Kenya Missions Fundraiser!!!

This Saturday is our Kenya Missions Fundraiser. Greg's aunt, Chrissy, has done an amazing job in organizing some fantastic vendors that were gracious enough to donate anywhere between 10%-35% of their earnings towards the Kenya team. So, if you are in Southern California please come by our open house!

Here is the address:
Location: Schwendener Residence
4315 Myrtle Ave.
Long Beach, CA 90807 US

Host: Christine Schwendener

When: Saturday, May 30, 5:00PM

Phone: 562 243-9943

Please come by for our open house fundraiser for the Weaver's and the McElderry's! We are part of the Kenya Missions Team this summer.

There will be MANY vendors selling wonderful items and donating a percentage (10%-35%) of their sales back for this trip!
Here is a partial list of the sellers:

Longaberger Baskets by Jo Burton
Scentsy by Heidi Spurlock
Avon by Mary Beth Walker
Cookie Lee Jewlery by Ojini Arzoumanian
Maya Trade Co. olive oil
Anissa's Threads- clothing
Kathy's homemade peanut brittle
Lu's homemade jewelry, scarves and note cards
Watkin's products by Mark Montegani
Kathryn Battistone's fashion designs (just picked up by Anthropologie!)
Jill Christofferson's original artwork
Juice Plus by Kathy Weaver
Party Lite by Gina Trevino
Hands of Hope, Cambodian ministry, by Dianne Bradfield
NuSkin Galvanic Spas by Patty Roberts
Beijo Bags by Kathy Apples
Pampered Chef by Delaina McCutchen
Author, Susan Peterson, will be selling her book

Refreshments will be served. Come by for 10 minutes, come by for all 4 hours! Hope you will be able to make it! Don't forget to invite your friends!

Horse Tail Trail

Today we spent our beautiful day outside on a hike w/ the Fudge family and 2 out 3 of the Wilson family. Such a nice easy hike w/ all 6 kids. Yep! SIX kids on this hike w/ 5 parents. However, Rach did carry Josiah on her back, along w/ Aaron carrying Ruthie... but still everyone made it. The waterfall that we hiked to today was one that you can walk behind. So fun ! It really is great to see the kids enjoy nature. They find slugs, and point out different types of trees, and come up w/ fun tunes for the walk. Even discovering how to deal w/ the potty issue when outside. Zeke, who hates the idea of going potty any where other than his pants, became thrilled at the idea of learning to pee outside his pants today. Greg's plan is to go out tomorrow by himself and try to get some nice shots w/ out the glare from the sun. Can't wait to see what he discovers.

Kids and I will be hanging out in the courtyard and getting ready to attend a birthday party at a park. So, we are still outside... just a little more easy going.

Latuerall Falls

With Greg out of school the goal is to be outside in nature as much as possible. Tonight we went to Luke and Emily's house, that is in Battle Ground, WA. Their place is amazing! Wish we had the camera tonight. They literally have a forest around them. I love it. It would such a great place to raise children. It inspired me to load pictures from our hikes this month. Yep, that's right. We live in a place where one can easily go on a hike everyday if they, or their body, wanted to. Gotta love Oregon!

These pictures were from Latuerall Falls which is waterfall in the Gorage. It is so beautiful. If you take the Old Historic Route From the 84 you would hit a series of waterfalls and hikes. Latuerall would be the first one.We were able to go with some friends that live in the compound w/ us (Hans family!). Love that the kids are old enough to enjoy a great hike!

Tulip Festival

This was some time ago... I believe around the second or third week of April. I could be wrong... it happens. There were fields of Tulips. Such a beautiful day too. Greg's folks were up and so it was a nice afternoon spent looking at the flowers.

Easter Photos

We spent our Celebration Sunday by going to our church ( The Well), having an Easter Egg hunt INDOORS (it is the PNW!), making a yummy lunch w/ about 13 people, and remembering what Christ has saved us from. It was such an amazing day. Going to church and sitting there w/ excitement and hearing how awesome is our God... I love church days. Then I spent the rest of the day enjoying our community. What a blessing.

Flat Stanley came to visit

Eli McElderry sent us her friend Flat Stanley for a week. Stanley was designed as part of a school project where he gets to go and be an exchange student for a bit. We were glad to have the extra company. The timing was perfect because then he was able to travel with us to the Oregon Coast (Rockaway). He was able to see the farms during the drive out there. Makayla read books to him, while Zeke sang songs and almost ripped him in half while running about the lodge. (some of the photos if you look closely you can spot Stanley).

Greg's Grad class went on a retreat at the end of the semester. The family was allowed to tag along and it was great fun to be had. We were able to play on the beautiful Oregon sand, have a bonfire, play with friends, take the kids out on a rowboat, kids went for a bike ride, and even a visit to the Tillamook factory (amazing Ice cream! and the list of options is endless). In all seriousness I felt so blessed that God allowed this vacation at the end of a packed semester. How great is our God?! I can get so caught up in how little my love is for God, that I forget to swim in the greatness of God's love! Praise God His love never fails. Praise Him who pursues us endlessly.

Zeke's Round up

My boy is now 3! We had a party for him on May 2. We even got to have the Grummons from down south join in the fun! The kids got to dress up as cowboys and play games. There was a huge rain storm so the party got moved inside. It was very warm inside my shoe box house. I had a lot of fun playing Pin the Star on the Sherif, Hokie-Pokie Cowboy style, Marshmellow toss, and of course a pinata.

Where does the time go? I can't believe he is 3. He now has a big boy bike (Spider Man of course). And he cracks me up. He can melt my heart to. He does this little thing now where he stops and looks up at you and smiles sweetly, " Guess what", he says. "I love you". Yep, I'm hooked.

I am blessed to have two amazing kids.

Enjoy the photos!

Okay, I suck

I have forgotten about blogging, most likely from my unhealthy attraction to facebook. So I am appoligizing now, and will be uploading some pictures of Zeke turning 3, family vacation to the coast, hiking w/ family and friends, and updating where we are at w/ going to Kenya.

So for the 3 people that do check on this from time to time... sorry I'm lame.