Beware!

Warning: SEVERAL "indulgent" (as Simon Cowell from American Idol would say) pictures follow this posting. I do not apologize for my indulgences, but just wanted to give you a heads up in case you start to gag about half-way through.

I am also currently working on a serious blog about my grandpa to make-up for the picture-mania.

Yes, it takes approximately 25.3 pictures to score one good one of four related kids. 

Does anyone else think that Josh's "Go-Sharks" might be "Hey Blaine - here's a-whap-on-the-head." Just wondering. 

Emily is 11years old now! 

Dick Cheney's two long-lost brothers 

My Grandpa is a Hero. 

Great-pa Mitchell and Great-ma Nancy 

By the time our crew was finished terrorizing this garden snake, I felt a little sorry for it.

The "golf marshalls" were patrolling the easter egg hunt. 

I think I got to, "Ready...set..." then they were gone. 

This is the "slow-rider" group. 

Josh caught a catfish! 

Mitch caught a yellow-cat catfish - about 2.5lbs 

Mitch is very proud of the sunglasses that he purchased. Holly said that they reminded her of the TV show "CHIPS" and that he looked like Eric Estrada - so we called Mitch "Ponch" all weekend. 

Had an amazing time at Lake Austin Spa with two of my favorite friends in the world. Jennifer Pellow(left) and I have been friends for almost 30 years. Erin MacDonald (right)and I have been friends for over 20 years - we're SO OLD! Their friendship becomes more valuable to me every year. 

Baseball -- The Sport of America

Just a quick story about my little man AJ, who loves baseball. We were heading to see a Midland Christian baseball game a few days ago and AJ turned to Holly and said "Mom, did you know that Baseball is the sport of America?" He said it so matter of factly that Holly couldn't help but smile. She asked where he learned that and he told her his teacher told him. I'm not sure what the context was, but somehow AJ came away convinced that baseball is the greatest sport in America. While he isn't on an organized team this spring, he has watched his cousins Mitch and Reagan play several games, and he seems to think about playing baseball a lot. We have been playing regularly at the park, and even had some great wiffle ball games at the lake with Cary's family. AJ wants to make sure that we schedule a big family game at the lake over Memorial Day.

Hope everyone is having a great week.

Here is our little thumb-sucker.

Update

I chickened out.
Randy

Lake Plans

Just a note about Memorial Day Weekend--I have invited Larissa to join us at the lake on Memorial Day weekend (5/26-5/29), and she has managed to get the time off and plans to join us. She wants to be able to see as many of the kids as possible. Who is planning to come??? It should be a good weekend to try out the new dock. Love you all, mom

Easter

So glad someone else decided to blog! I've been feeling like a blog hog! Our Easter was so fun and such a celebration of JESUS!! On Friday p.m. we "beat" and "smashed" our flowerless lily and buried it in the ground. On Sunday a.m., there was a beautiful lily with blooms on it and the stone had been rolled away! McKenna went around the house proclaiming "He's alive! He's alive!" It was fun!
The coolest part is that our neighbors, Jesus and Gloria, and the other Chinese lady from our 40 days group, Qingdan, and her nanny, came to church with us! WHAT an answer to prayer! And they heard the gospel and saw and experienced the life of Jesus! They were all very moved and very thankful that they had come. We pray that they will be back!
After church we had about 15 adults and 16 or 17 kids over for fajitas (not your typical Easter lunch, but hey, it was easy)! It was just fun seeing missionaries from Thailand (Penningtons), our Asian friends, African Americans (from our cell), the poor, and everyone else in our house celebrating. It was wild and chaotic, but full of life, and at the end of the day we felt like we had spent Easter doing what we were made to do - CELEBRATING HIS LIFE!!
Be praying for your little brother on Friday! If he doesn't chicken out, he'll be having a little surgery at 4 p.m.!! He's dreading it (and so am I a little). We'll let you know if we back out!

blesssings,
Anda

What do I do with this?! I've never had a thumb-sucker before - pretty convenient, though! 

Our neighbor, Gloria and her son, Joaquin 

Getting ready for the hunt! 

We squeezed in a family pic after church - Mo's asleep and this is Isaac's only picture! 

Our Easter

Thanks to Picasa, (and to Trisha for suggesting it), I was finally able to rotate Lena's Easter pictures and post them to the blog. We didn't do much for Easter. Just church and then brunch at a friend's house. No Easter eggs for us. Hope your Easter was good.

April

Lena in her Easter Dress.

"You see, Easter is ......"

Lena in her Easter dress. 

New life update

Thanks Mom and April for blogging! I was beginning to feel lonely in our little blog world!

