Reception

The sweet ladies of Hickory Harvest Church hosted an amazing reception to welcome me to the church. We joked around that it was like I was getting married- it was so beautifully detailed! There were stunning flower centerpieces in greens and browns on each table, and I would have chosen exactly what they did if it had been my own wedding reception! I absolutely loved it. The vase in the picture was in the entry to the clubhouse. The girls who hosted it put together a basket of goodies for me (left side of the pic) including some of what you see above- notecards, giftcards, a door mat, a beautiful candle with the holder, and more. The treasure box on the right was opened and filled with cards welcoming me to the church family from the ladies who attended.

There was a beautiful spread of food as well, also perfectly presented and delicious! To my delight, the dessert table was not lacking in any way, especially in chocolate... I hope to post pictures of the actual reception soon! The "wedding cake" was a three tiered cake iced with green and brown- it may be the most beautiful cake I have seen!

What made the evening perfectly enjoyable was meeting and interacting with all of the sweet southern ladies from the church. I wish I had a day to spend with each of them! These people have taken our family into their fold and have embraced us with so much love and kindness. We have loved our time here so far and look forward to years of ministering with these people!

"The Nut" and Company

"KIDS!! It's time to head upstairs and put on your P.J.s! I'll be up in a minute!" The kids dutifully (sort-of) went upstairs, and soon it was pretty quiet. All except for some faint giggling coming from the back bedroom...
Upon further investigation, this is what I found! Two very happy nudie bootie monkeys jumping in the crib! I passed up the scolding for some pictures instead. How can you resist?? I'll save the PG pictures for our fam. :)

Strange and Obscure Item #6

If you haven't been keeping up, we are in the midst of posting a series of strange and unusual items left by the previous owner. Before anyone told me of this piece, I stumbled upon it in the storage space downstairs and at first glance was taken aback. These little guys are frighteningly life-like. Now honestly, is this a piece of art? I'm not so sure. There is more to come, still.

At Home with Mommy

While the big kids were at school, Macy and I had a little fun of our own! We made cookies and enjoyed a little finger lickin' as well. Macy was double dipping the beater every time I turned around (she didn't know I saw her reflection in the microwave)... but when she's just about as sweet as the cookies it's easy to let that slide!

First Day of School

McKinley May.
Shea love.
The Nut. I'm pretty sure that she loves dressing like the big kids. She gets to go to pre-school for three days a week and is SO happy about that!
Reilly
The kids were so excited for their first day of school! We are so glad that they are able to attend a Christian school here. The staff is great and we are receiving a classical education. Reilly and Shea are already learning Latin! Lots of fun, especially for daddy. I'm loving the uniforms. No more discussions (or debates) about what we wear to school. Reilly had to get a hair cut, and misses his long hair. He wanted me to tell everyone that. Well, I still have LOTS more pics from the summer, so I will keep posting daily so I don't get even more behind!

Thunder and Lightening

Tonight Kinley came to me and asked if it was raining. "What? No Kinley. We were just outside and it was really nice." She proceeded to tell me that she thought she saw lightening (not sure how she could identify it) and heard a "noise" so we peeked out of the blinds. Sure enough, it went from nice and clear to a thunder and lightening rain storm! Our first one since being here. The kids all got out of bed and watched for a while...but school starts tomorrow so they needed to get to bed.

Strange and Obscure Item #5

So he's kind of cute, but not something I would purchase for my lawn. Or my front porch. Beary is now at the dump.

Working Hard, or Hardly Working...

Okay, so it's an over-used phrase, but very fitting. You be the judge of which way it applies. These are some pictures from one of the big moving days- I promise, these are all from the same day. It was certainly a ton of fun, and we did actually get some work done. Some of us. Oscar, are you scrubbing your pits with my daughter's horsey ride toy??

Vanessa looking a bit "wet". It was a hot day so we all ended up in the backyard on the slip and slide. Most of the grown ups even gave it a shot. It didn't feel very nice for most of us, but it was worth the thrill (sort-of).

Aha! This is how we actually got some work done... these girls were awesome!

Dolly and Shenell had tons of fun with the little girls. They were all soaked by the end of it.Ayemi giving a "how to" seminar on wrapping and packing. I actually have a sequence of four pictures of her step-by-step showing us how to wrap the pitcher, and for some reason, she thinks it's helpful to wrap with her mouth open. She did a great job. The pitcher made it here safe and sound.

All teasing aside, we are SO grateful for all of the help we received at the house before we moved. It would be impossible to post pics of all of the people that helped us, but please know that we were so blessed to receive your kindness. We couldn't have done it without everyone's help. And, as you can see from the pictures, it wouldn't have been nearly as fun!!

Strange and Obscure Item #5

Strange and Obscure Item #4

I mean, my kids were so excited to finally have a dog!! Okay, so not really. But this gem is a life-sized drool-less replica of a really ugly dog! I think it would be humorous for anyone who feels led to leave a comment to tell us what you think went on in the previous owner's head when he was purchasing this piece. Have fun!

