A Day at the Park

This past week has been pretty beautiful here in Houston. That is one of the things I love about living in this city. Even though we have really humid summers, I absolutely love that most years, it begins to warm up beginning in February. It is wonderful. I love warm weather! So, this week, we went to the park a couple times. It was so nice to be outside!

Brayden was really beginning to get the hang of climbing up and going down the slides *all by himself* - he was so proud!

He was hanging onto the bar above the slide, dangling in the air. He wasn't sure what to do in order to sit down to slide.

I thought it was humorous. He was concerned.

Genuine surprise.

So much fun sliding...

My big boy! It's hard to believe he's already 19 months!

A Valentine's Wish...a week late

Happy Valentines...a week late, I know. I've finally gotten to putting up some new pictures from the day of love.

At church last Sunday, they gave all the kids a fun Valentines balloon. When I picked Brayden up, it was clipped to his belt loop to ensure its safety from the clouds and tears. He was over in a corner by himself with the balloon saying, "Ba, ba, ba, ba, ba," while hitting it over and over again. It was classic! He has continued to do that with the balloon all week long. I am so impressed it's still floating on our ceiling and hasn't succumbed to the doom that most balloons incur upon becoming a punching bag for a toddler.

Brayden loves Valentines Day, as you can see. He, like most young boys, wanted to let us know what he thought of the mushy holiday...

Priorities...

Football in one hand,

while the other hand is ready to smack the poor balloon.

Finally embracing Valentines.

He really does love hugs and kisses...

He has no choice with me as his mom!

It's Workout Time!

My hubby is so strong!

Premiere Weekend 2010 baptism service

At Premiere Weekend this past weekend, we had a baptism service on Saturday night for many of the students who made decisions to follow Christ. It was an exciting time with all the students cheering on their friends who have made such life-changing decisions. Brayden got a bird's-eye view on top of Daddy's shoulders. I just loved watching him as he was so intrigued with what was going on. Each time we have a service like this, I love for him to be a part of watching it. I pray that he makes a decision to follow Christ early on in his life, and I can't wait for the day that his Daddy gets to baptize him.

Our Junior High pastor, Jason, baptizing one of our students

Seeing 3-D

Puppy Chow

This weekend, I was making puppy chow (Chex covered w/ peanut butter, chocolate, and powdered sugar) to take to the Super Bowl party we were going to, and Brayden really wanted to help out. I let him lick the spatula, and, well, let's just say chocolate was EVERYWHERE! He really enjoyed it though. I guess he can get a splurge every now and then!

Premiere Weekend 2010

This past weekend was our Student Ministry's Premiere Weekend (similar to a Disciple Now where students stay in area homes for the weekend). We had around 140 students and leaders from the North campus and around 800 from all 5 of our campuses in Houston. Each night, we all gathered at one campus and had a night of worship with Isaac Improv doing hilarious improv, Drew Worsham doing amazing illusions, Kristian Stanfill leading worship, and our Woodway campus youth pastor, Jordan Easley, speaking. It was so awesome to see many students come to know Christ and make life-changing decisions to follow Him with everything. On Saturday night, we also got to see many students follow Christ in baptism.

It was a fun weekend! One of the fun highlights was the Saturday afternoon game of "Bigger & Better." Our students were challenged to begin with a paper clip and go house to house asking for something "bigger or better." They would trade their paper clip for an item bigger or better, and hopefully they would trade up to something kind of sweet. Our groups each came back with something pretty incredible...such as: a fishing boat, canoe, go-kart, XBOX360, pool table, recliner, big screen TV, and last but not least...2 live goats! Yes, it was CRAZY! Don't worry, we gave back the goats!

God did some amazing things in the weekend, and I'm excited to see all He continues to do as these students follow God with their lives. Thanks for praying!

Brayden in front of our UNEXPECTED

Premiere Weekend banner.

Here's an old picture, just to compare...

LAST year at Premiere Weekend...

Brayden has grown SO much!

A Day at the Zoo

This past week, we headed down to the Houston zoo on a cool, breezy afternoon. The weather was PERFECT, and apparently the animals thought so too. It was the best zoo trip I have been on in awhile. The animals were all out roaming around and SUPER close to the glass or fences. It was fun to see Brayden get excited about seeing the animals and mimic their noises.

One particular stop was the at the lions. Jonathan 'the Great'...the lion, not my husband, though he IS GREAT...anyway. Jonathan, the lion, was walking back and forth in front of the glass (literally 2 feet from us!), and I was snapping away with our camera. It was SO cool. All of a sudden, he stopped and turned around, rear end to the glass, and started peeing ALL over it! (as if to say, 'Please stop taking my picture, lady!') HA! It was hilarious...and somewhat gross! I was just glad that it was glass and not a fence where we would have gotten a 'lovely' afternoon shower.

'Jonathan, the Great'

Calista & Jonathan - Houston Zoo's 2 lions

'Hey, look at that...'

'...TONGUE!' Ew!

The cheetahs kept pacing right in front of us.

It was so awesome!

At the meerkats 'manor'...Note: see the sign on the glass saying 'Animals may bite'? Yeah, we noticed that *AFTER* we put Brayden as close as we could for good viewing. Oops!

Watching the orangoutang perform. (See her behind us!)

She was hilarious...every time she would flip or start swinging, she would look over at us to get applause or some kind of acknowledgment that we were seeing her cool tricks.

Silly orangoutang

Tired after a long day...

...We were tired after a day at the zoo too!

BEAUTIFUL sunset on our way home.

Tunnel Time!

We have a fun tunnel that Brayden loves to play in and crawl through. He and Kelsey got to play in it together and were cracking up going back and forth in it.

Kelsey

Standing up in the tunnel... "Get us out!"

Jonathan being goofy!

A New Experience in Popsicles

Brayden had his first experience of popsicles this week. He wasn't sure what to do at first, but then I showed him how to lick the popsicle, and he caught on pretty quick! He did get distracted and thought it was a phone at one point (When he says "Hi-ya" which equals HELLO in Brayden's vocabulary).

Here's a short video of his experience...