to the kitchen where I was. He wanted me to come listen to her. I cracked open the door quietly and there she was playing with her animals in her tent and praying quietly in the Holy Spirit. I listened for a little while with tears in my eyes - it was so precious. I love that my children are growing up with the knowledge of Jesus Christ and a true grasp on the Word of God. They will never have the fear or the insecurities of not knowing Jesus as their Lord and Savior!! We are so blessed!!!

This is a picture of Daddy and Mahala right after she was baptized....

This was taken after she changed out of her wet clothes.... This is the cutest video ~ Mahala and Brighton are dancing b/c they are so excited about the baptism (Brighton is Pastor Jeff and Robyn's youngest daughter)....

Word Works begins again - woo hoo!!!!!!!

Okay, I absolutely love Word Works and we had our first night tonight!!! I am so pumped I cannot even get to sleep!!! So I have seven ladies at my table - seven wonderful ladies, I might add!! God is so awesome, He knows just who needs to be with whom. Three of them will be doing Word Works for the first time and the other four were here last year. They are all so excited about the things that God is doing in their lives - I cannot wait to get to know them better. We will be studying about the "bad girls of the Bible" ~ hmmmm, I wonder what that will be like???!!! We usually concentrate on all the good girls and guys......I guess we will find out soon enough!

I am a table leader again this year (my second full year) and I know that God called me to do this. It might be a little challenging b/c I am still nursing Anastacia. So Shawn will be coming with me to Word Works each week and sitting in the lobby with Anastacia (the wonderful Daddy that he is!!). Whenever Anastacia needs me he will step inside the door and hand her off to me. Then, I'll pass her back to him when she is done eating - sounds like a lot, huh?? But it is gonna all be worth it. I seriously thought about not leading a table b/c of having a small baby, but I prayed and felt like God wanted me to push through this. And I am more excited than I have ever been before about leading the table!!!

Anastacia did really well tonight - she made it through the whole session, right up until time to clean up. So I was able to sit and relax and enjoy the time with my ladies - it was great!!! There are very few moments when I am able to sit around with a bunch of women and talk about the things I enjoy talking about - God, kids, husband, etc. Colten and Mahala both have their own classes, Anastacia has Daddy and I have my girl time - WONDERFUL!!!!!

Oh, little side note - Mahala will be getting baptized tomorrow night at the Clovis church at 7 pm. She got saved at Vacation Bible School this year, she has been baptized in the Holy Spirit, speaks in tongues and is an amazing little girl!!!! She is very excited about being baptized in water and she wants Mommy and Daddy both to baptize her. I will post pics sometime after.....

Lost Lake

First I just wanted to share this cute little pic of Anastacia - she fell asleep the other morning while playing in her jumper. Me and Shawn were busy fixing breakfast for everyone (omelets-mmmmmm) and looked over to see her out. I snapped a couple of photos to share, cause I thought it was just adorable. She never even made a sound....

Friday, Shawn was off from work, so we took the opportunity to spend some family time together. We had a really relaxing day at Lost Lake, which is just below Millerton Lake. It is about 15 minutes from our house and just up the road from where Shawn works daily. We took Colten's little red remote control boat that Granny and Papa gave him. This is the first little spot we stopped at.
Later we went a little further down the river and found this little spot that was shallow enought to walk around in. The water was ice cold, but it was a nice day and the kids really enjoyed walking around in it. This was a popular spot for kids to go, there were several other families who came and went while we were there.



I love this picture. We found this short little nature trail through the trees and walked on it to get a different perspective. I got this picture there and it was so peaceful. It felt really secluded, too, even though there were really only a few trees between us and the previous spot.