4th of July at Mission Springs

Camdyn and my cousin (sort of) Kelsey.
Kinley and Katie (Kelsey's sister).
Grandpa holding Kinley while barbecuing...hmmmmm I'm glad I didn't see that while it was happening.
The annual "un-birthday party" hosted by Aunty Earlene and (my cousin) Kristen. Lots of sugar.
What is there to say about this one? Once again, Camdyn is "the Nut". So much fun.
Shea and Ashlyn sang in the talent show. It was a show stopper. Can't you feel the energy?
Kinley enjoying a melted Reese's Peanut Butter Cup "out" of the pool. No snacks allowed "in" the pool.
Grandpa and Macy splashing away.
The Grandmas -my mom is on the right holding Dax as he gives a "shout out" to all his peeps.
Macy-Boo sporting the Mets colors and that sparkling smile.
Can you guess what day this was?
A beloved tradition of our family's! We love spending the 4th of July week at Mission Springs, the family conference center that I grew up going to regularly. It's always fun to spend time with old friends and extended family. This year seemed to be especially unique with extended family members. My mom's cousin Carol has been battling cancer for over a year, and the Lord brought her home the week of the conference. We all spent some time with her before she left us (she lived a couple of miles from the conference center). She got to hold baby Dax and really seemed to enjoy it. She smooched his little head and snuggled him. It was a touching moment for us all- the beginning of life and the end- all in one frame. I think it brought a unique unity to our family. It was a special week! Special thanks to grandma and grandpa for hosting the entire munch bunch in the cabin. We love you!

DAX ATTAX

It's been a while since we've posted pics of the little man. He is doing so well! He is smiling all the time now and cooing so sweetly! He loves his brothers and sissies and is such a charmer. We love baby Dax! Please pray that we would quickly find a great pediatrician. He will be needing to see one soon!

Random and Obscure Item #3

I promised, so I'm delivering!! Please feel free to post your description. Once again, I have nothing to say.

(Kurt here) We have been praying for Julia and Tim today. They are getting married right now as I write. May Christ be exalted in their ceremony. Congrats to you both!


We greatly miss our time with Midori and J-Lo! We love our friends in the Foundry!

Strange and Obscure Item #2

Please feel free to leave your description. I'm speechless.

The New House

Day three...I promised daily updates (for a while), and here we are! So here are a couple of pictures of the new house and neighborhood. Somehow they're a bit out of order... the first one is the back of the house. You can see a bit of the trampoline, and the playhouse that the prior owner left behind. How perfect! The second one is the front of our beautiful house. We love it! Reilly is on Kurt's shoulders, if you can't see. I wanted to capture a bit of the neighborhood as well, so took one down the street into the cul-de-sac. We live toward the end of a "double cul-e-sac" - the first one you can see, and the second one is off to the left. Reilly has a 9 year old boy next door to play with, and there are quite a few kids around all the time.
Last night we spent the evening after the kids were in bed at a "driveway party" next door. Apparently this is a regular occurance around here, and a good number of the neighbors were in attendence, including the old owner of our house (he's joking about moving in downstairs!). It was a jolly occasion...including a few beverages we didn't partake in, and also the second ranked whistler in the world joined us and whistled "Happy Birthday" to our new neighbor Cheryl, and also "The Lord's Prayer". It really was beautiful (the whistling) and a very entertaining bunch of people! We're excited for the opportunities here and really are enjoying our new neighborhood.

Strange and Obscure "New York" Decor

That's the only explanation I have for some of the stuff that the previous owner left behind (he's from NY). I understand why he didn't take these things with him. I think I'll post a pic a day. I would love to hear your description of each of the items- so here's the first!

Garage Sale

The Gebhards girls with Ali and Emma sipping their orange Crush through Dax's baby bottles...
We had a garage sale on July 11 at the house. Tons of help from the Foundry with the sale and with beginning to pack the house! Steve Lai was amazing with the customers- he would introduce himself and host them, offering them a bag to carry their things in and making some great deals. Everyone walked away happy!
Shea and the girls made a lemonade stand and and had lots of fun. I think it was around 98 degrees or something, but the hat was "necessary" for some reason, along with the jeans.
Kurt and Reilly slept on the mattress for sale on the driveway to protect the goods through the night. We set up all of it on Friday, so it sat out all night. Fun bonding for the two of them.
Bright and early...what faithful friends we have! The garage sale was great and we off-loaded a lot of stuff that we didn't need to cart across the country. We had a lot of fun doing it, too! Thanks to all of the people who helped us out!

Hickory, North Carolina

One of the MANY treasures the previous owner left for us. This was a "toad house" wind chime or something. We also got a ceramic life sized wiener dog, a stork with his mouth open large... and the list goes on into even stranger things. However, the house is beautiful!
The kids ready to go swimming at our new friends' house this morning.
The lovely welcome Shea received from the mosquitos. She itched like crazy!
Where to start...we arrived in Hickory North Carolina just a few short days ago, and I haven't seen a computer in over two weeks, so I apologize for any of you who actually expect somewhat regular updates!
So from June 15 (I believe that was my last post) until now- almost two months later -our lives have basically turned upside down. We decided right around June 15 that the Lord was calling our family to North Carolina. We sold the house (no small thing!!), bought one here in Hickory, and spent the next month and a half packing boxes, tying up loose ends, saying difficult good-byes and getting SO excited to meet our friends here in Hickory.
The good-byes were difficult- we will miss our friends and family dearly, but the welcome we have received here has been royal. I'm just waiting for them to realize that we're pretty normal people- at least let me speak for myself... So the pantry and fridge was filled to capacity- I'm talking 6 jars of peanut butter and 7 jars of grape jelly "filled". They found out exactly what we like, then everyone at the church shopped with the list! We are well cared for here, and already feel at home with the church family. They are warm, kind, sweet, and exceedingly generous! I can't say the same for the mosquitos, though they think my kids are warm, sweet, and exceedingly generous (for playing outside in the evenings). Shea is apparently allergic to the mosquitos here. See the picture.
Well, I am going to make a promise to you all that I am going to post updates here on the blog daily to catch everyone up to speed with our life adventure (and make sure I have no gaps in my memory book!), so keep checking! I can't wait to catch up with all of my blogging friends!