I told you we were praying for 300 at church yesterday. Our official count was 302. (I guess we should have prayed for more!) It was a great day. Lots of new faces, a spirit of celebration that Jesus is alive, Easter eggs and brunch foods galore. It was really fun. One of the most memorable (not the most significant--but definitely memorable) factors was the addition of instruments to our worship experience. One of our visitors from the community brought her tambourine--and played it (somewhat unrhythmically) throughout the worship. I'll let Ben say more if he wants, but it certainly got some attention. A few stifled giggles from our COC folks and teens who don't quite know how to respond to that kind of thing. A few looks of concern and questions--have we gone instrumental? Anyway, I'm so thrilled that God has again brought us more opportunity to connect with people. And I'm thrilled to be connected with a church (or two--GCR also) who really wants to reach people who don't know Jesus. God sure seems to bless those kinds of efforts.

Lena's first "food"--a biter biscuit.

What a mess!

Little Wildcat

Update from Grandma!!!

Well, I think I haven't blogged in a long, long time. Since I am always a little disappointed each day when I check the blog and find that almost no one is blogging these days, I thought I would do a little catch-up. Sorry if this is lengthy and there are way too many pictures. Feel free to jump right in with your own blog and pictures. I will just give you some highlights from the last few weeks:

**I spent the first part of March working on the Midland Christian Auction. We set a new record with more than $100,000 in auction proceeds. I am working hard to help with our $10 million dollar fundraising campaign. We went to lunch with Connor on the day of the auction to celebrate his 12th birthday. We are beginning to plan his 12 year old trip for June. He is such a fine young man--we are looking forward to our time with him.

**After the auction and a MCS board meeting, I drove to Fort Worth to take care of Randy and Anda's kids while they went to Louisiana. Dad joined me on Thursday night. We had such a good time. Among the highlights, Dale took the boys on a train trip from Dallas to Fort Worth, we went on a very interesting tour of the US Bureau of Engraving to see money being printed, we went to soccer games and a movie and just had fun. They are darling kids and I miss them.

**After Randy and Anda got home, we drove all night to be in Midland when Reagan was baptized. We are just blown away at the goodness of God as we watched another one of our precious grandchildren commit their life to Jesus. Wow!

**We celebrated Hutton's 15th birthday. He is such a fine, handsome young man. How did he get to be 15 already?

**We took our Lifegroup to the lake for the first time. It was amazing to experience the blessing of growing in our love for one another by simply spending time together in that beautiful place. One of the surprise blessings was being with the teenagers. The fish were biting, the food was wonderful, and the laughter was plentiful.

**Emily turned 11 while we were at the lake with our Lifegroup. Her birthday celebration is on hold--Grandma never catches up.

**The day after we returned from the lake, Dale, Cary, and Tod pulled off another Executive Oil Conference with class.

**Molly got sick the day after we returned from the lake (first day of Oil Conference). She was quite lethargic and wouldn't even eat a piece of cheese. The vet did blood tests and determined that her auto-immune condition had returned (3rd time); she was "bleeding freely" and he didn't think she would live through the night. After he located a dog to give her a blood transfusion and started her on steroids, she improved. Much to his surprise (again) she not only survived, but seems to be doing quite well.

**The day after the Oil Conference we left for Washington DC with the Coffmans for the Family Research Council yearly briefing. It was wonderful as usual, and we had a great time with Joe and Kat.

**While in Washington DC, I received an email from Leila about Larissa being in a serious car accident which totaled her car. When we got back to Midland I got ready to drive to Austin to be with Larissa.

**After pressure from my family, I finally did a medical check-up with Dr. Klempnauer--it had only been 7 years since the last one. Dr. K. hasn't changed--at 76 he looks and acts just as kind and sweet as ever. (I got a 100% clean bill of health assuming all tests come out as well as he expects.) After my appointment I left for Austin.

**I spent 3 days with April, Lena, and Larissa. I had soooo much fun with all my girls. I have posted pictures of April and James' house; it is so warm and inviting. Lena is absolutely adorable--sweet, calm, friendly and happy. Friday night I spent the night with Larissa, and we laughed and enjoyed a wonderful time together. She told me all about her wreck (an old woman backed her big truck over her while she was waiting behind her in an HEB parking lot). She was able to run a triathalon the next day (her 24th birthday) in Galveston (swim, bicycle and run). She finished 12th in her age category and 68th out of 600 entrants. I was totally impressed. She is doing much better now, although she was pretty emotional for the first week. I left Dad's car with her until she can get another car.

**I flew home yesterday, and we had our Easter at the Ball Park today with estimates of 5000 people in attendance. It was soooo hot, but still went extremely well.

**Dad flew out to OKC for a Christian Chronicle meeting tomorrow. I am hoping to stay home for a few days, see some kids' baseball games, celebrate Emily, Jill and Alan's birthdays, and get some housecleaning caught up.

I love all of you. I have posted lots of pictures of various things in the last few weeks. I know this is boring, but at maybe some of the pictures are more fun. All I can say is I am sooo blessed, sooo thankful, and sooo happy. Love you, Mom

P.S. Pleeeeease keep blogging. I love to hear from each of you.

Now that I see this picture, I realize that Molly was getting sick before we left the lake. The next day when I took her to the vet, he didn't think she would live through the night.  

Our life group's first outing to Providence Point. Once again I marveled at the ministry of this place God has provided--our relationships were cemented in two days much more than one year of group meetings.